The black myth of the "bloody executioner" Beria
115 years ago, 17 (29) March 1899, born Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. The future Stalinist people's commissar was born in the village of Merheuli of the Sukhum district of the Kutaisi province in a poor peasant family. Lawrence had good abilities and graduated from the Sukhum primary school. In 1919, he graduated from the Baku Secondary Mechanical and Technical Construction School, receiving a diploma of a builder-architect. While studying he worked, it was necessary to support his mother and sister. He was a tutor, worked as a trainee in the Nobel oil company. He began studying at the Baku Polytechnic Institute, but did not complete the course. He became a member of the RSDLP (b) and entered the path of a revolutionary. In 1917, as part of an army technical unit, he traveled to the Romanian front, served in Odessa, then in Pascani (Romania). He was treated for illness. He continued to work in the Bolshevik organization. After the defeat of the Baku commune and the seizure of Baku by Turkish troops, he was an underground worker. In 1919-1920 He worked in the counter-intelligence of the Musavatists in the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, passing the information received to the headquarters of the Red Army in Tsaritsyn. At the same time, Lavrenty Pavlovich led the illegal communist organization of technicians.
After the restoration of Soviet power in Baku, he was sent for illegal work in the Georgian Democratic Republic. He was supposed to prepare an uprising against the Menshevik government, but was arrested. He was sent from Georgia. In 1921 - 1931 Beria held senior positions in the state security organs in Transcaucasia. During his service in the Cheka-GPU in Georgia and Transcaucasia, Lavrenty Pavlovich did considerable work to defeat the Dashnaks, Musavatists, Trotskyists, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and agents of foreign intelligence services. In addition, after the collapse of the Russian empire and during the Civil War, banditry broke into Georgia and Transcaucasia. Peasants cultivated the land with a rifle on their shoulders, so it was dangerous to live and work at that time. In addition, robbers like the Kurdish mountaineers regularly made raids from abroad. The state security bodies put things in order in the region, by the 1930 years the border was closed. This was the merit of Beria. For the successful struggle against counterrevolution and banditry in 1923, he was awarded the Order of the Battle Red Banner of the Georgian Republic, and in 1924, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the USSR.
Beria showed himself perfectly, at the end of 1920's - 1938's. occupying a number of top party positions in the Caucasus. Under the leadership of L. P. Beria, the economy of the region developed rapidly. Beria was a true technocrat. He made a great contribution to the development of the oil industry in Transcaucasia, with him opened many large enterprises. In 1938, almost half of the black gold production was given by new production. Significant success was observed in the metallurgy, coal and manganese industries.
In Georgia, a great health work was done, in particular, in draining the swamps, turning it into an all-Union resort area. Agriculture developed at a good pace. Drainage of swamps has expanded agricultural areas. The Transcaucasus has turned into a zone for growing unique subtropical crops for the Soviet Union. The now famous mandarins in the gardens of Abkhazia, appeared precisely in the years of Beria’s leadership. Where previously they grew only grain and vegetables, they created citrus orchards. In Transcaucasia, tea, citrus fruits, grapes, and rare industrial crops were grown. This made it possible to seriously raise the standard of living of the peasantry. For example, during the Great Patriotic War, when the Russian regions were starving (especially under the invaders) or half-starving, there was no food shortage in the South Caucasus. In addition, the development of social infrastructure, construction, etc.
In 1931, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) announced gross political mistakes and perversions that were made by the party leadership of Transcaucasia. Among the leading cadres, both in the Transcaucasus and in the republics, there were elements of “atamanism” - an unprincipled struggle for power. The tribal system had deep roots in the region and led to the creation of socialism with “Caucasian specifics”, when personal, narrow group and clan interests were put above national and public ones. In November 1931 of the year Beria was appointed first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia, and in October 1932 of the year - the first secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee, while maintaining his previous position. Lavrenty Pavlovich “cleansed” the Transcaucasian party organization, the “perversions of party policy” were corrected. The appetites and ambitions of the local “khans and princes” were shortened. By this, Beria earned the good memory of ordinary people and the hatred of the local “nobility” with party tickets.
