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Lavrenty Beria short biography and interesting facts. Lavrentiy Beria Interesting unknown facts about Beria

Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich a brief biography and interesting facts from the life of the Russian revolutionary, Soviet statesman and party leader are presented in this article.

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich short biography

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was born on March 29, 1899 in Merheuli into a family of impoverished peasants. From an early age he showed great interest and zeal for knowledge and books. To give their son a decent education, the parents sold half of their house in order to pay for the Sukhumi Higher Primary School.

In 1915, Lavrentiy graduated from college with honors and went on to study at the Baku Secondary Construction School. He combined his studies with work at the Nobel Oil Company. The future revolutionary also organized an illegal communist party and organized an uprising against the Georgian government apparatus. Beria in 1919 became a certified technical builder-architect.

In 1920, he was exiled to Azerbaijan from Georgia for his active position. But soon he returns to Baku and is engaged in security work. Here his mercilessness and toughness manifested themselves. Lavrenty Pavlovich completely concentrated on party work and met with, who saw in Beria a close comrade-in-arms and associate.

In 1931, he was elected to the post of first secretary of the Georgian Central Committee of the party, and 4 years later - a member of the Presidium and Central Executive Committee of the USSR. In 1937, Beria became the leader of the Bolsheviks in Azerbaijan and Georgia, winning the recognition of his comrades and the people. They began to call him “the beloved Stalinist leader.”

But real fame came to him in 1938: Stalin appointed Lavrenty Pavlovich head of the NKVD and he became the second person in the country after Stalin. The first thing he did was carry out repressive reprisals against former security officers and a purge of the government apparatus.

During the Great Patriotic War, the figure joined the State Defense Committee of the country. Beria decided on issues related to the production of mortars, weapons, engines, aircraft, and the formation of air regiments. When hostilities ended, Lavrenty Pavlovich was engaged in the development of the country's nuclear potential and continued mass repressions.

In 1946, Lavrentiy Beria became deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. At the same time, Stalin saw his competitor in the successful figure and began checking his documents. After the death of the head of the Soviet Union, Beria tried to create his own cult of personality, but members of the government formed an alliance against him and organized a conspiracy. The initiator of the conspiracy was. Lavrenty Pavlovich was arrested in July 1953 right at a meeting of the Presidium on charges of treason and connections with British intelligence. The trial of the revolutionary lasted from December 18 to December 23, 1953. As a result, Lavrenty Pavlovich was convicted without the right to appeal or defense, and was sentenced to death.

The death of Lavrentiy Beria overtook him on December 23, 1953. By decision of the court, the activist was shot in the bunker of the Moscow military district headquarters. Where was Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria buried after his death? His body was burned in the Donskoy crematorium, after which the ashes were buried in the Donskoy New Cemetery.

Beria Lavrentiy interesting facts

His sister was deaf and dumb.
He oversaw the construction of the atomic bomb and the testing of nuclear weapons. For this, in 1949, Beria was awarded the Stalin Prize.
He was married to Nina Gegechkori. The marriage produced a son, Sergo, in 1924. Although there is information that Beria lived with another woman in a civil marriage, with a certain Lyalya Drozdova, who gave birth to his daughter Martha.
Scientists are inclined to believe that he had a sick psyche, and Beria was a pervert. In 2003, lists were published that said he had raped more than 750 girls.
He didn’t believe in God, he didn’t wear a cross, but he believed in psychics.
On Sundays he liked to play volleyball.

Lavrentiy Beria is one of the most odious famous politicians of the 20th century, whose activities are still widely discussed in modern society. He was an extremely controversial figure in the history of the USSR and went through a long political path, filled with gigantic repressions of people and immense crimes, which made him the most outstanding “death functionary” in Soviet times. The head of the NKVD was a cunning and treacherous politician, on whose decisions the fate of entire nations depended. Beria carried out his activities under the patronage of the then current head of the USSR, after whose death he intended to take his place at the “helm” of the country. But he lost in the struggle for power and, by court decision, was shot as a traitor to the Motherland.

