THE MAN STALIN HAS CHOSEN TO BE HIS "CROWN PRINCE"

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 November 1948, Page 6

THE MAN STALIN HAS CHOSEN TO BE HIS "CROWN PRINCE"

Deputy-Premier Of The Soviet Union

(By

S. E. Nelson)

One of that little group of men that rules from the Kremlin a sixth of the world’s surface, Lavrenti Pavloviteh Beria has every prospect of becoming more important still. For many see in him Stalin’s “Crown Prince.”' He was .a 20-year-old student who had just received his diploma of architecture when Stalin picked him as director of the Cheka’in Azerbaijan. Ever since then the Soviet dictator has further the career of his fellow-Georgian till today Beria is Deputy-Premier, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and member of the Politburo.

His years as head of the seeret ] police have given him access to j the dossiers of everybody in the I Soviet Union. Lavrenti Pavloviteh Beria, deputy- ' premier of the U.S.S.R., Marshal of I the Soviet Union, member ol the i Politburo, stands as good a chance as any, and a better chance than most, of succeeding Joseph Stalin as The First Gentleman of Russia. He has many recommendations for the post. He is one of the few remaining genuine “Old Bolsheviks” (members who entered the party before November 1917), Secondly, his rise to the ranks of the elite has been steady and unbroken. Thirdly, he is a Georgian like Stalin, and knows more of the leader's secrets than anyone else in Russia. And fourthly—probably most im-> portant—his years as head of the secret police have given him access to the dossiers of everybody who is anybody in the Soviet Union. Whether you regard the tall man with clear-cut features, precise manners, and high forehead above neat nince-nez as a single-minded intellectual devoted to a cause, or as a fanatical, bloody butcher, probably depends on your political views. It is probably true to regard him as a mixture of both.

Bolshevik At I 8 He was born 49 years ago in the Village of Merkheuli, near Sukhum, in Georgia. His peasant father scraped together enough money to send him to the Sukhum high school, from which Lavrenti, a serious, industrious boy, graduated to the Baku Polytechnic as an architectural student. He was 18 when he cast in his lot with the Bolshevik Party; at that period (it was March, 1917) the Bolsheviks were extremely unpopular in Georgia, both with the Mensheviks (who formed the strongest party) and with the Georgian separatists. He mixed his studies with conspiratorial activity, until he was arrested by the Mensheviks. Sent by them to Azerbaijan, he made contact with the Bolsheviks there, and on Stalin’s ordeg. was sent back to Baku to carry on his work. In 1919, ..fter receiving his diploma of architecture, he was again arrested by the Mensheviks; this time he escaped and went to Azerbaijan of his own accord. There Stalin made him chief of the intelligence department and deputy-director of the local Cheka. When the Bolsheviks finally fought their way to the control of Georgia, Beria became chief of the entire Trans-Caucasian Cheka (later Ogpu). The Mensheviks continued to fight, secretly and openly, and the separatists planned armed revolts. Lavrenti Pavlovitch Beria proved equal to it all. There must at first have been in his mind indecision; the Mensheviks had spared his life and merely deported him. Should he repay in kind? He realised that if the Mensheviks had not been merciful, he himself would not now be in power. Therefore the Mensheviks were sentimental fools

Crushed Opposition Beria was not. Opposition was crushed ruthlessly; the firing squads worked ceaselessly. Georgia remained in the Soviet Union. During these years Beria was building up a reputation as a sound and reliable party man, and in 1932, again on Stalin’s “recommendation,” he was appointed Secretary of the Georgian and Trans-Causasian Communist Party Committees. His tasks were to Sovietise the primitive mountain regions and to watch for signs of recurring opposition. When the great treason trials broke over the Soviet Union in 1936, Beria in the Causasus acted no less effectively than his counterparts in Moscow. Hundreds of local leaders were indicted; the firing squads were busy again; the last remnants of opposition were wiped out. In between these activities he found time to write history and carry out the urban transformation of Tiflis. In 1938 Beria was summoned to Moscow by Stalin to don the grey uniform and blue cap of a Commissar of State Security (the OGUP had become a part of the People’s Commissariat for State Security the N.K.V.D.). Within one month, the dreaded Yezhov, head of the Soviet secret police, “disappeared.” There is little doubt that he was quietly shot. He had been too zealous and the Soviet leaders were alarmed at growing

sigils that the secret police, Instead of being regarded by ordinary citizens as the guardians of the state, were looked upon as blood-thirsty tyrants. Slave Labour Chief Beria was considered the ideal man to remedy this. His efficiency and loyalty were already proven and he possessed the advantage of being known for his cultural activities as well. His job was to soften the impact of the N.K.V.D. upon the mass of citizens without at the same time weakening its efficiency. Again he proved his ability. There was no official publicity. Beria realised that official statements were often regarded with suspicion just because they were official; whereas the unheralded reappearance of people who had mysteriously disappeared, the occasional newspaper reports of the arrest of false informers, would be far more effective in restoring public confidence. His tactics succeeded, as far as they could. The forced labourers in the slave camps of Siberia may have had different views, but the Russian public in general looked upon Beria as a vast improvement upon his predecessors. In 1939 Beria was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party and also to the Politburo. His departmental task of heading the secret police also comprised directing the industrial section of that body—whose activities consisted of supplying prison labour for some of the largest mining, industrial, and constructional enterprises in the SovietUnion. Key Position In 1941 the war with Germany brought fresh problems, and again Stalin put his confidence in his younger fellow-Georgian. Beria was appointed a Marshal of the Soviet Union and one of the State Defence Committee. But his main task continued. His labour supply was swelled by the addition of German and later Japanese prisoners, and his constructional efforts reached new records. Beria, by his combination of architectural planning and ruthless disregard for human life, was in no small way responsible for the industrial survival of Russia. In 1946 Beria left the N.K.V.D., which was abolished and its place taken by two separate ministries—the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security. Both these new ministries were put under the nominal direction of two "unknowns,” but Beria still pulls the strings. He is undoubtedly playing a large part in the central direction of Russian policy. Allied to this is his continuing control of all internal affairs: for, with the splitting of the N.K.V.D. into two parts, no new police chief can wield the same power possessed by previous holders of the post. Only Beria can do that. And only Beria, among Soviet hierarchy, has Stalin’s personal (apart from official) ear. And only Beria has the all-round experience of every phase of Soviet affairs that would one day enable him to take, with hardly a jerk, the reins from Stalin's dying hands.