{"id":51776,"date":"2012-08-21T08:50:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T08:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=51776"},"modified":"2012-08-29T09:49:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T09:49:43","slug":"sri-lankan-boria-and-the-infamous-lavrenthi-beria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-boria-and-the-infamous-lavrenthi-beria\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Boria And The Infamous Lavrenthi Beria"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ruwan M Jayatunge<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Let me have him for one night, I will interrogate him properly, then he would confess that he is the King of England\u00a0\u00a0(Beria during Nikolai Buharin\u2018s\u00a0show trial)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1953 when\u00a0the Soviet authorities denounced the former Secret Police Chief\u00a0Lavrenthi Beria<\/a><\/span>, the Time magazine published an article titled \u201cRussia:\u00a0 Policeman on Trial\u201d. \u00a0Suddenly the term Beria became a household name in the West. The Sri Lankan politician Wijayananda Dahanayaka said \u201d we do not need to worry about Russian Beria but we have to be cautious of Sri Lankan Boria (Boria is a derogatory term in Sinhala which is used to call a dog) Dahanayaka was referring \u00a0\u00a0to a famous politician who was extremely ambitious and aiming for power. Ironically many countries had their own\u00a0Berias. For instance J.\u00a0Edgar Hoover -the FBI chief was misusing his powers and harassing people.Hooverused the term \u201cCommunists\u201d\u00a0 to hunt down the people that he disliked. \u00a0 Beria used\u00a0the term \u201cenemies of the people\u201d to denounce his\u00a0opponents.\u00a0\u00a0 In every regime we see certain type of figures doing the dirty work for their\u00a0Heads of State. These people have immense power and they operate behind the scene manipulating the leader. They are the unofficial decision\u00a0makers. The country\u2019s fate often depends on \u00a0\u00a0these unofficial\u00a0Figureheads. Lavrenthi Beria was such a person who had\u00a0immense power\u00a0during Joseph Stalin\u2019s regime. He decided the fate of the millions of people in theSoviet Union.<\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s Rise to Power<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lavrenthi Beria played an important part in the Soviet history and he was regarded as the Dictator Joseph Stalin\u2019s personal instrument of terror. Beria bore a ruthless character but he was extremely intelligent and manipulative. Born to a poor peasant family in Georgia Lavrenthi Beria was ambitious since his young days. In 1918 he joined the Bolsheviks and emerged as a regional leader in the Central AsianrepublicofGeorgia. \u00a0(According to the American historian Kurt Singer in 1917\u00a0 \u00a0Beria went Albania, where he met with Joseph Broz Tito)<\/p>\n

He met Stalin in a party conference in 1926 and was able to read the inner mind of the potential dictator who was eager to power and obsessed with revenge. Beria wrote a book on the October Revaluation \u00a0 titled \u201cOn the history of the Bolshevik Organization in Transcaucasia\u201d depicting Joseph Stalin as an outstanding revolutionist who performed hand in hand with Lenin.\u00a0(But the fact remains that\u00a0rather than political activities\u00a0Jo Stalin did bank robberies and several murders before the October revolution) \u00a0Hence he was able to impress Stalin immensely. Although Beria did not take any active part in the 1917 October Revaluation like Stalin (on the the day of the Russian Revaluation -7th<\/sup>\u00a0of November 1917 Stalin was at Sergei Alliluyev\u2019s house, drinking tea and telling anecdotes to his daughter Nadia ) Beria\u2019s power grew rapidly.<\/p>\n

When Lenin was sick Stalin gradually took over the office with the help of the senior politburo members- especially with Grigory Zinoviev\u00a0 \u00a0and Lev Kamenev. \u00a0In the final stage Lenin was able to realize the inhuman nature of Stalin and suggested that Stalin mast be replaced by more intelligent, amenable and a popular person. \u00a0Soon after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in 1924 his testament was discussed by the politburo members.\u00a0 Despite \u00a0 Lenin\u2019s wishes moderate leaders like Sergey Kirov and Nikolai Buharin\u00a0supported Stalin. In this meeting Stalin\u2019s leadership was greatly opposed by Leon Trotsky and Lenin\u2019s widow Krupskaya. But they were helpless.<\/p>\n

