Lavrenty Beria was a very influential official during the reign of I. Stalin. Researchers argue that Beria was a very controversial person, therefore, until now, his activities constantly provide a subject for study by connoisseurs of history. His life path is marked by monstrous repressions of people and, shocking in their cruelty, crimes. Occupying the post of head of the NKVD, he arrogated to himself the right to decide the fate of entire nations. Of course, all his actions were coordinated and supported by Stalin. Beria was sure that after Stalin's death, he would become the head of the country. But in the battle for the highest post of the state, he lost to Khrushchev. In June 1953 he was arrested. But the last days of the "man in pince-nez" still remain a mystery, despite the fact that it was officially reported about the trial of the traitor to the Motherland,and his execution.
Although the omnipotent Beria understood that after Stalin's death he would have to fight for power with his former comrades-in-arms, his position was quite strong: after all, he served as head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security. For many years, Beria collected dossiers on all influential politicians in the country and hoped to use this information in the struggle for his power.
The conflict passed into an open phase at the plenum, which took place without Beria's participation. Molotov, Khrushchev, Bulganin actively began to accuse Beria of anti-Sovietism, failure to fulfill their duties and organizing surveillance of Politburo members, friendly relations with the "traitor" Tito, and mistakes in the implementation of national policy (Beria considered it necessary to give the republics greater independence from the center). We remembered all the mistakes of his youth, and the time he spent working on intelligence in Georgia. The numerous love adventures of the former Chekist did not go unmentioned either.
Since that time, information about the fate of Beria is so contradictory that it seems that all the voiced versions are false and the truth is still hidden from society.
Beria's arrest was officially announced at a meeting of the Council of Ministers. Khrushchev constantly recalled that he personally grabbed Beria by the hand in order to prevent him from getting a weapon. Zhukov, on the other hand, appropriated the glory of his arrest: he claimed that he made Beria raise his hands and even "shook" him. General Moskalenko, in his memoirs, wrote that he kept Beria at gunpoint while Malenkov announced his arrest. Brezhnev also often recalled his participation in the arrest of Lavrenty Beria.
The arrested, the former all-powerful leader, was kept in a bunker. Again, according to the official version, Beria was shot at the end of December 1953. Doubts that this is true arose even during the reign of Khrushchev. It turned out that the act of execution, kept in the secret archive, did not contain the signature of the doctor, whose duties included the statement of death. Also, the act of cremating Beria's body was not found.
Some historians are sure that Beria was killed even before the plenum, at which his former comrades-in-arms accused him of all crimes. And his double took part in the trial. It was not difficult to hide this fact, since the process was closed. None of the former associates of the all-powerful minister was present at the court sessions: they only listened to the radio broadcast from the courtroom, being in their offices.
In addition, there are memories of Beria's son, Sergo, who is sure that his father was killed without any trial. So, according to Beria's son, on the day of his father's arrest, he was informed about the shootout that had taken place near the house where their family lived. When he arrived at the mansion, he saw broken glass and traces of a shootout: Beria's guards were killed in it, and, possibly, according to Sergo's assumption, the all-powerful official himself. So far, this version has not been confirmed.
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The archives contain letters from Beria, written by the prisoner to his associates. In every word of these desperate messages, there was a request not to commit reprisals against him without serious investigation of all charges. He assured the members of the Central Committee that all the charges were far-fetched and hoped for his own rehabilitation. However, none of his former associates even tried to help him: each of the officials considered it his duty to denounce Beria as an enemy of the state.
Eyewitnesses claimed that all of Beria's opponents arrived in some kind of euphoria and performed hectic actions. Khrushchev was especially happy about the reprisal against Beria. And as soon as the top officials did not call Beria in their speeches: a traitor, an adventurer, a criminal, but no one told about whether an investigation was carried out, and whether Beria was given the opportunity to respond to the charges against him (it is known that his enemy Bukharin, in his time, Stalin gave his opinion at the trial). This can be explained as follows: either there was no one to make excuses, since he had already been killed, or everyone was afraid that Beria might also tell about their unseemly deeds committed in public office. Even after many years, all top officials preferred to remain silent about those events.
According to the officers guarding Beria in the bunker, to prevent the escape of the arrested person, neither his former subordinates, nor the attendants were allowed to see him. But after a while this ban was canceled. There is an assumption that this happened after his double took the place of Beria in the bunker: his escape did not frighten anyone.
There is another version of the events that happened. She suggests that Beria survived and managed to hide in Latin America (it was there that many Nazi criminals were hiding after 45 years).
According to another version, if Beria was not killed during his arrest, then he was shot in a bunker immediately after being taken into custody. There is a document in the archives, signed by Khrushchev, from which it can be assumed that Beria was dealt with long before the trial.
Until now, researchers are trying to restore those distant pages of Soviet history. Letters and memoirs of the participants in those events are scrupulously read. Based on the notes of Marshal Zhukov, it became clear that the military leader was not only Khrushchev's accomplice, but he personally commanded the capture group.
It also turned out that the statement about Khrushchev's "brave" behavior during the arrest of Beria turned out to be a complete bluff: there was no heroic shot of Khrushchev towards the "traitor".
Zhukov, later, was removed from the prisoner's guard and was not present at the court hearings. But in his memoirs there is information about the last seconds of Beria's life, told to the marshal of those, from whose bullet the former head of the power ministries, General P. Batitsky, died. According to the officer, during the execution, Beria cried, knelt, hysterically begged for mercy.
It is still unknown whether Beria was executed or he managed to leave the country. There is no evidence of the burial of the formerly omnipotent official, although at that time the reporting on "grave" activities in the state security was well established.
Was this execution a sufficient payback for the crimes he committed in his entire life? This is probably not for us to judge, but for the descendants of those who suffered from this person.