Who is Beria by nationality. Beria's activities in the post-war years. Arrest and execution

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (born March 17 (29), 1899 - death December 23, 1953) - Soviet statesman and party leader, ally of I.V. Stalin, one of the initiators of mass repressions.

Origin. Education

Lavrenty was born in the village of Merheuli near Sukhumi into a poor peasant family.

1915 - Beria graduated from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, and in 1917 from the Secondary Mechanical Construction School in Baku with a degree in Architectural Technician. Lavrentiy has always excelled in his studies, and in particular it was easy for him to exact sciences. There is information that 2 standard buildings on Gagarin Square in Moscow were erected according to his design.

Start political career

1919 - he joins the Bolshevik Party. True, the data about this period 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 avoided service by obtaining a disability certificate 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 instructions from the Cheka or whether he was actually trying to sit on 4 chairs at once.

Work in Azerbaijan and Georgia

In the 1920s Beria holds a number of responsible positions in the Cheka GPU (Extraordinary Commission of the Main political management). He was appointed deputy head of the Cheka of Georgia, from August to October 1920 he worked as the manager of the affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (Bolsheviks), from October 1920 to February 1921 he served as the executive secretary of the Cheka for the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and improving the living conditions of workers in Baku. Over the next year, he became deputy chief, and then head of the secret political department and deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani Cheka. 1922 - Receives appointment to the post of 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 took part. Dissenters 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 Tskaltubo, and Lavrentiy provided his security. 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 of Georgia (Bolsheviks) and secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee.

1933, summer - the “father of all nations” was on vacation in Abkhazia. There was an attempt on his life. Stalin was saved by Beria, covering him with himself. True, the attacker was killed on the spot and there are many ambiguities left in this story. Nevertheless, Stalin could not help but appreciate Lavrenty Pavlovich’s dedication.

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. Cleverly 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 stood at the head of the party in St. Petersburg, and Stalin in Transcaucasia.

Stalin himself tried to implement this idea back in 1924, but at that time 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.

Stalin’s Great Terror, which began after the murder of Kirov, actively took place in Transcaucasia - under the leadership of Beria. Here, Agasi 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 at Lavrenty Pavlovich's, Nestor Lakoba, the head of Soviet Abkhazia, who before his death openly called Beria his murderer, unexpectedly died. By order of Lavrenty, Lakoba’s body was later dug out of the grave and destroyed. S. Ordzhonikidze’s brother Papulia was arrested, and the other (Valiko) was dismissed from his post.

Beria with Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. In the background is 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. ended. Yezhov. A puppet in the hands of the “father of all nations”, he played the role assigned to him and now became unnecessary, and therefore Stalin decided to replace Yezhov with the smarter and cunning Beria, who personally collected dirt on his predecessor. Yezhov was shot. They immediately carried out a purge of the ranks of the NKVD: Lavrentiy 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 the next, even bloodier wave of repression. More arrests and executions soon followed. Almost immediately, more than 200 thousand people were arrested. 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 against those arrested.

Before the Great Patriotic War, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria supervised the authorities foreign intelligence. Numerous messages Soviet intelligence officers he ignored the fact that he was preparing to attack the Soviet Union. 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 intelligence reports to be misinformation than admit his own mistakes and incompetence. Beria reported to Stalin what he wanted to hear from him.

In a memo to the leader dated June 21, 1941, Lavrentiy wrote: “I again insist on the recall and punishment of our ambassador in Berlin, Dekanozov, who continues to bombard me with “disinformation” about Hitler’s allegedly preparing an attack on the USSR. He reports that this attack will begin tomorrow... Major General V.I. also radioed the same. Dead ends.<…>But I and my people, Joseph Vissarionovich, firmly remember your wise destiny: in 1941 Hitler will not attack us!..” The next day the war began.

During the Great Patriotic War, Lavrenty Pavlovich continued to hold leadership positions. He organized Smersh detachments and 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 rank of marshal Soviet Union, and from 1946 he was assigned to oversee the top-secret First Main Directorate - the group of I.V. Kurchatov, which was engaged in the development 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 entrusted with collecting incriminating evidence against Beria, and many of his proteges were arrested. Beria himself was ordered to be searched before his meetings with Stalin.

