Word: beria
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Lavrenty P. Beria, a man who ordered the death of millions, was himself put to death last week. After a secret trial that lasted five days, the Kremlin announced that this "frenzied, insolent plotter . . . this contemptible Judas" had been found guilty of murder, espionage, treason, sabotage and perversion. He was condemned to the "highest degree of punishment, with confiscation of all property and removal of all titles and decorations" (seven Medals of the Soviet Union, five Orders of Lenin...
...With Beria, Marshal of the Soviet Union, were sentenced six of his top-ranking MVD generals and ex-ministers: Merkulov, Dekanozov, Kobulov, Goglidze, Meshik and Vlodzimirsky. On Dec. 23, 1953, said the Kremlin, all seven men were taken out and shot...
...court that found Beria guilty was headed by a Red army general, Marshal Ivan S. Konev. This led to a rush of speculation that Dictator Malenkov had called in the army to break Beria's secret police and that the generals and marshals henceforth must be regarded as the chief power behind the throne in Moscow. Eight Red army men also sat on the supreme court bench that tried Marshal Tukhachevsky and half a dozen other high-ranking officers in the purge...
...whatever grouping of forces had congealed to destroy Beria, the monolithic state remained. While it did, every Communist, however exalted, still faced the dreaded question: Who is next on the list...
Judging by precedent and by the measure of closeness of association with Beria and his gang, the next victims might well be Anastas Mikoyan, 58, the Armenian Minister of Internal Trade, and possibly Vyacheslav Molotov. Mikoyan brought Beria, "the worst enemy of the motherland," into the party fold. Molotov promoted Dekanozov, "an archtraitor...