How many years did Beria live? Lavrenty Beria

Name: Lavrentiy Beriya

Age: 54 years old

Place of Birth: With. Merkheuli, Sukhumi district

A place of death: Moscow

Activity: Head of the NKVD

Marital status: Married to Nina Gegechkori

Lavrentiy Beria - biography

Many people were afraid of this man. Lavrentiy Beria is an extraordinary person. He stood at the origins of the revolution and walked alongside Stalin throughout the war. The blind executor of his leader was also merciless towards the traitors of the country, and with pleasure in many ways exceeded the power given to him.

Childhood, family

Lavrentiy Beria was born in the Kutaisi province, now Abkhazia. The mother was from a princely family. Not a single biographer notes his father's noble origin. First, the boy’s parents, Martha and Pavel, had three children. One boy died when he was two years old. The daughter suffered from the disease and lost her hearing and speech. Lavrentiy was the only hope of his father and mother, especially since he was a very capable boy as a child.

The parents spared nothing for their son: they sent him to the Sukhumi paid primary school. Sold half of their house to pay for school. After graduating from college, Beria entered the construction school in Baku. When he turned seventeen, he took in his mother and sister; his father had already died at that time. Beria began to take care of and support the remnants of his family. To do this, he was forced to work and study at the same time.

Political biography of Beria

Lavrentiy finds time to become a member of the Marxist circle and becomes its treasurer. After completing his studies, he went to the front, but was soon discharged due to illness. He again lives in Baku and actively works in the local Bolshevik organization, goes underground. Only after the establishment of Soviet power did he begin to cooperate with the counterintelligence of Azerbaijan. He is sent to Georgia for underground work, he develops his activities too actively, he is arrested and expelled from Georgia. Beria leads a very stormy political life, holds leading positions in the Cheka of the Republic.

Already in the twenties, he exceeded his authority and falsified criminal cases, actively participating in the suppression of the Menshevik uprising. Until the early thirties, he was the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Georgia. During this period of activity, his biography for the first time suits his acquaintance with Stalin. Beria is constantly growing up the career ladder. In 1934, he served on the commission for the project to create the NKVD of the Soviet Union.

Whatever Beria was, it is impossible to throw out from history the positive things that he achieved for Transcaucasia. The oil industry is developing thanks to the commissioning of several large stations. Georgia has turned into a resort area. In agriculture, expensive crops began to be produced: grapes, tangerines, tea. Beria undertakes a “cleansing” in the ranks of the Georgian party, he boldly signs death sentences. In 1938, Beria became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

For his impeccable service to the state, he is given many awards. Nearby the name of Yezhov appears, against whose lawlessness Beria begins to pursue a policy of mitigation: repression is reduced by almost half, prison is replaced by camps. Before the war, Lavrenty Pavlovich deployed an intelligence network in European countries, Japan and America. Beria's department includes all intelligence services, the forestry and oil industries, the production of non-ferrous metals and the river fleet.

War

Now the production of aircraft, engines, and weapons falls under Beria’s control. He ensures that air regiments are formed and sent to the front in a timely manner. Later, the coal industry and all communication routes were placed under the jurisdiction of Lavrentiy Beria. In addition, he was a permanent adviser to I.V. Stalin’s headquarters. He had a large number of awards, orders and medals. The development of the Program to create an atomic bomb began.

But, although M. Molotov was appointed leader, the omnipresent Beria had to control the entire process. After successful tests, Lavrentiy received the Stalin Prize and the title of “Honorary Citizen”. After the death of the leader, Beria joined the struggle for high office. He proposed an amnesty for more than a million people and the termination of four hundred cases.

Removal from office and death of Beria

Khrushchev N.S. fought for the post of leader, who chose a different path: he raised the question of removing Lavrentiy Beria from his post. Khrushchev selected several articles for his competitor, which the entire Politburo could not object to. Many charges were brought against him, including espionage in the twenties and moral corruption. Lavrenty Pavlovich was sentenced to death, like all his comrades. After the execution, the body was burned and the ashes were scattered over the Moscow River. Such is the unpredictable ending to the biography of someone who inspired fear just by his name.

Lavrentiy Beria - biography of personal life

I think you will be interested in reading this opinion about this historical figure. Someone is aware of this information, someone will not accept it in any case, and someone will learn something new for themselves.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is one of the most famous and at the same time the most unknown statesmen of Russia. Myths, lies and slander against him almost exceed the amount of slop poured into the name of Stalin. It is all the more important for us to understand who Beria really was.

On June 26, 1953, three tank regiments stationed near Moscow received an order from the Minister of Defense to load up with ammunition and enter the capital. The motorized rifle division also received the same order. Two air divisions and a formation of jet bombers were ordered to wait in full combat readiness for orders for a possible bombing of the Kremlin. Subsequently, a version of all these preparations was announced: the Minister of Internal Affairs Beria was preparing a coup d'etat, which had to be prevented, Beria himself was arrested, tried and shot. For 50 years this version was not questioned by anyone. An ordinary, and not so ordinary, person knows only two things about Lavrentiy Beria: he was an executioner and a sexual maniac. Everything else has been removed from history. So it’s even strange: why did Stalin tolerate this useless and gloomy figure near him? Afraid, or what? Mystery. I wasn’t afraid at all! And there is no mystery. Moreover, without understanding the true role of this man it is impossible to understand the Stalinist era. Because in fact, everything was completely different from what the people who seized power in the USSR and privatized all the victories and achievements of their predecessors later came up with.

St. Petersburg journalist Elena Prudnikova, author of sensational historical investigations, participant in the historical and journalistic project “Riddles of History,” talks about a completely different Lavrentiy Beria on the pages of our newspaper. “Economic miracle” in Transcaucasia Many people have heard about the “Japanese economic miracle”. But who knows about Georgian? In the fall of 1931, the young security officer Lavrentiy Beria, a very remarkable personality, became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia. In 20, he led an illegal network in Menshevik Georgia. In 23, when the republic came under the control of the Bolsheviks, he fought against banditry and achieved impressive results - by the beginning of this year there were 31 gangs in Georgia, by the end of the year there were only 10 of them left. In 25, Beria was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. By 1929, he became both the chairman of the GPU of Transcaucasia and the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the region. But, oddly enough, Beria stubbornly tried to part with the KGB service, dreaming of finally completing his education and becoming a builder. In 1930, he even wrote a desperate letter to Ordzhonikidze. “Dear Sergo! I know you will say that now is not the time to bring up the issue of studying. But what to do? I feel like I can’t do it anymore.” In Moscow, the request was fulfilled exactly the opposite. So, in the fall of 1931, Beria became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia. A year later he became the first secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee, in fact the owner of the region. And we really, really don’t like to talk about how he worked in this position. Beria still got the same district.

