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BERIA, LAVRENTY PAVLOVICH

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BERIA, LAVRENTY PAVLOVICH
(1899 - 1953) Russian politician, the dreaded head of Stalin's security agency, the NKVD, who oversaw the Great Purge of 1934-38 and ordered the deaths of thousands. Unable to resist the power of his position, Beria sought to succeed Stalin and was in turn tried and executed himself. Historically-important fine content A.L.S. "Lavrenty Beria", 7pp. 4to., Moscow, Oct. 9. 1938 to his chief, Josef Stalin! In his first year as head of the dreaded NKVD, Beria takes great pains to explain accusations made against him of ant-Soviet activities. The letter is extremely detailed, with just a small portion reading as follows: "...I had worked for a while in counter-intelligence under the Mussavat...[Mussavat] was formed for the joint struggle of Mussavatists and communists against the White Guard, and because of this about half of its personnel were communists, and its deputy chief was communist Mussevi who was later killed...I was chairman of an illegal communist cell of technicians...I was given a job of the executive secretary of the Commission on Expropriation of Bourgeoisie [and later] deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Special Commission for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage and head of Secret Operations department...I was in charge of the entire secret operations of both Special Commission...I had to put a lot of pressure on the work in the republics...A number of Azerbaijani deviationists-Trotskyites, dissatisfied with the policy...were trying to discredit some of the party workers...including myself. Some provocative rumors were spread...all former 'Transcaucasians'...have now been unmasked as enemies of the people, who had numbered dozens of years of treason...I could expect any vile thing aimed at me...Several days after Azerbaijan had turned Soviet...I was illegally dispatched from the headquarters staff of the XI Army to Georgia, which was then in the hands of the Mensheviks...I was arrested by the Mensheviks at the border station [and jailed] a total of several months.." Much, much more excellent content in this historic letter, with full translation available to those interested. Of course, in 1953 Beria was executed by Stalin following his aborted attempt to overthrow his old ally. Small spindle holes in left margin with no loss of text, fine condition.