Lavrentiy Beria Biography - The life of Lavrentiy Beria Documentary

it is the 5th of march 1953. joseph stalin the man of steel who has mercilessly shaped the soviet union into a superpower over 30 years of bloody rule dies of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 74. but before the boss's corpse is cold his underlings that have spent decades doing his bidding plot against one and other to seize control the most powerful of them who stalin referred to as his himmler as during his career overseeing the imprisonment and murder of millions of people and now seems certain to replace his master at the head of the most successful dictatorship in human history his name lavrenti barrier the architect of terror [Music] the man known to history as lavrentiy pavlovinch barrier was born on the 17th of march 1899 in the village of mercury in present-day georgia which was then part of the russian empire born into a land-owning family within the abkhazia region barrier's father pavel cacayevich berrier was of mingralian ethnic origin a people native to georgia and the southern caucasus who were considered distinct from other ethnicities in the region and barrier's mother was marta jackaly of the yakili family who belonged to the feudal house of dadiani in western georgia who were descended from the princes of mingralia according to her family members marta had been widowed and mothered another son prior to marrying berry's father whom she had three children with and accounts tell us that she was a pious woman who was heavily influenced by the georgian orthodox church and had strong ties within the local religious community and so a belief in religion was something that she also endeavored to instill in her children born close to the black sea coast in the abkhazia region of georgia beria grew up as a peasant in an area that was largely shaped by romano byzantine or romano greek culture and traditions rather than the slavic russo turkish and persian culture of the neighbouring regions and as well as his stepbrother he was said to have also had a biological brother who was born to both his parents and according to the russian government he had only one sister anna who was deaf as well as two nieces who were dependent upon him this suggests that his brother had either passed away or else he no longer maintained a close relationship with him barrier is said to have studied maths and the natural sciences whilst at high school where he was given the name detective due to his aptitude for retrieving stolen items for pupils and teachers although he was also accused of hiding the items himself perhaps to fool people into believing his good nature displaying at a young age and ability to manipulate the emotions of others graduating from the baku polytechnical school for mechanical construction in 1919 beria was viewed as a mediocre student but became politically active after joining the bolshevik course in 1917 whilst he was still studying and it was around this time when barrier was becoming politically active that the russian revolution began following widespread unrest surrounding tsar nicholas ii's incompetent rule during world war one which was a conflict that would also spark a chain reaction of political upheaval across europe a year later including the abdication of the german emperor wilhelm ii and the collapse of the ottoman empire after the defeat of the central powers possibly the weakest or least able of europe's monarchs sar nicholas had during his tumultuous rule allowed the immense wealth of the russian nation to fall into the hands of a minority of elite nobles who with the tsar's backing kept russia's countless millions of peasants chained to a life of servitude and poverty which during the carnage of the first world war on the eastern front in which the sars soldiers often went into battle without rifles would eventually lead to an eruption of revolutionary sentiment and activity that would strike the sardom asunder nicholas's competency as a ruler had first been called into question following russia's loss to japan during the war of 1904 in 1905 that had been initiated by the tsar himself in the face of japan's imperial expansion in asia and which led directly to clampdowns and mass protests across russia such as the bloody sunday massacre of january 1905 which took place near the winter palace in saint petersburg in which hundreds of protesting civilians were slaughtered and as a direct result in 1906 the state's duma or legislative body was formed under a new russian constitution which gave a greater say to commoners in an attempt to abate the growing revolutionary fervor ultimately this political appeasement would prove to be deceptive as in reality the tsar had ceded only a nominal amount of power to the people in order to prevent his weakening empire from collapsing and thus in reality he still wielded a great deal of authority eventually compounding his earlier failures by surrounding himself with corrupt and incompetent advisers a course which would during the largest war in the history of the world bring about his ultimate downfall due to the size of the russian empire and the wide range of nationalities and ethnicities each with their own regional traditions an overarching russian national identity and unity as a nation proved difficult to achieve and georgia at this time was a client state of its massive northern neighbour and was seen by many as being a mere colony or backwater but the small state was quickly becoming a hotbed of political activity in the russian liberation