Industry as such did not exist. A poor, hungry outskirts. As you know, collectivization began in the USSR in 1927. By 1931, 36% of Georgian farms had been transferred to collective farms, but this did not make the population any less hungry. And then Beria made a move with his knight. He stopped collectivization. Left the private owners alone. But on collective farms they began to grow not bread or corn, which were of no use, but valuable crops: tea, citrus fruits, tobacco, grapes. And this is where large agricultural enterprises justified themselves one hundred percent! Collective farms began to grow rich at such a speed that the peasants themselves flocked to them. By 1939, without any coercion, 86% of farms were socialized. One example: in 1930, the area of ​​tangerine plantations was one and a half thousand hectares, in 1940 - 20 thousand. The yield per tree has increased, in some farms by as much as 20 times. When you go to the market to buy Abkhaz tangerines, remember Lavrenty Pavlovich! In industry he worked just as effectively. During the first five-year plan, the volume of gross industrial output of Georgia alone increased almost 6 times. During the second five-year period - another 5 times. It was the same in the other Transcaucasian republics. It was under Beria, for example, that they began to drill on the shelves of the Caspian Sea, for which he was accused of wastefulness: why bother with all this nonsense! But now there is a real war between the superpowers over Caspian oil and over its transportation routes. At the same time, Transcaucasia became the “resort capital” of the USSR - who then thought about the “resort business”? In terms of education level, already in 1938 Georgia took one of the first places in the Union, and in terms of the number of students per thousand souls it surpassed England and Germany. In short, during the seven years that Beria held the post of “main man” in Transcaucasia, he so shaken up the economy of the backward republics that until the 90s they were among the richest in the Union. If you look at it, the doctors of economic sciences who carried out perestroika in the USSR have a lot to learn from this security officer. But that was a time when it was not political talkers, but business executives, who were worth their weight in gold.

Stalin could not miss such a person. And Beria’s appointment to Moscow was not the result of apparatus intrigues, as they are now trying to imagine, but a completely natural thing: a person who works in this way in the region can be entrusted with big things in the country.

Lavrenty Beria in 1934

Mad Sword of Revolution

In our country, the name of Beria is primarily associated with repression. On this occasion, allow me the simplest question: when did the “Beria repressions” take place? Date please! She's gone. The then chief of the NKVD, Comrade Yezhov, is responsible for the notorious “37th year”. There was even such an expression - “tight-knuckle gloves.” Post-war repressions were also carried out when Beria was not working in the authorities, and when he arrived there in 1953, the first thing he did was stop them. When there were “Beria’s rehabilitations” - this is clearly recorded in history. And “Beria’s repressions” are in their purest form a product of “black PR”. What really happened? The country had no luck with the leaders of the Cheka-OGPU from the very beginning. Dzerzhinsky was a strong, strong-willed and honest person, but, extremely busy with work in the government, he abandoned the department to his deputies. His successor Menzhinsky was seriously ill and did the same. The main cadres of the “organs” were promoters from the Civil War, poorly educated, unprincipled and cruel; one can imagine what kind of situation prevailed there. Moreover, since the end of the 20s, the leaders of this department were increasingly nervous about any kind of control over their activities: Yezhov was a new person in the “authorities”, he started well, but quickly fell under the influence of his deputy Frinovsky. He taught the new People's Commissar the basics of security service work directly “on the job.” The basics were extremely simple: the more enemies of the people we catch, the better; You can and should hit, but hitting and drinking is even more fun. Drunk on vodka, blood and impunity, the People's Commissar soon openly “swimmed.”

He did not particularly hide his new views from those around him. “What are you afraid of? - he said at one of the banquets. - After all, all the power is in our hands. Whoever we want, we execute, whoever we want, we pardon: After all, we are everything. It is necessary that everyone, starting from the secretary of the regional committee, should walk under you: “If the secretary of the regional committee had to walk under the head of the regional department of the NKVD, then who, one wonders, should have walked under Yezhov? With such personnel and such views, the NKVD became mortally dangerous both for the authorities and for the country. It is difficult to say when the Kremlin began to realize what was happening. Probably sometime in the first half of 1938. But to realize - they realized, but how to curb the monster? The solution is to imprison your own man, with such a level of loyalty, courage and professionalism that he can, on the one hand, cope with the management of the NKVD, and on the other, stop the monster. Stalin hardly had a large choice of such people. Well, at least one was found. Curbing the NKVD In 1938, Beria, with the rank of Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, became the head of the Main Directorate of State Security, seizing control of the most dangerous structure. Almost immediately, right before the November holidays, the entire top of the People's Commissariat was removed and mostly arrested. Then, having placed reliable people in key positions, Beria began to deal with what his predecessor had done. Chekists who went too far were fired, arrested, and some were shot. (By the way, later, having again become the Minister of Internal Affairs in 1953, do you know what order Beria issued the very first? On the prohibition of torture! He knew where he was going. The organs were cleaned out abruptly: 7372 people (22.9%) were dismissed from the rank and file, from management - 3830 people (62%).

At the same time, they began to verify complaints and review cases. Recently published data have made it possible to assess the scale of this work. For example, in 1937-38, about 30 thousand people were dismissed from the army for political reasons. 12.5 thousand were returned to service after the change of leadership of the NKVD. It turns out about 40%. According to the most approximate estimates, since complete information has not yet been made public, up to 1941 inclusive, 150-180 thousand people out of 630 thousand convicted during the Yezhovshchina were released from camps and prisons. That is about 30 percent. It took a long time to “normalize” the NKVD and it was not completely possible, although the work was carried out right up to 1945. Sometimes you have to deal with completely incredible facts. For example, in 1941, especially in those places where the Germans were advancing, they did not stand on ceremony with prisoners - the war, they say, would write everything off. However, it was not possible to blame it on the war. From June 22 to December 31, 1941 (the most difficult months of the war!) 227 NKVD employees were brought to criminal liability for abuse of power. Of these, 19 people received capital punishment for extrajudicial executions. Beria also owned another invention of the era - the “sharashka”. Among those arrested there were many people who were very needed by the country. Of course, these were not poets and writers, about whom they shout the most and loudest, but scientists, engineers, designers, who primarily worked for defense. Repression in this environment is a special topic. Who and under what circumstances imprisoned the developers of military equipment in the conditions of an impending war? The question is not at all rhetorical.

