The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev described Beria as "chameleon-like," and Beria's obsequious flattery and manipulation of Stalin's vanity led the dictator's wife and daughter to despise him; the wife of another of Stalin's lieutenants called Beria a "rat."
Alan Williams wrote a spy novel titled The Beria Papers, the plot of which revolves around Beria's alleged secret diaries recording his political and sexual depravities.
Lavrenty Beria, director of the Soviet secret police who played a major role in the purges of Joseph Stalin’s opponents. After Stalin’s death, Beria apparently attempted to succeed him as sole dictator, but he was defeated by a coalition led by Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, and Nikita Khrushchev.
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.
We tell how Lavrentiy Beria, who seemed to have all the trump cards in his hands, lost in the behind-the-scenes struggle for power in the Kremlin after Stalinʼs death in 1953.
The arrest and execution of Lavrentiy Beria — how the main Chekist lost ...
He assumed the role of Deputy Prime Minister and Curator of the Organs of State Security. He continued to order the executions of political enemies and people who pissed Beria off. Stalin loved Beria, and the two Georgians were incredibly close. Anything Beria recommended, Stalin did.
An in-depth look at the life of Lavrentiy Beria, Russia's "Himmler" who served under Stalin and nearly took power after Stalin's death.
Stalin appointed Beria, notorious for his effective management abilities, to head the Soviet atomic bomb project on , the day after the US detonated the “Little Boy” uranium bomb over Hiroshima.