BERIA LAVRENTY PAVLOVICH - Soviet party and statesman, head of state security agencies.
Beria was born into a poor peasant family, his parents - Pavel Khukhaevich Beria (1872-1922) and Marta Jakeli (1868-1955) - Mingrelians. In 1906, he entered the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, where he studied for nine years and graduated with honors in 1915. He received a Beria certificate, showing a clear inclination to continue his studies, moved from Sukhum to the provincial center of Baku and was enrolled in the local secondary mechanical engineering school. During his studies, he became actively interested in Marxism and soon became part of the illegal Marxist circle operating at the school and became its treasurer. Beria graduated from the College in 1919 with a degree in construction technician. Later, he tried several times to get a higher education, especially since his school turned into the Baku Polytechnic Institute, but in the early 1920s he was already completely absorbed in party and security service work and managed to complete only three courses, after which he abandoned his studies.
Revolution and civil war
Soon after the February Revolution in March 1917, Beria - according to official data - joined the RSDLP (b) and organized a local Bolshevik cell in Baku. Then in June 1917 he was drafted into the army and served for six months as a trainee technician in a hydraulic engineering detachment on the Romanian front. After the October Revolution, the proven Bolshevik was sent back to Baku and in January 1918 he received a position in the secretariat of the Baku Council.
After Baku was occupied by units of the Turkish-controlled Caucasian Islamic Army in October 1918, Beria remained in the city - according to official biography, according to the instructions of the party. He got a job at the plant of the oil-industrial and trading joint-stock company "Caspian Partnership" as a clerk, and already in February 1919 he headed the underground cell of the RCP (b) in Baku. During this period, in the fall of 1919, Beria became an agent of the Organization for Combating Counter-Revolution under the State Defense Committee of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, i.e. Musavatist counterintelligence. Later he will be accused of collaborating with the intelligence services, but he will be able to prove that he agreed to cooperate with counterintelligence on the direct instructions of the leadership of the Social Democratic Party "Hummet".
In March 1920, Beria left his job in counterintelligence and got a job at the Baku customs, and the next month the 11th Red Army of the Caucasian Front entered Baku, where the creation of the Azerbaijan SSR was proclaimed. Berlia, in the same month, was appointed commissioner of the Caucasian regional committee of the RCP (b) and the registration department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army and was sent to underground work in Georgia. Beria did not prove himself very well as an underground fighter: he was soon arrested by the Georgian authorities and, although he was released, he was ordered to leave Georgia within 3 days. However, he remained and, under the name Lakerbaya, was hired at the embassy of the RSFSR in Tbilisi. In May he was arrested again and now ended up in Kutaisi prison. In the end, S.M. Kirov, who these days was the plenipotentiary representative in Georgia, categorically demanded on July 9 that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia release several imprisoned communists, incl. and Beria, actually threatening open conflicts. The Georgian Mensheviks were not ready for the aggravation of relations with the RSFSR and soon Beria was sent to Azerbaijan .
In leadership work in Transcaucasia
Upon returning to Baku in August 1920, he was appointed to the rather influential post of manager of the affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Azerbaijan, and from October 1920 to February 1921 he was the executive secretary of the Extraordinary Commission for the expropriation of the bourgeoisie and improving the living conditions of workers in Baku. In this post, he became acquainted with the work of the special services and in April 1921 he was transferred to the Cheka as deputy head of the Secret Operations Department of the Azerbaijan Cheka; here he encountered the head of the Central Committee M.D. Bagirov, who at this stage constantly supported Beria and did a lot for his successful career (later Beria would support and promote Bagirov). In May 1921, Beria was promoted to deputy chairman of the AzChK and head of the Secret Operations Unit.
In November 1922, Beria was sent to Georgia, which had recently been transformed into the Georgian SSR, as the head of the Secret Operations Unit and deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka (in March 1926, transformed into the GPU of the Georgian SSR). From December 2, 1926 to December 3, 1931, Berlia served as chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR. At the same time, he held a number of influential positions, concentrating great power in his hands: deputy OGPU plenipotentiary representative in the Transcaucasian SFSR, deputy chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU, head of the Secret Operations Directorate of the OGPU plenipotentiary mission in the OGPU in the TransSFSR (December 2, 1926 - April 17, 1931), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Georgian SSR (April 4, 1927 - December 1930), head of the Special Department of the OGPU of the Caucasian Red Banner Army and plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic - Chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU (April 17 - December 3, 1931), member of the Board of the OGPU of the USSR (August 18 - December 3, 1931 ).
At the end of 1931, Beria’s career moved to a new level: on the recommendation of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, on October 31, he was elected 2nd Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, and on November 14, he also became 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks), and in May 1937 also 1st Secretary of the Tbilisi City Party Committee. Moreover, from October 17, 1932 to December 5, 1936. Beria was at the same time the 1st secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1933, when I.V., who was vacationing in Abkhazia, An assassination attempt was made on Stalin, Beria covered it with his body (the assassin was killed on the spot and this story has not been fully revealed, according to a number of researchers - the assassination attempt was organized by Beria himself. In February 1934, Beria was elected a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Received became widely known after the publication in 1935 under his name of the book “On the Question of the History of the Bolshevik Organizations of Transcaucasia” (the authors were a group led by M.G. Toshelidze, which included E. Bedia, P.I. Shariya, etc.) , where the role of I.V. Stalin in the revolutionary movement was exaggerated many times.In early March 1935, Beria was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, and then a member of its Presidium (in January 1938 he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
As the head of the party organization of Georgia and Transcaucasia, Berlia became one of the leaders of the campaign of mass purges in Georgia (the NKVD Directorate for the Georgian SSR, and then the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR was his protege and confidant S.A. Goglidze). He also participated in the deployment of a campaign of repression in neighboring republics: in September 1937, he was sent to Armenia to “cleanse” the republican party organization. Speaking at the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia (June 1937), Beria stated: “Let the enemies know that anyone who tries to raise their hand against the will of our people, against the will of the party of Lenin - Stalin, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.”
Head of the NKVD
On August 22, 1938, Beria was appointed 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N.I. Yezhova. Formally, this was a serious demotion, but it was immediately clear that it was his I.V. Stalin intended to replace the “iron commissar”, who had already done his job - carried out the most large-scale purge of the party-Soviet apparatus. At the same time, Beria headed the 1st Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR from September 8-29, and from September 29 - the most important Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) in the NKVD of the USSR.
On November 25, 1938, Beria replaced Yezhov as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, for the first time retaining the direct leadership of the GUGB, which he handed over to his nominee V.N. only on December 17. Merkulov. He renewed the NKVD apparatus almost halfway, replacing Yezhov’s associates with people personally obligated to himself; people whom he brought with him from Transcaucasia were appointed to the highest positions in the NKVD: Merkulov, Goglidze, V.G. Dekanozov, B.Z. Kobulov and others. For propaganda purposes, he carried out the release of some of the “unreasonably convicted” from the camps: in 1939, 223.6 thousand people were released from the camps, 103.8 thousand from the colonies; At the same time, up to 200 thousand people were arrested, not counting those deported from the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine. At the insistence of Beria, the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar to issue extrajudicial verdicts were expanded. Under Beria, on January 10, 1939, the leaders of party organizations and local internal affairs bodies were informed by a coded telegram from I.V. Stalin on the legality of the use of torture (practised since 1937): “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party believes that the method of physical coercion must necessarily be used in the future, as an exception, in relation to obvious and undisarmed enemies of the people, as a completely correct and appropriate method.”
On March 22, 1939, Beria became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. As the head of the NKVD and a member of the highest party body, he was responsible for organizing the mass extermination of captured Poles in Katyn (1940). On February 3, 1941, Beria, without leaving his post as People's Commissar, became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (from March 15, 1946 - the Council of Ministers of the USSR), but at the same time, state security bodies were removed from his subordination, forming an independent People's Commissariat.
War and post-war period
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War The NKVD and NKGB were again united under the leadership of Beria, and on June 30, 1941 he himself became part of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR. Through the GKO, Beria was entrusted with control over the production of weapons, ammunition and mortars, and also (together with G. M. Malenkov) for the production of aircraft and aircraft engines. On October 16, 1941, on Beria’s personal order, 138 prisoners (who previously held high positions) were shot in the country’s prisons without even the appearance of a trial, and then several hundred more.
From December 1942, he was entrusted with supreme control over the work of the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry and Communications. On May 16, 1944, Beria also became deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee of the USSR and chairman of the Operations Bureau (he was a member of this bureau on December 8, 1942). 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 industry, power plants.
Beria was entrusted with the development, preparation and implementation of operations for the eviction of peoples North Caucasus, as well as Meskhetian Turks, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans, Kurds, Hemshins, etc. He personally led the deportation operations of Chechens and Ingush (February 1944), and then Balkars (March 1944).
On December 3, 1944, Beria was entrusted with “monitoring the development of work on uranium” (“nuclear project”). After the end of the war, Beria, in whose hands the leadership of many departments was concentrated, left the post of minister on December 29, 1945, transferring it to S.N. Kruglov. From August 20, 1945 to June 26, 1953, he also headed the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee (then under the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Ministers) and State Committee No. 1. Under the leadership and with the direct participation of Beria, the first atomic bomb in the USSR was created (tested on August 29, 1949 years), after which some began to call him “the father of the Soviet atomic bomb.” Being a successful organizer, he managed, using incl. and coercive methods, to form a system of research centers where serious discoveries were made that laid the foundation for the military power of the USSR. On March 18, 1946, Beria became a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
At the XIX Congress, when the CPSU (b) was renamed the CPSU, Beria on October 16, 1952 was elected a member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and a member of its Bureau. After the party congress, at the suggestion of Stalin, a “leading five” was created as part of the Presidium, which included Beria. At the same time, Stalin took a number of measures directed against Beria: leadership and control over the state security organs was transferred to the proteges of G.M. Malenkov, the Mingrelian case was initiated against Beria. According to Khrushchev’s memoirs, “he was an intelligent man, very smart. He responded quickly to everything."
Death of Stalin
After the death of I.V. Stalin, Beria took a leading place in the Soviet party hierarchy, on March 5, 1953, he became 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in addition, he personally became the head of the new Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which was created on the same day by merging the old Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of State Security of the USSR. On his initiative, an amnesty was announced in the country on May 9, under which 1.2 million people were released, several high-profile cases were closed (including the “doctors’ case”), and investigative cases on 400 thousand people were closed. Bearia advocated reducing military spending and freezing expensive construction projects (including the Main Turkmen Canal, Volgo-Balt, etc.). He achieved the start of negotiations on a truce in Korea and tried to restore relations with Yugoslavia. He opposed the creation of the GDR, proposing to take a course towards the unification of West and East Germany into a “peace-loving, bourgeois state.” The state security apparatus abroad was sharply reduced.
Pursuing a policy of promoting national personnel, Beria sent documents to the republican Central Committee that spoke about the incorrect Russification policy and illegal repressions. Beria's excessive activity and the strengthening of his positions caused discontent among his comrades in the leadership of the country. N.S. Khrushchev, G.M. Malenkov, L.M. Kaganovich, V.M. Molotov and others united against Beria. On June 26, 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, Khrushchev unfoundedly accused Beria of revisionism, an anti-socialist approach to the situation in the GDR, espionage for Great Britain, and announced the removal of Beria from all posts. After this, Beria was arrested by the secretly smuggled G.K. Zhukov to the Kremlin by a group of military personnel of the Moscow Air Defense District (commander of the district troops, Colonel General K.S. Moskalenko, his 1st deputy, Lieutenant General P.F. Batitsky, chief of staff of the district, Major General A.I. Baksov, head of the political department of the district Colonel I.G. Zub and officer for special assignments Lieutenant Colonel V.I. Yuferev). Beria remained under guard until late at night, then he was transported to the Moscow garrison guardhouse, and a day later - to the bunker of the command post of the Moscow Air Defense District.
