Russian Secret Police Part 5: Beria's NKVD

One of history's monsters you've likely never heard of

Welcome to Secret Police!

Secret Police explores the history and methods of the world’s most brutal secret police forces. This piece continues our exploration of Stalin’s Soviet secret police, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) during the leadership of Lavrenti Beria.

The NKVD’s Evolution

Lenin’s death in 1924 prompted a period of uncertainty over his would-be successor. Would it be Bukharin? Trotsky? Few people expected Joseph Stalin to take power, but he leveraged his position as party General Secretary to build a dictatorship through shrewd political maneuvering. Stalin systematically removed rivals within the Communist Party starting with Lenin’s closest associates, Zinoviev and Kamenev. Initially, members were dismissed from party duties, but Stalin escalated to legal executions of party members who confessed to plotting against the government -- often falsely under duress.

When Sergei Kirov, a popular politburo member, was mysteriously assassinated—likely orchestrated by the NKVD—Stalin used it as an excuse to implicate Zinoviev and Kamenev in the plot. Both were imprisoned and later executed. Stalin followed this with a purge of the party and the Red Army by imprisoning, exiling, or killing those deemed a threat to the regime. Stalin pursued rapid industrialization at the cost of many starving citizens, enacting five-year plans to collectivize farmland and increase urban factory production.

Meanwhile, the political police evolved from Lenin’s era to Stalin’s style of dictatorship. The Cheka was replaced by the GPU and later the OGPU both of which handled state security. In 1934, the OGPU was reorganized into the NKVD. The NKVD built an extensive spy network domestically and abroad, provided military aid to Spain during their civil war, administered the Gulags, enforced collectivization, protected Stalin, and even assassinated Leon Trotsky with an ice axe in Mexico City.

Its ruthless leaders included Genrikh Yagoda, who was later purged during Stalin’s terror, and Nikolai Yezhov, nicknamed the Bloody Dwarf. Yezhov intensified the purges and fell out of Stalin’s favor and was likely executed. Yezhov’s successor, Lavrenti Beria, was the NKVD’s final chief.

Beria was appointed to lead the NKVD in 1938. Like Stalin, he was Georgian, but his monstrous nature set him apart from most other people. Beria personally participated in interrogations and torture, he coerced young girls into performing sexual favors, and he used the NKVD to further his sexual predation.

Let’s revisit Imperial Russia’s Georgia to trace Beria’s life and career.

The Life of Lavrenti Beria

I was introduced to Beria by watching The Death of Stalin. I knew who Stalin was of course, but Beria’s portrayal stood out as particularly vile. My further research confirmed that the man really was a monster. In my view, the movie is more about Beria—rather Beria versus Khrushchev—than it is about Stalin.

To put this in American terms: Beria running the NKVD was like if an FBI, NSA, CIA, and US Marshals hybrid agency were run by Jeffrey Epstein. How terrifying, right? This is an approximate analogy of what happened with Beria and the NKVD. But who was Beria? Where did he come from? And did he give even Stalin the creeps?

Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was born on March 17, 1899, in Merkheuli, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. Today, Merkheuli is in the Abkhazia region and remains a small village with a population of just over 800 as of 2011. Some sources list his birthplace as Sukhumi, which is only about 8 miles (13 km) from Merkheuli. Regardless, Beria and Stalin were born surprisingly close to each other—Merkheuli is just 165 miles (265 km) from Stalin’s hometown of Gori.

The village of Merkheuli was founded in 1879 and became a refuge for many Armenians fleeing persecution after the Armenian genocide. This village surrounded by mossy cliffs and hidden walkways across gentle creeks, was where one of history’s monsters was born. Lavrenti’s father, Pavel Beria, was a landowner in Abkhazia, making the family better off than most peasants of the time. His mother, Marta Jaqeli, was a devout Georgian Orthodox Christian and hoped to instill her faith in young Lavrenti. Marta was previously widowed and had a son from her first marriage. With Pavel, she had three children: Lavrenti, his brother (name unknown), and his sister, Anna, who was deaf.

In school, Lavrenti earned the nickname “detective” for his talent for finding lost or stolen items—though some suspected he stole them himself to “find” later. Manipulation was what came naturally to him at an early age.

