Why didn’t the second person in the state expect a conspiracy against himself? Why did Soviet propaganda do everything to make Lavrenty Pavlovich seem to his descendants the center of evil? And is it true that instead of Beria, his double was sitting in the dock? Read about this in the documentary investigation of the Moscow Trust TV channel.
Beria's executed double
December 1953. At party meetings across the country, the text of the verdict against Lavrentiy Beria, the former Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, is read out. Seven pages of typewritten text about the crimes of the one whom absolutely everyone feared.
By this time, Beria had already been shot. Citizens of the USSR are shocked - the man who was always considered Stalin’s right hand spied for England and Germany, wanted to restore capitalism and committed adultery. He has hundreds of mistresses. But just recently it seemed to everyone: Beria is the new leader of the peoples.
“Dear comrades and friends! It is difficult to express in words the feeling of great sorrow that our party and the people of our country, all progressive humanity, are experiencing these days - Stalin has passed away!” - Lavrentiy Beria said at Stalin’s funeral.
“His speech at Stalin’s funeral made the most favorable impression: a decisive man, like Stalin, speaks with a harsh Georgian accent, and clear phrases, unlike Malenkov and Molotov, who also spoke. He said: “He who is not blind sees, how our country, united together, is ready to take on any challenge at this difficult moment. He who is not blind sees!" This phrase - "who is not blind, sees" - was remembered by everyone and repeated by everyone. Suddenly, its debunking immediately produced a double reaction: on the one hand, they believed it, on the other hand, here is the moment: what “That’s not the case here. And this is where the moment of discrediting the Soviet regime begins,” says historian and writer Yuri Emelyanov.
Stalin's funeral. In the guard of honor are Voroshilov, Beria and Malenkov, 1953. Photo: ITAR-TASS
The trial of Beria was closed. The sentence of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR was carried out on December 23, 1953 in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. The body is then cremated. Where the ashes are buried is classified. This is the official version. However, rumors are spreading around Moscow that Beria was killed in the summer. Either during his arrest in his mansion on Kachalova Street, now Malaya Nikitskaya, or shortly after in the Kremlin. But most importantly, they say that they tried and then shot the double.
Writer Boris Sokolov recalls: Beria’s son Sergo also shared this opinion.
“Actually, different members of the judicial presence told Sergo Lavrentievich differently whether it was his father or whether it was a double. But few of those present knew Beria by sight. They could have prepared a double. Just find a relatively similar person and give him some materials so that he can learn something so that he can answer something plausibly in court,” Sokolov claims.
And supposedly there were even eyewitnesses among the military guards guarding the prisoner’s cell. They said that in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, movement around the territory was sharply limited. The windows were painted over with white paint, but one of the officers managed to see Beria. And those who saw him were surprised: despite the summer, even in prison he did not take off his hat or scarf. Glasses, a hat, a coat, sometimes a white scarf - the image of Beria, entrenched in the minds of Soviet citizens. Although after the war, Lavrentiy Beria imitates Stalin - he often appears in a uniform with marshal stars. He was awarded the title immediately after the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
“There was a rear for Beria. And many believe that if the rear of the Red Army had not fled, and this is elementary, in 1941-42, when they marched, sweeping away everything, here to Moscow, to Stalingrad, everyone could simply have fled. Here they are held the rear. Of course, it wasn’t Beria alone, it was his detachments. And in 1942 - the barrier detachments, when the situation was really becoming catastrophic, and they could break through the Volga, they could break into Transcaucasia, I mean the Nazis. All this during the war years he carried it out. Very harshly and very cruelly. Without any compromises, this was carried out. But ask him about this. His organs acted very cruelly. All this took place. They stood and shot in the back of the retreating Red Army soldiers," says historian Alexander Bezborodov.
Member of the "Red Terror"
Georgian by nationality, an architect by training, in the early 30s he made a successful career along the party line, not disdaining cooperation with the NKVD. In 1937, he was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks).
“People who say that Beria did not participate in the repressions of 1937-38, in fact, do not know in this case the career and biography of Lavrentiy Beria. They do not understand that the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia could not help but participate in the repressions. More Moreover, he authorized the arrests that were carried out at the Georgian level, he sent requests to Stalin to authorize the arrests. He worked closely with the head of the NKVD of Georgia Goglidze, who, by the way, reported to him the progress of the case in the NKVD. Moreover, Beria gave instructions, who to arrest, who to interrogate and how. And these notes from Beria regarding the intensity of interrogations, or “to interrogate someone tightly,” which meant beating, they are in Beria’s file, they are simply included in the case. Therefore, of course, on a nationwide scale Beria did not participate in the repressions, but he took part in the repressions in Georgia, and in Georgia he left a very bad memory of himself,” explains historian Nikita Petrov.
And in 1938, Beria came to the attention of Stalin, who was busy updating the country’s leadership. Joseph Vissarionovich no longer needs the leader’s executioners - those who started the repressions - Yezhov and Yagoda, their hands are too dirty. And here the head of the Georgian party committee, Lavrentiy Beria, publishes a book about the leader at an opportune time.
Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. Photo: ITAR-TASS
“A whole series of personality cults were created, led, of course, by Stalin, the second was Molotov, Zhdanov, by the way, another of the people who came to the Politburo in a later period, Kaganovich, and so on. And Beria took advantage of the fact that he was on key, in fact, position in the homeland of Joseph Stalin in Georgia, and he wrote a book. Of course, not he, but the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Tbilisi, but this book was published under the name, under the authorship of Lavrentiy Beria, wrote a book about the work of the Bolsheviks in "Georgia in the pre-revolutionary period, where Stalin's role in the revolutionary movement greatly increased. This fell on the newly defined ideological plane and Beria here, as they say, got into the kings," historian Yaroslav Listov.
Moscow, our days. Museum of the History of the Gulag. Here are collected materials about the period of Beria's reign. The cruelest torture of prisoners, a laboratory for testing poisons on humans and an incredible increase in the number of colonies and prisons in the Soviet Union - this is how experts characterize the time when Lavrenty Pavlovich was the head of the NKVD.
“Yagoda is considered the father of the Gulag; he was the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, who was then arrested at the beginning of 1937. But after Yezhov, when Yezhov was the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, when Yezhov was arrested, this was at the beginning of 1938, Beria was made Yezhov’s deputy, and in In December 1938, he had already become People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and State Security, was responsible for both. And when he came to power, the first thing that happened was the arrests of security officers. In 1939, more than 20 thousand security officers were arrested and shot, that is, they were exterminated "witnesses of what was happening under Yezhov was supposedly a softening of the regime. But only supposedly, in fact, nothing like that happened. But Beria really was distinguished by such a sophisticated approach to the methods of torturing prisoners, to methods of torture, to methods of eliminating people," says Yulia Samorodnitskaya.
