Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria was a Soviet Communist Party official who led the NKVD from 1938 to 1945 and became a deputy premier under Joseph Stalin. Arrested after Stalin’s death, he was executed in 1953.

Joseph Stalin: Joseph Stalin was the Soviet leader from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. Stalin elevated Beria to head the NKVD and relied on him as a political enforcer.
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic: The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1991. Beria built his party and security career in Soviet Georgia before moving to Moscow.
NKVD: The NKVD was the Soviet interior ministry responsible for state security, policing, and prisons during much of the Stalin era. Beria led the NKVD from 1938 to 1945, directing a vast apparatus of repression.
Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet atomic bomb project developed the first Soviet nuclear weapons, tested beginning in 1949. Stalin assigned Beria oversight of the project, which mobilized scientists, intelligence, and forced labor.
Execution of Beria: Lavrentiy Beria was arrested in June 1953 and executed in December after a secret trial. His arrest and execution ended his bid to retain power after Stalin’s death.
Nikita Khrushchev: Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964 and a Communist Party official under Stalin. Khrushchev joined the leadership coalition that moved against Beria after Stalin’s death.
Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic: The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was a Soviet federation comprising Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan from 1922 to 1936. Beria held senior party posts in this federation during his rise in the Caucasus.
Gulag: The Gulag was the Soviet system of forced-labor camps administered by the state security and interior ministries. The camp system fell within the coercive institutions Beria oversaw as NKVD chief.
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush: The 1944 deportation forcibly removed Chechens and Ingush from the North Caucasus to Central Asia. Beria helped organize the mass deportation as head of the Soviet security apparatus.
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars: The 1944 deportation forcibly removed the Crimean Tatar population from Crimea to Central Asia and other Soviet regions. Beria’s NKVD carried out this wartime mass deportation under state orders.

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