“The Passion and Bomb of Lavrentiy Beria” is a new book by the famous Russian writer Alexander Lapin, the author of the epic “Russian Cross”, the novels “Holy Sinners” and “Crimean Bridge”, as well as the trilogy “The Book of the Living”. At the center of the work is one of the most odious figures in Russian history. To find the keys to the mysteries of the contradictory and passionate nature of his hero, the author chooses perhaps the most relevant genre of philosophical documentary-historical novel in modern world literature. Through the fate of the all-powerful People's Commissar, the main intricacies of the foreign and domestic policies of the USSR, in particular the Soviet atomic project, can be traced. The novel touches on a whole layer of topical issues that concern millions of people around the world today, from confrontation between great powers to the preservation of human civilization...