Who is responsible for the death of the leader
The guide of the Gulag History Museum, Yulia Samorodnitskaya, still remembers how dangerous it was to simply walk past Beria’s house. She lived nearby. She learned years later that the all-powerful Lavrenty lived in this mansion. But he says that then all the women in Moscow knew: it was dangerous to be on this side of the street.
“Such a house behind a very high wall, two meters or more, gray, and everyone already knew (how they knew is unknown, but rumors always creep) that we had to go to the other side of Sadovaya. There was no need to walk on this side near his house, because a lot of women were simply grabbed on the street and taken to this house. We crossed to the other side, in general, not knowing what was going on. But when many people come to the museum now, they say: “And we in general They didn’t know that there was a Gulag, we didn’t know that they were arresting us at all.” They didn’t know, but for some reason they went over to the other side. So, they knew, it turns out,” says the guide of the State Museum of the History of the Gulag, Yulia Samorodnitskaya.
1949 On August 29, the Soviet Union successfully tests a nuclear bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site. Beria, as the curator of the atomic project, is becoming an increasingly influential person in the state. He has long been part of the leader’s inner circle. Well, now, in the wake of the Cold War with the United States, thanks in part to him, the balance of power in the world is changing in favor of the Soviet country. Beria receives the Stalin Prize and the title "Honorary Citizen of the USSR" with the wording: "For outstanding services in strengthening the power of the USSR."
“He was entrusted with the atomic project and the creation of missile defense systems, air defense of the country. He dealt with this very uncompromisingly, with his inherent rigidity, byzantineism, unprincipledness, of course, all this was created and shaped. He managed to do this, slightly behind the Americans , and then ahead of them. But we must not forget that this issue was supervised by both Stalin and the Politburo, of course. And to say that one person created all this, formed it with the help of our intelligence, working with American sources, is only half the truth. Not It is necessary in history, especially in these difficult periods, to shy away from and mythologize materials in no case. What he did, he did, is known. You can’t say that you know, it’s all nonsense and nonsense. It was created, and he led, all this can be proven. The costs are colossal. He essentially had a nuclear Gulag at hand, and we put a lot of people into this business. The price of the issue, as always, is off the charts here - human," says Alexander Bezborodov.
Moscow. 1953 is a turning point in the history of the Soviet Union. On March 5, Joseph Stalin dies at a nearby dacha in Kuntsevo. The exact circumstances of the death of the most cruel leader in the entire history of the USSR are still unknown. But many historians are sure: Lavrenty Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov and Nikolai Bulganin had something to do with what happened. At a minimum, they do not provide first aid to Stalin. He lies in the office, the doctor is not called to see him.
“To what extent this is, it is impossible to prove. The only crime they committed was that they did not provide assistance to a person who was clearly in need of medical attention. Stalin was found on the floor, his guards carried him to the sofa, but they did not dare to take any measures. They arrived Beria, Bulganin, Malenkov and Khrushchev said: “Everything is fine with Stalin, he’s just sleeping." And for several hours the man, in general, worsened his condition, only in the morning the doctors arrived. That is, this is a criminal offense for failure to provide assistance. This is they did it,” says Yuri Emelyanov.
Be that as it may, after Stalin's death, Lavrentiy Beria becomes the most powerful member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He is the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and at the same time the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. The Ministry of State Security is now part of the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and therefore in its hands.
The director of the Historical and Archival Institute of the Russian Humanitarian University, Alexander Bezborodov, believes that Beria had all the levers of the repressive machine in his hands - the police, the Gulag and, most valuable, tons of compromising material on his party colleagues, accumulated over the years of work. Lavrenty Pavlovich is not shy about reminding us of this.
“Beria had extraordinary powers to preserve the state system both during the war years and especially after. And of course no one doubts that the dossier on the most diverse members of the leadership of our country, perhaps with the exception of Stalin, was formed in these bodies. I assure you you, it simply could not have been any other way. I would like to say that this is a time of difficult confrontation, so to speak, between two systems, starting in 1917, and then during the war years - military confrontation with powerful enemies who had first-class intelligence services at that time ". The data that Beria possessed was critical material. Everyone understood that he had this data and that at any moment he could roll it out and become persona grata, and the rest - persona non grata. And this, as well as his past, in essence, any person in special agencies had a very bad personal history before the simple party apparatchiks, even before the military, as well as his relationship with the military, with the generals of the Red and Soviet Army, which did not work out, and they could not really work out played a fatal role for him,” says Alexander Bezborodov.
First after Stalin
Although formally after Stalin’s funeral the country was governed by a group of Politburo members, Georgy Malenkov, a bosom friend of Lavrentiy Beria, was elected head of the Council of Ministers.
“Plus, Malenkov had already become the first person in the state after Stalin’s death on March 5, and the person who proposed him as Chairman of the Council of Ministers was Beria. He nominated him, and this is very important, this symbolism, the ritualism of many processes. As a rule, the one who contributed is his closest comrade-in-arms, closest associate. Malenkov becomes the first person of the state, Beria remains in the post of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but begins to propose a lot of too radical initiatives. If I am the first person, and my deputy begins to behave more actively than me, then... I don’t think that Beria attempted to become the first person in the state, it would be quite difficult to do for many reasons. There are no friends in politics, there are interests in politics, so even friendly relations with Malenkov, friendly relations with They didn’t save Khrushchev…” says historian Kirill Anderson
Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1954. Photo: ITAR-TASS
Soon the thin stream of notes and decrees from Lavrentiy Beria turns into a stormy river. He actually destroys the Stalinist system: he changes almost all the heads of the republican departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and puts forward a number of revolutionary initiatives, from mass amnesty of prisoners to revisions of high-profile cases.
“Beria began very zealously, quickly, arrogantly (this, apparently, was in the spirit of his character as an organizer, manager, manager) to propose reforms that, in fact, destroyed the system created under Stalin.
Firstly, Beria wanted to consolidate the situation in which the party is concerned only with ideology and does not meddle in the economy; government agencies deal with the economy. Beria began the first rehabilitation of victims of repression.
The case of the doctors has been reviewed, the case of aviation has been reviewed, the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee has been reviewed, and so on. He purges the NKVD, in particular, issues an order prohibiting the use of physical methods against them. He is a supporter of amnesty, and in his version, not only people who committed minor crimes, but even those who fell under Article 58 of the famous, were subject to amnesty, but Khrushchev and Malenkov opposed it. He was against the creation of the GDR because he believed (he was a very rational and economic person) that maintaining the GDR, and we would have to invest a lot of money there, would be too expensive. Money is needed here, the country is recovering after the war - once. Changing national policies," says Anderson.
