for the gold rush still gets people like to. try to save its culture. where cranes are protected in the first official. bush will close up on our.

top stories the u.s. congress is getting set to vote on the last minute deal between republicans and democrats to raise the debt ceiling and avoid the fold but critics say the compromise doesn't solve america's financial problems and that its reputation is going down the drain. the u.s. in the meantime step of the push for sanctions against the syrian government after a crackdown on protesters reportedly left more than one hundred dead. on the side of the country's conflict is unacceptable. and egyptian troops clash with protesters in cairo military police move in to break up a rally hundreds of demonstrators have come out in tahrir square for weeks now to demand a faster pace of change after popular uprising. to travel through one of history's darkest chapters as we explore the notorious concentration camps of the former soviet union. the summer of one nine hundred fifty

three soviet leader joseph stalin passed away one hundred days ago mosco has sent classified instructions to every corner of the soviet union the biography of a man whose name is often mentioned only in whispers is to be removed from the great soviet encyclopedia and destroyed. state security martial law used to supervise both the u.s.s.r. gulags and the entire repression machine of the soviet union. many episodes of his life and the circumstances of his death are still couched in mystery. this army bunker in central moscow is more than ten meters underground. beriah found himself here soon after his arrest in the kremlin there was no chance of escape or help from the outside. area was interrogated by none other than the

soviet union's prosecutor general. one of the initial charges put against him was force participation in widespread political repression. this list contains the names so forty six people in beers your instruction tourist everybody there is also a note saying first category which means execution. i confess that all those resolutions were approved by myself in person. volumes of the buriat case would fill a couple of such shills like you here you can find records of interrogations and indictments but for some reason most of these materials have not yet been

declassified. to be found. prisoners have their pictures taken from the. family album. and the. performance involving a body double. well they did what he did somebody was indeed taken for question in the summer why she always wore a cloak and a hat and his face was that he didn't behind a call for what that like this that you but why did they need to do it in summer yes it's clear that officers peeping from play rooms couldn't see that the man was not bear it all. for victims of political persecution barriers name was synonymous with the repressions that swept everything away in their path

in the one nine hundred thirty s. those who survived the tyrannical years cannot forget the horrors that plague them in that period the night time whisper of black vans pulling up to the house tenants apprehended without warning charged for spying on the behalf of foreign intelligence services all of them would either face execution or end up in a prison camp. censure violence would end to the courtyard during the night i was but it child then but i still have very vivid memories of them i was so scared that it couldn't fend off the tread out will be made so no matter how hard i try to. get it back over his life story is typical of a whole generation her father took part in the one nine hundred seventeen bolshevik revolution as his career progressed he rose to the upper ranks but ultimately it meant little in the one nine hundred thirty s. stalin had begun to get rid of the old guard of his predecessor vladimir lenin whole families were being arrested. this one shows me in prison.

as the daughter of anime's of the people who would my father was and the only one they had arrested with what oh that's exactly what the judge told me you don't are of animus of the people who go. the picturesque region in the caucasus. you. understand was compelled to join georgia. three decades before that celebrity burial had been born here in the village of merkel high in the mountains. for nearly forty years atari come taria taught at the local school it stood side by side with the house where the bury a family lived. i can't remember anything negative about the jungle love it was a good thing when he grew up his parents until to tell him to study their. soviet leaders were phoned to vacationing and i pad. app has his leader nestor introduce

the young hopeful beriah to his old friends. the two met here in one nine hundred thirty one by that time barry had already shown his worth by working in local state security agencies. mary wrote a letter to the lady he ordered this and all the letters to be found and destroyed in their letter mary as the put in a word for him so that stella don't forget to meet him those letters of survived i've seen them all. stalin took note of the young activist soon after that burial was appointed head of the georgian communist party. immediately began planting loyalists in camp posts as for the man who had introduced him to stalin beria now considered him a nuisance. in december nine hundred thirty six barry invited nestor like oh but to dinner a few hours later suddenly felt sick. everybody in our pas you knew

that he had been people know to date doctors who said as much and similar gee if i were eliminated there in them. body was taken from the georgian capital to pass the where it was given a state funeral in botanical gardens that was shortly before nine hundred thirty seven the year of the most massive political crackdown in the soviet union. but he didn't turn up for it i think he was afraid of retribution after. declared an enemy of the people who. thought of repression. is a black sea resort in the past in the one nine hundred thirty s. local steered clear of this building just outside town.

writer survey check the dead say has found out that so-called political prisoners were kept here in the basement of the interior ministry's local division. as soon as all the paperwork was signed off on the condemned ward out from these basements and shot right here on this spot in the limestone pits by the seashore. has spent his whole life here after he was labeled a son of an enemy of the people he lived with the stigma for fifteen years he was stripped of many rights such as being barred from studying at a legal institute. his family home was deserted in one thousand thirty seven fifteen relatives all of whom were well to do peasants were shot for refusing to join soviet collective farms the crackdown on enemies of the people in this region was especially harsh all the while stalin and beria vacationed in nearby colleges.

