Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beriya

Soviet politician. Born in Georgia. He made a name for himself in cracking down on counter-revolutionaries during the civil war after the revolution, and gained the trust of fellow Georgian Stalin, becoming a powerful figure in Georgia's political police in the 1920s. In 1931, he became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia, and in 1934, he was promoted to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In order to complete the Great Purge, Stalin appointed Beria, who had an uncertain past and was unknown in the central government, as People's Commissar for Internal Affairs in 1938, and ordered the "purge of the purgers" of his predecessor Yezhov and his subordinates. He continued in this post during the German-Soviet war, and ordered the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars and other ethnic minorities suspected of collaborating with Germany. After the war, he was a marshal, a member of the Politburo, and a deputy prime minister. When Stalin died in 1953, he was considered the second most powerful man after Prime Minister Malenkov, but he lost power shortly thereafter. He was put on trial for anti-party and anti-national acts and was shot to death at the end of the same year.

[Hara Teruyuki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ソ連の政治家。ジョージア（グルジア）の出身。革命後の内戦期に反革命取締りの活動で名をあげ、同じジョージア出身のスターリンの信頼を得て、1920年代にジョージアの政治警察の実力者となった。1931年にジョージア共産党第一書記に就任、1934年にはソ連共産党中央委員に昇格した。スターリンは大粛清の総仕上げを行うために、前歴も不確かで中央では無名のベリヤを1938年内務人民委員に抜擢(ばってき)し、前任者エジョフとその配下の機関員に対する「粛清者の粛清」を実施させた。独ソ戦期も引き続きこのポストにあり、クリミア・タタール人その他対独協力の嫌疑をかけられた少数民族の集団追放を命じた。戦後、元帥、政治局員、副首相。1953年にスターリンが死去した時点でマレンコフ首相に次ぐ実力者と目されたが、その直後に実権を失った。反党・反国家的行為のかどで裁判にかけられ、同年末銃殺された。

［原　暉之］

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