In 1917, Beria began studying mathematics and science at Baku Polytechnicum in Azerbaijan. That same year, amid the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, he joined the Bolsheviks and became a member of the Baku City Soviet. Georgia, meanwhile, declared independence in 1918 under the Social Democratic Mensheviks. Though Russia initially recognized Georgian independence in 1920, Soviet forces, led by Stalin and on Lenin’s orders, invaded in 1921, and absorbed Georgia as a Soviet republic.

Despite his rise in Bolshevik ranks, Beria lacked passion for Communism. He saw it as a means to an end. Historian Roy Medvedev described him as “an unprincipled careerist,” driven by ambition rather than ideology.

During the Russian Civil War, Beria’s actions demonstrated his opportunism. He initially supported Azerbaijan’s Musavat Party against the Red Army. When the Bolsheviks took over in 1920, he shifted allegiances and began gathering intelligence for the Soviet Revolutionary Military Council. Arrested as a suspected spy, he narrowly avoided execution and, while in prison, formed a relationship with the niece of his cellmate, Nina Gegechkori, who was 17 years old at the time, and they later eloped.

Beria’s early career in the Soviet secret police was marked by ruthlessness and ambition. By 1921, he was deputy head of the Cheka in Azerbaijan, tasked with confiscating private property and suppressing opposition. In Georgia, he helped crush anti-Bolshevik uprisings and solidified a reputation for brutal efficiency. By 1925, his influence expanded beyond Georgia, and he began consolidating power through alliances and purges.

Beria’s rise continued, culminating in his appointment as NKVD chief in 1938. Under his leadership, the NKVD became a reflection of his own personality: devious, ruthless, and feared. He replaced existing personnel with loyalists, often fellow Georgians, and eliminated rivals. He used the NKVD to enforce Stalin’s purges and advance his own agenda.

But Beria’s most horrifying traits lay outside the political sphere. Reports from his bodyguards, Colonel Rafael Sarkisov and Colonel Sardion Nadaraia, reveal Beria’s predatory behavior. He used to cruise Moscow in a limousine, abducting young women who were taken to his home where they were raped and then given flowers as a twisted gesture. Those who resisted were sent to Gulags or executed.

One notable victim, Soviet actress Tatiana Okunevskaya, was promised her family’s release from Gulags in exchange for submitting to Beria who raped her. Only later did she learn that her family had been executed months earlier. She was arrested in 1948 and survived years of imprisonment, eventually returning to acting after her release in 1954.

Beria’s downfall began as Stalin grew suspicious and collected evidence of his misdeeds. Beria’s own bodyguards kept a list of his victims, which became key evidence against him. His actions epitomized the darkest aspects of Stalin’s regime.

The NKVD and Foreign Wars

Stalin’s saw numerous threats in both the West and the Far East. The NKVD was utilized to varying degrees in Finland, the Far East, Poland, and the Baltics. We’ll look at some of these operations leading up to and during the Second World War, called the Great Patriotic War in Russia.

The Winter War

In case you haven’t looked at a map, or have the geographic aptitude of the average American, Finland is a Nordic country that borders Russia to the east, Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, Norway to the north, and is separated from Estonia by the Gulf of Finland to the south. Finland’s capital, Helsinki sits on the coast of the Gulf of Finland and is home to several beautiful churches like Temppeliaukion kirkko. The Finnish language, which I neither speak nor understand, is unique compared to their westerly, Scandinavian neighbors. Finish is part of the Finnic language group, and that group belongs to the Uralic language family that also includes Hungarian. Within the Finnic groups are also Estonian and Karelian. And Finns love their saunas -- oh my goodness.

Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden until 1809 when it was annexed by Russia. Though incorporated into Russian territory, Finland was allowed semi-autonomy as the Grand Duchy of Finland. One strategic benefit for Russia was extending its western border away from St. Petersburg. Remember, the Bolsheviks relocated the capital from Petrograd (St. Petersburg) to Moscow as German lines approached during the First World War. Lenin fled to Finland to evade Tsarist authorities before the revolution, and Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917, planting a seed for future conflict with the Bolsheviks.