At the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee on July 2-7, 1953, Berlia was criticized, removed from the Presidium and the Central Committee, and expelled from the party as “an enemy of the Communist Party and the Soviet people.” His former associates also made accusations against him, incl. M.D. Bagirov. He was accused of large number crimes, the main ones of which were clearly absurd - espionage for Great Britain, the desire for “the elimination of the Soviet worker-peasant system, the restoration of capitalism and the restoration of the rule of the bourgeoisie.”
To consider the case of Beria and “his gang,” a Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created: Marshal Soviet Union I.S. Konev (chairman), chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions N.M. Shvernik, 1st Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR E.D. Zeidin, Army General K.S. Moskalenko, Secretary of the Moscow Regional Party Committee N.A. Mikhailov, Chairman of the Moscow City Court L.A. Gromov, 1st Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR K.F. Lunev, Chairman of the Georgian Republican Council of Trade Unions M.I. Kuchava. The former People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR, Army General V.N., was involved in the process. Merkulov, 1st Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General B.Z. Kobulov, former 1st Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR, Colonel General S.A. Goglidze, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, Lieutenant General P.Ya. Meshik, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR V.G. Dekanozov, Head of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General L.E. Wlodzimirski.
On December 23, 1953, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to capital punishment - execution, with confiscation of their personal property, and deprivation of military ranks and awards. Shot by General P.F. Batitsky. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 31, 1953, Beria was deprived of the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union and the title of Hero Socialist Labor and all state awards.
In 2000, the question of Beria’s rehabilitation was raised, but it was again refused.
Family
Wife - Nina Teymurazovna Gegechkori (1905 - June 10, 1991), niece of the Bolshevik Sasha Gegechkori, cousin of the Menshevik E. Gegechkori, head of the Menshevik government of Georgia (1920). Researcher at the Agricultural Academy named after. YES. Timiryazeva, was arrested in July 1953, and in November 1954 sent into administrative exile.
Son - Sergo (November 24, 1925 - October 11, 2000), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, in 1948-1953 he worked in design bureau No. 1 at the 3rd Main Directorate. On June 26, 1953 he was arrested and deported in November 1954. He was married to the granddaughter of A.M. Gorky to Marfa Maksimovna Peshkova. In 1953, his last name was changed to Gegchkori, and in the 1990s, he changed his last name from Gegechkori to Beria and wrote a book in which he justified his father.
Ranks
State Security Commissioner 1st rank (09/11/1938)
General Commissioner of State Security (01/30/1941)
Marshal of the Soviet Union (07/09/1945)
Works
On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia. Report at the meeting of the Tiflis party activist on July 21-22, 1935. Partizdat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, 1936.
Lado Ketskhoveli. M., 1937.
Under the great banner of Lenin-Stalin: Articles and speeches. Tbilisi, 1939.
Speech at the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on March 12, 1939. Kyiv, 1939.
Report on the work of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia at the XI Congress of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia on June 16, 1938. Sukhumi, 1939.
The greatest man modernity [I.V. Stalin]. Kyiv, 1940.
Lado Ketskhoveli. (1876-1903)/(Life of remarkable Bolsheviks). Alma-Ata, 1938;
About youth. Tbilisi, 1940.
The “diaries” of L.P. published in 2011 Beria is a fake.
Lavrentiy Beria (03/29/1899-12/23/1953) is one of the most odious personalities of the twentieth century. The political and personal life of this man is still controversial. Unambiguously appreciate and fully understand this political and public figure no historian today can. Many materials from his personal life and government activities are kept classified as "secret". Perhaps some time will pass and modern society will be able to give a complete and adequate answer to all questions concerning this person. It is possible that his biography will also receive a new reading. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich's pedigree and activities are well studied by historians) is an entire era in the history of the country.
Childhood and teenage years of the future politician
Who is the origin of Lavrenty Beria? His nationality on his father's side is Mingrelian. This is an ethnic group of the Georgian people. Many modern historians have disputes and questions regarding the politician’s pedigree. Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich (real name and surname - Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria) was born on March 29, 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Kutaisi province. The family of the future statesman came from poor peasants. WITH early childhood Lavrentiy Beria was distinguished by an unusual zeal for knowledge, which was not at all typical for the peasantry of the 19th century. To continue his studies, the family had to sell part of their house to pay for his studies. In 1915, Beria entered the Baku Technical School, and 4 years later he graduated with honors. Meanwhile, after joining the Bolshevik faction in March 1917, he took an active part in the Russian revolution, being a secret agent of the Baku police.
First steps in big politics
The career of the young politician in the Soviet security forces began in February 1921, when the ruling Bolsheviks sent him to the Cheka of Azerbaijan. The head of the then department of the Extraordinary Commission of the Azerbaijan Republic was D. Bagirov. This leader was famous for his cruelty and mercilessness towards dissident fellow citizens. Lavrentiy Beria was engaged in bloody repressions against opponents of Bolshevik rule; even some leaders of the Caucasian Bolsheviks were very wary of his violent methods of work. Thanks to his strong character and excellent oratorical qualities as a leader, at the end of 1922 Beria was transferred to Georgia, where at that time there were big problems with the establishment of Soviet power. He took office as deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka, throwing himself into the work of combating political dissent among his fellow Georgians. Beria's influence on the political situation in the region had authoritarian significance. Not a single issue was resolved without his direct participation. The career of the young politician was successful; he ensured the defeat of the national communists of that time, who were seeking independence from the central government in Moscow.
Georgian reign period
By 1926, Lavrenty Pavlovich rose to the position of Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Georgia. In April 1927, Lavrentiy Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. Beria's competent leadership allowed him to win the favor of I.V. Stalin, a Georgian by nationality. Having expanded his influence in the party apparatus, Beria was elected in 1931 to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party. A remarkable achievement for a man of 32 years old. From now on, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, whose nationality corresponds to the state nomenklatura, will continue to ingratiate himself with Stalin. In 1935, Beria published a large treatise that greatly exaggerated the importance of Joseph Stalin in the revolutionary struggle in the Caucasus before 1917. The book was published in all major state presses, which made Beria a figure of national importance.
Accomplice of Stalin's repressions
When I.V. Stalin began his bloody political terror in the party and country from 1936 to 1938, Lavrentiy Beria was an active accomplice. In Georgia alone, thousands of innocent people died at the hands of the NKVD, and thousands more were convicted and sent to prisons and labor camps as part of Stalin's nationwide vendetta against the Soviet people. Many party leaders died during the purges. However, Lavrenty Beria, whose biography remained unblemished, came out unscathed. In 1938, Stalin rewarded him with appointment to the post of head of the NKVD. After a full-scale purge of the NKVD leadership, Beria gave key leadership positions to his associates from Georgia. Thus, he increased his political influence over the Kremlin.
Pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria
In February 1941, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria became Deputy Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and in June, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, he became a member of the Defense Committee. During the war, Beria had complete control over the production of weapons, aircraft and ships. In a word, the entire military-industrial potential of the Soviet Union was under his control. Thanks to his skillful leadership, sometimes cruel, Beria’s role in the great victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany was one of the key ones. Many prisoners in the NKVD and labor camps worked for military production. These were the realities of that time. It is difficult to say what would have happened to the country if the course of history had had a different direction.
In 1944, when the Germans were expelled from Soviet soil, Beria oversaw the case of various ethnic minorities accused of collaborating with the occupiers, including Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans. All of them were deported to Central Asia.
Management of the country's military industry
Since December 1944, Beria has been a member of the Supervisory Council for the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. To implement this project, great working and scientific potential was required. This is how the system was formed Government controlled Camps (GULAG). A talented team of nuclear physicists was assembled. The Gulag system provided tens of thousands of workers for uranium mining and the construction of testing equipment (in Semipalatinsk, Vaigach, Novaya Zemlya, etc.). The NKVD provided the necessary level of security and secrecy for the project. First tests atomic weapons were carried out in the Semipalatinsk region in 1949.
In July 1945, Lavrenty Beria (photo on the left) was promoted to the high military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he never took part in direct military command, his role in organizing military production was a significant contribution to the final victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. This fact of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria’s personal biography is beyond doubt.
Death of the Leader of the Nations
I.V. Stalin's age is approaching 70 years. The question of the leader's successor as head of the Soviet state is increasingly becoming an issue. The most likely candidate was the head of the Leningrad party apparatus, Andrei Zhdanov. L.P. Beria and G.M. Malenkov even created an unspoken alliance to block the party growth of A.A. Zhdanov.
In January 1946, Beria resigned from his post as head of the NKVD (which was soon renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs), while maintaining overall control over national security issues, and became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The new head of the security department, S.N. Kruglov, is not Beria’s henchman. In addition, by the summer of 1946, V. Merkulov, loyal to Beria, was replaced by V. Abakumov as head of the MGB. A secret struggle for leadership in the country began. After the death of A. A. Zhdanov in 1948, the “Leningrad Case” was fabricated, as a result of which many party leaders of the northern capital were arrested and executed. In these post-war years, under the secret leadership of Beria, an active intelligence network was created in Eastern Europe.
JV Stalin died on March 5, 1953, four days after the collapse. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov's political memoirs, published in 1993, claim that Beria boasted to Molotov that he had poisoned Stalin, although no evidence was ever available to support this claim. There is evidence that for many hours after J.V. Stalin was found unconscious in his office, he was denied medical care. It is quite possible that all Soviet leaders agreed to leave the ailing Stalin, whom they feared, to certain death.
The struggle for the state throne
After the death of I.V. Stalin, Beria was appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His close ally G. M. Malenkov becomes the new Chairman of the Supreme Council and the most powerful person in the country's leadership after the death of the leader. Beria was the second powerful leader, given Malenkov's lack of real leadership qualities. He effectively becomes the power behind the throne, and ultimately the leader of the state. N. S. Khrushchev becomes Secretary of the Communist Party, whose position was considered as a less important post than the position of Chairman of the Supreme Council.
Reformer or "great schemer"
Lavrentiy Beria was at the forefront of the country's liberalization after Stalin's death. He publicly condemned the Stalinist regime and rehabilitated more than a million political prisoners. In April 1953, Beria signed a decree prohibiting the use of torture in Soviet prisons. He also signaled a more liberal policy towards non-Russian nationalities of citizens of the Soviet Union. He convinced the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the need to introduce a communist regime in East Germany, and gave rise to economic and political reforms in the country of the Soviets. There is an authoritative opinion that Beria’s entire liberal policy after Stalin’s death was an ordinary maneuver to consolidate power in the country. There is another opinion that the radical reforms proposed by L.P. Beria could speed up the processes of economic development of the Soviet Union.
Arrest and death: unanswered questions
Historical facts provide conflicting information regarding the overthrow of Beria. By official version, N.S. Khrushchev convened a meeting of the Presidium on June 26, 1953, where Beria was arrested. He was accused of having connections with British intelligence. This was a complete surprise for him. Lavrentiy Beria briefly asked: “What’s going on, Nikita?” V. M. Molotov and other members of the Politburo also opposed Beria, and N. S. Khrushchev agreed to his arrest. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov personally escorted the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council. Some sources claim that Beria was killed on the spot, but this is incorrect. His arrest was kept a closely guarded secret until his top aides were arrested. The NKVD troops in Moscow, which were subordinate to Beria, were disarmed by regular army units. The Sovinformburo reported the truth about the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria only on July 10, 1953. He was convicted by a “special tribunal” without defense and without the right of appeal. On December 23, 1953, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was shot by verdict of the Supreme Court. Beria's death forced Soviet people to sigh with a relief. This meant the end of the era of repression. After all, for him (the people) Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was a bloody tyrant and despot.
