On Friday, August 7, 1998, the Moscow Garden Ring Road, the official residence of the Tunisian ambassador to Russia.
In the garden of the ambassador's residence, several construction workers are digging a ditch.
The foreman Vyacheslav Terekhov suddenly found that there were several white bones in the excavated soil.
Dig again, more and more.
Terrekhov hastened to notify the police.
The forensic doctor arrived at the scene and thought it was the remains of 5 young women. The skull, which has white teeth and is in good condition, has no traces of clothing, shoes, jewelry or coffins, and died 45 to 50 years ago.
A stone stirs up a thousand layers of waves.
The remains of these 5 young women were soon linked to Beria.
Because, the official residence of the Tunisian ambassador was once the former residence of Beria. 45 years ago, the citizens of Moscow passed by the door of the Soviet union's number two figure, and there was a chill.
Some media indignantly attacked: If there is any justice, Beria is in the deepest part of the HellIsh House.
But Beria's family came forward to protest the media's baseless accusations.
Their reasoning is that Moscow is thousands of years old, and if you dig deep enough, you can always find all kinds of things, especially in a historic area like the Garden Ring Road. Beria's former residence, the former residence of the Tsarist mayor of Moscow, and then also lived in many high-ranking officials and nobles, there is no evidence that the remains are related to Beria.
Beria's family also said the media had ulterior motives to stigmatize him and obliterate his historical contributions.
His family even believed that Beria's execution was a major soviet injustice, and that he was a victim, demanding that the Russian High Court rehabilitate him.
Around Beria, controversy re-emerged.
With the continuous declassification of Soviet archives, Beria's research has become a major hotspot, but the truth of history is still confusing, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
How did Beria, a prominent figure in Soviet history, become an unforgivable "demon"?
<h1>The road to rise</h1>
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was born on 29 March 1899 in Abukház, Georgia, in a small town near Sukhumi in Abkhazia, Georgia, which is a resort with a mild climate and beautiful scenery.
His father was a farmer, his mother was a tailor, his younger brother died when he was 2 years old, and his younger sister became deaf due to illness.
In 1915 he came to Baku to attend the "Baku Secondary Mechanical Construction Engineering School" and joined the Bolsheviks in March 1917.
In 1919, after graduating from secondary school, he joined the CHEKA, the predecessor of the KGB, and began a 23-year career as a secret agent
In 1927, he was appointed Director General of the Political Protection Bureau of Georgia and People's Commissar of internal affairs.
During his tenure, he destroyed the spy network established by Iran and Turkey in the Caucasus and successfully carried out counter-infiltration.
In the summer of 1933, Stalin, who was on vacation in Abkhazia, Georgia, was attacked, and Beria, who was present, desperately blocked Stalin with his body, and at the same time shot as fast as lightning, hitting the attacker in one shot.
Since then, Beria has risen to the top as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the General Directorate of Political Protection in transcaucasia and the number one in Georgia.
Many believe that Beria, like Stalin, is Georgian. Stalin often went on vacations to Georgia, and Beria was always able to shrewdly ponder and interpret Stalin's ideas, thus becoming one of the two surviving leaders of the 15 republics.
Beria excelled in the economy, and during his tenure, Georgia changed its backward appearance and became the main supplier of tea, grapes and citrus throughout the Soviet Union, a prosperous scene.
In November 1938, Beria entered Moscow and succeeded Yezhov at the helm of the NKVD, with several divisions of internal affairs and hundreds of thousands of agents.
During World War II, he served as a member of the National Defense Commission and vice chairman.
On July 9, 1945, he was awarded Marshal of the Soviet Union.
In March 1946, he was appointed as a standing member of the Council of Ministers.
On March 5, 1953, Stalin died, and although Beria ranked second, he actually became the central figure due to Malenkov's indecisiveness.
On 26 June of the same year, Beria was arrested and, on 7 July, dismissed from all positions.
On 23 December 1953, Beria was secretly executed in the Lubyanka building of the KGB headquarters.
<h1>No shortage of contributions? </h1>
Some scholars believe that Beria's contribution to the Soviet Union was later deliberately forgotten by the authorities.