The February Revolution of 1917 created an opportunity for Finnish independence. The Provisional Government allowed Finnish autonomy, ceding governance to the Finns. While Finland's political landscape mirrored Russia’s divide between left- and right-wing factions, most Finnish groups united when the Bolsheviks took control of Russia. Finland declared independence on December 6, 1917. Other nations gradually recognized Finland’s independence through 1918 and 1919. The new Soviet government wasn’t prepared to stop this, though it continued to value Finland as a buffer for Petrograd’s security.

Finland’s Civil War broke out in January 1918 between the Reds, supported by Soviet Russia, and the Whites, backed by Sweden and Germany. The Whites had several advantages: former Russian army officers, German-trained troops called Jägers, German occupation of Helsinki, and the leadership of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The Whites were victorious, and Finland became a presidential republic.

Finland had territorial ambitions in Karelia which is a historically Finnish province within Russia. Stretching from the White Sea to the Gulf of Finland, Karelia is remote, forested, and stunning, covering 66,600 square miles—about the size of Washington State. Despite several failed attempts to retake Karelia, Finland helped Estonia gain independence and signed the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, establishing the Russo-Finnish border with territorial concessions from both sides.

In 1921, Karelia rebelled against Soviet rule. The uprising was crushed quickly since the region contained a key railway between Petrograd and the northern city of Murmansk in the Soviet Union. By 1922, with the Soviets victorious in the Russian Civil War, Finland abandoned further raids into Karelia. Finland instead focused on aligning with the League of Nations and enacted mandatory conscription in 1939.

Finland also built a 150 km network of defensive positions along the Karelian Isthmus, known as the Mannerheim Line, to defend against a potential Soviet invasion. Stalin saw Finland as a threat due to its proximity to Leningrad (formerly Petrograd) and feared Germany would use Finland to stage an invasion. The Soviets proposed a treaty requiring Finland to fight Germany if invaded and to allow Soviet forces into Finnish territory—a proposal Finland wisely declined. The Treaty of Tartu became irrelevant as tensions escalated. Starting in 1928, the NKVD targeted Finns in the Soviet Union, executing or deporting between 8,000 and 25,000 people of Finnish heritage. In 1935, Karelia launched a propaganda campaign branding Finns as "dangerous nationalists." Finnish-language schools, media, and Lutheran churches were banned by 1937.

In April 1938, NKVD agent Boris Yartsev met with Finnish leaders Rudolf Holsti and Aimo Cajander, expressing Soviet concerns about Nazi Germany and proposing Finland cede or lease islands in the Gulf of Finland. Finland refused, seeking neutrality.

During the Winter War, the NKVD transported Finnish prisoners of war to Gulags across the Soviet Union. This treatment extended even to liberated Red Army soldiers, who were welcomed as heroes in Leningrad only to be sent to Gulags once out of public view. This mirrored Alexander I’s persecution of soldiers exposed to French culture after defeating Napoleon.

On November 26, 1939, artillery struck a Soviet guard post near Mainila, close to the Finnish border. Later investigations revealed this was a false flag operation by the NKVD, providing a pretext for the Soviet invasion of Finland.

The NKVD in the Far East

Let’s turn our gaze eastward to Russia’s vast interior. The NKVD conducted numerous operations that rarely get much coverage in history class, particularly in its dealings with China, Korea, and Japan.

China

Russian eastward expansion often gets little attention, especially in the U.S. This may be because it occurred during the time of the Tsars when Russia wasn’t seen as a direct threat or spreading Communism. During Catherine the Great’s reign, Russia sought to expand its territory and establish a naval presence in the Pacific in a forever quest of warm-water ports. This ambition inevitably brought Russia into conflict with China’s Qing Dynasty.

The Qing were weakened by internal struggles and losing the Second Opium War to Britain and France. They also faced Russian threats on the Mongolian-Manchurian border. Russian Governor-General Nikolay Muraviev seized the opportunity and ordered troops to pressure the Qing. The Chinese negotiated and ceded 600,000 square kilometers (231,660 square miles) of Manchurian territory to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun in 1858. Two years later, the Treaty of Peking added even more territory which included the future site of Vladivostok.