After he rose to\u00a0power, Stalin\u2019s suspicion and paranoia started to grow. In 1938 he appointed Beria as the head of the secret police NKVD.\u00a0\u00a0(By this time Stalin had purged Genrikh \u00a0Yagoda and Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov \u00a0the former \u00a0 NKVD Heads )\u00a0\u00a0Beria could see through his master and fulfilled his deadly wishes. \u00a0Unlike Yagoda and Yezhov he served his master until his death. This demonstrates the outstanding survival skills of Beria. Stalin did not like to keep his\u00a0secret\u00a0police chiefs for long periods. His\u00a0theory\u00a0was simple ,\u00a0generally\u00a0when the dirty work is over \u00a0they should perish. However Beria survived.<\/p>\n

By this period Sergey Kirov was murdered by Stalin\u2019s initiative and many senior politburo members including Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and even the popular leader Nikolai Buharin\u00a0were arrested on \u00a0false charges. Under these fake charges Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev were personally executed by Beria. Before the\u00a0execution\u00a0\u00a0Grigory Zinoviev\u00a0broke in to tears and cried “ohIsrael, the Lord Our God, the Lord is one”. Later Beria imitated the last minutes of\u00a0Zinoviev in front of Stalin and\u00a0Stalin laughed until the tears came. Several times Baria was asked to \u00a0perform it at the dinner table by Stalin. But\u00a0Lev Kamenev faced the death\u00a0bravely. At his\u00a0execution\u00a0\u00a0Nikolai Buharin gave a small letter to Beria asking deliver it to Stalin.\u00a0Beria\u00a0did exactly what Buharin requested. The letter \u00a0stated with \u00a0a few words- Koba (its Stalin’s nick name) why you need my death?.<\/p>\n

The evidence show that Beria had tortured most of the Politburo\u00a0elites \u00a0who were\u00a0personal\u00a0friends of Lenin.\u00a0\u00a0Beria used callous methods to obtain a false confession from Buharin. Eventually he was broken and Buharin accepted all the charges against him – espionage , sabotaging the Soviet\u00a0Economy\u00a0, plotting to kill Stalin ,\u00a0collaboration with the\u00a0Imperialists\u00a0etc. Over the years Stalin with the help of Beria\u00a0executed\u00a0 many\u00a0senior politburo members and active participants of the October Revaluation and the veterans of the Civil War \u00a0under the decisions\u00a0of a Kangaroo Court. \u00a0Anna Larina,- Nikolai Buharin’s wife secretly fought for decades seeking justice for her\u00a0husband.\u00a0 Many years after Buharin’s execution he was\u00a0officially rehabilitated by the Soviet Government in 1988 during the process of \u00a0Perestroika \u00a0that was initiated by\u00a0 Mikhail Gorbachev.<\/p>\n

The Georgian Nationalist Uprising and Beria<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1920, Beria became a member of the Bolshevik secret police, Cheka. \u00a0\u00a0Beria had a special interest inGeorgia.\u00a0 In 1924 members of the Georgian Social Democratic Party launched an uprising against the Soviet rule. It was called the August Uprising. Beria\u00a0brutally crushed the Georgian nationalist uprising eliminating over 10,000 Georgians. \u00a0The Georgians never forgave Beria for crushing their freedom fight. Even today the Georgians regard Beria as a traitor.<\/p>\n

The Georgian journalist Zurab Makharashvili writes\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

