On March 29, 1899, exactly 125 years ago, in the small Abkhazian village of Merheuli, Lavrenty Beria

Prompt:  10s On March 29, 1899, exactly 125 years ago, in the small Abkhazian village of Merheuli, Lavrenty Beria was born — the sinister head of the Soviet special services in an unchanged pince-nez, one of the creators of the GULAG, curator of the USSR atomic project. After Stalin's death in March 1953, he considered himself the best contender for supreme power in the country. Beria came up with a plan to take the USSR for himself, and for this he carried out a number of transformations — they are known by the conditional name "Beria's reforms". The Interior Minister initiated the largest amnesty of prisoners in history, banned torture, tried to strengthen the role of the Interior Ministry, and even seemed to be preparing de-Stalinization. But he failed to emerge victorious from the battle for power — Beria fell victim to the tandem of Malenkov — Khrushchev, who united against a common enemy and then, as many believe, appropriated the seb