movement and so during both stalin and various childhoods anti-russian as well as anti-saris sentiment was rife in impoverished georgia which combined with its proud independent history made its populace increasingly difficult to control when a spider's web of alliances essentially forced russia to go to war against germany and austria in 1914 which was a conflict that nicholas ii once again entered into with an air of misplaced confidence the russian economy army and state itself was gradually worn down until ultimately nicolas the last of the tsars was forced to abdicate on the 15th of march 1917 and was replaced by a provisional government headed by alexander kerensky who was himself overthrown six months later in october of 1917 by vladimir lenin's bolsheviks following the revolution georgia refused to recognize lenin's regime but this detachment soon left it vulnerable to other regional powers including post-ottoman turkey and over the coming years the country fought to maintain its autonomy even losing the coastal port of patumi for a short period to the turks thus in an effort to strengthen its defenses the state eventually joined the trans-caucasian democratic federative republic which was a geopolitical pact that included georgia as well as azerbaijan and armenia yet the republic only lasted a month due to disunity between the three countries leaving all three vulnerable yet again nonetheless georgia formally declared independence on the 26th of may 1918 for the first time in 116 years with the social democratic mensheviks becoming the dominant political party in the country promoting ideologies around land reform whilst also retaining the national identity of the country avoiding a revolution similar to that of russia's but despite this the country would eventually be unable to prevent itself from being consumed once more by its northern neighbor and so despite russia's recognition of georgia as a country in 1920 joseph stalin under lenin's orders would lead a bolshevik invasion of the state in 1921 after which it would become the georgian soviet socialist republic essentially making it a russian vassal once more it is said that lavrenti beria did not share the same marxist leninist ideology as his later comrades but he nonetheless became a prominent supporter of stalin's later regime perhaps in part because the man of steel and barrier were both raised in georgia something that the russian dictator may have eventually seen as an asset as the two were the only senior members of the soviet government that hailed from georgia after he graduated from the baku polytechnical school for mechanical construction in 1919 barry had secured a position within the security service of the azerbaijan democratic republic at the age of 20. and the surveillance operations he carried out in this role were to mark the beginning of his ascent to power indeed lavrenti beria was a relative latecomer to the upper echelons of the soviet regime as whilst the fate of russia and georgia itself were being decided by lenin and his supporters in 1917 beria was still studying at high school and perhaps opportunistically joined the bolshevik wing of the russian social democratic labour party soon afterwards and was particularly active as a revolutionary in both georgia and azerbaijan where he later claimed to have fought on the front lines although it was confirmed some time later that he had in fact avoided military service whilst he was working for the muslim democratic muslim government in baku in 1919 during the height of the russian civil war which saw the remnants of the now dead sars supporters attempt and failed to remove the bolsheviks from power barrier assisted his comrades in defeating the more prominent mensheviks within georgia and by 1920 he was no longer working as an undercover agent as he was assigned to the baku customs house but was soon uprooted following the bolshevik move into azerbaijan in april of that year resulting in barrier being ordered to collect intelligence within his homeland of georgia for the revolutionary military council of the bolshevik 11th army then in may of 1920 georgia and russia entered into a diplomatic relationship following the signing of the treaty of moscow which allowed the bolshevik party greater access to georgia in which the two states began operations to overturn the menshevik government within the country once and for all leading the red army to take further control of the small trans-caucasian state in which georgians of all political persuasions were suspected of collaboration with the enemy including barrier himself it was at this time and with the support of his contemporaries at the bolshevik central committee of azerbaijan that beria was saved from execution when he was imprisoned on charges of spying on the ruling party even though it was not uncommon for junior members of the bolshevik movement to be asked to spy on their comrades which may have confirmed bury his innocence in the eyes of the party and whilst in prison he formed a relationship with his cellmate's niece nina gegechkori who was 17 at the time with whom barrier would elope on a train when he was eventually released after almost being killed by his own side barrier was soon arrested once again along with the entire georgian bolshevik central committee for spying on the menshevik population of georgia and for setting up secret contacts with the enemy bolshevik politicians however this time his punishment was mere exile rather than elimination in which barrier was given instructions to leave