Lavrenty Beria execution. How they killed Beria Mironin S.

How many people shot Beria? How many versions does a completely official action have?

1. Shot by Zhukov
“Beria never talked to me about politics. He did not open up. They talked about music, about theater. Some historians claim that Lavrenty Pavlovich was personally shot by Zhukov in one of the Kremlin offices. And I have no doubt at all that this was the case.” (version as Beria Alekseeva’s mistress)

2. Shot by security
“In the future, I did not take part in the security, nor in the investigation, nor in the trial. After the trial, Beria was shot by the same people who guarded him. During the execution, Beria behaved very poorly, like the very last coward, cried hysterically, stood on knees and finally got all dirty. In a word, he lived disgustingly and died even more disgustingly" (Zhukov's version)

3. Shot by Batitsky (version 1)
“We took Beria down the stairs to the dungeon. He covered... Stink. Then I shot him like a dog.” (Batitsky)

4. Shot by Batitsky (version 2)
"They executed a man sentenced to death in the bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters. They took off his tunic, leaving his white undershirt, tied his hands with a rope behind him and tied him to a hook driven into a wooden shield. This shield protected those present from the ricochet of a bullet. Prosecutor Rudenko read out the verdict. Beria: " Let me tell you..." Rudenko: "You've already said everything." (To the military): "Gag his mouth with a towel." Moskalenko (to Yuferev): "You're our youngest, you shoot well. Come on." Batitsky: "Comrade commander, allow me (takes out his parabellum). With this thing, I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front." Rudenko: "Please carry out the sentence." Batitsky raised his hand. A wildly bulging eye flashed above the bandage, Beria squinted the other, Batitsky pulled the trigger, the bullet hit the middle of his forehead. The body hung on ropes. The execution took place in the presence of Marshal Konev and those military men who arrested and guarded Beria. They called a doctor... It remained to confirm the fact of death. Beria’s body was wrapped in canvas and sent to the crematorium.” (Antonov-Ovseenko)

5. Shot by Batitsky (version 3)
“On this date at 19:50, on the basis of the order of the chairman of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953 N 003, by me, the commandant of the special judicial presence, Colonel General Batitsky P.F., in the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, the actual state counselor of justice Rudenko R.A. and Army General Moskalenko K.S., the sentence of the special judicial presence was carried out in relation to Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, sentenced to capital punishment. Three signatures. (version of the execution act dated December 23, 1953.)

6. Shot by Batitsky (version 4)
“General Batitsky personally shot Beria, and then control shots were fired by all five officers of the special command, including Khizhnyak-Gurevich.” (Khizhnyak-Gurevich’s version)

6. Shot by Khrushchev (version 1)
“The marshal and his guards resisted and were killed. They even name the author of the fatal shot, namely Khrushchev.” (OSS version)

7. Shot by Khrushchev on the day of arrest (version 2) (Khrushchev)

8. Shot Moskalenko on the day of his arrest (Khrushchev)

9. Shot by Mikoyan on the day of his arrest (Khrushchev)

10. The guards shot
“All the stories that Beria was tied to some kind of plank with a plane tree and then shot are lies. The guys hated him so much that they couldn’t bring him to that board, they started shooting right on the stairs. I understand them. But sending him with They didn’t dare to go to the crematorium with such a bunch of holes. They later told me that someone suggested dissolving the corpse in lye. There was a suitable bath there, and they brought the lye to the shelter. That’s how Beria’s corpse disappeared...” (version of an unknown commander. missile base)

11. Killed in the courtyard of his own house on the day of his arrest (Sergo Beria’s version)

I counted 11 versions. Maybe that's not all.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria Over the past decades, official historiography has presented him as one of the darkest figures in the entire history of Russia. He is often compared to Malyuta Skuratov, close to the king Ivan the Terrible, the head of the guardsmen. Beria appears to be the main “Stalinist executioner”, who bears the main responsibility for political repression.

Soldier of the Revolution

This is largely due to the fact that history is always written by the winners. Lavrentiy Beria, who lost the struggle for power after death Joseph Stalin, paid for his defeat not only with his life, but also by being declared the main “scapegoat” for all the mistakes and abuses of the Stalinist period.

Born on March 17, 1899 in a poor peasant family in Abkhazia, Lavrentiy Beria already became involved in the revolutionary struggle in Transcaucasia at the age of 16. He ended up in prison several times. After the final establishment of Soviet power, 21-year-old Beria began serving in the Cheka of Azerbaijan and then Georgia. He took part in the defeat of the counter-revolutionary underground, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1927, Lavrentiy Beria became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR; in 1931, he took the post of first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, effectively becoming the first person in the republic.

