Mistresses of Lavrentiy Beria. Urban horror story: Beria’s sex crematorium (6 photos) Beria’s perversions of women

The mansion, overlooking Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, Malaya Nikitskaya and Vspolny Lane, built in 1884 for the mayor of Stepan Tarasov, at one time attracted the attention of the almighty Lavrentiy Beria. Since then, he has been surrounded by ominous rumors. There was a time when the old residents of these places, instinctively muffling their voices, told horrors about what was happening on the territory of the ancient estate. This is how a legend developed, in which truth can no longer be distinguished from fiction.

When workers once excavated a pit for a heating plant on Kachalova Street (as Malaya Nikitskaya was called in Soviet times), they came across bones.
The common grave dates back to the times of Stalinist repressions. But the closer the pit got to the mansion, the more skeletons they dug up. Thus, rumors about women raped by Beria and killed on his orders received indirect confirmation.
As Anton Antonov-Ovseenko narrates in his book about L. Beria, a stone crusher was found in the basement of the mansion, with the help of which, apparently, the remains of murdered women were crushed before they were lowered into the sewer.
According to other sources, a small crematorium was equipped in the courtyard of the estate, in which the bodies of victims of the sexist executioner were burned. In any case, the arrest report of L. Beria contains an inventory of women's blouses, stockings, slips, tights, scarves, and scarves seized during a search in his mansion. The “Collector,” apparently, did not deny himself the pleasure of leaving something as a souvenir of his charming captives.
The children's sizes of some items confirm rumors that teenage girls were often the prey of the voluptuous marshal. Colonel Rafael Sarkisov supplied sex slaves to his boss. He usually went to negotiate with a lady Lavrenty Pavlovich liked, politely but persistently asked for a phone number and delivered the guest to the mansion at night.
Beria brutally raped some, treated others and entertained them with conversation - it all depended on the mood and the time available. It did not bother him if the woman was married, because he knew that there was no knight in the country who would dare to defend the honor of his wife if such a gentleman liked her.

However, there was at least one exception. In 1944, the “harem” on Vspolny was replenished with another beauty - Sofia Shchirova. She married ace pilot Sergei Shchirov, a Hero of the Soviet Union, who shot down 21 enemy aircraft during the war and distinguished himself by bringing Marshal Josip Broz Tito out of the fascist encirclement in the most difficult conditions of mountainous terrain and bad weather.
The honeymoon had not yet finished when Beria was flattered by the newlywed. Returning from a business trip on the tenth day after the wedding, Sergei did not find his wife at home. She was brought by a car at two o'clock in the morning. The hero dared to defend his wife’s honor. Sofia smelled of expensive wine. She did not deny it and, bursting into tears, confessed everything to her husband.
Sharp and direct, Shchirov began to loudly threaten Beria. He was soon arrested and a case was fabricated against him. The pilot believed that at the trial he would tell the whole truth about the seducer-rapist. The naive hero did not imagine that 25 years in the camps would be assigned to him without providing an acquittal.
As Colonel Sarkisov, the head of the security of the chief of the NKVD of the USSR, later showed during interrogation at the Prosecutor General’s Office, Sofia Shchirova was on the list of women brought to the mansion under number 117 (in total, the hunter’s “trophies” were numbered at more than 200, according to other sources - 760, however, Beria’s wife Nina Teymurazovna assured that all these women were intelligence officers - agents and informants).
In 1953, immediately after Stalin's death, Shchirov was released. Fearfully looking around, the hunched, toothless 37-year-old man found his beloved - Sofia, who had already married someone else, disgustedly slammed the door in front of her ex-husband. The ace pilot drank himself to death within three years.

The Tatar janitor Raisa, who served under Beria and for some reason enjoyed his respect, once noticed that the owner was picking up her teenage daughter by the elbow, fearlessly shouted: “Come on, let go of your daughter, Satan!” Lavrenty Pavlovich, who did not expect such a rebuff, immediately turned everything into a joke. Raisa later said that under Vspolny Lane there was an underground passage from the estate, where the guards of the house dragged the torn female bodies. When the underground passage was excavated, dozens of skeletons were removed from it. Beria remained unpunished for many years, until in 1953, during a fierce struggle for power with Nikita Khrushchev, the recent executioner himself became a victim.

