Beria family. Nina Beria: what happened to Lavrenty Pavlovich's wife after his death

Until now, Beria is one of the most mysterious historical figures of the Stalin era: some attribute devilish features to his image, others consider him innocent victim circumstances. After the execution of Beria, members of his family - wife Nina Gegechkori and son Sergo Gegechkori - were arrested ...

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was born on March 17, 1899, in a peasant family, in the Georgian village of Merkheuli. From childhood, the future statesman had great vanity. For general rural money as best student he was sent to the Sukhumi elementary school. Peers and teachers said that student Beria had an unsurpassed talent for intrigue, others called him a detective.

Beria was married to Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori (1905-1991), daughter of Dariko Chikovani. She was the niece of the Bolshevik Sasha Gegechkori and the cousin of the Menshevik and Freemason E. Gegechkori, who headed the government of Georgia in 1920. Beria's children: son Sergo (b. 1924; rocket physicist, currently lives under his mother's surname in Kyiv, was married to the granddaughter of A.M. Gorky M. Peshkova; children - Nina, Nadya, Sergey) and daughter (married to V Grishin, former first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee).

After Beria's arrest, his wife and son were arrested (they were imprisoned until the end of 1954). Beria's mother was evicted from Tbilisi in July 1954 to the Gulripsh district of the Abkhaz ASSR. The repeatedly mentioned mansion in Moscow (“Beria's Palace”) on Malaya Nikitskaya Street (in Soviet times - Kachalova Street), house 28, now occupies the Tunisian embassy.

I got the impression that Beria's success in creating atomic bomb and reliable guarantees of the security of the Soviet Union created the basis, the "hothouse" basis, for the advancement of the "leaders" of the Khrushchev type. There were no external enemies, the economy and ideology inside the country worked well by inertia. Beria was sure that he would not be touched, because the country needed him. But everything was fine in the country without him. It was possible to engage in intrigue.

... if a certain state mind is still reluctantly recognized for Stalin, and some “subversers” are still ready to recognize his actions and decisions as sensible, then L.P. Beria is still in mass consciousness appears as the personification of all vices and the author of unthinkable atrocities, a figure downright demonic.

From the memoirs of Nami Mikoyan:

... I, a five-six-year-old girl, admired his courage when he swam far, far into the raging sea and when, in the strongest waves, he got into a kayak and took me with him, despite the pleas of women. Something, but he knew how to insist on his own. And we went into the distance, taking off on the waves. I did not experience fear in childhood, especially next to him.

On Sundays, Beria liked to gather fellow neighbors - and play volleyball! Having played enough, the men gathered at Beria's for tea, the windows were open, and their noisy voices, loud conversations could be heard from afar. All of them were shot in 1937. The father committed suicide. After the death of my father, I was brought up in the family of my uncle ...

And Beria was also fond of photography. At his dacha, where we often visited, he photographed me too.

Beria successfully used theater and cinema stars in foreign intelligence .

It seems that even the “sexual maniac” of Lavrenty Pavlovich worked for the glory of the Soviet Union. His interrogation documents state that about 700 of his mistresses were security and intelligence agents. It is impossible to check this, and most importantly, it is not necessary. There is a result - our Victory, in which Beria solved technical and intelligence problems very successfully.

Actually, for the first time I thought that the “villain Beria” could not lead the most successful in the history of world civilization military industry if he was a vulgar village bandit and a pervert when I watched the wonderful Russian TV series “ Legend of Olga“.

... A document has been preserved on which, on November 22, 1945, Beria writes: “ comrade Abakumov, what is proposed to be done in relation to Chekhova?“In response, counterintelligence takes care of food supplies for the Chekhova family, gasoline for her car, building materials for the repair of a new house, “on the protection of family members and armed escorts” on numerous trips. Olga was allowed to travel everywhere - to the American zone, to Austria, on tour, to shoot. She still worked hard, reaching her “pre-war norm” of seven films a year.

Apparently, it was no coincidence that Lavrenty Pavlovich “fed up” such a valuable shot. Beria, who hatched a plan for the unification of the two Germanys, “supposed to use her for negotiations with German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.” In this regard, on June 26, 1953, a meeting took place between Olga Chekhova and the head of the German foreign intelligence department, Zoya Rybkina-Voskresenskaya, a future writer.

