ABSTRACT

During this time, Beria took a number of steps to strengthen his position within the Soviet government and the Communist Party (Fastov, 2005). Just 10 days aer the death of Stalin, the MVD (Ministry of Internal Aairs) and MGB (Ministry of State Security) were again amalgamated into one organization under the formal leadership of Beria (Knight, 1988). As did his NKVD predecessors, Beria moved to replace a number of key personnel in both the MVD and MGB structures to ensure loyalty within the new law enforcement agency. Beria also championed the idea of “liberalization,” which included amnesty for both political and ordinary prisoners. e new policy was announced on March 27, 1953 (Morukov, 2007).2 He also transferred most of the MVD economic functions, including the administration of labor camps, to other ministries during his short period of leadership (Conquest, 1968b).3 As the head of the MVD in early 1953, Beria suggested dismantling the forced labor economy and signicantly reducing the number of labor camps (Khlevnyuk, 2003; Levytsky, 1972).4 Beria was also among the rst Soviet

ocials who admitted that mistakes were made during the so-called Doctor’s plot and other Stalinist repressions (Rybnikov and Aleksushin, 2008).5