the country within three days after which he remained in tbilisi regardless taking on a secret identity and working for the soviet embassy unbeknownst to barrier dementivic authorities were tailing him and after taking him into custody yet again bolshevik diplomats tried and failed to secure his release and in august following more failed negotiations political prisoners including barrier began a hunger strike the end of which was negotiated by the bolsheviks after only four and a half days leading to barrier being deported from georgia to baku upon his return to azerbaijan barrier resumed his civilian studies this time at the baku par technical institute focusing on architecture however he soon became bored with academia and took a role as administrator of affairs to the azerbaijan central committee until soon afterwards when the bolsheviks made him secretary of the extraordinary commission for the expropriating of the bourgeoisie and improving the lot of workers in 1920 in which barrier stripped the wealthy of their property on behalf of the ruling party after this barrier returned to studying architecture in february 1921 but after only several weeks he once again began working on counter intelligence operations across transcaucasia and was promoted to deputy head of the regional leadership of the chaka or bolshevik secret police in georgia whilst he was still in his early twenties which was a promotion that could be said to be amongst the most important in his life but one that would have dire and colossal ramifications for the people of the soviet union in the years to come in 1921 beria married nina gigacory the niece of prominent bolshevik sasha gegechkori she was the mother to his only child sergio barrier who would later become an author but with rumors abounding that barrier had kidnapped nina she would later have to defend her husband stating that the rumors existed because they chose to marry in secret however despite her loyalty barrier would famously later use his position to deport hundreds if not thousands of unwilling victims the following year in late 1922 lenin and stalin would come to disagree on the fate of the transcaucasian state in what became known as the georgian affair with the former suggesting that georgia azerbaijan and armenia become semi-independent within the russian soviet whilst stalin and barrier who by now had established connections with the soviet leadership wished to fully incorporate their homeland under the rule of moscow then in may of 1922 lenin suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and although he remained active politically he was unable to run the soviet state as he had done previously and so during the latter part of that year joseph stalin became the general secretary of the central committee of the communist party officially taking over as the new leader of the union of soviet socialist republics for the ussr which was all but solidified when lenin suffered a second and then a third stroke before finally dying on the 21st of january 1924. by november 1922 barrier and his wife had relocated to tbilisi in georgia but when a resurgence of anti-soviet activity in the country escalated he moved to assist the bolsheviks by arresting and often executing counter-revolutionaries which in many ways was the key to the bolshevik rise to power within russia as they time and again exhibited total ruthlessness in the face of any opposition which was in virtually every area of the soviet union steadily and remorselessly exterminated giving men like beria a pathway to power in the red regime this led to the persecution of the menshevik party within georgia in particular who up until stalin's rise to power had received lenient treatment due to many of them being old comrades of the bolsheviks who had close relationships with senior leaders such as lenin however stalin unlike his former master would tolerate no opposition resulting in the mensheviks being gradually purged from both the soviet union and georgia often resulting in them being tortured killed or sent to labor camps called gulags in the russian hinterland in barriers 1923 autobiography he stated that he had wished to return to his studies at this time but instead continued to fight against anti-bolshevik activists such as the mensheviks along with muslim counter-revolutionaries and turkish nationalists intent on overturning the new order through organized crime and armed uprisings which ironically were the same tactics that have been employed by the bolsheviks themselves in the previous decade initially the checker or soviet secret police were unable to quell an uprising carried out by the committee for the independence of georgia and in october 1923 mass arrests were made but this did little to prevent further unrest and so in august 1924 the rebellion resulted in the killing of up to 10 000 people in which barrier displayed what would become his trademark attributes of cunning and ruthlessness resulting in him being promoted to head of the secret political division of the transcaucasian state political directive after which he was then awarded the order of the red banner for his actions which were publicly stated as carried out in defense of the party when in reality he had simply ordered the execution of anyone that was even remotely suspected of subversion an example of barriers methods and mind games then came when he used carrot and stink-like tactics in an effort to end the rebellion when he informed the rebel leaders that they should order their counter-revolutionaries to abandon