Firstly, there were real German agents in the NKVD who, on real assignments from real German intelligence, tried to neutralize people useful to the Soviet defense complex. Secondly, there were no fewer “dissidents” in those days than in the late 80s. In addition, this is an incredibly quarrelsome environment, and denunciation has always been a favorite means of settling scores and career advancement. Be that as it may, having taken over the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, Beria was faced with the fact: in his department there were hundreds of arrested scientists and designers, whose work the country simply desperately needed. As it is now fashionable to say - feel like a people's commissar! There is a case before you. This person may or may not be guilty, but he is necessary. What to do? Write: “Liberate”, showing your subordinates an example of the opposite kind of lawlessness? Check things? Yes, of course, but you have a closet with 600 thousand things in it. In fact, each of them needs to be re-investigated, but there are no personnel. If we are talking about someone who has already been convicted, it is also necessary to get the sentence overturned. Where to start? From scientists? From the military? And time passes, people sit, war is getting closer... Beria quickly got his bearings. Already on January 10, 1939, he signed an order to organize a Special Technical Bureau. The research topic is purely military: aircraft construction, shipbuilding, shells, armor steels. Entire groups were formed from specialists from these industries who were in prison. When the opportunity presented itself, Beria tried to free these people. For example, on May 25, 1940, aircraft designer Tupolev was sentenced to 15 years in the camps, and in the summer he was released under an amnesty.

Designer Petlyakov was granted amnesty on July 25 and already in January 1941 he was awarded the Stalin Prize. A large group of military equipment developers was released in the summer of 1941, another in 1943, the rest received freedom from 1944 to 1948. When you read what is written about Beria, you get the impression that he spent the entire war catching “enemies of the people.” Yes, sure! He had nothing to do! On March 21, 1941, Beria became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. To begin with, he oversees the People's Commissariats of the forestry, coal and oil industries, non-ferrous metallurgy, soon adding ferrous metallurgy here. And from the very beginning of the war, more and more defense industries fell on his shoulders, since, first of all, he was not a security officer or a party leader, but an excellent organizer of production. That is why he was entrusted with the atomic project in 1945, on which the very existence of the Soviet Union depended. He wanted to punish Stalin's murderers. And for this he himself was killed.

Two leaders

Already a week after the start of the war, on June 30, an emergency authority was established - the State Defense Committee, in whose hands all power in the country was concentrated. Naturally, Stalin became the chairman of the State Defense Committee. But who entered the office besides him? This issue is carefully avoided in most publications. For one very simple reason: among the five members of the State Defense Committee there is one unmentioned person. In the brief history of the Second World War (1985), in the index of names given at the end of the book, where such vital figures for victory as Ovid and Sandor Petofi are present, Beria is not present. Wasn’t there, didn’t fight, didn’t participate...

So: there were five of them. Stalin, Molotov, Malenkov, Beria, Voroshilov. And three commissioners: Voznesensky, Mikoyan, Kaganovich. But soon the war began to make its own adjustments. Since February 1942, Beria, instead of Voznesensky, began to oversee the production of weapons and ammunition. Officially. (But in reality, he was already doing this in the summer of 1941.) That same winter, the production of tanks also fell into his hands. Again, not because of any intrigue, but because he did better. The results of Beria's work are best seen from the numbers. If on June 22 the Germans had 47 thousand guns and mortars against our 36 thousand, then by November 1, 1942 these figures were equal, and by January 1, 1944 we had 89 thousand of them against the German 54.5 thousand. From 1942 to 1944, the USSR produced 2 thousand tanks per month, far ahead of Germany. On May 11, 1944, Beria became chairman of the GKO Operations Bureau and deputy chairman of the Committee, in fact, the second person in the country after Stalin. On August 20, 1945, he took on the most difficult task of that time, which was a matter of survival for the USSR - he became chairman of the Special Committee for the creation of an atomic bomb (there he performed another miracle - the first Soviet atomic bomb, contrary to all forecasts, was tested just four years later , August 20, 1949). Not a single person from the Politburo, and indeed not a single person in the USSR, even came close to Beria in terms of the importance of the tasks being solved, in terms of the scope of powers, and, obviously, simply in terms of the scale of his personality. In fact, the post-war USSR was at that time a double star system: the seventy-year-old Stalin and the young - in 1949 he turned only fifty - Beria.

Head of state and his natural successor.

It was this fact that Khrushchev and post-Khrushchev historians hid so diligently in holes of silence and under piles of lies. Because if on June 23, 1953, the Minister of Internal Affairs was killed, this still leads to the fight against the putsch, and if the head of state was killed, then this is what the putsch is... Stalin's Scenario If you trace the information about Beria that wanders from publication to publication, to its original source, then almost all of it follows from Khrushchev’s memoirs. A person who, in general, cannot be trusted, since a comparison of his memories with other sources reveals an exorbitant amount of unreliable information in them. Who hasn’t done “political science” analyzes of the situation in the winter of 1952-1953. What combinations were not thought of, what options were not calculated. That Beria was blocked with Malenkov, with Khrushchev, that he was on his own... These analyzes have only one sin - as a rule, they completely exclude the figure of Stalin. It is silently believed that the leader had retired by that time and was almost insanity...

There is only one source - the memories of Nikita Sergeevich. But why, exactly, should we believe them? And Beria’s son Sergo, for example, who saw Stalin fifteen times during 1952 at meetings devoted to missile weapons, recalled that the leader did not at all seem weakened in mind... The post-war period of our history is no less dark than pre-Rurik Russia. Probably no one really knows what was happening in the country then. It is known that after 1949, Stalin withdrew somewhat from business, leaving all the “turnover” to chance and to Malenkov. But one thing is clear: something was cooking. Based on indirect evidence, it can be assumed that Stalin was planning some kind of very big reform, first of all economic, and only then, perhaps, political. Another thing is clear: the leader was old and sick, he knew this very well, he did not suffer from a lack of courage and could not help but think what would happen to the state after his death, and not look for a successor. If Beria had been of any other nationality, there would have been no problems. But one Georgian after another on the throne of the empire! Even Stalin would not have done this. It is known that in the post-war years, Stalin slowly but steadily squeezed the party apparatus out of the captain's cabin. Of course, the functionaries could not be happy with this. In October 1952, at the CPSU Congress, Stalin gave the party a decisive battle, asking to be relieved of his duties as General Secretary. It didn’t work out, they didn’t let me go. Then Stalin came up with a combination that is easy to read: an obviously weak figure becomes the head of state, and the real head, the “gray cardinal,” is formally in a supporting role. And so it happened: after Stalin’s death, the lack of initiative Malenkov became the first, but Beria was really in charge of politics. He not only carried out an amnesty. For example, he was responsible for a resolution condemning the forced Russification of Lithuania and Western Ukraine; he also proposed a beautiful solution to the “German” question: if Beria had remained in power, the Berlin Wall simply would not have existed. Well, and along the way, he again took up the “normalization” of the NKVD, launching the process of rehabilitation, so that Khrushchev and the company then only had to jump on an already moving locomotive, pretending that they had been there from the very beginning. It was later that they all said that they “disagreed” with Beria, that he “pressured” them. Then they said a lot of things. But in fact, they completely agreed with Beria’s initiatives. But then something happened. Calmly! This is a revolution! A meeting of either the Presidium of the Central Committee or the Presidium of the Council of Ministers was scheduled for June 26 in the Kremlin. According to the official version, the military, led by Marshal Zhukov, came to see him, members of the Presidium called them into the office, and they arrested Beria. Then he was taken to a special bunker in the courtyard of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District troops, an investigation was carried out and he was shot.