The amnesty that Beria advocated began on March 27 and ended almost simultaneously with his arrest. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly criminals but not political prisoners, were released. Those who witnessed what happened remember that general liberation as a bad dream.
“They released criminals because political prisoners were not released under this amnesty. In addition to criminals, they released people who had sentences of up to five years. In particular, there was a law on being late for work, they were also released, mothers who had been there small children. But there are no political prisoners. And then a wave of this criminality swept the country. In robberies, in attacks, in violence, because these were real criminals, they were kept in camps for a reason, many of them were simply murderers. They got caught also those who served the Germans, incidentally,” says guide Yulia Samorodnitskaya.
Unexpected turn
June 26, 1953. Troops have been sent to Moscow. The military is ready to prevent a coup at any time. They are afraid that the security officers will stand up for their boss. A meeting of the Council of Ministers begins in the Kremlin, at which Lavrentiy Beria will be deprived of all titles, positions and powers. But he himself doesn’t even know about it. According to the idea of Khrushchev and Malenkov, the military, led by Marshal Zhukov, will suddenly enter the hall and announce the arrest.
Back in the 90s, journalist Andrei Parshev came across documents that explain why Beria was not ready for such a turn of events.
“What brought him down, an extremely smart, quick-witted man? The fact is that it was his closest friends who eliminated him. Khrushchev and Malenkov formed a stable group in the Politburo. Everyone knew this. And therefore, from this side, Beria did not expect this at all catch. Some security officials played a big role in his overthrow. His friend in a sense, according to the memoirs of Beria’s son, Sergo Beria, was Marshal Zhukov. During the defense of Moscow, as he recalled, Zhukov, since he had no family in Moscow, and Beria also led the defense of Moscow, but in his part, Zhukov often came with Beria to his home and spent the night there. This, in fact, is the reason why Beria, with all his intelligence, lost in this situation," says Parshev .
The meeting of the Council of Ministers lasts a long time. Not all participants agree with the accusations against Beria. Marshal Zhukov is waiting for the arrest signal in the next room and finally receives it. Beria offers no resistance.
Members of the government in the group of delegates to the 1st session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st convocation. Photo: ITAR-TASS
“The degree of influence of Beria in the circles of state control agencies and state security was so great that there was a real threat of a coup d’etat that Beria could carry out. Therefore, for the top leadership of the country there was a question: either we are him, or he is us. That is, as they say, minutes were counting. Therefore, they still took the path of arrest first. Moreover, within the leadership of the Soviet Union itself there was a very big debate about when it was necessary to arrest Beria. The fact is that several positions and versions were expressed. The first position and version was expressed Khrushchev about the need to urgently, immediately, first arrest, then all the trials, removal from all positions.
The second point of view was expressed by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, who, as a more experienced leader of the country, understood perfectly well that this extrajudicial arrest, because Beria at that time was also a deputy of the Supreme Council, had parliamentary immunity, held senior positions in the party, in the government, that his arrest before the removal of all these posts is, in fact, a return to the extrajudicial practice of 1937,” says historian Yaroslav Listov.
Arrest and trial of Beria
Moscow, Krutitskoye Compound. In 1953, the garrison guardhouse of the Moscow Military District was located here. Here, in the car of one of the generals, Beria is taken out of the Kremlin. A day later they are transferred to a specially equipped cell in a bomb shelter at the district headquarters. All these facts are documented. And then the legends begin.
“Not all archival documents on this issue of the last days and months of his life are available to researchers, both simple researchers and complex ones. The matter is aggravated by the fact that, I suspect, significant volumes of documentary sources simply do not exist, they were destroyed. Everything that concerns this plot. Moreover, I would like to say that the last pages of his biography twisted so wildly that, most likely, there cannot be any documents. All this, of course, together, these three reasons, gave rise and have always given rise in history, and will give rise to the fact that in addition to the official, semi-official, educational, scientific points of view, there will be a huge amount of unverified information, which will always circulate around the personality of this or that person. Where he is buried, it is unknown, in what form, and so on, what he said in In recent days, how the arrest was carried out, all this is known only from the words of people who are very interested,” says historian Alexander Bezborodov.
Beria’s arrest was officially announced only two weeks later, on July 10. Muscovites, however, are already aware of it. Whispered from mouth to mouth. A librarian friend told Yulia Samorodnitskaya about what happened.
On the day of Joseph Stalin’s funeral, 1953. Photo: ITAR-TASS
“I must say that my parents were also repressed. My friend who worked in the library called me; there was such a library on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard. And she told me: “Quickly, quickly come to the boulevard now, I’ll tell you something.” I came running, she said: “Let’s go sit on a bench so that no one can hear us.” My soul was already sinking into my heels, because I was afraid of everything in the world, I wasn’t many years old yet. And she was on the boulevard. not out loud, when there is no one around, he says in his ear: “You know, something happened to Beria.” I say: “What happened to him?” - generally in horror, because I was waiting for God knows what, we were all in limbo. She says: “They just came to the library and ordered to take down his portrait.” There was no message yet, only the portrait was taken down. I say: “It can’t be,” because the word “Beria” it only instilled horror in people,” recalls Yulia Samorodnitskaya.
Was Beria shot before the verdict? Experts are still arguing. Perhaps there really was a double in the dock? Not a single photograph has survived from the trial of the former minister.
Writer Boris Sokolov believes that falsification did take place. Too many documents are missing. And those that he saw cast doubt that Lavrentiy Beria lived longer than until the end of the summer of 1953.
“He was arrested, an investigation was launched and, according to my estimates, somewhere in the second half of August he was shot, and then there was a re-enactment of the trial. I am convinced of this by the analysis of the protocols of his interrogations that were published. Until about August 7, these The protocols are more or less real, especially the first real ones. They contain some information that clearly only Beria could know, for example, with whom he went to the Romanian front in 1917. And after that, from the second half of August, all the protocols They follow the same pattern: the testimony of witnesses is read out to him, he either confirms or refutes this testimony, and does not demand any confrontations or anything. This is extremely strange, because the only thing Beria was interested in was delaying the investigation, and obviously he should have asked for a confrontation, and even named, if possible, some persons to be interrogated there, but there is nothing of this,” says Boris Sokolov.
July 7, 1953, Moscow, Kremlin. A closed meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party is taking place. Almost all members of the Central Committee agree that the arrest of the saboteur and spy Beria was carried out correctly. He is unanimously deprived of his party card. What was said that day from the podium added to the story. Even the most fantastic scenarios for the development of events appeared.
