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148-601: The Thaw became possible after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. First Secretary Khrushchev denounced former General Secretary Stalin in the "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party , then ousted the Stalinists during his power struggle in the Kremlin . The Thaw was highlighted by Khrushchev's 1954 visit to Beijing , China , his 1955 visit to Belgrade , Yugoslavia (with whom relations had soured since

296-463: A moment of silence was observed nationwide at noon Moscow time. As the bells of the Kremlin Clock chimed the hour, sirens and horns wailed nationwide, along with a 21-gun salute fired from within the precincts of the Kremlin . Similar observances were also held in other Eastern Bloc countries including Mongolia , China and North Korea. Immediately after the silence ended, a military band played

444-847: A "minute of silence". At the request of President Eisenhower , Secretary of State John Foster Dulles transmitted a message of condolence through the American Embassy to the Soviet Foreign Ministry. After Stalin's death, Patriarch Alexy I composed a personal statement of condolence to the Soviet Council of Ministers : "His death is a heavy grief for our Fatherland and for all the people who inhabit it. The whole Russian Orthodox Church, which will never forget his benevolent attitude to Church needs, feels great sorrow at his death. The bright memory of him will live ineradicably in our hearts. Our Church proclaims eternal memory to him with

592-508: A doctor was tacitly supported (or at least not opposed) by the rest of the Politburo, which was rudderless without Stalin's micromanagement and paralysed by a legitimate fear that he would suddenly recover and take reprisals on anyone who had dared to act without his orders. Stalin's suspicion of doctors in the wake of the Doctors' Plot was well known at the time of his sickness; his private physician

740-497: A fatal end." As summarized above, rather than suggesting a plot by Beria, on whom suspicion fell for his purportedly telling Molotov that he "took him out" at one point, and his seemingly willful delay in obtaining medical treatment for Stalin, the physical changes seen during autopsy were consistent with extracranial changes that often occur in stroke victims. Beria's son, Sergo Beria, later recounted that after Stalin's death, his mother Nina told her husband that, "Your position now

888-545: A glass of poisoned wine. They attended the opera after the dinner, watching the play Mzetchabuki ( მზეჭაბუკი ; "Sun-boy" in Georgian). During the performance Lakoba showed the first signs of his poisoning and returned to his hotel room, where he died early the next morning. Officially, Lakoba was said to have died of a heart attack , though a previous medical examination in Moscow had showed he had arteriosclerosis (thickening of

1036-485: A good impression. He is a good organizer, an efficient, capable functionary." But according to Stalin's daughter Svetlana : He was a magnificent specimen of the artful courtier, the embodiment of Oriental perfidy, flattery and hypocrisy who had succeed in confounding even my father, a man whom it was ordinarily difficult to deceive. A good deal that this monster did is now a blot on my father's name. In October 1931, when Stalin proposed to appoint Beria Second Secretary of

1184-495: A hand against the will of our people, against the will of the party of Lenin and Stalin, will be mercilessly crushed and destroyed." On 20 July, he wrote to Stalin to report that he had had 200 people shot, was about to submit a list of another 350 who were also to be shot, and that Shalva Eliava , Lavrenty Kartvelishvili , Maria Orakhelashvili (wife of Mamia Orakhelashvili ) and numerous others had all confessed to counter-revolutionary activities but Mamia Orakhelashvili himself

1332-481: A known history of uncontrolled hypertension , had sustained a hemorrhagic stroke involving the left middle cerebral artery . Over the next two days he received a variety of treatments. In an attempt to decrease his blood pressure, which had risen to 210/120, two separate applications of eight leeches each were applied to his neck and face over the next two days. However, Stalin's condition continued to deteriorate and he died at 9:50 p.m. on 5 March 1953. His death

1480-518: A liberating activity, connoting resistance, opposition, or protest of some sort", some critics claim that rather than taking an active role in opposing Soviet power, composers of unofficial music simply "withdrew" from the demands of the socialist realist music and chose to ignore the norms of the system. Although Westerners tend to categorize unofficial composers as "dissidents" against the Soviet system, many of these composers were afraid to take action against

1628-712: A new campaign launched in 1959. Khrushchev closed around 11000 of the 20000 working church buildings that were around in 1959 and introduced many restrictions on all kinds of denominations. Of the 1500 working mosques in 1959, he closed around 1100. The era of the Cultural Thaw ended in December 1962 after the Manege Affair . Censorship of the arts relaxed throughout the Soviet Union. During this time of liberalization, Russian composers, performers, and listeners of music experienced

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1776-453: A newfound openness in musical expression which led to the foundation of an unofficial music scene from the mid-1950s to the 1970s. Despite these liberalizing reforms in music, some have argued that Khrushchev's legislation of the arts was based more his own personal tastes than the principle of freedom of expression. Following the emergence of some unconventional, avant-garde music as a result of his reforms, on 8 March 1963, Khrushchev delivered

1924-637: A policy of "Georgification". In the months that followed Lakoba's death, members of his family were implicated on charges against the state. His two brothers were arrested on 9 April 1937, and his mother and Sariya were arrested on 23 August of that year. A trial of thirteen members of Lakoba's family was conducted between 30 October and 3 November 1937 in Sukhumi, with charges including counter-revolutionary activities, subversion and sabotage , espionage , terrorism , and insurgent organization in Abkhazia. Nine of

2072-425: A politically motivated move to weaken the central state bureaucracy in 1957, Khrushchev replaced the industrial ministries in Moscow with regional Councils of People's Economy, sovnarkhozes , making himself many new enemies among the ranks in Soviet government. Khrushchev's power, although indisputable, had never been comparable to that of Stalin's, and eventually began to fade. Many of the new officials who came into

2220-567: A result of Khrushchev's theory of peaceful co-existence which believed the two superpowers (USA and USSR) and their ideologies could co-exist together, without war. Khrushchev had created the theory of peaceful existence in an attempt to reduce hostility between the two superpowers. He tried to prove peaceful coexistence by attending international peace conferences, such as the Geneva Summit, and by traveling internationally, such as his trip to USA's Camp David in 1959. This spirit of co-operation

2368-404: A significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union in the war through his organisation of wartime production and his use of partisans. Abroad, Beria had met with Kim Il Sung , the future leader of North Korea, several times when the Soviet troops had declared war on Japan and occupied the northern half of Korea from August 1945. Beria recommended that Stalin install a communist leader in

2516-454: A significant influence on the public consciousness of several generations of people in the Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev , who succeeded Khrushchev, put an end to the Thaw. The 1965 economic reform of Alexei Kosygin was de facto discontinued by the end of the 1960s, while the trial of the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky in 1966—the first such public trial since Stalin's reign—and

2664-591: A simple redenomination of the rouble at 10:1 in 1961. In 1961, Khrushchev finalized his battle against Stalin: the body of the dictator was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum on the Red Square and then buried outside the walls of the Kremlin . The removal of Stalin's body out of Lenin's Mausoleum was arguably among the most provocative moves made by Khrushchev during the Thaw. The removal of Stalin's body consolidated pro-Stalinists against Khrushchev, and alienated even his loyal apprentices, such as Leonid Brezhnev . After