This version does not stand up to criticism. Why - it will take a long time to talk about this, but there are many obvious stretches and inconsistencies in it... Let's just say one thing: none of the outside, uninterested people saw Beria alive after June 26, 1953. The last person to see him was his son Sergo - in the morning, at the dacha. According to his recollections, his father was going to stop by a city apartment, then go to the Kremlin for a meeting of the Presidium. Around noon, Sergo received a call from his friend, pilot Amet-Khan, who said that there had been a shootout at Beria’s house and that his father, apparently, was no longer alive. Sergo, together with member of the Special Committee Vannikov, rushed to the address and managed to see broken windows, knocked out doors, a wall dotted with traces of bullets from a heavy machine gun. Meanwhile, members of the Presidium gathered in the Kremlin. What happened there? Wading through the rubble of lies, bit by bit recreating what happened, we managed to roughly reconstruct the events. After Beria was dealt with, the perpetrators of this operation—presumably these were military men from Khrushchev’s old, Ukrainian team, whom he dragged to Moscow, led by Moskalenko—went to the Kremlin. At the same time, another group of military men arrived there.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria with I.V. Stalin's daughter Svetlana. 1930s. Photo from the personal archive of E. Kovalenko. RIA News

It was headed by Marshal Zhukov, and among its members was Colonel Brezhnev. Curious, isn't it? Then, presumably, everything unfolded like this. Among the putschists were at least two members of the Presidium - Khrushchev and Defense Minister Bulganin (Moskalenko and others always refer to them in their memoirs). They confronted the rest of the government with a fact: Beria had been killed, something had to be done about it. The whole team inevitably found themselves in the same boat and began to hide their ends. Another thing is much more interesting: why was Beria killed? The day before, he returned from a ten-day trip to Germany, met with Malenkov, and discussed with him the agenda for the meeting on June 26. Everything was amazing. If something happened, it happened in the last 24 hours. And, most likely, it was somehow connected with the upcoming meeting. True, there is an agenda, preserved in Malenkov’s archive. But most likely it's a linden tree. No information has been preserved about what the meeting was actually supposed to be devoted to. It would seem... But there was one person who could know about this. Sergo Beria said in an interview that his father told him in the morning at the dacha that at the upcoming meeting he was going to demand from the Presidium a sanction for the arrest of the former Minister of State Security Ignatiev.

But now everything is clear! So it couldn't be clearer. The fact is that Ignatiev was in charge of Stalin’s security in the last year of his life. It was he who knew what happened at Stalin’s dacha on the night of March 1, 1953, when the leader had a stroke. And something happened there, about which many years later the surviving guards continued to lie mediocrely and too obviously. And Beria, who kissed the hand of the dying Stalin, would have torn all his secrets from Ignatiev. And then he organized a political trial for the whole world against him and his accomplices, no matter what positions they held. This is just in his style... No, these same accomplices under no circumstances should have allowed Beria to arrest Ignatiev. But how do you keep it? All that remained was to kill - which was done... Well, and then they hid the ends. By order of Defense Minister Bulganin, a grandiose “Tank Show” was organized (equally ineptly repeated in 1991). Khrushchev's lawyers, under the leadership of the new Prosecutor General Rudenko, also a native of Ukraine, staged the trial (dramatization is still a favorite pastime of the prosecutor's office). Then the memory of all the good things that Beria did was carefully erased, and vulgar tales about a bloody executioner and a sexual maniac were put into use.

In terms of “black PR,” Khrushchev was talented. It seems that this was his only talent... And he was not a sex maniac either! The idea of ​​​​presenting Beria as a sexual maniac was first voiced at the Plenum of the Central Committee in July 1953. Secretary of the Central Committee Shatalin, who, as he claimed, searched Beria’s office, found in the safe “a large number of objects of a libertine man.” Then Beria's security guard, Sarkisov, spoke and spoke about his numerous relationships with women. Naturally, no one checked all this, but the gossip was started and went for a walk around the country. “Being a morally corrupt person, Beria cohabited with numerous women...” the investigators wrote in the “sentence.” There is also a list of these women on file. There’s just one problem: it almost completely coincides with the list of women with whom General Vlasik, Stalin’s security chief, who was arrested a year earlier, was accused of cohabiting with them. Wow, how unlucky Lavrenty Pavlovich was. There were such opportunities, but the women came exclusively from under Vlasik! And without laughing, it’s as simple as shelling pears: they took a list from Vlasik’s case and added it to the “Beria case.” Who will check? Nina Beria many years later, in one of her interviews, said a very simple phrase: “It’s an amazing thing: Lavrenty was busy day and night with work when he had to deal with a legion of these women!” Drive along the streets, take them to country villas, and even to your home, where there was a Georgian wife and a son and his family lived. However, when it comes to denigrating a dangerous enemy, who cares what really happened?”

Elena Prudnikova

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria is one of the most influential politicians of the Stalinist period, the all-powerful chief of the NKVD, whose name is associated with both the executions of representatives of the party and military elite, mass repressions, and important achievements in the field of increasing the economic potential of the country, reorganizing foreign intelligence activities, creating a domestic nuclear weapons.

By the time of Joseph Stalin’s death, he headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs (which included the MGB), taking control of the entire political and economic life of the country, and was one of the most likely contenders for the position of “Leader of the Peoples” along with Malenkov and Khrushchev).

Childhood and adolescence

The future high-ranking security official was born on March 29, 1899 into a family of peasants living in the mountain village of Merkheuli near Sukhumi. Mother Marta Vissarionovna and father Pavel Khukhaevich were descendants of Mingrelians (Georgian subethnic group). Mom was related to the main aristocratic, but bankrupt Mingrelian family of Dadiani. She had six children from a previous marriage - Kapiton, Tamara, Elena, daughter Pasha and son Noah (twins) and Luka, who were given to relatives to raise due to extreme poverty.