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born on March 29, 1899 in the Abkhaz village of Merkheuli in the family of poor Mingrelian peasants Pavel Beria and Martha Jakeli. He was the third and only healthy child in the family - the future politician’s older brother died of illness at the age of two, and his sister suffered a serious illness and became deaf and mute. From childhood, young Lavrenty showed a great interest in education and a zeal for knowledge, which was atypical for peasant children. At the same time, the parents decided to give their son a chance to become educated, for which they had to sell half of the house in order to pay for the boy’s studies at the Sukhumi Higher Primary School.

Beria fully justified the hopes of his parents and proved that the money was not spent in vain - in 1915 he graduated from college with honors and entered the Baku Secondary Construction School. Having become a student, he moved his deaf-mute sister and mother to Baku, and in order to support them, along with his studies, he worked at the Nobel oil company. In 1919, Lavrenty Pavlovich received a diploma as a construction technician-architect.

During his studies, Beria organized the Bolshevik faction, in whose ranks he took an active part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, while working as a clerk at the Baku plant “Caspian Partnership White City”. He also led the illegal Communist Party of Technicians, with whose members he organized an armed uprising against the Georgian government, for which he was imprisoned.

In mid-1920, Beria was expelled from Georgia to Azerbaijan. But literally after a short period of time he was able to return to Baku, where he was assigned to do security work, which made him a secret agent of the Baku police. Even then, colleagues of the future head of the NKVD of the USSR noticed in him harshness and mercilessness towards people who dissented from him, which allowed Lavrenty Pavlovich to rapidly develop his career, starting from the deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani Cheka and ending with the position of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR.

Policy

At the end of the 1920s, the biography of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was focused on party work. It was then that he managed to meet the head of the USSR Joseph Stalin, who saw his comrade-in-arms in the revolutionary and showed visible favor to him, which many attribute to the fact that they were of the same nationality. In 1931, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party, and already in 1935 he was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee and the Presidium of the USSR. In 1937, the politician reached another high step on the path to power and became the head of the Tbilisi City Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. Having become the leader of the Bolsheviks in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Beria won the recognition of the people and his comrades, who at the end of each congress praised him, calling him “their favorite Stalinist leader.”

During that period, Lavrentiy Beria managed to develop the national economy of Georgia to a large scale; he made a great contribution to the development of the oil industry and commissioned many large industrial facilities, and transformed Georgia into an all-Union resort area. Under Beria, Georgian agriculture increased 2.5 times in volume, and high prices were set for products (tangerines, grapes, tea), which made the Georgian economy the most prosperous in the country.

Real fame came to Lavrentiy Beria in 1938, when Stalin appointed him head of the NKVD, which made the politician the second-largest person in the country after the head. Historians claim that the politician earned such a high position thanks to his active support of the Stalinist repressions of 1936-38, when the Great Terror took place in the country, which included “cleansing” the country of “enemies of the people.” In those years, almost 700 thousand people lost their lives because they were subjected to political persecution due to disagreement with the current government.

Head of the NKVD

Having become the head of the NKVD of the USSR, Lavrentiy Beria distributed leadership positions in the department to his associates from Georgia, thereby strengthening his influence on the Kremlin and Stalin. In his new post, he immediately carried out a large-scale repression of former security officers and carried out a total purge of the country’s leadership apparatus, becoming Stalin’s “right hand” in all matters.

At the same time, it was Beria, according to most historical experts, who was able to put an end to large-scale Stalinist repressions, as well as release from prison many military and civil servants who were recognized as “unreasonably convicted.” Thanks to such actions, Beria gained a reputation as the person who restored “legality” in the USSR.

During the Great Patriotic War, Beria became a member of the State Defense Committee, in which at that time all power in the country was localized. Only he made the final decisions on the production of weapons, aircraft, mortars, engines, as well as on the formation and transfer of air regiments at the front. Responsible for the “military spirit” of the Red Army, Lavrenty Pavlovich used the so-called “weapons of fear”, resuming mass arrests and public executions for all soldiers and spies who did not want to fight and were captured. Historians attribute the victory in the Second World War largely to the harsh policies of the head of the NKVD, in whose hands the entire military-industrial potential of the country was located.