2812-483: A small number of his inner circle, consisting of Lavrentiy Beria , Nikita Khrushchev , Georgy Malenkov , Vyacheslav Molotov and a few others, gathered together for an evening of entertainment and drinking. After the guests dispersed at approximately 4:00 a.m. on 1 March, Stalin retired to his private quarters with strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed until sounds were heard indicating that he had awakened. Time passed and no sounds were heard throughout

2960-435: A special feeling of abiding love." Alexy I also gave a eulogy on the day of Stalin's funeral. Other Orthodox officials, including Nicholas (Yarushevich) , attended the funeral and mourned for Stalin. Stalin left neither a designated successor nor a framework within which a peaceful transfer of power could take place. The Central Committee met on the day of his death, after which Malenkov, Beria, and Khrushchev emerged as

3108-1019: A speech which began to reverse some of his de-Stalinization reforms, in which he stated: "We flatly reject this cacophonous music. Our people can't use this garbage as a tool for their ideology. ... Society has a right to condemn works which are contrary to the interests of the people." Although the Thaw was considered a time of openness and liberalization, Khrushchev continued to place restrictions on these newfound freedoms. Nonetheless, despite Khrushchev's inconsistent liberalization of musical expression, his speeches were not so much "restrictions" as "exhortations". Artists, and especially musicians, were provided access to resources that had previously been censored or altogether inaccessible prior to Khrushchev's reforms. The composers of this time, for example, were able to access scores by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Pierre Boulez , gaining inspiration from and imitating previously concealed musical scores. As Soviet composers gained access to new scores and were given

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3256-492: A taste of freedom of expression during the late 1950s, two separate groups began to emerge. One group wrote predominantly "official" music which was "sanctioned, nourished, and supported by the Composers' Union". The second group wrote "unofficial", "left", "avant-garde", or "underground" music, marked by a general state of opposition against the Soviet Union. Although both groups are widely considered to be interdependent, many regard

3404-461: A wave of rehabilitations . This action officially restored the reputations of many millions of innocent victims, who were killed or imprisoned in the Great Purge under Stalin. Further, tentative moves were made through official and unofficial channels to relax restrictions on freedom of speech that had been held over from the rule of Stalin. Khrushchev's 1956 speech was the strongest effort ever in

3552-507: Is even more precarious than when Stalin was alive." This turned out to be correct; several months later, in June 1953, Beria was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes but, significantly, none relating to Stalin's death. He was subsequently found guilty of treason , terrorism and counter-revolutionary activity by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953, and executed

3700-532: Is sharpening his knives". Khrushchev opposed the alliance between Beria and Malenkov, but he was initially unable to challenge them. Khrushchev's opportunity came in June 1953 when a spontaneous uprising against the East German communist regime broke out in East Berlin . Based on Beria's statements, other leaders suspected that in the wake of the uprising, he would consider trading the reunification of Germany and

3848-455: Is that Khrushchev prepared an elaborate ambush, convening a meeting of the Presidium on 26 June, where he suddenly launched a scathing attack on Beria, accusing him of being a traitor and spy in the pay of British intelligence agencies . Beria was taken completely by surprise. He asked, "What's going on, Nikita Sergeyevich? Why are you picking fleas in my trousers?" When Beria finally realised what

3996-542: The Anti-Party Group and won a vote which reaffirmed his position as First Secretary. He then expelled Molotov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov from the Secretariat and ultimately from the Communist Party itself. Khrushchev's attempts in reforming the Soviet industrial infrastructure led to his clashes with professionals in most branches of the Soviet economy. His reform of administrative organization caused him more problems. In

4144-750: The Cheka in 1920, and quickly rose through its ranks. He transferred to Communist Party work in the Caucasus in the 1930s, and in 1938 was appointed head of the NKVD by Stalin. His ascent marked the end of the Stalinist Great Purge carried out by previous chief Nikolai Yezhov , whom Beria purged. After the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Beria organized the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia, and after

4292-606: The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. At that time, the Soviet and international media were making two completely opposite pictures of reality, while the world was at the brink of a nuclear war . Although direct communication between Khrushchev and the US president John F. Kennedy helped to end the crisis, Khrushchev's political image in the West was damaged. Khrushchev's Thaw caused unprecedented social, cultural and economic transformations in

4440-654: The Gestapo–NKVD Third Conference was held in Zakopane , Beria sent a note (No. 794/B) to Stalin in which he stated that the Polish prisoners of war kept at camps and prisons in western Belarus and Ukraine were enemies of the Soviet Union, and recommended their execution. Most of them were military officers, but there were also intelligentsia, doctors, priests, and others in a total of 22,000 people. With Stalin's approval, Beria's NKVD executed them in what became known as

4588-678: The Katyn massacre . From October 1940 to February 1942, the NKVD under Beria carried out a new purge of the Red Army and related industries. In February 1941, Beria became deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars , and in June, following Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union , he became a member of the State Defense Committee (GKO). During the Second World War , he took on major domestic responsibilities and mobilised

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4736-542: The Kremlin and introduced to Stalin in 1952. Then Khrushchev promoted Brezhnev to Presidium (Politburo) and made him the Head of Political Directorate of the Red Army and Navy and moved him up to several other powerful positions. Brezhnev in return helped Khrushchev by tipping the balance of power during several critical confrontations with the conservative hard-liners, including the ouster of pro-Stalinists headed by Molotov and Malenkov. Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his speech On

4884-481: The Kremlin . Stalin's death prevented a final purge of Old Bolsheviks Mikoyan and Molotov, for which Stalin had been laying the groundwork in the year prior to his death. Shortly after Stalin's death, Beria announced triumphantly to the Politburo that he had "done [Stalin] in" and "saved [us] all", according to Molotov's memoirs. The assertion that Stalin was poisoned by Beria's associates has been supported by Edvard Radzinsky and other authors. From 1939 to 1953,

5032-613: The Ministry of Internal Affairs and a First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers , and formed a troika with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov which briefly led the country in Stalin's place. In June 1953, a coup d'état by Nikita Khrushchev , with the support of other members of the leadership and Marshal Georgy Zhukov , removed Beria from power. He was arrested, tried for treason and other offences, and executed in December. Beria

5180-674: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (the nominal head of state ). Beria undertook some measures of liberalisation immediately after Stalin's death. He reorganised the MVD and drastically reduced its economic power and penal responsibilities. A number of costly construction projects, such as the Salekhard–Igarka Railway , were scrapped, and the remaining industrial enterprises became affiliated under other economic ministries. The Gulag system

5328-464: The Red Army captured the city on 28 April 1920, he was saved from execution because there was not enough time to arrange his shooting and replacement; it may also have been that Sergei Kirov intervened. While in prison, Beria formed a connection with Nina Gegechkori (1905–1991), his cellmate's niece, and they eloped on a train. In 1919, at the age of 20, Beria started his career in state security when