Lawrence's parents lived an ordinary peasant life: they were engaged in growing grapes, tobacco, and raising bees. Their common first-born, elder brother Lavrentiy, died at the age of 2, contracting smallpox. In 1905, in addition to Lavrenty, the youngest daughter Annette appeared in the family, who became deaf and mute after an illness.

Since childhood, my son was a smart boy, he showed independence and character - in any weather, for lack of shoes, he went barefoot to primary school, located three kilometers from home. Then, in an effort to learn and escape from a miserable existence, he entered the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, where during 4 years of study he showed high abilities in the natural sciences and drawing.

It was not easy for the parents to pay for their son’s life in the city; they even had to sell half of their house. The teenager also tried to earn money to the best of his ability - from the age of 12 he was engaged in tutoring.

After finishing his studies in Sukhumi in 1915, he continued his education at the Baku Secondary Mechanical and Construction School. In 1916, the young man decided to take his mother and sister to his city. He began to independently support himself and them financially, working in parallel with his studies at the oil company of the Nobel brothers. According to some reports, he also worked as a postman, delivering letters before classes. In 1919, the young man received the prestigious specialty of architect-builder.

Party activities

Beria began to engage in party work while studying in Baku - he became a member of an underground student Marxist cell, where he served as treasurer. In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. In the same year, as a trainee technician at a hydraulic engineering enterprise, he traveled to Romania.

In 1918, Lavrenty Pavlovich returned to his homeland and subsequently worked in various party and Soviet posts in Transcaucasia. In the period 1919-1921. he was a student at the Baku Polytechnic University, but was then recalled to serve in the Cheka of Azerbaijan.

Since 1931, he worked as Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, making a huge contribution to the development of the national economy of the republic. In 1938, he moved to Moscow, where he headed the State Security Directorate of the NKVD, and then the People's Commissariat itself.

While in this position, he initiated the release from prisons of persons imprisoned on false charges. In 1939, more than 11 thousand military commanders were rehabilitated. But then the arrests of the military elite continued, reducing the combat effectiveness of the army. In addition, on the eve of the Second World War, the NKVD carried out the eviction of “unreliable elements” from the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Belarus to the east of the USSR.

With the outbreak of the war, Beria joined the State Defense Committee, which had full power in the country. It was headed by Joseph Stalin, and Lavrenty Pavlovich in 1944-45. was chairman of the Operations Bureau, controlling heavy industry, coal and oil industries, and transport. He was also involved in organizing the rapid evacuation to the rear of enterprises located in the west of the country, creating roads and airfields for their work in new places in order to provide the front with everything necessary.

During wartime, he was directly involved in issues of deportation, when innocent citizens and children were resettled along with criminals. In 1941, during the Nazi offensive on Moscow, on his orders, hundreds of prisoners were shot without trial. Moreover, for all soldiers who were captured or did not want to fight, the public death penalty was applied.

In 1945, Beria led the activities of the Special Committee to create an atomic bomb, as well as the work of a network of foreign intelligence agents, thanks to which the USSR was aware of all the most important technical developments in this area of ​​US nuclear researchers. In 1949, the first domestic atomic bomb was successfully tested, and Beria received the Stalin Prize.

After the death of the “Father of Nations” in 1953, Beria headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Trying to strengthen his position in power, he initiated a series of judicial reforms, an amnesty decree that released more than one million prisoners, an end to the sensational “Doctors’ Plot,” and a ban on cruel interrogation methods.

However, at the instigation of Nikita Khrushchev, a conspiracy was organized against Lavrentiy Beria, and in June 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium, he was arrested. He was accused of treason, moral corruption and connections with foreign intelligence.

Personal life of Lavrentiy Beria

The head of state security since 1922 was married to the beautiful Nina Teymurazovna (nee Gegechkori), whose family belonged to an impoverished noble family. The couple's first child died in early childhood. In 1924, their son Sergo was born. All her life she supported and justified the activities of her husband.

In addition to her, in the last years of his life the minister had a common-law wife, at the time of their acquaintance she was still a schoolgirl, Valentina (Lalya) Drozdova, who gave birth to his daughter Marta. Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria with the daughter of the “Father of Nations” Svetlana On December 23, 1953, Lavrenty Beria was shot

According to a number of historians and the son of the disgraced head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sergo Lavrentievich, there was neither his father’s arrest in the Kremlin nor a trial. He was allegedly shot dead during an attempted takeover in their house on Malaya Nikitskaya.

Lavrentiy Beria (03/29/1899-12/23/1953) is one of the most odious personalities of the twentieth century. The political and personal life of this man is still controversial. Today no historian can unambiguously evaluate and fully understand this political and public figure. Many materials from his personal life and government activities are kept classified as “secret”. Perhaps some time will pass, and modern society will be able to give a complete and adequate answer to all questions concerning this person. It is possible that his biography will also receive a new reading. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich's pedigree and activities are well studied by historians) is an entire era in the history of the country.

Childhood and teenage years of the future politician

Who is the origin of Lavrenty Beria? His nationality on his father's side is Mingrelian. This is an ethnic group of the Georgian people. Many modern historians have disputes and questions regarding the politician’s pedigree. Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich (real name and surname - Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria) was born on March 29, 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Kutaisi province. The family of the future statesman came from poor peasants. From early childhood, Lavrentiy Beria was distinguished by an unusual zeal for knowledge, which was not at all typical for the peasantry of the 19th century. To continue his studies, the family had to sell part of their house to pay for his studies. In 1915, Beria entered the Baku Technical School, and 4 years later he graduated with honors. Meanwhile, after joining the Bolshevik faction in March 1917, he took an active part in the Russian revolution, being a secret agent of the Baku police.

First steps in big politics

The career of the young politician in the Soviet security forces began in February 1921, when the ruling Bolsheviks sent him to the Cheka of Azerbaijan. The head of the then department of the Extraordinary Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic was D. Bagirov. This leader was famous for his cruelty and mercilessness towards dissident fellow citizens. Lavrentiy Beria was engaged in bloody repressions against opponents of Bolshevik rule; even some leaders of the Caucasian Bolsheviks were very wary of his violent methods of work. Thanks to his strong character and excellent oratorical qualities as a leader, at the end of 1922 Beria was transferred to Georgia, where at that time there were big problems with the establishment of Soviet power. He took office as deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka, throwing himself into the work of combating political dissent among his fellow Georgians. Beria's influence on the political situation in the region had authoritarian significance. Not a single issue was resolved without his direct participation. The career of the young politician was successful; he ensured the defeat of the national communists of that time, who were seeking independence from the central government in Moscow.

