"The Case of Beria", or the most mysterious "palace coup" of the Soviet era. Case of Lavrenty Beria

Was there a trial of Beria?

There was no trial in the exact sense of the word - consideration of all the evidence of the accusation, and this is no longer conjectural, but accurate. To prove this, we will again use the facts of silence - that is, the absence of what would have to be if the court, as it is officially stated, went on for 8 days.

But first of all, about who “judged” L.P. Beria and his comrades in misfortune. The chairman of the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR was Marshal Soviet Union I.S. Konev. The members included: Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions N.M. Shvernik; First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR E. L. Zeidin; Army General K.S. Moskalenko; First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the CPSU N.A. Mikhailov; Chairman of the Council of Trade Unions of Georgia M.I. Kuchava; Chairman of the Moscow City Court L.A. Gromov; First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR K.F. Lunev.

Since the executioner cannot be considered a murderer - he is fulfilling his official and civic duty - the murderers of Merkulov, Dekanozov, Kobulov, Goglidze, Meshik and Vlodzimirsky were the above-mentioned persons. They did not kill Beria, Beria was killed long before the trial, and they only consecrated his murder.

As the son of Beria correctly noted, this process was the process of the century, and, with the exception of Marshal Konev, all judges are rather petty officials and invisible in the history of the USSR. For them, this process would be a high point, if there was one! They would have left thick volumes of memories about him, they would have told and retold his details a thousand times, at least to their relatives and acquaintances.

But all of the above persons unanimously kept silent about the process. Not everyone was completely silent, but those who said something, in their own words, only confirmed that they did not see the trial of the people they killed.

Marshal Konev left extensive memoirs, but there is nothing about the trial of Beria.

In terms of memoirs, Marshal Moskalenko surpassed everyone - they are thicker than Zhukov's, and much thicker than Rokossovsky's. Such a talkative memoirist has everything about his participation in the "arrest" of Beria, there is an episode of how he and Khrushchev drank on the occasion of the "arrest" in the theater. There is, of course, also about the participation of Moskalenko in the process as a judge. I'll quote everything he wrote about it, and you won't have to be patient. Here are Moskalenko's memories of the 08-day trial: “After six months, the investigation was completed, and a trial was held, as our citizens know from the press” 458 . And about the process - everything! Apparently, Moskalenko, a member of the court himself, also learned about the trial from the press. Colonel A. Lebedintsev served with Moskalenko for a long time, was in close contact with D. Fost, whom Moskalenko hired to write his memoirs, giving Fost the rank of colonel and the salary of a corps commander for this. Lebedintsev writes: “During conversations on planes and during exercises, Moskalenko never once remembered his participation in the arrest, protection, trial and execution of the sentence against Beria.”

Memoirs of another member of the court, M.I. Kuchava, in the collection "Beria: the end of a career" are called "From the diary of a member of the special judicial presence." That is, it must be understood that for all 8 days Kuchava kept a diary. Well, what do we see there?

For some reason, Kuchava began his diary with a maxim: “Not only in Georgia, but also in the country, there was a legend that Beria was not present at the trial ...” 459 And then, on two book pages, Kuchava, instead of describing the trial, for some reason begins to prove that Beria was at the trial, since Kuchava knew him well from Georgia and could not be mistaken. Next comes a description of the course of the process, and then 2.5 pages of a “diary” about which relatives and friends of Kuchava Beria ruined their lives. The very description of the trial of Beria, I will also give in full.

“With the opening of the process, the presiding I.S. Konev announced its composition. When he called my name and position, Beria turned his head sharply, as it seemed, he was looking for me among the members of the court. He was cross-eyed without pince-nez.

Beria, unlike all the other defendants, behaved inconsistently at the trial. He showed nervousness, stubbornness, insincerity. Unlike other defendants, many times he asked the court to save his life, to convey this request to Khrushchev.

At the trial, a disgusting, monstrous picture of intrigue, blackmail, slander, mockery of human dignity was revealed. Soviet people» 460 .

And it's all? The whole diary of Kuchava in 8 days of the trial?!

And here is another eyewitness. Major M.G. Khizhnyak in 1953 was the commandant of the Moscow air defense headquarters and, most likely, turned out to be an unwitting witness to how Moskalenko and Batitsky lured Beria into a trap and killed him. At that time, apparently, there was no faith in Khizhnyak’s silence, and, one must think, he, like Beria’s bodyguards, was kept under arrest for the entire six months of the “investigation of the Beria case” and the “trial”. They forced to learn the legend according to which Khizhnyak allegedly participated in the arrest of Beria and was the only one who served him in custody, and, in addition, they made him claim that Khizhnyak was the only escort of Beria at the trial. Then Khizhnyak, like all murderers, was awarded orders, money and released, but after the trial. And here Khizhnyak, in response to the questions of the Vechernaya Moskva correspondent, “remembers” the trial:

“I was with Beria.

The members of the court were sitting in the room. Whom did you remember? Mikhailov Nikolai Alexandrovich, Shvernik, General Moskalenko and the investigator for especially important cases ...

How long did the trial last?

More than a month. Every day except Saturdays and Sundays. They worked from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Of course, with a lunch break" 461 .

In addition to the surprising brevity of the "memories" of the process of the century, the following attracts attention. Khizhnyak, who was “present” at “all sessions of the court,” does not know that Marshal Konev was the chairman of the court (apparently, Khizhnyak was not given newspapers in prison). Secondly, he is sure that some "Special Investigator" was a member of the court, which could not be not only in the USSR, but in no other country in the world. And, finally, he does not know that the trial lasted 8 days, and believed that he was "More than a month".

What's happening? Eight judges, secretaries of the court, escorts, an investigative team - and no one either saw anything or was lying blatantly !!

I will be told that the court was secret and all the members of the court kept the secret. About what?! No one kept a secret, the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the CPSU immediately after the arrest and before the trial took measures to fill the country with false insinuations.

The officer of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment in 1953, A. Skorokhodov, recalls this as follows:

“In November 1953, the ghost of Beria again reminded of himself. Together with six batteries of the regiment, I was in the camp where we were to conduct combat training. One evening they called from the headquarters of the camp collection: "Come, as soon as possible, to get acquainted with one curious document."

The next day it was snowing, a blizzard was falling, flights, and, consequently, training were canceled. I went to the camp to the chief of staff. He opened his safe and pulled out a thin book in a soft gray cover. A list was attached to the book with a paper clip. Finding my last name in it, the major put a tick next to it and handed me a book:

In the middle of the page it was written in large: “The indictment, in the case of Beria, under Art. UK ... "- and there was a listing of articles that I, of course, did not remember. So that's it! A state of feverish excitement seized me. Now, again, I don’t remember the whole text, but the main sections remained in my memory.

Illegal persecution and execution of Sergo Ordzhonikidze's relatives and the endless dirty adventures of the corrupt marshal of state security. Violence, drugs, deceit, use of high official position. Among his victims are students, girls, wives taken away from their husbands, and husbands shot because of their wives...

I read without stopping, without interruptions and reflections. First, in one gulp, then more slowly, dumbfounded, in disbelief, rereading individual passages. Nothing could be recorded. He left the room, gave the book to the cheerful major, who winked:

Well, what is Lavrenty Pavlovich like?

