Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria

Soviet Communist leader (born, Georgia, Caucasus, 1899; died, December, 1953). Beria began his career in Georgia in the Cheka (the early Soviet secret police) and became party secretary in that region. In 1938 Stalin made him head of the secret police. He was a member of the Politburo from 1946. Beria survived Stalin by only 9 months before being arrested, tried, and shot.