Study presented at the international RCD meeting held at the Romanian Academy in 2015.

1. Romanian Crypto Days 2015
Romanian Academy
23 Sept.2015
Dan Toma Dulciu
U.Z.P.R.

2. Title

3. The Establishment of the First Higher Guvernement
Criptologic Foundation
December 23, 1940 represents an important moment in the history of Romanian cryptology - the birth of
official institutions to oversee the entire cryptologic activity - diplomatic, military and civilian:
Comisia Permanentă a Cifrului de Stat (1940)
””Permanent Government Code and Cypher Committee (PGC&CC)”
To understand the significance of this moment we will have to recall briefly some stage of
cryptographic phenomenon in Romania.

4. The oldest archaeological
evidence existing in Romania,
Tărtaria Tablets, shows that
writing was practiced in this
part of Europe several
millennia ago
Tărtăria world's only monument
dedicated to writing.
Aeticus Histricus Alphabet
Late Metropolitan of Oltenia, Nestor Vornicescu,
put into scientific circulation existence and work of a
philosopher, lived through IV-V centuries, born
"Scythian„ (Dobrogea).
Aeticus Histricus is the creator of a cryptic
alphabet. In this image is seen only part of this
alphabet letters invented by one of the ancient
inhabitants of Romania.
The Stone of Corbi
criptic writing
Paleography or
Cryptography ?

5. Hândrești – Iași, 7000
years old writing
Danubian civilization,
7000 years old
Written rock,
Cotârgași, Suceava
Epigraphy or
Cryptography?

6. Signs of the Notch
Old Romanian Paleographical
Signs.
Signs of Raftsmen.

7. Original or Fake ?
Sinaia Lead
Plates
Romanian
cryptographer, Eugen
Nicolaescu has found
a solution to the Sinaia
Lead Plates.

8. The Criptogram of ”Tezaurul de la
Pietroasa”
The Criptogram of ”Tezaurul de la
Miclăuș”
The Criptic Text of Turdaș Culture
(apud Szofia Turma)
Old Romanian
Criptograms, Unsolved

9. Rohonczi Mysterious Codex (named after the town
where it was kept until 1907), whose original is in the
archives of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, incited
several generations of linguists and historians who have
researched carefully on the 1838 up to 1970 without
being able to decipher. What had been able to establish
with certainty was that manuscript paper dates from the
first half of the sixteenth century and is of Italian origin
and strange alphabet used comprises a disconcerting
number of signs (about ten times higher than the total
points available in any known alphabet).
Rohonczy Codex

10. ”Roșia Montană”
Cerumen Tablets, with
specific old letters.
Oldest Vulgar Latin Texts

11. The Romanian scholars of the Middle Ages
mastered enough cryptography as historical
documents dating back to the 15th and 16th
centuries prove it: The Psalm of Scheia, The
Codex of Voronet, The Common Worship Texts
of Evstatie, the Chorister of Putna (1511)
- The documents also show that the copysts
used some encoded writing on a daily basis in
the SCRIPTORIA of Moldavia.
- They prove one more time that in some
church schools Cryptography was a subject for
study in a Quadrivium –type curriculum.
The Criptogram of
”Psaltirea
Scheiană”
The Criptogram
of ”Codicele
Voronețean”The Criptogram of
”Psaltirea
Voronețeană”
The Criptogram of
Psaltirea Hurmuzaki
Middle Ages Cryptography

12. The First Romanian
Work on Cryptography

13. Undeciphered Viforâta
Criptogram
Walachian Cryptography

14. In Moldavia, cryptographic practice could be found mainly among Jesuits monks
who knew encoded writing and a part of them were close to the Moldavian Court.
Medieval old manuscript, Iași,
Romania
Moldavian Cryptography

15. The criptic words in C. Brâncoveanu personal diary (1695)
The Establishment of Black Chamber

16. .
Cryptographic signature:
Serbanus Cantacuzene
”Historia Hieroglifica”, book of criptic messages.
Cantemir and Cryptography

17. Antiochus Cantemir ciphred letter to the
Russian Czar
Cryptography and
Diplomacy

18. Masonic ritual written
in cipher
Cryptography and
Freemasonry
ETERIA
Masonic Symbol

19. Contributions and Achievements of
Alexandru Ioan Cuza

20. Independence War -
1877
Romanian Army used coded
messages on the battlefield for
the first time in the history.
Prince
Charles I

21. The Beginnings of Digital Computing
Numerical punching machine Alphabetical punching machine
Sorting machine
Tabulating machine

22. The beginnings of digital computing
Typewriter Punched card
H. Hollerith

23. IBM presents its first large scale computer:
ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled
Calculator) 1944, at Harvard University. It
was the first machine that could execute
long computations automatically.
Length: 51 feet. Height: eight feet. Weight: nearly five
tons. Those dimensions actually describe the IBM
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) --
also known as the Harvard Mark I -- the largest
electromechanical calculator ever built and the first
automatic digital calculator in the United States.
Paper tape with
sequence code

24.  Around World War II, the Romanian cryptography goes
through two important moments, namely the first attempt to
legally regulate this field, resulting in the first unitary
organization of the “State Cipher Organization” (1940), and
the creation of the first Romanian cipher machine, a local
“replica” of the famous “Enigma” code machine.
The Establishment of State
Cipher Organization

25. ”Comisia Permanentă a Cifrului de
Stat” (1940)
Permanent Government Code and
Cypher Committee (PGC&CC)
75 years ago

26. The duties of this body were as follows :
a) Consideration and approval of the proposed cipher being used by
any state authority, civil or military;
b) Regulate for state cipher printing. It was agreed that all key and
materials to be printed at the Printing House of the War Ministry, under
the direct subordination of the General Staff;
c) To regulate, manage and control, cipher operation of all civil and
military authorities of the state.
d) Create conditions for the development of cryptographic studies;
e) Regulates private encrypted correspondence, according to
international regulations and in relation to defense and security
interests of the state.
In exercising these powers, the Permanent Commission of
the State Cipher issue directives and instructions.
As a governing body for coordination and control of the
operation of cryptographic activity, this committee had the following
components:
- The head of the committee: Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army. All
documents signed by him on the cipher will be signed as President of
the State Cipher Commission,
.

27. - Secretary: Head of Cipher of M. St. M; He will lead a specialized department
within the Commission called Secretariat of State for Cipher Commission with
executive responsibilities extended line. The Cipher State Secretariat would:
a) centralized study and prepare all records that were to be presented during the
meetings of the committee members;
b) proposes the convening of the agenda of the committee, minutes of the
meeting concluded and communicated to the authorities concerned on the line
key decisions, for aknoligment or for execution;
c) Follow the tasks set by the Commission;
d) Propose the subcommittees to prepare documents that were to be analyzed
by the plenary commission itself;
e) Study and prepare the chipers connections between various government
departments;
f) organizes courses specialized for civil and military authorities.
g) Keep state cipher archive and library.
- Members: delegates qualified for state bodies or other civil authorities state that
use chiphered communications.

28. Romanian Project for a
Cipher Machine (1940)

29. Conclusions
 The History of Romanian Cryptology
has many blank pages;
 Lack of transparency of archival
sources, featured past decades has
disappeared, so now we have access to
testimonies revealing the Evolution of
Cipher in Romania.
 The first cryptology legislation in
Romania is an example of courage and
intelligence, in a field in which hardly
are allowed major changes.
 Although it lasted only 4 years, this first
legislation in Europe preceded the
creation of NSA and showed that
Romanians have a real potential in the
field of cryptology.

30. Thank You