Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. Such charges deeply disturbed Beria, as he had directly ordered the sale of large amounts of Czech arms to Israel. "As Lavrenti Beria stood over Joseph Stalin's deathbed in early March 1953, witnesses observed that he could barely contain his pleasure in watching the leader edge toward his final moments of life." "[54] Sarkisov reported that Beria had contracted syphilis during the war, for which he was secretly treated (a fact Beria later admitted during his interrogation). Individul a fost atât de malefic, încât faptele sale frizează incredibilul. Beria was taken aback and said, ‘What’s going on, Nikita?’, and Khrushchev told him he would soon find out. add example. stemming. Khrushchev became Party Secretary. Alternative versions have him shot or strangled months before, with a double standing trial in December. This was the pre-arranged signal to Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov and a group of armed officers in a nearby room, who burst in and arrested Beria. In 1926, Beria became head of the Georgian OGPU; Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the Transcaucasian party, introduced him to fellow-Georgian Iosef Dzhughashvili, later known as Joseph Stalin. This was the beginning of Beria's alliance with Malenkov, which later became of central importance. Okunevskaya was arrested shortly afterwards and sentenced to solitary confinement in the Gulag, which she survived. Although he did not rise to full membership until 1946, he was by then one of the senior leaders of the Soviet state. [citation needed], Beria and all the other defendants were sentenced to death on the day of the trial. [12] The NKVD was purged next, with half of its personnel replaced by Beria loyalists, many of them from the Caucasus. Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, the head of Joseph Stalin's dreaded secret police apparatus, was born in Merkheuli, Russia, on March 29, 1899. This affair damaged Beria; not only had he championed the creation of the committee in 1942, but his own entourage included a substantial number of Jews. [citation needed], At Beria's trial in 1953, it became known that he had committed numerous rapes during the years he was NKVD chief. Car, suivant la définition, je le suis peut-être mais je ne suis pas pour autant criminel de guerre ? Lavrentij Berija ( Many of Beria's subordinates, proteges and associates were also arrested, among them Vsevolod Merkulov, Bogdan Kobulov, Sergey Goglidze, Vladimir Dekanozov, Pavel Meshik, and Lev Vlodzimirskiy. Beria was born in Merkheuli, near Sukhumi, in the Sukhum Okrug of the Kutais Governorate (now Gulripshi District, Abkhazia, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire). / 29. Beria, who went on to run the Soviet network of slave-labour camps, was notorious for his sadistic enjoyment of torture and his taste for beating and raping women and violating young girls. Voroshilov became Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (i.e., the head of state). [25] Beria's decision to avoid immediately calling a doctor was tacitly supported (or at least not opposed) by the rest of the Politburo, which was rudderless without Stalin's micromanagement and paralysed by a legitimate fear he would suddenly recover and take reprisals on anyone who had dared to act without his orders. [61], Beria was played by British actor Bob Hoskins in the 1991 film Inner Circle, and by David Suchet in Red Monarch. He later officially joined the Politburo in 1946. The Polytechnicum's curriculum concentrated on the petroleum industry. For the town in Australia, see, People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (, First Deputy Premier and Soviet triumvirate. Lavrent'i Beria; født 29. marts 1899 i Merkheul, Sukhumi okrug, Kutaisi guvernement, død 23. december 1953 i Moskva) var en sovjetisk politiker og leder af NKVD fra 1938 til 1945 og igen i 1953. (eds). [10] When Stalin's purge of the Communist Party and government began in 1934 after the assassination of Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov (1 December 1934), Beria ran the purges in Transcaucasia. [29] While the rest of Stalin's inner circle (even Molotov, saved from certain liquidation) stood sobbing unashamedly over the body, Beria reportedly appeared "radiant", "regenerated" and "glistening with ill-concealed relish". When Beria's fall from power began, Sarkisov passed the list to Viktor Abakumov, the former wartime head of SMERSH and now chief of the MGB – the successor to the NKVD. J'ai supprimé cette phrase : \"Notoirement libidineux, il lui arrivera d'enlever des femmes juste pour satisfaire ses désirs sexuels.