Lavrentiy Beria
Soviet secret police chief (1899–1953) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (/ˈbɛriə/ BERR-ee-ə; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия, IPA: [lɐˈvrʲenʲtʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈbʲerʲɪjə]; Georgian: ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია, romanized: Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; 29 March [O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 to 1946, during the country's involvement in the Second World War.
Lavrentiy Beria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 5 March – 26 June 1953 (1953-03-05 – 1953-06-26) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Premier | Georgy Malenkov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 5 March – 26 June 1953 (1953-03-05 – 1953-06-26) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Premier | Georgy Malenkov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Sergei Kruglov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Sergei Kruglov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 25 November 1938 – 15 January 1946 (1938-11-25 – 1946-01-15) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Nikolai Yezhov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Sergei Kruglov | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (1899-03-29)29 March 1899 Merkheuli, Imperial Russia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 23 December 1953(1953-12-23) (aged 54) Moscow, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cause of death | Execution by shooting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Citizenship | Russian (1899–1917) Azerbaijani (1918–1920) Soviet (1920–1953) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917–1953) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Nina Gegechkori | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parents |
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Awards | Hero of Socialist Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Branch/service | NKVD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wars | World War II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An ethnic Georgian, Beria enlisted in the Cheka in 1920, and quickly rose through its ranks. He transferred to Communist Party work in the Caucasus in the 1930s, and in 1938 was appointed head of the NKVD by Stalin. His ascent marked the end of the Stalinist Great Purge carried out by previous chief Nikolai Yezhov, whom Beria purged. After the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Beria organized the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia, and after the occupation of the Baltic states and parts of Romania in 1940, he oversaw the deportations of hundreds of thousands of Poles, Balts, and Romanians to remote areas or Gulag camps. In 1941, Beria began a new purge of the Red Army. After Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union later that year, he was appointed to the State Defense Committee, overseeing security.
Beria expanded the system of forced labour, mobilizing millions of Gulag prisoners into wartime production, and acted as the de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of NKVD units responsible for barrier and partisan intelligence and sabotage operations on the Eastern Front. In 1943–1944, Beria oversaw the deportation of millions of people from ethnic minorities in the Caucasus, an act which has been described by many scholars as ethnic cleansing or genocide. Beria was also responsible for supervising secret Gulag detention facilities for scientists and engineers, known as sharashkas. From 1945, he personally oversaw the Soviet atomic bomb project, which Stalin gave absolute priority to; the project was completed in 1949.[1] After the war, Beria was made a Marshal in 1945, and promoted to a full member of the Politburo in 1946.
After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria became head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In this dual capacity, he formed a troika with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov that briefly led the country in Stalin's place. The Gulag system was transferred to the Ministry of Justice, and a mass release of over a million prisoners was undertaken. In June 1953, a coup d'état by Nikita Khrushchev, with the support of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, removed Beria from power. He was arrested, tried for treason and other offences, and executed in December. A prolific sexual predator, Beria serially raped scores of girls and young women; there is evidence he murdered some of his victims.