Lavrenty Beria

Lavrenty Beria was born in Merkheuli, Russia, on 29th March, 1899. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and was active in Georgia during the October Revolution. After the revolution Beria joined the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Cheka). He eventually became head of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) in Georgia. In 1938 Joseph Stalin brought Beria to Moscow and appointed him to serve under Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the NKVD. Soon afterwards Yezhov was arrested and Beria replaced him. With the murder of Leon Trotsky in 20th August, 1940, all the leading figures involved in the Russian Revolution were dead except for Joseph Stalin. Of the fifteen members of the original Bolshevik government, ten had been executed and four had died (sometimes in mysterious circumstances). The armed forces suffered at the hands of Beria and the NKVD. It has been estimated that a third of all officers were arrested. Three out of five marshals and fourteen out of sixteen army commanders were executed. Beria prospered under Joseph Stalin and he became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In February, 1941, he became deputy prime minister and in 1946 joined the Politburo. After the death of Joseph Stalin in March, 1953, Beria attempted to replace him as dictator of the Soviet Union. He was defeated by a group lead by Nikita Khrushchev, Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov. Beria was arrested and accused of conducting "anti-state activities. Lavrenty Beria was found guilty and was executed on 23 December, 1953.