their uprising and put down their weapons so the mass executions of their comrades would come to an end however when this offer was accepted and the dissidents surrendered the persons in question were more often than not simply shot and armed raids carried out in which entire civilian communities were purged meaning that they were sent to siberia or simply exterminated barrier was likely assisted in this campaign of carnage by fellow georgian sergo or john akidze who had helped the bolsheviks come to power in 1917 and whoever saw the attacks on lavrenti's orders in both the north and south caucasus regions however both beria and his subordinates faced fierce criticism for the political purge they had undertaken but both barrier and his superior leading georgian czechist epivan kevan taliani both escaped punishment when they turned the blame on subordinate checker agents who were used as scapegoats for the atrocities during the mid-1920s barrier now a seasoned police agent with a reputation for getting the job done increasingly began to provide security and intelligence to the soviet leader joseph stalin himself as he began to expand his remit beyond george's borders indeed evidence for the growing working relationship between the two georgians can possibly be found when in 1925 the leader of the trans-caucasian checker a proud trotskyist and enemy of stalin solomon mojolebski along with two senior officials were killed in a plane crash following the destination of an explosive device on the aircraft they were traveling on rumors suggested that mojilevskiy had incriminating information on both beria and stalin that could harm their political reputations but a resulting internal investigation after the event cleared both of their names meaning that they escaped unpunished due to inadequate evidence linking them to any crime although stalin's rival leon trotsky claimed that there had been three anti-stalinist officials on the way to visit him meaning that it is possible that barrier and stalin took the opportunity to eliminate their opponents with barrier using the incident as an opportunity to forge a close relationship with his superior and thus earn promotion whether beria was conducting covert assassinations for stalin or not he was nonetheless promoted soon after the incident as he joined the joint state political directorate under the council of people's commissars of the ussr which was effectively the bolshevik secret police force overseeing the entire georgian region and over the coming months barrier's power grew until by 1927 almost 10 years after the bolshevik revolution he was promoted once more to the fifth party congress of georgia where he assumed a position on the georgian central committee and continued to fight what was called anti-state terrorism which essentially meant punishing national chauvinism or people expressing nationalistic sentiments which challenged soviet rule by virtue of his position in the police and as an intelligence agent barrier had amassed considerable leverage by this time and had also forged contacts within the kremlin itself which is evidenced in his correspondence with the prominent communist party official orzano kidze who he passed illicit information to about possible sympathizers of leon trotsky who were by this time in open conflict with the establishment following trotsky's expulsion from the communist party in 1927 after which stalin sought to eradicate his remaining supporters once again allowing barrier to ingratiate himself with his superiors barrier was made head of the joint state police directorate in 1931 a position he achieved by muscling out his competition giving him the opportunity to keep close tabs on any information which might possibly harm him often shutting down investigations into his increasingly corrupt and questionable activities before they could tarnish his image and it was this position within the police force that gave berry a chance to fulfill his ambitions for power within moscow as controlling the police force essentially gave him the power of life and death over virtually the entire russian population making him only answerable to the man of steel himself in 1932 barrier was promoted yet again when he was made the leader of the transcaucasian republic and was soon on the front page of the zarya vostoka newspaper in georgia promoting the country's collectivization policies in which private property was seized mostly by force by the state and anyone who resisted was dealt with in typical soviet fashion and it was during barriers first appearance as party chief that he blamed the previous leader lavrentiy cartwelly for failing to carry out government orders which heralded a wider purge of the georgian party members which was essentially barriers way of eliminating internal opposition shortly afterwards barrier once again used his newly acquired position to call out former party members for their underperforming transcaucasian economy and over the next four years he proceeded to remove the old bolshevik party leaders from positions of power within georgia replacing the old regime with new officials sympathetic to his cause all the while having one eye on his friend or john akidze's job a man who had protected beria previously in his career and who was the chief of the transcaucasian party during his term barrier instigated further reforms of the kolkas program which entailed the collectivisation of agriculture in farming communities including the political suppression of the kulaks who were a class of moderately affluent