Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich - biography. Lavrenty Beria and the Jewish Question

1. Name Beria (Beg e a) (translated from the Hebrew “son of misfortune”), has biblical roots: that was the name of several characters of the Old Testament and that was the name of one of the Syrian cities.

3. Many Soviet Jews blame L.P. Beria 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 the "rootless cosmopolitans", the murder of S. Mikhoels, the massacre of members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and, of course, the case of "killer doctors" and preparations 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 and talk about biblical prophecies.

We will try to briefly cover the rest of the issues, illustrating, where possible, with examples of the intersection of L. Beria with Jewish contemporaries, trying to see the whole behind the details, but by no means justify it, whitewash it, wash it off from blood. My personal attitude to the issue is determined, in particular, the fact that for ten years I had a chance 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 the time when his publications and interviews about his father were still impossible, and later. The monologues of Sergei Alekseevich, to some extent, were colored by the natural desire of the son, at least in part, to “brighten” the image of the father.

L.P. Beria

The question of the attitude of the LP (hereinafter I will call the father, and the son - SA) to the Jews is actively discussed by both Jewish authors and Russian national patriots. self-rehabilitation for all the crimes 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 deeds of the biblical king Ahasuerus, who first authorized the extermination of the Jews, and then saved them.

In the eyes of the Russian national patriots, the LP is, firstly, the murderer of Stalin, and secondly, if not a Jew, then their undoubted 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 seems to me personally that he was neither a Judeophobe nor a Judophile, but was a man of a specific cause. He was a born pragmatist - a perfectionist, a person charged to achieve maximum results. He aspired to this and achieved this in any task entrusted to him, abstracting from the moral conflicts accompanying the task, even if it was not only ungodly, but simply criminal and inhuman.

And he considered each person mainly through the prism of suitability in a particular case, psychological compatibility, reliability, and the ability to abstract from these same conflicts. And if a person demonstrated these qualities, he arranged the LP, regardless of nationality.

As the SA repeatedly emphasized, on a personal level, LP was not nationally blind. And indeed, in his immediate environment, where there were people of different nationalities, Jews were indispensable. This applies to all areas of the LP's activity: both to its work in the Caucasus, and in state security, and, in particular, in intelligence and the Atomic project. Even such an antipode of the LP as A. Antonov-Ovseenko does not accuse the LP of anti-Semite phobia: “ When appointing governors, the new people's commissar often gave preference to fellow countrymen, but, in essence, he was a kind of internationalist in the basest sense of the word, an omnivorous politician, ready to utilize the necessary people of any nationality for himself. Despite the fact that the above quote is permeated with hatred for LP, this facet of his psychological portrait corresponds to reality.

Equally, if the task was to eliminate a person, then there is no need to talk about Judophilia. The role of the LP in the murder of L.D. Trotsky is known. By his personal order in 1941 Jews, heroes of Spain and Khalkhin Gol, were shot without trial: 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, the defector V. Krivitsky, also a Jew, was liquidated in the United States. Atwhile when the LP was in Moscow, Jews were repressed: journalist M. Koltsov (arrested on 12/14/1938), writer I. Babel (arrested on 05/15/1939) and others. 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 sure that the Jews were useful to the country. That the country needed intellectual strength, the carriers of which in the mass are Jews, in the energy inherent in many of them, a creative approach to business, a 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 in the interaction of Jews with representatives of other cultures. But he disapproved of Jewish aspirations to enter politics and their claims to leadership positions, believing that this leads 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, the cornerstone is only nationality. Or maybe it's a tribute to the conjuncture? Knowing about the political opportunism inherent in the Jewish environment, which he himself, according to the SA, justified by centuries of persecution, the LP did not consider it possible to openly rely on them.

In summary, let's say that the LP respected the Jews, valued them and knew how to use them in the interests of the cause. Perhaps this attitude stemmed from the fact that he was, as the English say, "a man who made himself." Having not received a serious formal education, which he regretted all his life, he nevertheless understood the importance of science, knowledge, a truly creative approach and appreciated them. And in the Jewish environment, these components have always been well represented. Or maybe he spontaneously, inwardly felt what is today called the Pareto Law? According to one interpretation of this law, in any business, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. And in these 20% of Jews there are always a disproportionate number of what, in real life, the fact is confirmed that the true elite in any field are not those who are on top, but those who are wealthy.

And the last. As a top manager, LP was distinguished by his ability to find the best performer for each problem. And always and in everything, he sought to put his subordinates in conditions of intense competition. And, for its maximum sharpness, next to the Jew, usually, there was an anti-Semite. Thus, the maximum sharpness of competition was guaranteed. Moreover, if the case required, the LP often went into conflict with ideology. And the people whom he trusted and considered useful for the cause, he defended as best he could.

And now let's try to fill the outlined general assessment with concrete content.

Start over

About the origin. Forged inthe mountain village of Merkheuli inAbkhazian and by nationality was a Mingrelian. Father - a poor peasant Pavle Beria. Mother, Martha Jakeli (1882-1955), seemed to be a distant relative of the Dadiani princes. According to Avtorkhanov, when Stalin was seized 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 given. And her middle name does not lend credibility to the Stalinist verdict. Interestingly, 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. Note that if Iosif Vissarionovich admitted the idea of ​​the applicability of general assessments 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.

Finishing his studies at the Sukhum real school, in his mountain village, young Lavrenty 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 a 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. At the same time, it was impossible to bypass the question of the role of the Jews in history in general and the history of religion.

L.P. Beria

The first practical experience of business communication with Jews was acquired by LP during the period of the Chekist work in Baku. He obtained funds to finance the intelligence service and the Soviet administration by selling two tankers of oil with the help of a young Jew. The mediator received a commission and the opportunity to emigrate.

During the period of work in Georgia, there were not so many Jews surrounded by the LP. But 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 spouse 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 LP, went through all the steps of his career ladder, first up, and then down, until the execution. It includes Russians V. Merkulov, V. Dekanozov, Armenian B. Kobulov, Georgian S. Goglidze , Jew S. Milshtein.

Now on the issue of Jewish sorrows. As indicated above, I am by no means going to justify, whitewash the LP, launder it from the blood, but the organizations of the "Great Terror" of 1937. on an allied scale, he did not and could not have relations by official position. Or rather, he had an attitude, fulfilling Moscow's directives on a scale of Georgia, which, in general, is also quite a lot.

Order of secret affairs

He was transferred to Moscow in the summer of 1938, and was 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, some of the prisoners, in particular, many military men, were released and rehabilitated. After his arrival at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the repressions were significantly reduced, but did not stop. In the period 1939-1945, the LP was involved in many massacres, expulsions and deportations, but they were not of a anti-Semite nature. This, of course, does not diminish their criminal, bestial character. The Jews were repressed, so to speak, on a general basis, without singling them out in one direction or the other. In the aforementioned execution of J. Smushkevich and G. Stern, 18 other 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 06/15/1939).

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?

I can be pointed out that during the “post-Yezhov” purge of the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out by the LP, the number of Jews decreased from 21% to 5%. Half were repressed, and the other half were fired during the purge. It seems to me that the point here is not the anti-Semitism of the LP. For the most part, they were nominees from the time of the Civil War. With the uncompromisingness, unrestraint and cruelty inherent in this generation of Chekists. In addition, they openly claimed a special role in the life of the country and, apparently, in the eyes of Stalin became dangerous.It is a sin to say so, but they did so much lawlessness that their death was, obviously, a well-deserved result of their activities.

At the same time, after this purge, a number of Jews remained in the NKVD, who occupied a fairly high position. These people, in turn, were mainly arrested or removed during the promotion of the “Zionist conspiracy” in the state security system, and later repressed again, already as “ henchmen of Beria.

In 2000-2001 in the press there was an accusation of LP in authorship"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? All other interracial marriages should be considered positive." Historian G. Kostyrchenko ("Lechaim", May 2002) showed that these documents are clumsily crafted fakes, rewriting of Nazi primary sources. Although even today national-patriots in Russia and Ukraine are not averse to reanimating and implementing such approaches.

Agents and residents

Even before the war, the LP had skillfully established the productive use of Jewish emigrants from Russia, the USSR and Europe in the interests of the USSR. The anti-Semitic practice of fascism contributed to the fact that the Jews of the whole world were inclined to help the USSR. At the disposal of the LP was a personal network of agents in many countries of Europe and in the USA. LP knew how to work with agents and took care of them. The data of his personal agents (and these are hundreds of names) did not go through the filing cabinets of the state security agencies. This order was established by him for strategic intelligence. He believed that "a real illegal immigrant should not be allowed through the apparatus." Therefore, many of his confidants and their role have not been disclosed so far. SA named only some of them in his books: O. Chekhov, M. Rokk, Zinovy ​​Peshkov and others.

Here is 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, of course, devoted him to anything. Later, the father confirmed to the SA that the pre-war Robert and the head 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, he helped financially the Spanish Republicans. And for ideological reasons, as an anti-fascist, he came to make a bomb. SA slightly lets in around this “fog”:« True, he did not come directly from America, but through third countries: through Australia and so on. All this was arranged by my father through Joliot-Curie and Georgian emigrants.”

At that moment, the idea was not supported. Unfortunately, this story, which caused the effect of an exploding bomb in the United States, was not confirmed by anything, except for the words of the SA.

It should be noted that the Soviet residency abroad was to a large extent recruited from Jews.

Until the war itself, anti-Semitism in the country was muted, but at the end of the 1930s, the infection began to penetrate into the official structures of the USSR. This probably happened under the influence of the relevant state practice in Nazi Germany, with which the Stalinist leadership was moving closer at that time. In the course of the war, to some extent under the influence of fascist propaganda, anti-Semitism in the country "surged" and in all strata of Soviet society was in full swing.

Despite this, after the outbreak of the war, the LP set itself the goal of attracting the world Jewish community to the side of the USSR. Turn Jews into agents of influence on their governments, or idle agents of the secret services. In particular, he tried to use the Jewish lobby in the US to hasten 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 formed. His tasks were to pump out "money" from foreign Jews and to carry out propaganda actions among them. Indeed, the activities of the JAC during the war brought the USSR significant financial assistance and moral support. They also discussed the possibility of rendering assistance to the USSR for post-war reconstruction.

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 in the USSR had been completely eliminated, talked about the great successes of Soviet Jews. According to P. Sudoplatov, the trip of S. Mikhoels and I. Fefer to the USA, at the same time, was used in order to set up the mechanism of the emerging "atomic espionage", for the organization of which the LP 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, in the USSR, Jews were guaranteed a safe existence. And these great physicists began to cooperate with Soviet intelligence.

nuclear project

Let's move on to the next stage in the activities of the LP, connected with the creation of the Soviet atomic bomb. At first, V.M. Molotov was appointed the curator of the Atomic Project from the Government of the USSR, and the LP became his deputy, but in reality, the specific organizational and personnel management of the project, including intelligence issues, was assigned to the LP.

And the work on the bomb began with interesting "Jewish" collisions, in which the uncomplicated pragmatism of the LP was fully manifested. Immediately after the appointment of I.V. Kurchatov (1902-1960) as scientific director of the Atomic Project, he proposed to involve chemical physicist Yu.B. Khariton (1904-1996) in the work. By this time, Khariton was already known for his works on the physics of combustion and explosion, and in 1939-41, together with Zeldovich, he showed the feasibility of a chain reaction of uranium fission, and with the participation of I. Gurevich, the critical mass of uranium-235 was also estimated. Due to the approximate knowledge of nuclear constants, the value turned out to be underestimated by a factor of five, which does not detract from the fundamental nature of the results obtained.

But Khariton had a full bouquet of "contraindications": a non-partisan Jew who has close relatives (sister) abroad. His father at the beginning of the century was a prominent member of the Cadets, emigrated and after the capture of the Baltic States, irretrievably sunk in 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 a joke: the bride is lame, but with a child. And it was about top-secret matters of extreme importance. Naturally, Kharitonane's personnel filter passed. But Kurchatov knew who he needed for the success of the case, showed perseverance and turned personally to Stalin. He emphasized that Khariton was the only scientist in the USSR who was simultaneously 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, the theoretical physicist Ya.B. Zeldovich (1914-1987) . Non-party Zeldovich did not have a higher education, and also "limped" on the fifth point. But in this project, the result was desperately needed. So he, too, 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 Theorist of Nuclear Weapons.

It should be noted that Zeldovich was far from the last of the "limping" ones who were involved in the projects of atomic and hydrogen bombs. 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 comprehensive data on the American bomb obtained by scouts in his pocket, did not have the right to even hint about this to Kapitsa. And as Yu.B. Khariton points out: “... given the public interest in the tense relations between the USSR and the United States at that time, as well as the responsibility of scientists for the success of the first test, any other solution 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 and, in particular, in the nuclear industry, Stalin not only tolerated, but also protected talented Jews. They were guarded 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, the LP became the sole head of the Atomic Project: the chairman of the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee, which led the entire range of work on the atomic and then hydrogen bombs. . The main field of his activity was the creation of the nuclear missile shield of the USSR. The only exception was the leadership (supervision) of strategic intelligence. Remaining a candidate member of the Politburo, occupying a high official position, LP handed over 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,

Switching to the nuclear problem, in all the atrocities and anti-Semitic actions that took place after that on the initiative of Stalin, Zhdanov and Malenkov, the LP did not take a direct, "executionary" part. He is not personally involved either in the murder of S.Mikhoels or in the massacre of members of the JAC. But after 1946 became a member of the Politburo, he, of course, bears political responsibility for everything, on an equal footing with other members of the criminal party Areopagus.

But back to the Atomic Project. B.L. Vannikov (1897-1962) became the deputy LP in the Committee, and, in general, the second person in the Atomic Project. Few Jews, even before the war he was accused of espionage, arrested, went through all the circles of hell in the dungeons of Lubyanka, and was sentenced to death. And only the beginning of the war saved him. All this did not stop the LP from making him his main assistant. Vannikov was a man of great intelligence and experience, externally and internally dynamic, witty, bringing restlessness and liveliness into every business he touched. LP highly valued him and classified him as a wise Jew. At the same time, neither during the arrest, nor during the bullying at the Lubyanka, he did not help Vannikov. The SA, however, claimed that the father delayed the execution of the sentence, which, in the end, 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 paternal attitude, he said:

“Our system breeds only hypocrites. We are deprived of everything, and we have no right to ambition. Stalin spits on wealth, he is only interested in power. But do not allow yourself to admire his asceticism.”

B.L. Vannikov and A.P. Zavenyagin

A.P. Zavenyagin (1901-1956), a good organizer and metallurgist specialist, was appointed administrative director of all work on the bomb. But secretive, sullen, ambitious misanthrope. Vannikov and Zavenyagin were antipodes. It was exactly the case when one is a Jew, and the other is an ardent anti-Semite. Zavenyagin sometimes allowed himself to go against the instructions of the LP. But if Vannikov tried to turn the LP against him on this basis, he invariably advised him to continue cooperation. It was important for him to maintain a situation of rivalry and not allow the accusation that he surrounded himself with Jews.

In one of his interviews, SA noted:

“Lavrenty defended the nuclear scientists. No harm done. Neither before nor after the war of those who worked with his 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 the LP stood up for Khariton. In the early 1950s, Stalin informed the LP that he had received materials in which Khariton was exposed as a British spy. I am quoting LP's answer and further conversation from a later SA book:

“- All the people who work on this project,” said the father, “are personally selected by me. I am ready to be responsible for the actions of each of them. Not for sympathies and antipathies to the Soviet system, but for actions. These people are working and will work honestly on the project that we have been entrusted with. ... And about Khariton, I can say the following, - reported the father. - This person is absolutely honest, absolutely devoted to the work he is working on, and I am sure he will never go to meanness.

The father expressed his opinion in writing and gave the paper to Stalin. Iosif Vissarionovich put it in a safe.

That's good, you will answer, if anything ...

I am responsible for the whole project with my head, and not just for Khariton, - answered the father.

In addition to that, in one of the interviews SA developed this idea:

“Khariton is one of the main creators of the atomic bomb. He really studied in England in the 1920s, lived there for a long time, was critical of the Soviet government and did not hide his attitude. But he was never a spy. Father said:

"What does it matter? Well, he does not like the Soviet regime - this is his own business. And he is an honest scientist, he works for us and works very well.”

If the interests of the case demanded to go into conflict with any ideological moments, Beria, without hesitation, went into such a conflict. So, at the request of Khariton, he defended L.V. Altshuler, who did not hide his sympathy for genetics and antipathy for T.D. Lysenko. On this basis, the security service decided to remove from the object 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 PGU B.L. Vannikov, having my“ criminal ”dossier on the table, inspired me:“ We are horrified. At the facility, where even the secretaries of the regional committees are not allowed, there turned out to be such a bad person as you, anti-party on questions of music, biology, etc. If we allowed everyone to say whatever they think, we would be crushed, crushed. I had the good sense to remain silent. He finished with the words: “Go, work.”

It is difficult to overestimate the role of Soviet intelligence and the participation of Soviet and foreign Jews in it in the success of the Atomic Project. As Sudoplatov points out, during the war, 90% of the agents from whom important information was obtained were Jews. But nuclear espionage is a topic for a separate discussion. Here I will limit myself to just a few names. These are foreigners R. Oppenheimer, A. Einstein, L. Szilard, N. Bor, B. Pontecorvo, the Rosenberg spouses. As well as Soviet residents and illegal immigrants, A. Adams, L. Vasilevsky, E. Zarubina, S. Semyonov, N. Silvermaster, G. Kheifets, Heroes of Russia Zh. Koval, Ya. Chernyak, Hero of the Soviet Union S. Kremer. Note that in the traditional sense, Oppenheimer, Szilard and Bohr were not Soviet agents, but they provided undeniable help. Later, Oppenheimer contributed to the fact that several people needed by Soviet intelligence were taken 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 the American atomic secrets that could be transmitted in writing.

Of course, among foreigners, and among Soviet residents and illegal immigrants, there were people of other nationalities: Italian E. Fermi, German K. Fuchs, Polish American Hero of Russia L. Cohen, 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 did not know failures and betrayals - LP.

After successful tests of atomic weapons, the labor of the glorious galaxy of Jews was rewarded.For work on bombs, Vannikov, Khariton and Zeldovich became Heroes of Socialist Labor 3 times each, Kikoin - 2 times and Landau - 1 time. Particularly distinguished participants were also rewarded with a large sum of money, cars "ZIS-110" or "Victory", they were presented with dachas. Eight of the above list became laureates of the Lenin Prize, the State Prize was awarded to them 27 times (Kikoin - 6 times -!!!). True, the prizes were awarded not only for work on nuclear weapons.The LP himself was awarded more modestly - the Order of Lenin.

In addition to the Atomic Project, LP in the post-war period oversaw other weapons projects: the development of missiles and the creation of an air defense system in Moscow.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 big changes

We turn to the last, most tragic, both for L. Beria and for the Jews, page of Soviet history.

In the postwar period, Stalin physically and psychologically began to fail. Two strokes (1945 city, 1949 d.) he was knocked 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 undercover struggle of potential successors for the favor of the leader and real power. First, between the groups of A. Zhdanov and G. Malenkov. LP, although he was somewhat distant 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 in Minsk, on the personal instructions of Stalin, S. Mikhoels was killed. Moreover, the members of the Politburo were not informed about the circumstances of his liquidation either before or after. In March, the new Minister of the Ministry of State Security, V.S.

Against the thickening anti-Semitic background, this looks 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, recognized Israel, and did so first. Moreover, it was the LP, 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 LP considered the USSR's pro-Arab orientation a mistake, because a stake on Israel would have provided the USSR with the support of the entire world Jewish diaspora.

The arrival in Moscow, in September, of the first ambassador of Israel, Golda Meir, was enthusiastically welcomed by Jews, including Molotov's wife, P. Zhemchuzhina. The government was 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 landmark, event took place on January 24, 1949. Under the chairmanship of Malenkov, the party Areopagus decided to launch a campaign against the rootless cosmopolitans. What was the reason for the need for such a company? The victory in the war caused an unprecedented spiritual upsurge of the people, gave rise to colossal hopes and expectations of improvements in life. As some modern Russian historians cynically write, the government was supposed to launch a “mobilization project” that would designate a new internal enemy, which would allow the “crackdown” to begin to tighten. 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 did not deceive anyone. Persecution of the Jews unfolded everywhere, they were vilified in the press and at meetings, they were expelled from the party. They were expelled from administrative posts, from scientific institutions, editorial offices and publishing houses, medicine. People not alive At this time, they will hardly be able to imagine this suffocating atmosphere of hostility and ill will.As a member of the Politburo, the LP bears full political responsibility for this anti-Semitic sabbath. At the same time, defense projects, in particular, the nuclear one, which he oversaw, remained for the Jews security islands. In fairness, we note that the LP made attempts, based on “gross flaws in the preliminary investigation,” to return the “JAC case” and the case on charges of a group of Jews at the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant for further investigation.

The clouds were thickening. 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 "case of doctors", which actually began in the same November, with the arrest of prof. Ya. Etingera. Investigator Ryumin set out to prove the existence of an extensive conspiracy of high-ranking doctors who harmed the health of the party and military elite. But Ryumin overdid it: Etinger in March 1951. died. Inside the MGB, a squabble began, as a result of which, according to Ryumin's denunciation, Minister V. Abakumov was removed and then arrested, allegedly for opposing the detection of the criminal activities of a group of doctors.

Abakumov was replaced by S.D. Ignatiev, a creature of Malenkov. Following the minister, the leadership of the investigative unit of the MGB, including the deputies, turned out to be behind bars. Chief Colonel L. Shvartsman. It was he who showed that the Zionist organization operates in the MGB, in which he enrolled up to 30 responsible Jews. This obvious nonsense was favorably received by the leader. October 1951 all of them were arrested, including Generals N.Eitingon, L.Raikhman, Colonel A.Sverdlov (son of Y.Sverdlov).

Stalin, longing for major political revelations, the new 1937, "clung" to this matter. The “degree” of the case was sublimated: Abakumov, the “Zionists” from the MGB, doctors and the JAC should have been tied into a spy conspiracy directed from the Politburo.

But the members of the JAC have been "steaming" in the Lubyanka for three years now. They were simply taken out of the "conspiracy": July 18, 1952 d. 13 people (except L. Stern) were sentenced to death.

They did not have time to shoot them, as the appearance of L. Timashuk. filled the "case of doctors" with details and gave it harmony. And in the twentieth of September 1952 Mr. Stalin gave the green light to the arrests of the Kremlin's doctors. The arrests began on 18 October, immediately after XIX . party congress. By mid-November, Ryumin had the entire color of elite medicine and the former leadership of the MGB in his hands. 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 that moment on, the case becomes purely Jewish, although out of the 28 doctors arrested on the case, only 10 were Jews, and among the doctors exposed by L. Timashuk, there were no Jews.

On the evening of January 9, 1953 in the Presidium of the Central Committee, it was discussed how to present the "case of doctors" to the people and the world. We approved the TASS report "The Arrest of a Group of Pest Doctors" and the editorial of Pravda. In the Message, of the 9 given surnames, 6 are Jewish. And Stalin prudently did not attend this meeting.

Imprint 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 determined by a full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, prof. M.S. Vovsi, a 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 a cousin of S. Mikhoels. And Mikhoels in the message was branded as an agent of the bourgeois-nationalist organization "Joint", which allegedly gave orders to destroy the leading cadres of the USSR. M. Vovsi allegedly received these instructions through his brother and, therefore, was an agent of the CIA and the MossadOn the same day, Pravda devoted an editorial to the cause of doctors, from which it followed that there were right-wing opportunists, bearers of anti-Marxist views, in the Presidium of the Central Committee. This was already the verdict on some members of the Areopagus. The "doctors' case" 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, on which we have no opportunity to dwell, 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 did not experience it. Monstrous rumors were circulating in Moscow and throughout the country that Jewish doctors and pharmacists were harassing Soviet people. They just do not yet drink the blood of Christian babies, but this can be expected from them. Patients shied away from Jewish doctors and pharmacists, they were insulted and threatened. Spiritual hostility to the Kevreys was in the air, and they felt it physically. At the end of January, on Stalin's personal order, P. Zhemchuzhina was brought to Moscow, whom some of those arrested had already denounced as a Jewish nationalist. It remained to connect her and Molotov with foreign intelligence. And what, presumably, was the plan of the leader in full?It is claimed that the following scenario existed for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". A show trial is being organized, at which I. Ehrenburg is a public prosecutor. The defendants are found guilty and sentenced to be hanged in Red Square. On the way, the indignant people of their execution begins a general Jewish pogrom. Rescuing the Jews, the government deports them far to the East. Truly, a truly educated 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 the doctor of historical sciences Ya.Ya. Etinger, was allegedly confirmed by the 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 our topic, it is important that there is no evidence and involvement in this LP plan.

Already after the 20th Party Congress, evidence appeared in the foreign press of I. Ehrenburg and the ambassador of the USSR in the Netherlands, a former member of the Presidium of the Central Committee and secretary of the Central Committee K. Ponomarenko. Ostensibly, only Beria hesitated. The leader became so excited that he suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. Can you take this seriously? Most likely, this is Khrushchev and K °, tried to convince the country and the world that when Stalin planned this atrocity, they courageously opposed him, which led him to the grave. As they say, cowardly wolves "dressed up" as brave sheep. Well, LP retroactively once again presented itself in a vile light.

The same story looks somewhat differently 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 lifetime, at the end of February 1953. They discussed the "doctors' case" and the question of the deportation of Jews. Among those who did not support the measures proposed by the Leader, he turned out to be - for the first time! - Lavrenty Beria.

After Stalin

But on March 5, 1953, the denouement came. Stalin is dead. His death was announced to the people on the Jewish holiday of Purim. The literature on the topic "The Death of Stalin" is extensive and its flow does not dry out. Most are inclined to believe that the leader was poisoned. If this is so, then it is not known who had a hand in this: Beria, Khrushchev or Malenkov. They all certainly had reasons for this. But LP had the greatest potential.

Other 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 are vividly colored by his initiatives to radically rebuild the country. No one could impose anything on him anymore, everything came from him personally, clearly reflecting his innermost views. Within the framework of our topic, we will mention only those actions that are associated with the Jews.

Already on March 10, 1953, groups were created in the united Ministry of Internal Affairs to check and review falsified cases, including the "case of arrested doctors." On the same day, P. Zhemchuzhina was released from prison. Many Chekists are released.

On March 21, the issue of the reinstatement of P. Zhemchuzhina in the party is raised, and on March 30 - N. Eitingon.

And already on April 1, Beria sends information to the Presidium of the Central Committee on the “case of doctors”, which, in particular, says: “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 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 present innocent people, the greatest figures of Soviet medicine, as spies and murderers.

And on April 2, a note about the circumstances of the murder of S.M. Mikhoels was submitted to the same address. Stalin, V. Abakumov, S. Ogoltsov (Abakumov's deputy) and the former Minister of State Security of Belarus L. Tsanava were named as the real organizers of his murder. Moreover, as the commentator points out, the LP personally enters the name of Stalin into the prepared document: “Abakumov testified about the operation of this criminal action:“ As far as I remember, in 1948 the head of the Soviet government I.V. Stalin gave me an urgent task - to quickly organize the MGB USSR, the liquidation of 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 Central Committee of the CPSU, which met with almost the same composition, which on January 9 of the same year launched the "cause of doctors", adopted a resolution:

“Accept the proposal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR on the full rehabilitation and release from custody of doctors and members of their families arrested in the so-called “case of pest doctors”, in the amount of 37 people.”

In the press release of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (not TASS-!) on this occasion, stronger expressions were used: the case was fabricated using "inadmissible methods of investigation." The case was closed, the doctors who survived 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 cleansed of slander. Everything was done uncompromisingly and extremely promptly. And who played a decisive role in this? Of course, L. Beria personally. He was well aware that state and everyday anti-Semitism in the USSR was an indisputable fact, but he took a number of, of course, courageous steps towards the triumph of justice.

The Jews, of course, were happy. But did they understand to whom they owe salvation? Some understood. A.D. Sakharov recalls that the happy Ya.B. Zeldovich at that time told him: “But this is our Lavrenty Pavlovich figured it out!" This phrase eloquently demonstrates the attitude towards the LP and the trust in him on the part of his closest employees. Of course, only the emotional and loving Zeldovich could say this out loud. This could not be said by the rather dry, restrained Khariton, who, during many years of cooperation, never once asked LP about the fate of his father. He could think it, but Vannikov could hardly pronounce it aloud. He then knew LP from different angles. Landau could not even think of this, who had enough of Beria's "hedgehog" mittens, hated LP and "slipped" out of the Atomic Project at the first opportunity.

But the noose thrown around the neck of Soviet Jewry was only weakened. The proposal of the LP to rehabilitate the executed members of the JAC 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 studying 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 sentenced by the Special Conference under the Ministry of State Security of the USSR to various terms of 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 the victims of the massacre inflicted on them by the USSR Ministry of State Security.

Recent questions

What is the "dominant" vector of the attitude of the LP towards the Jews? In my opinion, it does not exist. And there is a purely pragmatic approach, based only on the interests of the case. Nothing personal and a minimum of ideology. The presence of Judeophobic views in him, so natural for the ruling clique of the USSR, is not confirmed, and SA in his book categorically denies them: “ Anti-Semitism, like any decent person, evoked a feeling of disgust in my father ... .. But, in my opinion, sympathy, and sympathy for a long time for people of Jewish nationality, is caused, it seems to me, first of all 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. The desire to paint the image of the father with warm watercolors is completely understandable. But, based on the above, in this particular issue, it is difficult to disagree with him.

And what would happen if L. Beria stayed 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 be completely different. Maybe. Would he want to stop the machine of state anti-Semitism? And would he succeed? These are the main questions within our topic. But we are not destined to find out the answers to these questions.

Due to its position, the LP was forced to make global decisions in various areas. Yiu had enough energy and wisdom to delve into everything and make reasonable and balanced decisions. He was extremely punctual and strict, had an amazing ability to single out the main link in every problem and had the authority to throw all his strength, will and resources on its solution. 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 in Arzamas-16 was not destroyed, neither in 1953 nor later. It still stands in the Atomic Bomb Museum. In addition, the SA told me, and then wrote in his book, that most of the scientists who knew LP on joint work did not give discrediting testimony after his arrest.

A more or less detailed description of the activities of the LP in the management of the Atomic Project belongs 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 at the same time great 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 bring things to the end . Experts could not fail to note his mind, will and determination. It may seem paradoxical, but Beria, who did not hesitate to sometimes show frank rudeness, knew how to be polite, tactful and just a normal person under the circumstances. Meetings held very tough, skilled, businesslike, he tried to keep abreast of all affairs and even to give meaningful advice that surprised everyone, borrowed, no doubt, from undercover data. He was a master of unexpected and non-standard solutions.

When evaluating 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 not difficult for him to look smarter and more far-sighted than the person being assessed. I tried my best to avoid it.

Despite all my reservations, the reader may get the idea that my goal was to draw a blissful, retouched image of L. Beria. But we have retrospectively reviewed this ambiguouspersonality from a distance exceeding 55 years, not comprehensively, but through the "Jewish periscope", fixing 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 just 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. - S. 19-56.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (born March 17 (29), 1899 - death December 23, 1953) - Soviet statesman and party leader, associate of I.V. Stalin, one of the initiators of mass repressions.

Origin. Education

Lavrenty was born in the village of Merkheuli near Sukhumi in a poor peasant family.

1915 - Beria graduated from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School, and in 1917 - the Secondary Mechanical and Construction School in Baku with a degree in Technician-Architect. Lavrenty always excelled in his studies, especially the exact sciences were easy for him. There is evidence that 2 standard buildings on Gagarin Square in Moscow were erected according to his project.

The beginning of a political career

1919 - he joins the Bolshevik Party. True, the data on this segment of his life are very contradictory. According to official documents, Lavrenty Pavlovich joined the party back in 1917 and served as a trainee technician in the army on the Romanian front. According to other sources, he evaded the service, obtaining a certificate of disability for a bribe, and joined the party in 1919. There is also evidence that in 1918 - 1919. Beria worked simultaneously for 4 intelligence services: Soviet, British, Turkish and Musavat. But it is not clear whether he was a double agent on the instructions of the Cheka or actually tried to sit on 4 chairs at once.

Work in Azerbaijan and Georgia

In the 1920s Beria holds a number of responsible posts in the Cheka of the GPU (Extraordinary Commission of the Main Political Directorate). He was appointed deputy head of the Cheka of Georgia, from August to October 1920 he worked as the administrator of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Azerbaijan, from October 1920 to February 1921 he served as the executive secretary of the Cheka for expropriating the bourgeoisie and improving the life of workers in Baku. Over the next year, he became deputy chief, and after that the head of the secret political department and deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka. 1922 - receives an appointment as head of the secret operational unit and deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka.

1924 - an uprising broke out in Georgia, in the suppression of which Lavrenty Pavlovich also took part. Those who disagreed were brutally dealt with, more than 5 thousand people were killed, and Beria was soon awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Lavrenty Beria and Joseph Stalin

Meeting with Stalin

He first met the leader somewhere in 1929-1930. Stalin was then treated in Tskhaltubo, and Lavrenty provided his protection. Since 1931, Beria joined Stalin's inner circle and in the same year he was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia and secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee.

1933, summer - the "father of all peoples" rested in Abkhazia. There he was assassinated. Beria saved Stalin by covering him with himself. True, the attacker was killed on the spot and there are many ambiguities in this story. Nevertheless, Stalin could not help but appreciate the selflessness of Lavrenty Pavlovich.

In Transcaucasia

1934 - Beria became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and in 1935 he made a very cunning and prudent move - by publishing the book "On the Question of the History of Bolshevik Organizations in Transcaucasia", in which the theory of "two leaders" was substantiated and developed. Deftly juggling the facts, he argued that Lenin and Stalin, at the same time and independently of each other, created two centers of the Communist Party. Lenin was at the head of the party in St. Petersburg, and Stalin - in Transcaucasia.

Back in 1924, Stalin himself tried to carry out this idea, but in those days the authority of L.D. was still strong. Trotsky, and Stalin did not have much weight in the party. The theory of "two leaders" then remained a theory. Her time came in the 1930s.

The Great Terror of Stalin, begun after the assassination of Kirov, actively took place in the Transcaucasus - under the leadership of Beria. Here Aghasi Khanjyan, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia, committed suicide or was killed (they say even personally by Beria). 1936, December - after dinner with Lavrenty Pavlovich, Nestor Lakoba, the head of Soviet Abkhazia, died unexpectedly, who openly called Beria his killer before his death. By order of Lawrence, the body of Lakoba was later dug out of the grave and destroyed. The brother of S. Ordzhonikidze Papulia was arrested, and another (Valiko) was dismissed from his post.

Beria with Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. In the background - Stalin

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs

1938 - the first wave of repressions, carried out by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs N.I. Yezhov. A puppet in the hands of the “father of all peoples”, he played the role assigned to him and now became unnecessary, and therefore Stalin decided to replace Yezhov with the smarter and more cunning Beria, who personally collected dirt on his predecessor. Yezhov was shot. The ranks of the NKVD were also immediately purged: Lavrenty got rid of Yezhov's henchmen, replacing them with his own people.

1939 - 223,600 people were released from the camps, 103,800 from the colonies. But this amnesty was nothing more than a demonstration, a temporary relief before another, even more bloody wave of repressions. More arrests and executions soon followed. More than 200,000 people were arrested almost immediately. The ostentatious nature of the amnesties was also confirmed by the fact that back in January 1939 the leader signed a decree authorizing the use of torture and beatings on those arrested.

Before the Great Patriotic War, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria oversaw the foreign intelligence agencies. Numerous reports of Soviet intelligence that he was preparing to attack the Soviet Union, he ignored. He could hardly fail to understand the seriousness of the threat, but he knew that Stalin simply did not want to believe in the possibility of war and would rather consider the intelligence reports disinformation than admit his own mistakes and incompetence. Beria reported to Stalin what he wanted to hear from him.

In a memorandum to the leader dated June 21, 1941, Lavrenty wrote: “I again insist on the recall and punishment of our ambassador to Berlin, Dekanozov, who continues to bombard me with misinformation about Hitler’s alleged attack on the USSR. He reports that this attack will begin tomorrow ... Major General V.I. also radioed the same. Tupikov.<…>But I and my people, Iosif Vissarionovich, firmly remember your wise plan: in 1941, Hitler will not attack us! ..” The next day the war began.

During the Great Patriotic War, Lavrenty Pavlovich continued to hold leadership positions. They organized the Smersh detachments and the NKVD barrage detachments, which had orders to shoot at those retreating and surrendering. He was also responsible for public executions at the front and in the rear.

1945 - Beria was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and since 1946 he was instructed to oversee the top-secret First Main Directorate - I. V. Kurchatov's group, which was developing the atomic bomb.

Until the early 1950s, Beria continued to carry out mass repressions. But by that time, the painfully suspicious Stalin began to doubt the loyalty of his henchman. 1948 - Minister of State Security of Georgia N.M. Rukhadze was instructed to collect dirt on Beria, followed by the arrests of many of his henchmen. Before meetings with Stalin, Beria himself was ordered to be searched.

Sensing danger, Lavrenty made a pre-emptive move: he provided the leader with compromising evidence on his faithful assistants to the head of security N.S. Vlasik and secretary A.N. Poskrebyshev. 20 years of impeccable service could not save them: Stalin put his henchmen on trial.

Death of Stalin

1953, March 5 - Stalin died unexpectedly. The version of his poisoning by Beria with the help of warfarin has recently received a lot of indirect evidence. Summoned to the Kuntsevskaya dacha to see the stricken leader, Beria and Malenkov convinced the guards on the morning of March 2 that “Comrade Stalin was just sleeping” after the feast (in a puddle of urine), and convincingly advised “not to disturb him”, “stop panicking”.

The call of the doctors was postponed for 12 hours, although the paralyzed Stalin was unconscious. True, all these orders were tacitly supported by the other members of the Politburo. From the memoirs of Stalin's daughter, S. Alliluyeva, after the death of her father, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was the only one present who did not even try to hide his joy.

Personal life

Lavrenty Pavlovich and women is a separate topic that requires serious study. Officially, L.P. Beria was married to Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991) 1924 - they had a son Sergo, named after a prominent political figure Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teimurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion of her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to preserve the honor and dignity of the family. Of course, Lawrence and his women, with whom he had intimacy, gave rise to many rumors and secrets. According to the testimony of Beria's bodyguards, their boss was very popular with women. It remains only to guess whether these were mutual feelings or not.

Beria and Malenkov (foreground)

Kremlin rapist

Rumors circulated all over Moscow about how the Lubyanka Marshal personally arranged a hunt for Moscow schoolgirls, how he took the unfortunate victims to his gloomy mansion and raped him unconscious there. There were even "witnesses" who allegedly personally observed Beria's actions in bed.

When Beria is interrogated after his arrest, he admits that he had physical relationships with 62 women, and also suffered 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 his sexual harassment. Young girls from schools near Moscow were abducted repeatedly. When the all-powerful official noticed a beautiful girl, his assistant, Colonel Sarkisov, approached her. Showing the identity of the NKVD officer, he ordered to go with him.

Often these girls were brought to soundproof interrogation rooms on 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 enjoyed a reputation 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 maniac exceeded 760 people.

During a search of his personal office, women's toilet items were found in armored safes. According to an inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, women's silk slips, ladies' leotards, children's dresses and other women's accessories were found. Letters containing love confessions were kept with state documents. This personal correspondence was of a vulgar character.

Abandoned dacha of Beria in the Moscow region

Arrest. execution

After the death of the leader, he continued to increase his influence, apparently intending to become the first person in the state.

Fearing this, Khrushchev led a secret campaign to remove Beria, in which he involved all members of the top Soviet leadership. On June 26, Beria was invited to a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and arrested there.

The investigation into the case of the former people's commissar and minister lasted six months. Together with Beria, six of his subordinates were tried. In prison, Lavrenty Pavlovich was nervous, wrote notes to Malenkov with reproaches and a request for a personal meeting.

In the verdict, the judges did not find anything better than to declare Beria a foreign spy (although they did not forget to mention other crimes) who acted in favor of England and Yugoslavia.

After the verdict (death penalty) was passed, the former people's commissar was in an excited state for some time. However, he later calmed down and on the day of the execution he behaved rather calmly. Perhaps he finally realized that the game was lost, and resigned himself to defeat.

Beria's house in Moscow

He was executed on December 23, 1953 in the same bunker of the MVO headquarters, where he was after his arrest. The execution was attended by Marshal Konev, Commander of the Moscow Military District General Moskalenko, First Deputy Commander of the Air Defense Forces Batitsky, Lieutenant Colonel Yuferev, Head of the Political Directorate of the Moscow Military District, Colonel Zub, and a number of other military men involved in the arrest and protection of the former People's Commissar.

At first, they took off Beria's tunic, leaving a white undershirt, then twisted his hands behind him with a rope.

The soldiers looked at each other. It was necessary to decide who exactly would shoot at Beria. Moskalenko turned to Yuferov:

“You are our youngest, you shoot well. Let's".

Pavel Batitsky stepped forward, taking out his parabellum.

“Comrade Commander, allow me. With this thing, I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front.

Rudenko hastened:

"I ask that the sentence be carried out."

Batitsky took aim, Beria threw up his head and went limp in a second. The bullet hit right in the forehead. The rope did not let the body fall.

The corpse of Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was burned in the crematorium.

Lavrenty 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 of his personal life and state activities are kept classified as "secret". Perhaps some time will pass, and modern society will be able to give a full and adequate answer to all questions relating to this person. It is possible that his biography will also receive a new reading. Beria (Lavrenty Pavlovich's genealogy and activity is well studied by historians) is a whole era in the history of the country.

Childhood and youth of the future politician

Who is the origin of Lavrenty Beria? His paternal nationality is Mingrelian. This is an ethnic group of the Georgian people. Regarding the genealogy of a politician, many modern historians have disputes and questions. Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich (real name and first name - 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 tuition. In 1915, Beria entered the Baku Technical School, and after 4 years he graduated with honors. Meanwhile, after joining the Bolshevik faction in March 1917, he takes an active part in the Russian revolution, being a secret agent of the Baku police.

First steps in big politics

The career of a young politician in the Soviet law enforcement agencies 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 Republic of Azerbaijan was D. Bagirov. This leader was famous for his cruelty and ruthlessness towards dissident fellow citizens. Lavrenty Beria was engaged in bloody repressions against opponents of the Bolshevik rule, even some leaders of the Caucasian Bolsheviks were very wary of his violent methods of work. Thanks to the strong character and excellent oratorical qualities of the 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 assumed the position of 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 was of 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 sought independence from the central government in Moscow.

Georgian period of government

By 1926, Lavrenty Pavlovich had risen to the post of Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Georgia. In April 1927, Lavrenty Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. The competent leadership of Beria 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 Party of Georgia. Remarkable achievement for a man at 32. From now on, Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich, whose nationality corresponds to the state nomenclature, 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 until 1917. The book was published in all major state publications, which made Beria a figure of national importance.

Accomplice of Stalin's repressions

When I. V. Stalin from 1936 to 1938 began his bloody political terror in the party and the country, Lavrenty Beria was his 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 a nationwide Stalinist vendetta against the Soviet people. Many party leaders died during the sweeps. However, Lavrenty Beria, whose biography remained unsullied, came out unscathed. In 1938, Stalin rewarded him with the appointment to the post of head of the NKVD. After a full-scale purge of the leadership of the NKVD, Beria gave key leadership positions to his associates from Georgia. Thus, he increased his political influence in the Kremlin.

The pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria

In February 1941, Lavrenty 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 full control over the production of weapons, aircraft and ships. In a word, the entire military-industrial potential of the Soviet Union was under his command. Thanks to skillful leadership, sometimes cruel, the role of Beria in the great victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany was one of the key values. Many prisoners in the NKVD and labor camps worked for military production. These are 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 vector of 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, Karachais, Crimean Tatars, and Volga Germans. All of them were deported to Central Asia.

Leadership of the country's military industry

Since December 1944, Beria has been a member of the Supervisory Board for the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. To implement this project, a large working and scientific potential was required. This is how the system of the State Administration of Camps (GULAG) 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 test 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 presented to the high military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he never took part in direct military command, his role in the organization of military production was a significant contribution to the final victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. This fact of the personal biography of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is beyond doubt.

Death of the leader of the peoples

The age of I. V. Stalin is approaching 70 years. The question of the leader's successor as head of the Soviet state is becoming more and more important. The most likely candidate was Andrei Zhdanov, head of the Leningrad party apparatus. 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 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 law enforcement agency, S.N. Kruglov, is not a protege of Beria. 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 tacit leadership of Beria, an active agent network was created in Eastern Europe.

JV Stalin died on March 5, 1953, four days after the collapse. A political memoir by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, published in 1993, claims that Beria bragged to Molotov that he had poisoned Stalin, although no evidence has ever been found to support this claim. There is evidence that for many hours, after JV Stalin was found unconscious in his office, he was denied medical assistance. It is 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 Council of Ministers of the USSR 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 leadership of the country after the death of the leader. Beria was the second powerful leader, given the lack of real leadership qualities in Malenkov. He actually becomes the power behind the throne, and ultimately the leader of the state. N. S. Khrushchev becomes the secretary of the Communist Party, whose position was considered as a less important post than the position of the Chairman of the Supreme Council.

Reformer or "great combinator"

Lavrenty 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 banning 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 Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the need to introduce a communist regime in East Germany, gave rise to economic and political reforms in the country of Soviets. There is an authoritative opinion that the entire liberal policy of Beria after Stalin's death was an ordinary maneuver to secure power in the country. There is another opinion that the radical reforms proposed by L.P. Beria could accelerate the processes of economic development of the Soviet Union.

Arrest and death: unanswered questions

Historical facts give conflicting information about 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 charged with links to British intelligence. For him it was a complete surprise. Lavrenty Beria asked briefly: "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 not true. His arrest was kept in the strictest confidence until his chief assistants were arrested. The NKVD troops in Moscow, which were subordinate to Beria, were disarmed by regular army units. The truth about the arrest of Lavrenty Beria was reported by the Soviet Information Bureau only on July 10, 1953. He was convicted by a "special tribunal" without defense and without the right to appeal. On December 23, 1953, by the verdict of the Supreme Court, Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was shot. The death of Beria made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of relief. This marked 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 denied the petition of Beria's family members for his rehabilitation. The claim was based on Russian law, which provided for the rehabilitation of victims of false political accusations. The court ruled: "Beria L.P. 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 Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991). In 1924, their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent politician Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teimurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion of her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to preserve the honor and dignity of the family. In 1990, being at a fairly advanced age, Nina Beria fully justified her husband in an interview with Western journalists. Until the end of her life, Nina Teimurazovna fought for the moral rehabilitation of her husband.

