Ernst Fetterlein
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Ernst Constantin Fetterlein (3 April 1873Victor Madeira, "`Because I Don't Trust Him, We are Friends': Signals Intelligence and the Reluctant Anglo-Soviet Embrace, 1917-24", ''Intelligence & National Security'' 19(1), March 2004, pp. 29–51. – June 1944Ralph Erskine

to Intelligence Forum, 11 October 2004
) was a
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...
who later defected to
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
. Fetterlein was born in St Petersburg, the son of Karl Fedorovich Fetterlein, a German-language tutor, and Olga Fetterlein, née Meier. He studied a variety of eastern languages at the
University of St Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...
, graduating in 1894. On 25 November 1896 he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He eventually became the chief cryptologist for the
Tsar of Russia This is a list of all reigning monarchs in the history of Russia. It includes the princes of medieval Rus′ state (both centralised, known as Kievan Rus′ and feudal, when the political center moved northeast to Vladimir and finally to Mos ...
,Stephen Budiansky, ''Battle of Wits'', 2000, , p. 56 holding the rank of "General-Admiral," an honorary title in Tsarist Russia.Michael Smith, "GC&CS and the First Cold War", pp. 1-40 in ''Action This Day'', 2001, During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he was known for a time as Ernst Popov as his German-derived name could have drawn unwanted attention. Amongst others, he solved German, Austrian and British codes. Upon the
Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
, he fled to Western Europe with his wife on board a Swedish ship, narrowly evading capture. He contacted the British and French intelligence organisations, offering to work for whoever would pay him the most, which was apparently the British, as he was recruited to
Room 40 Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
in June 1918 to work on Georgian, Austrian and Bolshevik codes. After the end of World War I, he worked for the successor to Room 40, the
Government Code and Cypher School Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
(GC&CS), becoming a senior assistant on 17 December 1919. During this time he worked on Soviet Communist traffic. He was thought well of by his colleagues, one of whom wrote, "He was a brilliant cryptographer. On book cipher and anything else where insight was vital he was quite the best. He was a fine linguist and would usually get an answer no matter the language." He retired in 1938. His brother, P. K. Fetterlein, also worked for GC&CS. Fetterlein came out of retirement during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
to assist GC&CS's diplomatic section at Berkeley Street. He worked on " Floradora", a German diplomatic code.Budiansky, 2000, p. 219


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fetterlein, Ernst Russian cryptographers British cryptographers 1873 births 1944 deaths Foreign Office personnel of World War II