Sensing the danger, Lavrenty made a preemptive move: he provided the leader with incriminating evidence on his faithful assistants, the chief of security N.S. Vlasik and secretary A.N. Poskrebysheva. 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 about his poisoning by Beria with the help of warfarin received in Lately there is a lot of indirect evidence. Summoned to the Kuntsevskaya dacha to see the struck leader on the morning of March 2, Beria and Malenkov convinced the guards that “Comrade Stalin was simply sleeping” after a feast (in a puddle of urine), and convincingly advised “not to disturb him”, “to stop alarmism.”

The call for doctors was delayed for 12 hours, although the paralyzed Stalin was unconscious. True, all these orders were tacitly supported by the remaining 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 are a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teymurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991) 1924 - they had a son, Sergo, 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. Of course, Lavrenty and his women with whom he had intimacy, gave rise to many rumors and secrets. According to the testimony of Beria's personal guard, their boss was very popular with women. One can only guess whether these were mutual feelings or not.

Beria and Malenkov (in the foreground)

Kremlin rapist

Rumors circulated throughout Moscow about how the Lubyanka marshal personally organized a hunt for Moscow schoolgirls, how he took the unfortunate victims to his gloomy mansion and raped them there until they lost consciousness. 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 relations 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 an illegitimate child from her. There are many confirmed facts his sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were kidnapped more than once. When an all-powerful official noticed a beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approached her. Showing his ID as an NKVD officer, he ordered us 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 servant, the number of victims of the sexual predator exceeded 760 people.

During a search of his personal office, women's toiletries were found in armored safes. 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 others women's accessories. Letters containing love confessions were kept with state documents. This personal correspondence was vulgar in nature.

Beria's abandoned dacha 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 senior Soviet leadership. On June 26, Beria was invited to a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and was arrested there.

The investigation into the case of the former People's Commissar and Minister lasted six months. Six of his subordinates were tried together with Beria. In prison, Lavrenty Pavlovich was nervous, he wrote notes to Malenkov with reproaches and a request for a personal meeting.

In the verdict, the judges found nothing better than to declare Beria a foreign spy (although they did not forget to mention other crimes) who acted in favor of England and Yugoslavia.

After the verdict (death penalty) was pronounced, the former People's Commissar was in an excited state for some time. However, he later calmed down and behaved quite calmly on the day of the execution. He probably finally realized that the game was lost and accepted defeat.

Beria's house in Moscow

He was executed on December 23, 1953 in the same bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters where he was located after his arrest. Present at the execution were Marshal Konev, the commander of the Moscow Military District, General Moskalenko, the first deputy commander of the air defense forces, Batitsky, Lieutenant Colonel Yuferev, the head of the political department 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.

First, they took off Beria’s tunic, leaving a white undershirt, then they tied his hands behind him with a rope.

The military looked at each other. It was necessary to decide who exactly would shoot Beria. Moskalenko turned to Yuferov:

“You are our youngest, you shoot well. Let's".

Pavel Batitsky stepped forward, taking out a parabellum.

“Comrade Commander, allow me. With this thing I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front.”

Rudenko hurried:

“I ask you to carry out the sentence.”

Batitsky took aim, Beria raised his head and a second later went limp. The bullet hit him right in the forehead. The rope prevented the body from falling.

The corpse of Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich was burned in the crematorium.

During the existence of the Soviet Union, the history of the country was rewritten many times. Due to modest funding, school textbooks were sometimes not reprinted; students were simply instructed to black out in ink portraits of leaders who suddenly became enemies.

Yagoda, Yezhov, Uborevich, Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Bukharin, Kamenev, Radek and many others were erased in this way from books and from memory. But the most demonized figure of the Bolshevik Party was, without a doubt, His biography was supplemented by work for British intelligence, which, of course, was not true, otherwise MI6 would proudly recall such success today.

In fact, Beria was a very ordinary Bolshevik, no worse than others. He was born in 1899 into a peasant family, and from childhood he was drawn to knowledge. At the age of sixteen, having graduated with honors from the Sukhumi primary school, he expressed a desire to continue his education at the Secondary Mechanical and Technical Construction School, where he received a diploma in architecture. A year later, he entered the Baku Polytechnic Institute, where he became involved in underground work. He was deported, but not far away, to Azerbaijan.

Thus, at the top of the social democratic underground there were few such intellectual people as Biography after the revolution demonstrates his desire to control the situation. He is involved in secret operational matters, and over time, having ousted Redens (the son-in-law of Stalin himself), he occupies the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Georgia. Not without the knowledge, of course, of the secretary himself, who believed that business qualities more important than those closest to you

Having successfully dealt with the Mensheviks and other enemies of Soviet power, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, whose biography could not stall in this post due to his active nature, covered Stalin with his chest during the shooting on Lake Ritsa, which was opened by no one and why.