At the same time, he showed a “human” style of leadership, a life that sharply distinguished Lawrence (and Joseph Stalin) from other leaders. Lavrentiy Pavlovich led a simple life, was a silly person, while he was a friendly owner. So, after his murder, in fact, there was nothing to confiscate from the “agent of foreign intelligence services and the traitor”. A high party leader could be seen playing football with the boys. In the mornings, he turned in the yard "sun" on the bar. He was a well-educated, cultured person. In his characteristics they wrote - “intellectual” (in the good sense of the word). In Georgia, people saw everything, so the common people treated Beria well.
Lawrence went a long way - from a poor young man to the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb," a man who is called the second great man after Joseph Stalin and the "best manager" of the 20th century. For the enemies of the Stalinist project, Beria became the devil incarnate, the demon responsible for the bloody terror. After the murder of Beria, many labels and accusations were hung on him, creating a demonic image of a bloody executioner, conspirator and even a sex maniac. However, with close study of this truly great figure in stories of our Fatherland, it becomes clear that Lawrence Beria was not a traitor and executioner. He, like Joseph Stalin, was a creator, a statesman and a very effective manager.
Dirty speculation about Beria, and about Stalin were composed in the days of Khrushchev, who became the destroyer of the Stalinist project. The path outlined by Stalin was supposed to turn the Soviet Union into an inaccessible world leader and give mankind the opportunity to go on the rails of a different being — a transition to a society of creation and service. Khrushchev curtailed this project, turning the USSR onto the dead-end path of “peaceful coexistence” with the West and abandoning a number of breakthrough programs that were supposed to lead to the exit of humanity into near space and the humanitarian revolution, the creation of humanity not slaves and consumers, but humanity creators and creators. Therefore, Stalin and Beria "hanged all the dogs." Tried to turn great people into monsters, white was declared black.
The myth of the "executioner of Stalin"
The accusation that Beria was the main executioner of the Stalinist regime, organized the "great purge" of 1937, became generally accepted. However, this is a clear mistake or a conscious lie. Lavrenty Pavlovich, did not have and could not have anything to do with the organization of repressions of 1936-1937, since he worked in Transcaucasia until 1938. When they decided to conduct repressions, Beria was at that time in party work in the South Caucasus. In addition, we should not forget that Beria won the right to vote in the Politburo only in the 1946 year, and before that, from the 1939 year, he was only a candidate. As a result, Beria could participate in determining the country's political course only from 1946. Beria simply could not be the organizer of repression.
Nor was he an "executioner." Heinrich Yagoda (head of the NKVD in 1934-1936) and Nikolai Yezhov (Commissar of the Interior in 1936-1938) were responsible for the terror. Beria was appointed Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR in November 1938. Stalin appointed Beria in the NKVD to stop the flywheel of repression, to cross the decomposition of the structure ensuring state security. Hidden Trotskyists Yagoda and Yezhov and their accomplices, in the course of the struggle against the “fifth column”, launched a blow at the innocent to cause social discontent and create conditions for a coup d'état. In addition, Yezhov suppressed the independence of intelligence and counterintelligence, concentrated in his hands enormous power and felt like a "god." Yezhov was reborn, became dangerous for society and the Soviet government.
With the advent of Lavrentiy Pavlovich to the post of the head of the NKVD, the scale of repression sharply decreased. So, in 1939 year, on charges of counterrevolutionary crimes were sentenced to death penalty 2,6 thousand people, and for 1940 year - 1,6 thousand people. Moreover, Beria did a great job of checking those arrested in the 1939-1940 years. The overwhelming majority of those who had not been convicted in 1937-1938 were released. They also conducted large-scale amnesties for those already convicted and sent to camps. At the same time, work was carried out to eliminate the leaders of the Trotskyists, who organized mass repressions. In particular, Yagoda and Yezhov were convicted and executed. An operation was organized to destroy Trotsky. The ideological leader of the "fifth column" and the possible leader of the "Soviet government in exile" was eliminated. As a result, Beria restored the “socialist legality” in the USSR and destroyed most of the “fifth column”, which helped win the Second World War.
