How did the Washington-Moscow hotline come about?

Prior to the Washington-Moscow hotline, it would take from six to 13 hours to transmit and decipher messages through official diplomatic channels. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 showed that such speeds were unacceptable in emergency situations.

The hotline is often presented as a red telephone. In fact, it was never a telephone — it was believed that information could be misunderstood during voice contact. Teletype was used, and since the late 1970s — satellite communication channels.

The cable channel passed through London, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. Messages were transmitted in their own language, and translators worked on the recipient’s side.

The first message from Washington was: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890." It contained all the letters of the English alphabet, and all the numbers.

The hotline was used after the assassination of President Kennedy, during the Six-Day and Third Indo-Pakistani Wars, and during the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

Today, it continues to be used in especially important cases. For example, in 2001, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov sent his condolences to the United States after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and expressed his readiness to jointly fight terrorism.