“These are supposedly spoken phrases at a meeting of the Central Committee, which some researchers interpret as allegedly letting slip about the murder of Beria. This is a statement, for example, by Kaganovich that “we eliminated the threat.” But the elimination of the threat and the elimination of Beria are slightly different things. The adventurer was stopped or blocked adventurer, various, all these phrases can be interpreted either way. As well as the question that he was removed, thereby eliminating him as a political figure, and one might think that he was shot. And the last document that evokes certain here doubt is that the doctor who examined the death of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was not present.From this even a fantastic version was born that allegedly Beria did not die, but fled to Latin America in the wake of Nazi criminals, allegedly having tea with Bormann somewhere drank," explains historian Yaroslav Listov.
Enemy of the people
Writer Yuri Emelyanov recalls how the general condemnation of Beria began in the country. Even ditties appeared - Soviet kitchen humor.
“Reports about this plenum and that Beria was arrested and that a trial was being prepared. Nothing was reported about the preparation of the trial, how the investigation was conducted. But on the other hand, rallies were held throughout the country condemning the agent of international imperialism Beria, how he was suddenly announced. But I must say, the people treated it quite ironically. And so these ditties were immediately put into use, among which the most popular was: “Beria, Beria lost his trust, and Georgy Malenkov kicked him,” says Emelyanov.
The accusations brought against the all-powerful Lawrence were not much different from those used during the years of great terror - the time of the most massive repressions in the late 30s. Beria is charged with espionage for several countries, abuse of power, rape and much more. The execution, according to the official version, takes place that same night, December 23, 1953. Several people are present, including Prosecutor General Rudenko. The first to pull the trigger, according to eyewitnesses, was then General and later Marshal Pavel Batitsky.
Kaganovich L.M., Bulganin N.A., Khrushchev N.S. at the funeral of I.V. Stalin, 1953. Photo: ITAR-TASS
Announcer: “The working people of Moscow, like the entire Soviet people, unanimously approve of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party, approve of the measures taken to eliminate the criminal actions of the enemy of the people Beria. The activities of the vile degenerate, agent of international imperialism Beria arouses the anger and indignation of every Soviet person.”
The verdict will be publicly announced at party meetings throughout the country. Lavrentiy Beria in the mass consciousness turns into the focus of evil, almost the initiator of repression.
Historian Kirill Anderson is sure: this was beneficial to the Soviet government and especially to Khrushchev, who was aiming to replace the leader. There were a little more than two years left before the 20th Party Congress, where Stalin’s personality cult was debunked.
“You understand, the image of Beria, which has survived to this day, was created by Khrushchev, Malenkov. That is, it was as if they killed two birds with one stone by executing Beria. On the one hand, they got rid of an overly proactive person who could suppress everyone around him, while remaining formally in secondary roles, and, secondly, by placing all the blame for the repressions on Beria, but Beria actually came to the NKVD in 1939, after Yagoda, after Yezhov, and, in general, softened this process. Everyone was blamed on him. Few people remembered Yezhov, few people remembered Yagoda, and, in general, for the same Khrushchev this was not so important. It was important to explain why Beria was removed, and blame it on him, whitewashing Stalin a little, as if Stalin was not involved in this. And this was "It went on for so long, so massively, that this is what happened. Beria is absolutely not an angel, but everyone who was in politics at that time was involved in one way or another, including Molotov, and the same Kaganovich, and the same Khrushchev," says Anderson.
Together with Lavrentiy Beria, several dozen people were thrown behind bars, including almost all the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet republics. Six of the minister's closest associates were convicted and shot.
In 1954, the editors of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia sent a letter to all its subscribers. It strongly recommended cutting out both the portrait and the pages dedicated to Beria with scissors or a razor, and instead pasting in others sent in the same letter - a photograph and an article about the Bering Sea.
Lavrentiy Beria is one of the most odious famous politicians of the 20th century, whose activities are still widely discussed in modern society. He was an extremely controversial figure in the history of the USSR and went through a long political path, filled with gigantic repressions of people and immense crimes, which made him the most outstanding “death functionary” in Soviet times. The head of the NKVD was a cunning and treacherous politician, on whose decisions the fate of entire nations depended. Beria carried out his activities under the patronage of the then current head of the USSR, after whose death he intended to take his place at the “helm” of the country. But he lost in the struggle for power and, by court decision, was shot as a traitor to the Motherland.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born on March 29, 1899 in the Abkhaz village of Merkheuli in the family of poor Mingrelian peasants Pavel Beria and Martha Jakeli. He was the third and only healthy child in the family - the future politician’s older brother died of illness at the age of two, and his sister suffered a serious illness and became deaf and mute. From childhood, young Lavrenty showed a great interest in education and a zeal for knowledge, which was atypical for peasant children. At the same time, the parents decided to give their son a chance to become educated, for which they had to sell half of the house in order to pay for the boy’s studies at the Sukhumi Higher Primary School.
Beria fully justified the hopes of his parents and proved that the money was not spent in vain - in 1915 he graduated from college with honors and entered the Baku Secondary Construction School. Having become a student, he moved his deaf-mute sister and mother to Baku, and in order to support them, along with his studies, he worked at the Nobel oil company. In 1919, Lavrenty Pavlovich received a diploma as a construction technician-architect.
During his studies, Beria organized the Bolshevik faction, in whose ranks he took an active part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, while working as a clerk at the Baku plant “Caspian Partnership White City”. He also led the illegal Communist Party of Technicians, with whose members he organized an armed uprising against the Georgian government, for which he was imprisoned.
In mid-1920, Beria was expelled from Georgia to Azerbaijan. But literally after a short period of time he was able to return to Baku, where he was assigned to do security work, which made him a secret agent of the Baku police. Even then, colleagues of the future head of the NKVD of the USSR noticed in him harshness and mercilessness towards people who dissented from him, which allowed Lavrenty Pavlovich to rapidly develop his career, starting from the deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani Cheka and ending with the position of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR.
Policy
At the end of the 1920s, the biography of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was focused on party work. It was then that he managed to meet the head of the USSR Joseph Stalin, who saw his comrade-in-arms in the revolutionary and showed visible favor to him, which many attribute to the fact that they were of the same nationality. In 1931, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party, and already in 1935 he was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee and the Presidium of the USSR. In 1937, the politician reached another high step on the path to power and became the head of the Tbilisi City Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. Having become the leader of the Bolsheviks in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Beria won the recognition of the people and his comrades, who at the end of each congress praised him, calling him “their favorite Stalinist leader.”
During that period, Lavrentiy Beria managed to develop the national economy of Georgia to a large scale; he made a great contribution to the development of the oil industry and commissioned many large industrial facilities, and transformed Georgia into an all-Union resort area. Under Beria, Georgian agriculture increased 2.5 times in volume, and high prices were set for products (tangerines, grapes, tea), which made the Georgian economy the most prosperous in the country.
