RADIO AND WIRE COMMUNICATIONS IN THE CASPIAN SEA AREA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600030642-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 642
• Publication Date: April 13, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
DATE DISTR. !3 4p^ 1953
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Caspian Sea Area
PLACE
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ACQUIRED
,4MS
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DATE
ACQUIRED
SUPPLEMENT TO
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1. The provision of wire and radio communications for the Mini:. y of the Merchant
Fleet (34F), is the responsibility of the Central Directorate for Communications
and Eleotro Radio-Navigatior Equipment (Tsentral'nyy Upravleniye Svyazi i Elektro-
Radio-Navigatsii), Ate'. This directorate does not supply the only channel of
communications for the W, however, as the facilities of the Ministry of Co-
sin'-cations (Minsvyaz') are also used by the Ate'. The facilities of Minsvyaz' eze
used to a considerably lesser extent than those of the Central Directorate.
2. The basic responsibilities of the Central Directorate for Comainications include
the foll,wing:
(a) Maintaining all telephone and radio communications within the W. Formerly
the non-tuneable receivers and speakers which are placed throughout the
Merchant Fleet for the amusement and enlightenment of the listeners were under
the control of this Directorate. These devices have now been placed under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Communications (Minsvyaz').
(b) Assigning shipboard and shore oom inicatione equipment to Merchant Fleet
activities.
(a) Organizing training programs for Mereba:: Fleet communications specialists
and assigning these specialists to Af activities upon completion of their
training.
(A) Prepe?ing and iad,0 g w~~!p t hnndboo a and training peep ets far commmi-
eatinna'vereonbel. This its ino1ndes inetanattnna relative to the operation-
al phases of code and cipher work.
(e) Ikintaining all electro-radio-navigation equipment. This includes radio,
gyrocompasses and direction finding equipment.
(f) Developing improved methods of equipment operation and exploitation.
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There are certain basic principles and -rules controlling the transmiss'.on of infor-
mation within the W.. Special precedence indicators are established for traffic sent
by ordinary mail and that sent by radio an', wire cam 'ieations channels. The fol-
lowing precedence indicators control the speed with which traffic is handled:
(a) Ordinary mail
a letter it is sent in a routine Mibna"r
(1) if there is no eny indicator.
without any precedence
(2) If there is urgency connected with delivery of a letter it is marked "Urgent"
(Srochno).
(3) If the delivery of a letter is -very inportsnt it is marked "very urgent"
(ves'ma srocbnaya, v-sroonneya).
(b) Radiograms
(,) There is no their precedence marked on messages which have no urgency
(2) If there is urgency associated with the delivery of the message it is marked
"lightning" (molniya).
(3) The message is marked "deliver immediately" (vruchit' nemedlenno) if it is
still more urgently in need of delivery.
(4) Messages demanding the greatest speed of delivery are marked "deliver imedi-
ately to the person of the addressee" (vruohit' nemedlenno po mestu nakbosh-
deniya). This means that the message is to be delivered to the addressee in
person, even though be-is not in his office. It would be necessary for the
communications office to determine the whereabouts of the addressee and band
him the message.
(c) Telegrams
The telegrams sent by the Ministry of Communications are marked "governmental"
(pravitel'stvetnaya). This precedence indicator is limited to wires sent by the
telegraph services of the Ministry of Communications.
(d) Telephone grams
The same precedence indicators are used for telephone grams as are marked on ordin-
ary mail.
4. Messages sent out by voice over telephone lines constitute the largest percentage of the
total number of messages transmitted both in the MW and the entire Soviet Union. The
wire communication a i nt used the H for this t of transmission yisof are USgccon-
struation.
than the frequencies of normal telephone converse one.
There is also a very high frequency radio telephone system in use between Fourteen Foot
Roadsteads and Astrakhan which is also of US construction. This entire set (receiver,
transmitter and bandpiaoe Rould wed h about 0 ki3o The set has a r s of about
100 to 150 kilometers.