5476-580: The Soviet Communist Party . Khrushchev's denouncement of Stalin came as a shock to the Soviet people. Many in Georgia , Stalin's homeland, especially the young generation, bred on the panegyrics and permanent praise of the "genius" of Stalin, perceived it as a national insult. In March 1956, a series of spontaneous rallies to mark the third anniversary of Stalin's death quickly evolved into an uncontrollable mass demonstration and political demands such as

5624-501: The Soviet Poison Laboratory was under the direct supervision of Beria and his deputy Vsevolod Merkulov . According to Radzinsky, Stalin was poisoned by a senior bodyguard. Beria's son, Sergo Beria, later recounted that after Stalin's death, his mother Nina told her husband that, "Your position now is even more precarious than when Stalin was alive." Some authors have claimed that Stalin "may have been poisoned" using

5772-780: The Soviet State Anthem , and then a military parade of the Moscow Garrison was held in Stalin's honor. In their efforts to pay their respects to Stalin, a number of Soviet citizens, many of whom had travelled from across the country to attend the funeral, were crushed and trampled to death in a crowd crush . They were crushed against building walls and Soviet Army trucks, which had been deployed to block off side streets. Mourners, along with mounted police and their horses, were trampled to death in Trubnaya Square  [ ru ] . The Soviet government did not initially report

5920-737: The Tito–Stalin Split in 1948), and his subsequent meeting with Dwight Eisenhower later that year, culminating in Khrushchev's 1959 visit to the United States . The Thaw allowed some freedom of information in the media , arts , and culture ; international festivals; foreign films; uncensored books; and new forms of entertainment on the emerging national TV , ranging from massive parades and celebrations to popular music and variety shows, satire and comedies, and all-star shows like Goluboy Ogonyok . Such political and cultural updates altogether had

6068-792: The Transcaucasian SFSR OGPU. In December 1926, he was appointed Chairman of the Georgian OGPU, and deputy chairman for the Transcaucasian OGPU. Beria and Joseph Stalin first met in summer 1931, when Stalin took a six-week rest in Tsqaltubo , and Beria took personal charge of his security. Stalin was unimpressed by most of the local party leaders, chosen by the former Georgian party boss, Sergo Ordzhonikidze , but writing to Lazar Kaganovich in August 1932, Stalin commented that "Beria makes

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6216-763: The Victory Parade in May 1945, and a severe heart attack in October 1945. The last three days of Stalin's life have been described in detail, first in the official Soviet announcements in Pravda , and then in a complete English translation which followed shortly thereafter in The Current Digest of the Soviet Press . Decades later, former senior officer and historian Dmitry Volkogonov described how, on 28 February 1953, Stalin and

6364-522: The anticoagulant warfarin , although others have argued that "the description we have of Stalin's illness does not match the appearance or timeline of patients that experience severe warfarin or warfarin-related overdoses." Furthermore, towards the end of his life, Stalin was "obsessive about the possibility of being poisoned", and that given his paranoia, "it is difficult to imagine a scenario where Beria or another conspirator could have slipped an anticoagulant into his drink." After Stalin's death, Beria

6512-526: The invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 signaled the reversal of Soviet liberalization . Khrushchev's Thaw had its genesis in the concealed power struggle among Stalin's lieutenants. Several major leaders among the Red Army commanders, such as Marshal Georgy Zhukov and his loyal officers, had some serious tensions with Stalin's secret service. On the surface, the Red Army and the Soviet leadership seemed united after their victory in World War II . However,

6660-449: The occupation of the Baltic states and parts of Romania in 1940, he oversaw the deportations of hundreds of thousands of Poles, Balts, and Romanians to remote areas or Gulag camps. In 1941, Beria began a new purge of the Red Army . After Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union later that year, he was appointed to the State Defense Committee , overseeing security. Beria expanded

6808-450: The 1970s. However, despite the powerful role that unofficial music played in the Soviet Union during the Thaw, much of the music that was composed during that time continued to be controlled. As a result of this, a great deal of this unofficial music remains undocumented. Consequently, much of what we know now about unofficial music in the Thaw can be sourced only through interviews with those composers, performers, and listeners who witnessed

6956-472: The Body of J. V. Stalin" Pathologic examination revealed a large hemorrhage, localized to the area of subcortical centers of the left cerebral hemisphere. This hemorrhage destroyed important areas of the brain and resulted in irreversible changes in the respiration and circulation. In addition to the brain hemorrhage, there were found significant hypertrophy of the left ventricle (of the heart), numerous hemorrhages in

7104-549: The Cult of Personality and Its Consequences , delivered at the closed session of the 20th Party Congress , behind closed doors, after midnight on 25 February 1956. After the delivery of the speech, it was officially disseminated in a shorter form among members of the Soviet Communist Party across the USSR starting 5 March 1956. Together with his ally Anastas Mikoyan and a small but prominent group of Gulag returnees, Khrushchev also initiated

7252-682: The Georgian Communist Party Central Committee and Second Secretary of the Transcaucasian party, the First Secretary Lavrenty Kartvelishvili exclaimed: "I refuse to work with that charlatan!" Ordzhonikidze also objected to the promotion. Kartvelishvili was replaced by Mamia Orakhelashvili , who wrote to Stalin and Ordzhonikidze in August 1932 asking to be allowed to resign because he could not work with Beria as his deputy. On 9 October 1932, Beria

7400-669: The Georgian SSR. Beria ordered the executions of Devdariani's brothers George and Shalva. In 1935, Beria cemented his place in Stalin's entourage with a lengthy oration titled, "On the History of the Bolshevik Organisations in Transcaucasia" (later published as a book), which emphasised Stalin's role. It quoted from what purported to be police reports from early in the century, which identified Stalin, under his real name Jugashvili, as

7548-564: The MGB to counter Beria's dominance of the power ministries. Kruglov and Abakumov moved expeditiously to replace Beria's men in the security apparatus with new people. Very soon, Deputy Minister Stepan Mamulov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) was the only close Beria ally left outside foreign intelligence, on which Beria kept a grip. In the following months, Abakumov started carrying out important operations without consulting Beria, often working with Zhdanov, and on Stalin's direct orders. One of

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7696-507: The Moscow branch of the Communist Party ; Lavrentiy Beria , head of the NKVD ; Georgy Malenkov , the chairman of the Presidium ; and Vyacheslav Molotov , previously the Soviet Union's Minister of Foreign Affairs . Joseph Stalin's health had begun to deteriorate towards the end of the Second World War . He had atherosclerosis as a result of heavy smoking, a mild stroke around the time of

7844-469: The Moscow metro, which he denied: Beria hit me in the face. After that, I was given 30 minutes to think in the next room, next to his office, from where the screams and groans of the beaten could be heard. An hour later, called to the office, I was met with the words of Kobulov: "What shall we start beating?" In March 1939, Beria was appointed as a candidate member of the Communist Party's Politburo . Although he did not rise to full membership until 1946, he