Ironically, on the same day, Beria himself, who started this “operation”, was arrested, followed by the head of the 4th Directorate, Lieutenant-General Pavel Sudoplatov, “side by side” with whom Voskresenskaya worked for two decades, including and illegal.

Zoya Ivanovna stated at the party committee that they were family friends with Sudoplatov. She was quickly assigned to Vorkuta for a supernumerary post of senior lieutenant, and then fired. So, apparently, the meeting with Olga Chekhova had no “practical continuation”.

Information that Chekhova was a scout, in addition to V. Frischauer's article in People, is also available from other competent sources. In 1993, the oldest Chekist, Pavel Sudoplatov, called Olga Chekhova "one of the top-secret agents of Beria and Stalin." The same was said by Sergo Gegechkori (Beria) in his book “Father’s Personal Agents”, where he calls Chekhova “the most experienced Soviet intelligence officer”. According to some reports, it was Olga Chekhova who told our command the time of the German tank attack near Kursk.

Interestingly, Chekhova herself always categorically denied her involvement in the Soviet counterintelligence: “ I do not take these dubious reports seriously, because over the years of my life in the light of the footlight I have learned not to pay attention to gossip and gossip, but I “vaguely hinted” at some kind of “spy story”, which allowed the English magazine “People” to assert: Chekhova should have provide “NKVD agents with access to Hitler for the purpose of assassination, the group was already in Germany, but Stalin abandoned this project“. ..

Beria's sexual passion allowed him to perform miracles. The recruitment of Olga Chekhova was no accident! Lavrenty Pavlovich also recruited an Austrian movie star of Hungarian origin Marika Rökk.

From book Sergo Gegechkori « My father is Lavrenty Beria»:

- You The only son Lavrenty Pavlovich?
- In the family - the only one, but in general the father has a daughter. She was born much later, and she also had a rather difficult fate.
I received a very good education, in the sense that there were no restrictions on access to information. On the contrary, all my life my father made sure that I met scientists, people who could bring something to my knowledge, and I considered it my duty to faithfully follow his instructions, so I did not have a carefree youth.
After this misfortune happened, I was arrested. I was released only after a year and a half and was exiled to Sverdlovsk.

My biography should be divided into two parts. In my youth, even before the misfortune (I mean the death of my father and everything that followed), I felt much more constrained than now. Our family had strict traditions, and I was brought up in such a way that from an early age I knew: this is possible, but this is not. I had to always look back at the position that my father held.

Sergo BERIA: "Marshal Zhukov suggested that my father make a military coup and shoot the entire party leadership. My father did not listen, and he was brutally killed right in the mansion without any trial or investigation"

Worked for Soviet Union and another famous actress, Hungarian by nationality, Marika Rokk.

If Olga Chekhova was a person close to the Hitler family, then Marika Rokk was her own person in the house of Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda. Magda Goebbels was a rather stern woman in everyday life, but famous actress sympathized. Goebbels himself treated his wife's friend with the same sympathy. However, Marika was not a special exception - the Reich Minister was generally fond of women. Hitler for a long time did not accept him, say, because of a love affair with a Czech movie star.

But be that as it may, Marika Rokk had access, without exaggeration, to the most valuable intelligence information, which went along the line of Soviet strategic intelligence to Moscow. When our units entered Germany, she moved to Austria, where she was helped to create a film company. Later, as far as I know, Marika Rokk left for Hungary.”

... Marika is an abbreviated name. Full name actresses - Maria Carolina. Her parents were Hungarians. She was born on November 3, 1913 in Cairo, and spent her childhood in Budapest. When Marika was eleven years old, she told her parents that she was ready to feed them and her older brother with her dances, which, slowly and with the approval of her mother, she had been doing for a long time. The girl's father, who always opposed this daughter's hobby, after watching her daughter dance, was forced to agree and even promised that from now on he would play the role of her impresario. And soon Marika already soloed with the Hungarian czardas - first in Paris, a little later in New York.