After the war, Beria began developing the nuclear potential of the USSR, but at the same time continued to carry out mass repressions in the countries allied to the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, where most of the male population was imprisoned in concentration camps and colonies (GULAG). It was these prisoners who were involved in military production, carried out under conditions of strict secrecy, which was ensured by the NKVD.

With the help of a team of nuclear physicists led by Beria and the coordinated work of intelligence officers, Moscow received clear instructions on the construction of an atomic bomb created in the United States. The first successful test of nuclear weapons in the USSR was carried out in 1949 in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, for which Lavrenty Pavlovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.

In 1946, Beria entered Stalin’s “inner circle” and became deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. A little later, the head of the USSR saw him as his main competitor, so Joseph Vissarionovich began to carry out a “purge” in Georgia and check Lavrenty Pavlovich’s documents, which complicated the relationship between them. In this regard, by the time of Stalin's death, Beria and several of his allies had created an unspoken alliance aimed at changing some of the foundations of Stalin's rule.

He tried to strengthen his position in power by signing a series of decrees aimed at introducing judicial reforms, a global amnesty and a ban on harsh interrogation methods with episodes of abuse of prisoners. Thus, he intended to create for himself a new cult of personality, opposite to the Stalinist dictatorship. But, since he had practically no allies in the government, after Stalin’s death a conspiracy was organized against Beria, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.

In July 1953, Lavrentiy Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium. He was accused of connections with British intelligence and treason. This became one of the most high-profile cases in Russian history among members of the highest echelon of power of the Soviet state.

Death

The trial of Lavrenty Beria took place from December 18 to 23, 1953. He was convicted by a “special tribunal” without the right to defense or appeal. Specific charges in the case of the former head of the NKVD were a number of illegal murders, espionage for Great Britain, repressions of 1937, rapprochement with, treason.

On December 23, 1953, Beria was shot by decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. After the execution, Lavrenty Pavlovich’s body was burned in the Donskoy crematorium, and the ashes of the revolutionary were buried in the New Donskoy cemetery.

According to historians, Beria’s death allowed the entire Soviet people to breathe a sigh of relief, who until the last day considered the politician a bloody dictator and tyrant. And in modern society he is accused of mass repressions of more than 200 thousand people, which included a number of Russian scientists and prominent intellectuals of that time. Lavrenty Pavlovich is also credited with a number of orders for the execution of Soviet soldiers, which during the war years only played into the hands of the enemies of the USSR.

In 1941, the former head of the NKVD carried out the “extermination” of all anti-Soviet figures, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, including women and children. During the war years, he carried out a total deportation of the peoples of Crimea and the North Caucasus, the scale of which reached a million people. That is why Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria became the most controversial political figure in the USSR, in whose hands was the power over the destinies of the people.

Personal life

The personal life of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria is still a separate topic that requires serious study. He was officially married to Nina Gegechkori, who bore him a son in 1924. The wife of the ex-head of the NKVD throughout her life supported her husband in his difficult activities and was his most devoted friend, whom she tried to justify even after his death.

Throughout his political activity at the heights of power, Lavrenty Pavlovich was known as a “Kremlin rapist” with an unbridled passion for the fair sex. Beria and his women are still considered the most mysterious part of the life of a prominent political figure. There is information that in recent years he lived in two families - his common-law wife was Lyalya Drozdova, who gave birth to his illegitimate daughter Marta.

At the same time, historians do not rule out that Beria had a sick psyche and was a pervert. This is confirmed by the politician’s “lists of sexual victims,” the presence of which was recognized in the Russian Federation in 2003. It is reported that the number of victims of the maniac Beria is more than 750 girls whom he raped using sadistic methods.

Historians say that very often the head of the NKVD sexually harassed schoolgirls 14-15 years old, whom he imprisoned in soundproof interrogation rooms at Lubyanka, where he subjected them to sexual perversion. During interrogation, Beria admitted that he had physical sexual relations with 62 women, and since 1943 he suffered from syphilis, which he contracted from a seventh-grader in one of the schools near Moscow. Also in his safe, during the search, items of women's underwear and children's dresses were found, which were stored next to items characteristic of perverts.

