Sergo Beria

November 1924 — October 11, 2000

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Harriman were not the only men to bring their children to Yalta. Harry Hopkins’ son Robert served as the official photographer. But there was one other child of a key Yalta participant who was there. None of the American or British delegates ever saw him, but NKVD boss Lavrentiy Beria’s son Sergo was there in the shadows as a core member of the eavesdropping team listening in on Roosevelt’s private conversations in his quarters, which the Soviets had bugged. Sergo, an engineering student who spoke English, had joined the bugging effort first at the Tehran Conference in 1943. He impressed Stalin with his skills, so the Soviet generalissimo made sure he was back with headphones clamped over his ears at Yalta, pencils at the ready.

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, public domain