“At the age of eleven I danced in the variety show “Moulin Rouge” in Paris, at twelve I tried my hand at Broadway, became the favorite of the public of the Boulevard Ring in Budapest. In Vienna, for my role in The Ring Star, I was praised to the skies as a new luminary under the dome of the circus, ”wrote Marika Rekk in her autobiographical book Heart with Pepper, published in 1974.

… Last time after a long break, Marika Rekk decided to take the stage in 1992 in Budapest on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the birth of Imre Kalman, triumphantly performing the role of Countess Maritza, which she happened to perform more than 700 times ... Marika Rekk died in May 2004 in Austria - from a heart attack

After Beria was taken into custody, his wife and son were arrested. They were behind bars until 1954, when they were sent into exile. According to Beria's wife, Nina Gegechkori, the investigators staged the execution of Sergo (son), but she did not tell anything about her husband, and when the volleys rang out, she fainted.

December 18, 1953. Beria was charged with espionage for Great Britain, in an effort to "eliminate the Soviet worker-peasant system, restore capitalism and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie." Trial lasted only five days, the sentence of Beria and his accomplices was pronounced on December 23, on the same day he was carried out. Some sources report that before the execution, Lavrenty Pavlovich confessed to "moral decay": according to the investigator, the defendant had an affair with 221 women.

Today, there are a lot of "blank spots" in the Beria case. Many people are trying to justify him in the eyes of society, but the image of Beria, as the devil of the Soviet era, has long been entrenched in the minds of the people. In 2000, Beria was denied rehabilitation.

November 24, 1924 - October 11, 2000

design engineer in the field of radar and missile systems, son of Lavrenty Beria

Biography

Sergo Lavrentievich Beria (Sergei Alekseevich Gegechkori) was born on November 24, 1924 in the city of Tbilisi. Parents - Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria and Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori. In 1938, having completed seven classes of German and music schools, together with his family moved to Moscow, where in 1941, after graduating high school No. 175, was enrolled in the Central Radio Engineering Laboratory of the NKVD of the USSR.

In the first days of the war, on the recommendation of the district committee of the Komsomol, he was sent as a volunteer to an intelligence school, where he received a radio engineering specialty at an accelerated three-month course and began serving in the army with the rank of lieutenant technician. On instructions from the General Staff, he performed a number of important tasks (in 1941 - Iran, Kurdistan; in 1942 - the North Caucasian Group of Forces).

In October 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense S. Beria, he was sent to study in the Leningrad military academy communications named after S. M. Budyonny. During his studies, he repeatedly recalled on the personal instructions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff to carry out special secret assignments (in 1943-1945 - the Tehran and Yalta conferences of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition; 4th and 1st Ukrainian fronts). For exemplary performance of command assignments, he was awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" and the Order of the Red Star.

In 1947 he graduated from the Academy with honors. Under the leadership of Dr. n., Professor P. N. Kuksenko, he is developing a graduation project on an air-sea missile guided system. The State Commission gives him an "excellent" rating and recommends organizing the development of his project in industry. One of the founders of the Soviet system missile defense G. V. Kisunko was present at the defense and left memories of this and subsequent events related to S. Beria.

In order to increase the effectiveness of bomber aviation operations against enemy ships, on September 8, 1947, the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the organization of a special bureau - “SB No. 1 MV” was issued. In this Decree, P.N. Kuksenko was appointed chief and chief designer, and S. Beria was appointed his deputy. When in 1950 to create anti-aircraft missile system The air defense of Moscow was formed on its basis by KB-1, S. Beria becomes one of its two main designers (the second is P. N. Kuksenko). For the successful completion of the government task to create new types of weapons ( rocket system"Comet") - was awarded the Order of Lenin and awarded the Stalin Prize. Working in SB-1 and KB-1, Sergo Beria defended his candidate's dissertation in 1948, and his doctoral dissertation in 1952.

Arrest and disgrace

After the removal and arrest of his father, L.P. Beria, in July 1953, he, along with his mother, was interned at one of the state dachas near Moscow, then he was also arrested and until the end of 1954 he was kept in solitary confinement, first in Lefortovskaya, and then in Butyrskaya prisons.

After being released from prison, S. Beria receives a passport in the name of Sergei Alekseevich Gegechkori and goes into exile in the Urals. In the city of Sverdlovsk, being under constant supervision, he worked for almost ten years as a senior engineer at the Research Institute of p / box 320.

