Books, Arts & Manners: Life of the Party

Beria: Stalin’s First Lieutenant, by Amy Knight (Princeton, 294 pp., $24.95)

IN CHARGE of Soviet terror at or around its peak, Lavrenti Beria left a special mark on this century. “This is our Himmler,” as Stalin introduced the man to Ribbentrop, in Moscow in 1939 to sign the Hitler-Stalin pact. A biographer of Beria has to decide whether he had room for maneuver in respect to Stalin, or, to put it more directly, whether he had a conscience.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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Beria: Stalin’s First Lieutenant, by Amy Knight (Princeton, 294 pp., $24.95)

IN CHARGE of Soviet terror at or around its peak, Lavrenti Beria left a special mark on this century. “This is our Himmler,” as Stalin introduced the man to Ribbentrop, in Moscow in 1939 to sign the Hitler-Stalin pact. A biographer of Beria has to decide whether he had room for maneuver in respect to Stalin, or, to put it more directly, whether he had a conscience.