peasants along with anyone else opposing bolshevism sending at least 335 kulak families into exile or worse seizing their property in the process whilst setting fresh labourers to work on their land all of whom earned equalized pay regardless of their skill set aptitude or diligence it is clear that some of barriers objectives were achieved using devious tactics as by hook or crook he would soon force soviet politician mamiya or khalashvili out of his job as the chief of the transcaucasian party offering him a transfer to moscow to take a demotion as the deputy chief of the institute of marxism leninism after which berrier assumed or a kellashville's job and soon took control of the georgian party leadership in 1934 and once again began overseeing the entire south caucasus region while he continued to work on his next promotion a move to the kremlin in moscow in 1937 barrier was made responsible for carrying out a purge of the georgian nkvd when up to 17 high-ranking officials were tried and executed for being part of an underground anti-bolshevik movement associated with polycarp medivani who was responsible in part for the anti-stalinist movement in transcaucasia and soon afterwards in 1938 no doubt impressed with berrie's effectiveness and ruthlessness stalin appointed him as a deputy member of the russian secret police also known as the people's commissariat for internal affairs or later the kgb due to his meticulous planning skills and execution of government-led operations in which he crushed all opposition after this barrier played a major role in stalin's upcoming political purge during which approximately 40 percent of the party's ruling elite were killed with only 35 percent of party members surviving to old age in turn making barriers path to power all the more easy although despite his diligence he was at one point placed on an nkvd hit list himself and only survived by asking for stalin's forgiveness indeed the man of steel notoriously kept all of its closest comrades in a state of near perpetual fear as at any moment stalin could have them and their families executed on a whim reducing his inner circle in most cases to malakis who blindly obeyed the soviet leader's orders and dared not show the slightest inkling of initiative for fear of triggering the boss's paranoia the great purge as it is now known did not simply involve the eradication of undesirables from the ranks of the soviet regime as it also included the persecution of public figures such as scientists engineers and police officers as well as ethnic groups such as the bulgarians macedonians afghans and jews whose identities and traditions were now seen as potential threats to the new order as if stalin and his regime were to form the soviet union into a true communist state private property cultural differences nationalistic sentiments and independent thought or writing that challenged the government's policies had to now be suppressed there has been a great deal of debate during the modern era as to whether stalin's purges of the communist party the red army and the soviet union itself were more about the consolidation of personal power rather than a decision to pave the way for the formation of a truly communist state as many modern-day communists assert that stalin was simply a mass-murdering dictator who cared more about the accumulation of power but the realization of the workers paradise there are others who argue however such as the eminent american historian stephen codkin that joseph stalin and his entourage were in fact true believers in communism and merely sought to bring about communism in the most swift and pragmatic manner possible which in their eyes justified the mass confiscation of property the exile and execution of those deemed to be political enemies and the collectivization of food and resources as they thought that the soviet union needed to modernize rapidly to survive external threats such as that posed by nazi germany the truth concerning the reasons behind stalin's purges are likely to be both pragmatic and ideological as the killing of political enemies not only quashed any and all resistance to the formation of a communist state but also helped to secure stalin's rule as well as barriers rise itself which was evidenced in december of 1938 when lavrenti beria was made the head of the nkvd replacing his predecessor and general commissar nikolai yesof who in the wake of stalin's purges and through the influence of barrier himself was removed from office and executed in february 1940 due to his alleged counter-revolutionary activities which also implicated his family members and close associates perhaps the most high-profile killing to occur under stalin and barrier was the august 1940 assassination of the man of steel's exiled former comrade and now arch enemy leon trotsky the architect of the russian revolution who had been banished from the soviet union to turkey in 1929 and later relocated with his wife to coyoacan in mexico city where he was attacked in his home by spanish communist and nkvd officer ramon mercada with an ice axe and subsequently died of his wounds much like heinrich himmler's earlier rise to power within nazi germany which finally saw him gain control of all of nazi germany's police forces and security services by 1941 lavrenti beria was effectively the second most powerful man in the soviet union as he was not only the head of the state police but had also been made deputy prime minister by stalin but unlike himmler who used his position as the master of the third reich's