. Myth. The atrocities of L. Beria were thoroughly investigated and brought to court

Fact. Beria's case consisted of 45 volumes, which were collected over six months. But 90% of the materials are not original documents and interrogation reports, but typewritten copies certified by Prosecutor General Yuryeva. What kind of prosecutor doesn't demand originals? And did they exist at all? There were many violations in the Beria case. If he was arrested on June 26, then on what grounds, since the case was opened only on June 30? The decree depriving Beria of parliamentary immunity dated June 26 contains a reference to a case that had not yet been opened! This was obviously done in hindsight. There is not a single protocol in the case, even in the form of a certified copy, of Beria’s confrontation with others arrested because of him. This suggests that the “gang members” no longer had anyone to meet with. The arrested, realizing what this meant, began to blame everything on the boss. There is not a single examination, not a single investigative experiment in the case, and no forensic photography was used. There were many references to long-dead persons who could not refute their words.

Myth. L. Beria repressed leading officials of Ukraine

Fact. We are talking about Postyshev, Kosior and Chubar. Firstly, they themselves were quite cruel leaders who carried out mass repressions. Thus, Postyshev generally signed not even lists of convicts, but lines with their number. In January 1938, at the Plenum, he defiantly declared that he would continue arrests and extermination of enemies of the people. Almost immediately, Postyshev was removed from the list of candidates for membership in the Politburo and arrested. But then Yezhov was at the head of the NKVD. There was still six months before Beria arrived there. Postyshev’s case was personally checked by Molotov and Voroshilov, and the politician was shot for the wholesale destruction of party members and innocent people. Kosior and Chubar were behind collectivization in Ukraine and the subsequent famine. Kosior was arrested on May 3, 1938, again long before Beria joined the NKVD. And the verdict was passed on the criminals by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court.

Myth. L. Beria suggested that Stalin create barrier detachments to shoot the retreating Fact. In fact, barrier detachments have been known since ancient times; they were used even before Ancient Rome. But in the Russian army such measures were not used. During the Civil War, barrier detachments were created at critical moments to avoid escape from the front. And during the Second World War, the directive on the creation of detachments was signed on June 27 by Timoshenko and Zhukov. By order of the Headquarters, this practice was extended to all fronts. The NKVD barrage detachments caught stragglers and those who fled from the front, detaining 650 thousand people only until October 10, 1941! In this way, Beria’s units solved the strategic problem, preventing the front from falling apart. Of this number, only 25 thousand were arrested, the rest returned to the front. So what kind of atrocities can we talk about? There are orders from Zhukov, who proposed shooting all deserters indiscriminately.

Myth. L. Beria sent the liberated Soviet prisoners of war to the Gulag

Fact. It turns out that even in the 1938 edition of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, an article appeared according to which surrender to the enemy in an inappropriate situation was punishable by execution with confiscation of property. First of all, it is worth noting that there is a myth that the Red Army surrendered en masse, especially in 1941. Figures range from 4.5 to 6.2 million people. The Germans themselves meticulously calculated that in 1941 they captured 2.5 million soldiers. On August 16, 1941, the headquarters issued a strict order that made it possible to punish deserters and those who surrendered. These were cruel measures, but the country was also on the brink of disaster. In December 1941, by orders of the State Defense Committee and Stalin, filtration camps were created to check those released from captivity. In fact, this was a completely necessary measure. There is a document dated October 1, 1944, according to which 350 thousand military personnel who emerged from encirclement and were released from captivity were checked. 250 thousand people were transferred back to the army after verification, another 30 thousand were sent to work in industry. Only 11,500 people were arrested by SMERSH authorities. It follows from the document that over 95% of former prisoners of war were checked; in total, based on the results of the war, the figure fluctuates at 90%. With the end of the battles, the number of people in the filtration camps increased sharply. Of the 1.8 million people, 1 million passed the test and these people were returned to the army. Another 600 thousand were sent to work in industry and to restore the economy. 340 thousand people ended up in the camps, that is, only about 18% of those checked. There is also an interesting GKO document dated August 18, 1945, in which the “ferocity” towards former prisoners is refuted by at least permission to take families to their place of work.