Beria's wife and son were sent to labor camps, but were later released. His wife Nina died in 1991 in exile in Ukraine; his son Sergo died in October 2000, defending his father's reputation for the rest of his life.
In May 2002, the Supreme Court Russian Federation refused to satisfy the petition of Beria's family members for his rehabilitation. The statement was based on Russian law, which provided for the rehabilitation of victims of false political accusations. The court ruled: “L.P. Beria was the organizer of repressions against his own people, and, therefore, cannot be considered a victim.”
Loving husband and treacherous lover
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich and women is a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teymurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991). In 1924, their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent political figure Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teymurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion to her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to maintain the honor and dignity of the family. In 1990, being at a fairly advanced age, Nina Beria completely justified her husband in an interview with Western journalists. Until the end of her life, Nina Teymurazovna fought for the moral rehabilitation of her husband.
Of course, Lavrenty Beria and his women with whom he had intimate relationships gave rise to many rumors and mysteries. From the testimony of Beria’s personal guard it follows that their boss was very popular among women. One can only guess whether these were mutual feelings between a man and a woman or not.
Kremlin rapist
When Beria was interrogated, he admitted to having physical relationships with 62 women and also suffering from syphilis in 1943. This happened after the rape of a 7th grade student. According to him, he has an illegitimate child from her. There are many confirmed facts of Beria’s sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were abducted more than once. When Beria noticed beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov was approaching her. Showing his ID as an NKVD officer, he ordered to follow him.
Often these girls ended up in soundproof interrogation rooms at Lubyanka or in the basement of a house on Kachalova Street. Sometimes, before raping girls, Beria used sadistic methods. Among high-ranking government officials, Beria was known as a sexual predator. He kept a list of his sexual victims in a special notebook. According to the minister's domestic servants, the number of victims of the sexual predator exceeded 760 people. In 2003, the Government of the Russian Federation recognized the existence of these lists.
During a search of Beria's personal office, women's toiletries were found in the armored safes of one of the top leaders of the Soviet state. According to the inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, the following were discovered: women's silk slips, ladies' tights, children's dresses and other women's accessories. Among the state documents were letters containing love confessions. This personal correspondence was vulgar in nature. In addition to women's clothing, large quantities Items characteristic of male perverts were discovered. All this speaks of the sick psyche of the great leader of the state. It is quite possible that he was not alone in his sexual preferences; he was not the only one with a tarnished biography. Beria (Lavrentiy Pavlovich was not completely unraveled either during his life or after his death) is a page in the history of long-suffering Russia, which will have to be studied for a long time.
1. Name Beria (Veg e a) (translated from Hebrew as “son of misfortune”), has biblical roots: this was the name of several characters in the Old Testament and this was the name of one of the Syrian cities.
3. Many Soviet Jews hold L.P. Beria responsible for all the Jewish sorrows of the Stalinist era: the Great Terror of 1937-38, the incitement of state anti-Semitism, the painful campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans,” the murder of S. Mikhoels, the massacre of members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and, naturally, the case of the “killer doctors” and the preparation for the deportation of Jews.
Everything related to the Old Testament is hidden from us by the distance of time and I am not ready to draw any analogies or talk about biblical prophecies.
We will try to briefly highlight the remaining issues, illustrating, where possible, with examples of the intersection of L. Beria with Jewish contemporaries, trying to discern the whole behind the details, but by no means justifying, whitewashing it, washing it of blood. My personal attitude to the issue is determined, in particular, by because for ten years I had the opportunity to work closely with the son of L.P. Beria, Sergei (Sergo) Alekseevich Gegechkori (1924 - 2000). Much was revealed to me in our numerous, and, as it seemed to me, confidential conversations, both at a time when his publications and interviews about his father were still impossible, and later. Sergei Alekseevich’s monologues, to some extent, were colored by the son’s natural desire, at least partially, to “brighten” the example of his father.
L.P.Beria
The question of the attitude of the LP (as I will henceforth call the father, and the son - SA) towards Jews is animatedly discussed by both Jewish authors and Russian national patriots. Moreover, in the positions of both sides, with a few exceptions, the consequences of many years of demonization of his image, which was produced by the highest Soviet party nomenklatura in order to self-rehabilitation for all crimes of the times of Stalinism.
There is no consensus among Jews. Some, like L. Radzikhovsky, in his short but resonant article “Judophiles and Judeophobes” (“Jewish Word”, No. 20(193), 2004), they see him as a Judophile. Moreover, he put LP on a par with Vl. Solovyov, V.G. Korolenko, A.M. Gorky, A.D. Sakharov, G.E. Rasputin, M.S. Gorbachev and others.
Others, like the Israeli L. Katsin (“Jewish World”, 03/09/2006), indiscriminately blame him for everything, including the murder of S. Mikhoels, and identify his role in the “doctors’ case” with the actions of the biblical king Ahasuerus, who first sanctioned the extermination of the Jews and then saved them.
In the eyes of Russian national patriots, the LP is, firstly, the murderer of Stalin, and secondly, if not a Jew, then undoubtedly their servant, who helped purposefully destroy all the best in the Russian people.
But the LP personality is multidimensional, and cannot be reduced to any flat schemes. It is “woven” from alternative qualities, among which, in particular, nobility coexists with sophisticated intrigue, etc. As for the Jews, it personally seems to me that he was neither a Judeophobe nor a Judeophile, but was a man of concrete deeds. He was a born pragmatist - a perfectionist, a person charged with achieving maximum results. He strove for this and achieved this in any matter entrusted to him, abstracting from the moral and ethical conflicts accompanying the matter, even if it was not only objectionable, but simply criminal and inhuman.
And he considered each person mainly through the prism of suitability for a particular task, psychological compatibility, reliability, and the ability to abstract from these same collisions. And if a person demonstrated these qualities, he was satisfied with the LP, regardless of nationality.
As the SA has repeatedly emphasized, at the personal level the LP was not nationally blinkered. And indeed, in his immediate circle, where there were people of different nationalities, Jews could not do without them. This applies to all areas of the LP’s activity: to his work in the Caucasus, and in state security, and, especially, in intelligence and the Atomic project. Even such an antipode of the PL as A. Antonov-Ovseenko does not accuse the PL of Judeophobia: “ The new People's Commissar, when appointing governors, often gave preference to fellow countrymen, but was, in essence, a kind of internationalist in the basest sense of the word - an omnivorous politician, ready to utilize for his own needs the right people any nationality." Despite the fact that the above quote is permeated with hatred of the Liberal Party, this facet of it psychological portrait corresponds to reality.
Equally, if the task was to eliminate a person, then there is no need to talk about Judeophilia. The role of the PL in the murder of L.D. Trotsky is known. By his personal order in 1941 , without trial, Jews, heroes of Spain and Khalkhin Gol were shot: twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General of Aviation Ya. Smushkevich and Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General G. Stern. In the same year, defector V. Krivitsky, also a Jew, was liquidated in the United States. Uwhile the PL was in Moscow, Jews were repressed: journalist M. Koltsov (arrested on December 14, 1938), writer I. Babel (arrested on May 15, 1939), etc. Of course, all this was done with the knowledge or on behalf of Stalin.
In general, according to the stories of the SA, the LP was confident that Jews were useful to the country. That the country needed intellectual strength, the bearers of which are mostly Jews, the energy inherent in many of them, a creative approach to business, sober calculation, combined with reasonable risk, and a willingness to take responsibility. That it is impossible to overestimate the subtle mutual influence that manifests itself when Jews interact with representatives of other cultures. But he did not approve of Jews' aspirations to engage in politics and their claims to leadership positions, believing that this led to the incitement of anti-Semitism. It seems to me that in such a position there is already something that can be perceived as a certain anti-Semitic charge. After all, only nationality is at the forefront. Or maybe this is a tribute to the market situation? Knowing about the political opportunism inherent in the Jewish environment, which he himself, according to the SA, justified by centuries-old persecutions, the LP did not consider it possible to openly rely on them.
To summarize, let’s say that the Liberal Party respected Jews, valued them and knew how to use them in the interests of the cause. Perhaps this attitude stemmed from the fact that he, as the British say, was “a self-made man.” Having not received a serious formal education, which he regretted all his life, he nevertheless understood the importance of science, knowledge, and a truly creative approach and appreciated them. And in the Jewish environment these components have always been well represented. Or maybe he spontaneously, instinctively felt what is today called the Pareto Law? According to one interpretation of this law, in any business, 20% of people do 80% of the work. And in these 20% of Jews there are always disproportionate numbers of Jews than in real life, confirms the fact that the true elite in any field are not those at the top, but those who are wealthy.
And one last thing. As a top manager, he was distinguished by his ability to find the best performer for each problem. Moreover, always and in everything, he sought to place his subordinates in conditions of intense competition. And, for its maximum severity, next to the Jew there was usually an anti-Semite. In this way, maximum intensity of competition was guaranteed. Moreover, if the case required, the LP often came into conflict with ideology. And he protected the people whom he trusted and considered useful for the cause as best he could.
Now let’s try to fill the stated general assessment with specific content.
Start over
About the origin. Llived inmountain village of Merheuli inAbkhazia and was a Mingrelian by nationality. His father was a poor peasant Pavle Beria. Mother, Martha Jaqueli (1882-1955), seemed to be a distant relative of the Dadiani princes. According to Avtorkhanov, when Stalin was overcome by a painful passion for searching for Jewish connections among members of the Politburo, it turned out that Beria’s mother, Marta Ivanovna, was a Mountain Jew. However, no evidence of this, or links to the source, is provided. And her patronymic does not make Stalin’s verdict more convincing. It is interesting that of the 11 members of the Politburo, in one way or another, “smeared” in this sense, all turned out to be, except for the colorless Bulganin. Let us note that if Joseph Vissarionovich admitted the idea that general assessments were applicable to him, then in this sense he was also not without sin: his daughter-in-law, son-in-law and grandchildren were with the Jews.
During his further studies at the Sukhumi real school, in his mountain village, young Lavrentiy hardly saw at least one living Jew.
But I could hear about them. E. Allmendinger, a resident of the neighboring German settlement of Lindau, drew attention to the capable boy. An educated woman became his mentor, and, having revealed to him many secrets of world history and culture, she laid a healthy ideological basis in the boy. It was impossible to avoid the question of the role of Jews in history in general and the history of religion.
L.P.Beria
First practical experience business communication with the Jews he acquired the LP during the period of Chekist work in Baku. He obtained funds to finance the intelligence service and the Soviet administration by selling two oil tankers with the help of a young Jew. The intermediary received a commission and the opportunity to emigrate.
During the period of work in Georgia, there were not many Jews around the Liberal Party. But the friendly relations between his family and the married couple I.F. Stansky (Parukhov) - R.M. Veksler are known. This family also belonged to the party elite of Georgia, despite the fact that the wife came from a bourgeois family of Odessa Jews.
It was at the turn of the 20s - 30s that an international team was formed, which, together with the PL, went through all the steps of its career ladder, first up, and then down, until execution. It consists of Russians V. Merkulov, V. Dekanozov, Armenian B. Kobulov, Georgian S. Goglidze , Jew S. Milshtein.
Now on the issue of Jewish sorrows. As stated above, I am by no means going to justify, whitewash the Liberal Party, or wash away its blood, but the organizations of the “Great Terror” of 1937. on a union scale he did not and could not have a relationship based on his official position. Or rather, he had a relationship by implementing Moscow’s directives on the scale of Georgia, which, in general, is also a lot.
