Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Лавре́нтий Бе́рия; ლავრენტი ბერია;
	Beria in 1939
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers
	In office; 5 March – 26 June 1953
Premier	Georgy Malenkov
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Molotov
Succeeded by	Lazar Kaganovich
Minister of Internal Affairs
	In office; 5 March – 26 June 1953
Preceded by	Semyon Ignatyev
Succeeded by	Sergei Kruglov
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs
	In office; 25 November 1938 – 15 January 1946
Preceded by	Nikolai Yezhov
Succeeded by	Sergei Kruglov
Premier	In office; 19 March 1946 – 5 March 1953
Additional positions
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers
	In office; 19 March 1946 – 5 March 1953
Premier	Joseph Stalin
First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party
	In office; 15 January 1934 – 31 August 1938
Preceded by	Petre Agniashvili
Succeeded by	Candide Charkviani
	In office; 14 November 1931 – 18 October 1932
Preceded by	Lavrenty Kartvelishvili
Succeeded by	Petre Agniashvili
Full member of the 18th, 19th Politburo
	In office; 18 March 1946 – 7 July 1953
Candidate member of the 18th Politburo
	In office; 22 March 1939 – 18 March 1946
Personal details
Born	Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria; 29 March 1899; Merkheuli, Imperial Russia
Died	23 December 1953 (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	Pavel Beria (father); Marta Jaqeli (mother);
Awards	Hero of Socialist Labour
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	NKVD
Rank	Marshal of the Soviet Union
Wars	World War II

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (/ˈbɛriə/ BERR-ee-ə; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия, IPA: [lɐˈvrʲenʲtʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈbʲerʲɪjə]; Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია, romanized: lavrent'i beria, IPA: [ˈɫavɾentʼi ˈbeɾia]; 29 March [O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union and its state security administrator and chief, and chief of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) under Joseph Stalin during the Second World War, and promoted to deputy premier under Stalin in 1941. He officially joined the Politburo in 1946. Beria was the longest-serving and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after the war. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, he was responsible for organising purges such as the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and officials.^[1]

He would later also orchestrate the forced upheaval of minorities from the Caucasus as head of the NKVD, an act that was declared genocidal by various scholars and, as concerning Chechens, in 2004 by the European Parliament.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state, and acted as the de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of NKVD field units responsible for barrier troops and Soviet partisan intelligence and sabotage operations on the Eastern Front. Beria administered the expansion of the Gulag labour camps, and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret detention facilities for scientists and engineers known as sharashkas. After the war, Beria oversaw the Soviet atomic bomb project, which Stalin gave absolute priority to, and the project was completed in under five years.^[7]

After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria became First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 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 announced. That amnesty led to a substantial increase in crime. A coup d'état by Nikita Khrushchev, with help from former Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, removed Beria from power in June 1953. After being arrested, he was tried for treason and other offences, sentenced to death, and executed on 23 December 1953.

A sexual predator, Beria serially raped scores of girls and young women; there is evidence he murdered some of his victims.

^ Cite error: The named reference 8MNXZ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Europarl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Courtois 2010, pp. 121–122.
^ Werth, Nicolas (2006). "The 'Chechen Problem': Handling an Awkward Legacy, 1918–1958". Contemporary European History. 15 (3): 347–366. doi:10.1017/S0960777306003365. S2CID 145083075.
^ Williams 2015, p. 67.
^ Jones, Adam (2016). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (revised ed.). Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1317533856.
^ Cite error: The named reference US DOE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[8MNXZ-1] Cite error: The named reference 8MNXZ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Europarl-2] Cite error: The named reference Europarl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[FOOTNOTECourtois2010121–122-3] Courtois 2010, pp. 121–122.

[4] Werth, Nicolas (2006). "The 'Chechen Problem': Handling an Awkward Legacy, 1918–1958". Contemporary European History. 15 (3): 347–366. doi:10.1017/S0960777306003365. S2CID 145083075.

[FOOTNOTEWilliams201567-5] Williams 2015, p. 67.

[6] Jones, Adam (2016). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (revised ed.). Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1317533856.

[US_DOE-7] Cite error: The named reference US DOE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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