Myth. L. Beria was a member of a special tribunal of the 1937 model.

Fact. Even Khrushchev’s investigators could not find information that L. Beria was a member of a special tribunal of the 1937 model, colloquially referred to as the “troika”. Myth. L. Beria, together with Abakumov, concocted the false Leningrad case. Fact. On December 29, 1945, Marshal Beria was relieved of his duties as People's Commissar and began implementing the atomic project. So he had no relationship with the state security agencies, with the exception of atomic intelligence. The ministry was under the control of Abakumov, who launched the high-profile case. And execution sentences were carried out by the MGB.

Myth. L. Beria killed Stalin, who stopped trusting him

Fact. The issue of transferring Beria to the Lubyanka to the post of minister was decided during Stalin’s lifetime. Would he appoint a person he did not trust as head of the intelligence services? This decision was due to the chaos and violations that have appeared in the MGB in recent years. And Khrushchev was in charge of the ministry; Beria immediately began to dismiss his proteges from the authorities. Lavrentiy Pavlovich already had experience in restoring the work of state security and internal affairs agencies. He even managed to request the Central Committee's sanction for the arrest of former Minister of State Security Ignatiev, having identified Stalin's killers. But L. Beria was no longer allowed to complete the matter.

Myth. L. Beria, being an agent of Western intelligence, advocated the unification of Germany Fact. This charge was brought against Beria retroactively, after his execution. The most interesting thing is that history has proven him right. In 1989, Germany was united thanks to Gorbachev, although this could have happened much earlier and on the initiative of a completely different person. The very idea of fragmenting Germany belonged to the Americans and the British, who did not want to see a powerful competitor in the center of Europe. Stalin repeatedly emphasized that in the future he saw a united and strong democratic Germany, and saw its split as an extreme measure. Back in March 1947, unrest began in the American zone due to the looting of the occupiers. Western propaganda trumpeted with all its might that in the Soviet half they did not live so well-fed and democratically. The USSR closely followed the unrest that arose in the GDR, not without the participation of Western intelligence services. Molotov, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, proposed sending Soviet troops into this country to support the regime. Unexpectedly, Beria spoke up and said that the main thing was peace in Germany, and what form of government would no longer matter. He motivated his position by saying that a single country, even a bourgeois one, would become a serious counterweight to America. Thanks to harsh measures and the deployment of troops, the unrest in the GDR was suppressed. And Beria’s principled position turned out to be misunderstood, but prophetic.

Myth. L. Beria is personally to blame for the repressions against Molotov’s ex-wife, Polina Zhemchuzhina

Fact. This myth appeared thanks to Molotov himself. There is a legend about how, immediately after his appointment to the post of People's Commissar, Beria asked Molotov how he could help. Allegedly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs asked to return Polina Zhemchuzhina. Based on the wording, one might think that it was Lavrenty Pavlovich who put her behind bars. In fact, Beria had nothing to do with this, since at the time of the woman’s arrest, investigation and sentencing, he was not the head of the MGB. Abakumov sat in this post. He knew that Zhemchuzhina conveyed Molotov’s secrets to the Israeli ambassador, and her other actions directly spoke of espionage activities. Molotov’s wife was released the day after Stalin’s death, on the orders of Beria, and was immediately rehabilitated and reinstated in the party. So Lavrenty Pavlovich played only a positive role in the fate of Zhemchuzhina

.Myth. Because of L. Beria, potatoes, vegetables and herring disappeared from the USSR in 1953. Fact. Beria is often portrayed as the culprit of problems in agriculture. Allegedly, he sent a draft solution to the problem with vegetables to the Presidium of the Central Committee for revision. But there were 10 people on the Presidium who could make a decision with an overwhelming majority. In fact, it was Beria who understood more than all other politicians in agriculture, closely dealing with this issue in the 1930s in Georgia. He fundamentally demanded a revision of the crude project. And later Mikoyan blamed Beria for the shortage of herring, which has nothing to do with reality at all.