Order of secret affairs
He was transferred to Moscow in the summer of 1938, and appointed People's Commissar of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in December of the same year, when the repressions had already begun to decline. Moreover, with his arrival, the release and rehabilitation of some prisoners, in particular many military personnel, were carried out. After his arrival at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, repressions decreased significantly, but did not stop. In the period 1939-1945, the PL was involved in many massacres, expulsions and deportations, but they were not of a Judeophobic nature. This, of course, does not diminish their criminal, bestial character. Jews were repressed, so to speak, on a general basis, without being singled out in either direction. In the above-mentioned execution of Y. Smushkevich and G. Stern, along with them, 18 more people of other nationalities were also shot without trial. And along with the Jews Babel and Koltsov, the German V. Meyerhold was repressed (arrested on June 15, 1939).
On the other hand, who can say how many scientists and engineers, Jews and non-Jews, were saved from death in the “sharashkas” organized on the initiative of the Liberal Party?
They may point out to me that during the “post-Yezhov” purge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs apparatus carried out by the Liberal Party, the number of Jews decreased from 21% to 5%. Half were repressed, and the other half were dismissed during the purge. It seems to me that the issue here is not the anti-Semitism of the LP. For the most part, these were those who had been nominated since Civil War. With the uncompromisingness, unrestraint and cruelty inherent in this generation of security officers. In addition, they openly laid claim to a special role in the life of the country and, apparently, became dangerous in the eyes of Stalin.It’s a sin to say so, but they committed so much lawlessness that their death was obviously a well-deserved result of their activities.
At the same time, after this purge, there were still a number of Jews in the NKVD who occupied a fairly high position. These people, in turn, were mainly arrested or displaced during the promotion of the “Zionist conspiracy” in the state security system, and later repressed again, this time as “ Beria's henchmen."
In 2000-2001 PL was accused of authorship in the press“racial instructions” of 1939 (No. 00134/13, 0019/13). In the first of them, dedicated to the selection of personnel in the NKVD, in particular, it is declared: “... it is important to cut off, mainly, persons who have Jewish blood. Up to the fifth generation, it is necessary to be interested in the nationality of close relatives. Were there Jews in the family? All other interracial marriages should be considered positive.” Historian G. Kostyrchenko (Lechaim, May 2002) showed that these documents are clumsily crafted fakes, adaptations of Nazi primary sources. Although today national patriots in Russia and Ukraine are not averse to reviving and implementing such approaches.
Agents and residents
Even before the war, the Liberal Party skillfully established the productive use of Jewish emigrants from Russia, the USSR and Europe in the interests of the USSR. The anti-Semitic practices of fascism contributed to the fact that Jews around the world were inclined to help the USSR. The PL had at its disposal a personal network of agents in many European countries and the USA. LP knew how to work with agents and took care of them. Data about his personal agents (and these are hundreds of names) were not included in the files of state security agencies. This order was established by him for strategic intelligence. He believed that “a real illegal immigrant cannot be allowed through the machine.” Therefore, many of his confidential persons and their role have not yet been disclosed. SA named only a few of them in his books: O. Chekhov, M. Rokk, Zinovy Peshkov and others.
Here's one illustration. The SA claimed that in September-October 1939, in Moscow, in Beria’s house, an American named Robert lived for a month and a half. The boy was 15 years old, and no one, naturally, initiated him into anything. Later father SA confirmed that pre-war Robert and the leader of the American Manhattan Project, Robert Oppenheimer, are the same person. In 1939 R. Oppenheimer was by no means a “star” in physics. But by that time he was a member of the US Communist Party, helping the Spanish Republicans financially. And for ideological reasons, as an anti-fascist, he came to make a bomb. SA creates a little fog around this:« True, he did not come directly from America, but through third countries: through Australia and so on. This was all arranged by my father through Joliot-Curie and Georgian emigrants.”
At that moment, the idea was not supported. Unfortunately, this story, which caused a bombshell effect in the United States, was not confirmed by anything except the words of the SA.
Let us note that the Soviet station abroad was largely staffed by Jews.
Until the war itself, anti-Semitism in the country was muted, but at the end of the 1930s, the infection began to penetrate the official structures of the USSR. This probably happened under the influence of relevant government practice in Nazi Germany, with which at that time the Stalinist leadership became closer. During the war, to some extent under the influence of fascist propaganda, anti-Semitism in the country “rose up” and was in full swing in all layers of Soviet society.
Despite this, after the start of the war, the LP set out to attract the world Jewish community to the side of the USSR. Turn Jews into agents of influence on their governments, or simple intelligence agents. In particular, he tried to use the Jewish lobby in the United States to speed up America's entry into the war with Germany. As part of this area of activity, on the initiative of the LP in April-May 1942. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was created. His tasks were to pump out “money” from foreign Jewry and carry out propaganda campaigns among them. Indeed, the activities of the JAC during the war brought the USSR significant financial assistance and moral support. The possibilities of providing assistance to the USSR for post-war reconstruction were also discussed.
During a trip to the USA in 1943, the leaders of the JAC, S. Mikhoels (1890-1948) and I. Fefer (1900-1952), convinced the American society that anti-Semitism had been completely eliminated in the USSR, and talked about the great successes of Soviet Jews. According to P. Sudoplatov, the trip of S. Mikhoels and I. Fefer to the USA was simultaneously used to set up the mechanism of the emerging “atomic espionage”, for the organization of which the PL was responsible. A. Einstein (1879-1955), L. Szilard (1898-1964), R. Oppenheimer (1904-1967) were touched by the fact that, against the backdrop of rampant fascism in Europe, Jews were guaranteed a safe existence in the USSR. And these great physicists began collaborating with Soviet intelligence.
Atomic project
We are moving on to the next stage of the LP’s activities, related to the creation of the Soviet atomic bomb. At first, V.M. Molotov was appointed curator of the Atomic Project by the Government of the USSR, and LP became his deputy. But in reality, specific organizational and personnel management of the project, including intelligence issues, was entrusted to LP.
And work on the bomb began with interesting “Jewish” collisions, in which the unclouded pragmatism of the PL was fully demonstrated. Immediately after the appointment of I.V. Kurchatov (1902-1960) as the scientific director of the Atomic Project, he proposed to involve the chemical physicist Yu.B. Khariton (1904-1996) in the work. By this time, Khariton was already known for his work on the physics of combustion and explosion, and in 1939-41, together with Zeldovich, he showed the feasibility of the uranium fission chain reaction, and with the participation of I. Gurevich, the critical mass of uranium-235 was estimated. Due to the approximate knowledge of nuclear constants, the value turned out to be five times underestimated, which does not detract from the fundamental nature of the results obtained.
But Khariton had a full range of “contraindications”: non-partisan Jew with immediate family ( sister) Abroad. His father at the beginning of the century was a prominent member of the Cadet Party, emigrated and, after the capture of the Baltic states, disappeared irrevocably into the camps. In addition, in 1926-1928. Khariton completed an internship with E. Rutherford and J. Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory. Everything is like in the joke: the bride is lame, but with a child. And it was about top-secret matters of extreme importance. Naturally, Kharitonane’s frame filter let it through. But Kurchatov knew who he needed to succeed, showed persistence and turned to Stalin personally. He emphasized that Khariton was the only scientist in the USSR who was at the same time a specialist in nuclear physics, chemistry and physics of explosives, and in the kinetics of branched chain reactions. Stalin and Beria, despite all the “contraindications,” heeded Kurchatov’s arguments and approved Khariton.
In turn, the first person Khariton tried to involve in his work was his friend and co-author of a key work, theoretical physicist Ya.B. Zeldovich (1914-1987). The non-party Zeldovich did not have higher education, and also “limped” on the fifth point. But in this project the result was desperately needed. Therefore, he also passed the filter. Khariton and Zeldovich worked together for a long time and fruitfully. In Arzamas-16, Khariton was the Chief Designer, and Zeldovich was the Chief Theoretician of nuclear weapons.
Note that Zeldovich was far from the last of the “limps” who were involved in the atomic and hydrogen bomb projects. This list includes Colonel General B.L. Vannikov, future academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.K. Kikoin, L.D. .Landau, I.M.Khalatnikov, I.Ya.Pomeranchuk, E.M.Lifshits, A.B.Migdal, G.I.Budker, V.L.Ginzburg, L.V.Altshuler. And that's not all.
But the world-famous physicist P.L. Kapitsa was excommunicated from these works. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact that Kapitsa insisted on the original project, and the LP, having in his pocket the exhaustive data about the American bomb obtained by intelligence officers, did not have the right to even hint about this to Kapitsa. And as Yu.B. Khariton points out: “... “Given the state interests in the context of tense relations between the USSR and the USA at that time, as well as the responsibility of scientists for the success of the first test, any other decision would be unacceptable and simply frivolous.”
It can be argued that the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bombs, “under the umbrella” of the LP, were largely created by Jews. In the defense industry and, in particular, in the nuclear industry, Stalin not only tolerated, but also protected talented Jews. They were protected almost like members of the government. Even when the anti-Semitic Sabbath of 1949-1950 was gaining momentum in the country.
From August 20, 1945, LP became the sole leader of the Atomic Project: chairman of the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee, which oversaw the entire complex of work on atomic and then hydrogen bombs. From that moment until Stalin’s death, LP was no longer directly related to the activities of the “organs” . The main field of his activity was the creation of the USSR nuclear missile shield. The only exception was the leadership (supervision) of strategic intelligence. While remaining a candidate member of the Politburo and occupying a high official position, he transferred his post in the NKVD to S.N. Kruglov. And the NKGB (People's Commissar V.N. Merkulov) was separated from the Ministry of Internal Affairs back in April 1943,
Having switched to the atomic problem, in all the atrocities and anti-Semitic actions that occurred after that on the initiative of Stalin, Zhdanov and Malenkov, the LP did not take direct, “executioner” participation. He was not personally involved in either the murder of S. Mikhoels or the massacre of members of the JAC. But after in 1946. became a member of the Politburo, he, of course, bears political responsibility for everything, along with other members of the criminal party Areopagus.
But let's return to the Atomic Project. The deputy LP in the Committee, and, in general, the second person in the Atomic Project, became B.L. Vannikov (1897-1962). Not only was he a Jew, but even before the war he was accused of espionage, arrested, went through all the circles of hell in the dungeons of the Lubyanka, and was sentenced to death. And only the beginning of the war saved him. All this did not prevent the LP from making him his main assistant. Vannikov was a man of great intelligence and experience, externally and internally dynamic, witty, who brought restlessness and zest to every business he touched. LP valued him highly and classified him as a wise Jew. At the same time, he did not help Vannikov either during the arrest or during the abuse at Lubyanka. The SA, however, claimed that the father delayed the execution of the sentence, what in the end In the end, it turned out to be a salvation. Vannikov did not hide his dislike for the existing regime. In a conversation with the SA, to whom he had a fatherly attitude, he said:
“Our system only produces hypocrites. We are deprived of everything, and we have no right to ambition. Stalin does not care about wealth, he is only interested in power. But don’t allow yourself to admire his asceticism.”
B.L. Vannikov and A.P. Zavenyagin
And A.P. Zavenyagin (1901-1956), a good organizer and metallurgist, was appointed administrative director of all work on the bomb. But a secretive, gloomy, ambitious misanthrope. Vannikov and Zavenyagin were antipodes. This was exactly the case when one was a Jew, and the second was an ardent anti-Semite. Zavenyagin sometimes allowed himself to go against the instructions of the PL. But if Vannikov tried to turn the Liberal Party against him on this basis, he invariably advised him to continue cooperation. It was important for him to preserve the situation of rivalry and not allow the accusation that he surrounded himself with Jews.
In one of his interviews, SA noted:
“Lavrentiy defended nuclear workers. No harm done. Neither before nor after the war from those who worked with my father. He didn’t let them touch him.”
