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Russian variant of the M-125-3 Fialka
The M-125-3M was the original Russian version of the
enhanced Fialka cipher machine,
on which all country-specific M-125-3xx
machines were based.
It was used throughout the USSR during the Cold War from the early 1960s
onwards, right until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992.
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During the Cold War, Fialka machines were used by all countries of the
Warsaw Pact and probably even in some alled countries like Cuba.
Most countries used a customised version of the Fialka,
which mainly involved a country-specific keyboard and print head.
The M-125-3 was an improved version of the
earlier M-125, which introduced
the use of an extended character set (letters, numbers and punctuation marks).
Furthermore, most of the M-125-3 machines
were bilingual (Russian and Latin with country-specific extensions).
In order to cope with the different functions of each key,
the rounded key tops
of the earlier M-125 were replaced by
square key tops,
giving each key four functions.
The machine shown in the image on the right however, is the only exception
to this rule: it is the M-125-3M,
the original Russian version of the M-125-3,
but instead of square keys it has rounded keys, similar to the keys of the
M-125.
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As this machine does not support Latin characters, each key only has
two functions, which is probably why the older keys were used.
Nevertheless, this machine supports the
three Text Modes that were
introduced on the M-125-3: Letters Only, Numbers Only and Mixed Mode.
Once the Cold War had ended, the Russians ordered the destruction of
all Fialka M-125 and M-125-3 machines, which took place in the late 1990s
and early 2000s. Some machines (notably the Polish and Czech versions)
have miraculously escaped the sledge hammer and have since found their
way to collectors.
For a long time it was thought that all original Russian Fialka
machines had been destroyed, until the machine shown in the images
on this page surfaced in Riga (Latvia).
It is from the personal collection of former KGB officer
Igor Ristolainen [1].
Although the machine appears to be in good condition, as can be observed
in the images below, the original wheels and most of the accessories are
missing. Although we are pretty certain that the wheels for
this version of the machine carried the '1K' prefix, they didn't come
with the machine. This means that the Russian wiring for the
1K wheels will remain a mystery for now.
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The keyboard of the Russian M-125-3M is different from the keyboards of
the other M-125-3xx versions.
Rather than square key tops, the keyboard has
rounded keys, similar to the ones on the
keyboard of the older M-125.
The reason for this is that only two rows of characters were needed
for this Russian-only version of the enhanced Fialka.
The characters on the upper row are green.
The outer two keys of the middle row have a special function.
When used in Mixed Mode (Text Mode lever set to С), the leftmost key
(ЦФ) is used to switch to Numbers, similar to the (1...)-key
on the Polish Fialka.
The rightmost key (БК) is used to return to Letters,
similar to the (A...)-key.
When used in Letters-only mode (Text Mode lever set to Б),
the leftmost key on the middle row produces the letter Ф,
whilst the rightmost key produces the letter Ж.
In this mode, the machine is backwards compatible with the earlier
M-125 and all other
machines with a Russian print head.
When used in Numbers-only mode (Text Mode lever at the rear set to Ц
and the 30 ↔ 10 lever at the left bottom set to 10),
only the keys that have numbers on them can be used. All other keys
are mechanically blocked in this mode. The numbered keys are
highlighted in the drawing above, but unlike
the country-specific M-125-3 variants,
they keys on the Russian version are all white.
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Label
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Russian
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Phonetic
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English
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ЦФ
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Цифры
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Cifry
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Numbers
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БК
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Буквы
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Bukvy
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Letters
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A three-position lever in the large red circular 'blob' to the right of the
drum, is used to select the required mode of operation. It is called the
MODE selector and is used to select between Coding, Decoding and Plain Text.
Furthermore, a vertical lever at the rear right (just behind the printer)
is used to select the desired TEXT MODE. It has three possible settings and
allows selection between Letter Mode, Number Mode and Mixed Mode.
The settings are explained in the following table:
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Label
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Russian
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Phonetic
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English
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О
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Открытый Текст
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Otkrytyj Tekst
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Plain text
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З
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ЗашифроватЬ
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Zashifrovat
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Cipher
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Р
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РасшифровыватЬ
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Rasshifrovyvat'
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Decipher
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Б
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Буквы
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Bukvy
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Letters
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С
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Смшанные
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Smjeshannyje
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Mixed
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Ц
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Цифры
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Cifry
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Numbers
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ПФ
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Перфорация
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Perforacija
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Punch 1
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ПЧ
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Печатание
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Pechatanije
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Print
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The lower two entries in the above table are the settings of the
Print/Punch control lever, that is located to the right of the MODE selector
and is part of the same red 'blob'.
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Please note that the ПФ settings of the Print/Punch selector,
is affected by the 2-position rotary switch at the bottom
of the machine. When set to БКЛ (ON) the printer is activated.
When set to ОТКЛ (OFF) the printer is disabled.
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The image on the right shows the print head that was used with the
Russian M-125-3M variant. It contains two rows of characters
in order to support the Mixed Mode of the enhanced Fialka.
The lower ring contains the 30 Cyrillic letters of the Russian alphabet
that are supported by this machine, whilst the upper ring holds the
numbers and punctuation marks. This Russian-only print head was
identical for all M-125-3 versions,
so that messages could be exchanged between
the various Warsaw Pact countries.
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As no surviving Russian Fialka wheels sets are known, we have not been
able to trace the wiring of these wheels. Although we have no way of
veryfing this, we are pretty certain that the Rusian wheels were identified
by '1K', which was engraved a a prefix to the serial number on each wheel.
 All known wheel wiring
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The Russian M-125-3M was supplied with the same accessories as
the other M-125-3 variants, except for the spare print heads.
As the M-125-3M was a Russian-only machine, the only print head that was
used was the Mixed Mode Russian version which was present inside the machine.
As a result, the axle that holds the test reflector inside the metal dust
cover, has no room for additional print heads.
Click any of the thumbnails below for additional information.
Overview of the accessories
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The M-125-3 was based on the earlier M-125,
which did not support a mixed character set.
Although the keyboard of most of the older M-125 machines has two characters on each key top, a Cryrillic one and a Latin one,
the Russian-only M-125 has no support for Latin and had just one letter
on each key top. The image below shows the layout of the Russian M-125.
Although we have never actually seen a Russian M-125, the above drawing
shows the most likely layout of its keyboard. It is believed that the letters
were engraved in black and that the (Й)-key at the top left, the one that
is shared with the spacebar, has red lettering on it.
More information about the older M-125
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Sunday, 06 July 2014 - 10:28 CET
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