Lavrenty Beria: a bureaucratic player and manager

In historical science and journalism, Lavrentiy Beria was evaluated as the head of the NKVD-the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, participation in the repressions and deportations of 1941, 1943-1944, the leadership of intelligence and counterintelligence overshadowed the routine management of the industrial sector. "Beria the businessman" is in the shadow of the head of the internal affairs and state security agencies. It is this aspect of Beria's activities that has not been sufficiently studied. The article focuses on his experience as Stalin's deputy in the Council of People's Commissars -- the Council of Ministers of the USSR and their operational bureaus, where he had to solve current economic management issues. The documents of the Beriev secretariat in the government, the resolutions of the GKO, which his assistants took part in developing, and the testimonies of his contemporaries make it possible to characterize Beria as one of the few representatives of the Stalinist ruling group who managed to strengthen and maintain his positions of power, expand the zone of administrative control over key areas of domestic policy. It is also important to reveal Beria's management style, his relationships with subordinates, and his ability to create and manage clients.