Krivosh-Nemanich, Vladimir Ivanovich

Slovak by origin. He studied at the gymnasium in Prerov , then at the Hungarian gymnasium in Spisska New Vesy (Iglo), then at the Italian-Croatian gymnasium in Fiyum ( Rijeka ), studied shorthand ^[1] . Later he entered the Royal Oriental Academy in Vienna , which he did not finish.

Having received a letter of recommendation from the Slovak writer Svetozar Gurban-Vayansky , he moved to the capital of Russia . V.I. Krivosh was enrolled in St. Petersburg University . In 1886 he became a student, and then a student of the Oriental faculty. He studied law, statistics, returned to Arabic studies , Persian and Turkish languages, shorthand in five languages. University is not finished.

In 1888 he received Russian citizenship .

In 1889-1891 he was a correspondent for the weekly Slavic News , wrote articles in the Slovak newspaper Narodnye Noviny ^[2] .

Since 1893 he served in the Censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines at the St. Petersburg Post Office, was engaged in censorship . In 1898 V.I. Krivosh received the first rank of college registrar .

Over the next 5 years, he perfected the methods of perusal in Russia, made a number of discoveries and inventions. For a new method of opening letters, which did not leave the slightest trace of opening, he received the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree from the hands of Peter Stolypin .

Krivosh has become one of the most prominent experts in the field of censorship and decryption. He collaborated with the decryption service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . In addition, from 1901 to 1914 he taught shorthand at the Technological Institute ^[3] .

In July 1904 , a secret “Special Department for the Search for International Spying ” was created within the Special Department of the Police Department , in which all cases of state crimes were concentrated.

From December 1904 to August 1906 he was a translator / decoder at the secret department (3rd clerical work) of the Police Department .

During the Russo-Japanese War , V.I. Krivosh managed to uncover 3 of the 5 keys that decrypted most of the enemy’s intercepted telegrams. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent the Krivosh cryptographer to work with the French in Paris . During 10 days of work in the French secret service - Surete generale , the fifth component of the Japanese code was revealed. In addition, Krivosh managed to get acquainted in detail with the work of the French cryptographic service. Thus, he became the first Russian cryptographer to become acquainted in detail with the work of the decryption service of France of that time. The useful information received was used by Russian cryptographers in practical activities.

In 1906-1907, Krivosh was the head of the stenographic bureau of the State Duma , then became the head of the stenographic bureau of the State Council ^[3] .

In 1907, he became the head of the secret bureau of military and naval intelligence, which was engaged in copying and decrypting documents of foreign embassies received by agents ^[4] .

However, in 1911, Krivosh was dismissed from his post as head of the secret bureau on suspicion of misappropriation of funds allocated for operational needs. Then he was forced to resign from the censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines ^[5] .

In 1912-1914, Krivosh freelance worked in the imperial libraries of the Winter Palace ^[3] .

After the outbreak of World War I , V.I. Krivosh was a translator of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 8th Army . However, in April 1915 he was arrested "on suspicion of military espionage" and in August 1915 he was administratively exiled to Irkutsk . ^[6] . In December 1915, Krivosh was arrested in Irkutsk on charges of having links with "German exiles for espionage," and was released in January 1916 for lack of evidence. ^[7] .

During one and a half years of stay in Siberia V.I. Krivosh collected materials about the city and the outskirts of Irkutsk. His collections and scientific activities will subsequently become the basis of the new Irkutsk University .

After the February Revolution in 1917, V. I. Krivosh returned to Petrograd , where he began to work as a business manager at an oil refinery ^[3] . But in June 1917, the military counterintelligence of the Petrograd Military District subjected him to search and interrogation, again on suspicion of espionage ^[8] .

After the October Revolution, Krivosh immediately offered his services to the new authorities. He prepared a diplomatic note on the cessation of fighting on the fronts in English and French, the notes to which are made by Lenin himself. Later, Lenin gave the order to enroll V.I. Krivosh into the newly created People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs . There he had to work with L. Trotsky , whose speeches he was entrusted with translating. He also worked at the Supreme Economic Council . ^[9] .

But in January 1918, Krivosh was arrested by the Investigative Commission under the Petrosoviet and in March 1918, his case was examined by the Revolutionary Tribunal , which sentenced him to a year in prison for the fact that Krivosh “was in the service of a political agent under the overthrown autocratic government .. . during the revolution, tried to get a post under the Soviet government. " ^[10] .

In May 1918, Krivosh was prematurely released under an amnesty ^[11] .

In December 1918, Krivosh was accepted by the translator into the military control department of the Red Army (military counterintelligence), which in January 1919 was transformed into special departments of the Cheka . Since 1919, he began to call himself Krivosh-Nemanich. In March 1919, Krivosh became a scout instructor in the intelligence department of the Western Front ^[12] .

But in March 1919 he was again arrested by the Cheka “in view of the material received of his involvement in the Union of the Russian people and suspected espionage” ^[13] . But already in April 1919 he was released and became a translator-decoder of the Petrograd Cheka ^[14] . Since July 1919 he became a translator-decoder of a special department of the Cheka ^[15]

But in July 1920 he was again arrested on charges of receiving a bribe for admission to the front line. In December 1920, he was sentenced by the Presidium of the Cheka to execution with 10 years of imprisonment ^[16]. But already in April 1921 he was released and he began working in the Special Department of the Cheka (encryption and decryption) as an expert ^[17]

In November 1921, Kriovosh was again arrested on charges of preparing to flee abroad. In May 1922, he was released under house arrest and continued to work in the Special Department of the GPU . ^[18]

In March 1923 , arrest was again followed “for unauthorized contacts with representatives of the Czechoslovak mission.” In June 1923, the OGPU board sentenced him under the article on espionage to 10 years in prison. ^[nineteen]

He was sent to ELEPHANT , where he works as the head of a weather station, and since 1925 he was again engaged in decryption work for the OGPU, worked in the historical, archaeological and regional studies sections, was a musician in the camp neighborhood, published poems in the camp magazine, and even published a collection of his ballads . ^[20]

In 1928, Krivosh-Nemanich was prematurely released. He returns to his wife, who did not abandon her husband during his persecution.

Until 1935 , he again worked as an expert in the Special Department of the OGPU- NKVD , then retired ^[21] During the Great Patriotic War he lived in evacuation in Ufa , where he taught languages ​​to the families of Chekists.

He died in 1942 in Ufa. A few years later, his remains were moved to a mass grave, the traces of which were lost.

• A.A. Zdanovich, V.S. Izmozik, Forty years in secret service. Life and adventures of Vladimir Krivosh.- M: X-History; Kuchkovo Field, 2007
• Rudolf Tibenský: V palácoch a vo vyhnanstvách: životné osudy Vladimíra Krivossa (1865-1942), ISBN 8006004250 , ISBN 9788006004253
• Lubomir Guzi. Prisoner of the Solovetsky Islands Vladimir Krivosh-Nemanich. Department of Russian Studies. Faculty of Philosophy, Presov University, Presov. Slovakia.
• Y. Goliev, D. Larin and others. Cryptographic activity of Russia on the eve and during the Russo-Japanese War. The online magazine "Agentura" as part of a joint project with the magazine "Information Protection. Inside ". 03/01/2005

• Prisoners of the Gulag. Vladimir Ivanovich Krivosh
• Professor V. Krivosh (Nemanich)