Question by : When did Stalin start to loser power to Beria?
He was dictator until his death but Beria started to become as powerful in what year. After the 1841 invasion of Russia, did Stalin lose dictatorial powers because he was low.
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Answer by Spellbound
It is arguable whether Stalin did lose power to Beria or not, not all historians agree with this analysis.
However, I would argue that the moment when Beria began to appear to have so much power that Stalin feared removing him was when Beria became a member of the GKO (State Defence Committee) on top of his NKVD responsibilities. This gave him access to the millions of Gulag prisoners for use in war materiel production. Stalin did rein in Beria’s powers, removing him from his NKVD post, but, surprisingly, he did not have him arrested. Beria was needed, his organisational skills, and the members of his “tail” would prove to be useful in helping to create the Soviet atomic bomb.
Beria’s tail was threatened or arrested, and he was not threatened by the Doctors’ Plot, unlike other, totally loyal, Politburo members, such as Molotov, and, perhaps, Khrushchev.
Some historians, I forget who (I think Edvard Radzinskii), have suggested that Beria had Stalin’s Okhrana file and that there was something incriminating in it. However, Beria’s son, Sergo, has suggested that Beria himself may have been a British or German agent, and that Beria was never a party member.
See:
Beria, My Father, by Sergo Beria
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