Business owner and human rights activist

Since this period, Beria has had a controversial reputation - on the one hand, he is accused of repressions against political competitors, on the other, they note that the 32-year-old politician showed himself to be a strong business executive, thanks to whom Georgia and the Transcaucasus as a whole began to develop rapidly economically. It was thanks to Beria that high purchasing prices were set for tea, grapes, and tangerines produced in the region. This is where the glory of Georgia began as one of the most prosperous republics of the USSR.

As an active politician and republican leader, Beria could not be uninvolved in political repressions, but, contrary to popular belief, he has nothing to do with the “Great Terror” - the period of 1937-1938, when several hundred thousand people were killed in less than two years , for the most part representing the party, state and military elite of the country.

Lavrentiy Beria appeared in the apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR in August 1938, when the scale of terror perpetrated by the People's Commissar of the NKVD Nikolai Yezhov, scared the top Soviet leadership. Beria’s appointment was intended to “besiege” the raging “silovik” and return the situation under control.

In November 1938, 39-year-old Lavrentiy Beria headed the NKVD of the USSR, replacing Nikolai Yezhov. It was the arrival of Beria that is considered the end of the “Great Terror”; moreover, over the next two years, about 200 thousand illegally arrested and convicted under Yezhov were released.

The path to power is through the bomb

During the war, Beria was not only involved in the work of the NKVD and NKGB, but was also the curator of the defense industry and transport. He played an important role in ensuring the evacuation of industrial enterprises to the East of the country.

Memorandums of Lavrentiy Beria addressed to Joseph Stalin, stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Photo: RIA Novosti

In 1944, during the war, Lavrentiy Beria was the curator of the Soviet “atomic project”. In this matter, he showed unique organizational skills, thanks to which the USSR acquired an atomic bomb in 1949, much earlier than the Americans expected.

It was the success of the “atomic project” that made Beria not just one of the highest-ranking government officials, but one of those who could be considered as Stalin’s successor.

By the time of Joseph Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, there was no figure in the Soviet leadership who could assume full power. In fact, a ruling triumvirate was formed - Georgy Malenkov, the head of the Soviet government and the formal leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev, who became the leader of the party after Stalin’s death, and Lavrenty Beria, who headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which included the Ministry of State Security.

Struggle for leadership

Such a triarchy could not last long - each side strengthened its positions. Beria appointed his own people to senior positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, assuming that it was control over the security forces that would decide the matter.

It is quite difficult to say now what would await the country under the rule of Beria. Some talk about a “harsh hand” and a new round of repression, others claim that the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was preparing a large-scale rehabilitation of political prisoners.

The most radical ones argue that Beria, as a successful business executive, was aimed at de-ideologizing the country, building a market economy, and even granting independence to the Baltic republics.

But whatever plans Beria had, they were not destined to be realized. Nikita Khrushchev, at one time one of the most active proponents of the “Great Terror” policy, began to play ahead of the curve. He managed to conclude an alliance with Georgy Malenkov and two other prominent politicians - Nikolai Bulganin And Vyacheslav Molotov directed against the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Beria clearly underestimated the threat, believing that control over the Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed him not to fear for his safety. Khrushchev, however, managed to win over the military, including himself Georgy Zhukov.

Fall

The denouement came at a meeting of the USSR Council of Ministers on June 26, 1953 in the Kremlin, where Khrushchev unexpectedly accused Beria of anti-state activities and espionage for Great Britain. Confused, Beria tried to make excuses, and some of the conspirators hesitated, offering to simply “point out the mistakes” to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But at a key moment, generals led by Zhukov appeared in the conference room and arrested Beria.

In the car of one of the generals, Beria was taken from the Kremlin to the garrison guardhouse of the Moscow Military District, and a day later he was transferred to a specially equipped cell in a bomb shelter at the headquarters of the Moscow Military District.

On the day of Beria’s arrest, army units were deployed to Moscow in case the situation worsened. However, it did not come to street fighting. Over the next few days, Beria's closest associates were arrested, who could try to free their boss.

In December 1953, the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Marshal Ivan Konev, examined the “Beria case”. The charges brought against the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were not much different from those used during the years of the “Great Terror” - he was charged with espionage, abuse of power, and much more. These accusations had little to do with Beria’s real activities, and the trial itself did not set out to establish the truth.

On December 23, 1953, Lavrentiy Beria was sentenced to death and executed in the bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters in the presence of the country's Prosecutor General Rudenko. At night, the body of the executed man was taken to the 1st Moscow Crematorium, burned, and the ashes were scattered over the Moscow River.

There is, however, an alternative version of events, which Beria’s son spoke about Sergo Lavrentievich, as well as Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. According to it, there was no meeting of the Council of Ministers on June 26, 1953. Lavrentiy Beria was killed in a shootout in his own home when the conspirators tried to capture him.

The first assumes that Beria somehow managed not to fall into the trap of a conspiracy prepared against him, or even escape from the arrest that had already happened and hide in Latin America, where almost all Nazi criminals fled after 1945. And thus he was able to stay alive for the time being...

The second says that during the arrest of Beria, he and his guards resisted and were killed. They even name the author of the fatal shot, namely Khrushchev... There are also those who say that the pre-trial execution took place in the already mentioned bunker almost immediately after the arrest in the Kremlin. And this rumor unexpectedly received confirmation.

In the archives of Old Square, I discovered documents personally endorsed by Khrushchev and Kaganovich. According to them, Beria was liquidated even before the July 1953 Emergency Plenum of the Central Committee, convened on the occasion of exposing the criminal activities of the sinister man in the pince-nez...

Where is the main enemy of the people buried?

My colleagues - researchers N. Zenkovich and S. Gribanov, with whom we periodically call each other to exchange information - have collected a number of documented facts about the fate of Beria after the news of his arrest. But especially valuable evidence on this matter was discovered by the Hero of the Soviet Union, intelligence officer and former head of writers of the USSR Vladimir Karpov. Studying the life of Marshal Zhukov, he put an end to the dispute: did Zhukov participate in the arrest of Beria? In the secret handwritten memoirs of the marshal he found, it is stated directly: he not only participated, but also led the capture group. So the statement of Beria’s son Sergo that Zhukov has nothing to do with his father’s arrest is untrue!

The last find turns out to be important also because it refutes the rumor about Nikita Sergeevich’s heroic shot during the detention of the all-powerful Minister of Internal Affairs and State Security.

What happened after the arrest, Zhukov personally did not see and therefore wrote what he learned from hearsay, namely: “In the future, I did not take part either in the security, or in the investigation, or in the trial. After the trial, Beria was shot by the same who was guarding him. During the execution, Beria behaved very badly, like the very last coward, cried hysterically, knelt down and, finally, soiled himself all over. In a word, he lived disgustingly and died even more disgustingly.” Note: this is what Zhukov was told, but Zhukov himself did not see it...

But here is what, as they say, S. Gribanov managed to find out first-hand from the real author of the bullet for the main enemy of the people, then Colonel General P.F. Batitsky: “We took Beria down the stairs into the dungeon. He obliterated... Stink. Then I shot him like a dog.”

Everything would have been fine if other witnesses to the execution, and General Batitsky himself, had said the same thing everywhere. However, inconsistencies could have occurred due to negligence and from the literary fantasies of researchers, one of whom, the son of the revolutionary Antonov-Ovseenko, wrote this: “They executed a man sentenced to death in the bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters. They took off his tunic, leaving a white undershirt, and tied him with a rope from behind hands and tied to a hook driven into a wooden shield. This shield protected those present from the ricochet of a bullet. Prosecutor Rudenko read out the verdict. with a towel." Moskalenko (to Yuferev): "You are our youngest, you shoot well. Come on." Batitsky: "Comrade commander, allow me (takes out his parabellum). With this thing, I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front." Rudenko: "Please carry out the sentence." Batitsky raised his hand. A wildly bulging eye flashed above the bandage, Beria squinted the other, Batitsky pulled the trigger, the bullet hit the middle of his forehead. The body hung on ropes. The execution took place in the presence of Marshal Konev and those military men who arrested and guarded Beria. They called a doctor... It remained to confirm the fact of death. Beria’s body was wrapped in canvas and sent to the crematorium.” In conclusion, Antonov-Ovseyenko paints a picture similar to horror films: supposedly, when the performers pushed Beria’s body into the flames of the crematorium and clung to the glass of the furnace, they were overcome by fear - the body of their bloody boss on the fiery tray suddenly moved and gradually began to sit down... Later it turned out that the maintenance personnel “forgot” to cut the tendons, and they began to contract under the influence of high temperature. But at first it seemed to everyone that in the flames of hell the dead executioner came to life...

An interesting story. However, while reporting eerie physiological details, the narrator does not provide a link to any document. Where, for example, are the acts confirming the execution and burning of Beria? This is not an empty quibble, for if anyone read the act of execution, they could not help but notice that the doctor required in such cases was not present at the execution of Beria, and did not at all testify to her... So the question arises: “A Was it Beria who was there? Or another one: “Or maybe the report was drawn up retroactively and without a doctor?” And the lists of those present at the execution published by different authors do not coincide. To prove these words, I will cite the act of execution dated December 23, 1953.