Real fame came to Lavrentiy Beria in 1938, when Stalin appointed him head of the NKVD, which made the politician the second-largest person in the country after the head. Historians claim that the politician earned such a high position thanks to his active support of the Stalinist repressions of 1936-38, when the Great Terror took place in the country, which included “cleansing” the country of “enemies of the people.” In those years, almost 700 thousand people lost their lives because they were subjected to political persecution due to disagreement with the current government.
Head of the NKVD
Having become the head of the NKVD of the USSR, Lavrentiy Beria distributed leadership positions in the department to his associates from Georgia, thereby strengthening his influence on the Kremlin and Stalin. In his new post, he immediately carried out a large-scale repression of former security officers and carried out a total purge of the country’s leadership apparatus, becoming Stalin’s “right hand” in all matters.
At the same time, it was Beria, according to most historical experts, who was able to put an end to large-scale Stalinist repressions, as well as release from prison many military and civil servants who were recognized as “unreasonably convicted.” Thanks to such actions, Beria gained a reputation as the person who restored “legality” in the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, Beria became a member of the State Defense Committee, in which at that time all power in the country was localized. Only he made the final decisions on the production of weapons, aircraft, mortars, engines, as well as on the formation and transfer of air regiments at the front. Responsible for the “military spirit” of the Red Army, Lavrenty Pavlovich used the so-called “weapons of fear”, resuming mass arrests and public executions for all soldiers and spies who did not want to fight and were captured. Historians attribute the victory in the Second World War largely to the harsh policies of the head of the NKVD, in whose hands the entire military-industrial potential of the country was located.
After the war, Beria began developing the nuclear potential of the USSR, but at the same time continued to carry out mass repressions in the countries allied to the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, where most of the male population was imprisoned in concentration camps and colonies (GULAG). It was these prisoners who were involved in military production, carried out under conditions of strict secrecy, which was ensured by the NKVD.
With the help of a team of nuclear physicists led by Beria and the coordinated work of intelligence officers, Moscow received clear instructions on the construction of an atomic bomb created in the United States. The first successful test of nuclear weapons in the USSR was carried out in 1949 in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, for which Lavrenty Pavlovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.
In 1946, Beria entered Stalin’s “inner circle” and became deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. A little later, the head of the USSR saw him as his main competitor, so Joseph Vissarionovich began to carry out a “purge” in Georgia and check Lavrenty Pavlovich’s documents, which complicated the relationship between them. In this regard, by the time of Stalin's death, Beria and several of his allies had created an unspoken alliance aimed at changing some of the foundations of Stalin's rule.
He tried to strengthen his position in power by signing a series of decrees aimed at introducing judicial reforms, a global amnesty and a ban on harsh interrogation methods with episodes of abuse of prisoners. Thus, he intended to create for himself a new cult of personality, opposite to the Stalinist dictatorship. But, since he had practically no allies in the government, after Stalin’s death a conspiracy was organized against Beria, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.
In July 1953, Lavrentiy Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium. He was accused of connections with British intelligence and treason. This became one of the most high-profile cases in Russian history among members of the highest echelon of power of the Soviet state.
Death
The trial of Lavrenty Beria took place from December 18 to 23, 1953. He was convicted by a “special tribunal” without the right to defense or appeal. Specific charges in the case of the former head of the NKVD were a number of illegal murders, espionage for Great Britain, repressions of 1937, rapprochement with, treason.
On December 23, 1953, Beria was shot by decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. After the execution, Lavrenty Pavlovich’s body was burned in the Donskoy crematorium, and the ashes of the revolutionary were buried in the New Donskoy cemetery.
According to historians, Beria’s death allowed the entire Soviet people to breathe a sigh of relief, who until the last day considered the politician a bloody dictator and tyrant. And in modern society he is accused of mass repressions of more than 200 thousand people, which included a number of Russian scientists and prominent intellectuals of that time. Lavrenty Pavlovich is also credited with a number of orders for the execution of Soviet soldiers, which during the war years only played into the hands of the enemies of the USSR.
In 1941, the former head of the NKVD carried out the “extermination” of all anti-Soviet figures, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, including women and children. During the war years, he carried out a total deportation of the peoples of Crimea and the North Caucasus, the scale of which reached a million people. That is why Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria became the most controversial political figure in the USSR, in whose hands was the power over the destinies of the people.
Personal life
The personal life of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria is still a separate topic that requires serious study. He was officially married to Nina Gegechkori, who bore him a son in 1924. The wife of the ex-head of the NKVD throughout her life supported her husband in his difficult activities and was his most devoted friend, whom she tried to justify even after his death.
Throughout his political activity at the heights of power, Lavrenty Pavlovich was known as a “Kremlin rapist” with an unbridled passion for the fair sex. Beria and his women are still considered the most mysterious part of the life of a prominent political figure. There is information that in recent years he lived in two families - his common-law wife was Lyalya Drozdova, who gave birth to his illegitimate daughter Marta.
At the same time, historians do not rule out that Beria had a sick psyche and was a pervert. This is confirmed by the politician’s “lists of sexual victims,” the presence of which was recognized in the Russian Federation in 2003. It is reported that the number of victims of the maniac Beria is more than 750 girls whom he raped using sadistic methods.
Historians say that very often the head of the NKVD sexually harassed schoolgirls 14-15 years old, whom he imprisoned in soundproof interrogation rooms at Lubyanka, where he subjected them to sexual perversion. During interrogation, Beria admitted that he had physical sexual relations with 62 women, and since 1943 he suffered from syphilis, which he contracted from a seventh-grader in one of the schools near Moscow. Also in his safe, during the search, items of women's underwear and children's dresses were found, which were stored next to items characteristic of perverts.
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Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) - a prominent statesman and political figure of the USSR during the Stalinist period. In the last years of Stalin's life he was the second person in the state. His authority especially increased after the successful test of the atomic bomb on August 29, 1949. This project was directly supervised by Lavrenty Pavlovich. He assembled a very strong team of scientists, provided them with everything they needed, and in the shortest possible time a weapon of incredible power was created.
Lavrenty Beria
However, after the death of the leader of the peoples, the career of the powerful Lawrence also ended. The entire leadership of the Leninist party opposed him. Beria was arrested on June 26, 1953, accused of treason, tried and executed on December 23 of the same year by court decision. This is the official version of those distant historical events. That is, there was arrest, trial and execution of the sentence.
But these days the opinion has become stronger that there was no arrest or trial. All this was invented by the leaders of the Soviet state for the general public and Western journalists. In reality, Beria's death was the result of a banal murder. The powerful Lawrence was shot dead by the generals of the Soviet army, and they did it completely unexpectedly for their victim. The body of the murdered man was destroyed, and only then the arrest and trial were announced. As for the procedural actions, they were fabricated at the highest state level.
