Lavrenty Beria
Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია, Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия) 9 March 1899: Merkheuli, Russian Empire (Georgia or Abkhazia) 23 December 1953: Moscow, RSFSR Soviet Union). He was a Georgian-Bolshevik, Soviet politician.
Lavrenty Beria | |
|---|---|
Лаврентий Берия | |
 Beria in 1939 | |
| First Deputy Prime Minister of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 5 March 1953 – 26 June 1953 | |
| Premier | Georgy Malenkov |
| Preceded by | Vyacheslav Molotov |
| Succeeded by | Lazar Kaganovich |
| Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 5 March 1953 – 26 June 1953 | |
| Preceded by | Sergei Kruglov |
| Succeeded by | Sergei Kruglov |
| In office 25 November 1938 – 29 December 1945 | |
| First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party | |
| In office 15 January 1934 – 31 August 1938 | |
| In office 14 November 1931 – 18 October 1932 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria 29 March 1899 Merkheuli, Sukhum,Okrug, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire (Today : Georgia) |
| Died | 23 December 1953 (aged 54) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (Today : Russia) |
| Nationality | Soviet, Georgian |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1917-1953) |
| Spouse(s) | Nina Gegechkori |
| Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Nickname(s) | Stalin’s Himmler Our Himmler |
| Rank | Marshal of the Soviet Union |
| Battles/wars | Russian Revolution (1917-1923),Russian Civil War (1917-1923),Polish-Soviet War (1918-1921) World War II (1939-1945),Korean War (1950-1953) |
Beria was born to a poor family in Georgia and joined the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in 1917 at age 18.
Beria was leader of the secret police of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin's regime from 1938-1945 (head of the NKVD) 1946-1953 (Head of the MVD). In 1953, Nikita Krushchev plotted to have Beria executed.
Career
Lavrenty Beria joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1917 during the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. In 1938 He and Nikolai Yezhov executed NKVD Chief Genrikh Yagoda and Leninist Alexei Rykov during the Great Purge from 1936-1938. Genrikh Yagoda was executed with Alexei Rykov in 1938. In 1940 during World War 2 Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria executed Nikolai Yezhov.
After Vladimir Lenin died in 1924 at age 53 Joseph Stalin replaced Lenin after his death and Lavrenty Beria joined the NKVD led by Genrikh Yagoda (1891–1938) from 1934–1936 and Nikolai Yezhov from 1936–1938 which both replaced Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926) and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (1874–1934) in 1926 and in 1934. On 1 December 1934 the NKVD killed Sergei Kirov and it led to the Great Purge in 1936–1938. But in 1939 during the start of World War 2 the NKVD was involved in the Invasion of Poland (1939).
Beria was a Soviet politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus (NKVD) under Joseph Stalin during World War II, against the Nazis from 1941-1945 and First Deputy Premier in the post-war years (1946–53). Nearly five years after the Soviet-Japanese War (1945) ended in World War II in Asia, and after Korea was liberated from Japan, North Korea (lead by Kim Il-Sung) invaded South Korea (lead by Syngman Rhee) on June 25 1950 and started the Korean War. Stalin and his Eastern Bloc (East Germany,Czechoslovakia,Poland,Hungary,Romania and Bulgaria) along with Mongolia led by Khroloogiin Choibalsan, and China led by Mao Zedong all helped Kim Il-Sung.
He administered vast sections of the Soviet state. He served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II. His troops also were a barrier against thousands of "turncoats, deserters, cowards and suspected malingerers". Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps. He was responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as sharashkas, critical to the war effort.
Beria also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, who developed an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "our Himmler".[1] After the war, he organized the communist takeover of the countries of Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
Beria's uncompromising ruthlessness in his duties and skill at producing results led to his overseeing the Soviet atomic bomb project. Stalin gave it absolute priority and the project was completed in under five years. To achieve this, Beria's NKVD organised Soviet espionage against the West.
Stalin died of a stroke on March 5th 1953 at the age of 74. Lavrentiy Beria with Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgy Malenkov, tried to replace Stalin. Beria was arrested on June 26 and was executed on December 23 1953 at the age of 54 and numerous allegations arose of Beria being a serial killer for murdering men, women and children.
Beria was promoted to First Deputy Premier, where he carried out a brief campaign of liberalization. He was briefly a part of the ruling "troika" with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge other Politburo members.
There was a coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev with the military forces of Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Beria was arrested on charges of treason during a meeting in which the full Politburo condemned him. This was all planned by Krushchov.[2][3] The NKVD was powerless because Zhukov's troops were there. After interrogation, Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot, as were six of his associates.[4][5]
Lavrenty Beria Media
Young Svetlana Stalina sitting on Beria's lap, with Stalin (in the background) and Nestor Lakoba in 1931.
Секретарь Закавказского Краевого Комитета ВКП(б) Лаврентий Павлович Берия
The first page of Beria's notice (oversigned by Stalin and several other officials), to kill approximately 15,000 Polish officers and some 10,000 more intellectuals in the Katyn Forest and other places in the Soviet Union.
Beria on Time cover, 20 July 1953
References
- ↑ Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2005). Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar. Random House. p. 483.
- ↑ Beria, Sergo 2003. Beria, My Father: Inside Stalin's Kremlin. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0715632051
- ↑ Knight, Amy 1996. Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03257-2
- ↑ Wittlin, Thaddeus 1972. Commissar: the life and death of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. New York: Macmillan. OCLC 462215687.
- ↑ Yakovlev A.N. Naumov V. and Sigachev Y. 1999. (eds) Lavrenty Beria, 1953. Stenographic Report of July's Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and other documents, International Democracy Foundation, Moscow, 1999 (in Russian). ISBN 5-89511-006-1