As a vivid illustration of this, I will mention the story I heard from Sergo about how LP stood up for Khariton. In the early 1950s, Stalin informed the PL that he had received materials in which Khariton was exposed as an English spy. I quote LP’s response and further conversation from SA’s book written later:
“All the people who work on this project,” said the father, “were selected by me personally. I am ready to be responsible for the actions of each of them. Not for likes and dislikes towards the Soviet system, but for actions. These people work and will work honestly on the project that we are entrusted with. ... And about Khariton, I can say the following,” the father reported. - This person is absolutely honest, absolutely devoted to the work he is working on, and I am sure he will never resort to meanness.
The father expressed his opinion in writing and gave the paper to Stalin. Joseph Vissarionovich put it in the safe.
That’s good, you’ll answer if anything happens...
“I am personally responsible for the entire project, and not just for Khariton,” answered the father.”
Additionally, in one of the interviews, SA developed this idea:
“Khariton is one of the main creators of the atomic bomb. He actually studied in England in the 1920s, lived there for a long time, was critical of Soviet power and did not hide his attitude. But he was never a spy. Father said:
"What does it matter? Well, he doesn’t like Soviet power - that’s his own business. And he’s an honest scientist, he works for us and works great.”
If the interests of the case required going into conflict with any ideological issues, Beria, without hesitation, went into such a conflict. So, at Khariton’s request, he defended L.V. Altshuler, who did not hide his sympathies for genetics and antipathies for T.D. Lysenko. On this basis, the security service decided to remove him from the site under the pretext of unreliability. Here is a fragment from the memoirs of L.V. Alshuller, who was summoned to Moscow a few days later:“Alone with me in his office, the head of the PSU, B.L. Vannikov, having my “criminal” dossier on the table in front of him, inspired me: “We are terrified. At a facility where even regional committee secretaries are not allowed, there was a bad person like you, anti-party line on issues of music, biology, etc. If we allowed everyone to say whatever they think, we would be crushed, crushed.” I had the prudence to remain silent. He ended with the words: “Go, work.”
In the success of the Atomic Project, it is difficult to overestimate the role of Soviet intelligence and the participation of Soviet and foreign Jews in it. As Sudoplatov points out, during the war, 90% of the agents from whom important information was received were Jews. But atomic espionage is a topic for another day. Here I will limit myself to just a few names. These are foreigners R. Oppenheimer, A. Einstein, L. Szilard, N. Bor, B. Pontecorvo, and the Rosenberg spouses. And also Soviet residents and illegal immigrants, A. Adams, L. Vasilevsky, E. Zarubina, S. Semenov, N. Silvermaster, G. Heifetz, Heroes of Russia Zh. Koval, Y. Chernyak, Hero of the Soviet Union S. Kremer. Let us note that in the traditional sense, Oppenheimer, Szilard and Bohr were not Soviet agents, but they provided undeniable assistance. Later, Oppenheimer contributed to the fact that several people needed by Soviet intelligence were hired to work on the Manhattan Project. Including the German emigrant K. Fuchs. And according to A.D. Sakharov, The information transmitted by Fuchs actually contained all American atomic secrets that could be transmitted in writing.
Of course, among the foreigners, and among Soviet residents and illegal immigrants, there were people of other nationalities: the Italian E. Fermi, the German K. Fuchs, the Polish American Hero of Russia L. Cohen, the Russians V. Zarubin, N. Zabotin, M. Konenkova, P .Melkishev, L.Kvasnikov, Heroes of Russia A.Feklisov, A.Yatskov and others.
And he organized this colossal and extremely successful enterprise, which knew no failures or betrayals - LP.
After successful tests of atomic weapons, the labor-glorious galaxy of Jews was rewarded.For their work on bombs, Vannikov, Khariton and Zeldovich became Heroes of Socialist Labor 3 times, Kikoin - 2 times and Landau - 1 time. Particularly distinguished participants were also awarded a large a sum of money, ZIS-110 or Pobeda cars, they were given dachas. Eight from the above list became laureates of the Lenin Prize, the State Prize was awarded to them 27 times (Kikoin - 6 times!!!). True, prizes were no longer awarded only for work on nuclear weapons.The PL itself was awarded more modestly - the Order of Lenin.
In addition to the Atomic Project, the PL supervised other weapons projects in the post-war period: the development of missiles and the creation of the Moscow air defense system.One of the leaders of the last project, which was called "Berkut", was SA. And in these projects, Jews were also adequately represented: S.A. Lavochkin, K. S. Alperovich, A.L. Mints.
Waiting for drastic changes
Let's move on to the last, most tragic, both for L. Beria and for the Jews, page of Soviet history.
In the post-war period, Stalin began to give up physically and psychologically. Two Stroke (1945 g., 1949 d.) they knocked him down. Sometimes he did not appear in the Kremlin for a long time. And in the secretariat of the Central Committee there is a fierce behind-the-scenes struggle between potential successors for the favor of the leader and real power. First, between the groups of A. Zhdanov and G. Malenkov. LP, although somewhat distanced from the epicenter of the fight, acted in conjunction with Malenkov and carefully monitored the situation.
The political mosaic changed with kaleidoscopic speed: new enemies, arrests, trials, executions. But we will highlight only what is relevant to our topic.
January 12, 1948 , on the personal instructions of Stalin, S. Mikhoels was killed in Minsk. Moreover, members of the Politburo were not informed about the circumstances of its liquidation either before or after. In March, the new Minister of State Security V.S. Abakumov submitted an information note to the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers with accusations against the EAK.
Against the thickening anti-Semitic background, this seems paradoxical, but on November 29, 1947. The USSR supported the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine at the UN (UN General Assembly Resolution No. 181), and two days after its creation, on May 17, 1948, it recognized Israel, and was the first to do so. Moreover, it was the PL, through intelligence, who organized the supply of weapons to Israel through Czechoslovakia. Through the same Czechs, a probe was carried out regarding the participation of Soviet volunteers. The Israelis refused. Subsequently, the PL considered the pro-Arab orientation of the USSR a mistake, because betting on Israel would provide the USSR with the support of the entire world Jewish diaspora.
The arrival in Moscow in September of Israel's first ambassador, Golda Meir, was enthusiastically greeted by non-Jews, including Molotov's wife P. Zhemchuzhina. The authorities were irritated. In November 1948 The Politburo dissolved the JAC, and in December arrests of its members began. On December 30, the Politburo expelled P. Zhemchuzhina from the party, and on January 21, 1949. she was arrested and then exiled.
The next extremely important, one might say significant, event took place on January 24, 1949. Under the chairmanship of Malenkov, the party Areopagus decided to launch a campaign against rootless cosmopolitans. What was the reason for the need for such a company? Victory in the war caused an unprecedented spiritual uplift of the people and gave rise to colossal hopes and expectations for improvements in life. As some modern Russian historians cynically write, the authorities had to launch a “mobilization project” that would designate a new internal enemy, which would allow them to begin tightening the screws. When replacing the Soviet-international-cosmopolitan paradigm with the Russian-great-power-national one, the emphasis shifted to the fight against “rootless cosmopolitans.” This euphemism fooled no one. The persecution of Jews began everywhere, they were vilified in the press and at meetings, and expelled from the party. They were expelled from administrative posts, from scientific institutions, editorial offices and publishing houses, and medicine. People are not alive Shievs at this time are unlikely to be able to imagine this suffocating atmosphere of hostility and ill will.The LP, as a member of the Politburo, bears full political responsibility for this anti-Semitic coven. At the same time, defense projects, in particular nuclear, which he oversaw, remained islands of security for Jews. To be fair, we note that the Liberal Party made attempts, based on “gross shortcomings in the preliminary investigation,” to return for further investigation the “JAC case” and the case against a group of Jews at the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant.
The clouds were gathering. In 1950 The “ZIS case” broke out. About 50 people were arrested, almost all Jews, of whom eight were shot in November.
But all this was only a prelude to the “doctors’ case,” which began, in fact, in the same November, with the arrest of prof. Ya. Etinger. Investigator Ryumin set out to prove the existence of an extensive conspiracy of high-ranking doctors who were harming the health of the party and military elite. But Ryumin overdid it: Etinger in March 1951. died. A squabble began within the MGB, as a result of which, according to Ryumin’s denunciation, Minister V. Abakumov was removed and then arrested, allegedly for opposing the detection of criminal activities of a group of doctors.
Abakumov was replaced by S.D. Ignatiev, Malenkov’s creation. Following the minister, the leadership of the investigative unit of the MGB, including Zam, found himself behind bars. Chief Colonel L. Shvartsman. It was he who showed that there was a Zionist organization operating in the MGB, in which he enrolled up to 30 responsible employees - Jews. This obvious nonsense was favorably received by the leader. October 1951 all of them were arrested, including generals N. Eitingon, L. Reichman, Colonel A. Sverdlov (son of Ya. Sverdlov).
Stalin, thirsting for major political revelations, a new 1937, “latched on” to this matter. The “degree” of the matter was rising: Abakumov, the “Zionists” from the MGB, doctors and the JAC were to be tied into a spy conspiracy directed from the Politburo.
But the members of the JAC have been “steaming” at Lubyanka for three years. They were simply removed from the “conspiracy”: July 18, 1952 13 people (except L. Stern) were sentenced to death.
No sooner had they been shot than L. appeared. Timashuk. filled the “doctors’ case” with details and gave it harmony. And in the twenties of September 1952 Mr. Stalin gave the go-ahead for the arrests of Kremlin doctors. The arrests began on October 18, immediately after XIX . party congress. By mid-November, the entire flower of elite medicine and the former leadership of the MGB were in the hands of Ryumin. But Abakumov, Eitingon, and a number of others held firm.
But Stalin could not wait. And on November 14, Ryumin was fired from the authorities. Replaced it with S. Goglidze. From this moment on, the case becomes purely Jewish, although of the 28 doctors arrested, only 10 were Jews, and among the doctors exposed by L. Timashuk, there were no Jews.
On the evening of January 9, 1953 The Presidium of the Central Committee discussed how to present the “doctors’ cause” to the people and the world. They approved the TASS report “Arrest of a group of pest doctors” and the editorial of Pravda. In the Message, of the 9 names given, 6 are Jewish. But Stalin prudently did not attend this meeting.
Print The TASS message appeared on January 13, almost on the fifth anniversary of the murder of S. Mikhoels. From the message it followed that the role of the main conspirator was assigned to a full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, prof. M.S.Vovsi, brilliant diagnostician, consultant at the Kremlin Hospital. The choice of M. Vovsi for this role was determined not only by his nationality and prominent position in society, but also by the fact that he was S. Mikhoels’ cousin. And Mikhoels in the message was branded as an agent of the bourgeois-nationalist organization “Joint”, which allegedly gave orders to destroy the leading personnel of the USSR. M. Vovsi allegedly received these instructions through his brother and, therefore, was an agent of the CIA and Mossad.That same day, Pravda devoted an editorial to the doctors’ case, from which it followed that the Presidium of the Central Committee contained right-wing opportunists, bearers of anti-Marxist views. This was already a verdict for some members of the Areopagus. The “Doctors' Plot” turned into a problem for the Presidium of the Central Committee: the leader was looking for a way to get rid of the old guard. And according to many signs, which we do not have the opportunity to dwell on, it was obvious that Molotov, Malenkov, Beria were among the first candidates. After the publication of the TASS report and the Pravda editorial, a paroxysm of anti-Semitism began in the country, which is also impossible to imagine for a person who has not experienced it. Monstrous rumors spread throughout Moscow and the country that Jewish doctors and pharmacists were committing Soviet people. They just don’t drink the blood of Christian babies yet, but this can be expected from them. Patients shied away from Jewish doctors and pharmacists, they were insulted and threatened. A spirit of hostility towards the Jews was in the air, and they felt it physically. At the end of January, by personal order of Stalin, P. Zhemchuzhina was brought to Moscow, whom some of those arrested had already exposed as a Jewish nationalist. All that remained was to connect her and Molotov with foreign intelligence. What, presumably, was the leader’s plan in full?It is argued that there was the following scenario for the “final solution to the Jewish question.” A show trial is organized, in which I. Ehrenburg is the public prosecutor. The defendants are found guilty and sentenced to hang on Red Square. On the way, the indignant people execute them and a general pogrom of the Jews begins. Saving the Jews, the authorities deport them far to the East. Truly, a truly well-mannered person will not only “send, but also conduct.”