Georgian reign period

By 1926, Lavrenty Pavlovich rose to the position of Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Georgia. In April 1927, Lavrentiy Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. Beria's competent leadership allowed him to win the favor of I.V. Stalin, a Georgian by nationality. Having expanded his influence in the party apparatus, Beria was elected in 1931 to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party. A remarkable achievement for a man of 32 years old. From now on, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, whose nationality corresponds to the state nomenklatura, will continue to ingratiate himself with Stalin. In 1935, Beria published a large treatise that greatly exaggerated the importance of Joseph Stalin in the revolutionary struggle in the Caucasus before 1917. The book was published in all major state presses, which made Beria a figure of national importance.

Accomplice of Stalin's repressions

When I.V. Stalin began his bloody political terror in the party and country from 1936 to 1938, Lavrentiy Beria was an active accomplice. In Georgia alone, thousands of innocent people died at the hands of the NKVD, and thousands more were convicted and sent to prisons and labor camps as part of Stalin's nationwide vendetta against the Soviet people. Many party leaders died during the purges. However, Lavrenty Beria, whose biography remained unblemished, came out unscathed. In 1938, Stalin rewarded him with appointment to the post of head of the NKVD. After a full-scale purge of the NKVD leadership, Beria gave key leadership positions to his associates from Georgia. Thus, he increased his political influence over the Kremlin.

Pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria

In February 1941, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria became Deputy Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and in June, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, he became a member of the Defense Committee. During the war, Beria had complete control over the production of weapons, aircraft and ships. In a word, the entire military-industrial potential of the Soviet Union was under his control. Thanks to his skillful leadership, sometimes cruel, Beria’s role in the great victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany was one of the key ones. Many prisoners in the NKVD and labor camps worked for military production. These were the realities of that time. It is difficult to say what would have happened to the country if the course of history had had a different direction.

In 1944, when the Germans were expelled from Soviet soil, Beria oversaw the case of various ethnic minorities accused of collaborating with the occupiers, including Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans. All of them were deported to Central Asia.

Management of the country's military industry

Since December 1944, Beria has been a member of the Supervisory Council for the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. To implement this project, great working and scientific potential was required. This is how the State Administration of Camps (GULAG) system was formed. A talented team of nuclear physicists was assembled. The Gulag system provided tens of thousands of workers for uranium mining and the construction of testing equipment (in Semipalatinsk, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, etc.). The NKVD provided the necessary level of security and secrecy for the project. The first tests of atomic weapons were carried out in the Semipalatinsk region in 1949.

In July 1945, Lavrenty Beria (photo on the left) was promoted to the high military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he never took part in direct military command, his role in organizing military production was a significant contribution to the final victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. This fact of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria’s personal biography is beyond doubt.

Death of the Leader of the Nations

I.V. Stalin's age is approaching 70 years. The question of the leader's successor as head of the Soviet state is increasingly becoming an issue. The most likely candidate was the head of the Leningrad party apparatus, Andrei Zhdanov. L.P. Beria and G.M. Malenkov even created an unspoken alliance to block the party growth of A.A. Zhdanov.

In January 1946, Beria resigned from his post as head of the NKVD (which was soon renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs), while maintaining overall control over national security issues, and became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The new head of the security department, S.N. Kruglov, is not Beria’s henchman. In addition, by the summer of 1946, V. Merkulov, loyal to Beria, was replaced by V. Abakumov as head of the MGB. A secret struggle for leadership in the country began. After the death of A. A. Zhdanov in 1948, the “Leningrad Case” was fabricated, as a result of which many party leaders of the northern capital were arrested and executed. In these post-war years, under the secret leadership of Beria, an active intelligence network was created in Eastern Europe.

JV Stalin died on March 5, 1953, four days after the collapse. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov's political memoirs, published in 1993, claim that Beria boasted to Molotov that he had poisoned Stalin, although no evidence was ever available to support this claim. There is evidence that for many hours after J.V. Stalin was found unconscious in his office, he was denied medical care. It is quite possible that all Soviet leaders agreed to leave the ailing Stalin, whom they feared, to certain death.

The struggle for the state throne

After the death of I.V. Stalin, Beria was appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His close ally G. M. Malenkov becomes the new Chairman of the Supreme Council and the most powerful person in the country's leadership after the death of the leader. Beria was the second powerful leader, given Malenkov's lack of real leadership qualities. He effectively becomes the power behind the throne, and ultimately the leader of the state. N. S. Khrushchev becomes Secretary of the Communist Party, whose position was considered as a less important post than the position of Chairman of the Supreme Council.

Reformer or "great schemer"

Lavrentiy Beria was at the forefront of the country's liberalization after Stalin's death. He publicly condemned the Stalinist regime and rehabilitated more than a million political prisoners. In April 1953, Beria signed a decree prohibiting the use of torture in Soviet prisons. He also signaled a more liberal policy towards non-Russian nationalities of citizens of the Soviet Union. He convinced the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the need to introduce a communist regime in East Germany, and gave rise to economic and political reforms in the country of the Soviets. There is an authoritative opinion that Beria’s entire liberal policy after Stalin’s death was an ordinary maneuver to consolidate power in the country. There is another opinion that the radical reforms proposed by L.P. Beria could speed up the processes of economic development of the Soviet Union.

Arrest and death: unanswered questions

Historical facts provide conflicting information regarding the overthrow of Beria. According to the official version, N.S. Khrushchev convened a meeting of the Presidium on June 26, 1953, where Beria was arrested. He was accused of having links with British intelligence. This was a complete surprise for him. Lavrentiy Beria briefly asked: “What’s going on, Nikita?” V. M. Molotov and other members of the Politburo also opposed Beria, and N. S. Khrushchev agreed to his arrest. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov personally escorted the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council. Some sources claim that Beria was killed on the spot, but this is incorrect. His arrest was kept a closely guarded secret until his top aides were arrested. The NKVD troops in Moscow, which were subordinate to Beria, were disarmed by regular army units. The Sovinformburo reported the truth about the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria only on July 10, 1953. He was convicted by a “special tribunal” without defense and without the right of appeal. On December 23, 1953, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was shot by verdict of the Supreme Court. Beria's death made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of relief. This meant the end of the era of repression. After all, for him (the people) Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was a bloody tyrant and despot.

Beria's wife and son were sent to labor camps, but were later released. His wife Nina died in 1991 in exile in Ukraine; his son Sergo died in October 2000, defending his father's reputation for the rest of his life.

