Lavrenty Beria is a deeply negative person. Few researchers can say at least one kind word to the general commissioner of state security, who fiercely fought against "enemies of the people." His name is associated with many incredible stories. They tell about the mass executions of the innocent, and about the personal life of the people's commissar.
Before you name the mistresses of Beria, it is worth talking about his wife. After all, even regarding his relationship with his wife, there are many conflicting versions.
Kremlin wife
She had no friends, no friends, much less lovers or admirers. Colleagues shunned her. With a son or daughter-in-law, she could speak more or less frankly only on the street - all her conversations in the house were tapped. This happened not because she knew some secrets, but because she was the wife of a man whose name alone terrified contemporaries.
Nino Gegechkori was a beautiful woman in adulthood, and even more so at the age of 16, when her first meeting with her future husband took place. Lavrentiya Beria was then 22 years old. They met in Sukhumi. Gossip and all sorts of conjectures around this event abound.
Some told an extremely beautiful story: the future commissar saw the beautiful Nino among the lilac bushes and fell in love at first sight. Others were more skeptical. They claimed that Lavrenty Beria met a girl in prison. Still others said that the first meeting of the “Kremlin executioner” with his future wife occurred in the house of an old Bolshevik, who was Nino’s uncle.
Beria from a young age was eager for a female. Seeing the young, blooming Nino, he decided to abduct her, which he easily managed. He allegedly kept the girl in his bedroom for several days, but after he acted with her relatively nobly, not as cruelly as he later acted with numerous mistresses. Beria raped Nino and then married her. By the way, this is not the most common version of the acquaintance of the people's commissar with his future wife. There is another story, the truthfulness of which many historians are convinced.
Romantic version
Once at the train station a girl approached Lavrentiy and asked for help. Her brother was arrested, and she, knowing about the capabilities of this man, hoped for his assistance. Beria helped her. He freed his brother Nino from prison, then proposed to her. She agreed only because it was difficult to refuse her position. But there is a dubious moment in this story: when Beria met his future wife, he did not yet hold a position that would allow him to influence the fate of those arrested. Power came to him much later, but by that time he had become an exemplary family man (at least he made such an impression).
Marriage of love and convenience
And what did the wife of Lavrentiya Beria herself say about their acquaintance? In 1990, the newspaper “Top Secret” published an interview with the widow of the General Commissioner of State Security. Eighty-year-old Nino Gegechkori confirmed the romantic version, namely: he met her in his uncle's house, gallantly offered his hand and heart, did not show any rudeness towards her. True, he wanted to marry sixteen-year-old Nino, not only out of great love, but also in connection with a possible business trip to Belgium. Overseas trips were allowed only to married employees.
Mistresses or secret agents?
It was no coincidence that the NKVD Commissar’s wife was told in such detail - these conflicting versions confirm the mystery and ambiguity of the Commissar’s personality. The figure of Lawrence Beria became a gloomy symbol of the Stalin era. During his life he was an object of worship, after death he turned into an executioner. All dogs could be safely hung on the executed commissar of state security, which, according to historian Boris Sokolov, his former associates did.
The list of Beria's mistresses, according to his assistant Rafael Sarkisov, was extensive. Lavrenty Pavlovich allegedly used his position, he sought women by force. However, this version was refuted by the widow of the People's Commissar, who claimed that the women who were ranked as Beria’s mistresses, in fact, acted as secret agents.
Exemplary family man
During the investigation, which began in June 1953 and ended with the death sentence, Lavrenty Pavlovich denied the charges of espionage and conspiracy, but admitted to numerous connections with women.
His son, who published a book of memoirs in the nineties, claimed that his father almost spoke to himself. According to Sergo Beria, love affairs did not happen, and in general he was an exemplary family man, loving and understanding father and husband.
The following are several stories from the personal life of the “blood executioner” (that is how Beria was called after 1953). But it is worth remembering: not many of them are documented. In the stories of the numerous mistresses of Beria, perhaps there is a good share of fiction.
