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USSR DDR Rotor Fialka M-125-3 HU → ← PL
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M-125-3MN
East-Germany (DDR)
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DDR variant of the M-125-3 Fialka
As a country of the Warsaw Pact, the former DDR (East Germany) also
used a variant of the M-125-3
that was adapted for the local language (German).
Although no surviving German Fialka machines have been found so far,
the layout of the keyboard and the numbering of the rotors is known,
as a German Fialka User Manual
of the NVA — the DDR's army — has been recovered.
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With help from a recovered German Fialka manual and some former users
of the machine, we've been able to reconstruct the layout of the keyboard
of the DDR Fialka variant [1]. On this variant, the key at the top left
(i.e. the one that is shared with the spacebar) carries the German character
'J', next to the Russian Й. In German, the 'J' can be replaced by
an 'I' without loosing readability.
The layout of the characters at the bottom right of each key,
is identical to the layout of the DDR variant of the earlier M-125.
Although it is likely that the keys that were used in Numerical Mode
were darker than the others (just like on the
Polish
and Czech keyboards)
we have never observed this, as there are no surviving examples of
the DDR variant of the Fialka cipher machine.
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From a recovered German user manual [B], it is known that the serial
numbers of the rotors had the prefix '4K'. However, as (to our knowledge)
there are no surviving DDR-variants of the Fialka, it has not been possible to
trace the wiring of the rotors.
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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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Before the M-125-3 was introduced in the late 1960s, its predecessor,
the M-125 was used. It can easily be distinguished from the M-125-3
as its keyboard has rounded key tops whereas the key on the later machine
are square. Furthermore it only has two letters on each key: a Cryllic
one (in black) and a Latin one (in red). Furthermore these machines were
issued with the standard (non-adjustable) cipher rotors.
➤ More information about the older M-125.
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The following East-German (DDR) users have been confirmed:
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- Army (Nationale Volksarmee, NVA)
- Police [2]
- Railways (Reichsbahn) [1]
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- Jörg Drobick, Personal correspondence
June 2005, 22 March 2024.
- Roland Döring, Personal Fialka tour
Crypto Museum, 17 April 2013.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Sunday 06 July 2014. Last changed: Wednesday, 10 July 2024 - 08:15 CET.
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