Lavrenty Beria, along with Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai Yezhov, is one of the main executioners of the Stalinist regime. He continued mass shootings and deportations and was known for his cruelty. But his activities are still regarded by many as ambiguous. While recognizing his crimes, Beria's defenders call him a "talented manager" who has achieved many successes.
Activities in the NKVD: amnesty and reform of foreign intelligence
Beria began his activity as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR by declaring an amnesty. About 200 thousand people, arrested under Yezhov on trumped-up charges as "enemies of the people", were released. Most likely, this was not the initiative of the new People's Commissar - Stalin understood that Yezhov was overdoing his orders. It was required to show the people that justice exists in the country and that “innocent people are not imprisoned”. Beria acquired the image of a “defender of the rule of law”.
He reorganized the activities of the foreign intelligence of the USSR, under him, even before the war, an extensive agent network was created, which had been working for many years. Thanks to foreign agents, the Soviet Union received information about new technological developments, including the work of the United States on the atomic bomb.
Defense Industry Contribution
In 1945 Beria was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. So Stalin noted his services during the war. From June 30, 1940, he was a member of the State Defense Committee. Its tasks included overseeing the production of military equipment, monitoring the work of the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry and the People's Commissariat of Railways.
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Communications were created as quickly as possible, allowing the most important enterprises and their employees to be evacuated to the rear. 3570 km were built. railways, 4200 km. highways, 842 airfields.
After the evacuation, the factories in the shortest possible time began to produce tanks, aircraft, and ammunition. New models were introduced into production. From 1942 to 1944 The Soviet Union produced an average of 2,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery units per month. Up to 450 thousand machine guns were produced annually, while in Germany the number was 250 thousand. Superiority over Germany was achieved in other areas.
Atomic project
The first experiments related to uranium were started in the USSR even before the war. During the war, intelligence reported on the atomic projects of the United States and Britain. Beria began to supply information to Kurchatov, the scientific director of the Special Committee at the State Defense Committee. A special laboratory is being set up. On December 3, 1944, Stalin signed an order: "To entrust Comrade L. P. Beria with monitoring the development of work on uranium." After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, work on the creation of the atomic bomb in the USSR accelerated further. Kurchatov admitted: "If it were not for him, Beria, there would be no bomb."
Beria ordered to count all the country's physicists. There were 4,212 of them. There were not enough nuclear specialists, and they began to urgently train them. In 1945, intelligence delivered to the USSR a book-report on the creation of an atomic bomb in the United States.
Beria created a regime of total secrecy around all the activities of the project. For any unauthorized conversations, the culprit was, at best, subject to a severe reprimand. Scientists worked on the project, often literally brought straight from the camps. The practice of “sharashek” created by Beria will not disappear even later. Some researchers believe that the formation of such institutions is also a positive achievement of Beria. Their activities saved the lives of many scientists who would otherwise have died in the camps.
The bomb was created and tested in 1949. Several years later Sakharov created a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb. She was tested after the arrest of Beria.
Termination of the “doctors' case”, the “Mingrelian” case, anti-Semitic processes
After Stalin's death, Beria saw himself as the next leader of the USSR. Malenkov became the official head of government, and Beria became the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers. He probably remembered the effect of the amnesty announced in the 1930s and closed the cases in which arrests were already in full swing. At his suggestion, on March 27, 1953, the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee approved the decree "On Amnesty." More than a million people were released through it.
The good name of many doctors was restored, and plans to deport Jews to uninhabited areas were canceled. The press wrote that the doctors "were arrested incorrectly, without any legal basis." However, not all were released. Rehabilitation continued after Beria's arrest.
Cancellation of passport restrictions and restricted areas
In the "Draft Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR" submitted by Beria to Malenkov on May 13, 1953, it was proposed to abolish passport restrictions on residence. Because of them, people who had served their sentences could not return home, get a decent job, and reunite with their families. They also talked about the need to abolish the security zone along the border of the USSR. The document said: "Under the current situation, citizens who have served their sentences in places of confinement or exile and thus atoned for their guilt before society continue to experience hardships and are doomed to ordeal." The project was satisfied. Restrictions on residence in more than 300 cities and regions of the USSR were abolished.
Promotion of national cadres to the leadership of the republics
In many Soviet republics, for decades, leading positions were occupied by "aliens", people from the center. The local population didn't like it. Therefore, a campaign was launched to attract representatives of the titular nationalities of each republic to the administration. This practice persisted for many years: the first secretary of the Central Committee of the republic was from the local, and the second was sent by order of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Relaxation of the regime in the GDR
The partition of Germany led to the fact that the inhabitants of its eastern part began to flee to the West. The wrong policy of the new authorities was largely to blame. In order to combat mass emigration, Beria proposed canceling a number of rash decisions. He spoke in favor of canceling the course announced in 1952 for the "forced construction of socialism", restrictions on small and medium-sized private capital, and the planting of agricultural cooperatives (a variant of collectivization). The proposal was approved by the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, only Malenkov opposed it.
However, along with these decisions, Beria remained responsible for the death of many people. Already in our time, attempts have been made to rehabilitate him, but the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in May 2002 made a negative decision. It said that Beria and his associates were among those leaders "who organized at the state level and personally carried out massive repressions against their own people."