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Although based on the WW2 German Enigma machine, Russian cryptologists were well aware of the security flaws of the Enigma and incorporated solutions to all of those flaws into this wonderful piece of mechanics. The small machine, only 10.8 by 12.5 inches and 8.3 inches high, is with its impressive mechanism the Swiss watch of the electro-mechanical cipher machines. The Fialka has 10 interchangeable, alternately counter-rotating rotors with 30 wirings each. Pins on each rotor mechanically control the irregular and most complex stepping of the rotors. The disassemblable internal wirings core of each rotor can be rotated, extracted and mirrored, or exchanged with other wirings. Several different types of rotor sets were produced. The plugboard, as used on the Enigma, is replaced by a punched card reader, and an electronic 3-point circuit in the reflector solves Enigma's flaw that a letter can never be encrypted into itself. The output is printed on a paper ribbon or punched on a five-bit paper tape, and the machine is also equipped with a paper tape reader.
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