Myth. L. Beria eavesdropped on Stalin in the Kremlin

Fact. This myth has appeared in our time. During the recent reconstruction of the Kremlin, evidence emerged that Stalin's office was bugged. They immediately blamed the “gray eminence” of the Soviet Union, Beria, for everything. Journalists seized on the famous surname, realizing that no one would be interested in a smaller figure. Within the structure of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - CPSU there was a special service department, which in 1952-1953 was headed by Deputy Minister of State Security I. Savchenko, a close comrade of Khrushchev. It was she who had every opportunity to bug Stalin’s office. In the last year of his life, he was alarmed by the activities of Khrushchev. It was not difficult to install wiretapping - the leader rarely came to the Kremlin in the last months of his life.

Myth. on the eve of the war, L. Beria defeated Soviet intelligence

Fact. Before 1937, military intelligence was a sad spectacle. Failures followed one after another, chaos reigned. There were many suspicious characters among the agents; the employees were foreigners with relatives abroad. In addition, there were plenty of Trotsky supporters in the composition. For whom such a structure worked is another question. Beria only completed the process begun under Yezhov. Under him, both the age and national composition of the service changed. As a result, during World War II, Soviet intelligence began to be considered the strongest in the world. Those who remained at the post were professionals who served not for the ephemeral ideas of the world revolution, but for their Motherland. Beria restored legality in the activities of special departments, helped improve the efficiency of the service, its interaction and coordination

.Myth. on the eve of the war, L. Beria initiated the deportation of the population of Western Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltic states

Fact. The archives contain quite clear figures on the deportation of the Baltic states on the eve of the war. Out of a population of 4 million, only 40 thousand people were arrested and deported, including prostitutes and criminals. State security agencies had accurate information that in the event of war, a fifth column would be involved in the new territories. Merkulov prepared a note for the Central Committee on clearing the Baltic states of counter-revolutionaries, former guards, gendarmes, officers, and landowners. This measure was cruel and in no way democratic. But the state sought to strengthen its security in this way. And Merkulov left the signature on the document. Similar measures were taken in Ukraine. Belarus and Moldova. Also, not everyone was evicted, but those who were already compromised and posed a potential danger. Myth. on the initiative of L. Beria, at the end of the war, mass deportation of Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Ingush, Kabardians and other small peoples was carried out

Fact. From the point of view of Soviet laws, representatives of these peoples committed such crimes that almost the entire male population would have to be shot. This would be real genocide. So the Soviet government chose a much softer path for retribution. The peoples who collaborated with the Germans were deported to places where they could not bring harm to the country. There is no point in talking about genocide, because the deported peoples surpassed other peoples of the country, especially the Slavs, in demographics. The statement that Beria received the Order of Suvorov for such an action is also a lie. The award took place on March 7, 1944, as the head of the NKVD was recognized by the leadership for his participation in making a turning point during the war. And the eviction of Chechens and Ingush began only on February 23, which cannot be connected with the reward. And the cooperation of the mentioned peoples with the fascists is a proven fact - the Germans understood the importance of the Crimea and the Caucasus and were preparing to start a civil war there, collaborating with the indigenous peoples. And often the initiators of the eviction of peoples were not Stalin and Beria, but the commanders of the fronts. They had to attract up to 15% of their forces to fight gangs in the rear. So the problem needed a solution.

Myth. under the leadership of L. Beria, the internal affairs bodies allowed mass espionage by the German intelligence services, which in many ways became the cause of the tragedy of June 22

Fact. It is easy to debunk this myth if you turn to the professional opinion of the Germans. At the Nuremberg trials, the Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces, Field Marshal Keitel, said that information about the Soviet Union and the Red Army was extremely scarce. The agents' data concerned the tactical zone, but information was never received that seriously affected the course of hostilities. One of the leaders of the Abwehr, General Pickenbrock, said that military intelligence in the USSR did not fulfill its tasks. But this happened not because of the lack of professionalism of the employees, but because of good counterintelligence and the vigilance of the military and civilians. And there were many similar testimonies - German intelligence failed, not revealing our secrets. On the eve of the war, the Germans did not know how many divisions were opposing them, nor how many tanks could be produced for the war. And the tragedy of June 22 was caused, first of all, by the mistakes of the military and the violation of banal camouflage