However, we should not forget that such a statement requires proof. And these can only be obtained by making sure that the official version consists of continuous inaccuracies and flaws. So first let's ask ourselves: At a meeting of which government body was Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria arrested??
Khrushchev, Molotov, Kaganovich initially told everyone that Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee. However, then smart people explained to the leaders of the state that they were confessing to a crime under Art. 115 of the Criminal Code – Unlawful detention. The Presidium of the Central Committee is the highest party body and it does not have the authority to detain the first deputy of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, appointed to the position by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Therefore, when Khrushchev dictated his memoirs, he stated that the arrest was made at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, where all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were invited. That is, Beria was arrested not by the party, but by the government. But the whole paradox is that none of the members of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers mentioned such a meeting in their memoirs.
Zhukov and Khrushchev
Now let's find out: which of the military men arrested Lavrenty, and who commanded these military men? Marshal Zhukov said that it was he who led the capture group. Colonel General Moskalenko was given to help him. And the latter stated that it was he who commanded the detention, and took Zhukov for quantity. All this sounds strange, since the military is initially clear who gives the commands and who carries them out.
Zhukov further said that he received the order to arrest Beria from Khrushchev. But then he was told that in this case he had encroached on the freedom of the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers on the orders of the Secretary of the Central Committee. Therefore, in subsequent memoirs, Zhukov began to claim that he received the order for arrest from the head of the government, Malenkov.
But Moskalenko presented those events differently. According to him, the task was received from Khrushchev, and the instructions were given by Defense Minister Bulganin. He received the order himself from Malenkov personally. At the same time, the head of government was accompanied by Bulganin, Molotov and Khrushchev. They left the meeting room of the Presidium of the Central Committee to Moskalenko and his capture group. It should be said that already on August 3, Colonel General Moskalenko was awarded the next rank of Army General, and in March 1955, the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. And before that, since 1943, for 10 years, he wore three general stars on his shoulder straps.
A military career is good, but who to believe, Zhukov or Moskalenko? That is, there is discord - one says one thing, and the other says something completely different. Perhaps, after all, Moskalenko commanded the detention of Beria? There is an opinion that he received the highest ranks not for his arrest, but for the murder of Beria. It was the Colonel General who shot Lavrenty, and he did this not after the trial, but on June 26, 1953, on the basis of an oral order from Malenkov, Khrushchev and Bulganin. That is, Beria’s death occurred in the summer, and not in the last ten days of December.
But let’s return to the official version and ask: was Lavrentiy Palych given the floor to explain before his arrest?? Khrushchev wrote that Beria was not allowed to speak. First, all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee spoke, and after that Malenkov immediately pressed the button and called the military into the meeting room. But Molotov and Kaganovich argued that Lavrenty was justified and denied all charges. But they did not report what exactly the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers said. By the way, for some reason the minutes of this meeting have not been preserved. Maybe because there was no such meeting at all.
Where the military waited for the signal to arrest Beria? Khrushchev and Zhukov said that the meeting itself took place in Stalin’s former office. But the capture group was waiting in the room of Poskrebyshev’s assistant. There was a door from it directly into the office, bypassing the reception area. Moskalenko stated that he and the generals and officers were waiting in the reception area, while Beria’s guards were nearby.
How the signal was given to the military to arrest Lavrentiy? According to Zhukov’s memoirs, Malenkov made two calls to Poskrebyshev’s office. But Moskalenko says something completely different. Malenkov’s assistant Sukhanov conveyed the agreed signal to his capture group. Immediately after this, five armed generals and a sixth unarmed Zhukov (he never carried a weapon) entered the meeting room.
Marshal Moskalenko, fourth from right
At what time was Beria arrested?? Moskalenko stated that his group arrived in the Kremlin at 11 o’clock on June 26, 1953. At 13:00 the prearranged signal was received. Marshal Zhukov claimed that the first bell rang at one o'clock in the afternoon, and a little later the second bell rang. Malenkov’s assistant Sukhanov gives a completely different chronology of those events. According to him, the meeting began at 2 pm, and the military waited for about two hours for the agreed signal.
Where did Lavrenty Pavlovich’s arrest take place?? Eyewitnesses identified this place more or less identically. The debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers was arrested right at the table of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Zhukov recalled: “I approached Beria from behind and commanded: “ Get up! You are under arrest." He started to get up, and I immediately twisted his hands behind his back, lifted him up and shook him like that." Moskalenko outlined his version: “ We entered the meeting room and pulled out our weapons. I went straight to Beria and ordered him to raise his hands up».
But Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev presents these historical events in his own way: “ They gave me my word, and I openly accused Beria of state crimes. He quickly realized the degree of danger and extended his hand to the briefcase lying in front of him on the table. At that very second I grabbed my briefcase and said: “You’re being naughty, Lavrenty!” There was a pistol there. After this, Malenkov proposed to discuss everything at the Plenum. Those present agreed and went to the exit. Lavrentiy was detained at the door as he was leaving the meeting room».
How and where Lavrenty was taken after his arrest? Here again we take a look at Moskalenko’s memoirs: “ The arrested man was kept under guard in one of the Kremlin rooms. On the night of June 26-27, the headquarters of the Moscow Air Defense District on the street. Five ZIS-110 passenger cars were sent to Kirov. They took 30 communist officers from the headquarters and brought them to the Kremlin. These people replaced the security inside the building. After this, surrounded by guards, Beria was taken outside and seated in one of the ZIS cars. Batitsky, Yuferev, Zub and Baksov sat with him. I got into the same car in the front seat. Accompanied by another car, we drove through the Spassky Gate to the garrison guardhouse in Moscow».
From the above official information it follows that Beria’s death could not have occurred during his detention. Justice was done after the trial on December 23, 1953. The sentence was carried out by Colonel General Batitsky. It was he who shot Lavrenty Pavlovich, firing a bullet straight into his forehead. That is, there was no firing squad. Prosecutor General Rudenko read out the verdict in the bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters, Lavrentiy’s hands were tied with a rope, tied to a bullet catcher, and Batitsky fired.
Everything seems to be normal, but something else is confusing - was there a trial of the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers? According to official data, the arrest took place on June 26, 1953. From July 2 to July 7, the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was held, dedicated to Beria’s anti-state activities. Malenkov was the first to speak with the main accusations, then 24 people spoke about less significant atrocities. In conclusion, a Resolution of the Plenum was adopted, condemning the activities of Lavrenty Pavlovich.
After this, an investigation began under the personal leadership of Prosecutor General Rudenko. As a result of investigative actions, the “Beria case” appeared, consisting of many volumes. Everything seems to be fine, but there is one caveat. None of the officials could give the exact number of volumes. For example, Moskalenko said that there were exactly 40 of them. Other people called about 40 volumes, more than 40 volumes and even 50 volumes of the criminal case. That is, no one ever knew their exact number.