7992-457: The NKVD carried out the Great Purge : the imprisonment or execution of a huge number, possibly over a million, of citizens throughout the Soviet Union as alleged " enemies of the people ". By 1938, however, the oppression had become so extensive that it was damaging the infrastructure, economy and even the armed forces of the Soviet state, prompting Stalin to wind the purge down. In September, Beria

8140-683: The NKVD while retaining general control over national security matters as Deputy Prime Minister and Curator of the Organs of State Security under Stalin. However, the new NKVD chief, Sergei Kruglov , was not a supporter of Beria. Also by the summer of 1946 Beria's man, Vsevolod Merkulov , was replaced as head of the Ministry for State Security (MGB) by Viktor Abakumov . Abakumov had headed SMERSH from 1943 to 1946; his relationship with Beria involved close collaboration (since Abakumov owed his rise to Beria's support and esteem) but also rivalry. Stalin had begun to encourage Abakumov to form his own network inside

8288-774: The No. 1 person he wanted to "eliminate". During the postwar years, Beria supervised the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and chose their Soviet-backed leaders. Starting in 1948, Abakumov initiated several investigations against these leaders, which culminated with the arrest in November 1952 of Rudolf Slánský , Bedřich Geminder and others in Czechoslovakia . These men were frequently accused of Zionism , " rootless cosmopolitanism ", and providing weapons to Israel. Such charges deeply disturbed Beria, as he had directly ordered

8436-531: The Party secretary." Within days, Khrushchev persuaded the other leaders to support a coup d'etat against Beria. Beria, as first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and an influential Politburo member, saw himself as Stalin's successor, while wider Politburo members had contrasting thoughts on future leadership. On 26 June 1953, Beria was arrested and held in an undisclosed location near Moscow. Accounts of his downfall vary considerably. The historical consensus

8584-404: The Politburo issued a decree formally removing him from his posts as a "traitor and capitalist agent" and accused him and his co-defendants of attempting to place the MVD above the party in a bid to seize power and liquidate the Soviet regime. A Pravda editorial on 10 July repeated these charges and made a number of further accusations, claiming that Beria had caused food shortages by undermining

8732-476: The Soviet satellite states in Europe. </ref> Beria said of East Germany, "It is not even a real state but one kept in being only by Soviet troops." The East German uprising convinced Molotov, Malenkov and Bulganin that Beria's policies were dangerous and destabilizing to Soviet power. On 21 June 1953, Khrushchev was contacted by MVD Chief Timofei Strokach, a wartime colleague of his, who warned him that Beria

8880-473: The Soviet Union, which was opening its doors for the first time to the world. The festival attracted 34,000 people from 130 countries. In 1958, the first International Tchaikovsky Competition was held in Moscow. The winner was American pianist Van Cliburn , who gave sensational performances of Russian music. Khrushchev personally approved giving the top award to the American musician. Khrushchev's Thaw opened

9028-527: The Soviet Union. The 60s generation actually started in the 1950s, with their uncensored poetry, songs and books publications. Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin , second leader of the Soviet Union , died on 5 March 1953 at his Kuntsevo Dacha after suffering a stroke , at age 74. He was given a state funeral in Moscow on 9 March, with four days of national mourning declared. On

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9176-426: The Soviet Union. Upon Stalin's orders many were arrested and punished again, including the attacks on the popular Marshal Georgy Zhukov and other top generals, who had exceeded the limits on taking trophies when they looted the defeated nation of Germany. The loot was confiscated by Stalin's security apparatus, and Marshal Zhukov was demoted, humiliated and exiled; he became a staunch anti-Stalinist. Zhukov waited until

9324-404: The Soviet collective farm system, and claimed his policies of liberalization (in which a number of Russian officials in Latvia were dismissed from their posts) were meant to incite ethnic hatred and undermine the friendship of the Soviet people. Vyacheslav Malyshev succeeded Beria as head of the Soviet nuclear weapons project. After a review of project documentation during the summer of 1953 it

9472-459: The Soviet hierarchy, such as Mikhail Gorbachev , were younger, better educated, and more independent thinkers. In 1956, Khrushchev introduced the concept of a minimum wage. The idea was met with much criticism from communist hardliners, who claimed that the minimum wage was too low and that most people were still underpaid in reality. The next step was a contemplated financial reform. However, Khrushchev stopped short of real monetary reform, and made

9620-549: The Soviet hierarchy, which allowed Khrushchev to execute, or remove his main opponents, and then introduce some changes in the rigid Soviet ideology and hierarchy. Stalin's leadership had reached new extremes in ruling people at all levels, such as the deportations of nationalities , the Leningrad Affair , the Doctors' plot , and official criticisms of writers and other intellectuals. At the same time, millions of soldiers and officers had seen Europe after World War II and had become aware of different ways of life which existed outside

9768-532: The Soviet political elite. In 1953, Zhukov helped Khrushchev to eliminate Lavrenty Beria , then a First Vice-Premier , who was promptly executed in Moscow, as well as several other figures of Stalin's circle. Soon Khrushchev ordered the release of millions of political prisoners from the Gulag camps. Under Khrushchev's rule the number of prisoners in the Soviet Union was decreased, according to some writers, from 13 million to 5 million people. Khrushchev also promoted and groomed Leonid Brezhnev , whom he brought to

9916-416: The Soviet press began an anti-Semitic propaganda campaign, euphemistically termed the "struggle against rootless cosmopolitanism". Initially, 37 men were arrested, but the number quickly grew into hundreds. Scores of Soviet Jews were dismissed from their jobs, arrested, sent to the Gulag, or executed. The "plot" was presumably invented by Stalin. A few days after Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, Beria freed all

10064-413: The Soviet society to a degree that allowed some foreign movies, books, art and music. Some previously banned writers and composers, such as Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko , among others, were brought back to public life, as the official Soviet censorship policies had changed. Books by some internationally recognized authors, such as Ernest Hemingway , were published in millions of copies to satisfy

10212-426: The Soviet style: Moscow hosted large sports teams and groups of fans in national costumes who came from all Union republics . Khrushchev used the event to accentuate his new political and social goals, and to show himself as a new leader who was completely different from Stalin. In July 1957, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. It was the first World Festival of Youth and Students held in

10360-448: The Soviet system were immediately implemented. Economic reform scaled back the mass construction projects, placed a new emphasis on house building, and eased the levels of taxation on the peasantry to stimulate production. The new leaders sought rapprochement with Yugoslavia and a less hostile relationship with the U.S., and they pursued a negotiated end to the Korean War in July 1953. The doctors who had been imprisoned were released and

10508-510: The Stalinists attempted to oust Khrushchev from the leadership position in the Soviet Communist Party . Khrushchev's enemies considered him hypocritical as well as ideologically wrong, given Khrushchev's involvement in Stalin's Great Purges , and other similar events as one of Stalin's favorites. They believed that Khrushchev's policy of peaceful coexistence would leave the Soviet Union open to attack. Vyacheslav Molotov , Lazar Kaganovich , Georgy Malenkov , and Dmitri Shepilov , who joined at