Like I plunged into a garbage pit, - I answered " 462 .

As you can see, long before the trial, contrary to the law and tradition, according to which the materials of the case are not disclosed until the trial, the Central Committee prepared the ground for declaring to the country that Beria "with accomplices" was shot in court! Surely, after the trial, there were books with the "protocols" of the court, from where all current historians draw the "truth" about the Beria case.

And those who, in theory, were supposed to be a witness to this process, simply have nothing to say - there was no process, they did not see anything.

More about the press. According to the traditions of those years, including the era of Stalin, reports from all the "high-profile" trials were accompanied by photographs of the court and the main defendants. Beria's case was no exception, the newspapers gave photos of the judges and the defendants. But Beria was not in these photos!

I think I can offer a version that most fully takes into account all the revealed facts and contradictions.

After the murder of Beria and the arrest of persons who were allegedly members of his “gang”, investigative actions against the latter were most likely carried out, but both Prosecutor General Rudenko and the investigators were well aware that there would be no trial, since Beria was no longer in alive. Therefore, the investigators "frolicked" with might and main and falsified the protocols of interrogations rudely and carelessly. Rudenko wrote piece of art"The indictment", as far as he had materials at hand, and in his head of fantasy - after all, there was no one to dispute his accusation anyway.

The "process" itself, I believe, was carried out in this way. On the first day, everyone gathered, as if for a real trial, and took pictures. And then Konev announced that due to the illness of the main accused - Beria - the trial was postponed for several days. The defendants were taken away, the members of the court signed their verdict and the defendants were killed. After the trial, Rudenko falsified the protocol of the trial. The case itself in its usual sense - a collection of volumes of documents - never happened.

So, after the July 1953 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, it was announced that Beria led a conspiracy to seize power in the USSR, and after 6 months, the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR Union (the body that issued final, non-appealable sentences) case Beria and the first batch of "conspirators" was allegedly considered. All were found guilty and shot. The process was closed, all the accused were found guilty under Articles 58 1 ("espionage, giving away military or state secrets, going over to the side of the enemy"), 58 8 ("commission of terrorist acts"), 58 11 ("any kind of organizational activity ... participation in the organization"). In addition, L.P. Beria was found guilty under Art. 58 13 ("active ... struggle against the working class ... under the tsarist regime or with counter-revolutionary governments") and in the rape of many women. The arrest of Beria forced political leadership countries to identify a number of important areas in domestic policy. They were officially voiced from the lips of Khrushchev and Malenkov at the July (1953) plenum of the Central Committee of the criticism of Stalin's personality cult, the condemnation of "unreasonable repressions", the responsibility for which was entirely assigned to Beria, who was not without success turned into a symbol of these repressions. Without waiting for the verdict of the court, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed by its chairman, K. E. Voroshilov, already on June 26, on the day of Beria’s arrest, issued a decree in which he was deprived of his powers as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, removed from the post of First Deputy Presovmin of the USSR, deprived of all his titles and awards, and Beria himself was put on trial. The first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, a member of the Politburo, a marshal of the Soviet Union and that representative of the leadership of the USSR who, speaking at Stalin's funeral, proclaimed his political heir, were arrested, stating that among the most important decisions taken after Stalin's death and "aimed at ensuring uninterrupted And proper guidance the whole life of the country" was "the appointment of Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov, a talented student of Lenin and a loyal ally of Stalin, to the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR", was arrested four months after this event.

But back to the plenum. Beria was accused of spying for Great Britain and other countries, striving to eliminate the Soviet worker-peasant system, restore capitalism and restore the rule of the bourgeoisie. Beria was also accused of moral decay, abuse of power, as well as falsifying thousands of criminal cases against his colleagues in Georgia and the Caucasus and organizing illegal repressions (Beria, according to the prosecution, also committed acting for selfish and enemy purposes). The investigation was entrusted to the newly appointed Prosecutor General Rudenko. Investigators paid much attention to the period of Beria's activities in leadership positions in Georgia and the Transcaucasus. Beria was blamed for the repressions that took place there in 1937, one of the organizers of which was Beria. Contrary to rumors of Beria's mass rapes, the file contains only one allegation of rape, which Beria allegedly carried out in 1949. The application came from a constant mistress, Beria Drozdova, from whom he had an illegitimate child.

Beria and his associates were tried in December 1953 by a special judicial presence. The trial was held without the participation of the prosecutor and lawyers, according to a special procedure developed back in 1934 in connection with the murder of Kirov. In accordance with this procedure, cassation appeals and petitions for pardon were not allowed, the sentence to capital punishment was executed immediately. Contrary to the rules, eight people participated in the composition of the court presence at once, and not three. Moreover, out of eight judges, only two were professional judges: E. L. Zeidin and L. A. Gromov, the rest in a sense represented the public: the army was represented by commanders I. S. Konev and K. S. Moskalenko, the party - N. A Mikhailov, trade unions - N. M. Shvernik, Ministry of Internal Affairs - K. F. Lunev, Georgia - M. I. Kuchava.

The trial began on December 18. The indictment was read out, the accused were heard, then the witnesses. Beria was the last of the accused to be interrogated. He pleaded not guilty. In his last word, Beria pleaded guilty that he hid his service in the Musatist counterintelligence, but stated that while serving there, he did nothing harmful. Beria also admitted "moral decay" and his connection with Drozdova, but did not admit the fact of rape. Beria confirmed his responsibility for the "excesses" in 1937-1938, explaining them by the situation at that time. Beria did not recognize the counter-revolutionary accusations. He also denied the accusation of trying to disorganize the defense of the Caucasus during the war.

On December 23, 1953, the guilty verdict was read out. All the defendants were found guilty of numerous crimes and called "a group of conspirators" who planned to seize power, eliminate the Soviet system and restore capitalism.

Of the specific charges in the verdict, the following are noted:

1. the murder of the old Bolshevik M. S. Kedrov;

2. extortion from arrested false testimonies under torture in the cases of Belakhov, Slezberg and others;

4. execution of 25 prisoners in 1941;

5. inhuman tests of poisons on prisoners sentenced to capital punishment;

6. arrest, accusation of crimes and execution of relatives of Sergo Ordzhonikidze.

A number of episodes are blamed on Beria and are qualified as treason:

1. Beria's service in the Musavat counterintelligence in Azerbaijan in 1919;

2. connection in 1920 with the Okhrana of the Menshevik Georgian government;

3. an attempt to establish contact with Hitler in 1941 through the Bulgarian ambassador Stamenov and to cede to Germany a significant part of the territory of the USSR in order to conclude a peace agreement;

4. an attempt to open the passes through the Main Caucasian Range to the enemy in 1942;

5. an attempt in May-June 1953 to establish a personal secret connection with Tito-Ranković in Yugoslavia.

Beria was charged with "cohabitation with numerous women, including those associated with foreign intelligence", as well as the rape on May 7, 1949 of a 16-year-old schoolgirl V. S. Drozdova.

The episodes with the murder of Bovkun-Luganets and his wife, as well as with the kidnapping and execution of the wife of Marshal Kulik, for some reason, were not included in the verdict.

All defendants were sentenced to death with confiscation of property. On his own initiative, the first shot was fired from a personal weapon by Colonel-General (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) P.F. Batitsky. Short message about the trial of Beria and the people of his entourage appeared in the Soviet press.

