Fans of Soviet history and/or the 2017 comedy film, The Death of Stalin, will remember Levrentiy Pavlovich Beria as the ruthless would-be successor to a certain General Secretary left lying on the floor in a puddle of his own urine following a stroke because, as historian Simon Sebag Montefiore puts it, “his comrades and his doctors were too terrified to treat him in case he was merely drunk”.
Unfortunately for “Friend Beria” (as he was known to those with Politburo privileges), Stalin’s fatal brain haemorrhage in 1953 was not the long-awaited catalyst for his ascension to power. Instead, it led to his demise. Some six months after the Vozhd had finally been laid to rest, Beria was arrested and tried for rape and treason. He had his mouth stuffed with a towel, a gun placed against his forehead, and was unceremoniously executed.