First, slow down the impact of the "Great Purge" campaign
In November 1938, Stalin prepared to end the "Yezhov whirlwind" and ease the tension in the country. According to conservative statistics, nearly 2 million people were detained nationwide, more than 680,000 executed, and 1.3 million were placed in labor camps.
Stalin considered Kaganovich succeeding him, but others felt that Beria, whose Cheka was of origin, strong will, tough, organized and executing, and energetic, was more suitable.
After Beria took full charge of the NKVD, he corrected the excesses of his predecessor, 330,000 people were released from labor camps, and the food and accommodation conditions of the detainees were also improved.
In 1938, In Yezhov's last year as NKVD, 328,000 people were executed in the Soviet Union; in 1939, when Beria was in charge, the number was 2,600.
As a result of Yezhov's mistaken purging of a large number of agents stationed abroad, the external intelligence network suffered major damage. After Beria took office, 7392 people were expelled, half of the personnel of the organs were replaced, 14500 people were transferred from the Communist Youth League, and after special training, the external intelligence network was rebuilt.
2. Role during the Great Patriotic War
During World War II, he was a member of the National Defense Commission, the organ of power during the war, and in addition to undertaking intelligence and security work, he also became a "firefighter", in charge of factory evacuation and retreat, military production in the rear area, etc., and also arranged guerrilla forces to operate in the rear of the German army, and even went to the front line to organize and build fortifications.
During the defense of Moscow, he could not leave Stalin at all.
In May 1944, Beria began to lead the soviet economy and became the wartime steward.
3. Responsible for the development of nuclear weapons
Stalin greatly admired Beria's organizational skills, and after World War II, the primary tasks of snatching German experts and developing nuclear weapons were all taken care of by Beria.
In fact, he organized a uranium mine mined by labor prisoners, which had been started as early as 1939 near the Korema River.
At that time, the Soviet Union lacked nuclear physics experts, and Beria assigned intelligence personnel to obtain a large amount of information from the United States, which greatly accelerated the development process of the Soviet Union and took many detours.
Nuclear engineer Ninel Epatova recalls: "At that time, Beria always looked red in the eye, and it seemed that he didn't care about anything but hard work."
In 1949, after the successful nuclear weapons test, Beria's fame reached its peak for a while.
IV. The "100-Day New Deal"
After Stalin's death, Beria launched an amnesty, ordered the closure of several labor camps, released millions of prisoners, publicly redressed unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and streamlined the structure of the Ministry of internal affairs, demanding that cases be handled according to law and that indiscriminate arrest and killing were strictly prohibited. Unexpectedly, a large number of released prisoners wandered to Moscow and other cities, and social order deteriorated rapidly, arousing great public anger.
Some scholars believe that Beria released Molotov's wife, which caused Molotov to be very dissatisfied with him.
In some republics, ethnic Russian leaders were replaced, local cadres were appointed, and national unity was strengthened.
A "new policy" of economic reform was introduced, allowing private capital to exist in the field of light industry, changing the collective farm system, and starting to improve the living standards of the people.
Promote changes in Soviet foreign policy, improve relations with Yugoslavia, and even test the neutrality of Germany as a condition, abandon the independent existence of East Germany, in order to ease the contradictions with the West.
Molotov and others believe that Beria's tendency to yield to the United States contributed to his determination to take him.
Fifth, the personal aspect
Born in the grassroots, Beria grew up in a poor family and developed a strong and self-disciplined character.
Studying architecture cultivated his meticulous style of doing things. Every day, I acted strictly according to the schedule, ran a morning in the morning, and then finished doing health exercises with the children and the elderly people in the neighborhood before leaving for work.
According to his wife, Beria loves music, painting, and has a wide range of interests, but she does not want to do the Cheka profession in her heart, and she is obsessed with the architecture profession. After World War II, Moscow was rebuilt, and Beria participated in the urban planning and construction process with great enthusiasm.
In addition, Beria was very kind to her mother and deaf sister. In 1917, when he entered the school of architectural engineering, he took them to his side to take care of them. Later, they lived with Beria, and even when he was in a high position, he often took his sister for a walk.