.Myth. L. Beria planned to surrender the Caucasus to Hitler

Fact. This myth was invented by the generals; they could not admit that the Caucasus was preserved precisely thanks to Beria. True, there is little scientific material left about his participation in those events; one has to be content with the memoirs of biased contemporaries. For example, A.A. Grechko wrote that the arrival of Beria in his army caused harm, he introduced nervousness and disorganization. In fact, the 46th Army was unable to protect the passes, and GKO member Beria was sent there at the most crucial moment. The defense of the Caucasus was carried out poorly from a strategic point of view. Beria immediately appointed reliable officers to key positions, removing Budyonny and Kaganovich from command. On Beria’s initiative, 175 passes were urgently studied and their protection and defense was organized. The construction of defensive structures has begun on the Georgian Military and Ossetian Military roads, and the security of communications has been strengthened. Beria organized the air defense of the Baku oil field. And the NKVD troops, under the direct leadership of their people's commissar, performed excellently in the most difficult days.

Myth. special departments led by L. Beria prevented the commanders of the Red Army from fighting effectively with their denunciations

Fact. This myth was beneficial to Soviet military leaders, who blamed their failures on Beria and the NKVD. From the reports of the same Abakumov it is clear that the command made many mistakes, including tactical ones, losing personnel. Obviously, these comments went to the top, helping to correct the shortcomings. Myth. Beria is guilty of the death of Sergo Ordzhonikidze and the persecution of his family

Fact.

The myth was born thanks to Khrushchev. Judging by the known facts, Ordzhonikidze actively defended Beria and maintained friendly relations with him through correspondence. Beria even named his son in honor of his older comrade. And the areas of activity of these two people did not intersect. When Ordzhonikidze’s brother was arrested and the second one was injured, Sergo asked Beria to help, which he did. And the reason for Ordzhonikidze’s suicide lies in his poor health and nervous, impressionable character. And he himself saw that his People’s Commissariat was subjected to an inspection that showed poor results, which was the cause of stress. So Beria had nothing to do with Ordzhonikidze’s death. Even when he came to Tbilisi, he stayed not at the brothers’ house, but at his friend Lavrentiy’s

. Fact. L. Beria's behavior in everything, including in foreign policy affairs, sharply contrasted with the state laxity of the rest of his colleagues, but was Beria to blame for that? And his state energy and leadership qualities would be very useful to Russia not only within the country, but also in the foreign policy arena. Khrushchev sometimes behaved impudently in the outside world. He knocked his shoes on the table at the UN - this is where his behavior really needs to be assessed as idiotic and cheeky. At the same time, Khrushchev could behave almost like a lackey. There is a very expressive photograph - on June 4, 1956, in the Kremlin, Khrushchev obsequiously shakes the hand of the monumentally frozen Joseph Broz Tito. He presses, almost bent into an arc, smiling like a sex worker who is about to be given a generous tip. Is it possible to imagine Beria behaving in this way? In relations with external partners, he behaved with the utmost correctness and politeness, but with an undoubted sense of both personal and state dignity

.Fact. L. Beria did not look at our foreign economic relations as a way to “feed” the countries of people's democracy and thereby turn them into parasites of the Soviet Union. Under Khrushchev and later Brezhnev, this vicious practice became stronger and stronger, not strengthening the USSR, but weakening it. Under Beria, everything would have been different. To see this, let us turn to Mikoyan’s speech at the Anti-Beria plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in July 1953. Then Mikoyan was indignant that Beria did not want to agree to halving (!) Czechoslovakia’s contractual obligations for the supply of diesel engines to the USSR for the oil industry. I quote Mikoyan: “We had a long-term agreement on supplies. True, perhaps the deliveries could have gone a little better, but that’s not the point. But Beria got mad when he somehow learned about the long-term agreement. On what basis is there such disintegration, such an indulgence for the Czechs and so on". It is worth saying that the “brotherly” Czech state economy was not averse to starting to speculate on “brotherly” relations and treating orders from the USSR carelessly. This is exactly what the Minister of Trade Mikoyan agreed to, this is what the Khrushchevites began to do after the elimination of Beria. And this is exactly what Beria would not do! In the countries of the world socialist camp, they would begin to look at the USSR not as a feeding trough, but as a tough partner in business relations, but extremely profitable due to the hugeness of the domestic market.

