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KGB Document in the Sanborn Files

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KGB Document in the Sanborn Files
Topic: Cryptography 6:14 pm EDT, Sep  2, 2003

As part of my research into Kryptos and the other works of its sculptor, James Sanborn, I have been having art galleries all over the country send me copies of their files, with information that I can add to my James Sanborn webpage (http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/sanborn.html).

A few weeks ago, I received a couple envelopes with a complete set of copies of the files from a section of the Smithsonian Archive. These were from a series of "Jim Sanborn" folders, which had been received from one of his prior agents, the Nancy Drysdale Art Gallery.

As I dug through the files, I found a lot of the usual stuff: price lists, articles, pictures, exhibition catalogs and whatnot, but then ran across something that I *wasn't* expecting to see: A classified KGB document!

It appears to be a document from 1982, about the Soviet dissident Sakharov. There was no explanation as to why the document was in those art gallery files. My speculation is that perhaps Sanborn received some KGB documents from the CIA when he was doing work there, and he gave them to his agent to have translated. Perhaps some extra copies of the document got lost in the paper shuffle somewhere, and when they resurfaced, they were identified as, "Oh yeah, that's for Sanborn, put it in his file" and then they were forgotten?

My favorite theory is that the cyrillic from the KGB document may give a clue to the plaintext of Sanborn's encrypted Cyrillic Projector. Especially because that ciphertext is also on Sanborn's Antipodes sculpture, and Sanborn was quoted as saying that the cyrillic side was about "KGB Operations".

I also have to admit that I was amused by the formal language of the KGB document. For example, it ends with a final paragraph which reads, "As a result of measures taken, the hostile plans of the adversary have been foiled." So now I and my friends are using that line in daily speech. Like if we go to a restaurant and argue about what to get on the menu, someone will call out, "The hostile plans of the adversary have been foiled!" :)

Enjoy,

Elonka :)

KGB Document in the Sanborn Files



 
 
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