This readiness for self-sacrifice was appreciated, but the main factor was still not it, but truly outstanding organizational skills and amazing performance. Yezhov's deputy, who soon took his place, was a candidate member of the Politburo - these steps of the career ladder were completed in 1938.

It is believed that Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich was Stalin’s main executioner; his biography, however, refutes this. He managed state security affairs for only a short time (until 1941). The Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars is much higher than just the chief security officer. His field of attention includes the entire defense industry of the USSR during the war years, including the creation of nuclear weapons, which he supervised since 1943.

A special article for conversation - Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich and women. The wife of Stalin's closest ally, the beautiful Nino, took all the allegations about his amorous-maniacal habits with great skepticism. Her husband was known to her; he didn’t even have enough time to sleep. He had a mistress, very young, but she gave evidence that Beria committed violence against her under pressure from the investigation. In fact, the girl received an apartment on Gorky Street in Moscow, and her mother even had her teeth treated at the Kremlin hospital. So everything was entirely voluntary.

Much has been written about the bold conspiracy, as a result of which Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was arrested and soon executed (or killed). His photo was just as quickly erased from all textbooks, like the images of previous exposed enemies of the people. The projects proposed by him for economic and political reforms, in particular, the limited introduction of private property and were further implemented during Gorbachev's perestroika.

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 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. I received the same order motorized rifle division. 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. Ordinary, but not very a common 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. At 20 he led 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 it is paying for Caspian oil and its transportation routes real war between superpowers. 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 “bodies” were the promoters of the times Civil War, poorly educated, unprincipled and cruel, one can imagine what kind of situation reigned 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, it was displaced and for the most part The entire top people of the People's Commissariat were 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 imprisoned the developers and under what circumstances military equipment in the context 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 Forestry, Coal and oil industry, 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 brief history World War II (1985), in the index of names given at the end of the book, where such vitally important 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, post-war USSR was at that time a double star system: seventy-year-old Stalin and 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 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. Secretary General. 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. By 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 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 was 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 an arrest warrant from the Presidium former minister 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 Last year 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 arranged political process for the whole world over him and his accomplices, no matter what positions they hold. 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 trial(dramatizations - to this day favorite hobby 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 lecherous 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

Ministry of the Russian Federation for Communications and Information

FGOBU VPO "SibGUTI"

Abstract on the topic

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria: political biography

Performed:

Titova Vasilisa

Student of group MM-31

Checked:

Borovoy Evgeniy Mikhailovich

Novosibirsk

Introduction

Childhood and youth

Beginning of a political career

Great Patriotic War

Beria's activities in the post-war years

Beria's activities after Stalin's death

Arrest and execution

Why is Beria called an executioner?

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Someone said that life would be hard if it weren't for the honest eyes of dogs. He's a fool. A dog is good. But the best thing is people's honest eyes. L.P. Beria

The personality of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is probably one of the most controversial personalities in the history of Russia. Even years later, we cannot say unequivocally what was more - the pros or cons of Beria's policies.

In Georgia there was a personality cult of Beria. In Transcaucasia they thought of him as the most faithful of Stalin's Caucasian followers. As the head of the party organization of Georgia and Transcaucasia, he did a lot to improve native republic and the Transcaucasian region as a whole.

In Moscow, workers carried his images at demonstrations. Collective farms and mines, streets and partisan detachments were named after him.

However, after his arrest and execution, Lavrenty Pavlovich began to be perceived almost as a fiend of hell. Many crimes that took place in the country in the 30-50s began to be attributed to him. Even the children sang a cheerful ditty: “Lavrenty Palych Beria did not justify his trust, and Georgy Maksimych Malenkov kicked him.” Soon this ditty was under an unspoken ban, but after Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev kicked Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov. However, with regard to Beria, everything remained the same. He is still called the “Cannibal”, “English spy”, “adventurer”, “executioner”.

In my opinion, the topic is very relevant in our time, because people learn from history, be it positive example or negative.

The purpose of my essay is to analyze political activity Beria, having studied his biography from birth.