Beria in the Caucasus eliminated every individual who challenged the myth of Stalin\u2026\u2026\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Before the Stalin-Beria purges, Tbilisi was famed for \u2018the high level of culture of the leading section of society\u2013an active intellectual life which, by then, was rarely to be found elsewhere.\u00a0 The events of 1937 resulted in the elimination or demoralization of the elite among the Georgian intelligentsia. The next fifteen years or more were a period of utter stagnation in Georgian literature\u2026\u2026\u2026. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(Georgiaunder Soviet Occupation- Zurab Makharashvili)<\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s role during the Collectivization and the Artificial Famine<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Stalin launched his gigantic plan of Collectivization many peasants opposed it and they did not want to surrender their products to the government for lower prizes. Some peasants destroyed their harvest and eliminated the livestock. \u00a0Stalin used his brutal methods to seize the harvest and the lands. He created food blockades and confiscated the grain creating a famine situation especially in the fertile regions of Ukraine. The people called it\u00a0Holodomor\u00a0<\/em>and millions of men women and children died of hunger. Beria gave his fullest support to Stalin to fulfill this ruthless task. Even Stalin\u2019s wife Nadya Alliluyeva<\/a><\/span> was
\nhorrified when she saw how children were starving in Ukraine. Although she implored Stalin to stop the pre planned starvation his response was extremely negative. These disagreements led to her death in 1932.<\/p>\n

Trotsky\u2019s Assassination and Beria\u2019s involvement<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Trotsky<\/a><\/span> was deported from the Soviet Union in 1929 and he finally settled down in Mexico City. He was becoming more popular internationally and Trotsky daringly criticized Stalin\u2019s actions. He was becoming a threat to Stalin\u2019s ideological war. Stalin gave direct orders to Beria to eliminate Trotsky. On the 20th of August 1940 Ramon Mercader an undercover agent of the NKVD attacked Trotsky with an ice axe. Trotsky was fatally wounded and he succumbed to the injuries. Beria and the NKVD spent nearly $ 5 million (in today\u2019s exchange rate) to kill Trotsky- the founder of the Red Army.<\/p>\n

Beria and the Gulags<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To achieve the maximum results from his industrialization plan Stalin needed man power and wanted to exploit resources from the uncharted areas inSiberia. This necessity and his paranoia fixed absolutely well. Stalin ordered to arrest masses of people and deported them to forced labour camps which were known as Gulags. The prisoners received derogatory treatment in these camps and they had to work extremely hard to earn their daily bread. Many died of malnutrition, dysentery and other infectious diseases. Beria gave his utmost \u00a0support to Stalin. Sometimes Beria gave personal orders to deport thousands of people to gulags in the\u00a0Kolymaregion.<\/p>\n

It was a time of madness , confusion \u00a0and\u00a0paranoia.\u00a0\u00a0 To denounce a person the task was very easy. First to label the person as a traitor or a spy who was conspiring against the state- enemy of the people , and then conduct a fake inquiry followed by torture to obtain a false confession. \u00a0The matter could be finished within 24 hours and the person was sent to a Gulag. The state media gave fullest publicity \u00a0and publicly denounced \u00a0so called the dangerous elements –\u00a0Enemies\u00a0of the People. Beria was a\u00a0shrewd propagandist and knew how to twist the media to tune people. The public \u00a0gathered in \u00a0masses\u00a0and thanked Stalin and Beria for protecting theSoviet Unionfrom these enemies.\u00a0Many of the innocent victims who went to Gulags never returned.<\/p>\n

The Gulag victim and the famous author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn revealed the horrific nature of these labour camps. According to the historians over 14 million people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1953. Soon after Stalin\u2019s death Beria released millions of Gulag prisoners including some criminals. \u00a0This action may have prompted by winning the popularity of the general public, demonizing Stalin and making him accountable for the Gulags and to destabilize pro Nikita Khrushchev group.\u00a0Beria had an intention to become Stalin\u2019s successor. But his ambition short lived.<\/p>\n

Beria and the Great Patriotic War<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Soviet people were forced to enter the war with Hitler when Hitlerite forces invaded theUSSRin 1942 violating the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Stalin trusted Hitler and he could not believe that the German army invaded theSoviet Union. Stalin disregarded the intelligence reports and often said that he could trust Adolf Hitler. When the invasion took place the Red army could not organize the counter attack for a number of weeks. \u00a0Hitler\u2019s attack was a shock to Stalin and for over 10 days he did not show up at the office. In the early days of the war the German Army had the upper hand. The Enemy was advancing towardsMoscow.<\/p>\n