<h1>Evil deeds? </h1>
On the morning of June 26, 1953, a council of ministers was convened. Zhukov element, as agreed in advance, waited outside with a group of soldiers.
In the conference room, Khrushchev denounced Beria as a "careerist in speculative drilling camps." Beria was surprised and said, "What's wrong with you?" How did you catch the lice in my crotch? ”
Khrushchev recalled that just as Beria reached for his gun in his purse, he grabbed Beria's hand with a quick eye and without hesitation.
Malenkov immediately rang the bell, and Zhukov came in with a group of soldiers, arrested Beria, and retrieved a note from his briefcase that read, "Alarm!" alert! alert! It was something he had written down immediately after becoming aware of the danger, and might have wanted to hand it over to his guards.
Subsequently, Beria was imprisoned in an air raid shelter for the Moscow garrison.
On 2 July, Malenkov pointed out at the plenary session: "Beria's attempt to put the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the leadership of the Party is intolerable ...".
On 7 July 1953, Beria was dismissed from all positions.
On 23 December 1953, Beria was secretly executed in the Lubyanka building of the KGB headquarters. Beria was executed at the same time as 6 of his cronies.
Beria's mother, mother-in-law, wife, sister and son, including 20 others, were exiled.
There are several main points about Beria's crimes:
One or two-faced people
According to Khrushchev, when Stalin had just lost consciousness, Beria immediately scolded and spit on the ground, and when Stalin blinked a few times, Beria immediately knelt down and kissed his hand, "moving so fast that it was like grabbing a position."
In the summer of 1933, in Abkhazia, Georgia, Beria created the scene of the attack on Stalin, but he "went out of his way" to deceive Stalin's trust.
2. Treason
He was referred to as a "British spy" and put forward proposals for abandoning East Germany and improving relations with Yugoslavia.
(3) Crimes against the Soviets
Beria was never a true believer in the Soviets, without firm faith, without principles, always willing to abandon ideology, but he was intelligent enough, calculating, unscrupulous, a pragmatist, boasting of Stalin, attacking other members of the inner circle, looking down on Khrushchev.
4. Crimes of committing terrorist acts
In 1940, he directed the killing of 21,857 Polish soldiers in custody, etc., and caused the Katyn Massacre.
In 1944, no sooner had the German forces been driven out of Soviet territory than Beria began persecuting minorities on charges of collaborating with the enemy and relocating them to Siberia.
In the "Beria Lab", there are all kinds of torture tools, which is creepy. He even took matters into his own hands, using chains and whips to participate in the interrogation.
5. Crimes of sexual assault
There are countless stories about Beria's moral corruption. After his arrest, he sexually assaulted dozens of women, and vicious deeds such as hair collection were made public, and the Soviet Union even described him as an "adulterous stick".
At Marshal Voroshilov's summer country house, Beria took a fancy to his wife, and then followed him all the way to the Kremlin, frightening Voroshilov's wife.
Malenkov claimed that one of his stepdaughters had been sexually assaulted by Beria.
Beria also recruited a group of young girls and actresses to imprison their families and force them to serve themselves.
What has been confirmed is that In addition to his wife, Beria had an "unofficial" wife, Valentina Drozdova, who was a 16-year-old schoolgirl when they met in 1949, and the relationship lasted until Beria's death in 1953.
<h1>Controversy abounds</h1>
To this day, among Russian scholars and the public, there are still different views on Beria.
Some scholars believe that many of Beria's charges are not well documented.
Some experts are convinced that Beria killed several young women in a mansion on the Garden Loop. But most historians believe that this claim is not well documented, and that it was the negative publicity after his death that led to such speculation.
Some people even believe that Beria has the right to be called a "pioneer of reform", but the reform is too large, but it gives people a handle.
Within the intelligence personnel, there has always been a group of sincere Beria admirers.
However, because Ofria's reputation has become one of the most notorious figures in Soviet history, it has not been rehabilitated.
It should be said that Beria is a tragic figure, it is the times that make Beria, and Beria is also a victim of an era.