At present, the vast majority qualified lawyers, including the former chief military prosecutor Katusev, believe that accusing Beria of treason (Article 58-1 "b" of the then Criminal Code of the RSFSR) in the form of espionage is absurd. The maximum that could be attributed to Beria and other participants in that process is malfeasance. Lieutenant General of Justice A.F. Katusev writes:

“I consider it my duty to note that the newly discovered circumstances only additionally highlighted the errors and exaggerations in the verdict in the case of Beria and others, while the most serious of them were obvious before. How can we explain that our largest practicing lawyers under the leadership of R .A. Rudenko was charged, not supported by proper evidence?

The answer lies on the surface - even before the start of the preliminary investigation, the resolution of the July (1953) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were published, which contained not only a political, but also a legal assessment of what Beria had done ".

On June 6, 1953, Marshal of the Soviet Union, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was arrested and subsequently executed.

Indeed, according to official data, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was arrested on June 26, 1953, and on December 23 of the same year, he was shot by a court verdict in an underground bunker in the courtyard of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. But a number of historians believe otherwise. At one time, there were even rumors that Beria managed to escape from arrest and hide in Latin America- there was even a photograph of a man very similar to Beria, taken in Buenos Aires.

There is a version that Beria was not arrested, but died, resisting arrest, in his mansion at number 28 on Kachalova Street - now again called Malaya Nikitskaya. Beria's son Sergey Gegechkori adhered to this version until the end of his life. and according to another version, Beria was nevertheless arrested, but Beria was shot even before the trial in the aforementioned bunker immediately after his arrest in the Kremlin. And it is precisely this statement that has received the most confirmation in our days in the course of recent research. Thus, documents signed by Khrushchev and Kaganovich were recently discovered in the archives of Staraya Ploshchad. According to these documents, Beria was eliminated even before the emergency plenum of the Central Committee of 1953, which was held on the occasion of the exposure of the criminal activities of a sinister man in pince-nez and took place from July 2 to 7.

Researchers Nikolai Zenkovich and Stanislav Gribanov collected a number of documented facts about the fate of Beria after the announcement of his arrest. But especially valuable evidence in this regard was discovered by intelligence officer and former head of the Union of Writers of the USSR Vladimir Karpov. Studying the life of Zhukov, he put an end to the dispute whether he participated in the arrest of Beria.

In the memoirs of the marshal he found, it is directly stated: he not only participated, but also led the capture group. So the statement of the son of Sergei Gegechkori that, they say, Zhukov has nothing to do with the arrest of his father, does not correspond to reality.

The latest find is also important because it refutes the rumor about the heroic shot of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev during the arrest of the all-powerful Minister of the Interior.

However, Zhukov personally did not see what happened after the arrest, and therefore wrote what he learned from other people's words, namely: “In the future, I did not take part either in the protection, or in the investigation, or in the trial. After the trial, Beria was shot by those who guarded him. During the execution, Beria behaved very badly, like the very last coward, wept hysterically, knelt down, and finally got all dirty. In a word, he lived ugly and died even more ugly. So they told Zhukov, but Zhukov himself did not see this. And here is what the then Colonel General Pavel Batitsky told Stanislav Gribanov, who claimed that it was he who personally shot Beria: “We took Beria up the stairs to the dungeon. He just... stinks. Then I shot him like a dog.”

Everything would be fine if other witnesses of the execution, and even General Batitsky himself, everywhere said the same thing. However, inconsistencies could occur due to negligence and literary fantasies of researchers, one of whom, the son of the revolutionary Antonov-Ovseenko, Anton, wrote this: “They were executed sentenced to death in the bunker of the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. They took off his tunic, leaving a white undershirt, twisted his arms behind him with a rope and tied him to a hook driven into wooden shield. This shield protected those present from the ricochet of a bullet. Prosecutor Rudenko read out the verdict. Beria: "Let me tell you..." Rudenko: "You've already said everything." Military: "Shut his mouth with a towel." Moskalenko (to Yuferev): “You are the youngest among us, you shoot well. Let's". Batitsky: “Comrade commander, allow me (takes out his parabellum). With this thing, I sent more than one scoundrel to the next world at the front. Rudenko: "I ask you to carry out the sentence." Batitsky raised his hand. A wildly bulging eye flashed above the bandage, the second Beria squinted, Batitsky pulled the trigger, the bullet hit the middle of the forehead. The body hung on the ropes. The execution took place in the presence of Marshal Konev and those military men who arrested and guarded Beria. They called the doctor... It remains to witness the fact of death. Beria's body was wrapped in canvas and sent to the crematorium. In conclusion, Antonov-Ovseenko paints a picture similar to horror films: allegedly, when the performers pushed Beria's body into the flames of the crematorium and clung to the glass of the furnace, everyone was seized with fear - the body of their bloody boss on a fiery tray suddenly began to move gradually began to sit down. Later it turned out that service staff I forgot to cut the tendons, they began to contract under the influence of high temperature. But at first it seemed to everyone that in the hellish flame the dead Beria came to life. A curious story. However, the narrator does not provide a link to any document. But those who read the act of the execution of Beria, could not help but pay attention to the fact that the doctor, obligatory in such cases, was not present at the execution of Beria, and did not at all witness the death. So the question arises - was Beria there then? Or the act was drawn up backdating without a doctor? And the lists of those present at the execution published by different authors do not match. The act of execution dated December 23, 1953 notes: “Today at 19:50, on the basis of the order of the chairman of the special judicial presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated December 23, 1953 No. 003, by me, the commandant of the special judicial presence, Colonel General Batitsky P.F., In the presence of the Prosecutor General of the USSR, Actual State Counselor of Justice Rudenko R. A. and General of the Army Moskalenko K. S., the sentence of a special judicial presence was carried out in relation to Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, sentenced to capital punishment - execution. Three signatures. And no more guarding generals (as Zhukov was told), no Konev, Yuferev, Zub, Baksov, Nedelya and Hetman, and no doctor (as they told Antonov-Ovseenko) These discrepancies could have been ignored if Beria’s son Sergo had not insisted that a member of that same court, Shvernik, said to him personally: “I was a member of the tribunal in the case of your father, but I never saw him.” Even greater doubts on this score were caused by Sergo's confession of court member Mikhailov: “Sergo, I don’t want to tell you about the details, but we didn’t see your father alive.” How to regard this mysterious statement, Mikhailov did not expand. Either instead of Beria, an actor was put in the dock, or Beria himself changed beyond recognition during his arrest. It is possible that Beria could have twins.

Nobody saw the act of cremation at all, as well as the body of the executed person. No one has yet cited any evidence of the place of burial of Beria, although the state security agencies have kept records in this regard in such a way that, if necessary, you can quickly get all the information. As for the arrest of Beria, events unfolded as follows. At the emergency plenum of the Central Committee, voting on the proposal to arrest Lavrenty Pavlovich was tense and took place twice. The first time, according to Malenkov's assistant Sukhanov, only Malenkov, Pervukhin and Saburov were in favor, while Khrushchev, Bulganin and Mikoyan abstained. Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Molotov were generally "against".

