Beria, Lavrentii Pavlovich

Beria, Lavrentii Pavlovich (b. 29 Mar. 1899, d. 23 Dec. 1953). Head of the Soviet Security Systems 1938–53 Born in Merkehuli (Georgia), in 1917 he joined the Bolsheviks while a student and, after propaganda activities in Azerbaijan and Georgia he became head of the Georgian secret police (Cheka) in 1921. He continued to rise within the Georgian Communist Party, whose First Secretary he became in 1931. He was thus responsible for Stalin's terror and collectivization campaigns in Georgia. From 1934 he was also a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. In 1938, he was appointed by his fellow Georgian Stalin to take charge of the NKVD secret police as head of internal affairs, and to organize Soviet prison camps. His appointment, which marked the end of the Great Purge, was at first greeted with relief. However, he introduced much greater efficiency and sophistication to the internal security machine, which he used mercilessly to increase his own power, and that of Stalin. In consequence, prison camps expanded to record numbers. His position became increasingly unassailable, so that during World War II he was Stalin's deputy as head of state and as head of the defence committee. After the war, he played an important part in the build-up of the security systems of Eastern European states, which helped greatly to tie these countries closer to the Soviet Union. He also gave them a helping hand in their Stalinist purges after 1948 (Slánski, Rajk). After Stalin's death, he failed to take over the leadership himself, and was instead outmanoeuvred by Khrushchev, who had him imprisoned and shot.