At the request of the government of a group of prominent scientists of the country, in connection with the illness of his mother Nina Teimurazovna, he was allowed to be transferred to the city of Kyiv to the organization p / box 24, which was later transformed into NPO Kvant (now State Enterprise Research Institute Kvant). Until September 1988, he worked there as a lead designer, head of a sector, and head of a department. Later, he was involved in the work of the Department of New Physical Problems of the IPM of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR as the head of the system design department - the chief designer of the complex. From 1990 to 1999, S. L. Beria - scientific supervisor, Chief designer Kyiv Scientific Research Institute "Kometa" (formerly - Kyiv branch of TsNPO "Kometa"). Since 1999 - retired.

Sergo wrote a book dedicated to his father, "My father is Lavrenty Beria", where he believes that repression and terror have been an integral part of the existence of the Soviet state since its creation and that is why his father suffered.

He died on October 11, 2000 in Kyiv. He was buried at Baikovo Cemetery.

Family and Children

He was married to Marfa Maksimovna Peshkova (Maxim Gorky's granddaughter from his first marriage), they had three children: daughters Nina and Nadezhda, son Sergei.

The marriage broke up during S. Beria's stay in exile.!

Posted on the Web photos of Stalin's granddaughter Olga, who lives in Portland, USA under the name Chris Evans, shocked the public. The daughter of Svetlana Alliluyeva from her fourth marriage poses in torn tights, with a strange hairstyle, a tattoo, and a painted face. In hand - toy machine. But it turned out that this is not outrageous, Chris just has such a lifestyle. She is quite a successful lady, she owns a vintage fashion store. It is noteworthy that the grandchildren and granddaughters of Stalin's close associates, most of whom now live in Russia, also do not live in poverty.

Stalin's granddaughter

Trotsky's grandson

Mexican citizen Esteban Volkov is the grandson of the Russian revolutionary, one of the organizers of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky. He was an eyewitness to the attack of the Stalinist agent Ramon Mercader on his grandfather. In Lkov keeps the memory of a famous relative, he became the director of the house-museum in Coyocan, a residential area of Mexico City, where Trotsky was assassinated in 1940.

Alleged grandson of Beria

A resident of the Chelyabinsk region, Igor Lopatchenko, found out that his father Eskander Garibov was illegitimate son Lavrenty Beria. Lavrenty Pavlovich in the late 40s of the last century came with an inspection trip to Ozersk. NPO "Mayak" for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel began to be built here. A party leader had a child from one of the prisoners, who worked on the construction of an enterprise ... To prove his relationship, Igor Lopatchenko donated blood for DNA. However, the legitimate heirs of Beria refuse to undergo an examination.

Granddaughter Yagoda

Victoria Genrikhovna Averbakh-Komaritsyna from Angarsk is the granddaughter of Stalin's People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Genrikh Yagoda. It is known that it was under Yagoda that mass repressions began in the USSR. Then the people's commissar himself and his son, the father of Victoria Genrikhovna, got into the bloody "meat grinder". Averbakh-Komaritsina always spoke warmly about her father and grandfather, who were shot by Stalin. Most of her life she lived in Siberia in Angarsk.

Grandson of Molotov

Russian historian and political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov is the grandson of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Stalin's closest associate, Vyacheslav Molotov. His career has been brilliant. In 1997-2001 Vyacheslav Nikonovwas a member of the political advisory Council under the President of the Russian Federation, the Commission on Human Rights, the expert council of the Commission on countering political extremism.Since 2011, he has been a State Duma deputy from " United Russia”, Member of the Committee on Budget and Taxes.

Zhukov's grandson

Yegor Zhukov is the grandson of Marshal of Victory Georgy Zhukov. According to him, b to be the grandson of a famous commander- it's like carrying a huge portrait of your grandfather behind you. Egor does not hide the fact that with the surname Zhukov it is sometimes easier for him to find contacts and communicate with people. But it was also a reason to make higher demands on him.. Today, 36-year-old Yegor headedsupports the E-Democracy Foundation.

