Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria was a prominent Soviet politician and state security official, most infamous for his role as head of the Soviet secret police NKVD under Joseph Stalin. Beria was born in 1899 in Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire). He joined the Bolsheviks and rose through the ranks of the Soviet government. Beria became deputy head of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police) in the 1930s and eventually its head in 1938. The NKVD was responsible for internal security and intelligence