TheFonds de Moscou, TICOM, and the Nerve of a Spy

Two newly available sources for World War II intelligence history consist of French pre-war mainly intelligence documents held for years in the Soviet Union and recently returned to France and of German pre-war documents, primarily cryptologic, held for years in the United Kingdom and recently restituted to the Federal Republic. In addition, a memorandum of 1930 reveals that the future spy Hans-Thilo Schmidt frequently visited the factory making the Enigma machine and coolly asked the manufacturer for basic details, which they gave him and which he later sold to the French, leading eventually to the Allied reading of Engima-enciphered messages during World War II.