TheCodeBreakers
most of his campaigns, including the Russian; this was his petit chiffre,
a nomenclator of about 200 groups. Even without his generals'
predilection for partial encipherments, the Napoleonic cryptograms must
have crumpled before the assault of the Russian cryptanalysts. How the
solutions helped the Russians is not known, but that they must have
been of some assistance is indicated by the fact that the victorious Czar,
Alexander I, cited them himself when reminiscing about the war. At a
state dinner that he gave in Paris years later for the marshals of France,
he mentioned having read secret French dispatches. Marshal Macdonald,
who had commanded a corps for Napoleon, recalled that one of the
French generals had defected and said, "It is not surprising that Your
Majesty was able to decipher them; someone gave you the key."
Alexander denied it. "He assumed a serious air," Macdonald related,
"placed one hand on his heart and raised the other
annaabi.ee 
