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) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gen ...
who later defected to
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
. Fetterlein was born in
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, 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, 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 The Tsar of all Russia, formally the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, was the title of the Russian monarch from 1547 to 1721. During this period, the state was a tsardom. The first Russian monarch to be crowned as tsar was Ivan ...
,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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, 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 revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
, 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 The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was a British signals intelligence agency set up in 1919. During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as R ...
(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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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 Cryptographers from the Russian Empire British cryptographers 1873 births 1944 deaths Foreign Office personnel of World War II White Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom