When Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. Crazed Sword of Revolution

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born near Sukhumi, in the village. Merkheul, March 29, 1899. At the age of 15, he graduated with honors from the Sukhum Higher Primary School, after which he entered the Mechanical Construction Technical School in Baku. He was sent in 1917 to the Romanian front as a trainee technician. In March 1917, he joined the RSDLP, became an active member of the Baku commune and assistant to the leader of the underground, Mikoyan. On suspicion of espionage, Beria was arrested twice.

The biography of Lavrenty Beria since 1921 has been inextricably linked with service in the state security agencies. He owed his quick career to the location of Stalin. IN AND. Stalin and Beria met during the leader's trips to the Caucasus. In 1922, Lavrenty Pavlovich married Nina Gegechkori. Two years later, their son Sergo was born in Tbilisi.

An important role in the rise of Beria was played by his personal devotion to Stalin and toughness in the fight against the enemies of the party. It was during the work of Beria that state terror acquired a systematic character. He also improved repressive methods and became one of the organizers of the Gulag. Beria was an ideal executor of Stalin's will, effectively eliminated all those objectionable to the leader, including party leaders. Thus, the assassination of Trotsky, which took place in Mexico, was carried out under his personal leadership.

Beria was the curator of Soviet foreign intelligence, the defense industry, including the development of nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that this man possessed outstanding organizational skills. During the reign of Stalin, he was awarded many high awards. So, in 1943, Beria received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, in 1945 - the title of Marshal. The capabilities of the state security agencies in the post-war years under the leadership of Beria increased significantly.

After Stalin's death, all power over the law enforcement agencies was concentrated in the hands of Beria, who by that time had become Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of the Interior. However, the further strengthening of Beria, his high authority and political activity were considered dangerous for the leading Soviet elite.

On June 26, 1953, during a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Beria was arrested, which was carried out by the military, led by Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov. Beria was expelled from the party, accused of anti-Soviet activities and espionage. The verdict was passed on December 23, 1953. Beria was shot on the same day.

L.P.'s wife Beria and their son Sergo were also arrested. After a year spent in solitary confinement, Sergo was exiled to the Urals, where he became a senior engineer at the Research Institute of p / box 320, and was later transferred to Kyiv, where he worked as a leading designer at NPO Kvant. He died on October 11, 2000.

During the existence of the Soviet Union, the history of the country was rewritten many times. Due to modest funding, school textbooks were sometimes not reprinted, students were simply ordered to obscure in ink portraits of leaders who suddenly became enemies.

Yagoda, Yezhov, Uborevich, Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Bukharin, Kamenev, Radek, and many others were blotted out of books and memory in this way. But the most demonized figure of the Bolshevik party was, without a doubt, his biography was supplemented by work for British intelligence, which, of course, was not true, otherwise MI6 would proudly recall such success today.

In fact, Beria was the most ordinary Bolshevik, no worse than others. He was born in 1899 in a peasant family, and from childhood he was drawn to knowledge. At the age of sixteen, having graduated with honors from the Sukhumi elementary school, he expressed a desire to continue his education at the Secondary Mechanical and Technical Construction School, where he received a diploma in architecture. A year later, he entered the Baku Polytechnic University, where he also got involved in underground work. He was exiled, but not far, to Azerbaijan.

Thus, there were few such intellectual people at the top of the social democratic underground as Biography after the revolution demonstrates his desire to control the situation. He is engaged in secret operational affairs, and over time, having displaced Redens (son-in-law of Stalin himself), he takes the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Georgia. Not without the knowledge, of course, of the secretary himself, who believed that business qualities were more important than the closest

Having successfully dealt with the Mensheviks and other enemies of the Soviet regime, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, whose biography could not stall in this post due to his active character, covered Stalin with his chest during the shooting on Lake Ritsa, which it was not clear who opened it and why.

Such readiness for self-sacrifice was appreciated, but the main factor was still not she, but really outstanding organizational skills and amazing performance. Deputy Yezhov, who soon took his place, a candidate member of the Politburo - these steps of the career ladder were completed in 1938.

It is believed that Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was Stalin's main executioner, but his biography, however, refutes this. He led the affairs of state security for a very short time (until 1941). The chairman of the Council of People's Commissars is much higher than just the chief Chekist. In the field of his attention is the entire defense industry of the USSR during the war years, including the creation of nuclear weapons, which he supervised from 1943.

A special article for conversation is Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich and women. The wife of Stalin's closest associate, the beautiful Nino, took all the allegations about his amorous-maniac habits with great skepticism. her husband was known to her, he did not even have enough time to sleep. He had a mistress, very young, but she testified that Beria committed violence against her, she gave under pressure from the investigation. In fact, the girl got an apartment on Gorky Street in Moscow, and her mother even had her teeth treated at the Kremlin hospital. So everything was entirely on a voluntary basis.

Much has been written about the bold conspiracy, as a result of which Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was arrested and soon executed (or killed). His photo was as quickly erased from all textbooks as the images of the previous exposed enemies of the people. The projects of the economic and political reforms he proposed, in particular, the limited introduction of private property, were later implemented in the course of Gorbachev's perestroika.

Born into the family of a poor peasant in the village of Merkheuli, Sukhum district, Tiflis province. In 1919 he graduated from the Secondary School of Mechanics and Construction in Baku as an architect-builder. He entered the Polytechnic Institute, but studied only two courses. Joined the Bolshevik Party. During the Civil War, in the party and Soviet work in Transcaucasia, including illegal. After the Civil War - in various positions in the Cheka-GPU-OGPU-NKVD, as well as in party posts. In 1938 he headed the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD, took the post of deputy people's commissar and in the same year became the people's commissar of internal affairs, remaining in this post until the end of 1945.

After Beria was appointed head of the NKVD and before the start of the Great Patriotic War, some of the “unreasonably convicted” were released from the camps, including officers arrested on false charges. In particular, in 1939, 11,178 previously dismissed and taken into custody commanders were reinstated in the army. However, in 1940-1941. arrests of commanding officers continued, which affected the combat capability of the armed forces. Before the war, the NKVD carried out the forced eviction of "unreliable" residents of the Baltic states, the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine to the remote eastern regions of the USSR. At the insistence of Beria, the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar to issue extrajudicial sentences were expanded.

Beria was responsible for the completeness and reliability of reports to Stalin through the foreign intelligence of the NKVD about the impending German attack on the USSR. The information that he supplied the head of state was often biased, made it possible to think about the possibility of maintaining peace with Germany, at least until 1942. With the outbreak of World War II, Beria was included in the GKO, in May 1944 - September 1945 - its chairman Operational Bureau, where decisions were made on all current issues.

He controlled the production of aircraft, engines, tanks, mortars, ammunition, the work of the People's Commissariats of Railways, the coal and oil industries. Directly coordinated all intelligence and counterintelligence activities through the NKVD-NKGB. He proved to be a talented organizer. In 1943 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In July 1945 he was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

During the war years, Beria, as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, was directly responsible for the deportation of a number of peoples of the USSR to remote regions of the country, including Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans. Not only criminal elements and accomplices of the enemy, but also many innocent people - women, children, old people - were subjected to forcible resettlement. Justice for them was restored only after 1953. In the autumn of 1941, during the offensive of the fascist troops on Moscow, several dozen prisoners, including prominent military men and scientists, were shot without trial by order of Beria.

Since 1944, on behalf of the GKO, Beria has been dealing with the uranium problem. In 1945 he headed the Special Committee on the creation of the atomic bomb. He coordinated the activities of foreign intelligence to obtain the secrets of the American atomic bomb, which accelerated the work of Soviet nuclear physicists. On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet atomic bomb was successfully tested.

After the death of Beria, he headed the united Ministry of Internal Affairs, being also the first deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In March-June 1953, he made a number of proposals related to domestic and foreign policy, including: amnesty for certain categories of prisoners, closing the "doctors' case", curtailing the "building of socialism" in the GDR, etc.

Influence in special agencies and the potential of Beria did not suit his opponents in the struggle for power in the Kremlin. On the initiative of N.S. Khrushchev and with the support of a number of high-ranking military officers on June 26, 1953, Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium (Politburo) of the CPSU Central Committee. Accused of espionage, "moral decay", in an effort to usurp power and restore capitalism. Deprived of party and state posts, titles and awards. Special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR chaired by Marshal I.S. Konev on December 23, 1953 was sentenced to L.P. Beria and six of his accomplices to be shot. On the same day, the sentence was carried out.

Literature

Lavrenty Beria. 1953: Transcript of the July plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and other documents / Comp. V.P. Naumov and Yu.V. Sigachev. M., 1999.

Rubin N. Lavrenty Beria: myth and reality. M., 1998.

Toptygin A.V. Unknown Beria. SPb., 2002.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (Georgian ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია, Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria). Born on March 17 (29), 1899 in the village. Merkheuli of the Sukhumi district of the Kutaisi province (Russian Empire) - was shot on December 23, 1953 in Moscow. Russian revolutionary, Soviet state and party leader.

General Commissar of State Security (1941), Marshal of the Soviet Union (1945), Hero of Socialist Labor (1943), stripped of these titles in 1953. Since 1941, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (since 1946 - Council of Ministers) of the USSR I. V. Stalin, after his death on March 5, 1953 - First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G. Malenkov and at the same time Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Member of the USSR State Defense Committee (1941-1944), Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the USSR (1944-1945). Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of the 7th convocation, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st-3rd convocations. Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1934-1953), candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee (1939-1946), member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1946-1952), member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1952-1953). He oversaw a number of important branches of the defense industry, in particular, related to the creation of nuclear weapons and rocket technology. From August 20, 1945, he led the implementation of the nuclear program of the USSR.

Lavrenty Beria was born on March 17 (29 according to the new style) March 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Sukhum district, Kutaisi province (now in the Gulrypsh district of Abkhazia) into a poor peasant family.

Mother - Martha Jakeli (1868-1955), megrelian. According to Sergo Beria and fellow villagers, she was distantly related to the Megrelian princely family of Dadiani. After the death of her first husband, Marta was left with her son and two daughters in her arms. Later, due to extreme poverty, the children from Martha's first marriage were taken in by her brother Dmitry.

Father - Pavel Khukhaevich Beria (1872-1922), moved to Merkheuli from Megrelia.

Martha and Pavel had three children in the family, but one of the sons died at the age of 2, and the daughter remained deaf and mute after an illness.

Noticing Lavrenty's good abilities, his parents tried to give him a good education - at the Sukhumi Higher Primary School. To pay for tuition and living, parents had to sell half the house.

In 1915, Beria, having graduated with honors from the Sukhum Higher Primary School (although according to other sources, he studied mediocrely, and was left for the second year in the fourth grade), left for Baku and entered the Baku Secondary Mechanical and Technical Construction School.

From the age of 17, he supported his mother and deaf-mute sister, who moved in with him.

Working since 1916 as an intern at the main office of the Nobel oil company, at the same time he continued his studies at the school. In 1919 he graduated from it, having received a diploma of a technician-builder-architect.

Since 1915, he was a member of an illegal Marxist circle of a mechanical construction school, was its treasurer. In March 1917, Beria became a member of the RSDLP (b).

In June - December 1917, as a technician of a hydraulic engineering detachment, he went to the Romanian front, served in Odessa, then in Pashkani (Romania), was commissioned due to illness and returned to Baku, where from February 1918 he worked in the city organization of the Bolsheviks and the secretariat of the Baku Council workers' deputies.

After the defeat of the Baku commune and the capture of Baku by the Turkish-Azerbaijani troops (September 1918), he remained in the city and participated in the work of the underground Bolshevik organization until the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan (April 1920).

From October 1918 to January 1919 - a clerk at the plant "Caspian Association White City", Baku.

In the autumn of 1919, on the instructions of the head of the Baku Bolshevik underground, A. Mikoyan, he became an agent of the Organization for Combating Counter-Revolution (counterintelligence) under the State Defense Committee of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. During this period, he established close relations with Zinaida Krems (von Krems, Kreps), who had connections with German military intelligence. In his autobiography, dated October 22, 1923, Beria wrote: “During the first period of the Turkish occupation, I worked in the White City at the Caspian Partnership plant as a clerk. In the autumn of the same 1919, from the Gummet party, I entered the counterintelligence service, where I worked together with Comrade Mussevi. Approximately in March 1920, after the assassination of Comrade Mussevi, I left my job in counterintelligence and worked for a short time in the Baku customs..

Beria did not hide his work in the ADR counterintelligence - for example, in a letter to G.K. Ordzhonikidze in 1933, he wrote that “he was sent to Musavat intelligence by the party and that this issue was dealt with in the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party (b) in 1920” that the Central Committee of the AKP(b) "completely rehabilitated" him, because “The fact of working in counterintelligence with the knowledge of the party was confirmed by the statements of Comrades. Mirza Davud Huseynova, Kasum Izmailova and others.”.

In April 1920, after the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he was sent to work illegally in the Georgian Democratic Republic as an authorized representative of the Caucasian Regional Committee of the RCP (b) and the registration department of the Caucasian Front under the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army. Almost immediately he was arrested in Tiflis and released with an order to leave Georgia within three days.

In his autobiography, Beria wrote: “From the very first days after the April coup in Azerbaijan, the regional committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from the registrar of the Caucasian Front under the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army was sent to Georgia for underground work abroad as an authorized representative. In Tiflis, I contact the regional committee in the person of Comrade. Hmayak Nazaretyan, spreading a network of residents in Georgia and Armenia, establishing contact with the headquarters of the Georgian army and guards, regularly sending couriers to the register of the city of Baku. In Tiflis, I was arrested together with the Central Committee of Georgia, but according to the negotiations between G. Sturua and Noah Zhordania, they released everyone with a proposal to leave Georgia within 3 days. However, I manage to stay, having entered the service under the pseudonym Lakerbaya in the representative office of the RSFSR to Comrade Kirov, who by that time had arrived in the city of Tiflis ".

Later, participating in the preparation of an armed uprising against the Georgian Menshevik government, he was exposed by local counterintelligence, arrested and imprisoned in Kutaisi prison, then exiled to Azerbaijan. About this he wrote: “In May 1920, I went to Baku to register to receive directives in connection with the conclusion of a peace treaty with Georgia, but on the way back to Tiflis I was arrested by Noah Ramishvili’s telegram and taken to Tiflis, from where, despite Comrade Kirov’s troubles, I was sent to Kutaisi prison. June and July of 1920 I am imprisoned, only after four and a half days of a hunger strike declared by political prisoners, I am deported to Azerbaijan in stages”.

Returning to Baku, Beria several times tried to continue his studies at the Baku Polytechnic Institute, into which the school was transformed, he completed three courses.

In August 1920, he became the manager of the affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Azerbaijan, and in October of the same year, he became the executive secretary of the Extraordinary Commission for the Expropriation of the Bourgeoisie and the Improvement of the Life of the Workers, having worked in this position until February 1921.

In April 1921, he was appointed deputy head of the Secret Operational Department of the Cheka under the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the Azerbaijan SSR, and in May he took the positions of head of the secret operational unit and deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka. The chairman of the Cheka of the Azerbaijan SSR was then Mir Jafar Baghirov.

In 1921, Beria was sharply criticized by the party and Chekist leadership of Azerbaijan for exceeding his authority and falsifying criminal cases, but he escaped serious punishment - Anastas Mikoyan interceded for him.

In 1922, he participated in the defeat of the Muslim organization "Ittihad" and the liquidation of the Transcaucasian organization of the right SRs.

In November 1922, Beria was transferred to Tiflis, where he was appointed head of the Secret Operational Unit and deputy chairman of the Cheka under the Council of People's Commissars of the Georgian SSR, later transformed into the Georgian GPU (State Political Administration), with the combination of the post of head of the Special Department of the Transcaucasian Army.

In July 1923 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Republic by the Central Executive Committee of Georgia.

In 1924 he participated in the suppression of the Menshevik uprising, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the USSR.

From March 1926 - Deputy Chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR, head of the Secret Operational Unit.

On December 2, 1926, Lavrenty Beria became chairman of the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the Georgian SSR (he held this position until December 3, 1931), deputy plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the ZSFSR and deputy chairman of the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the ZSFSR (until April 17, 1931). At the same time, from December 1926 to April 17, 1931, he was the head of the Secret Operational Directorate of the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the ZSFSR and the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the ZSFSR.

At the same time, from April 1927 to December 1930 - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR. His first meeting with, apparently, belongs to this period.

On June 6, 1930, by the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of the Georgian SSR, Lavrenty Beria was appointed a member of the Presidium (later the Bureau) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia.

On April 17, 1931, he took the post of chairman of the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the ZSFSR, plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in the ZSFSR and head of the Special Department of the OGPU of the Caucasian Red Banner Army (until December 3, 1931). At the same time, from August 18 to December 3, 1931, he was a member of the collegium of the OGPU of the USSR.

On October 31, 1931, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recommended L.P. Beria to the post of second secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee (in office until October 17, 1932), on November 14, 1931, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Georgia (until August 31 1938), and on October 17, 1932 - the first secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee, while maintaining the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia, was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On December 5, 1936, the TSFSR was divided into three independent republics, the Transcaucasian Regional Committee was liquidated by a decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on April 23, 1937.

On March 10, 1933, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks included Beria in the mailing list of materials sent to members of the Central Committee - the minutes of meetings of the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau, the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

In 1934, at the 17th Congress of the CPSU(b), he was elected a member of the Central Committee for the first time.

On March 20, 1934, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was included in the commission chaired by L. M. Kaganovich, created to develop the draft Regulations on the NKVD of the USSR and the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR.

In early March 1935, Beria was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and its presidium. On March 17, 1935, he was awarded his first Order of Lenin. In May 1937, he concurrently headed the Tbilisi city committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia (until August 31, 1938).

In 1935 he published a book "On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia"- although according to the researchers, its real authors were Malakia Toroshelidze and Eric Bedia. In the draft edition of Stalin's Works at the end of 1935, Beria was listed as a member of the editorial board, as well as a candidate for the editors of individual volumes.

During the leadership of L.P. Beria, the national economy of the region developed rapidly. Beria made a great contribution to the development of the oil industry in Transcaucasia, under him many large industrial facilities were put into operation (Zemo-Avchalskaya hydroelectric power station, etc.).

Georgia was transformed into an all-Union resort area. By 1940, the volume of industrial production in Georgia increased 10 times compared to 1913, agricultural production - 2.5 times, with a fundamental change in the structure of agriculture towards highly profitable crops of the subtropical zone. For agricultural products produced in the subtropics (grapes, tea, tangerines, etc.), high purchase prices were set: the Georgian peasantry was the most prosperous in the country.

In September 1937, together with G. M. Malenkov and A. I. Mikoyan sent from Moscow, he carried out a “cleansing” of the Armenian party organization. In Georgia, in particular, the persecution of the People's Commissar for Education of the Georgian SSR, Gaioz Devdariani, began. His brother Shalva, who held important positions in the state security organs and the Communist Party, was executed. In the end, Gaioz Devdariani was accused of violating Article 58 and, on suspicion of counter-revolutionary activities, was executed in 1938 by the NKVD troika. In addition to party functionaries, local intellectuals also suffered from the purge, even those who tried to stay away from politics, including Mikheil Javakhishvili, Titian Tabidze, Sandro Akhmeteli, Yevgeny Mikeladze, Dmitry Shevardnadze, Georgy Eliava, Grigory Tsereteli and others.

On January 17, 1938, from the 1st session of the USSR Supreme Council of the 1st convocation, he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

On August 22, 1938, Beria was appointed First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N. I. Yezhov. Simultaneously with Beria, another first deputy people's commissar (since April 15, 1937) was MP Frinovsky, who headed the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR. On September 8, 1938, Frinovsky was appointed People's Commissar of the Navy of the USSR and left the posts of the 1st Deputy People's Commissar and Head of the NKVD Department of the USSR, on the same day, September 8, L. P. Beria replaces him in his last post - from September 29, 1938 in the head of the Main Directorate of State Security, restored in the structure of the NKVD (December 17, 1938, Beria will be replaced by V.N. Merkulov, the 1st Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD from December 16, 1938).

On September 11, 1938, L.P. Beria was awarded the title of Commissar of State Security of the 1st rank.

With the advent of L.P. Beria to the post of head of the NKVD, the scale of repressions sharply decreased. In 1939, 2.6 thousand people were sentenced to capital punishment on charges of counter-revolutionary crimes, in 1940 - 1.6 thousand.

In 1939-1940, the overwhelming majority of those not convicted in 1937-1938 were released. Also, some of those convicted and sent to camps were released. In 1938, 279,966 people were released. The expert commission of Moscow State University estimates the number of those released in 1939-1940 at 150-200 thousand people.

From November 25, 1938 to February 3, 1941, Beria led Soviet foreign intelligence (then it was part of the functions of the NKVD of the USSR; from February 3, 1941, foreign intelligence was transferred to the newly formed People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR, which was headed by Beria's former first deputy in NKVD V. N. Merkulov). Beria in the shortest possible time stopped Yezhov's lawlessness and terror that reigned in the NKVD (including foreign intelligence) and in the army, including military intelligence.

Under the leadership of Beria in 1939-1940, a powerful agent network of Soviet foreign intelligence was created in Europe, as well as in Japan and the USA.

Since March 22, 1939 - a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. On January 30, 1941, L.P. Beria was awarded the title of General Commissar of State Security. February 3, 1941 was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. He oversaw the work of the NKVD, the NKGB, the people's commissariats of the timber and oil industries, non-ferrous metals, and the river fleet.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria - what he really was

During the Great Patriotic War, from June 30, 1941, L.P. Beria was a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO).

By the GKO resolution of February 4, 1942 on the distribution of responsibilities between GKO members, L.P. Beria was entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of GKO decisions on the production of aircraft, engines, weapons and mortars, as well as monitoring the implementation of GKO decisions on the work of the Red Air Force Armies (formation of air regiments, their timely transfer to the front, etc.).

By a GKO resolution of December 8, 1942, L.P. Beria was appointed a member of the Operations Bureau of the GKO. By the same decree, L.P. Beria was additionally entrusted with the duties of monitoring and supervising the work of the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry and the People's Commissariat of Railways.

In May 1944, Beria was appointed deputy chairman of the GKO and chairman of the Operations Bureau. The tasks of the Operational Bureau included, in particular, monitoring and monitoring the work of all people's commissariats of the defense industry, railway and water transport, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, coal, oil, chemical, rubber, paper and pulp, electrical industry, power plants.

Beria also served as permanent adviser to the Headquarters of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

During the war years, he carried out responsible assignments of the leadership of the country and the party, both related to the management of the national economy, and at the front. In fact, he led the defense of the Caucasus in 1942. Supervised the production of aircraft and rocket technology.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 30, 1943, L.P. Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor "for special merits in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions."

During the war years, L.P. Beria was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia) (July 15, 1942), the Order of the Republic (Tuva) (August 18, 1943), the Order of Lenin (February 21, 1945), the Order of the Red Banner (November 3, 1944).

On February 11, 1943, I. V. Stalin signed the decision of the State Defense Committee on the program of work for the creation of an atomic bomb under the leadership. But already in the decree of the GKO of the USSR on the laboratory No. 2 of I. V. Kurchatov, adopted on December 3, 1944, it was L. P. Beria who was entrusted with “monitoring the development of work on uranium”, that is, approximately a year and ten months after their supposed start which was difficult during the war.

On July 9, 1945, during the recertification of special state security ranks for military ones, L.P. Beria was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

On September 6, 1945, the Operational Bureau of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was formed, with Beria appointed as its chairman. The tasks of the Operational Bureau of the Council of People's Commissars included issues of the work of industrial enterprises and railway transport.

Since March 1946, Beria was a member of the "seven" members of the Politburo, which included I.V. Stalin and six people close to him. This "inner circle" closed the most important issues of public administration, including: foreign policy, foreign trade, state security, armaments, the functioning of the armed forces. On March 18, he becomes a member of the Politburo, and the next day he is appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. As Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, he supervised the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of State Control.

After testing the first American atomic device in the desert near Alamogordo, work in the USSR to create its own nuclear weapons was significantly accelerated.

On the basis of the Order of the State Defense Committee of August 20, 1945, a Special Committee was created under the State Defense Committee. It included L. P. Beria (chairman), G. M. Malenkov, N. A. Voznesensky, B. L. Vannikov, A. P. Zavenyagin, I. V. Kurchatov, P. L. Kapitsa (then refused from participating in the project due to disagreements with Beria), V. A. Makhnev, M. G. Pervukhin.

The Committee was entrusted with "management of all work on the use of intra-atomic energy of uranium." Later it was renamed into the Special Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and into the Special Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Beria, on the one hand, organized and directed the receipt of all the necessary intelligence information, on the other hand, he carried out general management of the entire project. Personnel issues of the project were entrusted to M. G. Pervukhin, V. A. Malyshev, B. L. Vannikov and A. P. Zavenyagin, who provided scientific and engineering personnel for the organization’s activities and selected experts to solve individual issues.

In March 1953, the Special Committee was entrusted with the management of other special works of defense significance. Based on the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU of June 26, 1953 (on the day of the dismissal and arrest of L.P. Beria), the Special Committee was liquidated, and its apparatus was transferred to the newly formed Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR.

On August 29, 1949, the atomic bomb was successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. On October 29, 1949, Beria was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree "for organizing the production of atomic energy and successfully completing the testing of atomic weapons." According to the testimony of P. A. Sudoplatov, published in the book "Intelligence and the Kremlin: Notes of an Unwanted Witness", two project leaders - L. P. Beria and I. V. Kurchatov - were awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of the USSR" with the wording "for outstanding merits in strengthening the power of the USSR", it is indicated that the recipient was awarded the "Diploma of an honorary citizen of the Soviet Union". In the future, the title "Honorary Citizen of the USSR" was not awarded.

The test of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, the development of which was supervised by G. M. Malenkov, took place on August 12, 1953, after the arrest of Beria.

In March 1949 - July 1951, there was a sharp strengthening of Beria's position in the country's leadership, which was facilitated by the successful testing of the first atomic bomb in the USSR, the work on the creation of which Beria supervised. However, this was followed by the “Mingrelian case” directed against him.

After the XIX Congress of the CPSU, held in October 1952, Beria was included in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which replaced the former Politburo, in the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and in the "leading five" of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, created at the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, and also received the right to replace Stalin at meetings of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

On the day of Stalin's death - March 5, 1953, a joint meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was held, where appointments to the highest posts of the party and the Government of the USSR were approved, and, by prior agreement with the Khrushchev group -Malenkov-Molotov-Bulganin, Beria was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of the Interior of the USSR without much debate. The united Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR included the previously independently existing Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1946-1953) and the Ministry of State Security of the USSR (1946-1953).

On March 9, 1953, L.P. Beria participated in the funeral of I.V. Stalin, from the podium of the Mausoleum he delivered a speech at a funeral meeting.

Beria, along with Malenkov, became one of the main contenders for leadership in the country. In the struggle for leadership, L.P. Beria relied on law enforcement agencies. Beria's henchmen were nominated to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Already on March 19, the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were replaced in all the Union republics and in most regions of the RSFSR. In turn, the newly appointed heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs made replacements in the middle management.

From mid-March to June 1953, Beria, as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, initiated the termination of the case of doctors, the Mingrelian case and a number of other legislative and political transformations:

- Order on the creation of commissions on the revision of the “case of doctors”, a conspiracy in the USSR Ministry of State Security, Glavartupr of the USSR Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of State Security of the Georgian SSR. All defendants in these cases were rehabilitated within two weeks.

- Order on the establishment of a commission to consider cases on the deportation of citizens from Georgia.

- Order to review the "aviation case". Over the next two months, the people's commissar of the aviation industry Shakhurin and the commander of the USSR Air Force Novikov, as well as other defendants in the case, were completely rehabilitated and reinstated in their positions and ranks.

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the amnesty. According to Beria's proposal, on March 27, 1953, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU approved the decree "On Amnesty", according to which 1.203 million people were to be released from places of detention, as well as investigative cases against 401 thousand people were to be terminated. As of August 10, 1953, 1.032 million people were released from places of detention. the following categories of prisoners: convicted for a term of up to 5 years inclusive, convicted for: official, economic and some military crimes, as well as: minors, the elderly, the sick, women with young children and pregnant women.

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the rehabilitation of persons undergoing the "case of doctors". The note admitted that the leading innocent figures of Soviet medicine were presented as spies and murderers, and, as a result, they were the objects of anti-Semitic persecution deployed in the central press. The case from beginning to end is a provocative fiction of the former deputy of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR Ryumin, who, having embarked on the criminal path of deceiving the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in order to obtain the necessary testimony, obtained the sanction of I. V. Stalin to apply physical measures to arrested doctors - torture and severe beatings. The subsequent resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the falsification of the so-called case of pest doctors" dated April 3, 1953 ordered to support Beria's proposal for the complete rehabilitation of these doctors (37 people) and the removal of Ignatiev from the post of Minister of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, and Ryumin by that time has already been arrested.

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on bringing to justice those involved in the death of S. M. Mikhoels and V. I. Golubov.

- Order "On the prohibition of the use of any measures of coercion and physical influence on the arrested". The subsequent resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the approval of the measures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR to correct the consequences of violations of the law" dated April 10, 1953, read: "To approve the ongoing comrade. Beria L.P. measures to uncover criminal acts committed over a number of years in the former USSR Ministry of State Security, expressed in the fabrication of falsified cases against honest people, as well as measures to correct the consequences of violations of Soviet laws, bearing in mind that these measures are aimed at strengthening of the Soviet state and socialist legality”.

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the incorrect conduct of the Mingrelian case. The subsequent resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU “On the falsification of the case on the so-called Mingrelian nationalist group” of April 10, 1953 recognizes that the circumstances of the case are fictitious, all the defendants should be released and fully rehabilitated.

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the rehabilitation of N. D. Yakovlev, I. I. Volkotrubenko, I. A. Mirzakhanov and others".

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the rehabilitation of M. M. Kaganovich".

- Note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the abolition of passport restrictions and sensitive areas".

Lavrenty Beria. liquidation

Arrest and execution of Lavrenty Beria

Enlisting the support of the majority of members of the Central Committee and high-ranking military officers, Khrushchev convened a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on June 26, 1953, where he raised the issue of Beria's compliance with his position and his removal from all posts, except for a member of the presidium (politburo) of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Among others, Khrushchev voiced accusations of revisionism, an anti-socialist approach to the deteriorating situation in the GDR, and spying for Britain in the 1920s.

Beria tried to prove that if he was appointed by the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, then only the plenum could remove him, but on a special signal, a group of generals led by a marshal entered the room and arrested Beria.

Beria was accused of spying for Great Britain and other countries, of striving to eliminate the Soviet worker-peasant system, to restore capitalism and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie, as well as moral decay, abuse of power, falsification of thousands of criminal cases against his colleagues in Georgia and Transcaucasia and in organizing illegal repressions (this, according to the accusation, Beria committed, also acting for selfish and enemy purposes).

At the July plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, almost all members of the Central Committee made statements about the wrecking activities of L. Beria. On July 7, by a resolution of the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Beria was relieved of his duties as a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and removed from the Central Committee of the CPSU. On July 27, 1953, a secret circular of the 2nd Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was issued, which ordered the widespread seizure of any artistic images of L.P. Beria.

The investigation team was actually headed by Rudenko R.A., appointed on June 30, 1953 by the Prosecutor General of the USSR. The investigation team included investigators from the USSR Prosecutor's Office and the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR Tsaregradsky, Preobrazhensky, Kitaev and other lawyers.

Together with him, his closest associates from the state security agencies were accused, immediately after the arrest and later named in the media as the “Beria gang”:

Merkulov VN - Minister of State Control of the USSR;
Kobulov BZ - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR;
Goglidze S. A. - Head of the 3rd Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR;
Meshik P. Ya. - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR;
Dekanozov VG - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR;
Vlodzimirsky L.E. - head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On December 23, 1953, the case of Beria was considered by the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev.

From the last word of Beria in court: "I have already shown the court that I plead guilty. I hid my service in the Musavatist counter-revolutionary intelligence service for a long time. However, I declare that, even while serving there, I did nothing harmful. I fully admit my moral decay. Numerous connections with The women mentioned here are dishonoring me as a citizen and a former party member...Recognizing that I am responsible for the excesses and perversions of socialist legality in 1937-1938, I ask the court to take into account that I have selfish and hostile goals in this "The reason for my crimes was the situation of that time. ... I do not consider myself guilty of an attempt to disorganize the defense of the Caucasus during the Great Patriotic War. I ask you, when sentencing me, to carefully analyze my actions, not to consider me as a counter-revolutionary, but to apply to me only those articles of the Criminal Code that I really deserve".

The verdict read: "The Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR decided: to sentence Beria L. P., Merkulov V. N., Dekanozov V. G., Kobulov B. Z., Goglidze S. A., Meshik P. Ya., Vlodzimirsky L. E. . to the highest measure of criminal punishment - execution, with confiscation of property belonging to them personally, with deprivation of military ranks and awards ".

All the accused were shot on the same day, and L.P. Beria was shot a few hours before the execution of other convicts in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District in the presence of the USSR Prosecutor General R.A. Rudenko. On his own initiative, the first shot was fired from service weapons by Colonel-General (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) P.F. Batitsky. The body was burnt in the furnace of the 1st Moscow (Donskoy) crematorium. He was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery (according to other statements, the ashes of Beria were scattered over the Moscow River).

A brief report on the trial of L.P. Beria and his staff was published in the Soviet press. Nevertheless, some historians admit that the arrest of Beria, his trial and his execution on formal grounds took place illegally: unlike other defendants in the case, there was never a warrant for his arrest; interrogation protocols and letters exist only in copies, the description of the arrest by its participants is fundamentally different from each other, what happened to his body after the execution, is not confirmed by any documents (there is no certificate of cremation).

These and other facts subsequently provided food for all sorts of theories, in particular, that L.P. Beria was killed during his arrest, and the entire trial is a falsification designed to hide the true state of affairs.

The version that Beria was killed on the orders of Khrushchev, Malenkov and Bulganin on June 26, 1953 by a capture group directly during the arrest in his mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya Street is presented in a documentary film-investigation by journalist Sergei Medvedev, which was first shown on Channel One on June 4 2014.

After the arrest of Beria, one of his closest associates, the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR, Mir Jafar Bagirov, was arrested and executed. In subsequent years, other, lower-ranking members of the "Beria gang" were convicted and shot or sentenced to long prison terms:

Abakumov V. S. - Chairman of the Collegium of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR;
Ryumin M.D. - Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR;
Milshtein S. R - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR; on the "case of Bagirov";
Bagirov M. D. - 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR;
Markaryan R. A. - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Dagestan ASSR;
Borshchev T.M. - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Turkmen SSR;
Grigoryan Kh. I. - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Armenian SSR;
Atakishiyev S.I. - 1st Deputy Minister of State Security of the Azerbaijan SSR;
Emelyanov S.F. - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan SSR;
in the “Rukhadze case” Rukhadze N.M. - Minister of State Security of the Georgian SSR;
Rapava. A. N. - Minister of State Control of the Georgian SSR;
Sh. O. Tsereteli - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR;
Savitsky K.S. - Assistant to the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR;
Krimyan N. A. - Minister of State Security of the Armenian SSR;
Khazan A. S. - in 1937-1938 head of the 1st department of the SPO of the NKVD of Georgia, and then assistant head of the STO of the NKVD of Georgia;
Paramonov G. I. - Deputy Head of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs;
Nadaraya S. N. - head of the 1st department of the 9th department of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs;
and others.

In addition, at least 100 generals and colonels were stripped of their ranks and / or awards and dismissed from the bodies with the wording "as having discredited himself during his work in the bodies ... and unworthy of a high rank in connection with this."

In 1952, the fifth volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was published, in which a portrait of L.P. Beria and an article about him were placed. In 1954, the editorial staff of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia sent out a letter to all its subscribers, in which it was strongly recommended to cut out both the portrait and the pages dedicated to L.P. Beria with “scissors or a razor”, and instead paste in others (sent in the same letter) containing other articles starting with the same letters. In the press and literature of the times of the “thaw”, the image of Beria was demonized, he, as the main initiator, was blamed for all the mass repressions.

By the definition of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of May 29, 2002, Beria, as the organizer of political repressions, was recognized as not subject to rehabilitation. Guided by Article.Article. 8, 9, 10 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression" of October 18, 1991 and Art. 377-381 Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation determined: "To recognize Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich, Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich, Kobulov Bogdan Zakharyevich, Goglidze Sergey Arsenyevich not subject to rehabilitation".

Personal life of Lavrenty Beria:

In his youth, Beria was fond of football. He played for one of the Georgian teams as a left midfielder. Subsequently, he attended almost all the matches of the Dynamo teams, especially the Dynamo Tbilisi, whose defeats he perceived painfully.

Beria studied to be an architect and there is evidence that two buildings of the same type on Gagarin Square in Moscow were built according to his design.

The “Beria Orchestra” was the name given to his bodyguards, who, when traveling in open cars, hid machine guns in violin cases, and a light machine gun in a double bass case.

Wife - Nina (Nino) Teimurazovna Gegechkori(1905-1991). In 1990, at the age of 86, the widow of Lavrenty Beria gave an interview in which she fully justified her husband's activities.

