Was Beria a "Liberal" on the Nationality Question?

You're welcome. But I beg to differ. The results were what they were. It is about time to take off those pink glasses that many in the West wear as far as the Soviet system is concerned. From Russia, With Love was merely a title for a film.

Hm, interesting... I suppose BP 'entrepreneurs' use Latvians in Niger delta as their personal guard, reflecting their feelings of whom they can trust, for quite similar reasons...

Dear @ 10:51, please do not coment such issues if you do not know anything about them :( Mr.Gloube, thank you for touching this almost unknown topic. We have been taught all the time that Beria was the evil of Stalin's system. But as soon as anybody starts to dig into this issue deeper, he/she identifies too many contradictions with the previous statement. Even the worst repressions of 1930ties were ended only after Beria's appointment into NKVD head's position! The same comes about many other cases. While the most interesting case to study is the period after Stalin's death... Lots of historians agree with the hypothesis that he was taking away by Russophiles just because of his liberalism towards non-Russian minorities. Some are saying that there was not even any court against him, he was simply killed already during the moment of „arrest".

Tāpēc ka vēsture kā vienmēr ir ļoti sarežģīta. 1918. gadā ļoti daudzi latvieši ticēja sociālistiskajai revolūcijai un neuzticējās "buržujiem", uzskatīdami, ka tie novedīs pie jauniem kakla kungiem (kā vācu baroniem). Var jau smīnēt atpakaļ skatoties uz viņu naivajiem priekštatiem, bet tāds tas laiks bija. Vispār jau viņiem Krievijā neklājās slikti, tāpēc daudzi sociālisti palika tur līdz pat 1937. gada tīrīšanām, ka sistemātiski jebkuru konkurējošu spēku iznīcināja Staļina grupējums. Vēsturniekiem arī nepietiek ar vērtēju "Beria was a brute". Jā, viņš bija slepkava, bet kādas bija citas viņa domas, darbības vai rīcības, arī ir interesanti. Protams, ja tu neesi mūžīgi mūžos plānojis uzturēt Beriju un Staļinu kā sātana iemiesojumus. Drusku tevi pārsteigšu - tie bija cilvēki. Vardarbīgi, slimi, bet cilvēki.

We couldn't care less. Beria was a brute. People were killed by numbers just because of their nationality, as it hapenned in late 1930s in Russia with Latvians. On the other hand, it is a mystery to explain what Latvians were exactly doing in Russia when they had a land of their own to live in.