Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) - a prominent statesman and political figure of the USSR of the Stalinist period. AT last years Stalin's life was the second person in the state. Especially his authority increased after a successful test atomic bomb August 29, 1949. This project was supervised directly by Lavrenty Pavlovich. He assembled a very strong team of scientists, provided them with everything they needed, and in the shortest possible time a weapon of incredible power was created.
Lavrenty Beria
However, after the death of the leader of the peoples, the career of the powerful Lawrence also ended. The entire leadership of the Leninist party came out against him. Beria was arrested on June 26, 1953, accused of high treason, tried and shot on December 23 of the same year by court order. This is the official version of those distant historical events. That is, there were arrest, trial and execution of the sentence.
But in our days, the opinion has become stronger that there was no arrest and trial. All this for the broad masses of the people and Western journalists was invented by the leaders of the Soviet state. In reality, Beria's death was the result of a banal murder. The mighty Lawrence was shot by the generals Soviet army, and they did it completely unexpectedly for their victim. The body of the murdered was destroyed, and only then was the arrest and trial announced. As for the proceedings, they were fabricated at the highest state level.
However, one should not forget that such a statement requires proof. And those can be obtained only by making sure that the official version consists of continuous inaccuracies and flaws. So let's start with a question: at a meeting of which authority Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was arrested?
Khrushchev, Molotov, Kaganovich at first told everyone that Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee. However, then smart people explained to the leaders of the state that they confessed to the crime under Art. 115 of the Criminal Code - Illegal detention. The Presidium of the Central Committee is the highest party body and it does not have the authority to detain the first deputy of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, appointed to the post by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Therefore, when Khrushchev dictated his memoirs, he stated that the arrest was made at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, where all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were invited. That is, Beria was arrested not by the party, but by the government. But the whole paradox lies in the fact that none of the members of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers mentioned such a meeting in their memoirs.
Zhukov and Khrushchev
Now let's find out: which of the military arrested Lawrence, and who commanded these military? Marshal Zhukov said that it was he who led the capture group. Colonel-General Moskalenko was given to help him. And the latter stated that it was he who commanded the detention, and took Zhukov for the quantity. All this sounds strange, since the military is initially clear who gives commands and who executes them.
Further, Zhukov said that he received the order to arrest Beria from Khrushchev. But then he was told that in this case he had encroached on the freedom of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers on the orders of the Secretary of the Central Committee. Therefore, in subsequent memoirs, Zhukov began to assert that he received the order for arrest from the head of the government, Malenkov.
But Moskalenko recounted those events differently. According to him, the task was received from Khrushchev, and the Minister of Defense Bulganin conducted the briefing. He himself received the order from Malenkov personally. At the same time, the head of government was accompanied by Bulganin, Molotov and Khrushchev. They left the meeting room of the Presidium of the Central Committee to Moskalenko and his capture group. It should be said that already on August 3, Colonel General Moskalenko was awarded the next rank of Army General, and in March 1955 the rank of Marshal Soviet Union. And before that, since 1943, for 10 years, he wore three general stars on his shoulder straps.
A military career is good, but who to trust, Zhukov or Moskalenko? That is, there is discord - one says one thing, and the other says something completely different. Maybe, after all, Moskalenko commanded the detention of Beria? It is believed that he received the highest ranks not for the arrest, but for the murder of Beria. It was the Colonel General who shot Lavrenty, and he did this not after the trial, but on June 26, 1953, on the basis of an oral order from Malenkov, Khrushchev and Bulganin. That is, Beria's death occurred in the summer, and not in the last ten days of December.
But back to official version and ask: did they give Lavrenty Palych the floor to explain before arrest? Khrushchev wrote that Beria was not given a word. First, all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee spoke, and after that Malenkov immediately pressed the button and called the military into the meeting room. But Molotov and Kaganovich argued that Lavrenty made excuses and denied all charges. But what exactly the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers said, they did not report. By the way, for some reason the minutes of this meeting have not been preserved. Maybe because there was no such meeting at all.
Where the military was waiting for the signal to arrest Beria? Khrushchev and Zhukov said that the meeting itself took place in Stalin's former office. But the capture group was waiting in the room for Poskrebyshev's assistant. From it there was a door directly into the office, bypassing the reception room. Moskalenko, on the other hand, stated that he was waiting with the generals and officers in the waiting room, while Beria's guards were nearby.
How the signal was given to the military to arrest Lawrence? According to Zhukov's memoirs, Malenkov gave two calls to Poskrebyshev's office. But Moskalenko says something completely different. Malenkov's assistant Sukhanov gave the agreed signal to his capture group. Immediately after that, five armed generals and a sixth unarmed Zhukov (he never carried a weapon) entered the meeting room.
Marshal Moskalenko, fourth from right
When was Beria's arrest made?? Moskalenko stated that his group arrived in the Kremlin at 11 o'clock on June 26, 1953. At 13 o'clock the signal was received. Marshal Zhukov claimed that the first bell rang at one o'clock in the afternoon, and a second bell sounded a little later. Malenkov's assistant Sukhanov gives a completely different chronology of those events. According to him, the meeting began at 2 pm, and the military waited for the agreed signal for about two hours.
Where was the arrest of Lavrenty Pavlovich? Eyewitnesses identified this place more or less the same. They arrested the debunked Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers right at the table of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Zhukov recalled: “I approached Beria from behind and commanded:“ Get up! You are under arrest." He began to rise, and I immediately twisted his hands behind his back, lifted him up and shook him in such a way". Moskalenko stated his version: “ We entered the meeting room and pulled out our weapons. I went straight to Beria and ordered him to put his hands up.».
But Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev sets out these historical events in your own way: They gave me the floor, and I openly accused Beria of state crimes. He quickly realized the degree of danger and extended his hand to the briefcase lying in front of him on the table. At that very moment, I grabbed the briefcase and said: “Now, Lavrenty!” There was a pistol there. After that, Malenkov proposed to discuss everything at the Plenum. Those present agreed and went to the exit. Lavrenty was detained at the door as he left the meeting room».
