Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria [a] (29 March [O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 to 1946, during the country's involvement in the Second World War.

Mar 25, 2025 · Lavrenty Beria (born March 29 [March 17, Old Style], 1899, Merkheuli, Russian Empire [now in Georgia]—died December 23, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was the director of the Soviet secret police who played a major role in the purges of Joseph Stalin’s opponents.

Dec 12, 2003 · Beria, who went on to run the Soviet network of slave-labour camps, was notorious for his sadistic enjoyment of torture and his taste for beating and raping women and violating young girls. Bald and bespectacled, by the time of Stalin’s death in 1953 he was one of the most hated men in the country.

Jun 26, 2023 · Beria was found guilty of treason, terrorism, and counter-revolutionary activity during the Russian Civil War. It was alleged that Beria maintained personal communication connections with foreign intelligence services and was willing to look the other way and let the Germans occupy the Caucasus.

A Soviet politician, Beria was the de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union; a state security administrator; and the chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus, the NKVD, under Stalin during World War II against Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. Beria became a postwar First Deputy Premier from 1946 to 1953.

Lavrentiy Beria, a name synonymous with brutality and terror, played a pivotal role in one of the darkest periods of Soviet history. As the chief enforcer of Joseph Stalin’s regime, Lavrentiy Beria’s actions left an indelible mark on the Soviet Union.

In June 1953, Beria was detained, denounced as the architect of repressions and a British spy (a fabricated accusation) and executed the same year. Beria was Stalin’s only secret police chief...