\" ainsi que cet étrange commentaire ajouté aujourd'hui : (à voir: Beria était apparemment un très bon père de famille, mais il lui est arrivé d'avoir des maitresses aidé en cela par son statut) Déjà qu'on nous explique ce que veux dire \"notoirement libidineux\" ! Georgian film director Tengiz Abuladze based the character of dictator Varlam Aravidze on Beria in his 1984 film Repentance. Beria bore a ruthless character but he was extremely intelligent and manipulative. März 1899 greg. Finden Sie perfekte Stock-Fotos zum Thema Lavrenti Beria sowie redaktionelle Newsbilder von Getty Images. Beria's bodyguards reported that their duties included handing each victim a flower bouquet as she left the house. The East German uprising convinced Molotov, Malenkov, and Nikolai Bulganin that Beria's policies were dangerous and destabilising to Soviet power. Involved in revolutionary activities from his teens and head of the secret police in Georgia in his twenties, he supervised the ruthless 1930s purges in the region and arrived in Moscow in 1938 as deputy to Nikolai Yezhov, ‘the blood-thirsty dwarf’, head of the Soviet secret police. When Stalin showed signs of consciousness, Beria dropped to his knees and kissed his hand. [citation needed], One of the first such moves involved the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair, which commenced in October 1946 and eventually led to the murder of Solomon Mikhoels and the arrest of many other members. [23] Lozgachev tried to explain to Beria that the unconscious Stalin (still in his soiled clothing) was "sick and needed medical attention". In this dual capacity, he formed a troika with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov, that briefly led the country in Stalin's place. He joined the Bolshevik wing of the Communist Party in 1917 and was active in Stalin's native Georgia during the October 1917 Revolution. Pravda announced Beria’s fall on July 10th, crediting it to the initiative of Comrade Malenkov and referring to Beria’s ‘ criminal activities against the Party and the State’. Bald and bespectacled, by the time of Stalin’s death in 1953 he was one of the most hated men in the country. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria became First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The document was signed by an LB, believed by Grant (and the mysterious Tip Tok-Toh) to be Lavrentiy Beria (written as Lavrenti Beria in the novel). Beria was taken completely by surprise. Beria gave Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania serious prospects of national autonomy, possibly similarly to other Soviet satellite states in Europe. Known for his violent, brutal, and ruthless measures, including kidnapping, torture, and rape, he advanced withi… Accounts of Beria's fall vary considerably. in Mercheuli bei Sochumi, Gouvernement Kutaissi, Russisches Kaiserreich, heute Georgien; † 23. . He took control of the manufacture of armaments, and (with Georgy Malenkov) aircraft and aircraft engines. It may have happened that way, but it seems unlikely. In other international issues, Beria (along with Mikoyan) correctly foresaw the victory (1949–1950) of Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War and greatly helped the Chinese Communists by letting them use Soviet-occupied Manchuria as a staging area and arranging large weapons shipments to the People's Liberation Army, mainly from the recently captured equipment of the Japanese Kwantung Army. [7] While in prison, he formed a connection with Nina Gegechkori (1905–1991)[8] his cellmate's niece, and they eloped on a train. They arrived at Stalin's dacha at Kuntsevo at 03:00 on 2 March 1953, after being called by Khrushchev and Bulganin. With Stalin gone, Beria quickly came to an understanding with Georgi Malenkov, an old ally, and was given the combined ministries of State Security and Internal Affairs, which put him in control of both the secret and the regular police as well as a small private army of infantry divisions. Richard Condon's 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate describes brainwashed Raymond Shaw, the "perfectly prefabricated assassin", as "this dream by Lavrenti Beria". Eventually, he ordered Sarkisov to destroy the list as a security risk, but Sarkisov retained a secret copy. Beria was second most powerful, and given Malenkov's personal weakness, was poised to become the power behind the throne and ultimately leader himself. Shortly after Stalin's death, Beria announced triumphantly to the Politburo that he had "done [Stalin] in" and "saved [us] all", according to Molotov's memoirs. Abakumov had headed SMERSH from 1943 to 1946; his relationship with Beria involved close collaboration (since Abakumov owed his rise to Beria's support and esteem), but also rivalry. The latter two did not want to risk Stalin's wrath by checking themselves. Why are you picking fleas in my trousers?" In 1941, Beria was made a Commissar General of State Security, the highest quasi-military rank within the Soviet police system of that time, effectively comparable to a Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he had never held a traditional military command, Beria made a significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II through his organisation of wartime production and his use of partisans. [41][42][43] Beria said of East Germany "It's not even a real state but one kept in being only by Soviet troops."