Beria's Russia

As you know, Beria was a big player in the power struggle after stalin's death. But he failed and was executed.

But what if he seized power immediately fater Stalin died? what if?
 
Beria was an outright monster. I don't know how long he'd last.

He'd try to molest the wrong person's relative (say a member of the Politburo or some general) and BAM!

Think Caligula, who was killed by Senators after forcibly prostituting their wives.
 
well, he would probably not last long (given what he did), but didnt he begin a brief campaign of liberalization, and would we see an expansion of that campaign, or would we see an even more tyrannican USSR?
 
Lavrenti's best shot at succeeding Stalin is really during the chaos of 1941, I think.

By the fifties... non-serial-killer values are being reasserted in the party elite. And it not as if his successors were that humane in dispatching him.
 
well, he would probably not last long (given what he did)
Well, ones who replaced him were just a tad less guilty in crimes committed by Stalinist system, if at all. You also have to take into account that Beria has a dubious distinction of being target of smear campaign by both Western and Soviet propaganda machines working is smooth cooperation. So picture is a "bit" distorted. However, it is known that he suggested "Letting East Germany go", as well as advocated number of policies directed toward less ideologized and more flexible economic system (allowing quasi-market co-operatives in manufacturing and distribution of consumer goods, for example). So it would not be too far-fetched to say that something like "Kosygin's reforms", universally recognized as high point of Soviet economy, could happen 10 years earlier.
 
He would have to kill both Zhukov and Khruschev who both hated him. Alot of the Red Army brass didnt like him either b/c he had killed friends or molested their women folk. If he did suceed in taking over:

USSR would become more insular for a time as he consolidated power.

USSR would focus less on global Communist Revolution and more on Iron Fisted Statism
 

Stalker

Banned
Beria was an outright monster. I don't know how long he'd last.
He'd try to molest the wrong person's relative (say a member of the Politburo or some general) and BAM!
Think Caligula, who was killed by Senators after forcibly prostituting their wives.
You seem to have pretty incorrect opinion of the man.
Was he a monster? Not much more than any other in Politbureau.
Did he love women? Yes and sometimes used his powers to "attract" women into his bed. The later appelation to the court of one of them stating that Beria had raped her was used by Khruschev as one more point to the charges against him and started a myth of an eery rapist and sadist... etc.
 
Well, ones who replaced him were just a tad less guilty in crimes committed by Stalinist system, if at all. You also have to take into account that Beria has a dubious distinction of being target of smear campaign by both Western and Soviet propaganda machines working is smooth cooperation. So picture is a "bit" distorted. However, it is known that he suggested "Letting East Germany go", as well as advocated number of policies directed toward less ideologized and more flexible economic system (allowing quasi-market co-operatives in manufacturing and distribution of consumer goods, for example). So it would not be too far-fetched to say that something like "Kosygin's reforms", universally recognized as high point of Soviet economy, could happen 10 years earlier.

This is an interesting point. How do we know that Beri was a monster?
 
This is an interesting point. How do we know that Beri was a monster?
We have scores of memoirs to prove it. My point is not that he wasn't a monster. But his being a monster did not distinguish him (or at least did not distinguish him much) among other members of Stalin's retinue. Yes, he probably had oversized libido, so to speak. So what? Is there anyone on this board spooked by KMT officials keeping harems and official concubines? However, what's more important for AH, Beria was favouring smaller role for Party in government and society and was not advocating worldwide expansion of Communist system at any cost. Besides, he was just better manager than those who fell him, pure and simple.
 
Did KMT officials pick women off the street and rape them?

Did they murder and mutilate said women when they were done?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria#Sexual_sadism
Look, your link just proves what I said. There was huge smear campaign against Beria going on for 50 years, and now it is flat out impossible to distinguish truth from grisly legends. It is like trying to picture life in USSR circa 1930 using Heart attack dogs' comments on Pravda articles. You would get as much false leads as true ones and picture would be distorted into something not sharing much with reality.

P.S. On the side note, shitload of allegations is linked back to Anton Antonov-Ovseenko, and I met this man more than once. He is what they call "dirty mind", obssessed with stories of sexual nature. I would be very careful to trust any description coming from him as far as sexual behaviour of anyone is concerned. But his stories were so convenient, they are trumpeted up ad nauseam (BTW, S.S. Montefiore uses his testimony as main source as far as Beria is concerned, so this particual WP paragraph is what they call "undue weight given to the single source" in wp-speak and what is usually mercilessly destroyed from articles not dealing with charged political topics).
 
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