10656-490: The USSR and peaceful coexistence theory and also because of US President Eisenhower 's cautious attitude and peace attempts. For example, both leaders attempted to achieve peace by attending the 1955 Geneva International Peace Summit and developing the Open Skies Policy and Quest for Arms Agreement. The leaders' attitudes allowed them to, as Khrushchev put it, "break the ice." Khrushchev's Thaw developed largely as

10804-405: The USSR to bring political change, at that time, after several decades of fear of Stalin's rule, that took countless innocent lives. Khrushchev's speech was published internationally within a few months, and his initiatives to open and liberalize the USSR had surprised the world. Khrushchev's speech had angered many of his powerful enemies, thus igniting another round of ruthless power struggle within

10952-524: The United States had been frustrated. The decision to allow Kursanov and Rybakov to attend marked the beginning of a new period of academic exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States: Columbia University repaid the visit in 1955, when it sent its own representatives to the bicentennial of Moscow State University , and by 1958 the universities had established an exchange program for students and faculty. In 1956, an agreement

11100-640: The anti-Semitic purges ceased. A mass amnesty for certain categories of convicts was issued, halving the country's inmate population, while the state security and Gulag systems were reformed, with torture being banned in April 1953. Lavrenty Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ( / ˈ b ɛ r i ʌ / ; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович Берия , IPA: [lɐˈvrʲenʲtʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ‿ˈbʲerʲɪjə] ; Georgian : ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია , romanized : Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria ; 29 March [ O.S. 17 March] 1899 – 23 December 1953)

11248-552: The arrested doctors, announced that the entire matter was fabricated, and arrested the MGB functionaries directly involved. Stalin's aide, Vasili Lozgachev, reported that Beria and Malenkov were the first members of the Politburo to see Stalin's condition when he was found unconscious. They arrived at Stalin's dacha at Kuntsevo at 03:00 on 2 March 1953, after being called by Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin . The latter two did not want to risk Stalin's wrath by entering his private rooms. Lozgachev tried to explain to Beria that

11396-495: The arteries), cardiosclerosis (thickening of the heart), and erysipelas (skin inflammation) in the left auricle that had led to his hearing loss. His body was returned to Sukhumi, though notably all the internal organs (which could have helped identify the cause of death), were removed. Lakoba was accused of "nationalist deviationism", of having helped Trotsky, and of trying to kill both Stalin and Beria. With Lakoba dead, Beria effectively took control of Abkhazia and implemented

11544-621: The assassination of Leningrad party boss Sergei Kirov (1 December 1934), Beria was one of the few regional party leaders considered ruthless enough to purge the region under his control, without outside interference. On 9 July 1936, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Armenian Communist Party , Aghasi Khanjian was found dead from a bullet wound. It was officially announced that he had committed suicide, and he

11692-620: The change of the central government in Moscow and calls for the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union appeared, leading to the Soviet army intervention and bloodshed in the streets of Tbilisi . The first big international failure of Khrushchev's politics came in October–November 1956. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed by a massive invasion of Soviet tanks and Red Army troops in Budapest. The street fighting against

11840-595: The coffin containing Stalin's body was put on display at the Hall of Columns in the House of the Unions , remaining there for three days. On 9 March, the body was delivered to Red Square prior to interment in Lenin's Mausoleum . Speeches were delivered by Khrushchev, Malenkov, Molotov and Beria, after which pallbearers carried the coffin to the mausoleum. As Stalin's body was being interred,

11988-562: The conflict, which resulted in the defeat of the Mensheviks and the formation of the Georgian SSR . Between 1922 and 1924, Beria was deputy chairman of the Georgian OGPU (as Cheka had been renamed). He then led the repression of a Georgian nationalist uprising in 1924, after which up to 10,000 people were executed. Between 1924 and 1927, he was head of the secret political department of

12136-458: The construction and operation of uranium processing plants. They also constructed test facilities, such as those at Semipalatinsk and in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. 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 . Although he had never held a traditional military command, he made

12284-497: The day of the funeral, of the hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens visiting the capital to pay their respects, at least 109 were later acknowledged to have died in a human crush . Stalin's body was embalmed and interred in Lenin's Mausoleum until 1961, when it was moved to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis . The members of Stalin's inner circle in charge of organizing his funeral were Nikita Khrushchev , then-head of

12432-512: The day. At approximately 11:00 p.m. on 1 March, Stalin's housekeeper cautiously entered his room and found him lying on the floor, wearing his pajama trousers and a shirt. He was unconscious, breathing heavily, incontinent and unresponsive to attempts to rouse him. At 7:00 a.m. on 2 March, Beria and a group of medical experts were summoned to examine Stalin. Based on their examination, which revealed blood pressure of 190/110 and right-sided hemiplegia , they concluded that Stalin, who had

12580-504: The death of Stalin, which allowed Khrushchev to bring Zhukov back for a new political battle. The temporary union between Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov was founded on their similar backgrounds, interests and weaknesses: both were peasants, both were ambitious, both were abused by Stalin, both feared the Stalinists, and both wanted to change these things. Khrushchev and Zhukov needed one another to eliminate their mutual enemies in

12728-493: The defendants, including Lakoba's two brothers, were shot on the night of 4 November. Rauf, Lakoba's 15-year-old son, tried to speak to Beria, who visited Sukhumi to view the start of the trial. He was promptly arrested as well. Sariya was taken to Tbilisi and tortured in order to extract a statement implicating Lakoba, but refused, even after Rauf was tortured in front of her. Sariya would die in prison in Tbilisi on 16 May 1939. Rauf

12876-430: The early 1950s, Soviet society enjoyed a series of cultural and sports events and entertainment of unprecedented scale, such as the first Spartakiad , as well as several innovative film comedies, such as Carnival Night , and several popular music festivals. Some classical musicians, filmmakers and ballet stars were allowed to make appearances outside the Soviet Union in order to better represent its culture and society to

13024-727: The economic chief, Nikolai Voznesensky ; the Party head in Leningrad, Pyotr Popkov ; and the Prime Minister of the Russian SFSR , Mikhail Rodionov . However, Beria was unable to purge Mikhail Suslov , whom he hated. Beria felt increasingly uncomfortable with Suslov's growing relationship with Stalin. Russian historian Roy Medvedev speculates in his book, Neizvestnyi Stalin , that Stalin had made Suslov his "secret heir". Evidently, Beria felt so threatened by Suslov that after his arrest in 1953, documents were found in his safe labelling Suslov

13172-627: The end of the Cold War for support from the United States, as had been received in the Second World War. The cost of the war still weighed heavily on the Soviet economy. Beria craved the vast financial resources that another (more sustained) relationship with the U.S. could provide. According to some later sources, he ostensibly even considered giving the Estonian , Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs "serious prospects of national autonomy", possibly similar to

13320-441: The event, and the exact number of casualties is unknown. Khrushchev later provided an estimate that 109 people died in the crowd. According to Ogoniok , the mourners included the following foreign dignitaries (listed alphabetically by last name): Czechoslovak leader Gottwald died shortly after attending Stalin's funeral, on 14 March 1953, after one of his arteries burst. Fearing their departure might encourage rivals within