[44]. © Copyright 2021 History Today Ltd. Company no. Lavrentia Beria was the head of this bloody secret police for most of his life and was feared even by his colleagues. Accounts of Beria's fall vary considerably. [19] Kruglov and Abakumov moved expeditiously to replace Beria's men in the security apparatus leadership with new people. En 1921, il … The veteran Molotov and others chimed in against Beria and Khrushchev put a motion for his instant dismissal. By 1935, Beria had become one of Stalin's most trusted subordinates. Beria was born in the present day Republic of Georgia on March 29, 1899. Millions of innocent Soviet citizens were killed by NKVD police rulled by Beria. "[24], Calling a doctor was deferred for a full 12 hours after Stalin was rendered paralysed, incontinent and unable to speak. In February 1941, Beria became Deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, and in June, following Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, he became a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO). He joined the Bolshevik wing of the Communist Party in 1917 and was active in Stalin's native Georgia during the October 1917 Revolution. [21] Starting in 1948, Abakumov initiated several investigations against these leaders, which culminated with the arrest in November 1952 of Rudolf Slánský, Bedřich Geminder, and others in Czechoslovakia. Accepting it implied that the sex had been consensual; refusal would mean arrest. Beria seemed to be in a perfect position – his ally, a now-forgotten figure called Georgy Malenkov, took over as the supreme leader, and Beria’s own dossier of dirt on his rivals, gathered during his years as chief of the secret police, meant he could surely keep others under his thumb. [60], Georgian film director Tengiz Abuladze based the character of dictator Varlam Aravidze on Beria in his 1984 film Repentance. His close ally Malenkov was the new Premier and initially the most powerful man in the post-Stalin leadership. Beria is the central character in Good Night, Uncle Joe by Canadian playwright David Elendune. In 1924, he led the repression of a Georgian nationalist uprising, after which up to 10,000 people were executed. [46] Beria was executed separately; he allegedly pleaded on his knees before collapsing to the floor wailing. Beria's mother, Marta Ivanovna, was a deeply religious, church-going woman (she spent so much time in church that she died there); she was previously married and widowed before marrying Beria's father, Pavel Khukhaevich Beria, a landowner fr… The Espresso Stalinist. His wife and son were sent to a Siberian labour camp. [50] Beria’s execution was hailed by Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Semyon Timoshenko, Nikolai Bulganin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Kliment Voroshilov, Semyon Budyonny and Rodion Malinovsky who at the time all held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Vasily Chuikov, who like Batitsky was a future Marshal of the Soviet Union. Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labour camps, and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret detention facilities for scientists and engineers known as sharashkas. May it rot on your grave!" [citation needed] In September, Beria was appointed head of the Main Administration of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD, and in November he succeeded Yezhov as NKVD head. "[55] After taking an interest in Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov's daughter-in-law during a party at their summer dacha, Beria shadowed their car closely all the way back to the Kremlin, terrifying Voroshilov's wife. Beria’s men were guarding the Kremlin, so the officers had to wait until nightfall before smuggling him out in the back of a car. Lawrenti Beria Lawrenti Pawlowitsch Beria (georgisch ლავრენტი ბერია; russisch Лаврéнтий Пáвлович Бéрия; wiss. Lavrenty Beria in Worldwar Lavrenty Beria (1899-1963) was head of the NKVD in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov until he was killed leading a coup to overthrow the latter. On 26 June 1953, Beria was arrested and held in an undisclosed location near Moscow. [note 1], Beria was taken first to the Moscow guardhouse and then to the bunker of the headquarters of Moscow Military District. Beria was a depraved sadist who personally tortured and killed many people. Stalin had voted to appoint Georgy Malenkov as head of the NKVD, but he was over-ruled. Before a vote could be taken, the panicky Malenkov pressed a button on his desk as the pre-arranged signal to Marshal Zhukov and a group of armed officers in a nearby room. He was also an important character in the 2013 Russian mini-series Kill Stalin, produced by Star Media. During this period, Beria supervised deportations of people identified as political enemies from Poland and the Baltic states after Soviet occupation of those regions. [39] Beria's policies in Ukraine alarmed Khrushchev, for whom Ukraine was a power base. Beria was first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and an influential Politburo member and saw himself as Stalin's successor, while wider Politburo members had contrasting thoughts on future leadership. 