Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

Serov was one of the last of Stalin’s Chekiststo die. Well re-

warded by Stalin, he received six Orders of Leninand four Orders of

the Red Banner, the same number as Marshal Zhukov. Nevertheless,

he was truly a monster, responsible for the executionand exileof

millions of innocent Soviet citizens.

SHADRIN, NICHOLAS [ARTAMONOV, NIKOLAI FEDORO-

VICH] (1924–1975). After havingdefectedfrom the Soviet Navy,

Artamonov was resettled in the United States under the name

Nicholas Shadrin. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Soviet

military court. But while working for the U.S. Naval Department as

an analyst, Shadrin was recruited by the KGBrezidenturain Wash-

ington. He was also working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI) as a double agent. For several years, Shadrin met Soviet case

officers in a dangerous game. When the KGB learned they were be-

ing duped, they convinced him to meet case officers in Vienna, where

he was kidnapped. Shadrin died as a result of a drug administered

during the kidnapping. The KGB leadership were delighted with the

success of the operation, however, and awarded the officials involved

medals for military valor.

Shadrin’s role as a double agent and his death remain contentious

issues to this day. Many believe that he should never have been run

as an agent by the FBI. Moreover, despite rumors that Shadrin rede-

fected to the Soviet Union, evidence from defectors such as Vitaliy

Yurchenkoand Oleg Kaluginestablished that he died as a result of

a KGB blunder. President Gerald Ford asked Soviet leader Leonid

Brezhnevabout Shadrin and was told that Shadrin had never met the

KGB in Vienna. President Jimmy Carter received the same story.

SHEBARSHIN, LEONID VLADIMIROVICH (1935– ). After join-

ing the KGB’s First Chief Directorate in 1962, Shebarshin served in

India as deputy chief and then in Iran as rezidentduring the Iranian

Revolution. In 1989 Communist Partyboss Mikhail Gorbachev

appointed Shebarshin to head the First Chief Directorate. According

to his own and other KGB memoirs, Shebarshin tried to keep the for-

eign intelligence directorate neutral during the 1991 August putsch.

As a reward, he was appointed KGB chair immediately following the

coup, but he was forced to resign within a few weeks. Shebarshin was

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