Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (29 March [O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938 to 1946, during the country's involvement in the Second World War. An ethnic Georgian, Beria enlisted in the Cheka in 1920, and quickly rose through its ranks. He transferred to Communist Party work in the Caucasus in the 1930s, and in 1938 was appointed head of the NKVD by Stalin. His ascent marked the end of the Stalinist Great Purge carried out by Nikolai Yezhov, whom Beria purged. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Lavrentiy Beria is the 328th most popular politician (up from 459th in 2019). (up from 30th in 2019)

Lavrentiy Beria was most famous for his involvement in the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program.