Question by pilotcodereview: what soviet head of state shot what head of secret police in a private meeting in the head of state’s office?
I remember this from the ’50’s or maybe ’60’s, and thought for years it was Stalin shooting Beria, but history shows I’m remembering wrong. But who shot whom, then? I remember this in the news, but must have been too young to remember names accurately.
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Answer by Spellbound
The nearest to your story is that of Beria’s downfall.
On 26th June 1953 Beria was arrested at a Politburo meeting and shot, after a trial (well, a Soviet style trial) on 23th December 1953. No Soviet leader shot any of the heads of the secret police in their office – they might have been monsters, but they were not barbarians.
See:
Stalin, A Biography by Robert Service
Beria, My Father by Sergo Beria
Khrushchev Remembers by Nikita S Khrushchev
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imperialpoetpurple says
The killing of Laventry Beria was via a plot led by Nikita Khruchev, who had the crucial support of Marshall Zhukovand when the full meeting of the politburo convened, charges of treason and charges of rapeand he was led out of the meeting weeping and crying…and taken to Lubyanka prison where in the basement he was shot in the head by Marshall Pavel Batitsky.
While there is indeed a noteable lack of due process, one must remember the context of the situation ie. Stalin had just recently died Beria had already appeared on the cover of Time Magazine as the next ‘ruler’ of the USSR – but Beria was also speaking of deBolshevization of the USSR, an alliance with the USA, and the USSR abandonment of East Germany. Quite a few folks in the USSR politburo also had the feeling that Beria was on the verge of launching a new round
of purges…so it was a kill him before he kills you situation – and Beria was indeed a monster…ie. Stalin had referred to Beria as ‘my Himmler.’
The irony is the West was actually however more receptive to Beria’s deBolshevization and German reunification views than it was to Khruchev’s deStalinization views…which attempted to reform rather than abandon Bolshevism…