Word: beria
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...Kiev. Because of his skill in blending party line with plot, Korneichuk won five Stalin Prizes and a number of political appointments during the 1930s and '40s. After Stalin's death, he allied himself with Nikita Khrushchev and in 1955 attacked the fallen secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria, in a play called Wings. It marked the start of Khrushchev's public assault on Stalinism. Korneichuk also survived Khrushchev's ouster, serving the present regime in a variety of cultural-political assignments...
...Ukraine. He remained there until 1949, when he was brought back from the Ukraine to become head of the Moscow party organization and later overlord of agriculture. Three months after Stalin's death, Khrushchev-with the aid of eleven generals and marshals-arranged the arrest of Lavrenty Beria, Stalin's hated secret-police chief; Beria was executed six months later. Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party in September 1953, but that powerful post was not enough. Sixteen months later, he ousted Malenkov, the Premier and Stalin's successor, and replaced him with his own puppet...
What followed was a bold and secret plan to arrest Beria within the very walls of the Kremlin. The most sensitive problem was finding a way of holding Beria once he was under arrest. Explains Khrushchev: "The Presidium bodyguard was obedient to him. His Chekists would be sitting in the next room, and Beria could easily order them to arrest us all. We would have been quite helpless...
Secret Button. "I requested the floor and proposed that we discuss the matter of Beria," says Khrushchev. "Beria was sitting on my right. He gave a start, grabbed me by the hand, looked at me with a startled expression, and said, 'What's going on, Nikita?' I said, 'Just pay attention.' " Khrushchev then delivered a speech denouncing Beria. He concluded by saying: "I have formed the impression that he is no Communist. He is a careerist who has wormed his way into the party for self-seeking reasons." Khrushchev formally moved that Beria be stripped...
...signal to the generals who were waiting in the next room. Zhukov was the first to appear. Then Moskalenko and the others came in. Malenkov said in a faint voice to Comrade Zhukov, 'As Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., I request that you take Beria into custody.' 'Hands up!' Zhukov commanded Beria." The police boss seemed to be reaching for his briefcase, says Khrushchev. "I seized his arm to prevent him from grabbing a weapon in the briefcase." When searched, however, Beria proved to be unarmed. Six months later, after summary proceedings...