In May 2002, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to satisfy the petition of Beria's family members for his rehabilitation. The statement was based on Russian law, which provided for the rehabilitation of victims of false political accusations. The court ruled: “L.P. Beria was the organizer of repressions against his own people, and, therefore, cannot be considered a victim.”

Loving husband and treacherous lover

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich and women is a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teymurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991). In 1924, their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent political figure Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teymurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion to her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to maintain the honor and dignity of the family. In 1990, being at a fairly advanced age, Nina Beria completely justified her husband in an interview with Western journalists. Until the end of her life, Nina Teymurazovna fought for the moral rehabilitation of her husband.

Of course, Lavrenty Beria and his women with whom he had intimate relationships gave rise to many rumors and mysteries. From the testimony of Beria’s personal guard it follows that their boss was very popular among women. One can only guess whether these were mutual feelings between a man and a woman or not.

Kremlin rapist

When Beria was interrogated, he admitted to having physical relationships with 62 women and also suffering from syphilis in 1943. This happened after the rape of a 7th grade student. According to him, he has an illegitimate child from her. There are many confirmed facts of Beria’s sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were abducted more than once. When Beria noticed a beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approached her. Showing his ID as an NKVD officer, he ordered to follow him.

Often these girls ended up in soundproof interrogation rooms at Lubyanka or in the basement of a house on Kachalova Street. Sometimes, before raping girls, Beria used sadistic methods. Among high-ranking government officials, Beria was known as a sexual predator. He kept a list of his sexual victims in a special notebook. According to the minister's domestic servants, the number of victims of the sexual predator exceeded 760 people. In 2003, the Government of the Russian Federation recognized the existence of these lists.

During a search of Beria's personal office, women's toiletries were found in the armored safes of one of the top leaders of the Soviet state. According to the inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, the following were discovered: women's silk slips, ladies' tights, children's dresses and other women's accessories. Among the state documents were letters containing love confessions. This personal correspondence was vulgar in nature. In addition to women's clothing, large quantities of items characteristic of male perverts were found. All this speaks of the sick psyche of the great leader of the state. It is quite possible that he was not alone in his sexual preferences; he was not the only one with a tarnished biography. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich was not completely unraveled either during his life or after his death) is a page in the history of long-suffering Russia, which will have to be studied for a long time.

Lavrentiy Beria (03/29/1899-12/23/1953) is one of the most odious personalities of the twentieth century. The political and personal life of this man is still controversial. Today no historian can unambiguously evaluate and fully understand this political and public figure. Many materials from his personal life and government activities are kept classified as “secret”. Perhaps some time will pass, and modern society will be able to give a complete and adequate answer to all questions concerning this person. It is possible that his biography will also receive a new reading. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich's pedigree and activities have been well studied by historians) is an entire era in the history of the country.

Childhood and teenage years of the future politician

Who is the origin of Lavrenty Beria? His nationality on his father's side is Mingrelian. This is an ethnic group of the Georgian people. Many modern historians have disputes and questions regarding the politician’s pedigree. Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich (real name and surname - Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria) was born on March 29, 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Kutaisi province. The family of the future statesman came from poor peasants. From early childhood, Lavrentiy Beria was distinguished by an unusual zeal for knowledge, which was not at all typical for the peasantry of the 19th century. To continue his studies, the family had to sell part of their house to pay for his studies. In 1915, Beria entered the Baku Technical School, and 4 years later he graduated with honors. Meanwhile, after joining the Bolshevik faction in March 1917, he took an active part in the Russian revolution, being a secret agent of the Baku police.

First steps in big politics

The career of the young politician in the Soviet security forces began in February 1921, when the ruling Bolsheviks sent him to the Cheka of Azerbaijan. The head of the then department of the Extraordinary Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic was D. Bagirov. This leader was famous for his cruelty and mercilessness towards dissident fellow citizens. Lavrentiy Beria was engaged in bloody repressions against opponents of Bolshevik rule; even some leaders of the Caucasian Bolsheviks were very wary of his violent methods of work. Thanks to his strong character and excellent oratorical qualities as a leader, at the end of 1922 Beria was transferred to Georgia, where at that time there were big problems with the establishment of Soviet power. He took office as deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka, throwing himself into the work of combating political dissent among his fellow Georgians. Beria's influence on the political situation in the region had authoritarian significance. Not a single issue was resolved without his direct participation. The career of the young politician was successful; he ensured the defeat of the national communists of that time, who were seeking independence from the central government in Moscow.

Georgian reign period

By 1926, Lavrenty Pavlovich rose to the position of Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Georgia. In April 1927, Lavrentiy Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. Beria's competent leadership allowed him to win the favor of I.V. Stalin, a Georgian by nationality. Having expanded his influence in the party apparatus, Beria was elected in 1931 to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party. A remarkable achievement for a man of 32 years old. From now on, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, whose nationality corresponds to the state nomenklatura, will continue to ingratiate himself with Stalin. In 1935, Beria published a large treatise that greatly exaggerated the importance of Joseph Stalin in the revolutionary struggle in the Caucasus before 1917. The book was published in all major state presses, which made Beria a figure of national importance.

Accomplice of Stalin's repressions

When I.V. Stalin began his bloody political terror in the party and country from 1936 to 1938, Lavrentiy Beria was an active accomplice. In Georgia alone, thousands of innocent people died at the hands of the NKVD, and thousands more were convicted and sent to prisons and labor camps as part of Stalin's nationwide vendetta against the Soviet people. Many party leaders died during the purges. However, Lavrenty Beria, whose biography remained unblemished, came out unscathed. In 1938, Stalin rewarded him with appointment to the post of head of the NKVD. After a full-scale purge of the NKVD leadership, Beria gave key leadership positions to his associates from Georgia. Thus, he increased his political influence over the Kremlin.

Pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria

In February 1941, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria became Deputy Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and in June, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, he became a member of the Defense Committee. During the war, Beria had complete control over the production of weapons, aircraft and ships. In a word, the entire military-industrial potential of the Soviet Union was under his control. Thanks to his skillful leadership, sometimes cruel, Beria’s role in the great victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany was one of the key ones. Many prisoners in the NKVD and labor camps worked for military production. These were the realities of that time. It is difficult to say what would have happened to the country if the course of history had had a different direction.

In 1944, when the Germans were expelled from Soviet soil, Beria oversaw the case of various ethnic minorities accused of collaborating with the occupiers, including Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans. All of them were deported to Central Asia.