We must not forget the other contribution of Lavrentiy Pavlovich to the common victory. Beria from November 1938 to February 1941, led the foreign intelligence service of the USSR. In a very short time, the People's Commissar ceased the Yezhov's lawlessness and terror that prevailed in foreign intelligence. Military intelligence and the army. Under his authority in 1939-1940. an excellent agent network of Soviet foreign intelligence was established in Western Europe, the United States and Japan. She helped to win the Great Patriotic War and helped in the development of the Soviet atomic project.
Years of War
During the Great Patriotic War, he continued to lead the NKVD, as deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, oversaw the work of the NKVD, NKGB, the people's commissariats of the forest and oil industries, non-ferrous metals and river fleet. As a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO), he controlled the decisions of the Committee for the production of aircraft, engines, weapons, and the work of the Air Force. Additionally controlled the work of the People's Commissariat of the coal industry and the People's Commissariat of Railways. In 1944, Lavrenty Pavlovich was appointed deputy chairman of the GKO and chairman of the Operations Bureau. The operations bureau supervised the work of key industries - the military-industrial complex, railway and water transport, metallurgy, energy, the oil and chemical industries, etc. In 1943, the merits of Lavrenty Pavlovich were awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor.
Beria was one of the leaders of the evacuation of the industry of the USSR, he was a member of the Council for Evacuation of the USSR SNK. The Soviet leadership then conducted a unique operation to evacuate industrial enterprises, the population of cultural and scientific institutions, and strategic reserves from the threatened zone to the eastern regions of the country. This made it possible to preserve the main economic base and industrial potential of the state, becoming one of the key factors that ensured victory in the Great War. Lavrenty Pavlovich became one of the main leaders who organized the work of the rear, forged the Soviet victory. The precise work of the military-industrial complex of the USSR is the merit of Beria.
We should not forget the feat of the border troops, which were part of the NKVD. Many of the heroes of the Brest Fortress and other defense units, which at the very beginning of the war showed the Nazis that there would be no easy walk through Russia, were NKVD fighters. When the Wehrmacht struck the Soviet Union in the morning of June 22 1941, the first and most terrible German breast strike was met by border guards. The German command planned to sweep the frontier posts for half an hour, and they fought for hours, days and weeks. In some places they even counterattacked, attacked and captured bridgeheads in enemy territory. Border guards, scouts, counterintelligence, special forces and Smerzhevists made a huge contribution to the overall victory. And for the excellent work of these units see the role of Beria. No wonder that in 1945, Beria became the marshal of the Soviet Union.
In fact, it was the war that made Beria the second person in the USSR. At a critical time, his talents were especially in demand. Lavrenty Pavlovich was really "the best manager of the century." He oversaw all key areas - from state security to industry and breakthrough research projects. It was Beria who became the "father of the atomic bomb." Lawrence Pavlovich organized the nuclear industry from scratch. Thanks to his energy, analytical mind, brilliant scientists and talented managers were selected, who in the shortest possible time did what they considered impossible in the West: they presented a powerful nuclear shield to the Soviet people. Thanks to which we can still live in security, and NATO leaders have been biting their elbows for decades, from not being able to bomb us into the Stone Age. Again, external intelligence superbly worked, whose activities were controlled by Beria.
It was Beria who, simultaneously with the atomic project, which presented the USSR with a lot of useful technologies of peaceful importance, became the organizer of several research projects, the design bureau for the design of ballistic and anti-aircraft missiles. This allowed the USSR to become a leader in the field of space and rocket technologies. Create an air defense system at a time when military strategists in the West made plans to destroy the Soviet Union.
To be continued ...
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