But maybe the volumes are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Security? If so, then they can be viewed and recalculated. No, they are not stored in the archive. Where then are these ill-fated volumes located? Nobody can answer this question. That is, there is no case, and since there is no case, then what kind of court can we even talk about. However, the trial officially lasted 8 days from December 16 to 23.
It was presided over by Marshal Konev. The court included Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Shvernik, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR Zeidin, Army General Moskalenko, First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the CPSU Mikhailov, Chairman of the Union of Right Forces of Georgia Kuchava, Chairman of the Moscow City Court Gromov, First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lunev. All of them were worthy people and selflessly devoted to the party.
However, it is noteworthy that they later recalled the trial of Beria and his six comrades with extreme reluctance. This is what Moskalenko wrote about the 8-day trial: “ After 6 months, the investigation was completed and a trial took place, which Soviet citizens learned about from the press." And that’s it, not a word more, but Moskalenko’s memoirs are even thicker than Zhukov’s.
Other members of the court turned out to be just as taciturn. But they took part in a process that became one of the most important events in their lives. Thick books could have been written about him and become famous, but for some reason the members of the court got away with only skimpy general phrases. Here, for example, is what Kuchava wrote: “ The trial revealed a disgusting, monstrous picture of intrigue, blackmail, slander, and mockery of the human dignity of Soviet people." And that's all he could say about the 8 days of endless court hearings.
On the left is Marshal Batitsky
And who guarded Lavrenty Pavlovich during the investigation?? This was Major Khizhnyak, the commandant of the Moscow air defense headquarters. He was the only guard and escort. He later recalled: “ I was with Beria all the time. He brought him food, took him to the bathhouse, and stood guard at the trial. The trial itself lasted more than a month. Every day except Saturday and Sunday. Meetings were held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a lunch break." These are the memories – more than a month, and not 8 days at all. And who is telling the truth and who is deceiving?
Based on the above, the conclusion suggests itself that there was no trial at all. There was no one to judge, since Beria's death occurred on June 25 or 26, 1953. He was killed either in his own home, where he lived with his family, or at a military facility to which the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers was lured by the generals. The body was taken from the crime scene and destroyed. And all other events can be called in one word - falsification. As for the reason for the murder, it is as old as time - the struggle for power.
Immediately after the destruction of Lavrenty, his closest associates were arrested: Kobulov Bogdan Zakharyevich (b. 1904), Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich (b. 1895), Dekanozov Vladimir Georgievich (b. 1898), Meshikov Pavel Yakovlevich (b. 1910). b.), Vlodzimirsky Lev Emelyanovich (b. 1902), Goglidze Sergey Arsentievich (b. 1901). These people were kept in prison until December 1953. The trial itself took place in one day.
Members of the court gathered together and took photographs. Then the six accused were brought in. Konev announced that due to the illness of the main accused Beria, the trial would take place without him. After this, the judges held a formal hearing, sentenced the defendants to death and signed the verdict. It was carried out immediately, and everything that concerned Lavrenty Pavlovich was falsified. Thus ended those distant events, the main character of which was not Beria at all, but only his name.
5 633
One thing is clear: if the party elite committed murder, in some way this person was very dangerous to them. And not with terrible plans to throw her off her beloved throne - Beria made it clear that he was not going to do this. Of course, he was potentially dangerous - but they don’t kill us for that. At least they don’t kill like that, openly and openly. The normal Soviet move in the struggle for power was worked out back in 1937 - move, remove, and then arrest and falsify the case in the usual manner. By the way, this openness and frankness also contains a mystery - after all, it was possible to wait and remove it quietly and unnoticed. It looks like the killers were in a hurry...
Khrushchev, in his revelations to foreign interlocutors, is disingenuous in some ways. He presents the decision to immediately execute Beria as a collegial verdict of all members of the Politburo. “After a comprehensive discussion of the pros and cons of both options, we came to the conclusion: Beria must be shot immediately”... “We!” So now we will believe that nine people, middle-aged, indecisive and rather cowardly, will stamp such a decision - to shoot without trial one of the top officials of the state. Never in their lives will these people, who have worked meekly all their lives under a strong leader, take on such responsibility! They will drown the issue in discussions and in the end, even if there are grounds, it will all end with deportation somewhere to Baku or Tyumen to the post of director of a plant - let him seize power there if he can.
So it was, and there is convincing evidence of this. Secretary of the Central Committee Malenkov, in the process of preparing the meeting of the Presidium, wrote a draft of its work. This draft has been published, and it makes it very clear what was to be discussed at this meeting. In order to prevent the possibility of abuse of power, Beria was supposed to be deprived of the post of Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and, perhaps, if the discussion went in the right direction, also relieve him of the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, appointing him Minister of the Oil Industry as a last resort. That's all. There was no talk of any arrest, much less any execution without trial. And it is difficult to even imagine, with all the strain of imagination, what could have happened so that the Presidium, contrary to the prepared scenario, would impromptu make such a decision. This couldn't happen. And if it couldn’t, it means it didn’t exist. And the fact that this did not happen, that this issue was not considered at all by the Presidium, is evidenced by the fact that the draft was found in Malenkov’s archive - otherwise it would have been handed over for formalization of the decision and then destroyed.
So there was no "we". Beria was first killed, and then the Presidium was presented with a fait accompli, and he had to get out of it by covering up the killers. But who exactly?
But here it is very easy to guess. Firstly, it is easy to calculate the number two - the performer. The fact is that - and no one denies this - the army was widely involved in the events that day. In the incident with Beria, as Khrushchev himself admits, the commander of the air defense of the Moscow Military District, Colonel General Moskalenko and the chief of staff of the Air Force, Major General Batitsky, were directly involved, and Marshal Zhukov himself does not seem to refuse. But, more importantly, for some reason, apparently, to stage a fight against “Beria’s units,” troops were brought into the capital. And then a very important name comes up - a person who could ensure contact with the military and the participation of the army in the events - Defense Minister Bulganin.
It is not difficult to calculate number one. Who poured dirt on Beria the most, completely losing self-control and presenting him as a fiend of hell? Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. By the way, not only Bulganin, but also Moskalenko and Batitsky were people from his team.
Bulganin and Khrushchev - we have already seen this combination somewhere. Where? Yes, at Stalin’s dacha, on that fateful Sunday, March 1, 1953.
Compromising evidence?
