TheCodeBreakers
And even though the Germans
turned on Rennenkampf and drove him out of East Prussia in the Battle
of the Masurian Lakes, two Russian armies pounded the Austro-
Hungarian forces back through Lvov with such force that they retreated
almost to Krakow. Meanwhile, though stiE plagued with shortages of all
kinds,
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including signal equipment, the Russians finally managed to
distribute their cipher system to all commands by the middle of
September. On the 14th, the Stavka, the Russian high command,
prescribed its use for all military orders.
The system was a numerical polyalphabetic which negated most of the
advantages of polyalphabeticity by enciphering several letters in
succession in a single cipher alphabet. It resembled a feeble cipher used
by Cornwallis in the American Revolution and solved with ease by James
Lovell. Along the top of its tableau were listed 33 letters of the Russian
annaabi.ee 