let's get that has been when i was a school boy i saw barrios several times he would come here with a wegen load of border guards and the burial always wore eyeglasses who would go down the road with his hands behind his back to look like a man and wanting to boss everybody around him. for many years whenever and has in families got together even mentioning the names of relatives branded as enemies of the people was dangerous nowadays when guests visit you're a benny is grants and hands him a vessel in the form of a horn reserved for special occasions. the guests drink wine from simple looking glasses but the first toast has no festive undertones they're going to drink wine to commemorate the victims of their oppressions unleashed by stalin and beria. today we remember all the rules were pressed in the prime of their lives the time

has come for us to name their names without having to worry about a new crackdown there. let us never forget them. moscow lubyanka square house number two. this is the headquarters of the soviet union secret police beriah took charge of this government department in one thousand and thirty it after moving to the soviet capital from georgia he was originally educated as a builder but unlike his fanatical previous essers he took a more practical approach to. hundred thirty eight the reign of terror changed on to beria it didn't come to an end but was less message in scope and it was no focused on particular tasks barrett took the gold system and incorporated it

into the soviet economy. one of lot of near lemons associates of seeing who was executed in one nine hundred thirty eight his son anton spent nearly thirteen years in the girl like he knows from his own experience how soviet economic progress was achieved in the one nine hundred thirty s. and the price paid for it he worked at numerous giant construction sites and was almost blind when he left prison camp in each day we worked for twelve hours on end of the bus their own trip from the barracks and back behind green exhausted he meets just go out into a plank bed the whole time they were with thoughts about whether their wives and children had not been thrown out into the street simply because they were related to an enemy of the people but in the. burial was also behind the establishment of secret research bureaus scientists and academics were rounded up on invented charges and forced into unpaid labor. author of the gulag archipelago alexander

solzhenitsyn spent several years and one of them. needless to say having to work in confinement it was a negative experience for scientists for which moreover many of them were as an excuse to make them work fits they saw it as a chance to be released. besides they were better chances for survival their regular prison camp scientists were given better food and the work was not as harsh . one of barry as top secret projects was a toxicological love for tree of the n.k.v.d. . here scientists tested poisons on people sentenced to death later top soviet leaders authorized the use of such poisons him politically motivated assassinations . the laboratory is on record is reporting the following some one hundred convicts

were used for the purpose more than half of them died as a result of the experiments. i wish to state categorically that i knew nothing about it. couldn't bear it was later told i received instructions from above who it was stolen he told him to supply the n.k.v.d. with poisons tested on humans. today a significant number of russian communists are campaigning to have beria exhilarated they feel he was one of stalin's best managers but modern day communists preferred not to mention the price people paid for various kind of order . at the border which variously treated people as nothing but a coggs in a machine that's the way people were treated during those years whenever mariel was given a job to do he just did it and that's. shortly before the end of world war two

ferial was given a top secret job. overseeing the development of the soviet atomic bomb. mariya to coordinate the cooperation between soviet spies hunting out scientific information in the west and the u.s.s.r. as nuclear physicists only a few people knew about various tasks. if

. kazakstan the secret military facility semi platens twenty one was built under barriers watchful arre. initial preparations for secret tests got underway by the summer of one thousand nine hundred forty nine. the aim was to achieve nuclear parity as soon as possible with the united states which already had the ball. to be really had to meet the deadline if you don't need

a deadline they told us you'll wish you were dead. on august twenty nine thousand nine hundred forty nine at the same a pullout in sct test site in kazakstan the command bunker gave the order to set off. the airwaves three none of those president had ever seen anything like it we were is done after the explosion but we remain shocked for a long time that. this is one of the caricature is depicting beriah style of management here he is showing dressing subordinates down for poor performance. the cartoonist was executed as an enemy of the people back in one nine hundred thirty eight beriah didn't think nearly as much of humor as he did of flattery. and to date on are one such person whose deeds are in minutes his name is love rain t.

bierria i bet i'm feeling a little bit confused if truth though it seems that it's common to be praised in such music as and i have to live with it. one of the few people who have begun to collide with beria head on was dr george or kept pizza who would later be awarded the nobel prize in physics he was one of the chiefs of the soviet atomic power. ject and its initial stages when the scientists complained to stalin about beria instantly became the worst enemy in bury as ice. covered bierria shares the conductor's baton in his hands that's not bad but then this scientist must play first violin the conductors job is not only will ding be put on but also understanding the score understanding scores is not very strong

point. army general who is to tell the story she was in stalin's office when very beristain and began cursing. there is shouted i've had enough of him or it's high time he was dealt with stalin set firmly i'll take care of it but leave him alone. in the spring of one nine hundred fifty three stalin died even though his body had not yet been buried a power struggle unfolded between his closest associates with beriah at the forefront. of the spoiled relations with all those who admin and stalin's inner circle everything he did after stalin points to the fact that he was pursuing his own agenda. is interior ministry even collected compromising materials to discredit his opponents that gave rise to conspiracy theories that he sought to seize power. in the end his former associates saw beriah as a threat they decided to strip him of power by resorting to the very methods he