There were legends about the love affairs of Lavrentiy Beria, 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 the terrifying facts that were told about her husband. How much of this is part of the legend, and what really happened in their family?

Nino Gegechkori, Beria's wife

Nino Gegechkori met her future husband when she was only 16 years old and he was 22. Then he proposed to her. Later there were rumors that the girl was married off without her consent, but Nino herself said: “Without saying a word to anyone, I married Lavrenty. And immediately after that, rumors spread throughout the city that Lavrenty had kidnapped me. No, there was nothing like that. I married him of my own free will.” Beria himself at that time was interested in getting married, since he had to go to Belgium to study issues of oil refining, and to travel abroad it was necessary to become a married man.


Nino Beria until her last days tried to debunk the myth about her husband

While Beria was in power, Nino managed to avoid the fate of other wives of party leaders - she was not repressed, like the wives of Kalinin, Poskrebyshev and Molotov. However, after Beria’s arrest, she and their son Sergo spent more than a year in solitary confinement. During daily interrogations, she was forced to testify against her husband. But she either really did not know about his crimes, or pretended that she did not know - however, she refused to testify against her husband.


Lavrenty Beria and his wife Nino Gegechkori

The accusations brought against her sounded absurd. “They accused me absolutely seriously of bringing one bucket of red soil from the Non-Black Earth Zone of Russia. The fact is that I worked at the Agricultural Academy and was engaged in soil research. Indeed, once, at my request, they brought a bucket of red soil by plane. But since the plane was state-owned, it turned out that I used state transport for personal purposes,” said Nino.


Beria and Stalin

After 16 months of imprisonment, Beria’s wife was deported to Sverdlovsk, and after the expiration of the exile, she received permission to live in any city except Moscow. Nino and Sergo settled in Kyiv. Those who knew her personally said that she was a very kind and intelligent woman, in addition, she was called one of the most beautiful Kremlin wives. In 1990, Nino gave an interview in which she stated: “I have never interfered in my husband’s official affairs. The leaders of that time did not let their wives know about their affairs, so I can’t say anything about it. The fact that he was accused of treason is, of course, demagoguery - he had to be accused of something. In '53 there was a coup. They were afraid that after Stalin's death Beria might take his place. I knew my husband: he was a man of practical intelligence and understood that after Stalin’s death it was impossible for a Georgian to become head of state. Therefore, he probably went to meet the person he needed, such as Malenkov.”


Beria with his wife, son Sergo and daughter-in-law Marfa

Until her death in 1991, Nino denied her husband’s guilt – both with regard to his political activities and his love affairs. In one of her last interviews, she characterized Beria as a quiet and calm person, a wonderful family man, a loving husband and father. Nino was sure that he was killed without trial on trumped-up charges. She refused to believe stories about thousands of women raped and tortured by her husband, calling them counterintelligence tales. Allegedly, Khrushchev actually simply benefited from denigrating his most dangerous competitor.


Lavrenty Beria and his wife Nino Gegechkori

In response to the evidence presented, Nino said: “One day the warden told me that 760 women admitted that they were Beria’s mistresses. An amazing thing: Lavrenty was busy day and night with work, when he had to make love with a legion of these women?! In fact, everything was different. During the war and later, he headed intelligence and counterintelligence. These women were his employees, informants, and only had direct contact with him. And then, when they were asked about their relationship with the boss, naturally, everyone said that they were his mistresses! What were they supposed to do? Admit the charge of undercover and subversive work?!”


Malenkov and Beria

It is difficult to say whether the “legion” was an exaggeration, but many knew that Beria had a second unofficial wife. There is conflicting evidence about their relationship. It is known that at the time they met, Valentina Drozdova (or Lyalya, as he called her) was a schoolgirl, and that for a long time he actually lived with two families. After Beria's arrest, Valentina claimed that he forced her to cohabitate against her will. He himself gave different testimony: “I had the best relationship with Drozdova.”


