Fialka

The USSR M-125 series “Fialka” cipher machines.

Loading Paper Tape into the Fialka Cipher Machine

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Dec 252011
 
Loading Paper Tape into the Fialka Cipher Machine

A collector who just bought a Fialka cipher machine asked me how to load the paper tape, which is tricky until you’ve done it a few times. Here’s how I load the wide paper tape (for printing and/or punching) into my Czechoslovakian M-125-3 machine. His machine is a Polish M-125, but hopefully the paper path is about the same (I’ve never handled the earlier model of Fialka, so I’m not sure about that). The paper tape path is a bit different when using the narrower print-only paper tape, but I don’t have any to demonstrate with.

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Soviet M-125-3xx “Fialka” Cipher Machine

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Apr 282010
 
Soviet M-125-3xx "Fialka" Cipher Machine

The “Fialka” is a cipher machine which was made and used by the USSR during the Cold War. I found this one on eBay, and it only required minor repairs to become fully operational. I’ll write more detailed information about it later; in the mean time, here are some pictures of my Fialka. You can also find more details about this kind of machine on Wikipedia.

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