Granddaughter of Vasilevsky and Zhukov

Tatyana Vasilevskaya has a double relationship with the famous Stalinist generals, she is the granddaughter of Alexander Vasilevsky and George Zhukov. Tatyana's mother Era Georgievna is the daughter of the first, and her father Yuri Alexandrovich is the son of the second. In 2015, Tatyana came to the opening of the monument to Alexander Vasilevsky in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Grandson of Lunacharsky

Georgy Lunacharsky, the President of the Football Federation for the Disabled of Russia, is the grandson of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first people's commissar of education. His mother Galina was born after an affair between his grandfather and a 16-year-old ballerina. Then her girl was taken away from her mother, who was told that the baby had died. Georgy Lunacharsky found out about his relationship with the People's Commissar of Education only at the age of 50.

Mikoyan's grandson

For the grandson of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Anastas Mikoyan, Stas Namin, fate prepared a brilliant musical career. In the 70s of the last century, the songs of the vocal and instrumental ensemble Flowers, led by Namin, won the hearts of everyone Soviet people. The group pleases Russians with its creativity to this day. The grandson of Anastas Mikoyan also became famous as organizer of the largest international and interstate cultural festivals in the country and in the world.

Grandson of Ordzhonikidze

Prominent Soviet and Russian diplomat member Public Chamber Russian Federation Sergey Ordzhonikidze is the grandson of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR Grigory (Sergo) Ordzhonikidze. Has the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He was Deputy Head of the International Legal Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Deputy Permanent Representative of the USSR and Russia to the UN in New York, Director of the Department international organizations Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, then deputy Secretary General UN.

Andropov's granddaughter

The granddaughter of the chairman of the KGB of the USSR and the Secretary General of the CPSU Yuri Andropov, Tatyana Igorevna Andropova, lives in the USA. She taught choreography in Miami. In the same place, in the USA, her brother Konstantin Igorevich Andropov also lives.

Grandson of Kosygin

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Professor Alexei Gvishiani is the grandson of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSRAlexey Kosygin. Since 1978, Gvishiani worked at the Institute of Physics of the Earth. O. Yu. Schmidt of the Russian Academy of Sciences, having gone from researcher to deputy director of the institute. In 1883 he defended his doctoral dissertation in the specialty "geophysics". In 2006 he was elected a corresponding member Russian Academy Sciencesmajoring in geoinformatics.

Gromyko's grandson

Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Center for British Studies Alexei Gromyko is the grandson of Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He teaches at MGIMO.Conducts at the Department of History foreign policy countries of Europe and America a special course on the theme "Party-political system of Great Britain in the 20th century".

Litvinov's granddaughter

Russian and British journalist Maria Slonim is the granddaughter of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Maxim Litvinov. Born in the family of sculptor Ilya Lvovoch Slonim and Tatyana Litvinova- daughters of Maxim Litvinov and Englishwoman Ivy Lowe. In 1974 she left the USSR. She lived in the USA for a short time.Then she moved to England, where her grandmother lived. She worked in the Russian service of the Air Force. In the late 1980s she worked as a correspondent for the BBC in Moscow. In 2015, she decided to leave Russia again.

Poskrebyshev's granddaughter

Alexandra Poskrebysheva, the granddaughter of the head of the Stalinist secretariat Alexander Nikolaevich Poskrebyshev, chose the path of medicine. She is works at RNIMU them. N. I. Pirogov at the Department of Faculty Therapy. Candidate medical sciences, docent. Alexandra Sergeevna is an open cheerful person, enjoys great respect among her colleagues.

Sergo Lavrentievich Beria (Sergei Alekseevich Gegechkori) was born on November 24, 1924 in the city of Tbilisi. Parents - Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria and Nina Teimurazovna Gegechkori. In 1938, after graduating from seven classes of German and music schools, he moved with his family to Moscow, where in 1941, after graduating from high school No. 175, he was enrolled in the Central Radio Engineering Laboratory of the NKVD of the USSR.

In October 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense S. Beria, he was sent to study at the Leningrad Military Academy of Communications named after S. M. Budyonny. During his studies, he repeatedly recalled on the personal instructions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff to carry out special secret assignments (in 1943-1945 - the Tehran and Yalta conferences of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition; 4th and 1st Ukrainian fronts). For exemplary performance of command assignments, he was awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" and the Order of the Red Star.