interior to undertake mass ethnic cleansing berries soon became infamous for using his position to oversee the kidnapping rape and torture of so-called political enemies nonetheless he was still referred to by stalin as our heimrich himmler when he was introduced to u.s president franklin roosevelt in 1943 the similarity being that both the ss and nkvd both utilized prison camps to imprison and eliminate undesirables in 1938 war broke out once again between russia and japan in what has become known as the changkufeng or battle of lake kazan incident when japan attempted a military incursion into mongolia through its then puppet state of manchuku however the forces of the land of the rising sun were later defeated in 1939 forcing japan to enter into a treaty with the soviets which in turn halted their imperialist objectives in mainland asia later resulting in them focusing on expansion in the pacific theater and during the conflict beria was made responsible for the mass deportations of japanese enemy soldiers which ultimately in many cases resulted in the execution of thousands by the end of the war with japan the soviet union in an attempt to create a buffer zone between itself and germany invaded the baltic states of estonia latvia and lithuania along with finland in what is now known as the winter war of 1939-1940 which stalin justified by claiming that he wished to defend his neighbor's democratic states against the fascist regime of germany the attack was met with stiff finnish resistance resulting in the deaths of up to 200 000 bolshevik troops and barrier in the nkvd were sent to intervene to prevent and punish any bolshevik soldiers who deserted the frozen battlefields despite finland's stubborn resistance the soviet union eventually secured territorial concessions from its neighbor particularly around lake ladoga and the gulf of finland after which stalin turned his attention to romania annexing both bessarabia and northern bukovina where beria was responsible for the transportation of political opposition to internment camps known as gulags where inmates were subjected to a regime of forced labour and this pattern of expansion suppression exile and execution was then repeated once more when the red army in accordance with stalin's non-aggression pact with hitler entered eastern poland in september of 1939 where barriers and kvd carried out the mass execution of thousands of captured polish troops and in particular army officers in the catin massacre who were deemed to have been a particular threat to soviet rule between 1939 and 1941 the soviets continued to deport tens of thousands of polish nationals from the eastern part of the country into the inhospitable siberian wastes resulting in the deaths of at least 400 000 poles whose fellow country men and women who had hitherto been fortunate enough to escape the attention of barriers henchmen would soon have to endure the equally tyrannical rule of heinrich himmler's ss in the aftermath of nazi germany's invasion of the soviet union which commenced on the 22nd of june 1941 when three million german troops crashed into the stunned divisions of the red army across the soviet frontier into poland and eastern europe prior to the invasion stalin had been confident that hitler would not open a second front in europe as he was still at war with an isolated briton and in an effort to ensure hostilities did not erupt with germany the man of steel entered into the previously mentioned molotov ribbon-trop non-aggression-packed in august of 1939 but despite the strategic risks as well as the fact that germany was dependent on the soviet union for most of its basic war materials including oil hitler was determined to embark on a final showdown with the bolsheviks and so decided to break the non-aggression pact as he deemed the red army as well as the soviet union itself to be weak and therefore ripe for the picking initially it seemed as though hitler was correct in his assertion that the soviet state would quote come crashing down as soon as its doors had been kicked in as his wear marked in quick order breached the red army's defenses along three soviet fronts from the baltic states in the north to romania in the south resulting in the destruction and capture of millions of red army troops the obliteration of the russian air force as well as the annihilation of their obsolete tank divisions which in the long run may have been beneficial as it enabled stalin to build up fresh armored divisions from scratch with superior models of fighting vehicles part of the reason for the near-total inability of the soviet frontier armies to resist the german onslaught in the early stages of the invasion was due to the pre-war communist party purges that had been ordered by stalin himself and carried out by barrier in which the thousands of army officers and hundreds of divisional as well as army commanders were shot but despite having previously weakened the red army barrier was now called upon to strengthen its resolve and so political commissars as well as nkvd agents were employed to maintain the morale of the troops along the eastern front in most cases by ensuring that the red army sphere of the soviet regime was greater than that of its fear for the invader it was armed with this complete ruthlessness combined with russia's massive size natural resources manpower and industrial base that the soviet union was able to slow and eventually reverse the german advance in which the red army despite suffering colossal losses wore down germany's manpower resulting