There is a lot of evidence in the press confirming the existence of such a plan. Eyewitnesses testify that barracks were being prepared in the East, and freight trains were accumulating in the European part. The existence of this plan in 1970, in a conversation with Doctor of Historical Sciences Ya.Ya. Etinger, was allegedly confirmed by former member of the Presidium of the Central Committee N. Bulganin. But the historian G. Kostyrchenko, who specifically studied this issue, without denying anything in principle, claims that no documentary evidence of the plan for the deportation of Jews and its preparation could be found. Within the framework of our topic, it is important that there is no evidence of any involvement in this plan by the LP.
Already after the 20th Party Congress, testimonies from I. Ehrenburg and the USSR Ambassador to the Netherlands, former member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party K. Ponomarenko appeared in the foreign press. They said that when Stalin laid down the plan for the deportation of Jews to his comrades, he faced severe resistance. It was Beria who allegedly hesitated. The leader became so excited that he suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. Can we take this seriously? Most likely, this is Khrushchev and K °, tried to convince the country and the world that when Stalin conceived this atrocity, they courageously opposed him, which led to his grave. As they say, cowardly wolves “dressed up” as brave sheep. Well, the LP was once again presented in a vile light in hindsight.
The same story looks somewhat different in A. Antonov-Ovseenko. He writes: “Speaking on the radio on July 19, 1964, Khrushchev spoke about the last meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee during Stalin’s life, at the end of February 1953. They discussed the “Doctors' Plot” and the issue of deportation of Jews. For the first time, I was among those who did not support the measures proposed by the Leader! - Lavrentiy Beria."
After Stalin
But on March 5, 1953, the denouement came. Stalin died. His death was announced to the people on the day of the Jewish holiday of Purim. The literature on the topic “The Death of Stalin” is extensive and the flow does not dry out. Most are inclined to believe that the leader was poisoned. If this is so, it is not known who had a hand in this: Beria, Khrushchev or Malenkov. They all certainly had reasons for this. But the LP had the greatest potential.
Different times have come. The MGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were united under the leadership of the LP. The 112 days before his arrest were vividly colored by his initiatives to radically restructure the country. No one could impose anything on him anymore; everything came from him personally, uncloudedly reflecting his innermost views. Within the framework of our topic, we will mention only those actions that are associated with Jews.
Already on March 10, 1953, groups were created in the united Ministry of Internal Affairs to check and review falsified cases, including the “cases of arrested doctors.” On the same day, P. Zhemchuzhina was released from prison. Many Chekists are being released.
On March 21, the question of reinstatement in the party was raised by P. Zhemchuzhina, and on March 30, by N. Eitingon.
And already on April 1, Beria sent information on the “doctors’ case” to the Presidium of the Central Committee, which, in particular, said: “In view of the special importance of this case, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR decided to conduct a thorough check of all investigative materials. As a result of the check, it turned out that this whole case was from from beginning to end is a provocative fiction of the former Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR Ryumin... Not disdaining any means, grossly violating Soviet laws and the elementary rights of Soviet citizens, the leadership of the MGB sought at all costs to portray innocent people - the largest figures in Soviet medicine - as spies and murderers.”
And on April 2, a note was submitted to the same address about the circumstances of the murder of S.M. Mikhoels. The real organizers of his murder are named Stalin, V. Abakumov, S. Ogoltsov (Abakumov’s deputy) and former Minister of State Security of Belarus L. Tsanava. Moreover, as the commentator points out, in the prepared document, the LP personally enters Stalin’s name: “About the operation of carrying out this criminal action, Abakumov testified: “As far as I remember, in 1948, the head of the Soviet government I.V. Stalin gave me an urgent task - to quickly organize MGB employees The USSR liquidated Mikhoels... When Mikhoels was liquidated and this was reported to I.V. Stalin, he highly appreciated this event and ordered to award orders, which was done.”
The next day, April 3, the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, which met with almost the same composition that launched the “Doctors’ Plot” on January 9 of the same year, adopted a resolution:
“Accept the proposal of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs for the complete rehabilitation and release from custody of 37 doctors and members of their families arrested in the so-called “case of pest doctors.”
The press release from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (not TASS!) on this issue used stronger expressions: the case was fabricated using “unacceptable investigative methods.” The case was closed, the surviving doctors were released and another case was opened - against investigators Ryumin and others.
Thus, the ax raised over the heads of hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews was withdrawn and their reputation was cleared of slander. Everything was done uncompromisingly and extremely quickly. And who played a decisive role in this? Of course, L. Beria personally. He understood perfectly well that state and everyday anti-Semitism in the USSR is an immutable fact, but he took a number of undoubtedly courageous steps towards the triumph of justice.
The Jews, of course, were happy. But did they understand to whom they owed salvation? Some understood. A.D. Sakharov recalls that the happy Ya.B. Zeldovich told him at that time: “But this is our Lavrenty Pavlovich figured it out!” This phrase eloquently demonstrates the attitude towards the LP and the trust in it on the part of its closest employees. Of course, only the emotional and loving Zeldovich could say this out loud. This could not be said by the dry, reserved Khariton, who during the many years of cooperation never once asked LP about the fate of his father. Vannikov could have thought this, but he could hardly have said it out loud. He knew the LP from different sides. Landau could not even think of this, who had enough of Beria’s “hedgehog” gloves, hated the LP and at the first opportunity “slipped out” of the Atomic Project.
But the noose thrown around the neck of Soviet Jewry was only weakened. The LP’s proposal to rehabilitate the executed JAC members was rejected: Malenkov was too deeply involved in this crime, literally “pushing through” the death sentence. Members of the JAC were rehabilitated only in 1955.
In May 1953, Beria petitioned the Presidium of the Central Committee for the posthumous rehabilitation of M.M. Kaganovich and reported on the results of a study of the circumstances of the arrest and conviction of P. Zhemchuzhina and her predominantly Jewish entourage:
« The above-mentioned people arrested in the case of Comrade Zhemchuzhina were also condemned by the Special Meeting of the USSR Ministry of State Security to different terms imprisonment and were kept in the Vladimir prison with strict isolation, as well as in a camp for especially dangerous criminals. Thus, Comrade Zhemchuzhina and her relatives mentioned above became victims of the reprisal inflicted on them by the USSR MGB.”
Latest questions
What is the “dominant” vector of the attitude of the Liberal Party towards Jews? In my opinion, there is none. But there is a purely pragmatic approach, based only on the interests of the case. Nothing personal and a minimum of ideology. The presence of his Judeophobic views, so natural for the ruling clique of the USSR, is not confirmed, and the SA categorically denies them in his book: “ Anti-Semitism, like any decent person, evoked a feeling of disgust in my father... But, in my opinion, sympathy, and long-standing sympathy for people of Jewish nationality, is caused, it seems to me, primarily by the fact that my father knew them well. The fact is that there were a lot of such people in intelligence, in technology, that is, in those areas in which he worked all his life.” SA’s desire to paint the image of his father with warm watercolors is completely understandable. But, based on the above, in this particular issue, it is difficult to disagree with him.
What would have happened if L. Beria had remained in politics? Perhaps perestroika in the USSR would have come thirty years earlier, and according to a different scenario. And the history of the country could have been completely different. Maybe. But would he want to stop the machine of state anti-Semitism? And would he have succeeded? These are the main questions within the framework of our topic. But we are no longer destined to find out the answers to these questions.
Due to its position, the PL was forced to make decisions at a global level in various areas. And he had enough energy and wisdom to delve into everything and make reasonable and balanced decisions. He was super-punctual and strict, had an amazing ability to identify the main link in every problem and had the authority to throw all his strength, will and resources into solving it. But there was also enough rigidity.
Despite his toughness, LP enjoyed the sincere respect of his close circle of assistants. And his arrest and liquidation were a big surprise and a serious blow for them. Suffice it to say that the bust of the LP in Arzamas-16 was not destroyed, neither in 1953 nor later. It still stands in the Atomic Bomb Museum. In addition, SA told me, and then wrote in his book, that most of the scientists who knew LP from their joint work did not give evidence discrediting him after his arrest.
More or less detailed characteristics LP's activities in managing the Atomic Project belong to Yu.B. Khariton. In particular, he notes that with the transfer of the project into the hands of the LP, the situation has changed dramatically. He, possessing both enormous energy and efficiency, quickly gave all the work on the project the necessary scope and dynamism, convinced everyone that he was a first-class manager who knew how to see things through to the end. . Experts could not help but note his intelligence, will and determination. It may seem paradoxical, but Beria, who did not hesitate to sometimes show outright rudeness, knew how to be polite, tactful and simply a normal person depending on the circumstances. Conducted meetings very tough, qualified, businesslike, I tried to keep abreast of everything and even give meaningful advice that surprised everyone, borrowed, undoubtedly, from intelligence data. He was a master of unexpected and non-standard solutions.
When assessing the effectiveness of such decisions, experts may have their own criteria, but they must be correct. The main danger for an expert is to fall into the sin of simplification, when it is easy for him to look smarter and more far-sighted than the person being assessed. I tried my best to avoid this.
Despite all my reservations, the reader may get the idea that my goal was to paint a blissful, retouched image of L. Beria. But we retrospectively reviewed this controversialpersonality from a distance exceeding 55 years, not comprehensively, but through the “Jewish periscope,” recording only pictures of Lavrenty Pavlovich’s intersections with Jews.So that “the connecting thread of days” does not break (W. Shakespeare, translated by B. Pasternak). And in this subjective retro periscope, I saw these pictures exactly like that.
1. Beria S., “My father is Lavrenty Beria” - M.: Sovremennik, 1994.
2. Khariton Yu. B., Smirnov Yu. I., “Myths and reality of the Soviet atomic project.” – Arzamas: Russian. Federal Nuclear Center VNIIEF, 1994. – pp. 19–56.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich - Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the USSR, member of the State Defense Committee (GKO), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissioner of State Security.
Born on March 16 (29), 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Sukhumi district, Tiflis province, now the Republic of Abkhazia (Georgia), in a peasant family. Georgian. In 1915 he graduated with honors from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School. Since 1915 he studied at the Baku Secondary Mechanical and Construction Technical School. In October 1915, with a group of comrades, he organized an illegal Marxist circle at the school. Member of the RSDLP(b)/RCP(b)/VKP(b)/CPSU since March 1917. Organized a cell of the RSDLP(b) at the school. During the First World War of 1914-18, in June 1917, as a technician trainee at the army hydraulic engineering school, he was sent to the Romanian front, where he conducted active Bolshevik political work among the troops. At the end of 1917, he returned to Baku and, while continuing his studies at a technical school, actively participated in the activities of the Baku Bolshevik organization.
From the beginning of 1919 until April 1920, that is, before the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he led an illegal communist organization of technicians and, on behalf of the Baku Party Committee, provided assistance to a number of Bolshevik cells. In 1919, Lavrentiy Beria successfully graduated from technical school, receiving a diploma as a technical architect-builder.
In 1918-20 he worked in the secretariat of the Baku Council. In April-May 1920 - commissioner of the registration department of the Caucasian Front at the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army, then sent to underground work in Georgia. In June 1920, he was arrested and imprisoned in Kutaisi prison. But at the request of the Soviet plenipotentiary representative S.M. Kirov Lavrentiy Beria was released and deported to Azerbaijan. Returning to Baku, he entered the Baku Polytechnic Institute to study (which he did not graduate from).