13468-493: The first such moves involved the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair, which commenced in October 1946 and eventually led to the murder of Solomon Mikhoels and the arrest of many other members. After Zhdanov died in August 1948, Beria and Malenkov consolidated their power by means of a purge of Zhdanov's associates in the so-called " Leningrad Affair ". Those executed included Zhdanov's deputy, Alexey Kuznetsov ;

13616-456: The freedom to access old and new scores, especially those originating in the Western avant-garde. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, young composers such as Andrei Volkonsky and Edison Denisov , among others, developed abstract musical practices that created sounds that were new to the common listener's ear. Socialist realist music was widely considered "boring", and the unofficial concerts that

13764-473: The hidden ambitions of the top people around Stalin, as well as Stalin's own suspicions, had prompted Khrushchev that he could rely only on those few; they would stay with him through the entire political power struggle. That power struggle was surreptitiously prepared by Khrushchev while Stalin was alive, and came to surface after Stalin's death in March 1953. By that time, Khrushchev's people were planted everywhere in

13912-488: The interest of readers in the USSR. In 1962, Khrushchev personally approved the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 's story One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , which became a sensation, and made history as the first uncensored publication about Gulag labor camps. Actions against religion that had temporarily halted during the war effort and the years after toward the end of Stalin's rule intensified under Khrushchev ,

14060-413: The internal life of Poland were also perceived with fear and anger in Moscow, where the rulers did not want to lose control, fearing the political threat to Soviet security and power in Eastern Europe. A faction of the Soviet communist party was enraged by Khrushchev's speech in 1956 and rejected Khrushchev's de-Stalinization and liberalization of Soviet society. One year after Khrushchev's secret speech,

14208-589: The invaders, including the Balkars , Karachays , Chechens , Ingush , Crimean Tatars , Kalmyks , Pontic Greeks , and Volga Germans . All these groups were deported to Soviet Central Asia . In December 1944, the NKVD supervised the Soviet atomic bomb project ("Task No. 1"), which built and tested a bomb by 29 August 1949. The project was extremely labour-intensive. At least 330,000 people, including 10,000 technicians, were involved. The Gulag system provided tens of thousands of people for work in uranium mines and for

14356-582: The invading Red Army caused thousands of casualties among Hungarian civilians and militia, as well as hundreds of the Soviet military personnel killed. The attack by the Soviet Red Army also caused massive emigration from Hungary , as hundreds of thousands of Hungarians had fled as refugees. At the same time, the Polish October emerged as the political and social climax in Poland . Such democratic changes in

14504-428: The journalist Mikhail Koltsov . Some of the NKVD officers Beria promoted, such as Boris Rodos , Lev Shvartzman , and Bogdan Kobulov were brutal torturers who were executed in the 1950s. The theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold described being beaten on the spine and soles of his feet until "the pain was so intense that it felt as if boiling water was being poured on these sensitive areas." His interrogation record

14652-468: The last minute after Kaganovich convinced him the group had a majority, attempted to depose Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Party in May 1957. However, Khrushchev had used Marshal Georgy Zhukov again. Khrushchev was saved by several strong appearances in his support – especially powerful was support from both Zhukov and Mikoyan. At the extraordinary session of the Central Committee held in late June 1957, Khrushchev labeled his opponents

14800-431: The late 1960s, when the plots of the music became more apparent, and composers wrote in a more mimetic style, writing in contrast to their earlier compositions of the first phase. Throughout the musical Thaw, the generation of "young composers" who had matured their musical tastes with broader access to music that had previously been censored was the prime focus of the unofficial music scene. The Thaw allowed these composers

14948-568: The leader of the Social Democrats (Marxists) in Georgia and Azerbaijan, though as the historian Bertram Wolfe noted: "These new finds tell a different story and even speak another language from all police documents and Bolshevik reminiscences published [...] while Lenin was alive. The language sounds uncommonly like Beria's own." In the first couple of years of mass arrests of members of the Communist Party and Soviet government that began after

15096-421: The liberalization was only relative: arrests, torture and executions continued. On 16 January 1940, Beria sent Stalin a list of 457 "enemies of the people" of whom 346 were marked to be shot. They included Yezhov and his brother and nephews; Mikhail Frinovsky and his wife and teenage son, Yefim Yevdokimov and his wife and teenage son, and dozens more former NKVD officers, and the renowned writer Isaac Babel and

15244-568: The millions of people imprisoned in NKVD Gulag camps into wartime production. He took control of the manufacture of armaments, and (with Georgy Malenkov ) aircraft and aircraft engines. This was the beginning of Beria's alliance with Malenkov, which later became of central importance. In 1944, as the Soviet Union had repelled the German invasion, Beria was placed in charge of the various ethnic minorities accused of anti-sovietism and/or collaboration with

15392-400: The myocardium, in the stomach and intestinal mucosa; atherosclerotic changes in the vessels, more prominent in the cerebral arteries. These are the result of hypertension. The results of the pathologic examination revealed the irreversible character of J.V. Stalin's disease from the moment of brain hemorrhage. Therefore, all treatment attempts could not have led to a favorable outcome and prevent

15540-486: The occupied territories. With Stalin nearing 70, a concealed struggle for succession amongst his entourage dominated Soviet politics. At the end of the war, Andrei Zhdanov , who had served as the Communist Party leader in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during the war, seemed the most likely candidate. After 1946, Beria formed an alliance with Malenkov to counter Zhdanov's rise. In January 1946, Beria resigned as chief of

15688-499: The party's dominant figures. The system of collective leadership was restored, and measures introduced to prevent any one member from attaining autocratic domination. The collective leadership included eight senior members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , namely Georgy Malenkov , Lavrentiy Beria , Vyacheslav Molotov , Kliment Voroshilov , Nikita Khrushchev , Nikolai Bulganin , Lazar Kaganovich and Anastas Mikoyan . Reforms to

15836-409: The production of this music, composers, performers, and listeners of "unofficial" music actually used "official" means of production. Rather, the music was considered unofficial within a context that counteracted, contradicted, and redefined the socialist realist requirements from within their official means and spaces. Unofficial music emerged in two distinct phases. The first phase of unofficial music

15984-522: The ranks of the Party of Labour of Albania , neither Prime Minister Enver Hoxha nor Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu risked traveling to Moscow to attend the funeral, with Hoxha instead pledging eternal allegiance to the late Soviet leader. Guatemalan officials in the government of Jacobo Árbenz eulogized Stalin as a "great statesman and leader ... whose passing is mourned by all progressive men". The Guatemalan Congress paid tribute to Stalin with

16132-447: The room, he broke the sombre atmosphere by shouting loudly for his driver, his voice echoing with what Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva called "the ring of triumph unconcealed". Alliluyeva noticed how the Politburo seemed openly frightened of Beria and unnerved by his bold display of ambition. "He's off to take power," Mikoyan recalled muttering to Khrushchev. That prompted a "frantic" dash for their own limousines to intercept him at