Fact. The place of the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs and State Security in the system of state and military administration of the USSR was also determined by the fact that all this work was carried out under the direct control of I.V. Stalin and L.P. Beria. The purposefulness inherent in their style of activity, the dominance of political expediency over ideological and legal considerations, strict demands and control of execution, timely adoption of the necessary organizational and legal decisions (110 GKO resolutions were devoted to the regulation of the activities of the NKVD alone) contributed to the fact that the goals set before them in years of war have been achieved. Attempts by enemy special services to destabilize the situation in the country, using the internal political and economic problems of the USSR, as well as difficulties caused by the complex ethnocultural and religious composition of the population, and the presence of vast poorly developed territories, did not produce any significant results. Achieving individual successes, they ultimately lost the confrontation with similar services of the USSR: the Soviet political regime survived, the state did not collapse even in its most difficult days, when the enemy had the strategic initiative and the victorious outcome of the war for the Soviet Union was not yet obvious (Encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945")

Fact. "At the beginning of 1944, after L.P. Beria was appointed administrative head of the Soviet atomic project, under his leadership the first meeting of the heads of military intelligence and NKVD intelligence was held, dedicated to the analysis of the possibilities for obtaining documentary materials and samples related to the development of USA atomic weapons. To increase the efficiency of the actions of the Soviet intelligence services in the field of obtaining information about the atomic projects of the USA and England, on the instructions of L. P. Beria, department “C” was created in the NKVD, and Colonel P. A. Sudoplatov was appointed its head. The main tasks of this department were to coordinate the activities of the Intelligence Directorate and the NKVD in collecting information on the uranium problem and implementing the obtained data within the country" (Encyclopedia "The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945").

Fact. From the memoirs of an atomic project worker V.N. Mokhov: “In our team there was an extraordinary freedom of discussion and exchange of opinions. Apparently, the curator of work on the creation of nuclear weapons L.P. Beria considered this acceptable and necessary for creating a creative atmosphere. We could spend hours discussing not only scientific and technical problems, but also philosophical issues related to nuclear weapons, including purely political aspects." As we see, a major Soviet weapons physicist directly points to the personality of L. Beria as the source of the creative atmosphere in the Soviet scientific community! It turns out that it was from Beria that a businesslike, but mutually friendly, atmosphere came in the relations between efficient workers, between people of action, honestly doing this common, one for all, business.

Fact. As the war progressed, the domestic military-industrial complex not only eliminated the temporary superiority of the Third Reich in the production of weapons and military equipment, but was also able to surpass the enemy in both the quantity and quality of weapons. During the war, the USSR produced more than 108 thousand combat aircraft (1.4 times more than Germany), 104.4 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns (1.8 times more), about 445.7 thousand field guns caliber 76 mm and higher (2.2 times) and mortars (5.1 times). By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 30, 1943, L.P. Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor “for special services in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions.” _________________

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. Today no historian can unambiguously evaluate and fully understand this political and public figure. 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. From early childhood, Lavrenty 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

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

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. According to the official version, N.S. Khrushchev convened a meeting of the Presidium on June 26, 1953, where Beria was arrested. He was accused of having links 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 made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of 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 of the 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

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

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 of items characteristic of male perverts were found. 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.

Childhood and teenage years of the future politician

First steps in big politics

Georgian reign period

Accomplice of Stalin's repressions

Pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria

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 State Administration of Camps (GULAG) system was formed. 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. The first tests of 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.

The struggle for the state throne

Reformer or "great schemer"

Arrest and death: unanswered questions

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 made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of 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 of the 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 a beautiful girl, his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approached 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 of items characteristic of male perverts were found. 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.