Author Description

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: Akaki Eliava, Arnold Chikobava, Badri Kvaratskhelia, Elie Melia, George Eliava, Georgiy Daneliya, Giorgi Gvazava, Ilia Vekua, Kokkai Futoshi, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Lavrentiy Beria, Levan Gvazava, Medea Chakhava, Meliton Kantaria, Merab Kostava, Murtaz Khurtsilava, Nikoloz Janashia, Otar Patsatsia, Pavle Ingorokva, Radish Tordia, Robert Sturua, Shalva Eliava, Simon Janashia, Temuri Ketsbaia, Zaza Pachulia. Excerpt: Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Georgian: Russian: 29 March 1899 - 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus (NKVD) under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years (1946-1953). Beria was the longest lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state and served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II, as well as for acting as barrier troops and the apprehension of thousands of "turncoats, deserters, cowards and suspected malingerers." Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as sharashkas, critical to the war effort. He also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, developing an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "our Himmler." After the war, he organized the communist takeover of the countries of Central Europe and Eastern Europe....