Moreover, Molotov allegedly stated that to arrest without an arrest warrant, especially one of the first leaders of the party, government and legislative power, is not only a violation of parliamentary immunity, but in general all the main party and Soviet laws. When the military with weapons entered the meeting room and it was proposed to vote again, everyone immediately spoke in favor, as if they felt that if they violate the unanimity required in such cases, then they will be counted among Beria's accomplices. Many are inclined to believe Sukhanov's memoirs recorded years later, although one must not forget that he himself was only outside the doors of the office in which the events took place. Therefore, he could only learn about what happened from other people's words. And most likely in the presentation of his master deposed by Khrushchev - Malenkov, who did not really like his rivals Molotov, Khrushchev and Bulganin in the struggle for first place in power. And although at the plenum devoted to the arrest, Malenkov announced that the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee was unanimous, it is hardly worth trusting his words completely. Because even at the plenum itself, contrary to Malenkov’s assertions about the “unanimity” reigning there, for example, regarding the role of Stalin, there was no smell of “unanimity”, which the excited Malenkov thoroughly let out. However, in the final document they again wrote about the “unanimity” that did not correspond to reality when making next historic decisions.

Meanwhile, Beria's letters have been preserved, which he supposedly wrote to his former associates before the start of the plenum in the period from June 26 to July 2. In one of the letters, Lavrenty allegedly begged for mercy: “To the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Comrades Malenkov, Khrushchev, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan, Pervukhin, Bulganin and Saburov. Dear comrades, they can deal with me without trial or investigation, after 5 days of imprisonment, without a single interrogation, I beg you all not to let this happen, I ask for immediate intervention, otherwise it will be too late. You have to notify me directly by phone. Why do they do it the way it is now, they put me in the basement and no one finds out or asks anything. Dear comrades; unless the only and correct way to resolve without trial and clarify the case against a member of the Central Committee and his comrade after 5 days of imprisonment in the basement is to execute him. Once again I beg you all... I affirm that all charges will be dropped, if only you want to investigate this. What a haste, and what a suspicious one. T. Malenkov and Comrade Khrushchev, please do not persist. Wouldn't it be bad if t-shcha rehabilitate. Again and again I beg you to intervene and not destroy your innocent old friend. Your Lavrenty Beria.

But, no matter how Beria begged, it happened exactly as he shouted with all the letters of his, apparently, the last letter in his life ... no one paid attention. Khrushchev spoke first. Entering into the excitement of the story, how they deftly dealt with Beria, he suddenly blurted out among other enthusiastic phrases: "Beria ... lost his breath."

Kaganovich spoke even more definitely and more than once in a burst of revelations: “... Having liquidated this traitor Beria, we must completely restore legal rights Stalin ... "And it is absolutely certain:" The Central Committee destroyed the adventurer Beria ... "And that's the point. You can't really say.
Of course, all these and more similar words the first persons whom Beria implored can also be taken in a figurative sense. But then why didn’t any of them even mention that in the upcoming investigations it was necessary to properly ask Beria about all his past affairs and new plans, but only evasively stated that it was still necessary to finally figure out what he had done and was going to do with his henchmen this werewolf?
It is no coincidence, apparently, none of them even hinted that Beria himself should have been brought to the plenum so that everyone could listen to his confessions and ask accumulated questions, as, for example, Stalin did with respect to Bukharin. Most likely they didn’t hint because there was already no one to deliver ... It is possible that they were afraid that, exposing himself, Beria, involuntarily pulling the string, would expose the rest of the leading figures of the party and government, and first of all it was his own " old friends" Khrushchev and Malenkov.

Is it not for this reason that Malenkov was silent about the events of those years? Even his son Andrey lamented that after a third of a century his father preferred to avoid talking about this topic. The memories of the former head of the special kitchen of the Kremlin Gennady Kolomentsev, an honorary Chekist of the USSR, helped correct many mistakes of researchers and historians, but one of his memories is especially interesting. Facts about the arrest Beria, as presented by Antonov-Ovseenko, Jr., who, in particular, said that “Beria had to change his costume for Danish uniforms, a cotton tunic and trousers” and that food was delivered to the arrested person from the garage of the MVO headquarters - a soldier's ration, a soldier's serving: a bowler hat and an aluminum spoon, - Kolomentsev denies: “Beria was served by my people, so I often saw him. When he was arrested, we brought him food to Osipenko Street, to the bunker of the bomb shelter, where he was sitting. They were afraid that there were people interested in poisoning him. All products were transported there under the seal. A special waiter came with dishes: feed - and leaves. They brought him a special menu in which he noted what he needed. Even when arrested, Beria himself compiled a menu for himself from the list that we offered him. And the list was not at the level of a soldier or officer, and not even at the level of a general, but even higher. Beria was shot there, in the dungeon. The only thing I saw was how the corpse of Beria was carried out in a tarpaulin and loaded into a car. And where they burned him and buried him, I don’t know.”

It would seem that there is nothing special in this memory, however, in the memoirs of the military who arrested and guarded Beria, it is categorically emphasized that in order to avoid organizing an escape and in general any undesirable cases, they did not let his former subordinates close to Beria.
If you believe Kolomentsev, it turns out that he was allowed to feed Beria only when there, in the bunker, was no longer Lavrenty Pavlovich, but someone who played his role, but did not know anything compromising from what the real Beria knew. And therefore, neither the possible escape of the double, nor his poisoning, no longer worried his "old friends", and above all - Malenkov and Khrushchev.

Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (1899-1953) - a prominent statesman and political figure of the USSR of the Stalinist period. IN last years Stalin's life was the second person in the state. Especially his authority increased after a successful test atomic bomb August 29, 1949. This project was supervised directly by Lavrenty Pavlovich. He assembled a very strong team of scientists, provided them with everything they needed, and in the shortest possible time a weapon of incredible power was created.

Lavrenty Beria

However, after the death of the leader of the peoples, the career of the powerful Lawrence also ended. The entire leadership of the Leninist party came out against him. Beria was arrested on June 26, 1953, accused of high treason, tried and shot on December 23 of the same year by court order. This is the official version of those distant historical events. That is, there were arrest, trial and execution of the sentence.

But in our days, the opinion has become stronger that there was no arrest and trial. All this for the broad masses of the people and Western journalists was invented by the leaders of the Soviet state. In reality, Beria's death was the result of a banal murder. The powerful Lawrence was shot dead by the generals of the Soviet army, and they did it absolutely unexpectedly for their victim. The body of the murdered was destroyed, and only then was the arrest and trial announced. As for the proceedings, they were fabricated at the highest state level.

However, one should not forget that such a statement requires proof. And those can be obtained only by making sure that the official version consists of continuous inaccuracies and flaws. So let's start with a question: at a meeting of which authority Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria was arrested?

Khrushchev, Molotov, Kaganovich at first told everyone that Beria was arrested at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee. However, then smart people explained to the leaders of the state that they confessed to the crime under Art. 115 of the Criminal Code - Illegal detention. The Presidium of the Central Committee is the highest party body and it does not have the authority to detain the first deputy of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, appointed to the post by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Therefore, when Khrushchev dictated his memoirs, he stated that the arrest was made at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, where all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee were invited. That is, Beria was arrested not by the party, but by the government. But the whole paradox lies in the fact that none of the members of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers mentioned such a meeting in their memoirs.

