this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
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I'll have to read that book! Apparently she's a very respected historian so that'll be informative.
Having the archives sealed does make me extremely sus though, obviously no state intelligence head is going to be a nice person and the actions during ww2 were probably especially bleak given the existential threat but it's been a while. It would be good to know the truth.
At least the people around him seemed pretty scared of him after Stalin's death.
Yeah she's easy to read too. Very good at making the subject come alive
To play devils advocate (to attempt to show why its really hard for historians to say for sure one way or the other in cases like these): the archives being sealed could also suggest they dont line up with the official narrative, as well as the other reasons i suggested to electric nan.
People were scared of him and hated him, but as you say no one's saying beria's a nice guy (except perhaps his son): historians' debate here is entirely over whether or not he was a child molester, not over whether or not he signed off on mass executions and imprisonments
Also his wife if I remember reading something from her correctly
Yes this is readily apparent, although I think less relevant given the distance between the powers in the russian federation and post stalin ussr. Implicating current oligarchs seems more plausible, or harming the security forces and being too disinterested in truth (especially truth potentially damaging to the russian national character) to bother redacting seems more plausible to me.
The one thing americans do ok at is admitting their crimes... when everyone involved is beyond justice or restitution anyway.