“Now, it is not a bouquet, it is a wreath! May it rot on your grave!”
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Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria 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 NKVD from 1938 to 1945 during the country's involvement in the Second World War.
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politics · Soviet secret police chief (1899–1953) · politician · military personnel · also Lavrentiy Beria, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, Beria
Born 17 March 1899 · Died 23 December 1953 · Q141829
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2026· 4 entries
“It is not even a real state but one kept in being only by Soviet troops”
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“A blanket approach to all former nationalists and Trotskyists... can only damage the cause of fighting with real Trotskyites, wreckers and spies.”
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Moviefone: Lavrentiy Beria
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2022· 1 entry
The American Spectator: Lavrentiy Beria’s FBI
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2011· 1 entry
Building workers digging a ditch in Moscow city centre unearthed a common grave near the same residence containing a pile of human bones, including two children's skulls covered with lime
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2003· 1 entry
The Russian government acknowledged Sarkisov's handwritten list of Beria's victims, which reportedly contains hundreds of names
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1998· 1 entry
When the skeletal remains of five young women were discovered during work carried out on the water pipes in the villa's garden
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1993· 1 entry
Construction workers installing streetlights unearthed human remains near Beria's former Moscow villa (now the Tunisian embassy), which included skulls, pelvises and leg bones
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1963· 1 entry
Hong Kong, the main character Ian Dunross receives a set of secret documents regarding a Soviet spy-ring in Hong Kong code-named "Sevrin" signed by an LB (Lavrentiy Beria)
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1961· 1 entry
The then head of the KGB, Alexander Shelepin reported that he had been murdered by Beria
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1953· 13 entries
Died 1953-12-23.
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“Do you know that there’s hardly anyone left of last year’s Caucasian governments? I’ve tried to stop it, but in vain. Yet they can’t all be Trotskyites and traitors.”
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Career landmark: First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1953–1953).
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Career landmark: Minister of Internal Affairs (1953–1953).
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“Opis: rozmawiając z żoną.”
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“Opis: słowa skierowane do żony po tym jak rozpłakała się na wieść, że Stalin dostał udaru mózgu.”
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“Opis: gdy umierający Stalin nagle otworzył oczy na krótko przed śmiercią, po usłyszeniu słów „Tyran nie żyje!.”
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“Opis: nad umierającym Stalinem.”
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“Opis: opinia o Stalinie wypowiedziana w 1953 na posiedzeniu Politbiura.”
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“The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks. But their expectations are in vain: bitter disillusionment awaits them. He who is not blind sees that our party, during its difficult days, is closing its ranks still more closely, that it is united and unshakable.”
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“The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks.”
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It became known that he had committed numerous rapes during the years he was NKVD chief
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Documents were found in his safe labelling Suslov the No
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1951· 2 entries
Awarded State Stalin Prize, 1st degree (1951).
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When a number of the country's prominent Jewish physicians were accused of poisoning top Soviet leaders and arrested
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1950· 1 entry
Career landmark: deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1950–1953).
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1949· 3 entries
Awarded Order of Sukhbaatar (1949).
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Awarded Order of Lenin (1949).
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Awarded State Stalin Prize, 1st degree (1949).
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1948· 4 entries
Won Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" (1948).
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Won Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" (1948).
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“30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy”
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Abakumov initiated several investigations against these leaders, which culminated with the arrest in November 1952 of Rudolf Slánský, Bedřich Geminder, and others in Czechoslovakia
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1947· 1 entry
“In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow”
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1946· 3 entries
Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1946–1953).
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Career landmark: deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1946–1950).
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Career landmark: Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1946–1953).
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1945· 4 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1945).
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Won Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945).
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And promoted to a full member of the Politburo in 1946
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“For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945”
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1944· 6 entries
Won Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" (1944).
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Won Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" (1944).
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Awarded Order of the Red Banner (1944).
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Awarded Order of Suvorov, 1st class (1944).
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“For the Defence of the Caucasus”
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As the Soviet Union had repelled the German invasion, Beria was placed in charge of the various ethnic minorities accused of anti-sovietism and/or collaboration with the invaders, including the Balkars, Karachays, Cheche
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1943· 4 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1943).
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Awarded Order of the Republic (1943).
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Awarded Hero of Socialist Labour (1943).
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Won Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad" (1943).
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1942· 3 entries
Awarded Order of the Red Banner (1942).
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Helped organise the defence of the North Caucasus, tried to let the Germans occupy the Caucasus
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“For the Defence of Stalingrad”
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1941· 2 entries
Was made a Commissar General of State Security, the highest quasi-military rank within the Soviet police system
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Through the ambassador of the Kingdom of Bulgaria were classified as treason, though Beria had been acting on the orders of Stalin and Molotov
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1940· 2 entries
Beria began a new purge of the Red Army
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The pace of the purges accelerated again
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1939· 2 entries
Beria organized the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia, and after the occupation of the Baltic states and parts of Romania in 1940, he oversaw the deportations of hundreds of thousands of Poles,
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Career landmark: Candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1939–1946).
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1938· 5 entries
Won Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (1938).
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Was appointed head of the NKVD by Stalin
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Career landmark: People's Commissar for Internal Affairs (1938–1945).
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Career landmark: deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1938–1946).
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Career landmark: member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1938–1939).
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1937· 1 entry
“Let our enemies know that anyone who attempts to raise a hand against the will of our people, against the will of the party of Lenin and Stalin, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed.”
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1935· 2 entries
Awarded Order of Lenin (1935).
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Beria cemented his place in Stalin's entourage with a lengthy oration titled, "On the History of the Bolshevik Organisations in Transcaucasia" (later published as a book), which emphasised Stalin's role
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1933· 1 entry
Promoted his old ally, Baghirov, to the head of the Azerbaijani communist party
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1932· 1 entry
Awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Azerbaijan SSR (1932).
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1931· 2 entries
Awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Georgian SSR (1931).
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Career landmark: First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (1931–1938).
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1930· 1 entry
When the party chief Vissarion Lominadze was urging a more moderate policy toward collectivisation, making Stalin more receptive to Beria's claims of disloyal behaviour by several leading party officials in Georgia
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1924· 2 entries
Awarded Order of the Red Banner (1924).
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After which up to 10,000 people were executed
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1919· 1 entry
Beria worked in the security service of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
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1899· 1 entry
Born 1899-03-17.
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