“On this date at 19:50, on the basis of the order of the chairman of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953 N 003, by me, the commandant of the special judicial presence, Colonel General Batitsky P.F., in the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, the actual state counselor of justice Rudenko R.A. and Army General Moskalenko K.S., the sentence of the special judicial presence was carried out in relation to Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, sentenced to capital punishment. Three signatures. And no more guarding generals (as Zhukov was told); no Konev, Yuferev, Zub, Baksov, Nedelin and Getman, and no doctor (as Antonov-Ovseenko was told).

These discrepancies could have been ignored if Beria’s son Sergo had not insisted that Shvernik, a member of that same court, told him personally: “I was part of the tribunal in the case of your father, but I never saw him.” Sergo was even more doubtful by the confession of court member Mikhailov: “Sergo, I don’t want to tell you about the details, but we didn’t see your father alive”... Mikhailov did not expand on how to evaluate this mysterious statement. Either an actor was put in the dock instead of Beria, or Beria himself changed beyond recognition during his arrest? It is possible that Beria could have doubles...

This concerns the act of execution. Another act - cremation, as far as I know, no one saw at all, as well as the body of the person who was shot. Of course, with the exception of those three who signed the act. They signed it, but then what? Where are the Burial or Cremation Certificates? Who cremated? Who buried? It turns out, as in the song: and no one will know where your grave is... Indeed, no one has yet provided any evidence about the burial place of Beria, although the “grave accounting department” of the state security agencies has kept records in this regard in such a way that, if necessary, you can quickly get all the information.

Why was Malenkov silent?

I’ll start with the letters that the arrested Beria wrote to his former “associates”. There were several of them. And all of them, as far as I know, were written before the July Plenum, i.e. from June 26 to July 2. I've read some. Of greatest interest, apparently, is the very last letter addressed “To the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Comrades Malenkov, Khrushchev, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Pervukhin, Bulganin and Saburov,” i.e. those who made the decision to arrest. But before citing its text in full, it is necessary to make an explanation.

The vote on Beria's arrest was very tense and took place twice. The first time, according to Malenkov’s assistant D. Sukhanov, only Malenkov, Pervukhin and Saburov were in favor, while Khrushchev and Bulganin and, of course, Mikoyan abstained. Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Molotov were generally “against”. Moreover, Molotov allegedly stated that arresting one of the first leaders of the party, government and legislative branch without an arrest warrant is not only a violation of parliamentary immunity, but also of all major party and Soviet laws in general. However, when military men with weapons entered the meeting room and it was proposed to vote again, everyone immediately voted in favor, as if feeling that if they violated the “unanimity” required in such cases, then they too would be counted among Beria’s accomplices. Many are inclined to believe Sukhanov’s memories recorded years later, although we must not forget that he himself was outside the office in which the events took place. Therefore, I could only find out about what happened from hearsay. And most likely in the words of his master Malenkov, who did not really favor his rivals in the struggle for the first place in power - Molotov, Khrushchev and Bulganin.

However, if you believe not Sukhanov, but the mentioned letter from Beria, then on the day of the arrest, whoever, but Malenkov and Khrushchev were more unanimous than ever. To see this, let’s read Beria’s downright screaming letter.

“Dear comrades, they can deal with me without trial or investigation, after 5 days of imprisonment, without a single interrogation, I beg you all, so that this is not allowed, I ask for immediate intervention, otherwise it will be too late. We must warn you directly by phone...

Why do they do it the way they are doing now? They put us in the basement, and no one finds out or asks anything. Dear comrades, is the only and correct way to resolve without trial and clarify the case against a member of the Central Committee and his comrade after 5 days in the basement, to execute him. Once again I beg you all...

I affirm that all charges will be dropped if only you want to investigate this. What a rush, and a suspicious one at that.

I ask T. Malenkov and Comrade Khrushchev not to persist. Would it be bad if she was rehabilitated?

Again and again I beg you to intervene and not to destroy your innocent old friend. Your Lavrentiy Beria."

Here's a letter. However, no matter how Beria begged, exactly what he was madly afraid of happened...

At the closed Plenum, which took place from July 2 to July 7, 1953, in numerous accusatory speeches there were words that no one (!) paid attention to then in the general turmoil and victorious euphoria. Khrushchev was the first to spill the beans. Having entered into the excitement of the story of how they deftly dealt with Beria, he, among other enthusiastic phrases, suddenly blurted out: “Beria... has given up his spirit.”

Kaganovich spoke even more clearly: “...having eliminated this traitor Beria, we must completely restore Stalin’s legal rights...” And most definitely: “The Central Committee destroyed the adventurer Beria...” And that’s the point. You can't say more precisely.