used to deal with opponents. beriah was dubbed the foreign spy acting against the interests of the soviet union the charge and typically been used against most of the political prisoners that ended up in gulags. this is hell if there is a rest. talking about god knows inappropriate. well but at that time i think got into providence when i made inquiries in the commandments office where i wasn't for amnesty but. i was surprised to hear this is he'll be ok saurez boy. central moscow today this building houses the newseum embassy in russia but from the one nine hundred thirty s. until his arrest it was lebron t. berry as residents none of his relatives saw him alive after he was detained later that gave rise to rumors claiming that barry had been shot in his home before he was due to be arrested. two armored personnel carriers with soldiers inside

pressure the gate leading into the courtyard security personnel rushed out of the house to see what was going on meanwhile beret came to the window to investigate the commotion and at that moment she was hit by machine gun fire it was a military like approach. most historians do not subscribe to that theory one of them nikita petroff has found out that a girl living in a house across the road from the mansion of the interior minister saw barry injuring his trial beauty into tears up to bury a major drawing of a colored. while you were being a silly girl if some weakling had got hold of you he would have given you know you do it all those words some of the area better than anything else. he deprived me of the joys of childhood and youth as you look into his evil deeds taken who took his moral characteristics he's a pervert and men who molest children.

do you admit that you committed a crime against his daughter. i only admits that i shouldn't have had contact with . but i supported her materially on a regular basis. during interrogation beriah confirmed that he had had numerous liaisons for many years now eagerly patching co has been trying to prove that the notorious former secret police chief is his grandfather according to him barry i met his grandmother in one of the secret towns in the urals when he was on a business trip there. comics lived in barracks that used to be behind these buildings there is a fair chance that my grandfather was among them. labyrinthine beery often showed

up in the street. more likely than not he met my grandfather here. later he fathered a son my father as. never saw his father he was raised by adoptive parents who never discuss the matter many still see laplacian co as a fraud. is one of the most active defenders of various names and he is still quite sure of a barrier is his grandfather. who could move some time ago i was even playing with the idea of changing my name but i was advised to take a d.n.a. test first so that the result could be backed up with official papers no i said a few i'm none other than a beary and i'm dead sure of it without any tests. episodes of rape and extramarital relations had little effect on the outcome of burials trial his former associates in the kremlin had already sealed his fate shortly

before he was arrested the prosecutor's office and the judge simply rubber stamp their decision many saw beriah as too dangerous to let him live. the whole affair came to a logical conclusion you think if you have a vicious as a towards others be ready to face the same attitude in return. in this case paris fell victim to the lawless system that he himself had protested and developed to show as he will. one of various most brutal deeds came to light not long ago after the declassification of special archives this folder containing the so-called caton case was handed over to poland shortly before the breakup of the soviet union one of the documents is a memo written by beria in it he suggests the execution of more than twenty thousand poles who ended up in soviet captivity in the autumn of one nine hundred

thirty nine. top secret to. stollen the polish prisoners of war are trying to continue their counter revolutionary activity everybody's eagerly looking forward to their release to be able to join the struggle against the soviet government. of the use of sardines it's necessary to subject them to execution as the last sanction of the law signed miria people's commie sorrow internal affairs. these are authentic documents i'm sure authorized various proposal to execute polish army soldiers officers and other military personnel. the polish army officers were taken prisoner by soviet troops it happened after a secret agreement was signed in august one thousand thirty nine between the soviet union and hitler's germany to divide poland into spheres of influence thousands of captive poles found themselves in soviet camps soon afterwards to soviet repression

machine jettison that unnecessary and burdensome palace the father of renowned polish film director and j. vida was among the poles shot by barrios man. unlike my father most of those taken prisoner were not career offices rather they represented of the polish intelligentsia. they were university professors high school teachers actors and artists among them. in short all those who had been drafted into the army in one thousand nine hundred thirty nine. yet another project thought up by beria sowed the seeds of an interest in a conflict between georgians and i pads eons in the caucasus on his orders hundreds of families were forcibly moved from georgia in the one nine hundred thirty s. and forty's following the devastation caused by mass repressions there that

triggered the erosion and simulation of the. the houses that were built under the project have survived in a posse is rural areas to this day but nobody lives there now. not old in the village residents still refer to them as barrios houses the aim of the resettlement policy was to make sure that as many georgians as possible were settled and i was in religious. areas time bomb eventually went off in the one nine hundred ninety s. half a century later. the civil war that broke out then drove georgians out of. the republics infrastructure was almost completely destroyed. today there is a monument to those who died in the war and mass oppressions outside each village. as for burial there are no monuments to him at has he and now there is not even

a trace of his parental house in the village of. norman love rented various house used to stand behind all of his ruined building our beds all know nothing about tall weeds girls there. will neither man nor beast there venture through their. people in that house he respects long running traditions in accordance with one of them dead people deserve either praise or no mention at all the only reminder to this day of stalin's right hand man beriah are ruins and waste land and nothing else.