How and where was Lavrenty taken away after his arrest? Here again we will get acquainted with the memoirs of Moskalenko: “ The arrested person was kept under guard in one of the rooms of the Kremlin. On the night of June 26-27, to the headquarters of the Moscow Air Defense District on the street. Five ZIS-110 passenger cars were sent to Kirov. They took 30 communist officers from headquarters and brought them to the Kremlin. These people replaced the guards inside the building. After that, surrounded by guards, Beria was taken outside and seated in one of the ZISs. Batitsky, Yuferev, Zub and Baksov sat with him. I sat in the same car in the front seat. Accompanied by another car, we drove through the Spassky Gate to the garrison guardhouse in Moscow».
From the above official information, it follows that Beria's death could not have occurred during his detention. Justice was done after the trial on December 23, 1953. The sentence was carried out by Colonel-General Batitsky. It was he who shot Lavrenty Pavlovich, putting a bullet in his forehead. That is, there was no firing squad. Attorney General Rudenko read out the verdict in the bunker of the MVO headquarters, Lavrenty was tied with a rope, tied to a bullet trap, and Batitsky fired.
Everything seems to be normal, but something else confuses - was there a trial of the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers? According to official data, on June 26, 1953, the arrest took place. From July 2 to July 7, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU was held, dedicated to the anti-state activities of Beria. Malenkov was the first to speak with the main accusations, then 24 people spoke about less significant atrocities. In conclusion, a Resolution of the Plenum was adopted, condemning the activities of Lavrenty Pavlovich.
After that, an investigation began under the personal supervision of the Prosecutor General Rudenko. As a result investigative actions the “Beria case” appeared, consisting of many volumes. Everything seems to be fine, but there is one caveat. None of the officials could name exact amount volumes. For example, Moskalenko said that there were exactly 40 of them. Other people named about 40 volumes, more than 40 volumes, and even 50 volumes of the criminal case. That is, no one ever knew their exact number.
But maybe the volumes are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Security? If so, then they can be viewed and recalculated. No, they are not archived. And where, then, are these ill-fated volumes located? Nobody can answer this question. That is, there is no case, and since it is absent, then what kind of court can we talk about at all. However, officially the trial lasted 8 days from 16 to 23 December.
Marshal Konev presided over it. The court was composed of Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Shvernik, First Deputy Chairman Supreme Court USSR Zeydin, General of the Army Moskalenko, First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the CPSU Mikhailov, Chairman of the SPS of Georgia Kuchava, Chairman of the Moscow City Court Gromov, First Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Lunev. All of them were worthy people and selflessly devoted to the party.
However, it is noteworthy that they later recalled the trial of Beria and his associates in the amount of six people extremely reluctantly. Here is what he wrote about the 8-day trial of Moskalenko: “ After 6 months, the investigation was completed and a trial took place, which became known to Soviet citizens from the press.". And that's it, not a word more, but Moskalenko's memoirs are even thicker than those of Zhukov.
Other members of the court turned out to be just as untalkative. But after all, they took part in a process that became one of the most important events in their lives. It was possible to write thick books about him and become famous, but for some reason the members of the court got off with only mean general phrases. Here, for example, is what Kuchava wrote: At the trial, a disgusting monstrous picture of intrigue, blackmail, slander, mockery of human dignity was revealed. Soviet people ". And that's all he could say about 8 days of endless court hearings.
On the left, Marshal Batitsky
And who guarded Lavrenty Pavlovich when the investigation was going on? Such was Major Khizhnyak, the commandant of the air defense headquarters in Moscow. He was the only guard and escort. Subsequently, he recalled: I was with Beria all the time. He brought food to him, took him to the bathhouse, carried guards at the court. The trial itself lasted over a month. Every day except Saturday and Sunday. Meetings were held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a break for lunch.". These are the memories - more than a month, and not 8 days at all. Who is telling the truth and who is lying?
Based on the foregoing, the conclusion suggests itself that there was no trial at all. There was no one to judge, since Beria's death occurred on June 25 or 26, 1953. He was killed either own house, where he lived with his family, or at a military facility, to which the generals lured the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The body was removed from the crime scene and destroyed. And all other events can be called in one word - falsification. As for the reason for the murder, it is as old as the world - the struggle for power.
Immediately after the destruction of Lavrenty, his closest associates were arrested: Kobulov Bogdan Zakharyevich (b. 1904), Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich (b. 1895), Dekanozov Vladimir Georgievich (b. 1898), Meshikov Pavel Yakovlevich (b. 1910) b.), Vlodzimirsky Lev Emelyanovich (b. 1902), Goglidze Sergey Arsentievich (b. 1901). These people were kept in prison until December 1953. The trial itself took place in one day.
Members of the court gathered together and took pictures. Then the six accused were brought in. Konev announced that due to the illness of the main accused, Beria, the trial would take place without him. After that, the judges held a formal hearing, sentenced the defendants to death and signed the verdict. He was executed immediately, and everything that concerned Lavrenty Pavlovich was falsified. Thus ended those distant events, the main character of which was not Beria at all, but only his name.
Lavrenty Beria is one of the most odious well-known politicians of the 20th century, whose activities are still widely discussed in modern society. He was an extremely controversial personality in the history of the USSR and went through a long political path, full of gigantic repressions of people and boundless crimes that made him the most outstanding "functional death" in Soviet times. The head of the NKVD was a cunning and treacherous politician, on whose decisions the fate of entire nations depended. Beria carried out his activities under the auspices of the then head of the USSR, after whose death he intended to take his place at the "helm" of the country. But he lost in the struggle for power and, by a court decision, was shot as a traitor to the Motherland.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born on March 29, 1899 in the Abkhazian village of Merkheuli in the family of poor Mengrel peasants Pavel Beria and Marta Jakeli. He was the third and only healthy child in the family - the elder brother of the future politician died of an illness at the age of two, and his sister suffered a serious illness and became deaf and dumb. From childhood, young Lavrenty showed great interest in education and a zeal for knowledge, which was not typical for peasant children. At the same time, the parents decided to give their son a chance to become educated, for which they had to sell half the house in order to pay for the boy's studies at the Sukhumi Higher Primary School.
Beria fully justified the hopes of his parents and proved that the money was not spent in vain - in 1915 he graduated from college with honors and entered the Baku Secondary Construction School. Having become a student, he moved his deaf-mute sister and mother to Baku, and in order to support them, along with his studies, he worked in the Nobel oil company. In 1919, Lavrenty Pavlovich received a diploma as a technician-builder-architect.
During his studies, Beria organized a Bolshevik faction, in whose ranks he took an active part in the Russian revolution of 1917, while working as a clerk at the Baku plant "Caspian Partnership White City". He also led the illegal communist party of technicians, with whose members he organized an armed uprising against the government of Georgia, for which he was imprisoned.
In the middle of 1920, Beria was expelled from Georgia to Azerbaijan. But literally after a short period of time, he was able to return to Baku, where he was assigned to do Chekist work, which made him an undercover agent of the Baku police. Even then, colleagues of the future head of the NKVD of the USSR noticed in him rigidity and ruthlessness towards people who thought differently from him, which allowed Lavrenty Pavlovich to rapidly develop his career, starting with the deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka and ending with the position People's Commissar Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR.
Politics
In the late 1920s, the biography of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was concentrated on party work. It was then that he managed to get acquainted with the head of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, who saw his comrade-in-arms in the revolutionary and showed him a visible favor, which many associate with the fact that they were of the same nationality. In 1931, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Georgia, and already in 1935 he was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee and the Presidium of the USSR. In 1937, the politician reached another high step on the path to power and became the head of the Tbilisi city committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. Becoming the leader of the Bolsheviks in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Beria won the recognition of the people and associates, who at the end of each congress glorified him, calling him "the beloved Stalinist leader."
At that time, Lavrenty Beria managed to develop the national economy of Georgia to a large scale, he made a great contribution to the development oil industry and commissioned many large industrial facilities, and transformed Georgia into an all-Union resort area. Under Beria Agriculture Georgia in terms of volume increased by 2.5 times, and for products (tangerines, grapes, tea) high prices which made the Georgian economy the most prosperous in the country.
The real fame came to Lavrenty Beria in 1938, when Stalin appointed him head of the NKVD, which made the politician the second person in the country after the head. Historians argue that the politician deserved such a high post thanks to the active support of the Stalinist repressions of 1936-38, when the Great Terror took place in the country, providing for a “cleansing” of the country from “enemies of the people”. In those years, almost 700 thousand people lost their lives, who were subjected to political persecution due to disagreement with the current government.
Head of the NKVD
Having become the head of the NKVD of the USSR, Lavrenty Beria distributed leadership positions in the department to his associates from Georgia, which increased his influence on the Kremlin and Stalin. In his new post, he immediately carried out a large-scale repression of the former Chekists and carried out a total purge in the country's leading apparatus, becoming Stalin's "right hand" in all matters.
At the same time, it was Beria, according to most historical experts, who was able to put an end to large-scale Stalinist repressions, as well as to release from custody many military and civil servants who were recognized as "unreasonably convicted". Thanks to such actions, Beria gained a reputation as a man who restored "legality" in the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, Beria became a member of the State Defense Committee, in which at that time all power in the country was localized. Only he made the final decisions on the production of weapons, aircraft, mortars, engines, as well as on the formation and deployment of air regiments at the front. Responsible for the "military spirit" of the Red Army, Lavrenty Pavlovich launched the so-called "weapon of fear", resuming mass arrests and public executions for all soldiers and spies who were captured who did not want to fight. Historians attribute the victory in the Second World War to a greater extent with the tough policy of the head of the NKVD, in whose hands the entire military-industrial potential of the country was.
After the war, Beria took up the development of the nuclear potential of the USSR, but at the same time continued to carry out mass repressions by proxy in the allied countries of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, where most of the male population was imprisoned in concentration camps and colonies (GULAG). It was these prisoners who were involved in military production, carried out under the conditions of a strict secrecy regime, which was provided by the NKVD.
With the help of a team of nuclear physicists led by Beria and the well-coordinated work of intelligence officers, Moscow received clear instructions on how to build an atomic bomb created in the United States. The first successful test of nuclear weapons in the USSR was carried out in 1949 in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, for which Lavrenty Pavlovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.
In 1946, Beria fell into Stalin's "inner circle" and became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. A little later, the head of the USSR saw him as the main competitor, so Iosif Vissarionovich began to carry out a “cleansing” in Georgia and check the documents of Lavrenty Pavlovich, which complicated relations between them. In this regard, by the time of Stalin's death, Beria and several of his allies had created an unspoken alliance aimed at changing some of the foundations of Stalin's rule.
He tried to strengthen his position in power by signing a series of decrees aimed at introducing judicial reforms, a global amnesty and a ban on harsh interrogation methods with episodes of abuse of prisoners. By doing so, he intended to create for himself a new cult of personality, opposed to the Stalinist dictatorship. But, since he had practically no allies in the government, after the death of Stalin, a conspiracy was organized against Beria, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.
In July 1953, Lavrenty Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium. He was accused of links with British intelligence and treason. It became one of the most high-profile cases in the history of Russia among members of the highest echelon of power in the Soviet state.
Death
The trial of Lavrenty Beria took place from December 18 to 23, 1953. He was convicted by a "special tribunal" without the right to defense and appeal. Specific accusations in the case of the former head of the NKVD were a number of illegal murders, espionage for Great Britain, repressions in 1937, rapprochement with, treason.
On December 23, 1953, Beria was shot by decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. After the execution, the body of Lavrenty Pavlovich was burned in the Donskoy crematorium, and the ashes of the revolutionary were buried in the New Donskoy cemetery.
According to historians, the death of Beria allowed the entire Soviet people to breathe a sigh of relief, which until last day considered the politician a bloody dictator and tyrant. And in modern society, he is accused of mass repression of more than 200 thousand people, including a number of Russian scientists and prominent intellectuals of that time. Lavrenty Pavlovich is also credited with a number of orders for the execution of Soviet soldiers, which during the war years was only in the hands of the enemies of the USSR.
In 1941, the former head of the NKVD carried out the "extermination" of all anti-Soviet figures, as a result of which thousands of people died, including women and children. During the war years, he carried out a total deportation of the peoples of Crimea and North Caucasus, the scale of which reached a million people. That is why Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria became the most controversial political figure in the USSR, in whose hands was power over the fate of the people.
Personal life
The personal life of Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich is still a separate topic that requires serious study. He was officially married to Nina Gegechkori, who bore him a son in 1924. The wife of the ex-head of the NKVD throughout her life supported her husband in his difficult activities and was his most devoted friend, whom she tried to justify even after his death.
Throughout his political activities at the heights of power, Lavrenty Pavlovich was known as a "Kremlin rapist" with an unbridled passion for the fair sex. Beria and his women are still considered the most mysterious part of the life of a prominent political figure. There is information that in recent years he lived in two families - his common-law wife was Lyalya Drozdova, who gave birth to his illegitimate daughter Marta.
At the same time, historians do not exclude that Beria had a sick mind and was a pervert. This is confirmed by the "lists of sexual victims" of the politician, the presence of which in 2003 was recognized in the Russian Federation. It is reported that the number of victims of the maniac Beria is more than 750 girls and girls whom he raped using sadistic methods.
Historians say that very often schoolgirls aged 14-15 were subjected to sexual harassment by the head of the NKVD, whom he imprisoned in soundproof interrogation rooms in the Lubyanka, where he plunged them into sexual perversion. During interrogations, Beria admitted that he had physical sexual relations with 62 women, and since 1943 he suffered from syphilis, which he contracted from a seventh grader from one of the schools near Moscow. Also, during the search, items of lingerie and children's dresses were found in his safe, which were stored next to items characteristic of perverts.
BERIA LAVRENTY PAVLOVICH - Soviet party and statesman, head of state security agencies.
Beria was born into a poor peasant family, his parents - Pavel Khukhaevich Beria (1872-1922) and Marta Dzhakeli (1868-1955) - Mingrelians. In 1906, he entered the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, where he studied for nine years and graduated with honors in 1915. He received a certificate from Beria, who showed a clear inclination to continue his studies, moved from Sukhum to the provincial center of Baku, and was enrolled in the local secondary school of mechanics and construction. During his studies, he became actively interested in Marxism and soon became a member of the illegal Marxist circle operating at the school and became its treasurer. Beria graduated from the school in 1919 as a civil engineer. Later he tried several times to get higher education, especially since his school turned into the Baku Polytechnic Institute, but in the early 1920s he was already completely absorbed in party and Chekist work and managed to complete only three courses, after which he dropped out.
Revolution and civil war
Shortly after the February Revolution in March 1917, Beria - according to official figures - joined the RSDLP (b) and organized a local Bolshevik cell in Baku. Then, in June 1917, he was drafted into the army and served for six months as a trainee technician in a hydraulic engineering detachment on the Romanian front. After the October Revolution, the proven Bolshevik was sent back to Baku, and in January 1918 he received a position in the secretariat of the Baku Soviet.
After Baku was occupied by units of the Caucasian Islamic Army controlled by the Turks in October 1918, Beria remained in the city - according to his official biography, on the instructions of the party. He got a job at an oil-industrial and trading plant. joint-stock company"Caspian partnership" as a clerk, and already in February 1919 he headed the underground cell of the RCP (b) in Baku. During this period, in the fall of 1919, Beria became an agent of the Organization for the Fight against Counter-Revolution under the State Defense Committee of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, i.e. Musavat counterintelligence. Later, he will be accused of collaborating with the secret services, but he will be able to prove that he went to cooperate with counterintelligence on the direct instructions of the leadership of the Gummet Social Democratic Party.
In March 1920, Beria left his job in counterintelligence and got a job at the Baku customs, and the next month the 11th Red Army of the Caucasian Front entered Baku, where the creation of the Azerbaijan SSR was proclaimed. Berlia, in the same month, was appointed authorized by the Caucasian Regional Committee of the RCP (b) and the registration department at the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army and sent to underground work in Georgia. As an underground worker, Beria did not manage to show himself too much: he was soon arrested by the Georgian authorities, and although he was released, he was ordered to leave Georgia within 3 days. However, he remained and under the name Lakerbaya was hired at the embassy of the RSFSR in Tbilisi. In May, he was again arrested and now ended up in the Kutaisi prison. In the end, S.M. Kirov, who these days was the plenipotentiary in Georgia, categorically demanded on July 9 that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia release several imprisoned communists, incl. and Beria, actually threatening open conflicts. The Georgian Mensheviks were not ready for the aggravation of relations with the RSFSR and soon Beria was sent to Azerbaijan .
In leadership work in the Transcaucasus
Upon his return to Baku in August 1920, he was appointed to a rather influential post of manager of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Azerbaijan, and from October 1920 to February 1921 he was the executive secretary of the Extraordinary Commission for the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the improvement of the life of workers in Baku. In this post, he got acquainted with the work of the special services and in April 1921 was transferred to the organs of the Cheka as deputy head of the Secret Operations Department of the Azerbaijan Cheka; here he ran into the head of the Central Committee, M.D. Bagirov, who at this stage constantly supported Beria and did a lot for his successful career (later Beria would support and promote Bagirov). In May 1921, Beria was promoted to deputy chairman of the AzChK and head of the Secret Operational Unit.
