Lavrentiy Beria - Early Life and Rise To Power

Early Life and Rise To Power

Beria was born out of wedlock in Merkheuli, near Sukhumi, in the Sukhumi district of Kutaisi governorate (now Gulripshi District, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire). He was a member of the Georgian Mingrelian ethnic group and grew up in a Georgian Orthodox family. Beria's mother, Marta Ivanovna, was a deeply religious, church-going woman (she spent so much time in church that she died there); she was previously married and widowed before marrying Beria's father, Pavel Khukhaevich Beria, a landowner from Abkhazia, Georgia. He also had a brother (name unknown), and a sister named Anna who was born deaf-mute. In his biography, he mentioned only his sister and his niece, implying that his brother (or any other siblings for that matter) either was dead or had no relationship with Beria after he left Merkheuli. Beria was educated at a technical school in Sukhumi and joined the Bolsheviks in March 1917 while a student in the Baku Polytechnicum (now known as the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy). As a student, Beria distinguished himself in mathematics and the sciences, but was considered cunning and devious. The Polytechnicum's curiculum was mostly about the petroleum industry.

Beria hedged his bets by also working for the anti-Bolshevik Mussavists in Baku. After the city's capture in April 1920, Beria was saved from execution only because there was no time to arrange it and Sergei Kirov saved him. While in prison he fell in love with Nina Gegechkori (1905–10 June 1991), his cellmate's niece, and they eloped on a train. She was 17, a trained scientist from an aristocratic family.

In 1919, when he was twenty years old, Beria started his career in state security, when he was hired by the security service of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic while still a student at the Polytechnicum. In 1920 or 1921 (accounts vary), Beria joined the Cheka – the original Bolshevik secret police. At that time, a Bolshevik revolt took place in the Menshevik-controlled Democratic Republic of Georgia, and the Red Army subsequently invaded. The Cheka was heavily involved in the conflict, which resulted in the defeat of the Mensheviks and the formation of the Georgian SSR. By 1922, Beria was deputy head of the Georgian branch of Cheka's successor, the OGPU.

In 1924, he led the repression of a Georgian nationalist uprising, after which up to 10,000 people were executed. For this display of "Bolshevik ruthlessness", Beria was appointed head of the "secret-political division" of the Transcaucasian OGPU and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1926, Beria became head of the Georgian OGPU and was introduced to fellow Georgian Joseph Stalin by Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the Transcaucasian party. As a result, Beria became an ally in Stalin's rise to power. During his years at the helm of the Georgian OGPU, Beria effectively destroyed the intelligence networks that Turkey and Iran had developed in the Soviet Caucasus, while successfully penetrating the governments of these countries with his agents. He also took over Stalin's holiday security.

Beria was appointed Secretary of the Communist Party in Georgia in 1931, and for the whole Transcaucasian region in 1932. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1934. During this time, he began to attack fellow members of the Georgian Communist Party, particularly Gaioz Devdariani, who was Minister of Education of the Georgian SSR. Beria ordered the executions of Devdariani's brothers George and Shalva, who held important positions in the Cheka and the Communist Party, respectively. Eventually, Gaioz Devdariani was charged with violating Article 58 for alleged counter-revolutionary activities and was executed in 1938 by the orders of the NKVD troika. The Great Purge was extremely severe and included not only Georgian communists but also intellectuals, even those without any political views, among them Mikheil Javakhishvili, Titsian Tabidze, Sandro Akhmeteli, Yevgeni Mikeladze, Dimitri Shevardnadze, George Eliava, Grigol Tsereteli and many others. Many nonpolitical working people were also arrested and executed without trial. Although he publicly supported Stalin's efforts to purge the Georgia party apparatus, Beria had little to gain from the disorder and upheaval of the Great Purge. Although he had no compunctions about using political terror to achieve his ends when it logically benefited him, the purge affected all aspects of the Soviet state and forced Beria to sacrifice several of his loyalists, thus actually undermining his attempts to create a stable personal power base in Georgia. Despite this, even after moving on from Georgia, Beria effectively controlled the Republic's Communist Party until it was purged of his associates in July 1953.

By 1935, Beria was one of Stalin's most trusted subordinates. He cemented his place in Stalin's entourage with a lengthy oration titled, "On the History of the Bolshevik Organisations in Transcaucasia" (later published as a book), which emphasized Stalin's role in it. When Stalin's purge of the Communist Party and government began in 1934 after the assassination of Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov, Beria ran the purges in Transcaucasia. He used the opportunity to settle many old scores in the politically turbulent Transcaucasian republics.

In June 1937, he said in a speech, "Let our enemies know that anyone who attempts to raise a hand against the will of our people, against the will of the party of Lenin and Stalin, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed."