Quote Originally Posted by bad manners
That has to be proved yet. Whatever Никита Сергеевич said is not necessarily true. They executed Beria for a ridiculous charge (working for a number of foreign intelligence services). The trial was not held openly, and the materials look very much like fake.
This makes me laugh. Does it matter? The most notorious criminals are always charged for ridiculous offences. Al Capone has been caught for tax evasion, you know

never ever worked even in a medium size organization (long enough)
And on this argument. It's still irrelevant if a high-level manager doesn't know something on lower level. Any failure of his subordinates is his fault anyway. That's why high officers are often resigned because of their inferior's faults. In a word, Stalin can be blamed just for creating (or maintaining, doesn't matter) the system where he didn't know (if that is the argument) vital facts. Nicolas II too, his fall is largely his fault. And don't even say Stalin was technically not in the government.