Of course, Lavrenty Beria and his women, with whom he had intimacy, gave rise to many rumors and mysteries. From the testimony of Beria's personal guard, it follows that their boss was very popular with the female. It remains only to guess whether these were mutual feelings between a man and a woman or not.

Kremlin rapist

When Beria was interrogated, he admitted to having had physical relationships with 62 women and also suffered 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 the identity of the NKVD officer, he ordered to follow him.

Often these girls ended up in soundproof interrogation rooms on 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 maniac exceeded 760 people. In 2003, the Government of the Russian Federation acknowledged the existence of these lists.

During a search of Beria's personal office, women's toilet items were found in the armored safes of one of the top leaders of the Soviet state. According to an inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, women's silk slips, ladies' leotards, children's dresses and other women's accessories were found. Among the government documents were letters containing love confessions. This personal correspondence was of a vulgar character. In addition to women's clothing, items characteristic of male perverts were found in large quantities. All this speaks of the sick psyche of a great leader of the state. It is quite possible that he was not alone in his sexual addictions, he was not the only one who had a stained biography. Beria (Lavrenty Pavlovich was not fully unraveled either during his lifetime or after his death) is a page in the history of long-suffering Russia, which remains to be studied for a long time.

Lavrenty 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 of his personal life and state activities are kept classified as "secret". Perhaps some time will pass, and modern society will be able to give a full and adequate answer to all questions relating to this person. It is possible that his biography will also receive a new reading. Beria (Lavrenty Pavlovich's genealogy and activity is well studied by historians) is a whole era in the history of the country.

Childhood and youth of the future politician

Who is the origin of Lavrenty Beria? His paternal nationality is Mingrelian. This is an ethnic group of the Georgian people. Regarding the genealogy of a politician, many modern historians have disputes and questions. Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich (real name and first name - 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 tuition. In 1915, Beria entered the Baku Technical School, and after 4 years he graduated with honors. Meanwhile, after joining the Bolshevik faction in March 1917, he takes an active part in the Russian revolution, being a secret agent of the Baku police.

First steps in big politics

The career of a young politician in the Soviet law enforcement agencies 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 Republic of Azerbaijan was D. Bagirov. This leader was famous for his cruelty and ruthlessness towards dissident fellow citizens. Lavrenty Beria was engaged in bloody repressions against opponents of the Bolshevik rule, even some leaders of the Caucasian Bolsheviks were very wary of his violent methods of work. Thanks to the strong character and excellent oratorical qualities of the 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 assumed the position of 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 was of 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 sought independence from the central government in Moscow.

Georgian period of government

By 1926, Lavrenty Pavlovich had risen to the post of Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Georgia. In April 1927, Lavrenty Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. The competent leadership of Beria 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 Party of Georgia. Remarkable achievement for a man at 32. From now on, Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich, whose nationality corresponds to the state nomenclature, 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 until 1917. The book was published in all major state publications, which made Beria a figure of national importance.

Accomplice of Stalin's repressions

When I. V. Stalin from 1936 to 1938 began his bloody political terror in the party and the country, Lavrenty Beria was his 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 a nationwide Stalinist vendetta against the Soviet people. Many party leaders died during the sweeps. However, Lavrenty Beria, whose biography remained unsullied, came out unscathed. In 1938, Stalin rewarded him with the appointment to the post of head of the NKVD. After a full-scale purge of the leadership of the NKVD, Beria gave key leadership positions to his associates from Georgia. Thus, he increased his political influence in the Kremlin.

The pre-war and war periods of the life of L. P. Beria

In February 1941, Lavrenty 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 full control over the production of weapons, aircraft and ships. In a word, the entire military-industrial potential of the Soviet Union was under his command. Thanks to skillful leadership, sometimes cruel, the role of Beria in the great victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany was one of the key values. Many prisoners in the NKVD and labor camps worked for military production. These are 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 vector of 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, Karachais, Crimean Tatars, and Volga Germans. All of them were deported to Central Asia.

Leadership of the country's military industry

Since December 1944, Beria has been a member of the Supervisory Board for the creation of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. To implement this project, a large working and scientific potential was required. This is how the system of the State Administration of Camps (GULAG) 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 test 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 presented to the high military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Although he never took part in direct military command, his role in the organization of military production was a significant contribution to the final victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. This fact of the personal biography of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is beyond doubt.

Death of the leader of the peoples

The age of I. V. Stalin is approaching 70 years. The question of the leader's successor as head of the Soviet state is becoming more and more important. The most likely candidate was Andrei Zhdanov, head of the Leningrad party apparatus. 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 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 law enforcement agency, S.N. Kruglov, is not a protege of Beria. 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 tacit leadership of Beria, an active agent network was created in Eastern Europe.

JV Stalin died on March 5, 1953, four days after the collapse. A political memoir by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, published in 1993, claims that Beria bragged to Molotov that he had poisoned Stalin, although no evidence has ever been found to support this claim. There is evidence that for many hours, after JV Stalin was found unconscious in his office, he was denied medical assistance. It is 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 Council of Ministers of the USSR 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 leadership of the country after the death of the leader. Beria was the second powerful leader, given the lack of real leadership qualities in Malenkov. He actually becomes the power behind the throne, and ultimately the leader of the state. N. S. Khrushchev becomes the secretary of the Communist Party, whose position was considered as a less important post than the position of the Chairman of the Supreme Council.

Reformer or "great combinator"

Lavrenty 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 banning 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 Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the need to introduce a communist regime in East Germany, gave rise to economic and political reforms in the country of Soviets. There is an authoritative opinion that the entire liberal policy of Beria after Stalin's death was an ordinary maneuver to secure power in the country. There is another opinion that the radical reforms proposed by L.P. Beria could accelerate the processes of economic development of the Soviet Union.

Arrest and death: unanswered questions

Historical facts give conflicting information about 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 charged with links to British intelligence. For him it was a complete surprise. Lavrenty Beria asked briefly: "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 not true. His arrest was kept in the strictest confidence until his chief assistants were arrested. The NKVD troops in Moscow, which were subordinate to Beria, were disarmed by regular army units.

The truth about the arrest of Lavrenty Beria was reported by the Soviet Information Bureau only on July 10, 1953. He was convicted by a "special tribunal" without defense and without the right to appeal. On December 23, 1953, by the verdict of the Supreme Court, Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was shot. The death of Beria made the Soviet people breathe a sigh of relief. This marked 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 denied the petition of Beria's family members for his rehabilitation. The claim was based on Russian law, which provided for the rehabilitation of victims of false political accusations. The court ruled: "Beria L.P. 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 Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991). In 1924, their son Sergo was born, named after the prominent politician Sergo Ordzhonikidze. All her life, Nina Teimurazovna was a faithful and devoted companion of her husband. Despite his betrayals, this woman was able to preserve the honor and dignity of the family. In 1990, being at a fairly advanced age, Nina Beria fully justified her husband in an interview with Western journalists. Until the end of her life, Nina Teimurazovna fought for the moral rehabilitation of her husband. Of course, Lavrenty Beria and his women, with whom he had intimacy, gave rise to many rumors and mysteries. From the testimony of Beria's personal guard, it follows that their boss was very popular with the female. It remains only to guess whether these were mutual feelings between a man and a woman or not.