Zhukov and Khrushchev

Now let's find out: which of the military arrested Lawrence, and who commanded these military? Marshal Zhukov said that it was he who led the capture group. Colonel-General Moskalenko was given to help him. And the latter stated that it was he who commanded the detention, and took Zhukov for the quantity. All this sounds strange, since the military is initially clear who gives commands and who executes them.

Further, Zhukov said that he received the order to arrest Beria from Khrushchev. But then he was told that in this case he had encroached on the freedom of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers on the orders of the Secretary of the Central Committee. Therefore, in subsequent memoirs, Zhukov began to assert that he received the order for arrest from the head of the government, Malenkov.

But Moskalenko recounted those events differently. According to him, the task was received from Khrushchev, and the Minister of Defense Bulganin conducted the briefing. He himself received the order from Malenkov personally. At the same time, the head of government was accompanied by Bulganin, Molotov and Khrushchev. They left the meeting room of the Presidium of the Central Committee to Moskalenko and his capture group. It should be said that already on August 3, Colonel-General Moskalenko was awarded the next rank of Army General, and in March 1955 the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. And before that, since 1943, for 10 years, he wore three general stars on his shoulder straps.

A military career is good, but who to trust, Zhukov or Moskalenko? That is, there is discord - one says one thing, and the other says something completely different. Maybe, after all, Moskalenko commanded the detention of Beria? It is believed that he received the highest ranks not for the arrest, but for the murder of Beria. It was the Colonel General who shot Lavrenty, and he did this not after the trial, but on June 26, 1953, on the basis of an oral order from Malenkov, Khrushchev and Bulganin. That is, Beria's death occurred in the summer, and not in the last ten days of December.

But back to official version and ask: did they give Lavrenty Palych the floor to explain before arrest? Khrushchev wrote that Beria was not given a word. First, all members of the Presidium of the Central Committee spoke, and after that Malenkov immediately pressed the button and called the military into the meeting room. But Molotov and Kaganovich argued that Lavrenty made excuses and denied all charges. But what exactly the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers said, they did not report. By the way, for some reason the minutes of this meeting have not been preserved. Maybe because there was no such meeting at all.

Where the military was waiting for the signal to arrest Beria? Khrushchev and Zhukov said that the meeting itself took place in Stalin's former office. But the capture group was waiting in the room for Poskrebyshev's assistant. From it there was a door directly into the office, bypassing the reception room. Moskalenko, on the other hand, stated that he was waiting with the generals and officers in the waiting room, while Beria's guards were nearby.

How the signal was given to the military to arrest Lawrence? According to Zhukov's memoirs, Malenkov gave two calls to Poskrebyshev's office. But Moskalenko says something completely different. Malenkov's assistant Sukhanov gave the agreed signal to his capture group. Immediately after that, five armed generals and a sixth unarmed Zhukov (he never carried a weapon) entered the meeting room.

Marshal Moskalenko, fourth from right

When was Beria's arrest made?? Moskalenko stated that his group arrived in the Kremlin at 11 o'clock on June 26, 1953. At 13 o'clock the signal was received. Marshal Zhukov claimed that the first bell rang at one o'clock in the afternoon, and a second bell sounded a little later. Malenkov's assistant Sukhanov gives a completely different chronology of those events. According to him, the meeting began at 2 pm, and the military waited for the agreed signal for about two hours.

Where was the arrest of Lavrenty Pavlovich? Eyewitnesses identified this place more or less the same. They arrested the debunked Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers right at the table of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Zhukov recalled: “I approached Beria from behind and commanded:“ Get up! You are under arrest." He began to rise, and I immediately twisted his hands behind his back, lifted him up and shook him in such a way". Moskalenko stated his version: “ We entered the meeting room and pulled out our weapons. I went straight to Beria and ordered him to put his hands up.».

But Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev sets out these historical events in your own way: They gave me the floor, and I openly accused Beria of state crimes. He quickly realized the degree of danger and extended his hand to the briefcase lying in front of him on the table. At that very moment, I grabbed the briefcase and said: “Now, Lavrenty!” There was a pistol there. After that, Malenkov proposed to discuss everything at the Plenum. Those present agreed and went to the exit. Lavrenty was detained at the door as he left the meeting room».

How and where was Lavrenty taken away after his arrest? Here again we will get acquainted with the memoirs of Moskalenko: “ The arrested person was kept under guard in one of the rooms of the Kremlin. On the night of June 26-27, to the headquarters of the Moscow Air Defense District on the street. Five ZIS-110 passenger cars were sent to Kirov. They took 30 communist officers from headquarters and brought them to the Kremlin. These people replaced the guards inside the building. After that, surrounded by guards, Beria was taken outside and seated in one of the ZISs. Batitsky, Yuferev, Zub and Baksov sat with him. I sat in the same car in the front seat. Accompanied by another car, we drove through the Spassky Gate to the garrison guardhouse in Moscow».

From the above official information, it follows that Beria's death could not have occurred during his detention. Justice was done after the trial on December 23, 1953. The sentence was carried out by Colonel-General Batitsky. It was he who shot Lavrenty Pavlovich, putting a bullet in his forehead. That is, there was no firing squad. Attorney General Rudenko read out the verdict in the bunker of the MVO headquarters, Lavrenty was tied with a rope, tied to a bullet trap, and Batitsky fired.

Everything seems to be normal, but something else confuses - was there a trial of the debunked deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers? According to official data, on June 26, 1953, the arrest took place. From July 2 to July 7, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU was held, dedicated to the anti-state activities of Beria. Malenkov was the first to speak with the main accusations, then 24 people spoke about less significant atrocities. In conclusion, a Resolution of the Plenum was adopted, condemning the activities of Lavrenty Pavlovich.

After that, an investigation began under the personal supervision of the Prosecutor General Rudenko. As a result of investigative actions, the “Beria case” appeared, consisting of many volumes. Everything seems to be fine, but there is one caveat. None of the officials could name the exact number of volumes. For example, Moskalenko said that there were exactly 40 of them. Other people named about 40 volumes, more than 40 volumes, and even 50 volumes of the criminal case. That is, no one ever knew their exact number.

But maybe the volumes are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Security? If so, then they can be viewed and recalculated. No, they are not archived. And where, then, are these ill-fated volumes located? Nobody can answer this question. That is, there is no case, and since it is absent, then what kind of court can we talk about at all. However, officially the trial lasted 8 days from 16 to 23 December.

Marshal Konev presided over it. The court included Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Shvernik, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR Zeidin, General of the Army Moskalenko, First Secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the CPSU Mikhailov, Chairman of the Union of Right Forces of Georgia Kuchava, Chairman of the Moscow City Court Gromov, First Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Lunev. All of them were worthy people and selflessly devoted to the party.

However, it is noteworthy that they later recalled the trial of Beria and his associates in the amount of six people extremely reluctantly. Here is what he wrote about the 8-day trial of Moskalenko: “ After 6 months, the investigation was completed and a trial took place, which became known to Soviet citizens from the press.". And that's it, not a word more, but Moskalenko's memoirs are even thicker than those of Zhukov.