Of course, these words of top officials can also be taken in a figurative sense. But why then did none of them even mention that at the upcoming investigation it was necessary to properly question Beria about all his dirty deeds? It is no coincidence, apparently, that none of them even hinted that Beria himself should have been brought to the Plenum, so that everyone could listen to his confessions and ask the accumulated questions, as, for example, Stalin did in relation to Bukharin. Most likely they didn’t hint because there was no one to deliver... It’s also possible, however, that they were afraid that Beria would expose them and, first of all, his “old friends” Khrushchev and Malenkov...

Is this the reason why Malenkov was silent about the events of those years? Even his son Andrei laments that even after a third of a century his father preferred to avoid talking about this topic.

Special cuisine of the Kremlin

I have a good relationship with Gennady Nikolaevich Kolomentsev, the former head of the Kremlin Special Kitchen. The memoirs of the honorary (now deceased) security officer of the USSR helped correct many mistakes of researchers and historians, but one of his confessions makes one especially think.

It began with the fact that I told him a number of details about the arrest of Beria, which came from the already mentioned son of Antonov-Ovseenko, who, in particular, said that “Beria had to change his suit to a soldier’s uniform - a cotton tunic and trousers. Food for the arrested man was delivered from garage of the Moscow Military District headquarters - soldiers' rations, soldiers' tableware: a pot and an aluminum spoon...".

Hearing this, Kolomentsev literally exploded: “All this is nonsense! My people served Beria. So I saw him often. I didn’t like him. Through his pince-nez, he had a kind of snake-like look... When he was arrested, we They brought food to him on Osipenko Street, where he was sitting. They were afraid that there were people interested in poisoning him. All the food was transported there under seal. A special waiter arrived with dishes and left..."

What did they feed Beria? - I ask. - Regular soldier's rations?

What are you saying? He was given a special menu in which he noted what he needed. Even after being arrested, Beria made up his own menu from the list that we offered him. And the list was not at the level of a soldier or officer, and not even at the level of a general, but even higher... Beria was shot there, in the dungeon. The only thing I saw - no... my deputy told me this - was how Beria’s corpse was carried out in a tarpaulin and loaded into a car. And where they burned him and buried him, I don’t know.”

It would seem that there is nothing special about this memory. However, in the memoirs of the military men who arrested and guarded Beria, it is categorically emphasized that in order to avoid organizing an escape, Beria’s former subordinates were not allowed anywhere near him (at least before the Plenum).

From this we can draw a logical conclusion: Kolomentsev was allowed to feed Beria only when it was not Beria who was sitting there in the bunker, but someone playing his role. Therefore, neither the possible escape of the double, nor his poisoning no longer worried the “old friends” and, above all, Malenkov and Khrushchev.

As for the corpse, you never know who could have been carried out wrapped in a tarpaulin. We had the opportunity to observe a similar scene in our days, when television showed the removal of the lifeless body of the criminal authority Pasha-Tsvetomuzika after an attack on him by a contract killer. And after a while everyone again saw Pasha’s face alive and unharmed.

So where is Beria’s grave located?

Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich - Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the USSR, member of the State Defense Committee (GKO), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissioner of State Security.

Born on March 16 (29), 1899 in the village of Merkheuli, Sukhumi district, Tiflis province, now the Republic of Abkhazia (Georgia), in a peasant family. Georgian. In 1915 he graduated with honors from the Sukhumi Higher Primary School. Since 1915 he studied at the Baku Secondary Mechanical and Construction Technical School. In October 1915, with a group of comrades, he organized an illegal Marxist circle at the school. Member of the RSDLP(b)/RCP(b)/VKP(b)/CPSU since March 1917. Organized a cell of the RSDLP(b) at the school. During the First World War of 1914-18, in June 1917, as a technician trainee at the army hydraulic engineering school, he was sent to the Romanian front, where he conducted active Bolshevik political work among the troops. At the end of 1917, he returned to Baku and, while continuing his studies at a technical school, actively participated in the activities of the Baku Bolshevik organization.

From the beginning of 1919 until April 1920, that is, before the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he led an illegal communist organization of technicians and, on behalf of the Baku Party Committee, provided assistance to a number of Bolshevik cells. In 1919, Lavrentiy Beria successfully graduated from technical school, receiving a diploma as a technical architect-builder.

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

In August-October 1920, Beria L.P. - manager of the affairs of the Central Committee (Central Committee) of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Azerbaijan. From October 1920 to February 1921 - executive secretary of the Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) for Baku.

