Lavrenty Beria

Lavrenty Beria (1899-1953) was the head of the Soviet security apperatus under Stalin. Appointed deputy head of the NKVD (secret police) in 1938, he helped carry out the Stalinist purges. Promoted head of the NKVD in November 1938, he then purged that organisation. One of the victimes was its former chief, Yezhov, who was executed in 1940. In the 1940s Beria oversaw the Soviet atomic weaponry programme, and built up an espionage netwoprk in thye United States and Europe. In 1946 he resigned as head of the NKVD but maintained overall control of security as deputy Prime Minister.

Following Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, in which Beria may have been implicated, Beria was appointed First deputy Prime Minister, and ranked second in the Soviet heirarchy under his ally Georgy Malenkov. However, Nikita Kruschchev and Nikolai Bulganain won Malenkov over to their proposals to depose Beria following the 1953 uprising in East Germany. Beria was arrested in June 1953, and was executed by firing squad on 23 December 1953.