Lavrenty Beria

Another quote from the book. A. Antonova-Ovseenko “Beria”, which tells about the victims of sexual aggression of a loving Mingrelian “macho”:
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During affairs of national importance, Beria did not forget about his concert ensemble. Naturally, he perceived the female half of the team as nothing more than a personal harem, and some Lubyanka dignitaries followed his example. The dancer Nina Alekseeva attracted the attention of the chief of staff of the partisan detachments, Vorobyov, and he “invited” her to his home, but took possession of her already in the car. In a word, the general hurried. He turned out to be a generous and attentive patron, but soon fell under the ax of repression.
The central ensemble of the NKVD-MVD served front-line units and worked on new programs. Lavrenty Pavlovich Sarkisov's trusted agent attended rehearsals, looking out for sexy women. One day he offered his services to Nina Alekseeva, but she refused to get into his car. The second time the recruiter was more persistent. Fearing the worst, the dancer moved to Kaliningrad. She returned to Moscow after the war and was immediately accepted into the orchestra under the direction of Tselikovsky. It was then located on Kachalov Street, near the Beria mansion. During his evening walks, Lavrenty Pavlovich used to stop at the entrance of the building where the orchestra was rehearsing, and looked for something suitable among the artists coming out. He recognized Alekseeva immediately, and the next day the unchanged Sarkisov appeared. Nina Vasilievna was already married, raising children, and Sarkisov gallantly offered to take her home. However, a few minutes later the car drove into the courtyard of a famous mansion, and now our dancer was sitting at the table with the owner, looking warily at the abundant dishes. “Do you really think that the dishes are poisoned?” - asked Beria. And I tasted a little of everything. “I’ve been waiting for you for so long, I’ve been looking for you everywhere...”
I had to submit. Lavrenty Pavlovich did not show any signs of sadism, which was used to scare girls even in the pre-war era. As a farewell gift, he presented his new mistress with a bouquet of magnificent roses. Nina Vasilievna returned home in tears, unable to tell her husband about her grief.
After the war, Beria’s wife lived permanently at the dacha with her son and Lavrenty Pavlovich’s deaf-mute sister. Taking advantage of complete freedom, he visited them very rarely.
And Beria did not let go of Nina Alekseeva from his tenacious clutches for a long time, until she begged for peace. He was easily consoled: there were many of them on his account, trampled women.
Describing the sexual exploits of Lavrenty Pavlovich is dreary. But one name cannot be passed over in silence, especially since the inimitable Tatyana Okunevskaya herself spoke about the tragedy of her life. Her book “Tatiana's Day” was published in 1998.

Tatiana Okunevskaya

The invitation to the Kremlin concert during the days of the victorious May was stunning: that stage was accessible only to the most “people’s”, the favorites of the leaders. Only they are allowed to delight the ears and eyes of the celestials.
Government member Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria will pick her up... And here she is in a concert dress in the back seat of the car next to him. What is it like up close? He is cheerful, playful, rather ugly, flabby, obese, disgusting, gray-white skin color.
No, it’s too early to go to the Kremlin, we have to wait until the meeting ends. And in the mansion on Sadovaya a table with exquisite dishes has already been set. The artist refused wine and food, then Beria began to eat himself - greedily, with his hands, washing down the dishes with Georgian wine, flavoring the feast with empty chatter. He suddenly stood up and, without apologizing, went out through one of the doors... It’s already three o’clock in the morning, Tatyana Kirillovna is sitting tensely on the tip of the chair, afraid of creasing her concert dress. Beria managed to drink several times from his glass, became visibly intoxicated, spoke vulgarities, and said that Koba had never seen her “live” before...
-Who is Koba?
- Ha! Ha! Don't you know who Koba is? Ha! Ha! Ha! This is Joseph Vissarionovich.
Beria left again without warning, and when he returned, he announced that the meeting “with them” had already passed, but Joseph was tired and decided to postpone the concert. Now you can have a drink and, handing the artist a filled glass, he added that otherwise he would not let her go. Tatyana drained her glass standing and hurried home. But Beria hugged her around the waist and, pushing her towards the door, sniffling disgustingly in her ear, said: “It’s late, we need to rest a little, then we’ll take you home...”.
...I woke up at ten o'clock in the morning. Raped, desecrated. A silent maid, a silent driver at the entrance.
I spent a day at home with my eyes open, everything seemed frozen...
This is it, the technology of “seduction” of women who had the misfortune of falling in love with the owner of the Lubyanka. And the memories written by the artist’s talented pen acquire the force of a historical document.
...What could be more disgusting than that night? Another night, appointed by the same scoundrel.
...Phone call.
— It’s nice to hear your voice, at least on the phone. You have finally finished your travels - ha ha, you live at home or somewhere else, why don’t you say hello...
Burn. She hung up. Call.
- I have business with you, ha ha, you’re smart, but you hung up the phone, you just need to go to the car. I will come and say everything that I have to say not over the phone... This concerns your husband, you. I will arrive at your gate at twenty-three o'clock.
It turns out that Beria called several times while she was in Yugoslavia, but she was not told about it. Tatyana was the daughter of an enemy of the people, the sister of the enemy. Father and grandmother died in the camps. My brother served his five years in Pechora and designed performances at the Abez Theater. There I met Levushka in 1945. Okunevskaya had several more distant relatives - those who were shot and deported. In a word, the survivors lived on the edge of the abyss. If something happened, Tatyana’s husband, Boris Gorbatov, who was favored by the authorities, would not have pulled out...
But let’s read into the artist’s woeful story.
“...I come out of the entrance and through the long courtyard I see a car at the gate, my heart is pounding, turn and run, run wherever my eyes look... and if there really is trouble looming... why does this concern Boris... it means it’s connected with politics...
A colonel comes out of the front door towards me, the same one as the first time, opens the back door, a hand reaches out from there, I say hello, I don’t want to greet him... A moment... the colonel bowed my head, pushed me into the car, I fall face down on his knees, the colonel sits down on the right, the car rushes off.
- Well, how we outwitted you, ha ha ha!
Fields flash through the curtains. I'll kill him! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!
- Are you thinking about how to kill me?! Ha ha! It won't work!
He's the devil. His giggles make me feel sick.
Huge park. Almost a two-story palace. Winter Garden. The colonel disappeared. The maid is different, there is contempt in her lowered eyes. I don’t touch anything at the table. He is the same as the first time, drinks expensive wines, eats with his hands, giggles, began to get drunk, his eyes are filled with grease, my Golgotha ​​will soon begin... I was grabbed in my arms, undressed, placed on the table... Resistance is pointless, impossible, humiliating... If only my heart wouldn't break... A toad, vile, ugly, fat, bloated... Doesn't take his eyes off me, crawls on the bed, suffocates from the happiness of the conqueror... an animal that has caught a victim... he's worn out , otherwise the night would have been fatal for me... Still no dawn... then, in the mansion, in half-oblivion, it was easier...
Then I didn’t see him in the morning. And now he disappeared at night, but he is here, somewhere nearby, eating, drinking...
In response to all the demands to go to the table, I sit, petrified, in the bedroom.
The car is suffocating from the fumes, from the smell of roses in which I am sitting, it is playful and cheerful.
- Come on, tell me how the Yugoslav marshal received you!.. Ha-ha-ha... What, brilliant?! Handsome?! Yes?! You shouldn't be silent! After all, it will still be the way I want it, and I want it! Ha ha ha! I may want more! Ha ha ha. If I were you, I would be happy with a person like me! Well, turn your face towards me!
He took me by the chin... if he tries to kiss me, I’ll hit you, you reptile, you scoundrel, you ugly toad! No, no, fall into yoga, beg for Papa, Babi, Levushka! I look straight into his small, impudent eyes - there is so much hatred in mine that he pushed me away and became furious:
- What do you need?! This is my second time with you, and it’s an honor for you, I can do a lot for you for your kiss! Is it more pleasant to sleep and kiss with this fool Gorbatov, a stinking Jew, a coward, a careerist?! Haha.
Just don't burst into tears. Just don't faint.
The car stopped abruptly at my gate and immediately sped off, I swayed, some man brought me to the entrance.”

Chamomile

After the war, the Belyakov family lived on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya, on the corner of Oruzheyny Lane. The wife worked in the editorial office of the Izvestia newspaper, the husband worked as a waiter in a restaurant. Leocadia Petrovna raised two daughters. The eldest, Tamara, was very pretty; she inherited wondrous eyes, lush brown hair, and a graceful figure from her Polish grandmother. That year, shortly before Stalin's death, Tamara served as a secretary in the Ministry of Defense Industry. The Belyakov family occupied two rooms in a communal apartment; a lonely widow, Valentina Aleksandrovna Rybalko, lived in the third. One day Tamara came to her and told her the following. She was walking down the street, and suddenly a car stopped next to her. Two young Georgians, so polite and friendly, invited her for a cup of tea at the Aquarium cafe. We had dinner together, chatting nicely. New acquaintances made an appointment for Tamara for tomorrow. She was twenty years old, she was already accustomed to the constant attention of men and, knowing no fear, agreed.
The next day, the Georgians took Pasha Tamara out of town, along the Belarusian railway. At one intersection, the girl was blindfolded and the blindfold was removed only at the dacha, behind Arkhangelskoye. This village is located on the other side of Moscow, but Tamara did not dare to ask why such secrecy was needed. The dacha was furnished with defiant luxury. When Tamara was led into the large living room, there were already eight or nine girls there. They were all asked to undress, leaving only their bras and shoes. Then everyone was placed in a circle on the carpet, with their heads towards the center, under the chandelier. Something like a chamomile formed. The owner entered the living room. He was in a dressing gown and had pince-nez on his nose. Lavrenty Pavlovich slowly walked around the chamomile, stopped at one petal and pulled it out of the circle by his leg. The chosen one followed the owner, the rest could get dressed. They were offered an excellently served table, the girls ate dinner, awaiting new orders.
Young recruiters came for Tamara several more times.
After some time, she became pregnant. With this misfortune, Tamara came again to her neighbor. Valentina Aleksandrovna advised me to immediately get rid of the consequences, but to do it with a private doctor. The poor girl followed the advice. But her misadventures did not end there. Less than a month had passed before Tamara was again invited to the dacha. She went to her neighbor's house in tears, trembling with fear.
- Aunt Valya, they’ll come for me now. I can’t do it anymore, I don’t want to go there! Hide me, save me...
“Get under the bed,” Valentina Alexandrovna immediately decided.
Half an hour later the apartment rang, and those same assistants appeared at the door. One of them, not bothering to be polite, said briefly:
- Belyakov! Tamaru!
- She's not there.
- How so? She should be here.
- I told you that she is not there. If you have this right, go to her room.
The agents milled about in the corridor for a while and left. Tamara was no longer bothered.
That same summer, the high-society rapist was removed from all posts. Shortly before his arrest, Tamara’s mother intended to go to an appointment with Lavrenty Pavlovich. She wanted to ask for an apartment, a separate apartment. He must have at least some kind of male conscience... Who knows what the guardian would have done with her if Valentina Aleksandrovna had not dissuaded the naive neighbor.

During the trial of Lavrentiy Beria, the many rapes he committed were mentioned. Beria raped many young women, whom his bodyguards grabbed on the street and brought to the boss’s mansion. Through threats, he also persuaded the wives of Soviet officials to have sex.

According to open Soviet archives, Beria committed “dozens” of attacks on women while he was head of the NKVD. Stalin biographer Simon Sebag-Montefiore writes that Beria emerged as a sexual predator who used his power to enjoy constant debauchery.

...The inventory of the contents of Lavrenty Pavlovich’s desk, made after his arrest, reveals the interests of Beria. He was attracted to power and sex. In his office, Beria kept batons for torturing prisoners and a mountain of women's underwear, sex toys, and pornography. They found eleven pairs of silk stockings, eleven teddy bears, seven silk nightgowns, women's sports uniforms, blouses, silk scarves, an endless number of indecent love letters and a huge number of objects of male debauchery.

Despite the fantastic amount of work, Beria also found time for an active sex life. Everything was in equal measure: love, rape, and perversion. The war provided Beria with the opportunity to significantly surpass his predecessors in terms of sexual exploits. Secret police chiefs have always had an unspoken license for sexual permissiveness. Lavrenty Pavlovich had the right to monitor everyone. Only SMERSH could watch him. It turned out that Beria had the right to do literally whatever he wanted.

Previously, it was believed that the scale of Lavrenty Pavlovich’s sexual life was exaggerated. However, the disclosure of the records of his interrogations stored in the archives, as well as the testimony of witnesses and rape victims, suggests otherwise. These documents reveal a sexual predator who used power to fulfill his perverted desires. It is often very difficult to divide the victims into two categories: those whom he seduced and raped when they came to ask for the lives of their loved ones, and those whom he kidnapped and raped. There were, of course, such mothers, and quite a few, who were engaged in pimping. They gave their daughters to a sexual predator in exchange for cars and privileges.

Lavrenty Beria, when he wanted, could well create the appearance of a gentleman. He treated some of his mistresses so tenderly and affectionately that they never criticized him. These women remained silent even when Beria was made the main Bluebeard of the Soviet Union.

Muscovites are accustomed to seeing an armored Packard slowly rolling through the streets of the capital. “Beria is out hunting again,” they whispered. The People's Commissar regularly ordered his Caucasian bodyguards, Colonels Sarkisov and Nadaraya, to put the women he liked into the car. The colonels carried out tasks with great reluctance, but preferred to remain silent. Sarkisov recorded all the boss’s perversions in order to inform Stalin on him.

Women and girls were usually brought to Beria's city mansion, where, like a parody of Caucasian chivalry and hospitality, a rich Georgian table with wine awaited them. On the way back, one of the colonels always gave the victim of the People's Commissar a bouquet of flowers. If the abductees resisted, they were often simply arrested and thrown into prison. Actress Zoya Fedorova was captured by security colonels when she was still breastfeeding a small child. She was brought to a big party. There was a laid table in the room, but there were no guests. Then Lavrenty Pavlovich came out to the guest. Fedorova begged to let her go because the actress’s breasts hurt after feeding. Beria was furious. She was later arrested.

At the end of the war, Beria invited film actress Tatyana Okunevskaya to speak to members of the Politburo, but instead of the Kremlin he took her to his dacha. He heavily fed his guest wine, often pouring it over her knees. After dinner he undressed. The folds of fat and bulging eyes made him look like a disgusting toad.

“You can scream, but it doesn’t matter,” he warned. - Better think and behave as you should.

Then the People's Commissar raped the actress. Soon after this meeting, Okunevskaya was also arrested. She was put in solitary confinement and then sent to Siberia. She felled wood in the taiga and, if not for the kindness of ordinary people, she would never have survived in the camp.

Violence against women was just the tip of the iceberg of the moral corruption of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. Beria's priapic energy was just as overflowing as the official's activity. “During the war, in 1943, I think I contracted syphilis,” he later admitted. “I had to get treatment.”

After the war, Vlasik and Poskrebyshev, who did not forget about Bronka, told Stalin about Beria’s syphilis. Sexual maniac Beria carefully recorded his victories on the love front. His colonels also kept score. Some say that there were thirty-nine names on the lists, others say seventy-nine. “Most of these women were my mistresses,” admitted Lavrenty Pavlovich.

Beria ordered Sarkisov to destroy the lists, which he did. But, being a true security officer, he kept one copy and later used it against his master.

Some of Beria’s mistresses, for example Sophia and Maya, students at the Institute of International Relations, very inopportunely became pregnant. And again work was found for Colonels Sarkisov and Nadaraya. They arranged an abortion for them in the medical unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. If Beria did have children, the colonels handed them over to an orphanage.

Stalin tolerated the antics of his courtiers as long as they remained politically loyal to him. During the war, Lavrentiy Beria carried half of the USSR economy. When the leader was informed about his sexual exploits, the Secretary General answered with a condescending smile: “Comrade Beria is overworked and tired.” But the less he trusted Beria, the less tolerant he became of licentiousness and permissiveness. Having learned one day that [his daughter] Svetlana is at Beria's house, Joseph Vissarionovich suddenly panicked. He immediately called her and told her to leave immediately. “I don’t believe Beria,” he explained.

When Beria noticed that Poskrebyshev’s daughter was as beautiful as her mother, the chief of Stalin’s cabinet said to the girl:

– Never get into Beria’s car if he offers you a ride.

The wives of the leaders Lavrentiy Pavlovich hated Beria. Ashkhen Mikoyan refused to go to a banquet or any special event if the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs might also be there.

“Tell me that I have a headache,” she told her husband and stayed at home.

Beria's wife Nina admitted to Svetlana and other close friends that she was very unhappy. “Lavrenty is always away from home,” she complained. “I’m alone all the time.” But her daughter-in-law claims that Nina Beria, in spite of everything, still loved her husband. She, of course, knew that he had other women, but decided to treat this with the tolerance inherent in Georgians. Before her husband came home for the weekend, she spent hours doing her nails and makeup. Nina lived downstairs in her room. When Lavrenty arrived, she moved to the second floor to share the marital bed with him. They sat comfortably by the lit fireplace and watched Western films, most often Westerns about cowboys and Mexican bandits. Lavrenty Pavlovich’s favorite picture was the western “Viva Villa!” about the Mexican national hero. The couple spoke affectionately in the Mingrelian dialect.

Nina refused to believe in all the horrors that popular rumor attributed to Beria. At least she didn’t believe in all his crimes. “I don’t understand, when only Lavrentiy finds time to seduce these hordes of women? – she asked incredulously. “After all, he spends days and nights at work.” Therefore, I concluded that all the women they talk about are simply Beria’s secret agents... (S. Sebag-Montefiore The Red Monarch: Stalin and the War.)

It was not in vain that the bouquet of flowers was given to the women raped by Beria. If the victim accepted it, it meant that the sex was consensual. Refusal to take flowers entailed arrest. Sarkisov reported that one woman brought to his boss rejected all advances and ran out of the office. Sarkisov mistakenly gave her flowers, and Beria, having learned about this, angrily announced: “Now it will not be a bouquet, but a wreath! She can leave him to wither on her grave!” That woman was arrested by the NKVD the next day.

By inducing Tatyana Okunevskaya to have sex and offering to release her father and grandmother from prison for this, Beria deliberately lied: he knew that Okunevskaya’s relatives had been executed several months ago.

Having shown interest in the stepdaughter of Marshal Voroshilov during a party at their summer dacha, Beria relentlessly followed their car on the way back to the Kremlin, terrifying Voroshilov’s wife.

Beria himself later admitted that he was infected with syphilis during interrogation. And on January 17, 2003, the Russian government recognized the authenticity of Sarkisov’s handwritten “list,” but decided not to disclose the names of Beria’s victims until 2028.

There is evidence that Beria not only kidnapped and raped women, but also killed some of them. His former mansion in Moscow (28/1 Malaya Nikitskaya St.) is currently occupied by the Tunisian Embassy. During work on its territory in the mid-1990s, the bones of several young girls were found buried in the garden. According to Martin Sixsmith in a BBC documentary, “Beria spent his nights with girls and young women who were snatched from the streets and brought here to be raped. Those who resisted were strangled and buried in his wife's rose garden."

Former Beria mansion in Moscow on Malaya Nikitskaya Street

The testimony of Sarkisov and Nadaraya is partially confirmed by Edward Ellis Smith, an American who worked at the Moscow US Embassy after the war. He reports that Beria's feminine exploits were well known to the embassy staff, because his house was located on the same street as the American residence. Those who lived in it saw girls brought to Beria late at night in a limousine.