In intelligence and counterintelligence agencies since 1921. In April-May 1921 he worked as deputy head of the secret operational unit of the Azerbaijan Cheka; from May 1921 to November 1922 - head of the secret operational unit, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka. From November 1922 to March 1926 - deputy chairman of the Georgian Cheka, head of the secret operational unit; from March 1926 to December 2, 1926 - deputy chairman of the Main Political Directorate (GPU) of the Georgian SSR, head of the secret operational unit; from December 2, 1926 to April 17, 1931 - deputy plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (ZSFSR), deputy chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU; from December 1926 to April 17, 1931 - head of the secret operational department of the plenipotentiary representative office of the OGPU in the Trans-SFSR and the Transcaucasian GPU.

In December 1926 L.P. Beria was appointed chairman of the GPU of the Georgian SSR and deputy chairman of the GPU of the ZSFSR. From April 17 to December 3, 1931 - head of the special department of the OGPU of the Caucasian Red Banner Army, chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU and plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of the USSR in the Trans-SFSR, being from August 18 to December 3, 1931 a member of the board of the OGPU of the USSR.

In 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks revealed gross political mistakes and distortions committed by the leadership of party organizations in Transcaucasia. In its decision of October 31, 1931, based on the reports of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Georgia, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Azerbaijan and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Armenia, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks set the task for the party organizations of Transcaucasia immediate correction of political distortions in work in the countryside, widespread development of economic initiative and initiative of the national republics that were part of the TSFSR. At the same time, the party organizations of Transcaucasia were obliged to put an end to the unprincipled struggle for the influence of individuals observed among the leading cadres of both the entire Transcaucasian Federation and the republics within it and to achieve the necessary solidity and Bolshevik cohesion of the party ranks. In connection with this decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, L.P. Beria was transferred to leading party work. From October 1931 to August 1938 he was the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks) and at the same time from November 1931 the 2nd, and in October 1932 - April 1937 - the 1st Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the CPSU (Bolsheviks) .

The name of Lavrentiy Beria became widely known after the publication of his book “On the Question of the History of the Bolshevik Organizations of Transcaucasia.” In the summer of 1933, when I.V., who was vacationing in Abkhazia, An assassination attempt was made on Stalin, Beria covered him with his body (the assassin was killed on the spot, and this story has not been fully revealed)...

Since February 1934, L.P. Beria is a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In June 1937, at the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia, he declared from the podium: “Let the enemies know that anyone who tries to raise his hand against the will of our people, against the will of the Lenin-Stalin party, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.”

On August 22, 1938, Beria was appointed 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and from September 29, 1938, he simultaneously headed the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR. September 11, 1938 L.P. Beria was awarded the title of “Commissioner of State Security of the 1st Rank”.

On November 25, 1938, Beria was replaced by N.I. Yezhov as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, retaining the direct leadership of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR. But on December 17, 1938, he appointed his deputy V.N. to this post. Merkulova.

Commissioner of State Security 1st Rank Beria L.P. almost completely renewed the highest apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR. He carried out the release of some of those wrongfully convicted from the camps: in 1939, 223.6 thousand people were released from the camps, and 103.8 thousand people from the colonies. At the insistence of L.P. Beria expanded the rights of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to issue extrajudicial verdicts.

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

January 30, 1941 to the Commissar of State Security 1st Rank Beria L.P. awarded the title of "General Commissioner of State Security".

On February 3, 1941, Beria, without leaving the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (from 1946 - the Council of Ministers) of the USSR, but at the same time, state security bodies were removed from his subordination, forming an independent People's Commissariat.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the NKVD of the USSR and the NKGB of the USSR were again united under the leadership of the General Commissioner of State Security L.P. Beria.

On June 30, 1941, Lavrentiy Beria became a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO), and from May 16 to September 1944, he was also Deputy Chairman of the GKO. Through the State Defense Committee, Beria was entrusted with the most important assignments of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, both for the management of the socialist economy in the rear and at the front, namely, control over the production of weapons, ammunition and mortars, as well as (together with G.M. Malenkov) for production of aircraft and aircraft engines.

U by the Kazakh Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 30, 1943, for special services in the field of strengthening the production of weapons and ammunition in difficult wartime conditions, General Commissioner of State Security Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal ( No. 80).

March 10, 1944 L.P. Beria introduced I.V. Stalin received a memo with a proposal to evict the Tatars from the territory of Crimea; later he provided general management of the eviction of Chechens, Ingush, Tatars, Germans, etc.

On December 3, 1944, he was assigned to “supervise the development of uranium work”; from August 20, 1945 to March 1953 - Chairman of the Special Committee under the State Defense Committee (later under the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Ministers of the USSR).