In 1947 he graduated from the Academy with honors. Under the leadership of Dr. n., Professor P. N. Kuksenko, he is developing a graduation project on an air-sea missile guided system. The State Commission gives him an "excellent" rating and recommends organizing the development of his project in industry. One of the creators of the Soviet missile defense system, G. V. Kisunko, was present at the defense and left memories of this and subsequent events related to S. Beria.

In order to increase the effectiveness of bomber aviation operations against enemy ships, on September 8, 1947, the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the organization of a special bureau - “SB No. 1 MV” was issued. In this Decree, P.N. Kuksenko was appointed chief and chief designer, and S. Beria was appointed his deputy. When, in 1950, KB-1 was formed on its basis to create an anti-aircraft missile defense system for Moscow, S. Beria became one of its two chief designers (the second was P. N. Kuksenko). For the successful fulfillment of the government task to create new types of weapons (the Kometa missile system), he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Prize. Working in SB-1 and KB-1, Sergo Beria defended his candidate's dissertation in 1948, and his doctoral dissertation in 1952.

Arrest and disgrace

At the request of the government of a group of prominent scientists of the country, in connection with the illness of his mother Nina Teimurazovna, he was allowed to be transferred to the city of Kyiv to the organization p / box 24, which was later transformed into NPO Kvant (now State Enterprise Research Institute Kvant). Until September 1988, he worked there as a lead designer, head of a sector, and head of a department. Later, he was involved in the work of the Department of New Physical Problems of the IPM of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR as the head of the system design department - the chief designer of the complex. From 1990 to 1999, S. L. Beria was a scientific adviser, chief designer of the Kyiv Research Institute "Comet" (formerly the Kyiv branch of the Central Research and Production Association "Comet"). Since 1999 - retired.

Family and Children

He was married to Marfa Maksimovna Peshkova (Maxim Gorky's granddaughter from his first marriage), they had three children: daughters Nina and Nadezhda, son Sergei.

The marriage broke up during S. Beria's stay in exile.!

Lavrenty Beria is one of the most odious well-known politicians of the 20th century, whose activities are still widely discussed in modern society. He was an extremely controversial personality in the history of the USSR and went through a long political path, full of gigantic repressions of people and boundless crimes that made him the most outstanding "functional death" 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 auspices of the then 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 a court decision, was shot as a traitor to the Motherland.

Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich was born on March 29, 1899 in the Abkhazian village of Merkheuli in the family of poor Mengrel peasants Pavel Beria and Marta Jakeli. He was the third and only healthy child in the family - the elder brother of the future politician died of illness at the age of two, and his sister suffered a serious illness and became deaf and dumb. From childhood, young Lavrenty showed great interest in education and a zeal for knowledge, which was not typical 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 in the Nobel oil company. In 1919, Lavrenty Pavlovich received a diploma as a technician-builder-architect.

During his studies, Beria organized a 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 ran an illegal communist party technicians, with whose members he organized an armed uprising against the government of Georgia, for which he was imprisoned.

In the middle of 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 Chekist 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 rigidity and ruthlessness towards people who thought differently from him, which allowed Lavrenty Pavlovich to rapidly develop his career, starting with the deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Cheka and ending with the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Georgian SSR.

Politics

In the late 1920s, the biography of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was concentrated on party work. It was then that he managed to get acquainted with the head of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, who saw his comrade-in-arms in the revolutionary and showed him a visible favor, which many associate with the fact that they were of the same nationality. In 1931, he became the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Georgia, 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. Becoming the leader of the Bolsheviks in Georgia and Azerbaijan, Beria won the recognition of the people and associates, who at the end of each congress glorified him, calling him "the beloved Stalinist leader."

At that time, Lavrenty Beria managed to develop to a large scale National economy Georgia, he made a great contribution to the development oil industry and commissioned many large industrial facilities, and transformed Georgia into an all-Union resort area. Under Beria Agriculture Georgia in terms of volume increased by 2.5 times, and high prices were set for products (tangerines, grapes, tea), which made the Georgian economy the most prosperous in the country.

