Lavrenti P. Beria the Spy

(Hiss where in red type)

Lavrenti P. Beria the spy....The Spy! (Hiss)
An agent of capitalist warmongers.
The dreaded chief of the MVD
In the employ of Big Money as a Spy!

Dreaded chief of the MVD
Employee of the burgeoisie,
Lavrenti P. Beria, the Spy!

For thirty-four years Lavrenti spies.... He spies!
A capitalist in communist red clothing.
The super men of the super state
Have relied four and thirty years on lies!

Super men of the super state,
Super dupers, dupes of the late
Lavrenti P. Beria, the Spy!

So perfect is Beria's disguise.... His guise!
As communist—utterly convincing!
He blackmails, murders and betrays—
Not a blessèd thing his disguise belies!

How falls then L. Beria, the Spy?.... The Spy!
Afoul of The Monolithic Doctrine:
No unit greater is than the whole.
Since Stalin new rules of algebra apply!

Unit greater is than the whole!
To prove that theorem heads must roll,
Lavrenti P. Beria, the Spy!

The crime of L. Beria, the Spy.... The Spy!
Is such, he must shudder to confess it.
His guilt's established in record time—
At great pains Soviet justice to satisfy!

"Guilt established in record time"—
Read the script and confess your crime,
Lavrenti P. Beria, the Spy!

Ex-comrade of Beria, the spy....The Spy!
Beware of decadent deviations—
Like living relaxed and trustingly—
Or prepare to confess yourself a spy!

Live relaxed and trustingly
Just one second and follow me,
Lavrenti P. Beria, the Spy!
—Words and music:  Wendell H. Hall

Arranged by Kurt Weinziger


Beria was liquidated when my wife, Merrill, and I were in Vienna, 1952-53—there on a Fulbright scholarship at the Universität zu Wien. Reports of Beria's demise were in all the newspapers and other media. Merrill, Johnny, Jeannie and I were living with Frau Telisman in the American sector, just one block from the Ring, near Parlament. Kurt Weinziger lived just across the Danube bridge in the Soviet sector. Vienna didn't have a wall, like Berlin, but entering the Soviet sector was still a little scary, especially if a wife and two little children were dependent on you.