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Beria was a murderer and torturer by trade and a rapist by avocation.

He was also the major Stalinist magnate who was not a Communist true believer. After Stalin died, he wanted to cut a deal with the West to let Germany reunify, he wanted to decollectivize agriculture, and he wanted to reintroduce private property to jump start the Soviet economy.

He failed, because the other magnates were scared of him but also because he talked too openly and loosely about his plans to take a step back from Communist economics. He probably also talked down Stalin too much right from the start.

Here is your challenge: have the Beria-Malenkov duo succeed enough to reunify Germany and to loosen the Soviet economy. Having Beria lose power or get killed after that is acceptable if the changes they made cannot easily be reversed.

What are the long term effects for the Soviet Union and its satellites?
What are the long term effects for the West?
What are the implications for China?
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