By 1905, concerns arose that these regions could be targeted by Japan, particularly after Russia’s unexpected defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. Russian forces in the Far East were limited, and the influx of Chinese immigrants into the region fueled xenophobia. The Tsarist government began restricting Chinese immigration, framing it as a demographic and economic threat. Anti-Chinese sentiment was further stoked during World War I, with claims that Germany was recruiting Chinese spies.

During the Russian Civil War, the Chinese government sent troops to protect its citizens in cities like Vladivostok. After the Bolsheviks won, Soviet policies initially allowed Chinese culture to flourish, including media and trade unions. However, by the late 1920s, Chinese merchants dominated commerce in the Far East, controlling nearly half of grocery retail and significant shares of other staples. Their dominance didn’t sit well with Moscow. In 1926, Stalin’s regime began restricting Chinese and Korean migration, viewing their economic influence as a threat. By the 1930s, these policies escalated. The NKVD targeted Chinese residents in Vladivostok’s Chinatown, Millionka, with mass arrests and property seizures in 1936. By 1938, mass deportations of Chinese residents were underway based on Russian fears of Japanese espionage.

Korea

Korean migration to Russia dates back to the 1860s following the Treaty of Peking, which ceded land east of the Ussuri River to the Russian Empire. Some Koreans found themselves politically incorporated into Russian territory as borders shifted.

In 1884, the Russo-Korean Treaty guaranteed citizenship to Koreans already in Russia but limited new immigration. Despite this, many Koreans immigrated during Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 20th century. By the 1920s, over 100,000 Koreans lived in Russia’s Far East, leasing land from Russian peasants and contributing to local agriculture.

As Bolshevik governance solidified, policies towards Koreans grew harsher. By 1937, Stalin’s government identified Koreans as a security threat, labeling them Japanese agents. In August 1937, a decree ordered the deportation of Koreans from the Far East. Around 100,000 were forcibly relocated to Central Asia, primarily Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The government promised compensation for their property, but deportees often received unreliable exchange receipts instead of cash.

The deportations disrupted lives, with families given mere hours to leave their homes. Despite the hardship, the government prioritized harvesting crops before initiating the relocations, likely to seize the yield for state use. By October 1937, over 74,000 Koreans had been moved, with some sent as far as Murmansk near Finland, thousands of miles from their original homes.

Japan

The Japanese population in Russia never rivaled that of the Chinese or Koreans. By the 1870s, Japanese settlers established a small community in Vladivostok, forming trade unions and associations. During the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese residents faced suspicion and accusations of espionage.

The Bolshevik Revolution saw some Japanese Communists seek refuge in Russia. However, during the Russian Civil War, the Nikolayevsk Incident of 1920 resulted in the execution of over 100 Japanese POWs and residents. This event provided Japan with a pretext to annex northern Sakhalin Island.

Relations between Japan and Russia remained fraught, with territorial disputes over Sakhalin and, later, the Kuril Islands. The NKVD played a role in counterintelligence against Japan, with key figures like Genrikh Lyushkov and Richard Sorge shaping this chapter of Soviet history.

Genrikh Lyushkov

Born in 1900 in Odessa, Lyushkov rose through the ranks of the NKVD, earning recognition for his work in industrial espionage and sham trials against Bolshevik rivals. In 1937, he was appointed Chief of the NKVD in the Far East but grew suspicious of his own safety amid Stalin’s purges.

Sensing a trap in a recall order to Moscow, Lyushkov defected to Japan-controlled Manchukuo in 1938, providing valuable intelligence on Soviet troop positions. His defection was a propaganda coup for Japan, though it sealed his family’s fate. The NKVD imprisoned, tortured, and executed his wife and other relatives.

Lyushkov’s life ended tragically in 1945 when, as Soviet forces advanced on Manchukuo, his Japanese handlers killed him to prevent him from falling into Soviet hands.

Richard Sorge

Richard Sorge, born in 1895 in Azerbaijan, was a Soviet spy embedded in the German Embassy in Tokyo. Fluent in multiple languages and holding a PhD, Sorge infiltrated the Nazi Party and used his position to gather intelligence for the Soviets.

