Ekho [Echo]

An NKGB foreign intelligence cover name which appears in 33 cables that were partially decrypted in the course of the Venona operation; its bearer was identified by Venona translators as CPUSA functionary “Bernard Schuster (party name Chester).” The earliest appearance of the “Ekho” cover name is in the cable dated July 8, 1942; it appears again in a cable dated February 24, 1944 and, finally, in a cable dated January 23, 1945.