Stalin decided to flee fromMoscowbut in the last moment he changed his mind and stayed.\u00a0 The Military genius and the tactician General Georgy Zhukov organized the counter attack and defeated the German invading troops nearMoscow. It was a turning point in the WW2.\u00a0After\u00a0the WW2 Beria took\u00a0numerous\u00a0efforts to purge the great General\u00a0Georgy Zhukov\u00a0who\u00a0defeated\u00a0Hitler in the Eastern Front. But Stalin was afraid of Gen.\u00a0Zhukov’s\u00a0immense popularity among the public and within the Red Army.\u00a0Instead\u00a0of arresting him on false charges\u00a0General Georgy Zhukov\u00a0was given less administrative power and\u00a0transferred\u00a0to Odessa. \u00a0at the end of the War.<\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s role during the war was not recorded with heroic efforts. But he (the order was initially given by Stalin) ordered to shoot retreating soldiers and sent Shtrafnoy Battalions (Penal Battalions that consisted of forcibly recruited prisoners and condemned men) to the battle front. These men had to advance without a retreat otherwise they \u00a0were shot by the NKVD men. The German 6th Army faced the\u00a0Shtrafnoy Battalions\u00a0at the\u00a0Stalingrad war front. Many of\u00a0\u00a0these Shtrafnoy Battalions perished in the war. Those who fought in the battle with exceptional\u00a0bravery were never\u00a0recognized\u00a0and often sent to jail \u00a0or\u00a0executed\u00a0after the war.<\/p>\n

During the Great Patriotic War Beria launched a project titled\u00a0Shemerth Shpionam<\/em>\u00a0(Death to Spies) that was approved by Stalin. The \u00a0\u00a0NKVD squads eliminated a large number of retreating soldiers and POWs. Public executions became common. \u00a0Beria organized mass deportations of Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and many other ethnic groups. It was a cultural genocide indeed.<\/p>\n

After the German troops were driven out of the Soviet Union Beria was in charge of punishing the collaborators who supported the enemy in the occupied territory. He arrested the collaborates as well as a large number of innocent people who were trapped in the war and who had no alternatives. Many Russian POWs those who escaped from the German camps heroically were treated as traitors and\u00a0\u00a0 executed.\u00a0Aleksandr Proshkin\u2019s 1987 movie\u00a0Cold Summer of 1953\u00a0<\/em>narrates \u00a0\u00a0heroic efforts of a\u00a0Red<\/em>\u00a0army soldier who escaped from a German POW camp and \u00a0\u00a0how he was treated as a traitor when he returned home. His military record and brave actions were disregarded.\u00a0 The soldier was arrested and after a brief trial he was sent to a Gulag.\u00a0 According to Aleksandr Proshkin there were thousands of such cases.<\/p>\n

The Great Russian Novelist and the Nobel prize laureate Mikhail Sholokhov\u00a0challenged Stalin’s narrow view on the POWs and wrote his famous short story\u00a0\u00a0SUDBA CHILAVIEKA –\u00a0\u00a0The Plight of a Man.\u00a0\u00a0Joseph Stalin created cult personality during his reign in the Soviet Union. Stalin wanted to use the literary skills of the great novelist Mikhail Sholokhov to glorify his image. Mikhail Sholokhov knew the slaughter that Stalin did in Gulags and the repercussions of the artificial famine in Ukraine, which caused millions of innocent lives. Sholokhov had a true conscience and self-dignity to deny the offer. He did not write the biography of Great Stalin or put Stalin\u2019s image in his novels as a heroic figure. \u00a0Sholokhov refused to worship Stalin blindly like many others. On the contrary, he challenged Stalin\u2019s prejudices of Russian POW s. According to Stalin POW s were traitors who did not fulfill the military task. Many POW s were executed or deported by Stalin when they retuned to their motherland. Sholokhov disagreed with Stalin on this point. In his outstanding short story Sudba Cheloveka \u00a0 Mikhail Sholokhov, discloses a character named Andray Sakalove – a Red Army POW who escaped with a heroic efforts.<\/p>\n