Childhood and youth

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born on March 29, 1899 in the village of Merkheuli. His mother, Marta Jakeli (1868-1955), was from a noble family, and on his mother’s side his second cousin was Paval Rafalovich Bermond Avlov (Prince Avalishvili). It was on his mother’s side that Beria was a distant relative of the princes Dadiani. Lavrenty's father, Pavel Khukhaevich Beria (1872-1922), moved to Merheuli from Megrelia.

Martha and Pavel had three children in their family. One of the boys died at the age of two, and the daughter remained deaf and mute after an illness.

Lavrenty graduated from the Sukhumi school in 1915. But since childhood, “..dreamed of architecture and was a good artist...Drew with pencil, watercolor, and oil.” Then in Baku he entered the secondary mechanical and construction technical school. From the age of 17, he already supported a family, which included his mother and deaf-mute sister. Back in October 1915, he and a group of students from the Baku Technical School organized an illegal Marxist circle. This is what Beria wrote in his autobiography, written on October 27, 1923.

Beria combined his studies and work. He worked as an intern in Nobel's oil office. Even then he began his political activity. In June - December 1917, Beria was on the Romanian front, working as a technician in a hydraulic engineering detachment. After returning to Azerbaijan, he was enrolled in the secretariat of the Baku Council of Workers' Deputies. When the city was occupied by Turkish troops in 1918, Beria worked at the Caspian Partnership White City plant, and also carried out various assignments for the Bolsheviks, who found themselves underground before the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan. In 1919 he received a diploma as a construction technician-architect.

In March 1917 L.P. Beria organized a RSDLP cell at the school in Baku.

In the fall of 1919, Lavrentiy Beria entered the counterintelligence service under the State Defense Committee of the Azerbaijan Republic. Subsequently, this period of Beria’s life caused many misunderstandings. They said that he deliberately worked for Azerbaijani nationalists and was even an agent of the British. But in his biographical profiles Beria did not hide his work in bourgeois counterintelligence; in a letter to G.K. Ordzhonikidze wrote in 1933 that “he was sent to Musavat intelligence ... by the party and that this issue was examined by the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (b) in 1920”, that the Central Committee of the AKP (b) “completely rehabilitated” him, because “The fact of working in counterintelligence with the knowledge of the party was confirmed by statements from comrade. Mirza Davud Huseynova, Kasum Izmailova and others."

Beginning of a political career

In 1920, L.P. Beria was sent to work illegally in Georgia to prepare an armed uprising against the Menshevik government, as a representative of the Caucasian Regional Committee, after which he was arrested and imprisoned in Kutaisi prison. Then L.P. Beria was expelled from Georgia in 1920 after he organized a hunger strike among prisoners politicians.

Beria was sent to KGB work in April 1921. From that time on, he held the position of deputy head of the secret operational department of the Azerbaijani Cheka; in May 1921, he became the head of the secret operational unit, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani Cheka. And already in November 1922 he was appointed head of the secret operational unit. Since March 1926, deputy plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Transcaucasian SSFSR, deputy chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU, and since December of the same year - chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR. Since April 1927, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. Despite his diligence, he did not have much chance for promotion, but then an event occurred that served as the beginning of his great career. professional career as a security officer and a Bolshevik.

Documents related to the work of L.P. have been preserved. Beria in Azerbaijan, dated 1923.

From the characteristics of L.P. Beria:

"...has outstanding abilities, demonstrated in various apparatuses of the state mechanism...He, with his characteristic energy and perseverance, carried out all the tasks assigned by the party, giving brilliant results with his versatile work....Should be noted as the best, valuable, tireless worker , so necessary at the moment in Soviet construction."

The characterization was signed by the Secretary of the Central Committee Akhundov.

Only in 1931 Beria became chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU. At this time, operations such as the destruction of the Georgian Mensheviks and nationalists were carried out under his leadership.

In 1922, there were two uprisings against the Bolsheviks, but they were suppressed, but Georgia did not become calmer. Stalin was asked to sort this out. And after completing the task, the security officers set the table in honor of Stalin. Stalin made a toast: “A lot of weed has accumulated in Georgia. We need to plow up Georgia.”

To which Beria replied: “We will destroy the weed and plow Georgia.” Stalin really liked the toast.

It is known that a day later Beria was appointed deputy chief of the Cheka. Lavrenty was 23 years old at that time.