There is one mystery in the events that took place after Stalin's death - the fate of his papers. Stalin's archive as such does not exist - all his documents have disappeared. On March 7, some special group, as Svetlana claims, “on the orders of Beria” (but this is not a fact) removed all the furniture from Nizhnyaya Dacha. Later, the furniture was returned to the dacha, but without the papers. All documents from the Kremlin office and even from the leader’s safe also disappeared. Where they are and what happened to them is still unknown.
Naturally, it is believed that Beria, as the super-powerful chief of the special services, took possession of the archives, especially since the security was subordinate to the MGB department. Yes, but the guards were subordinate to state security while the person being protected was alive. I wonder who the Kuntsevo dacha was in charge of after Stalin’s death? Also the MGB department or, perhaps, this empty shell was managed by some government administrative and economic department? According to another version, the entire leadership of that time took part in the seizure of the archive, concerned about the liquidation of the dossiers that Stalin collected on them. Beria, naturally, was also afraid that incriminating evidence against him, located in these archives, would be made public. It’s also hard to believe - with so many accomplices, someone would certainly have let it slip after so many years.
Who knew nothing about the fate of the archive was Malenkov. Why - more on this a little later. There are two options left: either Khrushchev or Beria. If we assume that the archive fell into the hands of Khrushchev, then its fate is most likely sad. There could have been a lot of compromising evidence on Nikita Sergeevich - just participation in Yezhov’s repressions was worth it! Neither he nor his comrades had time to look for all these “dossiers” among the mountains of papers; it was easier to burn everything in bulk. But if Beria was the first to succeed, then the situation here is completely different. He had nothing to fear from some mysterious “documents” in the Stalinist archive, which, if made public, could destroy him - there was hardly anything there for him, even if through the efforts of the entire jurisprudence of the USSR, despite the fact that it was very necessary, they couldn’t dig up material for one more or less decent sub-execution case. But he was vitally interested in compromising information on Stalin’s former associates - both for future possible opportunities and to ensure his own safety.
Indirectly, his son Sergo testifies that the archive most likely fell into the hands of Beria. After the murder of his father, he was arrested, and one day he was called in for questioning, and in the investigator’s office he saw Malenkov. This was not the first visit of the distinguished guest; he had already come once and persuaded Sergo to testify against his father, but was not persuaded. However, this time he came for something different.
“Maybe you can help with something else? - he said it somehow very humanly. — Have you heard anything about the personal archives of Joseph Vissarionovich?
“I have no idea,” I answer. “We never talked about this at home.”
- Well, of course... Your father also had archives, huh?
- I don’t know either, I’ve never heard of it.
- How did you not hear?! - here Malenkov could no longer restrain himself. - He must have archives, he must!
He was obviously very upset."
That is, not only Stalin’s archives disappeared, but also Beria’s archives, and Malenkov knew nothing about their fate. Of course, theoretically, Khrushchev could have confiscated and liquidated them, but to do it in such a way that no one would see, hear or know anything? Doubtful. Stalin’s archives were all right, but Beria’s archives were completely impossible to secretly destroy. And Khrushchev was not the kind of person to carry out such an operation and not spill the beans.
So, most likely, Beria took possession of Stalin’s archive. I repeat once again that it made no sense for him to destroy it, much less destroy his own archive, and there are nine chances out of ten that he hid all the papers somewhere. But where?
Chesterton wrote in one of his stories about Father Brown: “Where does a smart man hide a leaf? In the forest". Exactly. Where were the relics of the great Russian saint Alexander of Svirsky hidden? In the anatomical museum. And if you need to hide an archive, where does a smart person hide it? Naturally, in the archive!
It is only in novels that our archives are organized, systematized and catalogued. The reality looks a little different. I once had to talk with a person who had been in the archives of the Radio House. He was shocked by what he saw there, he told how he sorted through boxes of records that were not listed in any catalogs, but simply dumped in a heap - there were recordings of performances, next to which Gergiev’s vaunted productions were like a donkey next to an Arabian horse . This is one example.
Another example can be found in newspapers, which from time to time report a sensational discovery in one of the archives where they found something absolutely amazing. How are these finds made? It’s very simple: some curious trainee looks into a chest that no one has poked their nose into before, and finds it. And what about the story of the missing rare antique vases that stood peacefully in the basement of the Hermitage for decades? So the easiest way to hide an archive of any size is to dump it in some of the storage rooms of another archive, where it will lie in complete secrecy and safety until some curious intern looks into it and asks: What are these dusty bags lying in the corner? And, opening one of the bags, he picks up a paper with the inscription: “To my archive. I.St.”
But still, people don’t kill for possessing incriminating evidence either. On the contrary, this becomes especially dangerous, because the possibility cannot be ruled out that in a secret safe of a faithful person there are the most important papers in an envelope with the inscription: “In case of my death. L. Beria." No, something completely extraordinary had to happen for such rather cowardly people as Khrushchev and his company to decide to kill, and even so quickly. What could it be?
The answer came by chance. Having decided to give Ignatiev’s biography in this book, I came across the following phrase: On June 25, in a note to Malenkov, Beria proposed arresting Ignatiev, but did not have time. There may be an error in the date, because on June 26 Beria himself was “arrested,” but, on the other hand, perhaps he spoke about this verbally with someone a few days before, or a secret spy in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported to Khrushchev. It was also clear that the new People's Commissar was not going to leave the old one alone. On April 6, “for political blindness and roteness,” Ignatiev was removed from the post of Secretary of the Central Committee, and on April 28, he was removed from the Central Committee. At the suggestion of Beria, the CCP was instructed to consider the issue of Ignatiev’s party responsibility. But all this was not the same, all this was not scary. And then information arrived that Beria was asking Malenkov for permission for this arrest.
For the conspirators, this was not danger, it was death! It is not difficult to guess that at Lubyanka the former head of Stalin’s security would have been cracked like a nut and squeezed like a lemon. What would have happened next is not difficult to predict if you remember how Beria kissed the hand of the dying Stalin. Not a single one of the conspirators would have met the New Year, 1954, alive; Beria, not caring about the legality for such an occasion, would have personally killed them with his boots in the Lubyanka basements.
This is what usually happens with “genius impromptu”. What to do? Remove Ignatiev? Dangerous: where is the guarantee that he doesn’t have a description of the night at Stalin’s dacha, and maybe even much more, in a safe place with a reliable person? He knew who he was dealing with. So what to do?
But this is the motive! Because of this, Beria could really have been killed, moreover, they should have been killed, and exactly the way it was done. For there was nothing to arrest him for, and because of the dead Beria, as Khrushchev rightly noted, hardly anyone would make a fuss: what’s done is done, you can’t bring back a dead man. Moreover, if you imagine everything as if he offered armed resistance during arrest. Well, then let propaganda work to present him as a monster and a supervillain, so that grateful descendants can say: “It may have been a crime, but it was not a mistake.”