16280-448: The sale of large amounts of Czech arms to Israel. Altogether, fourteen Czechoslovak communist leaders, eleven of them Jewish, were tried, convicted and executed as part of Soviet policy to woo Arab nationalists, which culminated in the major Czech–Egyptian arms deal of 1955. The Doctors' Plot began in 1951, when a number of the country's prominent Jewish physicians were accused of poisoning top Soviet leaders and arrested. Concurrently,

16428-414: The same day, shot by General Pavel Batitsky . Some historians have conjectured that Stalin was murdered; Beria has been accused of poisoning him, but no firm evidence has appeared. According to a theory developed by historians Vladimir Naumov and Jonathan Brent , based on mentions of stomach hemorrhaging excised from his autopsy, Stalin was poisoned with warfarin , most likely by Beria. On 6 March,

16576-588: The security service of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic hired him while he was still a student at the Polytechnicum. In 1920, he was enlisted in Cheka , the original Bolshevik secret police by Mir Jafar Baghirov . At that time, a Bolshevik revolt took place in the Menshevik -controlled Democratic Republic of Georgia , and the Red Army subsequently invaded . The Cheka became heavily involved in

16724-457: The system in fear that it might have a negative impact on their professional advancement. Many composers favored a less direct, yet significant method of opposing the system through their lack of musical compliance. Regardless of the intentions of the composers, the effect of their music on audiences throughout the Soviet Union and abroad "helped audiences imagine alternative possibilities to those suggested by Soviet authorities, principally through

16872-534: The system of forced labour, mobilizing millions of Gulag prisoners into wartime production. He also was in charge of NKVD units responsible for barrier and partisan intelligence and sabotage operations on the Eastern Front . In 1943–1944, Beria oversaw the mass deportations of millions of ethnic minorities from the Caucasus , actions which have been described by many scholars as ethnic cleansing or genocide . Beria

17020-505: The traditional policy of Russification and encouraged local officials to assert their own identities. He first turned to Georgia, where Stalin's fabricated Mingrelian affair was called off and the republic's key posts were filled by pro-Beria Georgians. Beria's policies of granting more autonomy to the Ukrainian SSR alarmed Khrushchev, for whom Ukraine was a power base. Khrushchev then tried to draw Malenkov to his side, warning that "Beria

17168-609: The trial ended. Beria was executed separately; he allegedly pleaded on his knees before collapsing to the floor wailing. He was shot through the forehead by General Pavel Batitsky . His final moments bore great similarity to those of his own predecessor , Nikolai Yezhov , who begged for his life before his execution in 1940. Beria's body was cremated and the remains buried in Communal Grave No. 3 at Donskoi Monastery Cemetery in Moscow. Beria's personal archive (said to have included "compromising" material on his former colleagues)

17316-645: The trunk of a car. He was taken first to the Moscow guardhouse and then to the bunker of the headquarters of Moscow Military District . Defence Minister Bulganin ordered the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division and Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division to move into Moscow to prevent security forces loyal to Beria from rescuing him. Many of Beria's subordinates, proteges and associates were also arrested and later executed, among them Merkulov, Bogdan Kobulov , Sergey Goglidze , Vladimir Dekanozov , Pavel Meshik , and Lev Vlodzimirsky . Following Beria's arrest,

17464-422: The ubiquitous stylistic tropes of socialist realism". Although the music of the younger generation of unofficial Soviet composers experienced little widespread success in the West, its success within the Soviet Union was apparent throughout the Thaw (Schwarz 423). Even after Khrushchev's fall from power in October 1964, the freedoms that composers, performers, and listeners felt through unofficial concerts lasted into

17612-406: The unconscious Stalin (still in his soiled clothing) was "sick and needed medical attention". Beria angrily dismissed his claims as panic-mongering and quickly left, ordering him, "Don't bother us, don't cause a panic and don't disturb Comrade Stalin!" Alexsei Rybin, Stalin's bodyguard, recalled, "No one wanted to telephone Beria, since most of the personal bodyguards hated Beria". Calling a doctor

17760-449: The uneasy silence following the cessation of Stalin's last agonies, he was the first to dart forward to kiss his lifeless form (a move likened by Montefiore to "wrenching a dead King's ring off his finger"). While the rest of Stalin's inner circle (even Molotov, saved from certain liquidation) stood sobbing unashamedly over the body, Beria reportedly appeared "radiant", "regenerated" and "glistening with ill-concealed relish". When Beria left

17908-409: The unofficial music scene as more independent and politically influential than the former in the context of the Thaw. The unofficial music that emerged during the Thaw was marked by the attempt, whether successful or unsuccessful, to reinterpret and reinvigorate the "battle of form and content" of the classical music of the period. Although the term "unofficial" implies a level of illegality involved in

18056-511: The unofficial music scene during the Thaw. The death of Stalin in 1953 and the twentieth CPSU congress of February 1956 had a huge impact throughout Eastern Europe. Literary thaws actually preceded the congress in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria , and the GDR and later burgeoned briefly in Czechoslovakia and Chairman Mao 's China . With the exception of the arch Stalinist and anti-Titoist Albania , Romania

18204-597: The world. The first Soviet academics to visit the United States in an official capacity following World War II were biochemist Andrey Kursanov and historian Boris Rybakov , who attended the Columbia University Bicentennial in New York City as representatives of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union . Earlier attempts by American institutions, such as Princeton in 1946, to invite Soviet scholars to

18352-454: The young composers presented allowed the listeners "a means of circumventing, reinterpreting, and undercutting the dominant socialist realist aesthetic codes". Despite the seemingly rebellious nature of the unofficial music of the Thaw, historians' debate whether the unofficial music that emerged during this time should truly be considered as resistance to the Soviet system. While a number of participants in unofficial concerts "claimed them to be

18500-495: Was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin 's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 to 1946, during the country's involvement in the Second World War . Beria was also a prolific sexual predator , who serially raped scores of girls and young women, and murdered some of his victims. An ethnic Georgian , Beria enlisted in

18648-768: Was a widow before marrying Beria's father, Pavle Beria (1872–1922), a landowner in Sukhumi Okrug, from the Mingrelian ethnic group. Beria attended a technical school in Sukhumi, and later claimed to have joined the Bolsheviks in March 1917 while a student in the Baku Polytechnicum (subsequently known as the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy ). Beria had earlier worked for the anti-Bolshevik Mussavatists in Baku . After

18796-553: Was achieved between the Soviet and US Governments to resume the publication and distribution in the Soviet Union of the US-produced magazine Amerika , and to launch its counterpart, the USSR magazine in the US. In the summer of 1956, just a few months after Khrushchev's secret speech, Moscow became the center of the first Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR . The event was made pompous in

18944-532: Was also responsible for supervising secret Gulag detention facilities for scientists and engineers, known as sharashkas . From 1945, he personally oversaw the Soviet atomic bomb project , which Stalin gave absolute priority; the project's first nuclear device was completed in 1949. After the war, Beria was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1945, and promoted to a full member of the Politburo in 1946. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria became head of

