Shah [Shakh]

An NKVD foreign intelligence cover name which appears in 20 cables (from February 23, 1944 to February 10, 1945) partially decrypted in the course of the Venona operation. “Shah” was identified by Venona translators as “Konstantin Alexeevich Shabanov.” Judging from a notation in the “Index of KGB Cover-names: New York-Moscow Communications,” this identification was made in some contemporary “directory.” The real man behind “Shah” was Konstantin Alexeevich Chugunov, a Soviet intelligence officer in New York during World War II.