Summary heading

CRS A6202 – Exhibits, single letter system  

Function and purpose

CRS A6202 comprises Exhibits A to J as tendered to the Royal Commission on Espionage. These exhibits contain the documents that Vladimir Petrov supplied to ASIO when he defected in 1954 (known collectively as the ‘Petrov Papers’).

On 3 April 1954, Vladimir Petrov, Third Secretary of the Soviet embassy in Canberra, defected to Australia. At the time of defection, Petrov brought with him a bundle of documents he had access to as the covert ‘Resident’ of the Soviet Ministry of State Security (then the ‘MGB’ but referred to as the ‘MVD’). These documents, which Petrov handed to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), consisted of three distinct types of records: 

1. The “Moscow Letters” for 1952 (Exhibits A – F): photographic prints of six letters dated from January to November 1952 sent from the Soviet Ministry of State Security in Moscow to Petrov as its resident in Canberra, handwritten and typed notes incorporating the relevant ‘deciphered list of insertions’ needed to decipher the meanings of numbers scattered throughout the letters.
2. The “G-Series” of documents (Exhibit G): a miscellaneous collection of hand-written Russian language material dating from 1948 – 1954, including notes on persons of interest (including code names) taken from a sealed envelope marked “N”, and Petrov’s notes about other documents in envelope “N” and the ‘Moscow Letters’ for 1953 and early 1954.
3. Two English language documents written by Australian journalists (Exhibits H and J): One is a three page document written by Fergan O’Sullivan giving short profiles of journalists working in the Canberra press gallery (Exhibit H). The other is a thirty-seven page document written by Rupert Lockwood, providing information on various topics, and making certain allegations against a number of prominent Australians (Exhibit J).

The Royal Commission on Espionage (RCE) was established in the wake of Petrov’s defection. It was empowered to investigate the information supplied by Petrov, particularly the nature and extent of Soviet espionage operations in Australia and the complicity of Australians in it. The documents Petrov gave to ASIO were tendered as exhibits on 18 May 1954 at the Royal Commission’s Canberra hearings, and henceforth became publicly known as Exhibits A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H & J. The Royal Commission spent a considerable amount of time concerned with establishing the authenticity of certain of the documents, particularly ‘H’ and ‘J’, which had become subject to intense political controversy. Ultimately, the Royal Commission held that the documents provided genuine proof of Soviet espionage and how some Australians had wittingly and unwittingly assisted it. 

Related legislation

Section 6F of the Royal Commissions Act (1902-1933) empowered Royal Commissions generally to inspect documents and other types of evidence, to retain them for reasonable periods, and to make copies or take extracts from them.    

Using the series

Exhibits A to G are entirely in Russian, and the photographic prints of the ‘Moscow Letters’ are encoded and enciphered. As such, the true meanings can only be understood if read against the literal translations into English (A6203) and the final version of interpretations (A6204). It was MVD practice to use code words, names and phrases in its correspondence that would only be readily intelligible to its operatives. Some examples from Exhibits A to G include ‘Academy’ (Communist Party) ‘Olympia’ (Moscow) and ‘the village’ (Canberra). In addition, the ‘Moscow Letters’ were interspersed with numbers that had specific meanings only in the context of a particular letter. A separate enciphered appendix was used within the embassy to interpret the meanings of these numbers. 

 

There are various name indexes that can be used to identify references to specific people in these exhibits. See ‘Finding Aids’ below. 

Language of material

Exhibits A to G are in Russian, while H and J are in English.  

Physical characteristics

Exhibits A to F consist of black and white photographic prints of Russian language documents accompanied by mostly handwritten notes by Petrov that help to decode and decipher them. The MVD’s practice was to photograph each of its letters onto 35 mm film. The original paper record was then destroyed. The undeveloped rolls of film were then despatched by diplomatic bag, with the necessary enciphered appendices sent separately. The Soviet embassy would make one print of each letter before destroying the negatives. The appendices would also be deciphered, and the photographic prints read against them. Some of the photographic prints in this series have annotations on them in Petrov’s handwriting. Exhibits G, H and J are paper documents.