5. In the?beginning of 1949 the government took steps to limit the usage of radio communi-
cations and further ants are constantly being made. Great efforts are being undertaken
to extend the usage of telephone grams and ordinary mail in order to curtail the volume
of radio communications. In furtherance of this a limitation of 200 words bas been
placed on the length of radiogramas. The official reason given for the decline in em-
phasis of radio communication was the desire torslieve the work load of the already
overburdened radio stations. The reason accepted at aeydtanker headquarters, however
.r tined
w -a. the obviOum siugiiioity of readir. a massage orally eve the e telephone to
transmYit ting a aoassaga ii. Yr vow-- by - io...
7. Only the people who have been assigned one of the special ec ieatLons titles, such as
bead of steamship agency planning ddepartment - CMU are allowed to send radiograms. If
a person does not possess such a title be met than get, the approval of one of the titled
officials in order to have the message transmitted.
8. As a general rule the person sendin the massage is responsible for assigning the proper
precedence to a message. If this responsibility is abused the violator will be a&,oosLobed
MI~BT
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 If a message is supposed to be sent in cipher and the sender gives it to the secretariat
of the agency for transmission in plain text, a violation of security bar occurred. The
chief of the secret department (seloretniy otdel) may either report the incident or return
? officially
the message to the C!rigikltsi.Cti- for proper haiiualasian~a If the matter :reported
the offender probably will be nrougnt To trial. This is a siuttcr which Is within the dis-
cretion of the head of the secret department, and if he is friendly with the heads of the
other sections the incident will probably not be reported.
9. In June 1947, a deCree of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers was handed down rela-
tive to the transmission of operational information pertaining to ministerial activities.
Rrior to o this decree all such information had been sent openly in plain text traffic.
By this decree certain types of information became classified and thenceforth had to be
encoded.
(a) Figures revealing the volume and scope of ministerial operations.
(b) Disposition and deployment of Soviet fleets.
(c) Data on the numbers and types of workers
(d) Data relative to the technical condition of equipment.
(e) Information relative to accidents or catastrophes which might be used as anti-Soviet
For example if an official in Moscow requested a report from Reydtanker with regard to per-
sonnel status of the steamship agency it was classified information per se. The Moscow
official probably had received, however, many such reports in the past from the agency
and be simply would request the official to supply the information which was usually
forthcoming at the particular time involved. Usually there were standard forms which were
followed by the reporting agency for different types of information, such as wages and
payrolls, numbers of workers and technicians, and hours worked. The head of the labor and
wages department would simply take the blank form used in the desired report and fill in
the necessary data to complete the form. He would then take the figures from the report
form and either letter or number them in sequence and seL~ these figures out in plain
text without further identification of the text. The figures by themselves would mean
nothing to anyone reading the message and certainly not to tIe head of the secret depart-
ment. When the Moscow official received the message he world enter the data shown in the
message on a duplicate of the originator's personnel form and tbes,,by havc all of the
information which he had requested. This was very common practice in transmitting opera-
tional information by radio and wire couamnieations.
10. It became common practice for nearly all officials of the AQ'r' to try to avoid having mes-
sages encoded. The reason was that there were numerous regulations to be followed and the
people were reluctant to become involved in the established procedures. Most officials
used covert means to send classified material by plain text channels in spite of the
above decree.-
d sample radio message blank has been repcrduced below. The letters in parentheses have
been supplied for ease in the description of the form.
liadioGram
(Radiogramma)
(a)
(b)
(d)
(b)
propaganda. (Reydtanker usually had a couple of hundred accidents annually, two
or three of which would result in fatalities.)
Brea:;downs or failures of equipment.
Addressee
City or place
Title
Name of person
,)1 Originator's serial number .....
k) Originator'a-title
1) ariginttor'a Kame
(a) This is the date and time that the radio orator commenced sending the message.
(b) Ttie, is the Sate and time that the receiving'' operator acknowledged receipt of the
message.
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(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
(j)
The precedence assigned to the message by the originator is marked in this space.
This is the place from which the message is sent.
This is the serial number assigned to the message by the origi_-ting radio station.
'T-'his number -is assigned consecutively to all messages transmitted r om the station
and the first message sent out in the calendar year is #1. The message numbers are
terminated at the end of each year and a new series commenced on January 1st.
This shows the numb- of words in the text of the message.
The message date and time assigned by the transmitting station is placed in this
blank.
The place, title and name of the addressee is written in this space.
This space is for the text of the message.
At the end of the text the serial nomf5er assigned to the message by the originating
agency is written. -The secretariat for the originating agency assigns numbers to all
outgoing messages and records these numbers with the names of the originating offi-
cials. It is this serial number that is referred to in replies by the addressees.
This is the title of the originating official. The titles in both (k) and (h) are
generally the short form titles which have been assigned to the officials of the MMF.
This is the name of the originating official.
These message blanks were written out by hand in Reydtanker as there were only fifteen
typewriters for the entire steamship agency. Hay writing was fairly good, but some of the
officials took delight in writing -c:ly just to bedevil the poor radio operators.
12. Reydtanker operates a radio station which services all ]ate activities in Astrakhan. Among
the activities so served are:
Astrakhan Maritime Dry Cargo Port (Astrakhanskiy Morskiy Sukhogrnaaniy Port). (This
was formerly the Astrakhan Dry Cargo Maritime Agency - Astrak'hanskoe Sukbogriznne
Mbrakoe Agentsvo-Kaspflot)
Roadsteads Technical ?!set (Reyd.ekhrlot)
iftritime Registry ()krskoy Regiatr)
Ship Repair Yard i/n Karl Marks
Ship Yard (Sudo Verf1), Msrobant Fleet
Basin Coaad.ttee of the Seaman's Trade Union (B$ROF)
Basin Judge Advocate (3PROK)
8th Detaohmant of the Militarised Guard (Vos'may Otryad Vokhr).
Caspian Inspeotosate of. Port Facilities (iaopiysloeya Inepektaiya Portovogo Nadaora)
The Soviet Navy sight use the local cosumication facilities of the 33W when coaduetiag
actual. operations with Reydtanker, but not otherwise, Such operations in the past
occurred when Reydtank rr was engaged in piloting Navy vessels through the Volga Delta.
Under no ,onditiona would the 1* stations bundle Navy traffic with s distant vity such
as Moscow or Odessa.
13. Reydtanker operates tour radio statiaas which are located at the following places:
Aa - on tubs 'Upland of ?aysobiy in t`.a tt1w' 1t cf =w ig ..r-.J-
yard i^ 10th Aiversary of the October Revolution, There are four rendirecelve sitioae
Uj .0-
it this itaUK7n) one for A r3d=4 7 GQW# M4 for As ?i +ia.syn, vie a.er ..., ..........,..-....
and ens for Artrithan-Ourdv, Selo 0'~a, 14 Foot Roadsteads,
Solo 01ya - This village is on the Volga Delta and has one send-receive station.
14 Foot teals - This station consists of two nend?aeeeivs positions aboard the float-
ing deck debarkader) DONBASS.
There ie ens send-receive position located on the Island of Pesbaoy and
flare was to be a second sea:d-?eosins position added to this station.
