Beria… advanced the following argument: “Why should socialism be built in the GDR? Let it just be a peaceful country. That is sufficient for our purposes…. The sort of country it will become is unimportant.”
Chuev, Feliks. Molotov Remembers. Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1993, p. 334
MOLOTOV: A stable Germany was good enough for him…. I was in favor of not forcing a socialist policy, while Beria favored not supporting socialism at all.
Chuev, Feliks. Molotov Remembers. Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1993, p. 335
The capitulating essence of Beria’s proposals regarding the German question is obvious. He virtually demanded capitulation before the so-called “Western” bourgeois states. He insisted that we reject the course to strengthen the people’s democratic order in the GDR, which would lead to socialism. He insisted on untying the hands of German imperialism, not only in West Germany but in East Germany….
You see how what Beria had previously concealed in his political persona was now exposed. Also, what we previously saw only vaguely in Beria, we now began to see clearly. We now clearly saw that here was someone alien to us, a man from the anti-Soviet camp.
It was not so easy to expose Beria. He artfully disguised himself, and for many years–concealing his true face–he sat in the leadership center.
Stickle, D. M., Ed. The Beria Affair. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 1992, p. 29
The Espresso Stalinist 