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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You have a nice, long sleep, old man. I'll take it from here. | „ |
| ~ Beria plots to control the USSR. |
| “ | What about Tukhachevsky and Pyatakov!? Did they get a trial!? What about Sokolnikov, who BEGGED him to look after his elderly mother, and what did this monster do, he STRANGLED HER in front of him! It's TOO LATE. The only choice we have is between his death or his revenge. | „ |
| ~ Nikita Khrushchev to Georgy Malenkov on Beria's crimes |
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Russian: Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия; Georgian: ლავრენტი ბერია) is the main antagonist of the 2017 historical black comedy film The Death of Stalin. He was the corrupt head of the NKVD and used his position of power to commit several horrendous crimes. Beria attempted to control the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death through Georgy Malenkov but would ultimately be brought down by Nikita Khrushchev. He was based on the real Lavrentiy Beria.
He was portrayed by Simon Russell Beale.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- It's at least implied that Beria committed the same crimes his real life counterpart did before the events of the film, such as the cultural genocide of Ukrainian Tatars and suppression of the August Uprising.
- Khrushchev mentions that a former comrade of theirs, Grigory Sokolnikov, before he was executed, asked Beria to take care of his elderly mother for him. Beria instead strangled her to death in front of him.
- Beria's hobby is kidnapping, abusing, and raping women and girls as young as seven years old. He would have his NKVD officers bring him victims or select them off the streets himself. At least three of his victims are seen on-screen, two being middle-aged and the other still in adolescence.
- At his trial, as Khrushchev reads his sentence, Beria is charged with 347 counts of rape. (Although it may to be exaggerated, considering that the only point of Beria's trial is execute him.)
- Beria oversees multiple executions and arrests by the NKVD. Although they were ordered by Joseph Stalin (the targets were proclaimed the "Enemies of Stalin"), Beria writes the lists and orders the NKVD officers to carry out the murders and even instructs them to kill some in specific ways, such as:
- Executing a married couple, killing the wife first and making sure her husband sees it.
- Killing an Orthodox priest and removing him from his home to throw his body over his church's pulpit.
- Beria also abuses and tortures many of the prisoners to extract information from them, but also because he enjoys it.
- When one prisoner refuses to confess, Beria has the man's wife tortured in the cell next to his so he'll be forced to listen to her screams.
- After the NKVD Lieutenant Slimonov informed him of Stalin's illness, he mocked him for stuttering his name and later on, had him stripped of rank, arrested, and is implied that he tortured and executed Slimonov off screen. Which shows that Beria had zero care for his own men.
- When Stalin suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and collapses, Beria is the first to arrive at his dacha and begins to plot his subtle takeover of the Soviet Union, stealing confidential documents on his fellow Central Committee members. He also discovers a note from pianist Maria Yudina, wishing Stalin dead.
- While he does admit that arresting most of Russia's competent doctor's was a mistake, this is not out of moral regret. But more likely out of pragmatism in regards to situation.
- After it's announced that Stalin will not recover, Beria closes off Moscow and replaces the Red Army officers stationed around the city with the NKVD, ensuring he has control of the city. He also implements new enemy lists in place of Stalin's, which exclude Vyacheslav Molotov who was previously targeted by Stalin.
- Beria spares Molotov in order to make an ally of him to further reinforce his power, doing so by freeing his wife.
- He ordered to the NKVD to clear out Stalin's Dacha who looted the deceased dictator's possessions, killed several of Stalin's staff, and had the rest of Stalin's staff put onto trucks where they were likely deported to a work camp.
- Exploiting Malenkov's weakness and indecisiveness, Beria manipulates him into making decisions that will increase the former's popularity with the people after Malenkov assumes control of the Soviet Union, such as freezing executions or arrests and releasing the prisoners.
- Said to Svetlana Alliluyeva that can't release her boyfriend Alexey Kapler because he died. It couldn't be that bad if not the fact that real Kapler was alive until 1979, and Beria likely lied because he didn't want to release Stalin's daughter's boyfriend.
- Beria uses Yudina's note to Stalin to tie Khrushchev to her, with the end goal in mind being Khrushchev's execution.
- After Khrushchev reopens Moscow, undermining Beria, the NKVD opened fire on the crowd and killed 1,500 civilians. When he hears about this, Beria doesn't care and blames the crowd for being there against his orders. When the Committee decides to blame the entire thing on the NKVD, Beria, feeling threatened, attempts to blackmail the Committee with their past misdeeds that are recorded on the documents he procured from Stalin's dacha.
- He threatened to torture and kill the rest of the Committee members after they had him arrested. He later pathetically cries and begs for mercy when they decide to execute him, even when countless times before, Beria had condemned thousands in similar ways.
- While he appears horrified at himself when Khrushchev begins naming his victims, it was more likely he was scared to die rather than feeling remorse, as he goes back to yelling and begging for mercy afterwards.
- Despite the movie's comedic nature, and having many comedic moments himself, Beria is taken very seriously and his worst actions, primarily his rapes and mass murders, are not played for laughs at all.
Trivia[]
- Despite Beria being Pure Evil, the filmmakers stated that they actually had to tone down Beria's crimes in real life in order to make him seem realistic to the audience.
- In the Draft 10 script for the film, an alternate version of the climax shows that Maria Yudina was also trapped in Beria's basement alongside the teenage waitress, likely also being tortured and raped by him. Had this been kept in the movie, it would've made him even worse.
External Links[]
- Lavrentiy Beria on the Villains Wiki
- Lavrentiy Beria on the Hate Sink Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
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Animated Features Live-Action Features See Also | ||