In November 1922, Beria was sent to Georgia, which had recently been transformed into the Georgian SSR, as head of the Secret Operational Unit and deputy chairman of the GruzChK (in March 1926, transformed into the GPU of the GruzSSR). From December 2, 1926 to December 3, 1931, Berlia served as chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR. At the same time, he held a number of influential positions, concentrating great power in his hands: Deputy Plenipotentiary of the OGPU in the ZSFSR, Deputy Chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU, Head of the Secret Operational Directorate of the OGPU Embassy in the ZSFSR (December 2, 1926 - April 17, 1931), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs GruzSSR (April 4, 1927 - December 1930), head of the Special Department of the OGPU of the Caucasian Red Banner Army and plenipotentiary of the OGPU in the ZSFSR - chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU (April 17 - December 3, 1931), member of the Collegium of the OGPU of the USSR (August 18 - December 3, 1931 ).
At the end of 1931, Beria's career switched to new level: on the recommendation of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, on October 31 he was elected 2nd Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, and on November 14 he also became the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks), and in May 1937 also the 1st Secretary of the Tbilisi City Committee parties. Moreover, from October 17, 1932 to December 5, 1936. Beria was simultaneously the 1st secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the CPSU (b). In the summer of 1933, when I.V. Stalin was assassinated, Beria covered him with his body (the assassin was killed on the spot and this story has not been fully disclosed, according to a number of researchers - the assassination was organized by Beria himself. In February 1934, Beria was elected a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks). wide popularity after the publication in 1935 under his name of the book “On the History of the Bolshevik Organizations in Transcaucasia” (the authors were a group headed by M.G. Toroshelidze, which included E. Bediya, P.I. Sharia, etc.) , where the role of I.V. Stalin in the revolutionary movement was exaggerated many times over.In early March 1935, Beria was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, and then a member of its Presidium (in January 1938, he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
As the head of the party organization of Georgia and Transcaucasia, Berlia became one of the leaders of the campaign of mass purges in Georgia (the NKVD Directorate for the Georgian SSR, and then the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR was his protege and confidant S.A. Goglidze). He also participated in the deployment of a company of repressions in neighboring republics: in September 1937, he was sent to Armenia to "cleanse" the republican party organization. Speaking at the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia (June 1937), Beria said: “Let the enemies know that anyone who tries to raise his hand against the will of our people, against the will of the party of Lenin - Stalin - will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.”
Head of the NKVD
On August 22, 1938, Beria was appointed 1st Deputy Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N.I. Yezhov. Formally, this was a serious downgrade, but it was immediately clear that it was his I.V. Stalin intended to replace the "iron people's commissar", who had already done his job - he carried out the most widespread purge of the party and Soviet apparatus. At the same time, on September 8-29, Beria headed the 1st Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, and from September 29, the most important Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) in the NKVD of the USSR.
On November 25, 1938, Beria replaced Yezhov as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, for the first time retaining the direct leadership of the GUGB, which he handed over to his nominee V.N. Merkulov. Almost half updated the NKVD apparatus, replacing Yezhov’s associates with people personally obliged to himself, people whom he brought with him from Transcaucasia were appointed to the highest posts in the NKVD: Merkulov, Goglidze, V.G. Dekanozov, B.Z. Kobulov and others. For propaganda purposes, he carried out the release of part of the "unreasonably convicted" from the camps: in 1939, 223.6 thousand people were released from the camps, 103.8 thousand people from the colonies; up to 200 thousand people were arrested at the same time, not counting those deported from the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine. At the insistence of Beria, the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar to issue extrajudicial sentences were expanded. Under Beria, on January 10, 1939, the leaders of party organizations and the local internal affairs body were informed by I.V. Stalin on the legality of the use of torture (practiced since 1937): “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union considers that the method of physical influence must continue to be used, as an exception, against obvious and unarmed enemies of the people, as an absolutely correct and expedient method.”
On March 22, 1939, Beria became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. As the head of the NKVD and a member of the highest party body, he was responsible for organizing the mass extermination of captured Poles in Katyn (1940). On February 3, 1941, Beria, without leaving the post of people's commissar, became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (since March 15, 1946 - the Council of Ministers of the USSR), but at the same time, the state security bodies, which constituted an independent people's commissariat, were removed from his subordination.
War and post-war period
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War The NKVD and the NKGB were again united under the leadership of Beria, and on June 30, 1941, he himself became a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR. Through the GKO, Beria was entrusted with control over the production of weapons, ammunition and mortars, and also (together with G. M. Malenkov) for the production of aircraft and aircraft engines. On October 16, 1941, on the personal order of Beria, 138 prisoners (who previously held high positions) were shot in the country's prisons without even the appearance of a court, and then several hundred more.
Since December 1942, he was instructed to exercise supreme control over the work of the People's Commissariats of the coal industry and communications. On May 16, 1944, Beria also became deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee of the USSR and chairman of the Operations Bureau (he was a member of this bureau on December 8, 1942). Under his control were put all the people's commissariats of the defense industry, railway and water transport, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, coal, oil, chemical, rubber, paper and pulp, electrical industry, power plants.
Beria was entrusted with the development, preparation and implementation of operations to evict the peoples of the North Caucasus, as well as Meskhetian Turks, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans, Kurds, Khemshins, etc. He personally led operations to deport Chechens and Ingush (February 1944), and then Balkars (March 1944).
On December 3, 1944, Beria was entrusted with "monitoring the development of work on uranium" ("nuclear project"). After the end of the war, Beria, in whose hands the leadership of many departments was concentrated, on December 29, 1945, he left the post of minister, transferring it to S.N. Kruglov. From August 20, 1945 to June 26, 1953, he also headed the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee (then under the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Ministers) and the State Committee No. 1. Under the leadership and with the direct participation of Beria, the first atomic bomb in the USSR was created (tested on August 29, 1949 years), after which some began to call him "the father of the Soviet atomic bomb." Being a successful organizer, he managed, using incl. and methods of coercion, to form a system of research centers where serious discoveries were made that laid the foundation for the military power of the USSR. On March 18, 1946, Beria became a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
At the 19th Congress, when the CPSU (b) was renamed the CPSU, on October 16, 1952, Beria was elected a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and a member of its Bureau. After the party congress, at the suggestion of Stalin, a "leading five" was created as part of the Presidium, which included Beria. At the same time, Stalin took a number of measures directed against Beria: the leadership of control over the state security agencies was transferred to the proteges of G.M. Malenkov, the Mingrelian case was initiated against Beria. According to Khrushchev's memoirs, “He was a smart man, very quick-witted. He responded quickly to everything."