The couple had a son who was born in the early 1920s and died in early childhood. This son is mentioned in the documentary “Children of Beria. Sergo and Marta”, as well as in the protocol of interrogation of Nino Taimurazovna Gegechkori.

Son - Sergo (1924-2000).

Nina Gegechkori - wife of Lavrenty Beria

In recent years, Lavrenty Beria had a second (officially unregistered) wife. He cohabited with Valentina (Lyaley) Drozdova, who at the time of their acquaintance was a schoolgirl. Valentina Drozdova gave birth to a daughter from Beria, named Marta or Eteri (according to the singer T. K. Avetisyan, who was personally acquainted with the family of Beria and Lyalya Drozdova - Lyudmila (Lyusya)), who later married Alexander Grishin - the son of the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU Viktor Grishin.

The day after the Pravda newspaper reported on Beria's arrest, Lyalya Drozdova filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office that she had been raped by Beria and lived with him under the threat of physical violence. At the trial, she and her mother A.I. Akopyan acted as witnesses, giving accusatory evidence against Beria.

Valentina Drozdova later became the mistress of the currency speculator Yan Rokotov, who was shot in 1961, and the wife of the shadow knitter Ilya Galperin, who was shot in 1967.

After the conviction of Beria, his close relatives and close relatives of the convicts were deported with them to the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Sverdlovsk Region and Kazakhstan.

Bibliography of Lavrenty Beria:

1936 - On the issue of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia;
1939 - Under the great banner of Lenin-Stalin: Articles and speeches;
1940 - The greatest man of our time;
1940 - About youth

Lavrenty Beria in the cinema (performers):

Mikhail Kvarelashvili ("Battle of Stalingrad", 1 series, 1949);
Alexander Khanov ("The Fall of Berlin", 1949);
Nikolai Mordvinov ("Lights of Baku", 1950; "Donetsk Miners", 1950);
David Suchet (Red Monarch, UK, 1983);
(“Feasts of Belshazzar, or Night with Stalin”, USSR, 1989, “Lost in Siberia”, Great Britain-USSR, 1991);

B. Goladze (“Stalingrad”, USSR, 1989);
Roland Nadareishvili ("Little giant of big sex", USSR, 1990);
V. Bartashov (“Nikolai Vavilov”, USSR, 1990);
Vladimir Sichkar (The War in the Western Direction, USSR, 1990);
Yan Yanakiev (“Law”, 1989, “10 years without the right to correspond”, 1990, “My best friend is General Vasily, son of Joseph”, 1991);
(“To hell with us!”, 1991);
Bob Hoskins (Inner Circle, Italy-USA-USSR, 1992);
Roshan Seth ("Stalin", USA-Hungary, 1992);
Fedya Stoyanovich (“Gospodja Kolontaj”, Yugoslavia, 1996);
Paul Livingston ("Children of the Revolution", Australia, 1996);
Bari Alibasov ("To die of happiness and love", Russia, 1996);
Farid Myazitov ("Ship of Twins", 1997);
Mumid Makoev ("Khrustalev, the car!", 1998);
Adam Ferenczi (“Journey to Moscow” (“Podróz do Moskwy”), Poland, 1999);
Nikolai Kirichenko (“In August 44th ...”, Russia, Belarus, 2001);
Viktor Sukhorukov (“Desired”, Russia, 2003);
(“Children of the Arbat”, Russia, 2004);
Seyran Dalanyan (“Convoy PQ-17”, Russia, 2004);
Irakli Macharashvili (“Moscow Saga”, Russia, 2004);
Vladimir Shcherbakov (“Two Loves”, 2004; “Death of Tairov”, Russia, 2004; “Stalin’s Wife”, Russia, 2006; “Star of the Epoch”; “Apostle”, Russia, 2007; “Beria”, Russia, 2007; “ Hitler kaput!", Russia, 2008; "The Legend of Olga", Russia, 2008; "Wolf Messing: who saw through time", Russia, 2009, "Beria. Loss", Russia, 2010, "Vangelia", Russia, 2013, "On the razor's edge", 2013);

Yervand Arzumanyan ("Archangel", UK-Russia, 2005);
Malkhaz Aslamazashvili (“Stalin. Live”, 2006);
Vadim Tsallati ("Cliffs. Song of Life", 2006);
Vyacheslav Grishechkin (“The Hunt for Beria”, Russia, 2008; “Furtseva”, 2011, “Counterplay”, 2011, “Comrade Stalin”, 2011);
(“Zastava Zhilina”, Russia, 2008);
Sergey Bagirov ("Second", 2009);
Adam Bulguchev ("Burnt by the Sun-2", Russia, 2010; "Zhukov", 2012, "Zoya", 2010, "Cop", 2012, "Kill Stalin", 2013, "Bomb", 2013, "Major Sokolov's Getters" , 2013, "Orlova and Alexandrov", 2014);

Vasily Ostafiychuk ("The Ballad of the Bomber", 2011);
Alexey Zverev (“I serve the Soviet Union”, 2012);
Sergei Gazarov ("Spy", 2012, "Son of the Father of Nations", 2013);
Alexey Eibozhenko, Jr. ("The Second Spartak Rebellion", 2012);
Julian Malakyants ("Life and Fate", 2012);
Roman Grishin (“Stalin is with us”, 2013);
Tsvet Lazar (The 100-year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared, Sweden, 2013)

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 congenital 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 collisions. 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 in the least. 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, helping 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 with 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 editorial of Pravda, 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 the personal orders of Stalin, 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, in 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 investigated 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.