Beria was defeated at the next Presidium plenums by a majority against him, and not long after, Khrushchev and Malenkov started to plan Beria's fall from power.

Beria's downfall led to the collapse of his " empire "; the powers of the MVD was curtailed, and the KGB was established.

It is believed that Stalin felt Beria's power was too great and threatened his own.

Stalin gave it absolute priority and the project was completed in under five years in no small part due to Soviet espionage against the West organized by Beria's NKVD.

The compliance of the NKVD was ensured by Zhukov's troops, and after interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot by General Pavel Batitsky along with Beria's most trusted associates.

Beria's mother, Marta Ivanovna, was a deeply religious, church-going woman ( she spent so much time in church that she died there ); she was previously married and widowed before marrying Beria's father, Pavel Khukhaevich Beria, a landowner from Abkhazia, Georgia.

This was the beginning of Beria's alliance with Malenkov, which later became of central importance.

In December 1944, Beria's NKVD was assigned to supervise the Soviet atomic bomb project (" Task No. 1 "), which built and tested a bomb by 29 August 1949.

In July 1945, as Soviet police ranks were converted to a military uniform system, Beria's rank was officially converted to that of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Also, by the summer of 1946, Beria's man Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov was replaced as head of the Ministry for State Security ( MGB ) by Viktor Abakumov.

Abakumov was the head of SMERSH from 1943 to 1946 ; his relationship with Beria was marked by close collaboration ( since Abakumov owed his rise to Beria's support and esteem ), but also by rivalry.

Beria's decision to avoid immediately calling a doctor was silently supported ( or at least not opposed ) by the rest of the Politburo, which was rudderless without Stalin's micromanagement and paralyzed by a legitimate fear he would suddenly recover and wreak violent reprisal on anyone who had dared to act without his orders.

Support for the assertion that Stalin was poisoned by Beria's associates has been presented from several sources, including Edvard Radzinsky in his biography Stalin and a recent study by Miguel A. Faria in the journal Surgical Neurology International.

Warfarin ( 4-Hydroxycoumarins ) is cited as the likely agent ; it would have produced the symptoms reported, and administering it into Stalin's food or drink was well within the operational abilities of Beria's NKVD.

" These allegations were due to Beria's suggestion to his assistants that to improve foreign relations it was reasonable to transfer the Kaliningrad Oblast to Germany, part of Karelia to Finland, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to Romania and the Kuril Islands to Japan.

Beria's participation in the Purge of the Red Army in 1941 was classified as an act of terrorism.

When the death sentence was passed, according to Moskalenko's later account, Beria pleaded on his knees for mercy before collapsing to the floor and wailing and crying energetically, but to no avail: the other six defendants were executed by firing squad on 23 December 1953, the same day as the trial, while Beria was fatally shot through the forehead by General Batitsky after the latter stuffed a rag into Beria's mouth to silence his bawling.

" Sarkisov reported that Beria's sexual appetite had led to him contracting syphilis during the war, for which he was secretly treated without the knowledge of Stalin or the Politburo ( a fact Beria later admitted during his interrogation ).

Beria's fall also led to criticism of Stalin ; the party leadership accused Beria of using Stalin, a sick and old man, to force his own will on the Soviet Union during Stalin's last days.

Stalin had begun to encourage Abakumov to form his own network inside the MGB to counter Beria's dominance of the power ministries.

The first page of Lavrentiy Beria | Beria's notice ( oversigned by Joseph Stalin | Stalin ), to kill approximately 15, 000 Polish officers in the Katyn massacre | Katyn Forest and other places in the Soviet Union

Well acquainted with the typical Stalinist bureaucratic precursors to eventual dismissal and arrest, Yezhov recognized Beria's increasing influence with Stalin as a sign his downfall was imminent, and plunged headlong into alcoholism and despair.

The reversal caused by Beria's arrest and execution brought an end to much of the arbitrary arrest and the system of forced labour in Gulags that had marked the Stalin era.

Within a year Beria's downfall caused the MVD to be split up again ; after that, the MVD retained its " internal security " ( police ) functions, while the new KGB took on " state security " ( secret police ) functions.

As Beria's fall from power began, Sarkisov sent the list to the new NKVD chief ( and former wartime head of SMERSH ), Viktor Abakumov, who was already aggressively building a case against Beria.

Early in the 1930s, he obtained Lavrentiy Beria's protection and was able to resume writing, with an attempt at " socialist " novel Stealing the Moon ( მთვარის მოტაცება, 1935-6 ), a story of love and collectivization in Abkhazia.

Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge the feelings of his associates, many of whom still had relatives in his prisons.

At Beria's trial after his June 1953 arrest, a significant number of rape and sexual assault allegations were brought to light.

Beria's awards were rescinded after his execution.

* Colonel-General Grubozaboyshikov: He was selected head of SMERSH after Lavrenty Beria's death, in the From Russia, with Love novel.

Despite Beria's history as Stalin's most ruthless subordinates, he was at the forefront of destalinization and liberalisation after Stalin's death, possibly as a means of winning support for his campaign to become leader.

In Khrushchev's and Malenkov's first discussion with Kliment Voroshilov, Voroshilov did not want anything to do with it, because he feared " Beria's ears ".

Although Beria's name is closely identified with the Great Purge because of his activities while deputy head of the NKVD, his leadership of the organisation marked an easing of the repression begun under Yezhov.

Kruglov and Abakumov moved expeditiously to replace Beria's men in the security apparatus leadership with new people.

Beria's bodyguards reported that their orders included handing each girl a flower bouquet as she left Beria's house, with the implication being that to accept his parting gift made her his consensual mistress ; those who refused risked being arrested.

He was the top member of the Secretariat and, with Beria's support, Malenkov became Premier of the Soviet Union.

However, Khrushchev and Malenkov were able to gather enough support for Beria's ouster, but only when a rumour of a potential coup led by Beria began to take hold within the party leadership.

Within days of the events in Germany, Khrushchev persuaded the other leaders to support a Party coup against Beria ; Beria's principal ally Malenkov abandoned him.

After Lavrenti Beria's arrest in 1953, Rudenko was the judge of his trial in which Beria was sentenced to death.

Beria's uncompromising ruthlessness in his duties and skill at producing results culminated in his success in overseeing the Soviet atomic bomb project.

According to Knight, " Smith noted that Beria's escapades were common knowledge among embassy personnel because his house was on the same street as residence for Americans, and those who lived there saw girls brought to Beria's house late at night in a limousine.

In 1939, the unit was renamed the Special Technical Bureau at the NKVD USSR ( Особое техническое бюро НКВД СССР ) and placed under the leadership of General Valentin Kravchenko, under Beria's immediate supervision.

Beria's secret police soon visited Starostin at his home, giving him 24 hours to leave Moscow.