However, changing or “plowing up” Georgia turned out to be more difficult. The underground committee of Social Democrats and National Democrats organized an uprising in 1924. The uprising was suppressed with savagery and cruelty. Most of the participants were liquidated, and the organizers of the uprising were shot. The main person in this procedure was L.P. Beria. Stalin was amused by this, after which he appointed Beria head of the Georgian GPU. He was also awarded the highest military Order of the Red Banner.

From that time on, Beria began to rapidly climb the career ladder, trying to avoid any defeats.

... "Apparently, he was always driven by a vain desire to advance, to become the first at any cost. But where did he get the sense of beauty and good taste, manifested in a lifestyle, in the discreet elegance of comfort? - remains a mystery..."

In government circles, Beria’s success was viewed very negatively; one might say that they hated him. They said that Beria informed Stalin and Menzhinsky about personal and family matters of members of the government.

This hatred led to several attempts on Beria’s life.

Through Beria, Stalin destroyed the so-called “national deviationists.” Almost everyone was shot. That’s when they finally managed to “plow up” Georgia. As a result, Lavrenty Pavlovich was appointed secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia.

But this did not bring Beria popularity outside the Caucasus. In 1935, Beria delivered a report “on the question of the history of Bolshevism,” after which his name became known in the party. This report was published in millions of copies, it was recommended for study by all party members, the report was even equated with the works of Marx and Lenin. In his work, Beria changed the history of the party, significantly diminishing the importance of Lenin in the work and activities of the party. A false theory about the two leaders of the party was also presented. Stalin's role significantly exceeded the real one. We can say that Beria created the theory of the party of two leaders - Lenin and Stalin.

This report helped Beria in his career, because he was transferred to Moscow and appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.

A significant “cleansing” of the security service corps was Beria’s first operation as head of the NKVD. A huge number of security officers were arrested, sent to concentration camps and shot. Many said that Lavrenty Pavlovich was the same Yezhov, only more dexterous and savvy.

The Great Patriotic War

June 1941 Beria was appointed a member of the State Defense Committee. The State Defense Committee had all the power in the country. Beria's responsibilities included: control of decisions of the State Defense Committee on the production of weapons, aircraft, engines, mortars, control over the formation of air regiments, their transfer to the front, etc.

Under the leadership of Lavrenty Pavlovich, in the summer of 1941, many famous military leaders were arrested, such as D.G. Pavlov, Grigoriev, N.A. Klich, P.V. Rychagov and others. Soon they were all shot. It was by the will of Beria that the prisoners who never received their trial at the beginning of World War II were shot.

According to some historians, Joseph Vissarionovich would not have lasted such a long time in power if Beria had not been his assistant. At the beginning of the war, the position of power was weak, since the Red Army did not want to fight. The people believed that only the defeat of the authorities own country will be able to help her. Power was under threat, but Beria, the man who was responsible for the morale of the front, did not lose his head. He unleashed the weapon of fear, and mass arrests resumed. Various measures were introduced against retreating soldiers, captured prisoners, and spies. In addition to this, they held a public death penalty.

By Decree of the State Defense Committee of December 8, 1942 L.P. Beria was appointed a member of the GKO Operations Bureau. Two more important tasks were included in Beria’s responsibilities: monitoring the work of the People’s Commissariat of the Coal Industry and the People’s Commissariat of Railways. On May 16, 1944, Beria was appointed deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee and chairman of the Operations Bureau. The tasks of the Operations Bureau include: control and monitoring of the work of all people's commissariats of the defense industry, railway and water transport, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, coal, oil, chemical, rubber, paper and pulp, electrical industries, power plants. In September 1943, Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for special services in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions. On July 9, 1945, L. P. Beria received the title of “Marshal of the Soviet Union.” Beria also controlled the deportation operations of many peoples, such as Chechens, Kurds, Gypsies, Crimean Tatars, etc.

Beria's activities in the post-war years

In December 1945, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. At this time, Lavrenty Pavlovich was engaged in the idea of ​​​​creating an atomic bomb.

In August 1945, Beria became chairman of the committee for managing work with uranium. The committee included G.M. Malenkov, N.A. Voznesensky, B.L. Vannikov, A.P. Zavenyagin, I.V. Kurchatov, P.L. Kapitsa, V.A. Makhnev, M.G. Pervukhin. Then this committee became known as the Special Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In March 1953, the Special Committee was entrusted with the management of other special works of defense significance. After the arrest of Beria, the Committee was destroyed (June 26, 1953).

In August 1949, an atomic bomb was successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. October 29, 1949 L.P. Beria received Stalin Prize 1st degree “for organizing the production of atomic energy and the successful completion of the test atomic weapons"and the title of Honorary Citizen of the USSR.

