Lot 216

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Description:

LAVRENTIY BERIA
(1899-1953) Chief of the NKVD, the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, his deputy premier from 1941 on, and serial rapist, he was purged and executed after Stalin's death. Fine association and content war-date T.L.S. 'Beria' in dark pencil on NKVD letterhead, 5pp. 4to., Jan. 10, 1940 to KLIMENT VOROSHILOV (1881-1969), Soviet military officer and politician who served as Stalin's defense minister, reorganized the general staff, mechanized the army, and developed the air force. Beria relates that a special department of the Leningrad Military District reported that there are serious flaws in the engineering department of the 7th headquarters and that there is "no operational plan for supplying the engineering troops with material for the upcoming operation..." It further describes a failed delivery of materials from Leningrad, the poor condition of the 139th Infantry Division of the 8th Army and its manpower shortage, and noting: "...the 47th Rifle Corps was surrounded by white Finns; on Dec. 28 and 29, 1939, the detachment continued to retreat; they were firing at all sides...the first column was led by a representative Punka Baturin...". He adds that on Dec. 31, the commissioner of a separate reconnaissance battalion, suspecting Baturin had been sent by a white Finn, shot Baturin and the unarmed Red Army soldier with him. Fine condition.

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July 14, 2020 11:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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