Venona project

The Venona project was a secret U.S. intelligence program initiated during World War II and continuing into the early Cold War period. Its primary purpose was to decrypt messages sent by Soviet intelligence agencies, particularly the KGB and GRU, using a one-time pad cipher. The project began in 1943 and continued until the early 1980s, ultimately revealing valuable intelligence about Soviet espionage operations, including the activities of spies within the United States.