In August-October 1920, Beria L.P. - manager of the affairs of the Central Committee (Central Committee) of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Azerbaijan. From October 1920 to February 1921 - executive secretary of the Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) for Baku.
In intelligence and counterintelligence agencies since 1921. In April-May 1921 he worked as deputy head of the secret operational unit of the Azerbaijan Cheka; from May 1921 to November 1922 - head of the secret operational unit, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka. From November 1922 to March 1926 - deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka, head of the secret operational unit; from March 1926 to December 2, 1926 - deputy chairman of the Main Political Directorate (GPU) of the Georgian SSR, head of the secret operational unit; from December 2, 1926 to April 17, 1931 - deputy plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (ZSFSR), deputy chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU; from December 1926 to April 17, 1931 - head of the secret operational department of the plenipotentiary representative office of the OGPU in the Trans-SFSR and the Transcaucasian GPU.
In December 1926 L.P. Beria was appointed chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR and deputy chairman of the GPU of the ZSFSR. From April 17 to December 3, 1931 - head of the special department of the OGPU of the Caucasian Red Banner Army, chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU and plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of the USSR in the Trans-SFSR, being from August 18 to December 3, 1931 a member of the board of the OGPU of the USSR.
In 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks revealed gross political mistakes and distortions committed by the leadership of party organizations in Transcaucasia. In its decision of October 31, 1931, based on the reports of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Georgia, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Azerbaijan and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Armenia, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks set the task for the party organizations of Transcaucasia immediate correction of political distortions in work in the countryside, widespread development of economic initiative and initiative of the national republics that were part of the TSFSR. At the same time, the party organizations of Transcaucasia were obliged to put an end to the unprincipled struggle for influence observed among the leading cadres of both the entire Transcaucasian Federation and the republics within it. individuals and achieve the necessary solidity and Bolshevik cohesion of the party ranks. In connection with this decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, L.P. Beria was transferred to leading party work. From October 1931 to August 1938 he was the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks) and at the same time from November 1931 the 2nd, and in October 1932 - April 1937 - the 1st Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) .
The name of Lavrentiy Beria became widely known after the publication of his book “On the Question of the History of the Bolshevik Organizations of Transcaucasia.” In the summer of 1933, when I.V., who was vacationing in Abkhazia, An assassination attempt was made on Stalin, Beria covered him with his body (the assassin was killed on the spot, and this story has not been fully revealed)...
Since February 1934, L.P. Beria is a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In June 1937, at the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia, he declared from the podium: “Let the enemies know that anyone who tries to raise his hand against the will of our people, against the will of the Lenin-Stalin party, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.”
On August 22, 1938, Beria was appointed 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and from September 29, 1938, he simultaneously headed the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR. September 11, 1938 L.P. Beria was awarded the title of “Commissioner of State Security of the 1st Rank”.
On November 25, 1938, Beria was replaced by N.I. Yezhov as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, retaining the direct leadership of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR. But on December 17, 1938, he appointed his deputy V.N. to this post. Merkulova.
Commissioner of State Security 1st Rank Beria L.P. almost completely renewed the highest apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR. He carried out the release of some of those wrongfully convicted from the camps: in 1939, 223.6 thousand people were released from the camps, and 103.8 thousand people from the colonies. At the insistence of L.P. Beria expanded the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to issue extrajudicial verdicts.
In March 1939, Beria became a candidate member and only in March 1946 - a member of the Politburo (since 1952 - Presidium) of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) / CPSU. Therefore, only since 1946 can we talk about the participation of L.P. Beria in making political decisions.
January 30, 1941 to the Commissar of State Security 1st Rank Beria L.P. awarded the title of "General Commissioner of State Security".
On February 3, 1941, Beria, without leaving the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (from 1946 - the Council of Ministers) of the USSR, but at the same time, state security bodies were removed from his subordination, forming an independent People's Commissariat.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the NKVD of the USSR and the NKGB of the USSR were again united under the leadership of the General Commissioner of State Security L.P. Beria.
On June 30, 1941, Lavrentiy Beria became a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO), and from May 16 to September 1944, he was also Deputy Chairman of the GKO. Through the State Defense Committee, Beria was entrusted with the most important assignments of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, both for the management of the socialist economy in the rear and at the front, namely, control over the production of weapons, ammunition and mortars, as well as (together with G.M. Malenkov) for production of aircraft and aircraft engines.
U by the Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 30, 1943, for special services in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions, General Commissioner of State Security Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal ( No. 80).
March 10, 1944 L.P. Beria introduced I.V. Stalin received a memo with a proposal to evict the Tatars from the territory of Crimea; later he provided general management of the eviction of Chechens, Ingush, Tatars, Germans, etc.
On December 3, 1944, he was assigned to “supervise the development of uranium work”; from August 20, 1945 to March 1953 - Chairman of the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee (later under the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Ministers of the USSR).
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 9, 1945, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was awarded a higher military rank"Marshal of the Soviet Union" with the presentation of a special Certificate of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the insignia "Marshal's Star".
After the end of the war on December 29, 1945, Beria left the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, transferring it to S.N. Kruglov. From March 19, 1946 to March 15, 1953 L.P. Beria is Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
As head of the military science department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks)/CPSU, L.P. Beria oversaw the most important areas of the military-industrial complex of the USSR, including the nuclear project and rocket science, the creation of the TU-4 strategic bomber, and the LB-1 tank gun. Under his leadership and with direct participation, the first atomic bomb in the USSR was created, tested on August 29, 1949, after which some began to call him “the father of the Soviet atomic bomb.”
After the 19th Congress of the CPSU, at the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, as part of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, a “leading five” was created, which included L.P. Beria. After the death on March 5, 1953, I.V. Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria took a leading place in the Soviet party hierarchy, concentrating in his hands the posts of 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in addition, he headed the new Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, created on the day of Stalin’s death by merging the former ministry and the Ministry of State Security.
On the initiative of Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria L.P. On May 9, 1953, an amnesty was declared in the USSR, which freed one million two hundred thousand people, several high-profile cases were closed (including the “doctors’ case”), and investigative cases involving four hundred thousand people were closed.
Beria advocated reducing military spending and freezing expensive construction projects (including the Main Turkmen Canal and the Volga-Baltic Canal). He achieved the start of armistice negotiations in Korea, tried to restore friendly relations with Yugoslavia, opposed the creation of the German Democratic Republic, proposing to take a course towards the unification of West and East Germany into a “peace-loving bourgeois state.” He sharply reduced the state security apparatus abroad.
Pursuing a policy of promoting national personnel, L.P. Beria sent documents to the Republican Central Committee of the party, which spoke about the wrong Russification policy and illegal repressions.
On June 26, 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria L.P. was arrested...
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was removed from the posts of 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, deprived of all titles and awards assigned to him.
In the verdict of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev. it was recorded that “having betrayed the Motherland and acting in the interests of foreign capital, the defendant Beria put together a treasonous group of conspirators hostile to the Soviet state with the aim of seizing power, eliminating the Soviet worker-peasant system, restoring capitalism and restoring the rule of the bourgeoisie.” The special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced L.P. Beria to death penalty.
The death sentence was carried out by Colonel General Batitsky P.F., who shot the convict in the forehead with a captured Parabellum pistol in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, which is confirmed by the corresponding act signed on December 23, 1953:
“On this day at 19:50, on the basis of the Order of the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953, No. 003, by me, the commandant of the Special Judicial Presence, Colonel General Batitsky P.F., in the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, Actual State Counselor of Justice Rudenko R.A. and Army General K.S. Moskalenko the sentence of the Special Judicial Presence was carried out in relation to Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, sentenced to capital punishment - execution".
Attempts by L.P.’s relatives Beria's efforts to reconsider the 1953 case were unsuccessful. On May 29, 2000, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to rehabilitate the former Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR...
Beria L.P. was awarded five Orders of Lenin (No. 1236 from 03/17/1935, No. 14839 from 09/30/1943, No. 27006 from 02/21/1945, No. 94311 from 03/29/49, No. 118679 from 10/29/1949 ), two Orders of the Red Banner (No. 7034 from 04/03/1924, No. 11517 from 03/11/1944), the Order of Suvorov 1st degree; orders of the Red Banner of Georgia (07/03/1923), the Red Banner of Labor of Georgia (04/10/1931), the Red Banner of Labor of Azerbaijan (03/14/1932) and the Red Banner of Labor of Armenia, seven medals; badges “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (V)” (No. 100), “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)” (No. 205 of December 20, 1932), personalized weapons - a Browning pistol, a watch with a monogram; foreign awards - the Tuvan Order of the Republic (08/18/1943), the Mongolian Order of the Red Banner of Battle (No. 441 from 07/15/1942), Sukhbaatar (No. 31 from 03/29/1949), the Mongolian medal “XXV years of the MPR "(No. 3125 dated September 19, 1946).
Under the great banner of Lenin-Stalin: Articles and speeches. Tbilisi, 1939;
Speech at the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on March 12, 1939. - Kyiv: Gospolitizdat of the Ukrainian SSR, 1939;
Report on the work of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia at the XI Congress of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia on June 16, 1938 - Sukhumi: Abgiz, 1939;
The greatest man of our time [I.V. Stalin]. - Kyiv: Gospolitizdat of the Ukrainian SSR, 1940;
Lado Ketskhoveli. (1876-1903)/(Life of remarkable Bolsheviks). Translation by N. Erubaev. - Alma-Ata: Kazgospolitizdat, 1938;
About youth. - Tbilisi: Detyunizdat of the Georgian SSR, 1940;
On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia. 8th ed. M., 1949.
At a joint meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU, Georgy Malenkov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In the list of his first deputies, Beria was mentioned “the very first”.
Four people became the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In the resolution they were named not in alphabetical order, but in the following order: Lavrentiy Beria, Vyacheslav Molotov, Nikolai Bulganin, Lazar Kaganovich. The resolution said evasively about Nikita Khrushchev, saying that he was supposedly focused on working in the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee.
So, in the list of “first deputies” Beria was named first. According to Soviet tradition, this meant that he was the second person in the state. Moreover, it was decided to merge the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the USSR Ministry of State Security into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Lavrenty Beria was appointed minister. Having united two law enforcement agencies in his hands, he concentrated power in his hands, almost exceeding the power of Malenkov himself (by the way, unlike all four of his first deputies, he has no experience of independent government work).
The author is not going to enter into the debate about the personality of Lavrentiy Beria, which has been going on for decades, to evaluate his moral principles (if there were any, of course), to delve into the motives of his actions and decisions. This activity, from my point of view, is absolutely meaningless, since the mass consciousness on this matter is based on many years of myths. But it is impossible to dispute myths.
According to established myth, Lavrenty Beria is the most terrible villain who ever lived on one-sixth of the land that was once called the USSR. But is it? And is it really true that the homely Shvernik and Andreev, Malenkov or the imposing alcoholic Bulganin are popular popular saints in comparison with him? One can repeat as often as one likes that the unusual, extraordinary measures taken by Beria after Stalin’s death were, as they would say today, of a populist nature. But why was it he who committed them, and not the same Malenkov, who, as the head of government, had much more opportunities to do so? Whether anyone likes it or not, we have to admit that Beria in the spring of 1953 was several decades ahead of his time.
Already on April 4, a TASS report was published in the newspapers, from which the shocked country learned that the “killer doctors” were arrested without any grounds, that the investigation into their case was carried out in gross violation of Soviet laws, using “forbidden methods” , but simply - torture and beatings. All those arrested in the case of the “murderers in white coats” were immediately released with an apology and reinstated in their jobs and in the party if they were members of the CPSU (b). Such a public recognition took place for the first time in the entire history of Soviet power and was, in essence, the first case of political rehabilitation of innocently repressed people. On the same day, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published canceling the previous Decree on awarding Lydia Timashuk the Order of Lenin. The ill-fated Soviet Joan of Arc did not have time to really understand at first why she was awarded the highest award of her Motherland, and then why it was taken away.