Other members of the court turned out to be just as untalkative. But after all, they took part in the process, which became one of the major events their lives. It was possible to write thick books about him and become famous, but for some reason the members of the court got off with only mean general phrases. Here, for example, is what Kuchava wrote: At the trial, a disgusting, monstrous picture of intrigue, blackmail, slander, and mockery of the human dignity of Soviet people was revealed.". And that's all he could say about 8 days of endless court hearings.

On the left, Marshal Batitsky

And who guarded Lavrenty Pavlovich when the investigation was going on? Such was Major Khizhnyak, the commandant of the air defense headquarters in Moscow. He was the only guard and escort. Subsequently, he recalled: I was with Beria all the time. He brought food to him, took him to the bathhouse, carried guards at the court. The trial itself lasted over a month. Every day except Saturday and Sunday. Meetings were held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a break for lunch.". These are the memories - more than a month, and not 8 days at all. Who is telling the truth and who is lying?

Based on the foregoing, the conclusion suggests itself that there was no trial at all. There was no one to judge, since Beria's death occurred on June 25 or 26, 1953. He was killed either own house, where he lived with his family, or at a military facility, to which the generals lured the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The body was removed from the crime scene and destroyed. And all other events can be called in one word - falsification. As for the reason for the murder, it is as old as the world - the struggle for power.

Immediately after the destruction of Lavrenty, his closest associates were arrested: Kobulov Bogdan Zakharyevich (b. 1904), Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich (b. 1895), Dekanozov Vladimir Georgievich (b. 1898), Meshikov Pavel Yakovlevich (b. 1910) b.), Vlodzimirsky Lev Emelyanovich (b. 1902), Goglidze Sergey Arsentievich (b. 1901). These people were kept in prison until December 1953. The trial itself took place in one day.

Members of the court gathered together and took pictures. Then the six accused were brought in. Konev announced that due to the illness of the main accused, Beria, the trial would take place without him. After that, the judges held a formal hearing, sentenced the defendants to death and signed the verdict. He was executed immediately, and everything that concerned Lavrenty Pavlovich was falsified. Thus ended those distant events, the main actor which was not Beria at all, but only his name.

Vladimir Tolts: He was shot on Western Christmas Eve. December 23, 1953. Although Sergei Lavrentievich, his son, assured me and many other journalists and historians that his father had been killed back in June. He, son, repeated this in his memoirs. But now, thanks to the hundreds of documents published on the Beria case, it is clear that this, like many other things composed by his son, is very far from reality.

Finding myself in the early 1980s in the West, where Christmas was celebrated everywhere and, in comparison with the current politically correct times, much more magnificently, I wondered why in the USSR, an atheistic state, the execution was timed to coincide with the eve of the Christmas holidays in the West? Did you want foreign public attention, focused on the upcoming celebrations, not particularly attracted to her? Or is it just a coincidence? Or one more thing: how did they form a “company” of his accomplices, who were executed on the same day? After all, many others have already been sentenced in next year?... And this is only part of the questions that we will try to find answers to today - exactly 59 years after the execution on Christmas Eve 1953 of one of the Soviet leaders Lavrentiy Beria and six of his close associates ....
So, executions at Christmas. 59 years later.
Now, it seems, it is clear to everyone who is interested in the past why Beria was so afraid of his fellow party members of the Areopagus. And why, if he was really as powerful as they imagined, he, after the death of Stalin, managed to be destroyed first. Even 16 years ago, discussing these issues in one of the Freedom programs, the researcher of history state power in the USSR, Professor Rudolf Pikhoya explained to me:

Rudolf Pihoya: Why were they afraid of him? - I think that they were afraid of him not only because he exercised this total control, - about the degree of this total control we can judge by the way he was arrested. This total control at that moment, obviously, he could no longer exercise.
Another thing - for what reasons? Beria had a very serious shortcoming for a party and statesman of the Soviet Union - he had a lot of ideas at that moment.
He interferes with internal politics. He is actively engaged foreign policy, he climbs into interethnic relations ...
And in this sense, it becomes uncomfortable for everyone.
Secondly, well, do not discount the fact that he is the head of this colossal information system, which was called the Ministry of Internal Affairs, plus the MGB. Beria did not forget that he instructed his archival department to collect materials on the activities of Malenkov, including activities related to repression. Beria was feared because he, having information, could really blow up the then Presidium of the Central Committee.
Why was he arrested in the first place? Because in this "circle of friends" called the Presidium of the Central Committee, relations were always quite tense, and this strip of endless crises that went on from 1953, ended in the end with the October Plenum of 1964, testified that it was always a "terrarium friends."
But Beria in this situation was the weakest link among the entire top party and state leadership. This may sound somewhat unexpected, but I want to draw your attention to the fact that Beria moved to the Ministry of the Interior 8 years after he worked in this department. After 1945, he returned in 1953. People changed, the situation changed, he no longer had the control mechanism that was before.
In addition, Beria united the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security. Formally, this strengthened the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, but it brought in all the contradictions that had accumulated over the years of independent existence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security. By that time, these departments had existed independently for 10 years and, let's say, lived very difficultly among themselves, and at times were simply in open confrontation. That is, his trench - his Ministry of the Interior was not too deep and not too protected. In addition, Beria, of course, did not have support in the party apparatus, they were afraid of him in the state apparatus. All these circumstances made Beria very vulnerable as a figure.

Vladimir Tolts: Now, when we have access to many of the documents that once only the former chief archivist of Russia, Professor Rudolf Pikhoya, could see, we can try to clarify: the point is not that the “Beria trench” - the united Ministry of Internal Affairs, turned out to be weakened by internal contradictions between the Chekists and the cops among themselves. Judging by the documents, Beria's arrest turned out to be brilliant. military operation, as a result of which the army outplayed the emvedeshniks. However, as it is now clear from the declassified materials of the investigation, the latter did not show any resistance, and rather soon, and without any tortures that were customary for them, of which many of them were masters, they began to hand over their arrested boss “to the fullest”. And if the power was behind them, they would just as zealously crack down on those who decided on the Anti-Beria plot. So the military operation was not in vain!
Despite the considerable distance, the tank regiments of the Kantemirovskaya and Tamanskaya divisions were able to quickly and secretly reach the capital and take key positions there before the divisions of the internal troops reacted. (Actually, they did not react.) Air support was organized just in case. Luckily, she didn't need to... The commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel General Artemiev, who was at the command and staff exercises in Kalinin, was promptly removed and replaced by General Moskalenko, loyal to the conspirators. The neutralization of the Kremlin guard and other organizational substitutions went just as quickly and smoothly - Beria's ministerial office was taken by his deputy Kruglov, and the dismissed Prosecutor General Safonov was replaced by Rudenko, who immediately took up investigative actions and legitimized the anti-Beria plot.
It has long been known that not everything went so smoothly. - Although the arrested Beria was quickly and without problems taken out of the Kremlin, original place his confinement - Aleshkinsky barracks - was considered unsafe and vulnerable. I had to move the prisoner to the MVO guardhouse ...
Far less known and analyzed are the problems of formulating charges, the course and tactics of the investigation, determining the circle of accomplices and their arrests and conducting a trial ....