19092-494: Was announced the next day on Radio Moscow by Yuri Levitan . Stalin's body was then taken to an unspecified location and an autopsy performed, after which it was embalmed for public viewing. Attempts to locate and access the original autopsy report were unsuccessful until the 2010s, but the most important findings were reported in a special bulletin in Pravda on 7 March 1953, as follows: "Pathological-Anatomical Examination of

19240-441: Was appointed First Deputy Premier and reappointed head of the MVD, which he merged with the MGB. His close ally Malenkov was the new Premier and initially the most powerful man in the post-Stalin leadership. Beria was second-most powerful, and given Malenkov's personal weakness, was poised to become the power behind the throne and ultimately leader himself. Khrushchev became Party Secretary. Kliment Voroshilov became Chairman of

19388-504: Was appointed head of the Main Administration of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD, and in November he succeeded Yezhov as NKVD head. Yezhov was executed in 1940. Beria's appointment marked an easing of the repression begun under Yezhov. Over 100,000 people were released from the labour camps. The government officially admitted that there had been some injustice and "excesses" during the purges, which were blamed entirely on Yezhov. But

19536-771: Was appointed party leader for the whole Transcaucasian region. He also retained his post as First Secretary of the Georgian CP. In 1933, he promoted his old ally, Bagirov, to the head of the Azerbaijani communist party. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1934. During this time, he began to attack fellow members of the Georgian Communist Party, particularly Gaioz Devdariani , who served as Minister of Education of

19684-545: Was being tortured in the basement of the Lubyanka for suggesting the leader required more bed rest. Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that Beria had, immediately after Stalin's stroke, gone about "spewing hatred against [Stalin] and mocking him". When Stalin showed signs of consciousness, Beria dropped to his knees and kissed his hand. When Stalin fell unconscious again, Beria immediately stood and spat. After Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, Beria's ambitions sprang into full force. In

19832-672: Was born in Merkheuli , near Sukhumi , in the Sukhum Okrug of the Kutais Governorate (now Gulripshi District , de facto Republic of Abkhazia , or Georgia , then part of the Russian Empire ). He grew up in a Georgian Orthodox family; his mother, Marta Jaqeli (1868–1955), was deeply religious and church-going. Marta was from the Guria region, descended from a noble Georgian family, and

19980-457: Was by then one of the senior leaders of the Soviet state. In 1941, he was made a Commissar General of State Security, the highest quasi-military rank within the Soviet police system of that time. In 1940, the pace of the purges accelerated again. During this period, Beria supervised deportations of people identified as "political enemies" from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after Soviet occupation of those countries. On 5 March 1940, after

20128-408: Was deferred for a full twelve hours after Stalin was rendered paralysed, incontinent and unable to speak. This decision is noted as "extraordinary" by the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore , but also consistent with the standard Stalinist policy of deferring all decision-making (no matter how crucial or obvious) without official orders from higher authority. Beria's decision to avoid immediately calling

20276-399: Was found that Beria had started thermonuclear weapons development without approval from the Central Committee, which was "shocked" by the revelation. Beria had even scratched out the signature block for Malenkov's signature and signed it himself. "Evidently Beria had been confident enough of his ascent to power to assume that he would command sole authority by the time the thermonuclear design

20424-456: Was happening and plaintively appealed to Malenkov to speak for him, Malenkov silently hung his head and pressed a button on his desk. This was an arranged signal to Marshal Georgy Zhukov and a group of armed officers in a nearby room, who burst in and arrested Beria. As Beria's men were guarding the Kremlin at the time, he was held there in a special cell until nightfall and then smuggled out in

20572-408: Was holding out, though he repeatedly fainted under interrogation and had to be revived with camphor. The evidence against all of them was found, after Beria's execution, to have consisted of false confessions extracted under torture. Reputedly, Orakhelashvili's ear drums were perforated and his eyes gouged out. In August 1938, Stalin brought Beria to Moscow as deputy head of the NKVD. Under Yezhov,

20720-427: Was marked by performances of "escapist" pieces. From a composer's perspective, these works were escapist in the sense that their sound and structure withdrew from the demands of socialist realism. Additionally, pieces developed during this phase of unofficial music allowed the listeners the ability to escape the familiar sounds that Soviet officials officially sanctioned. The second phase of unofficial music emerged during

20868-406: Was preparing for a coup in Moscow and had threatened him personally, saying "we shall expel you from the MVD, arrest you and allow you to rot in the camps." He claimed that Beria intended to send special MVD divisions to Moscow to help him seize power, and that several MVD agents had boasted that the MVD would become independent of Party bodies and "a regional MVD chief would no longer be answerable to

21016-518: Was ready to be tested." Beria and his men were tried by a "special session" ( специальное судебное присутствие ) of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on 23 December 1953 with no defence counsel and no right of appeal. Marshal Ivan Konev was the chairman of the court. Beria was found guilty of: Beria and all the other defendants were sentenced to death on the day of the trial. The other six defendants – Dekanozov, Merkulov, Vlodzimirsky, Meshik, Goglidze and Kobulov – were shot immediately after

21164-458: Was retrospectively denounced as an enemy of the people, but in 1961, the then head of the KGB , Alexander Shelepin reported that he had been murdered by Beria. On 26 December 1936, Beria summoned the head of the communist party of Abkhazia , Nestor Lakoba , to the Party headquarters in Tbilisi. Beria had Lakoba over for dinner the next day, where he was served fried trout, a favorite of Lakoba's and

21312-451: Was sent to a labour camp , and was eventually shot in a Sukhumi prison on 28 July 1941. In December 1936, Nikolai Yezhov , the newly appointed People's Commissar for Internal Affairs ( NKVD ), the ministry which oversaw the state security and police forces, reported that more than 300 people had been arrested in Georgia in the previous few weeks. In June 1937, Beria said in a speech, "Let our enemies know that anyone who attempts to raise

21460-459: Was severely damaged by the 1960 U-2 incident . The Soviet presentation of downed pilot Francis Gary Powers at the May 1960 Paris Peace Summit and Eisenhower's refusal to apologize ended much of the progress of this era. Then Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Further deterioration of the Thaw and decay of Khrushchev's international political standing happened during

21608-474: Was signed by Shvartzman. Robert Eikhe , a former high ranking party official, was sadistically beaten and had an eye gouged out by Rodos, in Beria's office, while Beria watched. He not only permitted and encouraged the beating of prisoners, but in some case carried it out in person. One prisoner who survived to give evidence in the 1950s, testified that he was brought to Beria's office and accused of plotting to blow up

21756-481: Was the only country where intellectuals avoided an open clash with the regime, influenced partly by the lack of any earlier revolt in post-war Romania that would have forced the regime to make concessions. In the West, Khrushchev's Thaw is known as a temporary thaw in the icy tension between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War . The tensions were able to thaw because of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization of

21904-420: Was transferred to the Ministry of Justice , and a mass release of over a million prisoners was announced, although only prisoners convicted for "non-political" crimes were released. That amnesty led to a substantial increase in crime and would later be used against Beria by his rivals. To consolidate power, Beria also took steps to recognise the rights of non-Russian nationalities. As a Georgian, he questioned

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