Person

Lavrentiy Beria

1899–1953 · 20th century · Also known as Lavrenti Beria

Lavrentiy Beria was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet security chief. He led the Communist Party of the Transcaucasian SFSR and of Georgia from the early 1930s, carrying out the purges there, and in 1938 became head of the NKVD under Stalin, running the Gulag and mass repressions. He also oversaw the Soviet atomic bomb project. After Stalin's death he was arrested and executed in 1953.

Lavrentiy Beria
Image: Unknown, presumed official · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 state histories

Georgian SSRAbkhaz SSRTranscaucasian SFSR

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lavrentiy Beria. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lavrentiy-beria
MLA
“Lavrentiy Beria.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lavrentiy-beria. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lavrentiy Beria.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lavrentiy-beria.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lavrentiy Beria’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lavrentiy-beria (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