Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavel Beria, was a politician who served as the last Premier and General Secretary of the Soviet Union from 1990-2008. Beria's policies were known for being far-left Stalinist policies, policies which have been outdated since 1977.

History:

Beria was born on the 29th of March, 1939 to a poor peasent family in the Donbass, specifically in the city of Luhansk. Beria was born in the Russian empire, where nobility was still the ruling force until the year of 1943. Beria became fascinated in politics at the young age of 7, specifically in leftist politics and became a supporter of the Fourth Reich, much to the dismay of his conservatist father.

His father, Mikhail Beria, frequently beat Lavrentiy in his youth, causing him to have poor mental health and grave trust issues at a young age. After graduating high school at the age of 16, Beria ran away from home and traveled to the city of Rostov-on-Don, where he was conscripted into the army after his 17th birthday.

Beria initially didn't like being in the military, but noticed that many of the conscripts weren't even on the side of the Tsar and that the army was a better place for him than being homeless on the streets of Rostov-on-Don.

Rise to the position of NKVD chief:

On the 31st of January, 1972, Beria joined the Communist Party of Russia and set his eyes on traveling to Minsk, where a revolution had been staged. Beria got to the city by the 5th of February, where he met Lieutenant Aleksandr Suprunyuck and eventually met General Konstantin Rokossovsky on the 23rd of February. Rokossovsky told Josif Stalin that the young Major Beria looked like a promising military officer and Stalin took note of it.

Beria joined Stalin's personal bodyguard where he and Suprunyuck would stay at Stalin's numerous residences. After talking with Beria and Suprunyuck for months, Stalin finally promoted Beria to Major General and Aleksandr to Lieutenant General. Later, on the 16th of September, 1972, Beria, Suprunyuck and other high ranking officers of Stalin's bodyguards met to discuss the creation of a secret police force.

The secret police force became known as the NKVD and was established on the 1st of November, 1972, with it's headquarters in Moscow. The NKVD high command was initially a committee of members who all had one vote each in the internal affairs of the organization, but eventually, the committee elected Beria as the president of it and subsequently the chief of the NKVD on the 13th of March, 1973.

Beria began a reign of terror across the USSR, with his NKVD threatening, beating and sometimes even killing political opponents. Beria proposed the creation of gulags, prison camps which would hold enemies of the state, on the 25th of February, 1973. The proposal was passed with 9/12 votes on the 26th and the construction of the Kiev gulag begun on the 3rd of March.

Third World War:

The Third World War began in May of 1973, with the Fifth German Reich declaring war on the Serbian Empire and the USSR joining the war later on the 10th of June, 1973. Beria was not excited by the news and saw the war as unnecessary, but Stalin and the rest of the high command didn't see it that way. Beria wanted the USSR to focus on their internal enemies before moving on to their external ones, but he had to avoid getting purged by Stalin, so he decided to agree on Stalin's every decision.

Beria started bringing in foreign prisoners of war to the gulags, with the Kiev gulag having over 10 000 Serbian prisoners of war by mid 1974. In the camps, the prisoners were worked to death, frequently beaten, many were shot and killed as soon as they arrived and thousands were tortured to death by the sadistic officers stationed at the work camps.

Beria recieved massive criticism by late 1976, as the government were trying to blame all war crimes on Beria. Stalin decided to purge everyone who spoke against Beria, which created fear in speaking against him, as they thought Beria himself had purged the politicians. Beria was saved by the fear as no one wanted to arrest him or even speak out against him after the war.

The NKVD, however, was formally disestablished after the war on the 5th of May, 1977, with Beria instead becoming the people's kommissaar for agriculture on the 18th of July, 1977. Beria's former deputy, Suprunyuck, was arrested and imprisoned for life on the 13th of July, 1977 after a 4 week long trial in Moscow.

Rule of Georgy Malenkov:

After Stalin escaped from the USSR to a bunker with Führer Adolf Hitler of the Fifth Reich, the former deputy Premier, Georgy Malenkov, became the new Premier of the USSR. He started to reverse all of the Stalinist policies that Stalin and his former inner circle had created, much to Beria's disappointment.

Beria's role in the USSR was completely diminished, with him holding one of the least important minister roles in the cabinet of Malenkov. Beria decided to try and rise to the rank of general in the USSR, to try and give himself more purpose in the government. Eventually, Beria became a general and the Chief of General Staff on the 7th of January, 1988.

Rise to complete power:

After Malenkov died on the 6th of October, 1990, Beria got rid of the competition with the help of his former NKVD chief deputy, Aleksandr Suprunyuck, who he had bailed out right after the death of Malenkov. Beria eventually became the Premier and General Secretary of the USSR on the 3rd of December, 1990.

Beria decided to reinstate the NKVD on the 12th of June, 1991, making it's headquarters in Moscow. Beria, however, being the new Premier, could not control the NKVD and made General Filipp Golikov the new NKVD chief. The NKVD began to arrest political opponents of Beria and re-opened the Kiev gulag on the 16th of November, 1999.

Beria's new Stalinist policies made himself loved by the hardcore Stalinists in his cabinet, but gave him a lot of opposition as well. Beria was almost killed by an assassin on the 9th of August, 1997, as he was in his summer residence, an assassin planted a bomb outside his house, but it was later discovered by the NKVD bodyguard stationed at the residence and the assassin was later arrested and executed.

Fourth World War:

On the 8th of April, 2004, the Soviet Union declared war on the Serbian Empire, as the Empire had placed their troops at the border of the USSR around 2 days before. The rest of the Communist council in Stalingrad were against the declaration of war, but Beria, being the Premier, overruled the decision and declared war on the empire, even if his council of ministers were opposed to it.

The Soviets advanced quickly into Serbian land, until the Serbian high command tricked field marshal Maxim Anoufriev in Cluj-Napoca on the 9th of October, 2006, by surrounding him in the city after they initially retreated from their positions in it. Beria started becoming furious as the Soviet forces were pushed back from Cluj-Napoca all the way to Odessa and later to Dnepropetrovsk.

As the Serbs were coming closer to Kiev, Beria ordered all of the Serbian POWs to be executed in the Kiev gulag before they got there and publicly boasted about it to the international community. The Serbs managed to save around 50% of the POWs from execution after they captured Kiev a month before the end of the war.

The war later ended on the 18th of June, 2008 and Beria was captured 11 days later, found in his personal residence in Moscow.

Death and legacy:

Beria died on the 11th of May, 2009, after a 3 month long trial which lasted from February to May of 2009. Beria was shot by a firing squad and was the last person to be executed in Russia before the death penalty was banned on the 9th of November, 2009.

Beria is known for his repressive policies that he had created and the reigns of terror that he had orchestrated from 1973-1977 and 1992-2008 respectively. It is estimated that in total, Beria has the blood of 2.4 million people on his hands throughout the years.

Medals and Awards:

* Hero of the Soviet Union (Awarded: 19th of May, 1973)
* Hero of Socialist Labor (Awarded: 6th of December, 1976)
* Order of the Red banner, 3rd class (Awarded: 20th of November, 1990)
* Order of the Red Star, 1st class (Awarded: 7th of June, 1993)
* Order of Glory, 2nd class (Awarded: 15th of August, 1994)
* Order of Labor glory, 2nd class (Awarded: 9th of May, 2000)
* Medal of Nakhimov (Awarded: 19th of September, 2004)
* Order of Lenin, 1st class (Awarded: 23rd of July, 2006)