Hidden Figures: How These Women Cracked an Impossible Soviet Code

In the 1940’s, the US government had a mission: find Soviet spies that had infiltrated their nuclear program. To do that, they needed to find a way to decode Soviet messages, notorious for being “unbreakable”. So they turned to the Venona Project. This group of talented mathematicians, consisting largely of women, went on to expose spies in nearly every agency in the federal government.

To solve the non-carrying addition equation, simply add each digit in the top row to the digit below it. If the value is greater than 10, subtract 10 from the result. Repeat for each column of digits.

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Rogue History
It’s been said that history is written by those in power. But what about the outlaws, outcasts, and rogues? What if they had their say? Rogue History, a digital series produced by PBS Digital Studios and PBS North Carolina, shakes the dust off the history books to unravel myths, unearth narratives, and discover fresh perspectives.

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Chapters
00:00 The Soviet A-Bomb
00:54 The Venona Project's Dedicated Mathematicians
03:12 The First Clue
05:03 Book Breaking
07:08 The Infamous Rosenbergs

[TheSuzberry]

One of these women was Bill Nye’s mother. Read the book “Code Girls”.

[prettypic]

I think society tends to forget just how important women were to code breaking and computing. So much of the actual work was done by these brave, brilliant women! It's also no mistake that women were usually forced out of these jobs when they became higher paying and more prestigious

[davidshi]

This reminds me of the Calutron Girls, young women who were trained to operate the machines used to enrich uranium at Oak Ridge, TN for the Manhattan Project. It was so secretive they weren't even told what they were producing, just how to do it. They got so good at it though that they even outperformed the scientists!

[MsAnubisia]

I'll add that the Rosenbergs were the first American civilians executed for espionage, and their sons are still alive and told their own stories from recollections of their childhood. I guess it's not super relevant to the video but one reason for pushback on the Rosenberg case was that they were Jewish, and Jewish organizations/activists were frequently (unfairly) under surveillance during the Red Scare.

[_maxgray]

Thank you for covering this topic! I knew about the decryption efforts that led to the Rosenbergs' convictions, but never knew there were so many women involved. What a shame that the Project Venona women all seem to have passed without getting the recognition they deserved - I would love to see a movie like Hidden Figures on their work.

[Mackyle-Wotring]

Thank you for making this informative video. It reminds me about the Women who helped made the calculations that helped Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to land on the moon.

~Mackyle Wotring

[dominiquefortin]

01749 The carry is the hard part, it is only seem easier because we are so used to it.

[napoleonibonaparte]

A "sequel" to Hidden Figures could use this as a plot. It would be fascinating.

[richardmanuel]

01749 - Not interested in being a spy. Please don't ask.

[terri]

This reminds me of Bletchley Park, where British code breakers worked in secret to decipher Soviet codes. I first learned about it from the series “The Bletchley Circle”, in which four women reunite several years after WWII to solve a series of seemingly unrelated murders using their code breaking skills. I just looked it up and saw that there is also “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco”, so I’ll have to check that out.

[maxwellwynter]

Brotha, anyone ever mentioned that you could pass for a black wolverine? that afro/beard combo is dope.

[tessat]

You'd think that Ethel's own brother would do his best to try to save her and to downplay her involvement in the espionage. Instead, he did just the opposite. He threw her under the bus to save his own neck.

[thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

More proof that women are great at math. There are probably many more stores like this about how women did a lot of the grunt work while men got the spot light.

[PokhrajRoy.]

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and the Single Ladies were the OG (De)coders.

[johndemeritt]

This is fascinating stuff -- especially since my step father served in the Army Security Agency in the 1970s.

[angelmage]

I didn't know that much about the Rosenbergs and what I did confused me if was the Red Scare or if they were really spies. Thanks for this. I didn't know I need to study about the topic more until this.

[michaelmayhem]

Not impossible since, you know the broke the codes. The only code not broken during WW2 were the Navajo in the US military

[safaiaryu]

I'd heard of the Rosenbergs, but was not aware that Ethel was charged and executed on shaky grounds. Yikes. Yet another person unjustly given capital punishment.

[sarahwatts]

Every time I hear one of these stories, I wonder how many more are out there for each one we do know. Likely to be a pretty scary ratio, and a disappointing one, as we can't recognize many of the people involved in their lifetimes.

[johnnyearp]

I grew up in Santa Fe, NM next to the bridge that allegedly the Rosenbergs gave nuclear secrets to the Russians underneath. But that happened before I was born and under an older version of the bridge as well. The current bridge looks too modern.