The real fame came to Lavrenty Beria in 1938, when Stalin appointed him head of the NKVD, which made the politician the second person in the country after the head. Historians argue that the politician deserved such a high post thanks to the active support of the Stalinist repressions of 1936-38, when the Great Terror took place in the country, providing for a “cleansing” of the country from “enemies of the people”. In those years, almost 700 thousand people lost their lives, who were subjected to political persecution due to disagreement with the current government.

Head of the NKVD

Becoming the head of the NKVD of the USSR, Lavrenty Beria distributed leadership positions in the office of his comrades-in-arms from Georgia, which increased his influence on the Kremlin and Stalin. In his new post, he immediately carried out a large-scale repression of the former Chekists and carried out a total purge in the country's leading apparatus, becoming " right hand» Stalin 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 a man who restored "legality" in the USSR.

During the years of 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 deployment of air regiments at the front. Responsible for the "military spirit" of the Red Army, Lavrenty Pavlovich launched the so-called "weapon of fear", resuming mass arrests and public death penalty for all the soldiers and spies who were captured who did not want to fight. Historians attribute the victory in the Second World War to a greater extent with the tough policy of the head of the NKVD, in whose hands the entire military-industrial potential of the country was.

After the war, Beria took up the development nuclear capability USSR, but at the same time continued to carry out mass repressions by proxy in the allied countries of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, where most of the male population was in concentration camps and colonies (GULAG). It was these prisoners who were involved in military production, carried out under conditions strict regime secrecy provided by the NKVD.

With the help of a team of nuclear physicists led by Beria and the well-coordinated work of intelligence officers, Moscow received clear instructions on how to build an atomic bomb created in the United States. First successful test nuclear weapons in the USSR was held in 1949 in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, for which Lavrenty Pavlovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.

In 1946, Beria fell into Stalin's "inner circle" and became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. A little later, the head of the USSR saw him as the main competitor, so Iosif Vissarionovich began to carry out a "cleansing" in Georgia and check the documents of Lavrenty Pavlovich, which complicated relations 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. By doing so, 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 the death of Stalin, a conspiracy was organized against Beria, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev.

In July 1953, Lavrenty Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium. He was accused of having links 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 in 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 and appeal. Specific charges in the case of the former head of the NKVD were a number of illegal murders, espionage for Great Britain, repressions in 1937, rapprochement with, treason.

December 23, 1953 Beria was shot by decision Supreme Court USSR in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow military district. After the execution, the body of Lavrenty Pavlovich was burned in the Donskoy crematorium, and the ashes of the revolutionary were buried in the New Donskoy cemetery.

According to historians, the death of Beria allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. the Soviet people, which is up to last day considered the politician a bloody dictator and tyrant. And in modern society, he is accused of mass repression of more than 200 thousand people, including a number of Russian scientists and prominent intellectuals of that time. Lavrenty Pavlovich is also credited with a number of execution orders. Soviet soldiers, which during the war years was only into the hands of the enemies of the USSR.

In 1941 former head The NKVD carried out the "extermination" of all anti-Soviet figures, as a result of which thousands of people died, including women and children. During the war years, he carried out a total deportation of the peoples of Crimea and 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 power over the fate of the people.

Personal life

The personal life of Lavrenty 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 its political activity at the heights of power, Lavrenty Pavlovich was known as a “Kremlin rapist”, having an unbridled passion for the fair sex. Beria and his women are still considered the most mysterious part of the life of a prominent politician. There is information that last years he lived in two families - his civil spouse was Lyalya Drozdova, who gave birth to him illegitimate daughter Martha.

At the same time, historians do not exclude that Beria had a sick mind and was a pervert. This is confirmed by the "lists of sexual victims" of the politician, the presence of which in 2003 was recognized in the Russian Federation. It is reported that the number of victims of the maniac Beria is more than 750 girls and girls whom he raped using sadistic methods.

Historians say that very often sexual harassment The head of the NKVD subjected schoolgirls 14-15 years old, whom he imprisoned in soundproof interrogation rooms at the Lubyanka, where he plunged into sexual perversion. During interrogations, 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 from one of the schools near Moscow. Also, during the search, items of lingerie and children's dresses were found in his safe, which were stored next to items characteristic of perverts.