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 9, 1945, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was awarded the highest military rank “Marshal of the Soviet Union” with the presentation of a special Certificate of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the insignia “Marshal’s Star”.

After the end of the war on December 29, 1945, Beria left the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, transferring it to S.N. Kruglov. From March 19, 1946 to March 15, 1953 L.P. Beria is Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

As head of the military science department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks)/CPSU, L.P. Beria oversaw the most important areas of the military-industrial complex of the USSR, including the nuclear project and rocket science, the creation of the TU-4 strategic bomber, and the LB-1 tank gun. Under his leadership and with direct participation, the first atomic bomb in the USSR was created, tested on August 29, 1949, after which some began to call him “the father of the Soviet atomic bomb.”

After the 19th Congress of the CPSU, at the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, as part of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, a “leading five” was created, which included L.P. Beria. After the death on March 5, 1953, I.V. Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria took a leading place in the Soviet party hierarchy, concentrating in his hands the posts of 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in addition, he headed the new Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, created on the day of Stalin’s death by merging the former ministry and the Ministry of State Security.

On the initiative of Marshal of the Soviet Union Beria L.P. On May 9, 1953, an amnesty was declared in the USSR, which freed one million two hundred thousand people, several high-profile cases were closed (including the “doctors’ case”), and investigative cases involving four hundred thousand people were closed.

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

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

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

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was removed from the posts of 1st Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, deprived of all titles and awards assigned to him.

In the verdict of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Marshal of the Soviet Union Konev I.S. it was recorded that “having betrayed the Motherland and acting in the interests of foreign capital, the defendant Beria put together a treasonous group of conspirators hostile to the Soviet state with the aim of seizing power, eliminating the Soviet worker-peasant system, restoring capitalism and restoring the rule of the bourgeoisie.” The special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced L.P. Beria to death penalty.

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

“On this date at 19:50, on the basis of the Order of the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953, No. 003, by me, the commandant of the Special Judicial Presence, Colonel General Batitsky P.F., in the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, Actual State Counselor of Justice Rudenko R.A. and Army General K.S. Moskalenko the sentence of the Special Judicial Presence was carried out in relation to Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, sentenced to capital punishment - execution".

Attempts by L.P.’s relatives Beria's efforts to reconsider the 1953 case were unsuccessful. On May 29, 2000, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to rehabilitate the former Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR...

Beria L.P. was awarded five Orders of Lenin (No. 1236 of March 17, 1935, No. 14839 of September 30, 1943, No. 27006 of February 21, 1945, No. 94311 of March 29, 1949, No. 118679 of October 29, 1949. ), two Orders of the Red Banner (No. 7034 from 04/03/1924, No. 11517 from 03/11/1944), the Order of Suvorov 1st degree; orders of the Red Banner of Georgia (07/03/1923), the Red Banner of Labor of Georgia (04/10/1931), the Red Banner of Labor of Azerbaijan (03/14/1932) and the Red Banner of Labor of Armenia, seven medals; badges “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (V)” (No. 100), “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)” (No. 205 of December 20, 1932), personalized weapons - a Browning pistol, a watch with a monogram; foreign awards - the Tuvan Order of the Republic (08/18/1943), the Mongolian Order of the Red Banner of Battle (No. 441 from 07/15/1942), Sukhbaatar (No. 31 from 03/29/1949), the Mongolian medal “XXV years of the MPR "(No. 3125 dated September 19, 1946).

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

Was a double tried instead of Beria?