Death of Stalin
After the death of I.V. Stalin, Beria took a leading position in the Soviet party hierarchy, on March 5, 1953, he became the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in addition, he personally stood at the head of the new Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which was created on the same day by combining the old Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. On his initiative, an amnesty was announced in the country on May 9, according to which 1.2 million people were released, several high-profile cases were closed (including the "doctors' case"), and investigation cases for 400,000 people were closed. Bearia advocated a reduction in military spending, for freezing expensive construction projects (including the Main Turkmen Canal, the Volga-Balt, etc.). He achieved the beginning of negotiations on a truce in Korea, tried to restore relations with Yugoslavia. He opposed the creation of the GDR, proposing to take a course towards the unification of West and East Germany into a "peace-loving, bourgeois state." The state security apparatus abroad was drastically reduced.
Pursuing a policy of nominating national cadres, Beria sent documents to the republican Central Committee, which spoke of the wrong Russification policy and illegal repressions. The excessive activity of Beria and the strengthening of his position caused dissatisfaction with his comrades in the leadership of the country. N.S. Khrushchev, G.M. Malenkov, L.M. Kaganovich, V.M. Molotov and others united against Beria. On June 26, 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Khrushchev unfoundedly accused Beria of revisionism, an anti-socialist approach to the situation in the GDR, espionage in favor of Great Britain, and announced the removal of Beria from all posts. After that, Beria was arrested by G.K. Zhukov to the Kremlin by a group of military men of the Moscow Air Defense District (commander of the troops of the district, Colonel-General K.S. Moskalenko, his 1st deputy, Lieutenant-General P.F. Batitsky, chief of staff of the district, Major-General A.I. Baksov, head of the District Political Directorate Colonel I. G. Zub and officer for special assignments, Lieutenant Colonel V. I. Yuferev). Beria stayed under guard until late at night, then he was transferred to the Moscow garrison guardhouse, and a day later - to the bunker of the command post of the Moscow Air Defense District.
At the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU on July 2-7, 1953, Berlia was criticized, removed from the Presidium and the Central Committee and expelled from the party as "an enemy of the Communist Party and the Soviet people." His former associates also made accusations against him, incl. M.D. Bagirov. He was accused of large numbers crimes, the main of which were clearly absurd - espionage in favor of Great Britain, the desire to "eliminate the Soviet worker and peasant system, restore capitalism and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie."
To consider the case of Beria and “his gang”, a Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created: Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev (Chairman), Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions N.M. Shvernik, 1st Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR E.D. Zeidin, General of the Army K.S. Moskalenko, Secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee N.A. Mikhailov, Chairman of the Moscow City Court L.A. Gromov, 1st Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR K.F. Lunev, Chairman of the Georgian Republican Council of Trade Unions M.I. Kuchava. The former People's Commissar for State Security of the USSR, General of the Army V.N. Merkulov, 1st Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel-General B.Z. Kobulov, former 1st Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR, Colonel General S.A. Goglidze, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, Lieutenant-General P.Ya. Meshik, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR V.G. Dekanozov, head of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General L.E. Vlodzimir.
On December 23, 1953, all the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to the highest measure of criminal punishment - execution, with confiscation of their personal property, with deprivation military ranks and awards. Shot by General P.F. Batitsky. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 31, 1953, Beria was deprived of the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and all state awards.
In 2000, the question of the rehabilitation of Beria was raised, but again it was refused.
Family
Wife - Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905 - June 10, 1991), niece of the Bolshevik Sasha Gegechkori, cousin of the Menshevik E. Gegechkori, head of the Menshevik government of Georgia (1920). Researcher Agricultural Academy. YES. Timiryazeva, was arrested in July 1953, and sent to administrative exile in November 1954.
Son - Sergo (November 24, 1925 - October 11, 2000), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, in 1948-1953 he worked in Design Bureau No. 1 at the 3rd Main Directorate. On June 26, 1953, he was arrested and deported in November 1954. He was married to the granddaughter of A.M. Gorky Marfa Maksimovna Peshkova. In 1953, his surname was changed to Gegchkori, and in the 1990s he changed his surname Gegechkori to Beria and wrote a book in which he justified his father.
Ranks
Commissar of State Security 1st rank (09/11/1938)
general commissar of state security (01/30/1941)
Marshal of the Soviet Union (07/09/1945)
Works
On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia. Report at the meeting of the Tiflis party activists on July 21-22, 1935. Partizdat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, 1936.
Lado Ketskhoveli. M., 1937.
Under the great banner of Lenin-Stalin: Articles and speeches. Tbilisi, 1939.
Speech at the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on March 12, 1939. Kyiv, 1939.
Report on the work of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Georgia at the XI Congress of the CP(b) of Georgia on June 16, 1938. Sukhumi, 1939.
The greatest man of our time [I.V. Stalin]. Kyiv, 1940.
Lado Ketskhoveli. (1876-1903) / (Life of the remarkable Bolsheviks). Alma-Ata, 1938;
About youth. Tbilisi, 1940.
The “diaries” of L.P. Beria is a fake.
Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (born March 17 (29), 1899 - death December 23, 1953) - Soviet statesman and party leader, associate of I.V. Stalin, one of the initiators of mass repressions.
Origin. Education
Lavrenty was born in the village of Merkheuli near Sukhumi in a poor peasant family.
1915 - Beria graduated from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, and in 1917 - the Secondary Mechanical and Construction School in Baku with a degree in Technician-Architect. Lavrenty always excelled in his studies, especially the exact sciences were easy for him. There is evidence that 2 standard buildings on Gagarin Square in Moscow were erected according to his project.