June 26, 1953. PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF THE USSR.
DECREE“On the criminal anti-state actions of L.P. Beria"
In view of the fact that the criminal anti-state actions of L.P. Beria, aimed at undermining the Soviet state in the interests of foreign capital, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, having considered the report of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on this issue, decides:
1. Deprive L.P. Beria of the powers of the deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
2. Remove L.P. Beria from the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and from the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
3. Deprive L.P. Beria of all the titles assigned to him, as well as orders, medals and other honorary awards.
4. The case of the criminal actions of L.P. Beria to submit to the Supreme Court of the USSR.

Vladimir Tolts: So - to transfer to the court before the investigation. (The criminal case, as we now know, was initiated only on June 30).

From the protocol No. 12 of the meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of June 29, 1953
1. Entrust the conduct of the investigation into the case of Beria Attorney General THE USSR.
2. To oblige Comrade Rudenko to select the appropriate investigative apparatus within a day, reporting on the personal composition to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and immediately begin, taking into account the instructions given at the meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee, to identify and investigate the facts of hostile anti-party and anti-state activities of Beria through his entourage ( Kobulov B., Kobulov A., Meshik, Sarkisov, Goglidze, Sharia and others), as well as to investigate issues related to the removal of comrade Strokach

Vladimir Tolts: Timofey Strokach, the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who was reduced by Beria after Stalin's death to the post of head of the Lviv regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, already scribbled on the 30th in the name of Malenkov that Beria and his henchmen were collecting compromising evidence on the party nomenclature, and Amayak Kobulov, whose name surfaced in the protocol of the Presidium The Central Committee (he was shot almost a year later than Beria) allegedly even said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs would no longer be dependent on party organs.
Well, before the start of the investigation, Lavrenty Pavlovich himself managed to roll out several letters to his former comrades Malenkov, Khrushchev, Bulganin, Molotov, begging for mercy, repenting, stressing his merits ... In response, yesterday's comrades ordered to take away his pencil, paper and pince-nez ...
But the Kremlin had no time for his prison messages. It was necessary to urgently neutralize the people closest to Beria who could organize resistance. During the day, already on June 27, they arrested the 1st Deputy Beria Bogdan Kobulov and the former 1st Deputy Minister of State Security of the Union (he headed the 3rd department in the Beria "big Ministry of Internal Affairs") Sergei Goglidze, the 30th Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and Georgia Pavel Meshik and Vladimir Dekanozov. The other two of those shot on Christmas Day 1953 - the head of the investigative unit of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Lev Vlodzimirsky (he was arrested only on June 17) and the Minister of State Control Vsevolod Merkulov, who ended up in Butyrka on September 18, were much more limited in terms of their ability to organize resistance to Beria's Kremlin opponents, That's why they weren't arrested right away. Although the former Minister of State Security of the USSR Merkulov was among those listed here, the person closest to Beria. - The co-author of an essay signed with the name of Beria and the author of a pamphlet that praised Lavrenty is the only one of the accomplices who addressed Beria as “you”. That, however, did not prevent Vsevolod Nikolaevich from signing up to speak at the plenum of the Central Committee that opened on July 2 on the Beria case. He was not allowed to speak. But another long-time comrade of Beria, Mir Jafar Baghirov, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, spoke and branded, as expected (“ Beria is a chameleon, the worst enemy of our Party. I couldn't figure it out." But this did not prevent him from being shot as Beria's accomplice. True, already in 1956.
In general, at this plenum, all yesterday's comrades and colleagues spoke quite amicably. But since the investigation had not yet begun, they operated on emotions rather than facts.

Vladimir Tolts: Some authors claim that among Beria's closest collaborators of the post-war period, there was still one person who categorically refused to support the choir of his "friends" - accusers at the Plenum. This is the "father" of the Soviet atomic bomb, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov.
Immediately after Beria was imprisoned, arrests began of those who became accused in the near-Beria trials and were convicted and sentenced later. 3 days after Beria's arrest, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Solomon Milshtein, who was previously a big shot in the Gulag system, was arrested (He was shot in October 1954.) On June 27, Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Konstantin Savitsky was arrested, on August 12 - Deputy Head of the Investigation Department for the Department of Internal Affairs of the Beria "big" Ministry of Internal Affairs Georgy Paramonov, September 25 - former Minister of State Security of Armenia Nikita Krimyan. All of them, together with Alexander Khazan, who was arrested in the same case, were investigators of the Georgian NKVD before the war, who tortured more than a dozen people there under the leadership of Beria. All of them gave extensive evidence against him, his accomplices and each other. All of them were executed after the trial in Tbilisi in November 1955...
Another group of those arrested, whose testimony was regarded by the newly appointed prosecutor Rudenko as extremely important for the upcoming interrogations of Beria, was previously arrested in the "Mingrelian case", but after the death of Stalin, completely rehabilitated and becoming Beria's assistant in the Council of Ministers, Pyotr Sharia (sentenced in September 1954 to 10 years in the Vladimir prison), head of the department in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia Stepan Mamulov (15 years in Vladimirka), Boris Ludwigov - head of the Beria secretariat in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (15 years in Vladimirka, but pardoned and released in 1965), Grigory Ordyntsev - head of the Beria secretariat in the Council of Ministers (in 1954 sentenced to 8 years of exile, released in 1959) and Beria's personal secretary, Colonel Fyodor Mukhanov, who was arrested for "misreporting".
And in the summer of 1953, the arrests of the “special contingent” followed - former illegal immigrants engaged in espionage and terrorist actions abroad. Among them, first of all, the leaders of the operation to assassinate Trotsky Naum Eitingon and Pavel Sudoplatov should be mentioned. Eitingon had already been arrested in 1951 in the "case of a Zionist conspiracy in the MGB", but after Stalin's death he was released, rehabilitated, and Beria appointed him head of a department in the new Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1957 he was given 12 years. He was released only in 1963. Sudoplatov was arrested on August 21, 1953, and he left the Vladimir prison, where he feigned insanity, exactly 15 years later, on August 21, 1968, on the day when Soviet tanks entered Czechoslovakia.
From the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR of September 12, 1958:

A special laboratory created to carry out experiments to test the effects of poisons on a living person worked under the supervision of Sudoplatov and his deputy Eitingon from 1942 to 1946, who demanded from the laboratory workers poisons only tested on humans. After the liquidation of the special laboratory, on behalf of Sudoplatov, a new drug with poison was tested several times on living people.

Vladimir Tolts: It is impossible not to mention another "grand master" of special operations - Yakov Serebryansky, who was arrested at the end of July 1953. Before that, he, a former Socialist-Revolutionary, who became famous for the daring kidnapping of the White Guard General Kutepov in Paris, was arrested twice - in 1921 and in 1941. But each time he was released and amnestied. The authorities needed specialists in secret murders!.. But this time it was not possible to get free: Yakov Isaakovich died in Butyrka during interrogation...
And also, at least briefly, about one group of arrested persons, whose interrogations began even before the first interrogation of Beria. These are his and other accused relatives. Only one list of relatives of those executed on December 23, 1953 includes 35 names and surnames Tam and an elderly mother, sister, husband of Beria's sister, wives and children of the remaining six executed. All were not only interrogated, but also expelled from Georgia and the capitals. Of course, both the son and the wife of Lavrenty himself were arrested. On June 29, she wrote to her husband's former friends - Malenkov, Khrushchev, Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich:

On the 26th of this month, my son [Sergey] was taken away with his family (two children 5 and 2.5 years old and a wife who is 7 months pregnant) and I don't know where they are. Nor do I know what happened to Lavrenty Beria, whose wife I [have been] for more than 30 years.<…>So please call me and talk to me for a few minutes. I can perhaps shed some light on some of the events compromising him. I can’t stay in this state and ignorance for a long time!
If Lavrenty Beria has already made an irreparable mistake, than he has caused damage Soviet country, and his fate is sealed, let me share his fate, whatever it may be.
I ask you only one thing. Spare my son.