At the June 1953 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, it became clear that everyone in the top leadership, including Nikita Khrushchev, knew that the “doctor’s business” was a phony one. However, Lavrenty Beria was accused of making this shame public. They say that the doctors should have just been slowly released.
On April 28, 1953, at the suggestion of Beria, the former Minister of State Security Ignatiev was removed from the CPSU Central Committee for the “doctors’ cause.” Later, at the suggestion of Khrushchev, he was reinstated as a member of the CPSU Central Committee, and later he successfully worked as the first secretary of the Tatar and Bashkir regional committees of the CPSU.
Next, Beria dealt with the circumstances of the death, or rather, the destruction of Mikhoels. He personally interrogated the former Minister of State Security of the USSR Abakumov, his first deputy Ogoltsov, as well as the former Minister of State Security of Belarus Tsanava, at whose dacha on the then outskirts of Minsk the killing of Mikhoels and his companion took place. Abakumov firmly stated that he received the order to liquidate Mikhoels orally personally from Stalin, and that no one in the MGB except him and the direct executors of the operation knew about it.
Beria sent a letter to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Malenkov, demanding that the participants in the double murder be deprived of government awards and brought to trial. This act cannot be called populist, since the letter was secret and published only many decades later. In the same way, Beria’s order, which categorically prohibits the use of physical coercion measures against those arrested, cannot be considered populist. The order, like the letter to Malenkov, was also secret.
One of the points of this order is noteworthy: “To liquidate in Lefortovo and internal prisons the premises organized by the leadership of the former MGB of the USSR for applying physical measures to those arrested, and to destroy all the instruments by which torture was carried out.”
This is the only official recognition of the presence of torture chambers and instruments of torture in prisons. No order has yet been found to set up special rooms for torture.
As for Mikhoels’ killers, their orders were taken away, but no one went to trial. The “magnificent six” were saved by the arrest of Beria.
Later, Tsanava was arrested, but...as an accomplice of Beria! In 1955, he died in prison before his trial. Ogoltsov was arrested in April 1953 in connection with his participation in the murder of Mikhoels, but was released in August. In 19564, he was fired from the state security agencies, expelled from the party, and in 1959 he was stripped of his military rank.
At Beria’s request, Alexander Novikov, Alexei Shakhurin and others repressed in the “aviators’ case” were released from prison, rehabilitated and reinstated in their ranks. By that time, the investigation into it had been going on for 15 months, but none of those arrested pleaded guilty. By a secret order of Beria dated April 17, 1953, the investigation against them was terminated, the accused were released from custody and restored to all rights.
Yes, Beria was a cruel pragmatist and cynic, equally capable of the most noble and the most inhumane act to achieve his goals. Such were the customs in his environment. In this respect, he was no better, but no worse than other leaders in Stalin's circle. But he was head and shoulders smarter than them, more far-sighted. This ultimately ruined him. There is a saying: “They hit the head of the nail that sticks out.” So they hit him. It’s not at all because Beria was preparing some kind of conspiracy to seize power - that’s a myth. Beria understood perfectly well that the second Georgian would not be the main leader in the USSR, and he, as the first of the “first deputies”, and also a minister, had enough real power. No, all of them, Malenkov, Molotov, Voroshilov, and even the future whistleblower of Stalin, Khrushchev, were afraid for their own skin. Having dumped Beria, one could attribute his own sins, and considerable ones, to him. Yes, of course, none of them headed the political police during Stalin’s life, no matter what it was called, but each leader has no less blood on his hands than Beria. And speaking of specific services to the state, there was no question of comparison. After all, it was Beria who headed the Soviet “atomic project”, ensured as soon as possible the creation of an “atomic shield”, which, by the way, was never denied by outstanding scientists who worked on this problem in those years.
And both intelligence and counterintelligence, when they were led by Beria, were by no means only engaged in identifying the distributors of anti-Soviet jokes.
It seems to the author that the very next day after Stalin’s death, his heirs realized that a change in political course, the liquidation in some, preferably the mildest form, of the cult of his personality was inevitable, and therefore sooner or later the problem of pre- and post-war repressions would emerge. And someone will have to answer for them. And the one who is the first to pronounce this inevitable “a” will become the first person. Not the same, of course, as the deceased leader was, but still better than others.
And then the obviously frightened heirs formed the conviction that Beria would certainly want to become this first of the first. Because he (which corresponded to reality) had a much greater chance of this than the same Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich... After all, Beria had a reputation as a man who stopped the Yezhovshchina, who freed a good third of a million innocently before the war repressed. Whereas, for example, Molotov and Kalinin did not dare to stand up for their own wives, Kaganovich did not dare to stand up for his brother...
There is no need to talk seriously about the military coup allegedly planned by Beria. Directly in Moscow, only the Dzerzhinsky Internal Troops Division and the Kremlin Regiment were subordinate to him. Meanwhile, the famous Tamanskaya and Kantemirovskaya divisions were stationed within the city; in the capital there were two dozen military academies and schools, which, by order of the Minister of Defense, had no trouble blocking the same division named after Dzerzhinsky.
But the Minister of Internal Affairs had at his disposal a much more terrible weapon: secret and top-secret archives, lists of those sentenced to repression of the “first category” with resolutions not only of Stalin, but also of Molotov, Voroshilov, Khrushchev and others. This was enough for Stalin’s heirs to unitely take up arms against one of their own and simply betray him in order to save their posts and reputation. Beria was doomed not from the moment when, as Khrushchev asserted, the leadership became aware of the “conspiratorial plans of the enemy of the people and English spy Beria,” and from that March day when they appointed him one of the first deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. There really was a conspiracy. But it was headed by Khrushchev and Malenkov, and not Beria.
The energetic measures taken by Beria to restore order in the country only accelerated the maturation of the Khrushchev-Malenkov conspiracy.
Beria initiated the famous amnesty, when out of 2,256,402 prisoners held in camps and prisons, 1,203,421 people were to be released. Subsequently, in order to weaken the impression of this unprecedented step, the authorities spread rumors that Beria had maliciously released thousands of murderers, robbers and rapists. It was a lie. You can verify this by visiting any library and reading the same Amnesty Decree with your own eyes.
In fact, under the amnesty, persons who received a sentence of up to five years, those convicted of economic and official crimes, pregnant women and women with children under ten years of age, and the sick were subject to release. Of course, there was a temporary surge in criminal offenses, but it was quickly extinguished by law enforcement agencies. At the same time, Beria proposed transferring the camps from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice. This measure was implemented in Russia only forty-five years later! Beria also proposed transferring all construction sites, enterprises, and “sharashkas” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the relevant industrial departments.
Subsequently, Beria will be accused of summoning to Moscow several dozen (sometimes they say hundreds) of Soviet intelligence residents and advisers to state security agencies in countries, as they were then called, “people's democracies,” thereby disorganizing the activities of the Kremlin’s intelligence service. In fact, Beria took measures to eliminate the shortcomings foreign intelligence and strengthening its personnel, primarily its management. Beria considered most of the advisory apparatus in the camps of “people's democracy” to be completely unsuitable for the proper performance of the functions assigned to it. If only for the simple reason that almost not a single adviser knew either the language, history, culture, traditions, or mentality of the people of the country in which he worked. Many of them, moreover, behaved completely unceremoniously towards local workers, not so much “advising”, but openly, regardless of the pride of even the ministers and secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties, they commanded.
At the June 1953 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, held immediately after the arrest of Beria and - in violation of the Party Charter - in his absence, the former Minister of Internal Affairs was accused of betraying the cause of socialism for reducing the number of the security apparatus in the GDR by seven times, which allegedly contributed to the outbreak of mass riots on July 17, 1953.
In fact, the mass uprisings of the workers of the GDR, suppressed only by the intervention of the Soviet occupation forces, occurred due to the clumsy policy of the leadership of the republic, which set as its goal the accelerated construction of socialism in East Germany. This policy enjoyed the full support of the USSR both under Stalin and Malenkov. It was for this reason, and not because of the reduction of the security apparatus, that hundreds of thousands of residents of the GDR and East Berlin abandoned their homes and property every year and fled to the West.
Knowing how to be sensible and better informed than his colleagues on the Politburo (Presidium) of the CPSU Central Committee about real life in the Soviet Union and abroad, Beria considered the artificial implantation of socialism in East Germany and, in general, the very theory of two German states, a senseless undertaking. He believed that the best guarantee of maintaining reliable peace in Europe was not the confrontation between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, but the presence of a single democratic, demilitarized, albeit capitalist, German state.
As we know, the unification of Germany did not happen then, and it was due to the fault of both the USSR and the Western powers. The fuse to the powder keg in the form of two German states and two Berlins smoldered in the center of Europe for almost another forty years.
Beria at the same time expressed another heretical idea, which Khrushchev, who overthrew him, put into practice three years later, allegedly as his own initiative: he considered it necessary to restore normal relations with Yugoslavia.
But Beria’s envoy to Tito did not manage to reach any Belgrade. On June 26, 1953, Lavrentiy Beria was arrested. This was followed by the arrests or dismissals from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of many generals and senior officers, both in the central apparatus and locally.
On December 16-23, 1953, in Moscow, under the chairmanship of Marshal Ivan Konev, a Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR was held, formed to consider the case of Lavrenty Beria, Bogdan Kobulov, Vsevolod Merkulov, Vladimir Dekanozov, Pavel Meshik, Lev Vlodzimirsky and Sergei Goglidze.
Among the crimes charged against the defendants were treason and espionage for the intelligence services of the imperialist powers. These accusations could only cause bewilderment among intelligence and counterintelligence veterans who have a good understanding of what espionage is...
However, the defendants were found guilty of numerous crimes and sentenced to capital punishment.
"Act
1953, December 23.
On this date, at 19:50, on the basis of the order of the chairman of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953, No. 003, by me, the commandant of the special judicial presence, Colonel-General P. F. Batitsky, in the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, Actual State Counselor of Justice Rudenko R.A. and Army General Moskalenko K.S. The sentence of the special judicial presence was carried out in relation to the person sentenced to capital punishment - the execution of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria.”
The act is sealed with the signatures of the three named persons.
Another act:
“On December 23, 1953, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Comrade. Lunev, deputy General Military Prosecutor Comrade. Kitaev in the presence of Colonel General Comrade. Hetman, Lieutenant General Bakeev and Major General Sopilnik carried out the sentence of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953 over the convicted:
Kobulov Bogdan Zakharyevich, born in 1904.
Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich, born in 1895.
Dekanozov Vladimir Georgievich, born in 1898.
Meshik Pavel Yakovlevich, born in 1910.
Vlodzimirsky Lev Emelyanovich, born in 1902.
Goglizde Sergei Arsentievich, born in 1901. —
To the death penalty - execution.
On December 23, 1953, the above-mentioned convicts were shot.” Death was confirmed by a doctor (signature).
The archives of the FSB contain tens of thousands of certificates from special departments on the execution of death sentences. None of them mention the performer's name. They were classified persons; they could be listed as anyone in the NKVD staff: drivers, prison guards, security guards.
These two acts are the only exceptions. Executors of death sentences are named both by last name and position.
On September 1, 1953, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Special Meeting under the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs was abolished. Finally, this body of extrajudicial execution, shameful for a country that considers itself a civilized state, has been eliminated.
Soon, the country's top leadership came to the conclusion that it was impossible to entrust the leadership of both state security and internal affairs agencies into one hand. According to the author, this decision was dictated not so much by the interests of the case as by fear. The ordinary fear is that, God forbid, such a two-headed monster is at the disposal of some new Yezhov with the ambitions of the head of the country, many in power will not be able to cut their heads off.
