"The Doctors' Case": Stalin against Zionism. Archive of Alexander N. Yakovlev What is the business of doctors 1953

“The Doctors’ Case” of 1953 is the name of a sensational criminal case against famous doctors in the USSR, 6 of whom were Jews. The doctors were accused of conspiracy against high-ranking officials of the CPSU Central Committee and the murder of prominent party members. The reason for starting the investigation was the events of 1948. Doctor Lydia Timashuk diagnosed the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Andrei Zhdanov with “myocardial infarction.” But under “pressure” from her superiors, she not only prescribed the wrong treatment, but also completely rewrote the medical history - which is why Comrade Zhdanov died a few days later.

Campaign to eradicate cosmopolitanism

The background to the case of the “killer doctors” was, in fact, the final stage of the campaign to eradicate cosmopolitanism in the USSR. Initially conceived as a good cause, it soon took on an ugly shape, spreading ideas of anti-Semitism.
The doctors' case goes back to 1946, when Stalin, in order to strengthen his position, first removed Lavrentiy Beria from the leadership of the NKVD. Instead of General Merkulov (a close associate of Beria), he appointed Viktor Abakumov. There were more “Leningraders” in the CPSU - Zhdanov, Kuznetsov, Voznesensky. Kuznetsov appointed Dr. Egorov as head of the medical and sanitary department - the one who in the future will appear in the “doctors’ case.” It was Egorov who did not allow Timashuk to treat Zhdanov “correctly”, and the cardiologist wrote a denunciation to the Party Central Committee. Stalin ordered the report to be sent to the archives, however, a year later, on the basis of the same denunciation, Abakumov had to carry out a “purge” in the Kremlin hospital in order to maintain his position.

How the business began

On January 13, 1953, all major newspapers of the USSR published a message with the following headline: “Arrest of a group of pest doctors.” The message said that “some time ago, state security agencies uncovered a terrorist group of doctors whose goal was to shorten the lives of active figures in the Soviet Union through sabotage treatment.” It was further said that these doctors abused their position and the trust of their patients, diagnosed the wrong diseases in their patients, and killed them with the wrong treatment.
In January 1953, the arrest of saboteur doctors was officially approved, most of whom were Jews: Vovsi, Etinger, Feldman, Kogan, Grinstein. Everyone was charged with the same thing - organizing a “Zionist” anti-Soviet conspiracy against prominent members of the USSR party. They were also accused of being members of the Jewish bourgeois-nationalist organization “Joint”. And Vinogradov and Egorov were declared long-time MI6 agents. They were arrested earlier, but the public received information only in 1953.
Lydia Timashuk, who “reported” to the CPSU Central Committee about the secret plan of the pest doctors, was awarded the Order of Lenin. She was declared a national heroine, who became “... a symbol of Soviet patriotism, high vigilance, irreconcilable, courageous struggle against the enemies of our Motherland”

Investigation of the case

Stalin believed that the arrested doctors were connected with intelligence in England and the United States. He gave the order to “knock out” the truth from those arrested by any means in order to understand the motives of the “killer doctors.” Naturally, the doctors did not know about any conspiracy and insisted on their innocence. Then all prisoners were transferred to another prison to tighten interrogation methods.
Lieutenant Colonel Ryumin was appointed head of the investigation. Back in 1951, he informed Stalin about a Jewish conspiracy in the state security agencies. In October 1952, the conspiracy of Jewish doctors was confirmed, and the doctors were arrested. At the end of November, the “knocked out” information seemed to be enough to prove the guilt of the killer doctors. But Stalin did not calm down on this, he continued to put pressure on the Ministry of State Security, so the arrests continued.

Completion of the investigation

On January 19, 1953, a special employee of the MGB, Nikolai Mesyatsev, was appointed to conduct an independent investigation into the case of the pest doctors. Mesyatsev was appointed by Stalin. Within a few days of working on the case, Mesyatsev realized that the case was fabricated, the evidence was falsified and invented, since “the origin of chronic and age-related diseases is the result of the influence of criminal doctors.”
A month later, the case was declared null and void due to false and fabricated evidence. On March 5, 1953, Stalin died, and anti-Semitic policies in the media stopped. On March 13, 1953, Lavrentiy Beria initiated the abolition of the criminal case, and on April 3, the doctors were reinstated in their positions.
Lydia Timashuk, awarded the Order of Lenin, was deprived of the award on April 4, 1953, promising to retain her position and authority. But the promises were not kept: in 1954 she was retired in the prime of her medical career, without the right to receive a company apartment and a personal medical pension.
Lieutenant Colonel Ryumin was fired and arrested for abuse of authority and bullying. In 1954 he was shot.

The Case of Doctors (The Case of Doctors-Poisoners, in the investigation materials The Case of the Zionist Conspiracy in the MGB) is a criminal case against a group of high-ranking Soviet doctors accused of conspiracy and the murder of a number of Soviet leaders. The origins of the campaign date back to 1948, when doctor Lydia Timashuk drew the attention of the competent authorities to the oddities in Zhdanov’s treatment, which led to the patient’s death. The campaign ended simultaneously with Stalin's death from a stroke in 1953, after which the charges against the accused were dropped and they themselves were freed from prosecution.

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The text of the official announcement of the arrest announced that “most of the members of the terrorist group (Vovsi M.S., Kogan B.B., Feldman A.I., Grinshtein A.M., Etinger Ya.G. and others) were connected with the international Jewish bourgeois-nationalist organization “Joint”, created by American intelligence supposedly to provide material assistance to Jews in other countries.” Those involved in the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were previously accused of having connections with the same organization. Publicity about the case acquired an anti-Semitic character and joined a more general campaign to “fight rootless cosmopolitanism” that took place in the USSR in 1947-1953.