Management of the country's military industry

Since December 1944, Beria has been a member of the Supervisory Council for the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. To implement this project, great working and scientific potential was required. This is how the State Administration of Camps (GULAG) system was formed. A talented team of nuclear physicists was assembled. The Gulag system provided tens of thousands of workers for uranium mining and the construction of testing equipment (in Semipalatinsk, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, etc.). The NKVD provided the necessary level of security and secrecy for the project. The first tests of atomic weapons were carried out in the Semipalatinsk region in 1949. In July 1945, Lavrenty Beria (photo on the left) was promoted to the high military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he never took part in direct military command, his role in organizing military production was a significant contribution to the final victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. This fact of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria’s personal biography is beyond doubt.

Death of the Leader of the Nations

I.V. Stalin's age is approaching 70 years. The question of the leader's successor as head of the Soviet state is increasingly becoming an issue. The most likely candidate was the head of the Leningrad party apparatus, Andrei Zhdanov. L.P. Beria and G.M. Malenkov even created an unspoken alliance to block the party growth of A.A. Zhdanov. In January 1946, Beria resigned from his post as head of the NKVD (which was soon renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs), while maintaining overall control over national security issues, and became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The new head of the security department, S.N. Kruglov, is not Beria’s henchman. In addition, by the summer of 1946, V. Merkulov, loyal to Beria, was replaced by V. Abakumov as head of the MGB. A secret struggle for leadership in the country began. After the death of A. A. Zhdanov in 1948, the “Leningrad Case” was fabricated, as a result of which many party leaders of the northern capital were arrested and executed. In these post-war years, under the secret leadership of Beria, an active intelligence network was created in Eastern Europe.

JV Stalin died on March 5, 1953, four days after the collapse. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov's political memoirs, published in 1993, claim that Beria boasted to Molotov that he had poisoned Stalin, although no evidence was ever available to support this claim. There is evidence that for many hours after J.V. Stalin was found unconscious in his office, he was denied medical care. It is quite possible that all Soviet leaders agreed to leave the ailing Stalin, whom they feared, to certain death.

The struggle for the state throne

After the death of I.V. Stalin, Beria was appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His close ally G. M. Malenkov becomes the new Chairman of the Supreme Council and the most powerful person in the country's leadership after the death of the leader. Beria was the second powerful leader, given Malenkov's lack of real leadership qualities. He effectively becomes the power behind the throne, and ultimately the leader of the state. N. S. Khrushchev becomes Secretary of the Communist Party, whose position was considered as a less important post than the position of Chairman of the Supreme Council.

Reformer or "great schemer"

Lavrentiy Beria was at the forefront of the country's liberalization after Stalin's death. He publicly condemned the Stalinist regime and rehabilitated more than a million political prisoners. In April 1953, Beria signed a decree prohibiting the use of torture in Soviet prisons. He also signaled a more liberal policy towards non-Russian nationalities of citizens of the Soviet Union. He convinced the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the need to introduce a communist regime in East Germany, and gave rise to economic and political reforms in the country of the Soviets. There is an authoritative opinion that Beria’s entire liberal policy after Stalin’s death was an ordinary maneuver to consolidate power in the country. There is another opinion that the radical reforms proposed by L.P. Beria could speed up the processes of economic development of the Soviet Union.

Arrest and death: unanswered questions

Historical facts provide conflicting information regarding the overthrow of Beria. According to the official version, N.S. Khrushchev convened a meeting of the Presidium on June 26, 1953, where Beria was arrested. He was accused of having links with British intelligence. This was a complete surprise for him. Lavrentiy Beria briefly asked: “What’s going on, Nikita?” V. M. Molotov and other members of the Politburo also opposed Beria, and N. S. Khrushchev agreed to his arrest. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov personally escorted the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council. Some sources claim that Beria was killed on the spot, but this is incorrect. His arrest was kept a closely guarded secret until his top aides were arrested. The NKVD troops in Moscow, which were subordinate to Beria, were disarmed by regular army units.

The Sovinformburo reported the truth about the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria only on July 10, 1953. He was convicted by a “special tribunal” without defense and without the right of appeal. On December 23, 1953, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was shot by verdict of the Supreme Court. Beria's death made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of relief. This meant the end of the era of repression. After all, for him (the people) Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was a bloody tyrant and despot. Beria's wife and son were sent to labor camps, but were later released. His wife Nina died in 1991 in exile in Ukraine; his son Sergo died in October 2000, defending his father's reputation for the rest of his life. In May 2002, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to satisfy the petition of Beria's family members for his rehabilitation. The statement was based on Russian law, which provided for the rehabilitation of victims of false political accusations. The court ruled: “L.P. Beria was the organizer of repressions against his own people, and, therefore, cannot be considered a victim.”

Loving husband and treacherous lover

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich and women is a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teymurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991). In 1924, their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent political figure Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teymurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion to her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to maintain the honor and dignity of the family. In 1990, being at a fairly advanced age, Nina Beria completely justified her husband in an interview with Western journalists. Until the end of her life, Nina Teymurazovna fought for the moral rehabilitation of her husband. Of course, Lavrenty Beria and his women with whom he had intimate relationships gave rise to many rumors and mysteries. From the testimony of Beria’s personal guard it follows that their boss was very popular among women. One can only guess whether these were mutual feelings between a man and a woman or not.

Kremlin rapist

When Beria was interrogated, he admitted to having physical relationships with 62 women and also suffering from syphilis in 1943. This happened after the rape of a 7th grade student. According to him, he has an illegitimate child from her. There are many confirmed facts of Beria’s sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were abducted more than once. When Beria noticed a beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approached her. Showing his ID as an NKVD officer, he ordered to follow him. Often these girls ended up in soundproof interrogation rooms at Lubyanka or in the basement of a house on Kachalova Street. Sometimes, before raping girls, Beria used sadistic methods. Among high-ranking government officials, Beria was known as a sexual predator. He kept a list of his sexual victims in a special notebook. According to the minister's domestic servants, the number of victims of the sexual predator exceeded 760 people. In 2003, the Government of the Russian Federation recognized the existence of these lists. During a search of Beria's personal office, women's toiletries were found in the armored safes of one of the top leaders of the Soviet state. According to the inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, the following were discovered: women's silk slips, ladies' tights, children's dresses and other women's accessories. Among the state documents were letters containing love confessions. This personal correspondence was vulgar in nature.

In addition to women's clothing, large quantities of items characteristic of male perverts were found. All this speaks of the sick psyche of the great leader of the state. It is quite possible that he was not alone in his sexual preferences; he was not the only one with a tarnished biography. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich was not completely unraveled either during his life or after his death) is a page in the history of long-suffering Russia, which will have to be studied for a long time.