The beginning of a political career
1919 - he joins the Bolshevik Party. True, the data on this segment of his life are very contradictory. According to official documents, Lavrenty Pavlovich joined the party back in 1917 and served as a trainee technician in the army on the Romanian front. According to other sources, he evaded the service, obtaining a certificate of disability for a bribe, and joined the party in 1919. There is also evidence that in 1918 - 1919. Beria worked simultaneously for 4 intelligence services: Soviet, British, Turkish and Musavat. But it is not clear whether he was a double agent on the instructions of the Cheka or actually tried to sit on 4 chairs at once.
Work in Azerbaijan and Georgia
In the 1920s Beria holds a number of responsible posts in the Cheka of the GPU ( Extraordinary Commission Main political department). He was appointed deputy head of the Cheka of Georgia, from August to October 1920 he worked as the administrator of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Azerbaijan, from October 1920 to February 1921 he served as the executive secretary of the Cheka for expropriating the bourgeoisie and improving the life of workers in Baku. Over the next year, he became deputy chief, and after that the head of the secret political department and deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka. 1922 - receives an appointment as head of the secret operational unit and deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka.
1924 - an uprising broke out in Georgia, in the suppression of which Lavrenty Pavlovich also took part. Those who disagreed were brutally dealt with, more than 5 thousand people were killed, and Beria was soon awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Lavrenty Beria and Joseph Stalin
Meeting with Stalin
He first met the leader somewhere in 1929-1930. Stalin was then treated in Tskhaltubo, and Lavrenty provided his protection. Since 1931, Beria joined Stalin's inner circle and in the same year he was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia and secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee.
1933, summer - the "father of all peoples" rested in Abkhazia. There he was assassinated. Beria saved Stalin by covering him with himself. True, the attacker was killed on the spot and there are many ambiguities in this story. Nevertheless, Stalin could not help but appreciate the selflessness of Lavrenty Pavlovich.
In Transcaucasia
1934 - Beria became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and in 1935 he made a very cunning and prudent move - by publishing the book "On the Question of the History of Bolshevik Organizations in Transcaucasia", in which the theory of "two leaders" was substantiated and developed. Deftly juggling the facts, he argued that Lenin and Stalin, at the same time and independently of each other, created two centers of the Communist Party. Lenin was at the head of the party in St. Petersburg, and Stalin - in Transcaucasia.
Back in 1924, Stalin himself tried to carry out this idea, but in those days the authority of L.D. was still strong. Trotsky, and Stalin did not have much weight in the party. The theory of "two leaders" then remained a theory. Her time came in the 1930s.
The Great Terror of Stalin, begun after the assassination of Kirov, actively took place in the Transcaucasus - under the leadership of Beria. Here Aghasi Khanjyan, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, committed suicide or was killed (they say even personally by Beria). 1936, December - after dinner with Lavrenty Pavlovich, Nestor Lakoba, the head of Soviet Abkhazia, died unexpectedly, who openly called Beria his killer before his death. By order of Lawrence, the body of Lakoba was later dug out of the grave and destroyed. The brother of S. Ordzhonikidze Papulia was arrested, and another (Valiko) was dismissed from his post.
Beria with Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. In the background - Stalin
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs
1938 - the first wave of repressions, carried out by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs N.I. Yezhov. A puppet in the hands of the "father of all peoples", he played the role assigned to him and now became unnecessary, and therefore Stalin decided to replace Yezhov with the smarter and more cunning Beria, who personally collected dirt on his predecessor. Yezhov was shot. The ranks of the NKVD were also immediately purged: Lavrenty got rid of Yezhov's henchmen, replacing them with his own people.
1939 - 223,600 people were released from the camps, 103,800 from the colonies. But this amnesty was nothing more than a demonstration, a temporary relief before another, even more bloody wave of repressions. More arrests and executions soon followed. More than 200,000 people were arrested almost immediately. The ostentatious nature of the amnesties was also confirmed by the fact that back in January 1939 the leader signed a decree authorizing the use of torture and beatings on those arrested.
Before the Great Patriotic War, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria oversaw the foreign intelligence agencies. Numerous reports of Soviet intelligence that he was preparing to attack the Soviet Union, he ignored. He could hardly fail to understand the seriousness of the threat, but he knew that Stalin simply did not want to believe in the possibility of war and would rather consider the intelligence reports disinformation than admit his own mistakes and incompetence. Beria reported to Stalin what he wanted to hear from him.
In a memorandum to the leader dated June 21, 1941, Lavrenty wrote: “I again insist on the recall and punishment of our ambassador to Berlin, Dekanozov, who continues to bombard me with misinformation about Hitler’s alleged attack on the USSR. He reports that this attack will begin tomorrow ... Major General V.I. also radioed the same. Tupikov.<…>But I and my people, Iosif Vissarionovich, firmly remember your wise plan: in 1941, Hitler will not attack us! .. ”The war began the next day.
During the Great Patriotic War, Lavrenty Pavlovich continued to hold leadership positions. They organized the Smersh detachments and the NKVD barrage detachments, which had orders to shoot at those retreating and surrendering. He was also responsible for public executions at the front and in the rear.
1945 - Beria was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and since 1946 he was instructed to oversee the top-secret First Main Directorate - I. V. Kurchatov's group, which was developing the atomic bomb.
Until the early 1950s, Beria continued to carry out mass repressions. But by that time, the painfully suspicious Stalin began to doubt the loyalty of his henchman. 1948 - Minister of State Security of Georgia N.M. Rukhadze was instructed to collect dirt on Beria, followed by the arrests of many of his henchmen. Before meetings with Stalin, Beria himself was ordered to be searched.
Sensing danger, Lavrenty made a preemptive move: he provided the leader with compromising evidence on his faithful assistants to the head of security N.S. Vlasik and secretary A.N. Poskrebyshev. 20 years of impeccable service could not save them: Stalin put his henchmen on trial.
Death of Stalin
1953, March 5 - Stalin died unexpectedly. The version of his poisoning by Beria with the help of warfarin has recently received a lot of indirect evidence. Summoned to the Kuntsevskaya dacha to see the stricken leader, Beria and Malenkov convinced the guards on the morning of March 2 that “Comrade Stalin was just sleeping” after the feast (in a puddle of urine), and convincingly advised “not to disturb him”, “stop panicking”.