Several times Beria\u00a0tried to denounce\u00a0\u00a0Mikhail Sholokhov on Stalin’s orders. But\u00a0Sholokhov’s popularity as a\u00a0novelist\u00a0 and his International recognition\u00a0suppressed these attacks. When\u00a0Maxim Gorky\u00a0died in 1936 many suspected Stalin’s involvement. Denouncing \u00a0Maxim Gorky Stalin said\u00a0\u00a0“Gorky is an artist, a person of moods and emotions, and these emotions can lead him astray. He can cause great damage to the Party.”‘ (The Murder of Maxim Gorky: A Secret Execution – 2006 by Arkadi Vaksberg ) But Beria and Stalin accused\u00a0Bukharin for murdering Maxim\u00a0‘Gorky in 1938\u00a0Show trial.<\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s Involvement in the Katyn Massacre<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the 5th<\/sup>\u00a0of March 1940 Beria sent a letter to Stalin regarding the fate of the Polish officers who were captured in 1939. Beria suggested eliminating the captured Polish officers. Stalin agreed and over 22,000 Polish officers were murdered in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Belarus. Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. Stalin refused the charges and stated that the murders were done by the SS Guards. In 1989 Soviet authorities declassified secret files and admitted that Katyn massacre was done by the NKVD men with the orders given by Stalin and Beria.<\/p>\n

Beria and Great Purges<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beria was responsible for political purges for Stalin. Beria played a key role in the Great Purges of the 1930s, dispatching hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens to the gulags or execution.Some estimate that over 20 million people were purged during the period of Stalin.There was a popular but secret phrase among the politburo members and Red Army Officers to describe purges. They often called it \u201cgoing to have coffee with Beria\u201d<\/p>\n

In his book the Gularg Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes\u2026..<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u201cAny adult inhabitant of this country, from a collective farmer up to a member of the Politburo, always knew that it would take only one careless word or gesture and he would fly off irrevocably into the abyss.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s Psychological Deviations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beria was an atheist but he believed in psychics. The only person, other than Stalin, Beria feared and respected, was a man named Budiani. Budiani was his personal astrologer.<\/p>\n

According to Stalin\u2019s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva\u2019s book\u00a0Only One Year<\/em>\u00a0portrays Beria as a person who was obsessed with weapons. Beria had a large collection of pistols and \u00a0\u00a0automatic weapons. \u00a0On Sundays Beria used to do target practicing. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The former NKVD agents affirm that Beria took the pleasure of shooting his former comrades Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Buharin. When his predecessor Nikolai Yezhov fell from grace Beria humiliated\u00a0\u00a0 and tortured him before sending him to death.<\/p>\n

Beria publicly mentioned his mode of terror. In 1934 at the Tenth Congress of Communist Party Beria stated:\u00a0\u201cLet it be known enemies, that anyone who tries to raise his hand against the will of our people, against the wishes of the party of Lenin and Stalin, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Stalin constantly admired Beria\u2019s torturous methods.\u00a0 Introducing Beria to Winston Churchill during the Second World War, Stalin playfully described him as \u201cour Himmler\u201d. (Heinrich Himmler was Hitler\u2019s personal instrument of terror)<\/p>\n

With so much power in hand naturally Beria was attracted to many women. Numerous secret reports of Beria\u2019s personal life indicate that he was a sex addict and suffered from a sexually transmitted disease. \u00a0When Beria met the beautiful girl Nina Teymurazovna in Sukhumi the capital of Abkhazia he arrested her under false charges and raped her. Then he kept her under custody until she agreed to marry him. Hence Nina Teymurazovna became his wife.<\/p>\n

