Word: beria
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Khrushchev wastes no sympathy on Lavrenty Beria, the rival he deposed and destroyed. He pictures Stalin's secret-police chief as a cruel and cynical man whose favorite remark was "Listen, let me have him for one night, and I'll have him confessing he's the King of England." In later years, says Khrushchev, even Stalin grew to fear his fellow Georgian and the power he wielded as absolute master of the vast Cheka, or secret-police, organization. The sweeping postwar purge of the Leningrad party, Khrushchev believes, was part of a scheme masterminded by Beria...
...growing derangement resulted in the "cruel and contemptible" affair called the Doctors' Plot. Khrushchev traces its beginning to a letter charging that Andrei Zhdanov, the Leningrad party boss, had been murdered by his physicians. Western experts have explained the plot as a calculated effort by Stalin to destroy Beria, whose security men would presumably have to be part of the scheme. In any case, Stalin ordered many doctors, particularly those who were treating Kremlin officials, arrested and mercilessly interrogated. Two were tortured to death, and the number would surely have risen had Stalin lived. But on March...
Before Stalin's death was announced, a meeting was held to carve up his power. As Khrushchev feared, "Beria immediately proposed Malenkov for [Premier]. Malenkov proposed that Beria be appointed his first deputy." Khrushchev, who was made in effect First Party Secretary on the Central Committee, had far higher ambitions. But he and his main ally, Minister of Defense Nikolai Bulganin, had to bide their time. "If Bulganin and I had objected, we would have been accused of starting a fight before the corpse was cold...
...long, however, before Khrushchev began lining up other allies for a showdown. He took Malenkov aside and told him: "We're heading for disaster. Beria is sharpening his knives." When Malenkov asked what could be done, Khrushchev replied, "The time has come to resist...
...point to take a nap during the day; anyone who grew drowsy at Stalin's table was not likely to remain in the dictator's favor for long, Khrushchev explains. Moreover, Stalin's soirees included a good deal of heavy drinking: Khrushchev recalls that Beria, Georgi Malenkov and Anastas Mikoyan once had to arrange to be served colored water rather than wine because they could not match Stalin's capacity. Stalin, says Khrushchev, "found the humiliation of others very amusing. Once Stalin made me dance the gopak [a Ukrainian folk dance] before some top party officials...