Originally, the exhibits were presented to the Royal Commission in cellophane envelopes in cardboard folders. This original packaging was removed during conservation treatment in 1982, and the prints and notes remounted on cardboard and encapsulated in mylar to approximate how they were presented. Below is a description of each exhibit:

Exhibit A:	Consists of the 26 photographic prints comprising the Moscow Letter of 27 September 1952, two single sided handwritten pages of notes, and one doubled sided page of notes. These were marked as A1 – A32 by the RCE.
Exhibit B:	Contains the 17 photographic prints that make up the Moscow Letter of 2 January 1952, with a typed page giving the meanings of code numbers, and a handwritten foolscap page with information on it. These were labelled as B1 – B20 by the RCE.
Exhibit C:	Consists of the six photographic prints making up the Moscow Letter of 12 March 1952, and one page of handwritten notes. These were labelled by the RCE as C1 – C8.
Exhibit D:	This exhibit consists of the photographic prints of the Moscow Letter of 6 June 1952, and three handwritten pages. These were labelled as D1 – D27 by the RCE.
Exhibit E:	Contains the 8 prints making up the Moscow Letter of 24 July 1952, one double-sided hand-written foolscap page of notes, and one single sided foolscap page of notes. These were labelled as ‘E1’ – ‘E11’ by the RCE. These have been encapsulated to approximate how they were originally presented.
Exhibit F:	Consists of 18 photographic prints comprising the Moscow Letter of 25 November 1952, and one double-sided handwritten foolscap page of notes in pencil. These were labelled as F1 – F20 by the RCE.
Exhibit G:	Consists of 18 loose hand-written pages in Russian. These were labelled by the RCE as G1 to G18.
Exhibit H:	The original three-page document is typescript on foolscap sized paper. These three pages are labelled H1 – H3. At some point in time that cannot be determined, three photostat copies of the exhibit were enclosed with the original.  One is signed BB Riley on the front page (BB Riley was one of the counsel assisting the Royal Commission) with copy numbers stamped on the back. The second only has copy numbers on the back. The third was marked as ‘Copy 4 – from Major Birse’s binder’ by CP Alpen, the Acting RCE Secretary.
Exhibit J:	Consists of thirty-seven typed foolscap pages. These were labelled J1 – J37 by the RCE. At some stage after the Royal Commission, three Photostat copies of document J were included with the original exhibit in A Royal Commission on Espionage exhibit envelope before transfer to National Archives. One is marked as ‘Copy No 10’ and signed by the RCE Secretary, KH Herde. Another is labelled ‘Copy from Major Birse’s binder’ and initialled by CP Alpen (Acting RCE Secretary). The third copy has no notations on it, but has been foliated J1 – J37 by hand in ink

The original packaging for these exhibits has been preserved, and is registered as CRS A6228. A photographic record of what the exhibits looked like before conservation treatment can be found in CRS A6229.

System of arrangement and control

These records are arranged and controlled using the single letter system they were marked with at the Royal Commission. The control symbols range from A-J, with ‘I’ not being allocated. This alphabetical sequence follows the documents’ original order in the parcel Petrov handed over to ASIO. To facilitate references to specific parts of the documents during the Royal Commission, each individual page or document in an exhibit was numbered sequentially. Accordingly, a reference to ‘A5’ means the fifth page in Exhibit A, while ‘J1’ is the first page of Exhibit J.

The range of control symbols imposed by the RCE replaced an earlier alphabetical system used by ASIO (which differed only in terms of Exhibits H and J) and the numerical identifiers Petrov used to refer to the documents in his statements of 3 April and 10 May 1954 (1). The table below relates the present control symbols with the previously used identifiers:

Present Control Symbol	Different identification formerly used by ASIO	Numbering used by VM Petrov
A		2
B		3
C		4
D		5
E		6
F		7
G  (G1 – G2)		9
G  (G3)		12
G  (G4)		13
G (G5 – G6)		8
G (G7 – G10)		10
G (G11 – G12)		11
G (G13 – G18)		14
H (H1 – H3)	K.1 – K.3	15
J (J1 – J17)	J.1 –J.17	1
J (J18 – J34)	H.1 – H.17	1
J (J35)	L.1	1
J (J36 – J37)	H.18 – H.19	1

 

Relationships with other records

This series forms part of the body of records created by the Royal Commission on Espionage. These records can be broadly divided into three categories: the Records of the Royal Commissioners (series A6214 and A6215), the Records of the Secretariat (A6213) and the records that were assembled as a result of the Royal Commission’s investigations (including exhibits, transcripts of proceedings and reports).

CRS A6203 and CRS A6204 respectively contain the literal translations and final interpretations of Exhibits A to G. These should be used to understand the actual meanings of Exhibits A to G.

Copies of Exhibits A to J were also made for reference use by the Royal Commissioners, and can be found in CRS A2614 – Commissioner Owen’s copies of reference material and CRS A6215 – Commissioner Philp’s copies of reference material.

During the Royal Commission, the authenticity of the documents Petrov handed over to ASIO was called into question. In response, the Menzies government authorised the publication in book form of expurgated original Russian versions of Exhibits A to G. This project was later abandoned, but not before a mock-up and proof copies of the intended book had been produced. CRS A6205 - Mock-up volume of facsimile reproductions of Exhibits A-G contains the mark up, while there are two proof copies in CRS A6206 - Proof volumes of facsimile reproductions of Exhibits A-G.

In 1982, Exhibits A to J underwent considerable conservation treatment by the National Archives. As a result of this, the original packaging was removed. This has been preserved, and registered as a separate series - A6228. Photographic records exist to document how the exhibits looked before and after treatment (CRS A6229 and A6230).

Finding aids

Certain name indexes for these exhibits are in existence. The oldest - the RCE Secretariat’s name index to Exhibits A to G has been registered as CRS A6209 – Alphabetical index to persons mentioned in exhibits A – G. Another copy of this index exists in CRS A6214 – Commissioner Owen’s copies of reference materials (item 2). The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet also prepared a name index to RCE records (including CRS A6202) as part of the access examination process in 1984: CRS A11025 – Name index cards to records of the Royal Commission on Espionage. 

The National Archives of Australia has produced Fact Sheet 130 – The Royal Commission on Espionage 1954-1955, which details holdings of records relating to the defection of Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov and the subsequent Royal Commission on Espionage. Copies of this can be obtained in National Archives Reading Rooms, and online at: http://naa.gov.au/Publications/fact_sheets/FS130.html         

Series history

This series, along with other records of the Royal Commission on Espionage, was transferred to National Archives in September 1984. The series was originally accessioned as AA1984/314. Prior to transfer, considerable work was done on the series by the National Archives in preparation for their early release to the public on 24 September 1984 under the accelerated release provisions of the Archives Act 1983.This included conservation treatment, conversion into CRS series and access examination.

Arrangement and description work on this series was undertaken in April 2005 as part of a Collection Development project involving multiple record series associated with the Royal Commission on Espionage. As a result of this work, the series was properly described at item and series level in RecordSearch, and re-packaged and rehoused in acid-free containers where necessary.         

Custodial history

Whilst in ASIO custody, the documents Petrov supplied were photographed, ascribed alphabetical identifiers (explained above) and the their translation and decipherment was begun. To provide the Royal Commission with better reference copies, the NSW Police took another set of photographs in May 1954.

After the Royal Commission, these exhibits appear to have been in the custody of  ‘D’ Branch in the Attorney General’s Department (2). By the time the RCE Secretariat had ceased to function in August 1957, these exhibits, along with the other RCE Records, were stored in the Cabinet Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Department in Canberra. Between September 1975 and May 1977, the RCE records were provided to the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security (RCIS). After the records were returned to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, an archivist from the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) was engaged to properly index and catalogue them. As a consequence of this work, the then Australian Archives was engaged to undertake conservation work on the records. In relation to Exhibits A to J, this involved removing the original packaging, special treatment to retard deterioration of the photographic prints (including treatment for acidity in the photographic paper) and removal of “Milliner’s Solution” which had been used to expunge certain sections of the prints as part of a project to reproduce them for publication.

Publication note

Expurgated versions of the final translations were made public in the appendices of the Report of the Royal Commission on Espionage dated 22 August 1955. The expunged sections were included in the top secret Annexure to the Report of the Royal Commission on Espionage, which accompanied the final report but was never published. By order of the Royal Commission, Exhibits H and J were never to be published on the grounds that they contained defamatory allegations against certain persons. When a sub-committee of Cabinet considered the accelerated release of the RCE records in 1984, it was decided that both documents should be released in their entirety.

Robert Manne made extensive use of the Royal Commission on Espionage records, including items in CRS A6202, in the course of researching his book - The Petrov Affair: Politics and Espionage (Sydney, 1987).

End notes

(1)  See Exhibits 8 and 10 in CRS A6201.

(2)  See letter, CP Alpen, Acting Secretary, RCE to Deputy Director-General (Operations) “D” Branch. A6213, RCE/Y/1.