When Baria lost power he was interrogated in 1953. During the interrogation Beria admitted that he had physical relations with 62 women and suffered from Syphilis in 1943. He once raped a school girl who studied in year 7 and she was pregnant with his illegitimate child.\u00a0According to the journalist Thaddeus Uittlin\u2019s reports Beria used to stop his vehicle near Moscow girl schools and kidnapped attractive girls. When Beria notices a beautiful girl his assistant Colonel Sarkisov approaches the girl and shows his NKVD ID card then orders her to follow him.\u00a0 Often these girls ended up in Beria\u2019s sound proof interrogation office in Lubyanka or in his basement at the Kachalova Street. Sometimes before raping the girls Beria used to whip them. Among the high ranking government officers Beria was famous for sexual predatory. He kept a list of his sexual victims (investigator had information on 221 mistress of Beria and other sources reveal that the number exceeds 760 women)\u00a0 \u00a0and in 2003 the the Russian Government \u00a0 acknowledged the list\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

Did Beria kill Stalin?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a smart individual Beria knew Stalin trusted no one and he kept no permanent associates.\u00a0 Two of his NKVD chiefs Genrikh\u00a0\u00a0 Yagoda and Nikolai\u00a0 Yezhov were sent to death by Starlin \u00a0after getting \u00a0them to do the dirty work. \u00a0Beria knew that his days were numbered. \u00a0\u00a0On 1st<\/sup>\u00a0of March 1953 Stalin\u2019s inner circle were invited to dine with him as usual.\u00a0 \u00a0During the dinner Stalin got drunk and chased all the guests\u00a0including Lavrenthi Beria, Nikita Khrushchev, Vyacheslav and Molotov. \u00a0Expelling the visitors from the dinner table Stalin said \u201cIts over for all of you\u201d<\/em>. Then Beria knew that they were doomed. \u00a0 Stalin \u00a0\u00a0was planning another purge. But this time party elites including his closest henchman Beria were to be purged.<\/p>\n

After this incident less then 72 hours Stalin suffered a stroke and became unconscious. He was lying on the floor helplessly. Beria\u00a0did not call the medics. \u00a0In the last stage the Doctors wear called but it was too late. Stalin died. Stalin\u2019s son General Vasily Dzhugashvili who was present at the \u00a0 Dictator\u2019s death bed accused the top ranking officers (Beria?) for assassinating his father. Later Beria said to Nikita Khrushchev that\u00a0I saved all of you from Stalin\u2019s final blow<\/em>. Considering these accounts some experts view certain foul play was associated with Stalin\u2019s death. Some suspect that Beria had poisoned Stalin.<\/p>\n

Downfall of Beria<\/strong><\/p>\n

After becoming the Stalin\u2019s successor, \u00a0\u00a0Nikita Khrushchev was constantly afraid of Beria\u2019s actions. Khrushchev wanted to remove Beria as soon as possible. Nikita Khrushchev ordered Beria\u2019s arrest on the 26th<\/sup>\u00a0of June 1953. He was arrested by the Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Georgy Zhukov pointed his service pistol at Beria and asked him to surrender. Without any confrontation Beria gave up. Then he was taken to a military base near Moscow and kept him for about 6 months under arrest.\u00a0 Beria was not taken to Lubianka by Khrushchev\u2019s orders. Nikita Khrushchev feared possible escape attempt by Beria at Lubianka. \u00a0Beria was found guilty of treason, terrorism, and counter-revolutionary activities. He was executed by General P.F. Batitskim on the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0of December 1953. Beria\u2019s remains were secretly taken to a crematorium and cremated.<\/p>\n

So much speculation emerged after Beria\u2019s death. His son\u00a0Sergo Gegechkori Beria denied the official version of Beria\u2019s death. According to\u00a0Sergo – Beria’s son \u00a0when Nikita Khrushchev\u2019s men tried to arrest his father in his house Beria\u00a0resisted and there were exchange of fire. As a result of the confrontation Beria died. WhenBeria’s son \u00a0arrived he could see the bullet holes in his feather\u2019s study room. Sergo Gegechkori Beria believes that Beria died during the arrest.<\/p>\n

The Horror of Beria<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beria\u2019s horrors still live in Russia. In 1993 the journalist Helan Womack reported that building workers digging\u00a0 \u00a0a ditch in Moscow\u2019s Kachalova Streetnear Beria\u2019s mansion \u00a0 found some human bones. \u00a0Beria was notorious for carrying out interrogation and torture in his own home and Helan Womack assumes that these bones could be the remains of his personal victims. The investigators found\u00a0 \u00a0no traces of clothes, shoes, jewelery or pieces of coffins. The corpses had been buried naked.<\/p>\n