Sorge warned Moscow of Germany’s plans to invade the USSR and later confirmed Japan’s focus on Southeast Asia rather than a northern attack on the Soviet Far East. This intelligence allowed Stalin to redeploy troops westward during World War II.

Despite his value, Sorge was abandoned by the Soviets after his arrest by Japanese authorities in 1941; he was executed in 1944. The Soviets discarded any agent like wastepaper whenever convenient.

Poland

Poland reemerged as a state after being partitioned between Germany, Austria, and the Russian Empire—a triple subjugation that lasted since 1795.

In August 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a fragile peace agreement, before both regimes invaded Poland—Germany from the west and the Soviets from the east. For Poland, this meant enduring the horrors of two secret police forces.

During the 1939 invasion, the Soviets advanced to the Curzon Line, a boundary outlined in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that roughly followed the San, Vistula, and Narew rivers. The NKVD used methods they developed in Finland to control annexed territories. Poland suffered immensely, with 1.2 million civilians and 250,000 military personnel deported. Ivan Serov, Deputy Commissar of the NKVD and a future KGB chief, orchestrated these deportations with meticulous brutality.

Serov targeted anyone deemed a threat to the USSR: bankers, business owners, clergy, political party members (excluding Communists), former Communists, and even Red Cross workers. People with foreign contacts or those studying Esperanto—a constructed international language created by Polish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof in 1887—were also deported. Esperanto aimed to bridge language barriers, but the Soviets saw it as a Western threat.

Polish military prisoners were held in camps at Kozelsk (south of Moscow), Starobelsk (Luhansk region of Ukraine), and Ostashkov (south of Leningrad). In April 1940, over 4,000 prisoners were taken to the Katyn Forest near Smolensk and massacred—shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves.

When the Germans later occupied Smolensk, they discovered and publicized the mass graves, leveraging the massacre as propaganda. The Soviets deflected blame onto the Germans, claiming they had committed the atrocity. The NKVD also exchanged German citizens, Jews, and others deemed "undesirable" to the German Gestapo.

World War II

The 1939 German invasion of Poland is widely regarded as the start of World War II in Europe. Hitler’s violation of Polish sovereignty compelled Britain and France to declare war on Germany. But why wasn’t war also declared on the USSR?

France’s defensive military convention with Poland only applied to Germany. Signed on September 4, 1939—three days after Germany’s invasion—it promised military action but provided minimal support. France never launched an attack on Germany, failing to honor the agreement in full, and had no obligation to declare war on the Soviet Union.

Poland’s pact with Britain was broader, promising mutual defense against "a European power." However, a secret protocol clarified that British aid in a non-German attack, like the Soviet invasion, would be discretionary. When the Soviets invaded on September 17, 1939, the Polish ambassador called on Britain for assistance, but Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax declined, stating, “We were free to decide whether to declare war on the USSR or not.” Britain’s reluctance reflected broader concerns about revealing other secret protocols attached to its treaties. Ultimately, Britain condemned German aggression but avoided a war with the Soviet Union.

The Soviet invasion came two weeks after Germany’s, allowing the USSR to gauge the Western reaction. Seeing little resistance, they justified their actions by claiming to protect Ukrainian and Belorussian minorities in eastern Poland. Neither Britain nor France had the appetite for war in the 1930s. The trauma of World War I was still fresh, and I speculate that the prospect of fighting a country as vast as the Soviet Union was daunting.

The NKVD’s Role in World War II

The Red Army struggled to defend Soviet territory as Operation Barbarossa unfolded. Unprepared for a Western European offensive, crippled by Stalin’s purges, and lacking industrial readiness, the Soviet response was chaotic. Fear of Stalin’s reprisals paralyzed officers from taking any initiative. Warnings of a German attack, such as those from Soviet spy Richard Sorge, were ignored. Stalin, realizing his miscalculation, retreated to his dacha, possibly in a state of shock.

The Germans advanced deep into Soviet territory, targeting Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad. The NKVD played a critical role in wreaking havoc even during retreats. They deported "undesirables" and POWs from annexed territories like the Baltic states and booby-trapped structures in cities such as Kyiv. Exhausted German soldiers who sought shelter in undamaged buildings often triggered delayed explosives. Field hospitals, depots, and command posts were rigged with explosives which created a sense of dread that nowhere was safe.