Nina Alekseeva
Sarkisov scrupulously wrote down data about all the women with whom his boss had a relationship. In the list of Beria's mistresses, compiled by him, 39 names. One of these women is Nina Alekseeva.
Lavrenty Pavlovich was a member of the selection committee of the NKVD ensemble and saw the girl for the first time at the audition, which she described in her book of memoirs. A photo of Beria's mistress is presented below.
People's Commissar Sarkisov instructed to follow the young artist. According to the memoirs of Alekseeva, once on the street a car drove up to her, a man in a military uniform looked out of the window. It was Sarkisov who invited her to get into the car. Alekseeva politely refused, then, understanding what was fraught with interest in her person of Beria himself, she hastily left Moscow.
For some time she lived in Kaliningrad. She married, gave birth to a child. Upon returning to the capital, she was accepted into the prestigious Moscow orchestra. The concert hall was located near the house of the general commissioner of state security. It is not surprising that Beria once saw Alekseev, and then ordered the assistant to bring the girl to his mansion. This time, Sarkisov completed the assignment. Such is the story of one of the mistresses of Lawrence Beria.
Tatyana Okunevskaya
According to the recollections of a Soviet cinema star, her admirers included Marshal Broz Tito, the head of the NOAU General Staff Kocha Popovich, and the Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov, and, of course, Lavrenty Beria. The photo of the mistress of the man who was nicknamed the “blood executioner” is well known to fans of old Russian cinema. Okunevskaya played in such films as “Donut”, “Last Night”, “The Mysterious Wanderer”. The actress spoke about her connection with Lavrentiy Beria in the autobiographical book Tatyana’s Day.
Sofya Schirova
In the list of Beria's mistresses, the name of this woman is also there. Unlike most victims of the loving commissar, something is known about her. Sophia was the wife of a pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union. Upon learning that Beria had raped his wife, this man, being a non-working ten, became furious. He began to threaten the drug addict, for which he paid with freedom. The case was fabricated on Shchirov, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
There is much less information about other women who have become Beria’s lovers against their will. The names and photos of famous actresses presented above are easy to find in publications. But the commissioner had more than thirty victims, of which very little is known. Sarkisov often wrote down the name, age, but did not indicate the name of the girl.
Gift from the Soviet government
Ballerinas were not only the weakness of Lorenz Beria. He had an intimate relationship with at least one of the dancers. The People's Commissar gave the girl an apartment in which she moved with her mother. A naive woman asked Lavrenty Pavlovich who should be thanked for such a generous gift. Beria joked: “Thank the Soviet authorities!”
Valentina Drozdova
Relatives simply called her Lyalya. A photo of Beria’s mistress, who was only 16 years old at the time of meeting the People’s Commissar, is presented below. The schoolgirl became a victim of violence - Beria tricked her into her mansion. In 1949, Lala gave birth to a daughter from him. In fact, she became his second wife.
It is noteworthy that after the arrest of Beria, Drozdova wrote a rape statement. But this happened a few years after they met. Most likely, she was forced to testify against her lover.
The personal life of Drozdova did not work out. She was married twice. Both her husbands were shot in the sixties.
Blue Beard
In the perestroika years about Stalin's time, many terrible legends appeared. In many of them, the main character was Lavrenty Beria. This politician especially appeared on the pages of the yellow press. It was said that he not only raped women, but also killed, and with the help of a terrible method he lowered bodies into the sewers. These semi-mystical stories were debunked by a historian, and part-time former KGB officer A. Martirosyan.
After Beria was shot, his family was sent into exile. Nino Hegechkori spent some time in prison. The overseer once informed the woman that her husband’s list of lovers contains more than seven hundred names. Gegechkori was a little surprised. How did a person who worked 18 hours a day find time to date with so many women?
During the war years and in the late forties, Beria led counterintelligence. He also oversaw all the scientific research that related to the creation of nuclear weapons. He, of course, was not a monk. But the rumors about the legion of the commissioner's mistresses are greatly exaggerated.