Vladimir Tolts: Deprived of awards, scientific degrees and titles, admitting during interrogations that his dissertations were largely the fruit of the labors of prisoners from the Sharashka, Sergei Beria, after a year and a half in prison, was exiled to Sverdlovsk with his mother ...
***
The first interrogation of Lavrenty Beria took place only almost 2 weeks after his arrest. It was led by Prosecutor General Rudenko. Excerpts from the protocol:

“Question: You are under arrest for anti-Soviet conspiratorial activity against the Party and the Soviet state. Do you intend to tell the investigation about your criminal activities?
Beria: I categorically deny this.

Vladimir Tolts: Rudenko began from afar: from the service of Beria in the Musavatist counterintelligence, connected, as the investigation believed, with the British. Beria retorted:

The question of working in counterintelligence was raised by Kaminsky in 1937 in the Central Committee of the party, and this accusation against me was recognized as unfounded. This issue was also raised in 1938 in the Central Committee of the party, and this accusation was also not confirmed.<…>
Question: In his testimony, Sharia claims that lately Bonapartist, dictatorial habits have been noticeable on your part. Is this correct?
Answer: This is absolutely not true! I can't explain why Sharia says that. I have no personal accounts with Sharia.

Vladimir Tolts: But something at this interrogation, as well as at the next, Beria gradually admitted. Mostly episodes and deeds that could not lead to "the death penalty" as a punishment.

Question: Do you recognize your criminal moral decay?

Answer: There is some. This is my fault.

Question: Do you know Sarkisov? Is this your confidant?

Answer: Yes.

Question: In his testimony, Sarkisov says that he mainly played the role of pimp. Is it so?

Answer: Did something. I will not deny this.

Vladimir Tolts: And then, in many interrogations, the same plot with variations - “about a venereal disease”, about mistresses on different stages life path, about "raped-not raped" ...
But there were worse things. At one of the interrogations, Beria was presented with the testimony of the head of the toxicological laboratory of the NKVD-MGB, Grigory Mairanovsky, who was arrested in 1951 in the case of "the Zionist conspiracy in the MGB" and in February 1953 was sentenced to ten years in prison for illegal possession of poisons and abuse of office:
During my experiments on the use of poisons, which I tested on those condemned to the Higher M[era] N[punishment]<…>, I came across the fact that some of the poisons can be used to detect the so-called "candor" in persons under investigation. These substances turned out to be chloral scopolamine and phenamine benzedrine (cola-s).
When using chloral-scopolamine (CS), I noticed that, firstly, the doses indicated in the pharmacopoeia as lethal, in reality, are not. This has been verified by me many times on many subjects. In addition, I noticed a stunning effect on a person after using the CS, which lasts about an average of about a day. At the moment when the complete stupor begins to pass and glimpses of consciousness begin to appear, then at the same time the inhibitory functions of the cerebral cortex are still absent. When conducting the reflexology method at this time (shocks, pinches, dousing with water), the subject can reveal a number of monosyllabic answers to short questions.
When using Cola-s, the subject develops a strong excited state of the cerebral cortex, prolonged insomnia for several days, depending on the dose. There is an irresistible need to speak out.
These data led me to the idea of ​​using these substances during the investigation to obtain the so-called "frankness" from the persons under investigation ...
... For this purpose, the Fedotovs assigned five investigators, whose names I do not remember (one of them seemed to be Kozyrev), as well as three types of persons under investigation: those who confessed, those who did not confess, and those who partially confessed. It was over them that I conducted experiments together with the investigators. Briefly, the investigators informed me about the circumstances of the case and about those issues that were of interest to the investigation ...

Vladimir Tolts: When these testimonies were read out by Beria, he was indignant:
"This is a monstrous crime, but this is the first time I hear about it."

Vladimir Tolts: He heard a lot during the investigation, and allegedly for the first time at the trial. About the falsification of investigation cases and the torture of those under investigation, in which his accomplices and himself took part, about secret murders and extrajudicial reprisals ... Well, a lot of absurd and unproven, too. For example, that he is an English spy. Or that he was trying to undermine the Soviet Agriculture. He denied many things. Another tried to blame on accomplices:

I recall that when speaking to me about the case of Meretskov, Vannikov and others, Merkulov presented it from the standpoint of his achievements, that he uncovered an underground government organized almost by Hitler. I believe that Merkulov is the main culprit in the fabrication of this case, and he must bear full responsibility for this.

Vladimir Tolts: This is from the protocol of interrogation of Beria dated October 7, 1953. By the way, it has not yet been published. As the archivists tell me, they probably haven't declassified it yet. However, Khrushchev told about the “secret” of the Meretskov case in his memoirs:

Beria, even during Stalin's lifetime, spoke about the history of Meretskov's arrest and credited his release. “I came to Comrade Stalin and said: “Comrade Stalin, Meretskov is sitting like an English spy. What kind of spy is he? He is an honest man. The war is on, and he is sitting. I could take the lead."<…>And so, continues Beria - Stalin said: "That's right, call Meretskov and talk to him." I called him and said: “Meretskov, you wrote nonsense, you are not a spy. You are an honest man, you are a Russian man.” Meretskov looks at me and answers: “I have said everything. I wrote in my own hand that I was an English spy. I can't add anything more."<…>[Beria:] "Go to the cell, sit still, think, sleep, I'll call you."<…>Then, on the second day, I called Meretskov and asked: “Well, what did you think?” He began to cry: “How could I be a spy? I am a Russian person, I love my people.” He was released from prison, dressed in a general's uniform, and he went to command at the front.

Vladimir Tolts: But no "merits" could save Beria and his accomplices who had betrayed him. They were all doomed...
***
All serious newspapers wrote about their execution in the West. But at that time she attracted much less attention than reports of Beria's arrest. It's still Christmas. Not before that ... And besides, there were some news that fit much more into the usual “Christmas format”. For example, the visit of the British Queen to New Zealand and the grandiose railway accident that happened in that distant country. Yes, and the Russian-language newspapers on Western Christmas were busy with other things there. One of the news of those days was the birth of the heiress of the Russian Imperial House, Maria Vladimirovna ...
We do not have documents confirming the hypothesis that the execution of Beria was specifically timed to coincide with Christmas in order to reduce its resonance abroad. More like New Years. - Normal Soviet stereotype: finish the job by the holidays and report back. And mark it.
My now deceased colleague, who served in the British embassy in Moscow in the first half of the 1950s, told how she and her colleagues were struck by their hitherto unprecedented freedom, relaxedness and jubilation at the Kremlin receptions, starting with New Year's Eve 1954. The Kremlin was celebrating its victory and deliverance from fear. Few of the jubilant winners knew then that this was just the end of the first round. And in the next victims, many of the winners of Beria will fall, joyfully raising their glasses in new year's eve, a week after his execution.