Vertushka

The Vertushka () also known as Kremlyovka () or Spetssvyaz () is a colloquial name for a closed system of party and government telephone communications in the Soviet Union and Russia. It received the unofficial (slang) name Vertushka because, unlike the regular telephone network, where at that time the connection was made through an operator, subscribers connected to each other using an automatic telephone exchange and a rotary dials called in Russian Vertushka. The existence of the system was a novelty in an era dominated by manual switchboards. The telephone is dial-less and certain sub-systems of it directly link to the Kremlin. Especially in Soviet period, connected the leader to key subordinates, like regional party secretaries, high ranking military officials or important state-owned factory chiefs. The regularly modernized system of government ATS continues to operate to this day.

Overview

200px, The telephones in the office of the President of Russia, 2003.
Later, the system was intensively expanded, and was also equipped with an outlet to other government and military communications systems (the so-called V.CH-communications (), which were also often called Vertushka by the people. While the term Vertushka could be referred to any government-used telephone, in many cases it was used to describe a direct link to the highest echelons of power, i.e to the Kremlin and the country's top leadership. More specific systems are:

*ATS-1 (the most prestigious communication system for subscribers of the highest category - top government officials, ministers, deputy ministers);
*ATS-2 (a wider network of city government communications - for example, ATS-2 devices are owned by department directors of federal ministries, heads and deputy heads of federal services and agencies). Having a Vertushka in the office was an important status indicator of belonging to a high rank in the hierarchy of power.

Parallel systems existed in other cities, as well as in the capitals of Soviet satellite states, as well as in many Soviet ministries and departments, to make up for an insufficiency in funding levels for a true national network; the legacy of this persisted beyond the fall of the Soviet Union, with approximately 20 percent of phones in 1991 existing on private networks.

Vertushka is not protected, but is linked to other government systems of secure communications with long-term cryptographic resistance, including the mobile radiotelephone system ("Kavkaz"), etc.

History

200px, A Vertushka from the 90s with the state emblem of the Russian Federation on it
In September 1918 a 100-number switchboard CB-100/20 was installed in the Kremlin telephone room on the order of Vladimir Lenin. In 1922 an automatic telephone exchange known as ATS VTsIK () was installed in the Kremlin, the number of subscribers reached 300 people, some telephones were installed at the homes of senior party and Soviet officials. In 1947 a duplex mobile radio communication system "Integral-Gradient" (installed on cars) and a radio mobile communication system "Red Square" (to provide radio communications for events on Red Square and in other places) were created for the needs of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of State Security. In 1948 with the introduction of the city telephone exchange of the machine system, the capacity of the Kremlin service telephone network was increased by 1000 numbers. By 1954 the capacity of the government automatic telephone exchange (ATX) in the Kremlin is 3,500 numbers due to the installation of switching equipment for a domestically produced ten-step system for 1,000 numbers. In the 1960s in the countries of the communist bloc, their own government communication networks are organized, for which they are given stations and equipment for high-frequency communication and classification equipment, the codes for which were manufactured in the Soviet Union and sent to their destinations by diplomatic mail. In 1963 the radio communication system on Red Square "North" is developed and manufactured for communication of operational personnel during events on Red Square and in other places. In 1978 a dedicated government city automatic telephone communication system for the highest category of subscribers for 1000 numbers was put into operation, which received the name ATS-1, and the existing network of city government communications (PATS) with a capacity of 5000 numbers was renamed ATS-2.

200px, Governmental Bubnov, Nikolai Bukharin">Bukharin