Beria and his\u00a0Managerial\u00a0Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Beria has been portrayed as evil incarnate some former Soviet officials highlight the managerial skills of Baria. He was an excellent administrator and had the reputation of getting things done, no matter what it cost. Stalin placed him in charge of many of his most important plans including the Soviet atomic bomb project. In 1934, he became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Beria was awarded numerous awards such as Hero of Socialist Labor (1943), Marshal of theSoviet Union(1945). Beria was awarded five Orders of Lenin, two Orders of Red Banner, Order of Suvorov and he was twice (in 1949 and 1951) awarded the Stalin Prize.<\/p>\n

Following story reveals the capabilities of Beria even many years after his death.<\/p>\n

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power\u00a0\u00a0 he wanted to promote his Perestroika and Glasnost to renovate the Soviet society.\u00a0 The economy was collapsing and Gorbachev was fed up with the sabotages conducted by anti Perestroika elements. He spoke to a group of experts\u00a0\u00a0 and asked for their advice.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is to be done to uplift the economy\u201dGorbachev asked from the panel. All the members unanimously said \u201cwe need Beria\u201d.<\/p>\n

Undeniably Baria was an evil genius. Stalin used Beria to create a totalitarian state which became a superpower.\u00a0The Great Russian Author and the a master of realistic fiction Leo Tolstoy writes in his great epic War and Peace : The nature\u00a0creates a\u00a0large number of\u00a0\u00a0rabbits and a small number of\u00a0\u00a0wolves to keep the the natural balance. Beria is not dead. \u00a0In many \u00a0regimes today we see people similar to Beria. \u00a0Do we need people like Beria to keep the\u00a0societies in \u00a0control to\u00a0achieve material development ?\u00a0\u00a0 Is there any psycho- political explanation ? Who knows sometimes the\u00a0societies demand Berias.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) \u00a0Alexander Solzhenitsyn \u2013 The Gulag Archipelago<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0 Amy Knight \u00a0\u00a0– Beria: Stalin\u2019s First Lieutenant<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0 SergoGegechkori Beria- My Father: Lavrenti Beria<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Svetlana Alliluyeva- Only One Year<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Zaleski K.A- Stalin\u2019s empire<\/em><\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0 Georgy Zhukov -The autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov- \u0412\u043e\u0441\u043f\u043e\u043c\u0438\u043d\u0430\u043d\u0438\u044f \u0438 \u0440\u0430\u0437\u043c\u044b\u0448\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u044f \u2013Published inMoscow<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0Arkadi Vaksberg –\u00a0The Murder of Maxim Gorky: A Secret Execution<\/p>\n

Interviews<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0 Interview with Stepanove Victor Yakovlevich \u2013 Professor of Political Economy<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0 Interview with Piveshenko V.I \u2013 Professor of Soviet History<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0 Interview with Ivan Guminuk \u2013 Member of the\u00a0Ukrainian Resistance during WW2 (1986)<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0 Interview with Mrs. Medovar .M.S – a student at the King Campus Seneca College King City Toronto (2010)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[3986,3987,3985,3983,3981,3991,3982,3984,3978,3980,3989,3990,3988,3979],"class_list":["post-51776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","tag-beria-and-the-great-patriotic-war","tag-beria-and-the-gulags","tag-berias-involvement-in-the-katyn-massacre","tag-central-committee-of-the-communist-party","tag-communists","tag-fbi-chief","tag-history-of-soviet-secret-police","tag-nina-teymurazovna-in-sukhumi","tag-police-chief-lavrenthi-beria","tag-russia-policeman-on-trial","tag-stalins-wife-nadyaalliluyeva","tag-the-georgian-nationalist-uprising-and-beria","tag-trotskys-assassination-and-berias-involvement","tag-wijayananda-dahanayaka"],"yoast_head":"\nSri Lankan Boria And The Infamous Lavrenthi Beria - 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