Kremlin rapist

When Beria was interrogated, he admitted to having had physical relationships with 62 women and also suffered 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 the identity of the NKVD officer, he ordered to follow him. Often these girls ended up in soundproof interrogation rooms on 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 maniac exceeded 760 people. In 2003, the Government of the Russian Federation acknowledged the existence of these lists. During a search of Beria's personal office, women's toilet items were found in the armored safes of one of the top leaders of the Soviet state. According to an inventory compiled by members of the military tribunal, women's silk slips, ladies' leotards, children's dresses and other women's accessories were found. Among the government documents were letters containing love confessions. This personal correspondence was of a vulgar character.

In addition to women's clothing, items characteristic of male perverts were found in large quantities. All this speaks of the sick psyche of a great leader of the state. It is quite possible that he was not alone in his sexual addictions, he was not the only one who had a stained biography. Beria (Lavrenty Pavlovich was not fully unraveled either during his lifetime or after his death) is a page in the history of long-suffering Russia, which remains to be studied for a long time.

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 Commissar of State Security.

Born on March 16 (29), 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Sukhumi district, Tiflis province, now the Republic of Abkhazia (Georgia), into 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, he was sent to the Romanian Front as a trainee technician at the army hydrotechnical school, where he conducted active Bolshevik political work among the troops. At the end of 1917 he returned to Baku and, 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, until 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, Lavrenty Beria successfully graduated from a technical school, having received a diploma as a technician of an architect-builder.

In 1918-20 he worked in the secretariat of the Baku Council. In April-May 1920, he was authorized by the registration department of the Caucasian Front under the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army, then sent to underground work in Georgia. In June 1920 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Kutaisi prison. But at the request of the Soviet plenipotentiary representative S.M. Kirov Lavrenty Beria was released and exiled to Azerbaijan. Returning to Baku, he went to study at the Baku Polytechnic Institute (which he did not graduate from).

In August-October 1920, Beria L.P. - Manager of the Central Committee (CC) 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 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 authorized representative office of the OGPU in the ZSFSR 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 ZSFSR, being from August 18 to December 3, 1931 a member of the collegium of the OGPU of the USSR.

In 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks revealed the gross political mistakes and distortions committed by the leadership of the party organizations of Transcaucasia. In its decision of October 31, 1931, 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 the immediate correction of political distortions in work in the countryside, the wide deployment of economic initiative and the 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 the influence of individuals observed among the leading cadres, both of the entire Transcaucasian Federation and the republics included in it, and to 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 CP (b) of Georgia 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 (b) .

The name of Lavrenty Beria became widely known after the publication of his book "On the Question of the History of Bolshevik Organizations in Transcaucasia." In the summer of 1933, when I.V. Stalin was assassinated, Beria closed it with his body (the assassin was killed on the spot, and this story has not been fully disclosed) ...

From 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 CP(b) of Georgia, he declared from the rostrum: "Let the enemies know that anyone who tries to raise a 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 "State Security Commissioner 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 of the NKVD of the USSR. But on December 17, 1938, he appointed his deputy V.N. Merkulov.

Commissar of State Security 1st rank Beria L.P. almost completely updated the supreme apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR. He carried out the release from the camps of a part of the unjustifiably convicted: 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, the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to issue extrajudicial sentences were expanded.

In March 1939, Beria became a candidate member, and only in March 1946 - a member of the Politburo (since 1952 - the Presidium) of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) / CPSU. Therefore, only since 1946 can we talk about the participation of L.P. Beria in making political decisions.

January 30, 1941 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 (since 1946 - the Council of Ministers) of the USSR, but at the same time, state security agencies were removed from his subordination, which constituted 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 Commissar of State Security Beria L.P.

On June 30, 1941, Lavrenty 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 GKO, Beria was entrusted with the most important tasks 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, and also (together with G.M. Malenkov) for production of aircraft and aircraft engines.

At By order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 30, 1943, for special merits in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions, General Commissar of State Security Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal ( No. 80).

March 10, 1944 L.P. Beria introduced I.V. Stalin a memorandum with a proposal to evict the Tatars from the territory of the Crimea, later carried out general management of the eviction of Chechens, Ingush, Tatars, Germans, etc.

On December 3, 1944, he was assigned to "supervise the development of work on uranium"; 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 of July 9, 1945, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was awarded the highest military rank of "Marshal of the Soviet Union" with the presentation of a special Diploma of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the insignia "Marshal 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 - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

As head of the department of military science of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of 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 XIX Congress of the CPSU, at the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, as part of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a “leading five” was created, which included L.P. Beria. After the death of March 5, 1953, I.V. Stalin, Lavrenty Beria took a leading place in the Soviet party hierarchy, concentrating in his hands the posts of the 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 combining the former ministry and the Ministry of State Security.

At 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”), investigation cases for four hundred thousand people were closed.

Beria called for a reduction in military spending, for freezing expensive construction projects (including the Main Turkmen Canal, the Volga-Baltic Canal). He achieved the start of negotiations on an armistice in Korea, tried to restore friendly relations with Yugoslavia, opposed the creation of the German Democratic Republic, offering to take a course towards the unification of West and East Germany into a "peace-loving bourgeois state." Dramatically reduced the state security apparatus abroad.

Pursuing a policy of nominating national personnel, L.P. Beria sent documents to the republican Central Committee of the party, which spoke of the wrong Russification policy and illegal repressions.

On June 26, 1953, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria L.P. got arrested...

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was removed from the posts of the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, deprived of all the 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 Konev I.S. it was recorded that "having betrayed the Motherland and acting in the interests of foreign capital, the defendant Beria put together a treacherous group of conspirators hostile to the Soviet state in order to seize power, eliminate the Soviet worker and peasant system, restore capitalism and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie." A special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced L.P. Beria to death.

The death sentence was carried out by Colonel-General Batitsky P.F., who shot the convict from a captured parabellum pistol with a shot in the forehead in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, which is confirmed by the corresponding act signed on December 23, 1953:

“Today at 19 hours 50 minutes 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, the actual State Counselor of Justice Rudenko R.A. and General of the Army Moskalenko K.S. the verdict of the Special Judicial Presence was carried out in relation to the sentenced to the highest measure of criminal punishment - execution - Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich ".

Attempts by relatives of L.P. Beria to achieve a review of the 1953 case was 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 of March 17, 1935, No. 14839 of September 30, 1943, No. 27006 of February 21, 1945, No. 94311 of March 29, 1949, No. 118679 of October 29, 1949. ), two Orders of the Red Banner (No. 7034 of 04/03/1924, No. 11517 of 11/03/1944), the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree; orders of the Red Banner of Georgia (03.07.1923), the Red Banner of Labor of Georgia (10.04.1931), the Red Banner of Labor of Azerbaijan (14.03.1932) and the Red Banner of Labor of Armenia, seven medals; signs “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (V)” (No. 100), “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)” (No. 205 of 12/20/1932), registered weapons - a pistol of the Browning system, watches with a monogram; foreign awards - the Tuvan Order of the Republic (08/18/1943), the Mongolian Orders of the Red Banner of Battle (No. 441 of 07/15/1942), Sukhe-Bator (No. 31 of 03/29/1949), the Mongolian medal "XXV years of the MPR "(No. 3125 of 09/19/1946).

Under the great banner of Lenin-Stalin: Articles and speeches. Tbilisi, 1939;
Speech at the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on March 12, 1939. - Kyiv: State Political Publishing House of the Ukrainian SSR, 1939;
Report on the work of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Georgia at the XI Congress of the CP(b) of Georgia June 16, 1938 - Sukhumi: Abgiz, 1939;
The greatest man of our time [I.V. Stalin]. - Kyiv: State Political Publishing House of the Ukrainian SSR, 1940;
Lado Ketskhoveli. (1876-1903) / (Life of the remarkable Bolsheviks). Translation by N. Erubaev. - Alma-Ata: Kazgospolitizdat, 1938;
About youth. - Tbilisi: Detunizdat of the Georgian SSR, 1940;
On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia. 8th ed. M., 1949.