From October to December 1945, Joseph Vissarionovich left Moscow for a long time, on the so-called vacation. Many people, including the press, began to talk about his illness, and maybe even death. Politicians began to think about all the contenders for the post of Soviet leader. At this time, Stalin left Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria and Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan in power. The first person Stalin turned to was V. Molotov. Next came Malenkov, Stalin’s deputy, then Beria, and last came Mikoyan, People’s Commissar of Foreign Trade.

Over time, Stalin began to be wary of Beria, because in fact they were two leaders, and therefore competitors of a kind. Until now, no clashes have occurred due to Beria’s cunning and resourcefulness. Lavrentiy Pavlovich left his people in charge of power in Georgia, which Stalin was not always able to track, which meant that Georgia was not under his control. One day Stalin doubted that Beria's close people were members of the party, which made Beria alarmed. This gesture meant a complication of the relationship. Stalin began checking Beria’s documents and carried out a “purge” in Georgia, since there already was a cult of personality not of Stalin, but of Beria.

Those close to Stalin feared for their jobs and for their lives, because they knew him well and could already predict his course of thoughts and next steps. This led to the fact that members of the Politburo united in an alliance against Stalin's actions. The instigators of this association were Beria and Malenkov.

Beria's activities after Stalin's death

In 1953, Stalin unexpectedly died. Beria became one of the contenders for Stalin's place. Freedom of decision opened up for him, and he decided to change some of the foundations of Stalin's rule. Now not only Russians could come to posts, because Stalin was a supporter of Russification. Beria proposed translating all state documents into the languages ​​of other republics. Some high-profile cases were stopped, the “doctors’ case” was stopped, and about a million people were released.

There has been a rehabilitation of military personnel and aviation industry leaders convicted back in 1946 in the “aviators’ case.”

Lavrenty Pavlovich also decided to make changes to the court system. He proposed an amnesty. His note, sent to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee in March 1953, says that there are a large number of people in prisons and colonies, namely about two and a half million, convicted of non-dangerous crimes.

He proposed pardoning only a million people who were sentenced to less than five years, the elderly, women with small children, the seriously ill and minors.

April 1953 Beria signed an order prohibiting the use cruel methods interrogations, arrests of innocent citizens, severe beatings of prisoners. As a result of the abuse, those arrested lost their minds and could go crazy. This led to the fact that the verdicts were falsified.

Beria tried to strengthen his position in power, but he did not have like-minded people and allies. Many do not understand how Beria, a man on whose initiative so many people were exterminated, was able to carry out a number of such liberations.

Some regarded Beria's policy as the formation of a new cult of personality. He was not stupid and understood that after Stalin’s death his era ended, and a new one could be started by a person completely opposite to Stalin.

However, none of the government members were happy with the appearance of a new leader in the person of Beria. A conspiracy was hatched to eliminate Beria. Despite Beria's position at that time, he is arrested. Then one of the most high-profile cases in Russian history began.

Arrest and execution

July 1953 the Plenum of the Central Committee was held Communist Party Soviet Union. Malenkov's report on Beria's crimes was listened to. His actions were regarded as anti-state and anti-party. A decision was made to exclude L.P. Beria from the CPSU Central Committee as an enemy of the people and an enemy of the party.

The investigation into Beria's cases lasted about six months. The Prosecutor General of the USSR R.A. Rudenko supervised the progress of the work.

The trial of L.P. Beria and his supporters took place from December 18 to 23. The court did not allow petitions for clemency, and the sentence had to be executed at the same time. Neither the prosecutor nor the lawyer could take part.

At the first meeting, charges were brought against high treason and espionage for Great Britain, in the pursuit of “the elimination of the Soviet worker-peasant system, the restoration of capitalism and the restoration of the rule of the bourgeoisie.” Since it was necessary to find as many cases as possible that were not just empty accusations, but concrete facts, cases related to Beria’s activities in Georgia or Transcaucasia began to be raised. He was accused of the 1937 repressions, the execution of a group of twenty-five prisoners in Kuibyshev, Tambov. He was accused of establishing connections with foreign groups, spying on members of the Communist Party, and the so-called rapprochement with Hitler.

