Beria's list: Soviet celebrities who suffered from the sympathy of the all-powerful People's Commissar

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The whole country knew about the special weakness of Lavrenty Beria for women. Frightening stories about a black armored car, from which the People's Commissar looked out for his victims, Muscovites passed on to each other in a whisper. Most often, Beria drew attention to stately beauties, while he was not interested in either age, marital status, or the social status of the victim he chose. The list of victims at the hands of Lavrenty Beria included both ordinary girls and fairly well-known personalities.

Tatiana Okunevskaya

Lavrenty Beria simply could not help but pay attention to this beautiful woman. When her last name was on the list of those invited to the holiday in the Kremlin, Lavrenty Beria personally drove for her. And before the start of the event, he brought him to his mansion. When Tatyana Okunevskaya understood the true intention of the People's Commissar, she tried to escape. But the door was closed, and Beria promised to release her as soon as she drank wine with him. After a glass of wine, the actress had everything before her eyes. When she woke up, Okunevskaya realized: Beria took advantage of her unconscious state.

But she had to once again be alone with Beria. The People's Commissar believed that the actress should be grateful to him for a second date. But Tatyana Okunevskaya felt nothing but hatred and disgust. For which she soon paid. She was sentenced to ten years in labor camps for anti-Soviet propaganda. She was released after Stalin's death.

READ ALSO: Beauty and the monsters: the magnificent Tatiana Okunevskaya, before whom the "big leaders" could not resist >>

Lydia Ruslanova

The popularly beloved singer also turned out to be interesting to the loving People's Commissar. For a long time he could not approach her, and after one of the Kremlin concerts he offered to give Lydia Ruslanova a lift home. She sat in the back seat of his car and did not have time to look back when Beria immediately appeared next to her. Feeling a hand on her leg, Lydia Andreevna not only threw her hand away, but also said a few very rude words to the People's Commissar. Beria promised: Ruslanova will regret it again.

She regretted this in 1948, when she was convicted along with her husband, General Kryukov. Officially, Lydia Ruslanova, like Vladimir Kryukov, was accused of looting and anti-Soviet propaganda. But the singer never doubted: this is her payback for the refusal to the chief of the NKVD. In the camps, Lydia Ruslanova met another victim of Beria, actress Zoya Fedorova.

READ ALSO: The zigzags of Lydia Ruslanova's fate: from poverty to national glory, from confession to prison >>

Zoya Fedorova

The actress Zoya Fedorova received 25 years in the camps, paying for her love for the American citizen Jackson Tate. However, she also happened to be in the hands of Lavrenty Beria. Moreover, there are two alternative versions of this acquaintance.

According to the first, the actress was taken to a small room where there was a bed and a table was laid. Lavrenty Beria, who came out from behind the screen in a dressing gown, offered her a drink, and when he heard the refusal, they rudely threw her onto the bed and took her by force. She tried to resist, but was brutally beaten.

Another version says: Beria was furious when he heard that the actress had chest pain after feeding the baby, but let her go. However, a few days later he still gave the order to arrest Zoya Fedorova.

READ ALSO: The mystery of the death of Zoya Fedorova: the Soviet actress survived in prison, but did not escape a shot in the back of the head >>

Evgeniya Garkusha

She was charming, talented and happy in marriage with the People's Commissar of the Navy Pyotr Shirshov. A little daughter was growing up in the family, and the spouses also dreamed of a son. But all their dreams collapsed in an instant.

At one of the official receptions, the beautiful actress was noticed by Lavrenty Pavlovich. At that time he held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, but, like when he was the People's Commissar of State Security, he had considerable weight and influence, which he used unlimitedly. Right during the reception, Beria approached the wife of the People's Commissar of the Navy and made her an offer, which, in his opinion, no woman had the right to refuse.

Evgenia, on the other hand, was offended and, in front of all the people, answered Beria with a slap in the face. He could not forgive this. A few days later, Yevgenia was arrested, and two years after her arrest, in 1948, she committed suicide in a camp in the Magadan region, taking a large dose of sleeping pills.

READ ALSO: Fatal slap in the face of Beria: Why did the life of actress Evgenia Garkusha end at 33 >>

Lyudmila Tselikovskaya

The only actress who managed to escape punishment for her obstinacy was Lyudmila Tselikovskaya. When Beria's assistant was taking her and another actress to a private screening of a movie in the people's commissar's mansion, Tselikovskaya sincerely believed that the show would be limited.

When she felt a man's hand on her chest in the dark, Lyudmila Vasilievna, without hesitation, hit the uninvited boyfriend and rushed out of the room. According to the son of the actress Alexander, she was always afraid of being shot in the back. For a long time she was even afraid to even leave the house, but as if everyone had forgotten about her. Apparently, the friendship of Karo Alabyan's husband with the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Anastas Mikoyan became her salvation.

The second actress stayed in the scary mansion that night. But her name Lyudmila Tselikovskaya kept secret until the end of her days, she only said that she was very famous.

READ ALSO: Lyudmila Tselikovskaya - a national actress whom Stalin did not like: a thorny path to glory >>

Nina Alekseeva (Chermenskaya)

Lavrenty Beria was a member of the commission of the Central Ensemble of the NKVD. He was happy to come to the auditions, as many beautiful young girls took part in it. On one of the views, he noticed young Nina Chermenskaya (married Alekseeva) and ordered her to be brought to his mansion.

A black car was waiting for the girl at the exit from work. On the offer to give her a lift, Nina refused, and upon hearing a more insistent request to get into the car, she quickly went the other way. The girl realized what awaited her, and soon she simply left Moscow for Kaliningrad. She returned to the capital after the war and was accepted into a military band, whose rehearsal base was located not far from Beria's mansion. There Lavrenty Pavlovich saw her.

This time, the woman did not manage to avoid a close acquaintance with him. After the death of Beria, Nina Alekseeva published the book "Notes of a mistress", in which she described in detail her relationship with the one whose name had been terrifying for many years.

The love affairs of Lavrenty Beria were legendary, although for more than 30 years his only wife remained Nino Gegechkori - a woman who had to endure many trials. Until her last days, she refused to believe in the horrific facts that were told about her husband. Which of this is part of the legend, and what really happened in their family?