3 at Donskoi Monastery Cemetery in Moscow. They immediately burst in, seized Beria and manhandled him away. It was not a quality he had shown to others, and it was not now shown to him. The assertion that Stalin was poisoned by Beria's associates has been supported by Edvard Radzinsky and other authors.[31][27][32][33]. He first turned to Georgia, where Stalin's fabricated Mingrelian affair was called off and the republic's key posts were replaced by pro-Beria Georgians. Skip to content. The cost of the war still weighed heavily on the Soviet economy. During his years at the helm of the Georgian OGPU, Beria effectively destroyed the intelligence networks that Turkey and Iran had developed in the Soviet Caucasus, while successfully penetrating the governments of these countries with his agents. Životopis. März jul. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (or Beriya) is a Georgian politician and the current Chairman of the Central Committee of the Menshevik Party and Minister of War of Georgia. He and his confederates were taken away and promptly shot. Zhdanov had served as the Communist Party leader in Leningrad during the war, and by 1946 had charge of all cultural matters. He then raped her, telling her: "Scream or not, it doesn't matter." The other six defendants were shot immediately after the trial ended. [54], Stalin, and other high-ranking Soviets, expressed distrust of Beria. Yakovlev, A.N., Naumov, V., and Sigachev, Y. [29] When Beria left the room, he broke the sombre atmosphere by shouting loudly for his driver, his voice echoing with what Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva called "the ring of triumph unconcealed". Troops in Security of Railway Infrastructure, Troops in Security of Industrial Infrastructure of Specially Importance, This page was last edited on 23 January 2021, at 04:59. fr Après la mort de Staline et de Béria, on cessa les préparatifs pour le procès et on relâcha les personnes arrêtées. When the death sentence was passed, according to General Moskalenko, Beria fell to the floor and begged on his knees for mercy. Beria is a significant character in the alternate history/alien invasion novel series Worldwar by Harry Turtledove as well as the Axis of Time series by John Birmingham. Instead he took her to his dacha, where he offered to free her father and grandmother from prison if she submitted. Later, Beria returned to Georgia to work for the Soviet secret police, known as the Cheka – the Extraordinary Commission. Lavrentij Pavlovítsj Beria (Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия á kyrillísku letri; ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია á georgísku) (29. mars 1899 – 23. desember 1953) var sovéskur stjórnmálamaður, hermarskálkur Sovétríkjanna og lengi formaður leyniþjónustunnar NKVD í stjórnartíð Jósefs Stalín. Defence Minister Nikolai Bulganin ordered the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division and Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division to move into Moscow to prevent security forces loyal to Beria from rescuing him. Lavrenti Pavlovitsj Beria (Russisch: Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Georgisch: ლავრენტი ბერია, Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria) (Mercheoeli, 29 maart 1899 – Moskou, 23 december 1953) was een Sovjet-Russisch politicus van Georgische afkomst (de zogenoemde 'Georgische groep' binnen de communistische partij, waar ook Stalin toe behoorde). On 26 June 1953, Beria was arrested and held in an undisclosed location near Moscow. [36] The amnesty, therefore, led to a substantial increase in crime and would later be used against Beria by his rivals. Lavrenti Pavlovitch Beria (em georgiano ლავრენტი ბერია, transl. [9] She was 17, a trained scientist from an aristocratic family. At the opening of Kingsley Amis' The Alteration, Lavrentiy Beria figures as "Monsignor Laurentius", paired with the similarly black-clad cleric "Monsignor Henricus" of the Holy Office (i.e., the Inquisition); the one to whom Beria was compared by Stalin in our own timeline: Heinrich Himmler. Lavrenti Pavlovitch Beria (Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria, en géorgien : ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია ; Lavrentiï Pavlovitch Beria, en russe : Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия), né le 29 mars 1899 à Merkheoul (Empire russe, actuelle république séparatiste d'Abkhazie) et mort le 23 décembre 1953 à … 1 History 1.1 Early Life 1.2 Political Career 2 See also Beria was born in Merkheuli, near Sukhum, in the Sukhum district of Kutaisi governorate of modern Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia). [22][page needed], Stalin's aide Vasili Lozgachev reported that Beria and Malenkov were the first members of the Politburo to see Stalin's condition when he was found unconscious.