Specific charges in the Beria case:

§ murder of M.S. Kedrov, a Bolshevik who was executed on false charges in 1937;

§ falsification of testimony through torture in the cases of Belakhov, Slezberg, Stern, Smushkevich and others;

§ execution of 25 prisoners in 1941;

§ tests different poisons on those arrested;

§ detention, execution of relatives of Sergo Ordzhonikidze.

§ Crimes equivalent to treason:

§ Beria's service in the Musavatist counterintelligence in Azerbaijan in 1919;

§ an attempt at rapprochement with Hitler in 1941. Beria said that he followed Stalin's orders and he tried to find out through other countries what conditions Hitler would agree to end the war. This led to the fact that Beria was accused of planning to give up a significant part of the lands to the enemy, and in 1943 he tried to open the Main Caucasus ridge for the liberation of land by armed foreign military;

§ an attempt in May-June 1953 to establish a personal secret connection with Tito-Rankovic in Yugoslavia.

December, all the defendants were found guilty, they were assessed as conspirators against the Soviet regime. On the same day, Beria and his accomplices were sentenced and immediately carried out. Colonel General P.F. fired first. Batitsky.

As for Beria’s other “accomplices,” the complete rehabilitation of Pavel Sudoplatov, Naum Eitingon and others was completed, since there were insufficient grounds to establish involvement in the “Beria case.”

Why is Beria called an executioner?

Many crimes are attributed to Beria, some of them remain at the level of rumors, some were actually committed. There are a huge number of reviews from contemporaries who speak of the cruelty and inhumanity of Lavrenty Pavlovich’s actions. I will give examples of several facts confirming these points of view.

Already after Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, almost 200 thousand people were repressed. The victims of repression were: Russian Academy and scientist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, actor and director Vsevolod Meyerhold, Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel and other outstanding personalities of the intelligentsia of that time.

In September 1939, leaders of the Polish socialist movement Viktor Alter and Henryk Ehrlich were arrested. Viktor Alter was shot on the orders of Beria.

By order of Lavrenty Pavlovich, about 25,700 Polish soldiers were shot. Among those killed were about 295 generals and colonels.

Beria was responsible for the deaths of Soviet military leaders during the Second World War. In June - July 1941, two former heads of the Main Directorate were arrested air defense- Heroes of the Soviet Union, Colonel General G.M. Stern and Lieutenant General of Aviation E.S. Ptukhin, all three former commanders of the Red Army Air Force: Colonel General A.D. Loktionov, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Y.V. Smushkevich. In 1941, N.A. was shot. Klich, S.A. Chernykh, S.M. Mishchenko, R.Yu. Klavins, A.N. Krustinsh, A.I. Dahlberg and A.Ya. Donneberg, and on October 28, on the personal orders of Beria, generals A.D. were executed. Loktionov, G.M. Stern, F.K. Arzherukhin, P.V. Rychagov, Ya.V. Smushkevich, I.I. Proskurin, G.K. Savchenko, M.M. Kayukov, P.S. Volodin.

There is information that there were several more execution orders soviet soldier. It can be concluded that during the war these actions cannot be justified, since it played into the hands of the country's enemies. Big losses Soviet army only worsened the situation in the war.

On November 1941, Beria ordered the extermination of all suspected anti-Soviet figures. In ten days it was necessary to conduct a census of people who had been convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes, to identify all Germans, Italians, Romanians living in Moscow. The criminals were ordered to be arrested, and foreigners were to be monitored. Guided by this order, thousands of people were shot, not excluding women or adult children.

September 1942, Ekaterina Maksimova, wife of Richard Sorge, was arrested. She was exiled to Krasnoyarsk region where the disease died.

During the war, peoples were deported North Caucasus and Crimea. The Germans were also deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Almost a million people were forcibly deported, and almost nine thousand Germans from Moscow. According to some estimates, 450 thousand Germans died in prisons.

Also, 650 thousand Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks and Karachais, about 200 thousand were deported to the eastern regions of the country. Crimean Tatars and Turks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to say in Russian history It is probably rare to find political figures with such a controversial biography. I can only say that this man was born for politics. There is a maximum number of negative opinions as opposed to a minimum of positive ones. This man decided the fate of millions of people, killed and arrested many of them. Almost thousands, or even millions of murders are attributed to him. However, the positive aspects of his policies cannot be denied. The more time passes, the more difficult it is to figure out where the lie is and where the truth is. But it is known that “... any system, system, dictator, the forces opposing them, as well as the bodies that protect them, are unthinkable without people - the conductors of ideas and programs in life. Any system is created by the subjective will of the performers.” Lavrenty Beria, as well as Dzerzhinsky, Kamenev... Bukharin were the conductors of these ideas of the system. In politics, however, all sorts of metamorphoses are possible. Lenin also prophetically predicted the degeneration of his students: “History knows transformations of all sorts; Relying on conviction, devotion and other excellent spiritual qualities is not a serious thing in politics.”