The NKVD also maintained control within the Red Army. They monitored soldiers for dissent, rooted out those who collaborated with the enemy, and dealt with deserters. NKVD paramilitary units operated alongside regular troops, particularly in key battles like Stalingrad, where they were tasked with maintaining discipline and morale. In 1941, the NKVD split into two organizations: the NKVD, led by Beria, focused on internal affairs, while the NKGB handled state security. The latter was briefly reabsorbed into the NKVD before becoming independent again in 1943.

Orders like #270 and #227 reflected the brutal enforcement of discipline. Soldiers who surrendered were labeled traitors and faced fatal consequences if captured by the NKVD. Others deemed ideologically non-compliant were sent to the most dangerous battlefronts. Unlike the mechanized German SS, NKVD units were primarily organized as rifle divisions, with significant actions in both Europe and, later, Manchuria.

Turning the Tide

The Battle of Stalingrad was a symbolic turning point, while Kursk marked a logistical and military shift in favor of the Red Army. From 1943 onward, the Germans were on the defensive until the Soviets reached Berlin in 1945.

As Soviet forces closed in on Berlin, Stalin eagerly anticipated victory, reportedly obsessing over maps of Germany. The Red Army unleashed its fury on the Nazi capital, but Hitler shot himself before Soviet forces reached the Führerbunker. Lavrenti Beria once remarked, “I’ve only one wish in life—to conduct the interrogation of Hitler and Goering.” That’s one thing I wish had happened.

Post-War Repression

Even after victory, the NKVD continued its repressive practices. Soviet citizens who had contact with Germans during the war were scrutinized. POWs liberated from German camps often faced deportation to Gulags. High-ranking Soviet collaborators with the Germans were executed, while lower-ranking individuals were sent to labor camps. For many, liberation meant trading one form of captivity for another.

This echoed earlier patterns, such as Tsar Alexander I’s treatment of soldiers returning from fighting Napoleon. The Tsar subjected returning troops, suspected of bringing back dangerous Western ideas, to repression. Stalin repeated this tactic after World War II.

In 1945, Stalin stood at the height of his power and victorious over Nazi Germany. A new threat to Soviet dominance flickered like the sun across the eastern horizon on August 6, 1945.

The Early Cold War

One could argue that the bombing of Hiroshima marked the beginning of the Cold War. It added the dimension of nuclear annihilation to an already competitive relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. For the first time, a military could obliterate an entire city in an instant. Estimates vary, but the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital reported 70,000 killed initially and an additional 50,000 to 60,000 deaths in the following months due to injuries and radiation exposure.

Stalin’s Reaction

Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy, present at the Potsdam Conference, witnessed Stalin’s reaction when Truman informed him about the bomb.

It’s likely Stalin already knew of the bomb and its potential, as the NKVD had infiltrated the Manhattan Project. However, Stalin may not have fully grasped its destructive power—scientific uncertainty meant even the project’s scientists could only speculate about the magnitude of devastation.

Atomic research in Russia dates back to the early 1900s during the Tsarist era, coinciding with theoretical developments in atomic fission. Research continued through the revolutions and into the Soviet period but took a back seat during World War II as the USSR focused on survival. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed everything. Stalin assigned Lavrenti Beria to lead the Soviet atomic project—a dictator entrusting a predator to build nuclear weapons – how fun!

The Soviet Atomic Project

Beria faced significant challenges. The postwar recovery left the Soviet Union struggling to procure nuclear resources, but if Beria failed, he’d likely be shot. Stalin gave Beria five years to produce a bomb. Beria appointed nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov to head the project, supported by the USSR’s top scientists; however, the team needed to catch up to the British and the Americans, and the NKVD was ready to help.

The NKVD recruited Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee who had worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and continued atomic work in the United Kingdom. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Fuchs was a Communist sympathizer. He provided the Soviets with technical documents and data on bomb design. Additional information came from Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American citizens who delivered classified documents which included nuclear designs. To maintain secrecy, only Kurchatov was permitted to review the stolen intelligence. He then directed his team based on the information.