December 23 marked 60 years since Beria was killed. Historian Elena Prudnikova questions the official version of the execution.

~~~~~~~~~~~

However, even after so many years, Beria’s death raises questions among historians. According to the official version, on June 26, at a meeting of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev raised the issue of removing Beria (at that time first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Internal Affairs) from all posts, accusing, among other things, that in the 20s he spied for the benefit of UK. At a signal, a group of senior officers led by Marshal Zhukov entered the room. Beria was arrested. And on December 23, he was sentenced to death, and the sentence was immediately carried out.

It seems to be a well-known fact. But... many do not agree with him. Among them is the St. Petersburg historian, author of many books about political figures of the USSR, Elena Prudnikova. She believes that the whole process was staged, and Beria was killed long before the trial.

This is what we talked about.

WHERE HAS AN FAS GONE FROM THE CASE?

I am not inclined to trust them at all - they are too unprofessional. By the way, in the “Beria case” there are no original documents at all, only copies! And they can be easily faked or made up retroactively. There are a lot of strange things about Beria’s arrest. There are not even mandatory front and profile photographs or fingerprints.

But there are memoirs of the participants in the execution: the commander of the Moscow Military District troops Kirill Moskalenko, the chief of the main headquarters of the Air Force Pavel Batitsky. And during the investigation, Beria was seen.

Not everything is simple here either. Eyewitnesses recall: in the bunker of the Moscow Military District headquarters (Sadovnicheskaya Street), where Beria was allegedly kept during the investigation, movement around the territory was sharply limited, and all the windows were painted over with white paint. And so some officers secretly peeled off the paint to get a closer look at the prisoner. And they were surprised: summer was outside, and he was wearing a hat and a scarf. It is quite possible that it was a double who then sat in the courtroom.

So, I think no one saw Beria alive after his arrest. During the execution, by the way, there was no doctor necessary in such cases, there were no acts of death and cremation of the body.

Moskalenko and Batitsky may have shot Beria. But not in the bunker after the court verdict, but at the time of the storming of the mansion in which Lavrenty Pavlovich lived on Malaya Nikitskaya (at that time it was Kachalova Street - Ed.), June 26, 1953, which they led.

- Stop, stop! What other assault?

In short... Around noon on June 26, 1953, soldiers in armored vehicles drove up to the mansion on Kachalova Street, where Beria had just gone for lunch. They tore down the gate and broke into the yard. The guards ran out of the house. And at this time Lavrenty Pavlovich went to the window. And then a machine gun burst hit the glass.

- What is this version based on?

First of all, on the testimony of two witnesses. One of them is Beria's son Sergo. Having received a message from one of his friends about what was happening near their house, he, together with Boris Vannikov, Beria’s deputy in the so-called Special Committee of the Atomic Project, rushed to the mansion. This is what Sergo writes: “The wall on the side of my father’s room was chipped by bullets from heavy machine guns, the windows were broken, the doors were knocked out. While I was looking at all this, one of the guards ran up to me. “Sergo! - he said. “Someone was just carried out of the room on a stretcher covered with a tarpaulin.”

According to Prudnikova, Beria was killed right here - in the mansion on what is now Malaya Nikitskaya, where he lived

“PEOPLE WOULD NOT BELIEVE IN THE DISEASE”

Questions still remain. If the operation took place in broad daylight in the center of Moscow, there were probably witnesses, passers-by.

I think that in Soviet times, historians who did not have the right to challenge the official version did not look for these witnesses.

- Why, if Beria was no longer alive, were troops brought into Moscow on that day?

It is possible that they were afraid of the reaction of Dzerzhinsky’s division - it was part of the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, in turn, was led by Beria. By the way, I do not believe those who claim that the troops carried out the verbal order of Defense Minister Nikolai Bulganin. At that time there was only one person in the country who had the authority to give such orders orally - First Deputy Minister of Defense Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

- But one could say that death occurred as a result of a serious illness.

People wouldn't believe in the disease. Rumors would quickly spread throughout Moscow that something out of the ordinary had happened to Beria. And being arrested and declared an enemy of the people - this was familiar to Soviet people since the 30s.

QUESTION - RIB

Why was Lavrenty killed?

Most historians say the main reason for the destruction of Beria was the fierce struggle for power after the death of Stalin. A well-informed Lavrenty Pavlovich could get rid of his rivals by making public, in modern terms, incriminating evidence. What is your opinion - what is the reason for the liquidation?

It is widely believed that Stalin never named his successor. But this is only partly true. Back in 1944, Beria became his deputy in the State Defense Committee. That is, not only in fact, but also formally the second person in the state. And after the war - chairman of the bureau of the Council of Ministers. After Stalin's death he had enormous influence and powers. And no one on the party Olympus could compete with him. But many people really feared him.

Why? Suffice it to recall the so-called Leningrad affair. On September 30, 1950, six major party and government figures were sentenced to death. Among them are Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Alexey Kuznetsov, Chairman of the USSR State Plan Nikolai Voznesensky, First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee and City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Pyotr Popkov. We can talk about this case for a long time, but the point is that the accused wanted to create the Communist Party of the RSFSR, make Leningrad the capital of the RSFSR and gradually seize power in the country.

There is evidence that this conspiracy was not fully exposed in 1950. And the conspirators probably also included Khrushchev, Bulganin and, possibly, Zhukov. Beria wanted to fully understand the “Leningrad case.” Bulganin and Khrushchev could not allow such a development of events: they called for help from generals loyal to themselves and staged a “coup d’etat”...

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Elena PRUDNIKOVA born in Leningrad in 1958, graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of the Leningrad Polytechnic University. Author of many books on the Soviet period of our country's history. As an expert, she starred in documentaries on NTV and Mir channels. One of the participants in the TV film “KP” - “Red Bonaparte. The secret war of Marshal Tukhachevsky."