Beria political defense war

Bibliography

BERIA: END OF CAREER Collection Compiled by V.F. Nekrasova, 1991

Bobrenev V.A., Ryazantsev V.B. Executioners and victims. - M.: Voenizdat, 1993

My father is Lavrenty Beria. -M.: Sovremennik, 1994

Sokolov B.V. . Beria. The fate of the all-powerful People's Commissar. - M.: AST, 2011. - 541 p.

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One of the bloodiest leaders of the country of the Soviets, the most important security officer of the USSR, the man who led repressive measures, the deportation of nationalities, who organized the work on creating atomic weapons of the USSR, the future Marshal Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born in the town of Merkheuli near Sukhumi in March 1899. This happened on the 29th. Despite the fact that his mother was a descendant ancient family princes, the family lived poorly. The parents had three children, but the eldest boy died, the girl was disabled, and only little Lavrenty grew up as a healthy and inquisitive child. At the age of 16, he graduated with honors from the Sukhumi School. Soon the family moved to Baku, where Beria graduated from a mechanical engineering school at the age of 20. It is interesting that Beria wrote with errors throughout his life.

In the capital of the future Azerbaijan SSR, Beria became interested in the ideas of communism and joined the Bolshevik Party. It was here that he became an assistant in charge of the underground. Beria was arrested twice for his activities. He spent two months in the dungeons and after leaving there in 1922 he married Nino Gegechkori, who was the niece of his cellmate. After 2 years, their son Sergo was born.

At the dawn of the 20s, Beria met with, who highly appreciated him. Already in 1931, Beria was appointed first secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR, and 4 years later, chairman of the city party committee of the city of Tbilisi. During his time in power, Georgia turned into one of the most prosperous republics of the USSR. Beria actively developed oil production, contributed to the development of industry, and increased the level of well-being of the residents of the republic.

In 1935, Beria published a book entitled “On the Question of the History of Bolshevik Organizations in Transcaucasia.” In this work, he exaggerated Stalin’s role in revolutionary events as best he could. He signed a copy of the book personally for Stalin “To my beloved master, great comrade Stalin!”

This sign did not go unnoticed. In addition, Lavrenty Pavlovich actively led the terror in Transcaucasia. In the summer of 1938, Beria was appointed first deputy people's commissar of state security. And in November, Beria became the head of the NKVD instead of the executed one. A bronze statue of him was installed in Beria’s homeland. First, Lavrenty Pavlovich released several hundred thousand people from the camps, recognizing them as falsely accused. But this was a temporary phenomenon and soon the repression continued. There is information that Beria loved to be personally present during torture, the sight of which he enjoyed. Beria led the deportation of peoples from the Caucasus, the “purge” in the Baltic republics, was involved in the murder of Trotsky and recommended the execution of captured Poles, which is what happened in the Katyn forest.

In 1941, Beria took the post of General Commissioner of State Security. With the outbreak of the war, he was included in the State Defense Committee. Whatever one may say, Beria had the talent of an organizer. During the war years, he oversaw the military-industrial complex, the production of military equipment, and the functioning of the railway. transport. The coordination of intelligence and counterintelligence through the NKVD and the State Security Commissariat was concentrated in the hands of Beria. In 1943 he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. 2 months after the Victory, Beria became Marshal of the USSR.

Since 1944, Beria oversaw the activities of Soviet scientists in developing atomic weapons. In 1945, he became the head of the special committee to create the atomic bomb. The fruit of his (however, not only his) work was the testing of the first atomic bomb of the USSR in 1949, and after 4 years - the hydrogen bomb.

By 1946, Beria had reached the peak of his power. He was considered perhaps the most influential leader in the country. By the end of the Stalin era, Beria was Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. This state of affairs did not suit all the contenders for power in the country, and soon after Stalin’s death, on June 26, 1953, right during a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, the military under the leadership arrested Beria. He was accused of espionage and anti-Soviet activities, and was also expelled from the Communist Party. On December 23, 1953, Beria was sentenced to death - and on the same day the sentence was carried out.