Scientists and technicians mishandled radioactive materials, solved problems last-minute, and cobbled together what resources were available. The process was far less structured than the Manhattan Project.

Fear of failure loomed large. During a Politburo meeting, Stalin was asked what would happen if the bomb failed. Stalin said, “we can always shoot the scientists.”

The bomb design mirrored the American "Fat Man" used on Nagasaki and the "Trinity" test bomb. It was an implosion bomb with a plutonium core surrounded by explosive charges. The charges detonated in a precise sequence to compress the core and then trigger a nuclear explosion.

First Lightning

On August 29, 1949, the Soviets successfully tested their bomb, RDS-1 (First Lightning), at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The American press nicknamed it "Joe-1."

The Soviets celebrated their success, and many scientists received the Order of Lenin.

The U.S. panicked. American newspapers broke the story before Soviet citizens even knew, and U.S. officials scrambled to respond with a show of force. Thus began the Cold War—a decades-long competition in nuclear weapons, space exploration, and proxy wars worldwide.

The Death of Stalin & Beria

By 1950, Stalin’s time was running out, and Beria’s wouldn’t last much longer. In 1953, Stalin was 73 years old and in declining health. He had suffered several cardiac events in recent years and dealt with chronic conditions throughout his life. Added to his conditions was the stress of surviving as a dictator, heavy drinking, and smoking. His doctors advised him to work less.

Stalin was also a night owl, hosting late-night dinners with his inner circle until 2 or 3 a.m. Afterward, he’d work a few more hours before going to bed, rising around 11 a.m.

The details of Stalin’s death remain somewhat unclear. On the night of February 28, 1953, Stalin bid farewell to his inner circle after a gathering at his dacha outside Moscow. He presumably worked late into the night before retiring to bed.

The next morning, Stalin didn’t emerge from his study. Motion sensors detected no movement, and the dacha staff, including Stalin’s long-time maid, avoided checking on him out of fear. Some sources suggest the staff’s hesitation stemmed from Stalin’s infamous temper. Eventually, someone did check and found Stalin collapsed on the floor, lying in a puddle of his own urine. He had suffered a stroke and clung to life for a few agonizing days before dying on March 5, 1953, officially from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Interestingly, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev also died on March 5, 1953. Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo & Juliet feels like the perfect theme for Stalin’s legacy—austere, dramatic, and tragic.

Was Stalin Poisoned?

While officially listed as a cerebral hemorrhage, some theories suggest Stalin was poisoned by members of his inner circle, including Beria, fearing another purge. Stalin had launched the Doctor’s Plot in the 1950s, targeting Jewish physicians in a paranoid delusion that they were plotting against him.

Another intriguing theory involves Yugoslavian dictator Josip Tito. Stalin and Tito had a notorious feud where Stalin sent numerous assassins to kill Tito all of whom failed. Tito allegedly warned Stalin to stop and threatened that he would send his own assassin to kill Stalin and he quote, “wouldn’t have to send a second.”

Beria’s Downfall

The remaining Politburo members viewed Beria as a threat. As head of Internal Affairs, Beria held incriminating evidence on nearly everyone, including Khrushchev, for their roles in the 1930s purges. Beria could easily leverage this to consolidate power. Beria also had the NKVD—or its successors—at his disposal. By 1946, the NKVD had been reorganized, with its functions split between the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the MGB (Ministry of State Security). Yet, Beria remained a looming presence in these institutions, and his reputation as a power-hungry predator only added to the urgency of his removal.

On June 26, 1953, Field Marshal Zhukov and Red Army officers arrested Beria during a committee meeting. The Red Army, which despised Beria for infiltrating its ranks, sent tanks and heavy weapons to secure Moscow’s strategic checkpoints in case the MVD forces resisted. Beria was detained at Army Headquarters in Moscow. During his trial, he was charged with treason and other crimes.

The Execution

Beria was sentenced to death and dragged to a prison cell where he reportedly broke down sobbing and begged for his life. Like Yagoda and Yezhov before him, Beria wielded terror over others only to collapse into cowardice when faced with death. On December 23, 1953, Beria was executed with a single shot to the head.

In the next post, we’ll explore the development of the early KGB during Khrushchev’s reign.

Agents dismissed.

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