The call of the doctors was postponed for 12 hours, although the paralyzed Stalin was unconscious. True, all these orders were tacitly supported by the other members of the Politburo. From the memoirs of Stalin's daughter, S. Alliluyeva, after the death of her father, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was the only one present who did not even try to hide his joy.
Personal life
Lavrenty Pavlovich and women is a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991) 1924 - their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent political figure Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teimurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion of her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to preserve the honor and dignity of the family. Of course, Lawrence and his women, with whom he had intimacy, gave rise to many rumors and secrets. According to the testimony of Beria's bodyguards, their boss was very popular with women. It remains only to guess whether these were mutual feelings or not.
Beria and Malenkov (foreground)
Kremlin rapist
Rumors circulated all over Moscow about how the Lubyanka Marshal personally arranged a hunt for Moscow schoolgirls, how he took the unfortunate victims to his gloomy mansion and raped him unconscious there. There were even "witnesses" who allegedly personally observed Beria's actions in bed.
When Beria is interrogated after his arrest, he admits that he had physical relationships with 62 women, and also suffered from syphilis in 1943. This happened after the rape of a 7th grade student. According to him, he has from her bastard. There are many confirmed facts of his sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were kidnapped repeatedly. When the all-powerful official noticed beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approached her. Showing the identity of the NKVD officer, he ordered to go with him.
Often these girls were brought to soundproof interrogation rooms on 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 enjoyed a reputation 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 maniac exceeded 760 people.
When searching it personal account women's toilet articles were found in armored safes. According to an inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, women's silk slips, ladies' leotards, children's dresses and other women's accessories were found. With government documents letters containing love confessions were kept. This personal correspondence was of a vulgar character.
Abandoned dacha of Beria in the Moscow region
Arrest. execution
After the death of the leader, he continued to increase his influence, apparently intending to become the first person in the state.
Fearing this, Khrushchev led a secret campaign to remove Beria, in which he involved all members of the top Soviet leadership. On June 26, Beria was invited to a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and arrested there.
The investigation into the case of the former people's commissar and minister lasted six months. Together with Beria, six of his subordinates were tried. In prison, Lavrenty Pavlovich was nervous, wrote notes to Malenkov with reproaches and a request for a personal meeting.
In the verdict, the judges did not find anything better than to declare Beria a foreign spy (although they did not forget to mention other crimes), acting in favor of England and Yugoslavia.
After the sentencing death penalty) the former people's commissar was in an excited state for some time. However, he later calmed down and on the day of the execution he behaved rather calmly. Perhaps he finally realized that the game was lost, and resigned himself to defeat.
Beria's house in Moscow
He was executed on December 23, 1953 in the same bunker of the MVO headquarters, where he was after his arrest. The execution was attended by Marshal Konev, Commander of the Moscow Military District, General Moskalenko, First Deputy Commander of the Air Defense Forces Batitsky, Lieutenant Colonel Yuferev, Head of the Political Directorate of the Moscow Military District, Colonel Zub, and a number of other military men involved in the arrest and protection of the former People's Commissar.
At first, they took off Beria's tunic, leaving a white undershirt, then twisted his hands behind him with a rope.
The soldiers looked at each other. It was necessary to decide who exactly would shoot at Beria. Moskalenko turned to Yuferov:
“You are our youngest, you shoot well. Let's".
Pavel Batitsky stepped forward, taking out his parabellum.
“Comrade Commander, allow me. With this thing, I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front.
Rudenko hastened:
"I ask that the sentence be carried out."
Batitsky took aim, Beria threw up his head and went limp in a second. The bullet hit right in the forehead. The rope did not let the body fall.
The corpse of Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was burned in the crematorium.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born near Sukhumi, in the village. Merkheul, March 29, 1899. At the age of 15, he graduated with honors from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, after which he entered the Mechanical and Construction Technical School in Baku. He was sent in 1917 to the Romanian front as a trainee technician. In March 1917, he joined the RSDLP, became an active member of the Baku commune and assistant to the leader of the underground, Mikoyan. On suspicion of espionage, Beria was arrested twice.
The biography of Lavrenty Beria since 1921 has been inextricably linked with service in the state security agencies. He owed his quick career to the location of Stalin. IN AND. Stalin and Beria met during the leader's trips to the Caucasus. In 1922, Lavrenty Pavlovich married Nina Gegechkori. Two years later, their son Sergo was born in Tbilisi.
An important role in the rise of Beria was played by his personal devotion to Stalin and toughness in the fight against the enemies of the party. It was during the work of Beria that state terror acquired a systematic character. He also improved repressive methods and became one of the organizers of the Gulag. Beria was an ideal executor of Stalin's will, effectively eliminated all those objectionable to the leader, including party leaders. Thus, the assassination of Trotsky, which took place in Mexico, was carried out under his personal leadership.
Beria was the curator of Soviet foreign intelligence, the defense industry, including the development of nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that this man possessed outstanding organizational skills. During the reign of Stalin, he was awarded many high awards. So, in 1943, Beria received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, in 1945 - the title of Marshal. The capabilities of the state security agencies in post-war years under the leadership of Beria increased significantly.
After Stalin's death, all power over the law enforcement agencies was concentrated in the hands of Beria, who by that time had become Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of the Interior. However, the further strengthening of Beria, his high authority and political activity were considered dangerous for the leading Soviet elite.
On June 26, 1953, during a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Beria was arrested, which was carried out by the military, led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov. Beria was expelled from the party, accused of anti-Soviet activities and espionage. The verdict was passed on December 23, 1953. Beria was shot on the same day.
L.P.'s wife Beria and their son Sergo were also arrested. After a year spent in solitary confinement, Sergo was exiled to the Urals, where he became a senior engineer at the Research Institute of p / box 320, and was later transferred to Kyiv, where he worked as a leading designer at NPO Kvant. He died on October 11, 2000.