Evening star., 1954-05-21
Senators Get
First Details
OF beria Arrest
Red Who Fled From
Killing Assignment
Testifies Here
BY l. Edgar Primo

"a 4O4A AAACA ASON4OO 0(S4SV SS0SSAS
who fed to the West after re-
fusing to carry out a Communist
ordered assassination, today gave
the first detailed account Of the
arrest of Lavrenti Beria.
Nikolai E. Khokhlov told the
Senate Internal Security Com
mittee the arrest last June OF
the former chief Of the dread
secret police was ordered by the
Central Committee of the Com
munist Party. Mr.. Khokhlov,
who spoke through an inter-
prefer supplied by the Library OF
Congress, gave the following ac-
count:
One night in late June the
chief of the seventh administra-
ton of the MVD, which is in
charge of arrests and interroga-
tions, q Mai. Gen. Nikolsky re-
ceived q telephone call from the
Central Committee. It was an
order to arrest Mr.. Beria.
Immediately thereafter rep
reSentative of the Central Com
mittee-not a prominent member.
but a rank and file off1cial-came
to the generals Office. The gen.
eral then called in two colonies
of the seventh administration
and gave them their assignments.
Two COIOnels Enter.
Several agents were placed at
strategic points in the hall near
Beria'S Office and the secretary
Of the former No. 2 Communist
was summoned and replaced
with another man. Then the
Central Committee representa-
tive and the two colonels en-
tered Beria's Office, which was
on the first floor of the Ministry
Building.
The Central Committee repre-
sentative stepped forward and
declared:
'Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, on
the decision of the Central Com
mittee, you are under arrest"
The two colonies Immediately
disarmed Beria and escorted him
to the elevator which took him
to the jail in the lower recesses
of the building.
Mr.. Khokhlov, who was sta
toned in Moscow at. the time,
said a fellow member of the
MVD who had talked to one of
the colonels who made the arrest
gave him the above account.
The witness said about two
days elapsed before it was gen.
orally known that Beria had been
arrested.
I'VE exchanged remarks among
ourselves to the effect that
something is happening-the
minister is not within the build
ing" he said.
Mr.. Khokhlov. a pink checked,
blue-eyed blond, recently turned
himself over to American au-
thoritieS in Germany after he
decided not to carry out Soviet
assignment to assassinate an
anti-CommuniSt Russian leader
in Frankfurt.
The witness said he warned
his intended victim, then took
the latter's advice and turned
himself and two accomplices into
American officials.
Appeals to Americans.
He made an appeal to the
American people today to express
their opinion to save my wife
and son." who are still in the
Soviet Union. He said he was
certain the Soviet government
would have to take into account
the feeling of the American peo-
pie in the matter and that he
therefore placed his hopes for
their rescue with the people of
this country.
Earlier he had described how
his wife had brought him to re-
ligion and that her influence had
caused him to turn down in 1852
q mission to a8issinate Rus
sian emigre in Paris.
He said this assignment in
cluded also an assassination of
the Soviet agent in Paris who
was to assist in laying plans to
kill the emigre.
He said he told his superior
that "you cannot send man
whose hands and feet are trem-
bling" He said he suspected ar
rest at any time but instead was
sent to Germany on a routine
assignment,