in the third reich's string of defeats from 1942 onwards and it was during the very height of the war that beria as head of the nkvd oversaw operations across the soviet union in various sectors such as industry in which he put millions of gulag detainees to work across the economy especially in arms factories which combined with further red army purges earned him yet another promotion from stalin when he was made commissar general of state security cementing his position of power as well as overseeing soviet war production barrier also coordinated counter-intelligence operations in the northern caucasus where he was responsible for policing frontline deserters deflecting subversive nazi propaganda punishing saboteurs and fighting political banditry often replacing local commanders with his own nkvd officers as well as persecuting ethnic groups whilst also representing the state defence council reporting directly to stalin indeed by the 1940s barrier was constantly by his master site as he had become one of his closest advisors with some suggesting that barrier appealed to the soviet dictators neurotic and paranoid traits as he was one of only a few people who could psychologically manipulate the man of steel pandering to his need for praise and complete subservience from his subordinates no doubt in an effort to ensure his own survival in may 1944 barrier was commissioned to carry out further purges on counter-revolutionaries across the soviet union resulting in ethnic cleansing of the crimean tartus a turkic ethnic group who had sided with germany during the invasion resulting in many crimean tatas being sent from their homes in the autonomous region of crimea to uzbekistan as a punishment for their dissidents along with other ethnic populations such as the chechens pontic greeks and vulgar germans to name but a few who were all relocated on mass to central asia to prevent them from assisting the german war effort despite the fact that by 1944 it was in a state of near complete collapse following the nuclear bombing of the japanese city of hiroshima on the 6th of august 1945 by the united states of america stalin escalated his own atomic programme which he appointed barrier to lead with control of the nkvd being handed to sergey krugloff in december of 1945 and whilst head of the soviet atomic research program barrier once again utilized the gulags putting hundreds of thousands of prisoners to work in uranium mines and building test sites across siberia whilst overseeing the development of the bomb itself with an iron fist as the development of the weapon was given top priority by stalin due to america's newfound military advantage which was the reason why his hatchet man berrier was assigned to lead the project as total dedication of all involved was guaranteed due to his fearsome reputation under barrier's supervision soviet nuclear physicist igor kurchertov and julie carraton eventually developed a plutonium implosion bomb which was successfully detonated on the 29th of august 1949 at the semi palantinsk test site in present-day kazakhstan marking the first test of the soviet atomic bomb the aptly named first lightning or rds1 which was soon followed by further detonations over the coming months and years that would eventually lead to the development and testing of the soviet union's first hydrogen bomb rds 37 in 1955 which had an equivalent power or yield of 1.6 million tons of high explosive or tnt compared with the relatively puny first lightning or rds-1 which had a yield of only 22 000 tons of tnt despite many within the soviet regime hating barrier for his ruthless pursuit of power and many within the atomic bomb program holding the same sentiments he did receive later praise from yuri carriton for his handling of the programme who stated in his book the first war of physics quote beria understood the necessary scope and dynamics of research this man who was the personification of evil to modern russian history also possessed the great energy and capacity to work the scientists who met him could not fail to recognize his intelligence his willpower and his purposefulness they found him a first-class administrator who could carry a job through to completion due to zealous russian secrecy information about the stalin regime in the years following world war ii is difficult to find even now nonetheless one man miller van gilas a yugoslavian communist has given us some insight into the dynamics of the man of steel's inner circle in and around 1949 as he described the meals that highly ranking party officials such as stalin and barrier enjoyed who in keeping with the georgian tradition would eat greens with their hands and enjoy post-meal drinking games with those involved discussing politics philosophy and sharing anecdotes or jokes by the 1950s the political battle to succeed stalin had begun in earnest as the weakened dictator whose lifetime of smoking heavy drinking and stress had now caught up with him failed to hold the same grip he once did on the reins of power or over his party comrades and as his health declined he became distrustful of the medical staff and doctors who were sent to treat him often having them imprisoned indeed stalin's paranoia also extended to his closest advisors and he even grew skeptical of barrier but was too weak and frail to investigate him further or to have him removed from office then on the 1st of march 1953 stalin was found semi-conscious on the floor of his dutcher or home near consevo having suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage an account state that upon hearing of his master's impending demise beria showed delight but was also seen kissing stalin's hand as he lay on his deathbed whenever he showed any sign of consciousness before finally the man of steel who had shaped the soviet union into the most powerful dictatorship in human history died on the 5th of march 1953 leaving barrier being in prime position to replace him as boss before his death stalin had been planning another purge with the help of barrier which would if it had come to pass have seen the executions of some of the soviet union's highest ranking officials such as yachtyslav molotov but upon the boss's death barrier claimed to have poisoned stalin himself in an effort to save his comrades from execution as he perhaps knew he himself was in the firing line and this theory is given some credence by russian historians although the real truth will probably never come to light and it is generally accepted that stalin did actually die from a brain hemorrhage upon stalin's death barrier became deputy premier of the soviet union and head of the ministry of internal affairs making him the second most powerful individual in russia behind prime minister gyogi malenkov but despite him positioning himself to become supreme leader beria was unable to seize power as many believed he wished to do over the coming months and so no doubt fearing another terror-driven dictatorship like that of stalin's collective leadership was reinstated which prevented beria from acting independently until finally following a coup by nikita khrushchev barrier was arrested in june of 1953 and indicted on terror charges related to his purge of the communist party in 1941 and his attempt to strike a peace deal with hitler after attempting to allow the german military to occupy the caucasus region of the middle east having begged for his life to be spared whilst imprisoned at a military bunker in moscow barrier was tried for treason accused of being an imperialist agent and favoring western liberal philosophies after suggesting that russia and the united states should enter into negotiations to end the cold war to avoid the financial hardships facing russia's increasingly unstable economy but barrier maintained that his political involvement in the alleged crimes was ordered by his superiors stating that he never intended to harm the communist government although his words were dismissed by the court and his trial proceeded also made public during the trial was barriers involvement in the kidnapping rape and killing of numerous young girls largely carried out during world war ii when two of barriers bodyguards who were called as witnesses colonel raphael semianovich sarkizov and colonel sardian nikolayevich nadaraya stated that the former nkvd head officer would pre-select girls whilst out driving in his limousine and have them brought to his mansion where after dining with them he would rape the young girls whom his bodyguards would hand bouquets to as they left painting the picture that their liaison was consensual with those who were unwilling to have sex with barrier after being killed and buried in his garden [Music] during his trial berea continued to plead for leniency but he was afforded no more mercy than he himself had shown to the millions he had consigned to an early grave and finally he was found guilty and executed by firing squad on december 23rd 1953 aged 54 by general pavel batitsky who later recalled that when berrier realized his pleas were to be ignored he collapsed on the floor and began wailing prompting the general to stuff a rag in his mouth to silence him before he was shot through the forehead after which his corpse was doused in petrol and burnt and then buried in a forest on the outskirts of moscow in the modern world lavrenti beria is considered by many to be one of the greatest mass murderers in the history of the soviet union and indeed the world as he was responsible for ordering and overseeing the deaths of millions whilst at the same time he used his position to rape and murder women and even children whose survival he held in the palm of his hand although he was a cunning and ruthless politician with a machiavellian mindset berries campaign of murder and fear in the end proved to be his downfall as at the very moment he almost rose to take control over the soviet union he met his demise at the hands of the one-time comrades he had made his enemies although barrier much like stalin may have thought of himself as a good communist who sought to bring about the workers paradise on earth in the end the only way that collectivization of private property could be achieved was by the forced confiscation of land the incarceration of innocent people had resisted as well as by the forced labor death and even murder of countless millions of stalin and barriers countrymen and women proving once and for all to all those who study history that communism much like fascism is a dangerous and impossible ideal that only mad men and fools pursue today what do you think of lavrenti berrier was he an exemplary politician who would do anything to build a communist russia or was he merely joseph stalin's hatchet man who helped bring about the most effective and terrible dictatorship in human history only to be swallowed by the fear and terror he helped create please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Rating: 4.7275419 out of 5

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles

Id: N0bnt7hYmDY

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020