it, S~eecnifio schedules were followed the Astrakhan radio station of Reydtanlaar. This
station handled a large it of me trams to and fz'vs AstrAldaan. Ail troasportation
activities th hot the Soviet IIaien operate on ldoseow tlvgr,: Tboa all bmoidaiwts listed
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SEC2 If
00o0--0100
1200-1300
ivw--i~?v
oo! ")-ozoo
1200 --13 ;0
0400--0500
1600--1700
0800--0900
2000--2100
Constant communications are maintained amwng the radio stations of Reydtanker. The
stations located at Astrakhan, Selo 0lya and Fourteen Foot Roadsteads also have communi-
cation with the radio stations of the Caspian Oil Tanker Steamship P.genoy (Kasptanker)
which are located at Krasnovodsk, Machachkala and Baku; Whenever one of the stations has
traffic for a station of the other agency the former station comes up on the frequencies
of the latter. There is a list of the freq encies utilized by all radio stations of the
MMF in the Caspian Sea area. This list is posted in each 3W radio station to facilitate
inter-port communications. Ncr ll , however, only the 11, FcoS Roadstead and Astrakhan
radio stations would have contact with the stations of Kasptanker.
the followinr e:i>d~ of broadcasting by radio were observed by ehipe
of is ancer an the same times also applied to the ships of Kasptanker.
0200--0600
0800-1.200
1400-1800
200O..2400
15. The Volga Oil Tanker Steamship Agency (Volga+.anker), MLnietry of the River Fleet (Mia1.eoh-
Flot), also had a radio station which operated independently of the Reydtauker radio sta-
chanaya ICosa,
16. The Ministry of Coanic!%tiono (MinSvyaz-) o' era+,es a tole IN s Lion in Astrakhan
while Le in constant apes'_- cn and has no sehed:ile The station broad-
casts an 135 meters.
17. Kasptanker cpar$tia radio stations at Bak-,, .M0?aahr4ala and Kmnovo4k which are Jr.
constant coaemxnieati.= with each other. ?te 347ru station broadcasts to Moaoow during
the follnwin% periods{
0000-0100
1200-1300
1800-1900
?
~
.
~.
t
radio stations maintain separate sources of yower for the main and emereemy radio stat4ona,
21. Classified traffic is sent to the seore8 department (sekretniy otdel) where it is enciphered
-end then tranmtted by the radio station. Telegraph lines are 11.' net utilised for
thin type of tranealssion, In an a o4ed message the names of addressees and ongintters
are not encoded nor are the abort form titles which are used in en m nteat:ons, If tong
fin' titles are used in the heading they moat be encoded,
be regular frequencies would be used in order to avoid the fi-
eulties encoLmter d in trying to shift .s'S.=iruQfies
Ti,: L isyui is ni
t q. vn6a
i
it
18. Radio traffic which is originated in the Caspian Sea area, and addressed to either the
Far East or Odessa areas must be relayed through Moscow. It is not a question of insuffi-
cient power of the trazsndtttng stations but siaVly bsc4use there lave been no sehedulea
established for direct eosunicattons between the Ca!rpian Area and the Far East and Nessa
are s. In the case g ea being set from ~m haeh]o;1~ or Er$ vud~k t etrsa the
ra8ting is through 13sJcu to Moacow and thence to Odessa, (3*Irev won relay jtQa arfie
through Astrakhan to Moscow and thence t'~ Cdes;a.
19. A radiogram from Astrakhan to Moscow is generally delivered in less than twenty-four
hours, If it radiogram iq sent under the precede=* of "lightning" (aclz_iya) an the 1200
broadcast from Astrakhan to Mosec'W it will be delivered to the addressee that same day'.
Telegraph service between the same cities usually takes two days while mail generally re-
giires rive to seven days for delivery.
20. Shore stations and large 10t000-ten.tankers in tba Casp'_an-Se4 have emergency radio stations
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each maehime are vary expeasiw fad,aeasee. 'lie AGE in AsULkbaa is
ea p 1-tc have some of these cipher machines.
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,,-,._, 4ntPrm3.n?iifl of daties between radio and telegraph
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The radio operator is bettar paid; aanrorfmatelg 20% higlor Wages, and is gemerallr of
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greator ability than the telegraph ngerator. A radio operator would have little trouble
is bee- a te1egr ph operatorj, but th' reverse would not necessarily be true.
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