Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant by Amy Knight
ISBN: 0691032572
Princeton University Press

Amy Knight's biography of Lavrentiy Beria (1899-1953) is neither fun nor easy: passages are explicit and gruesome, depicting kidnapping, torture and murder which Stalin's secret police chief employed with ruthless efficiency. Knight is a plain, calm recounter: her style befits her subject.

Is sympathy or empathy possible for Beria? Sympathy absolutely not: he was a monstrous mass terrorizer embodying the USSR at its oppressive worst. Limited empathy yes: born in traditional, Mingrelian rural society, bright and introverted, Beria diligently rose from obscurity, proved himself, and effected massive change.

By his early twenties, Beria was already ordering murders as a rising official in his native Georgia. On a local scale in a small nation, torture and murder formed the grisly repertoire of tools to employ versus rebellious groups or troublesome individuals.

Yet by the 1930s, sadism and morbidity had crept into Beria's rule. His purges of political figures plus Georgia's intellectuals and artists took on capricious, indiscriminate qualities: the only end a show of raw power. Beria personally killed and partook in torture, sometimes of those who hadn't done anything except occupy a minor, even trivial position.

Concurrently Beria's sexual depravities grew. From sources Knight concludes his crimes were exaggerated by enemies: nevertheless it's clear Beria's preference was athletic young women. Little stood in his way: he had his pick, and those selected had to go along. How many rapes, and even rape-murders, Beria committed we cannot know.

When reading dark subjects I try to find humour to ease navigation. Three aspects of the bio had this:

Firstly was the 1930s book about communist theory and implementation, ghostwritten by others but attributed to Beria. The amount of petty egotism and bizarre feuding over a text barely anyone even read during Beria's lifetime, let alone later, was amusing. It was even dredged up in Beria's trial: a tidy example of how neurotic the USSR apparatus was in clawing for blame.

Secondly was the continual chess match between those vying for supremacy and Stalin's favour. These men carried the same personas: lust for power and control, managerial talent, and paranoia. The morbid cycles of bad behaviour, like the feverish digging up or inventing of misdeeds, denouncing of betrayals and conniving, was Soviet office politics at its crazy worst.

Lastly was Stalin's demise. The humour of this is shown quite accurately in the film The Death of Stalin, wherein the dictator collapsed but wasn't treated quickly or well. Beria clasped deathbed-bound Stalin's hand and wept. After Stalin died, Beria promptly cut the act and strode off to secure his position. This episode capped off the macabre humour of the sheer, unadulterated bastards in charge.

From 1941 until his death, Beria did vital work. His rational, efficient and effective administration during World War II was pivotal. After a stumbling, panicked start as the Wehrmacht blitzed its way to Moscow's outskirts, Beria pulled himself together. He intensively managed the shift of war production east of the Urals: when the Soviets struck back with masses of T-34s from 1943 onwards, the groundwork was his.

After the war Beria was set to work on the USSR's atomic reactors and weapons program. Again, his managerial gifts were displayed: the scientists in the main went along with his intense manner. Beria showed boyish excitement as the first reactor was turned on: he wanted to dash in to see it working, and had to be held back by scientists explaining the radioactivity.

With an anecdote Knight soberly reminds us: the young Andrei Sakharov, on first meeting Beria, clasped his cold hand. His conclusion? He was "face-to-face with a terrifying human being."

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What is Beria's NPA personality? His staying power, drive and competence under pressure, plus the bizarre unrestrained compulsions to rape and torture, helps narrow it down. Beria was either a PA or NP type, and a severe example of the corruptions and pitfalls to which either type can descend.