Barely four months after the death of Stalin, Beria, the feared head of the MVD (predecessor of the KGB) was suddenly arrested in the Kremlin by Marshall Zhukov and ten armed soldiers acting in conjunction with N Khrushchev, G Malenkov, A Mikoyan and others. Immediately dozens of Beria's deputies were arrested or killed. Virtually all local and republic MVD heads were arrested. Within days a crucial and top-secret Plenum of the Central Committee CPSU convened. The significance of this meeting is considered impossible to overestimate in the history of the USSR. Besides examining the questions of Beria's antiparty and antigovernment activities, the meeting examined the critical issues in society at the time. This Plenum laid the groundwork for the path toward freedom from totalitarianism. Ahead lay the momentous 20th Party Congress, the denouncing of the Cult of Personality, the closings of prison camps and mass rehabilitations. This book offers the complete text of the secret transcripts of these meetings.
