Shalyapin [Chalyapin], Mikhail Aleksandrovich (circa 1915 – ?)

Biographies, References

A Soviet intelligence officer who was a “legal” operative of the NKGB foreign intelligence in New York during World War II (political intelligence).

Shalyapin was identified behind the cover name “Shtok,” which appears in 24 cables (from June 11, 1943 to December 4, 1944) partially decrypted in the course of the Venona operation. Very little information about Shalyapin has been discovered in Russian documents and archives to date. He arrived in New York in 1941 or earlier and left the United States in May 1945, most probably from San Francisco, where he attended the United Nations Charter Conference as a member of the staff of the Soviet delegation. 1

According to the description left by one of his colleagues at the New York NKGB station from 1941 to1945, Shalyapin was an impulsive person who could not control or hide his emotions; a chain smoker, he loved risky operations but was able at the same time to follow the instructions of the resident diligently. Shalyapin had an easy grasp of languages and was later posted in various countries, where he reportedly succeeded in recruiting valuable sources. 2

  1. Fund No 429 (The Conference in San Francisco, 1945), description 1, P. 7, folder 4, p. 30, AVP RF. ↩
  2. Alexander Feklisov. Za okeanom i na ostrove. Zapiski razvedchika. Moskva: “DEM”, 1994, s. 54. (Alexander Feklisov, Across the Ocean and on the Island: Reminiscences of an Intelligence Officer, Moscow: “DEM,” 1994, p. 59. ↩