210,809 profiles ranked

Lavrentiy Beria

Soviet politician and NKVD police chief · Russia · Politicians · Lived 1899 to 1953 · aged 54

Lavrentiy Beria is read about 6,742 times a day, in 68 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 21 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 396 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?
Compare

He ran Stalin's secret police for seven years, organized the Katyn massacre, deported entire ethnic populations, and built the Soviet atomic bomb. After Stalin died, he briefly tried reform - then was arrested and shot by his own colleagues.

PoliticiansPoliticianPolitics20th Century

A life in dates

1953Died23 December 1953“The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks.”In their wordsQuoted in "The Current Digest of the Soviet Press" Joint Committee (1953), p. 9

1951State Stalin Prize, 1st degreeAward1949Order of LeninAwardOrder of SukhbaatarAward1948Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"Award1945Order of LeninAward1944Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"AwardMedal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"AwardOrder of the Red BannerAward1943Hero of Socialist LabourAwardOrder of LeninAward1942Order of the Red BannerAward1935Order of LeninAward1932Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Azerbaijan SSRAward1924Order of the Red BannerAward1899Born17 March 1899

Also in Deutsch

Photos 7

Young Svetlana Stalina sitting on Beria's lap, with Stalin (in the background) and Nestor Lakoba in 1931.[14][15]Young Svetlana Stalina sitting on Beria's lap, with Stalin (in the background) and Nestor Lakoba in 1931.[14][15]Beria in 1934Beria in 1934The first page of Beria's notice (oversigned by Stalin and several other officials), to kill approximately 15,000 Polish officers and some 10,000 more intellectuals in the Katyn Forest and other places in the Soviet Union.The first page of Beria's notice (oversigned by Stalin and several other officials), to kill approximately 15,000 Polish officers and some 10,000 more intellectuals in the Katyn Forest and other places in the Soviet Union.Beria as leader of the NKVDBeria as leader of the NKVDBeria on Time cover, 20 July 1953Beria on Time cover, 20 July 1953

In their own words 6

,
Lavrentiy Beria
,
6 statements, newest first

  1. The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks.

    1953, Quoted in "The Current Digest of the Soviet Press" Joint Committee (1953), p. 9, Own words

  2. Do you know that there’s hardly anyone left of last year’s Caucasian governments? I’ve tried to stop it, but in vain. Yet they can’t all be Trotskyites and traitors.

    Quoted in "The Kremlin and the People" by Walter Duranty (2007), p. 126, Own words

  3. To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil.

    Published in the United States in 1955 by L. Ron Hubbard as Beria's work, no evidence of its authenticity has emerged since the collapse of, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

State Stalin Prize, 1st degree1951
State Stalin Prize, 1st degree1949
Order of Sukhbaatar1949
Order of Lenin1949
Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"1948
Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"1948
Order of Lenin1945
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"1945
Order of Suvorov, 1st class1944
Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"1944
Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"1944
Order of the Red Banner1944
Order of Lenin1943
Hero of Socialist Labour1943
Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"1943
Order of the Republic1943
Order of the Red Banner1942
Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"1938
Order of Lenin1935
Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Azerbaijan SSR1932
Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Georgian SSR1931
Order of the Red Banner1924
Honorary worker of the NKVD
Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the Armenian SSR
Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (V)
Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (XV)

Family

Lavrentiy Beria

Partners

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.

Correct this family

About this person

An ethnic Georgian, Beria joined the Cheka in 1920 and climbed quickly. In 1938 Stalin made him head of the NKVD, ending the Great Purge by purging its architect. He organized the 1939 Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and oversaw the deportation of hundreds of thousands from occupied territories to Gulag camps. During the war he mobilized millions of Gulag prisoners for production, supervised partisan operations, and directed mass deportations from the Caucasus in 1943-44 that scholars have called ethnic cleansing or genocide. He also ran the atomic bomb project, which produced its first device in 1949. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria seized power in a triumvirate, released political prisoners, freed half the Gulag's inmates, and pushed détente with the West. Three months later his colleagues turned on him. He was arrested in June, tried for treason, and executed in December.

Country
Russia
Category
Politicians
Type
Politician
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1899 to 1953 · aged 54

In common with Lavrentiy

Felix DzerzhinskyBoth received Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (V)Nikolai YezhovBoth received Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (XV)Genrikh YagodaBoth received Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (V)Vasily BlyukherBoth received Honorary Worker of the VChK-GPU (V)

Politicians from Russia 2

Boris Bondarev66.4Nadezhda Krupskaya66.2

Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.