Background of the "case"

In many ways, this case continued the campaign against cosmopolitanism (the expression “rootless cosmopolitanism” was often used), which was waged by the Soviet leadership since 1948 and often took on openly anti-Semitic forms, the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (among whose victims was the chief physician of the Botkin Hospital B. A. Shimeliovich, however, was not accused of crimes related to the “medical line”). As for the medical side of the charges, an important precedent here was the Third Moscow Trial (1938), where among the defendants were three doctors (Kazakov, Levin and Pletnev), accused of the murders of Gorky and others. The closest thing to the “Doctors’ Plot” was a series of recent political trials against the leaders of the Communist parties in Eastern Europe, during which a new one was added to the usual accusations of “betrayal” and plans for the “restoration of capitalism” - “Zionism”. At the Czechoslovak trial of Rudolf Slansky, which ended in December 1952 with the execution of 13 people (11 of them, including Slansky, were Jews), one of the counts directly included the charge of attempted murder of the President of the Republic and at the same time the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Czechoslovakia K. Gottwald with the help of “doctors” from the hostile camp." (Gotwald also died in March 1953, a week after Stalin).

Investigation into the "case"

Beginning in 1952, the “Doctors’ Case” was developed by the MGB under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel M.D. Ryumin, who in 1951 wrote a denunciation to Stalin about a “Zionist conspiracy” in the state security agencies.

Stalin read the interrogation reports every day. He demanded from the MGB the maximum development of the version about the Zionist nature of the conspiracy and the connections of the conspirators with British and American intelligence through the Joint (Zionist charitable organization). He threatened the new Minister of State Security S. Ignatiev that if he “does not reveal the terrorists, American agents among the doctors,” then he will be arrested, like his predecessor Abakumov: “We will drive you away like sheep.” In October 1952, Stalin gave instructions to use physical coercion (that is, torture) against arrested doctors. On December 1, 1952, Stalin stated (in a recording by member of the Presidium of the Central Committee V.A. Malyshev): “Any Jewish nationalist is an agent of American intelligence. Jewish nationalists believe that the United States saved their nation... There are many Jewish nationalists among doctors.”

Message about the beginning of the case

The draft report from TASS and media materials (in particular, the Pravda newspaper) about the arrest of a group of “wrecker doctors” was approved on January 9, 1953 at a meeting of the Bureau of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. The head of the secretariat of J.V. Stalin, A.N. Poskrebyshev, sent a memo to the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and the head of the propaganda and agitation department N.A. Mikhailov:

"T. Mikhailov. I am sending 1 copy. "chronicle" arrest of pest doctors for publication in newspapers on the 4th page on the right"

Decree of January 20, 1953 awarding Lydia Timashuk the Order of Lenin for “exposing murderous doctors.” It was canceled shortly after Stalin's death.

The message about the arrest of the doctors and the details of the “conspiracy” appeared in an unsigned article “Sneaky spies and murderers in the guise of professors and doctors,” published in Pravda on January 13, 1953. The article, like the government report, emphasized the Zionist nature of the matter: “Most of the members of the terrorist group - Vovsi, B. Kogan, Feldman, Grinstein, Etinger and others - were bought by American intelligence. They were recruited by a branch of American intelligence - the international Jewish bourgeois-nationalist organization "Joint". The dirty face of this Zionist spy organization, which covers its vile activities under the guise of charity, has been completely exposed.” Further, the actions of the majority of those arrested were linked to the ideology of Zionism and traced back to S. M. Mikhoels, who had already appeared in the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

Propaganda presented Lydia Timashuk, a doctor who appealed to the Central Committee with complaints about the improper treatment of Zhdanov back in 1948, as the hero who exposed the murderers in white coats (a popular propaganda stamp of this campaign). “For her help in exposing the thrice-damned killer doctors,” she was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Accused

The message on January 13 spoke of 9 conspirators: Professor Vovsi M.S., general practitioner; Professor Vinogradov V.N., general practitioner; Professor Kogan M. B., general practitioner; Professor Kogan B.B., general practitioner; professor, corresponding member AMS, Stalin's leading doctor, Egorov P.I., who was later repressed with his wife Evgenya Yakovlevna Egorova (-1994) (Petr Ivanovich Egorov 1899-1966) - both buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, general practitioner; Professor Feldman A.I., otolaryngologist; Professor Etinger Ya. G., general practitioner; Professor Grinshtein A.M., neuropathologist; Mayorov G.I., general practitioner. They were arrested between July 1951 and November 1952. In addition to them, many more were arrested in the “Doctors’ Case,” including the creator and custodian of Lenin’s embalmed body, Professor B.I. Zbarsky (December 1952), writer Lev Sheinin (February 1953 ).

Most of the accused were Jews, including the arrested doctors N.A. Shereshevsky (endocrinologist, professor), M.Ya. Sereysky, Ya. S. Temkin, E. M. Gelshtein, I. I. Feigel, V. E. Nezlin, N. L. Vilk, Ya. L. Rapoport and others. M. B. Kogan and M. I. Pevzner were also posthumously involved in the case. It was alleged that those arrested were acting on instructions from the “Jewish bourgeois-nationalist organization “Joint”. The famous actor S. M. Mikhoels, the cousin of one of the arrested doctors, the chief physician of the Red Army, Major General of the Medical Service M. S. Vovsi, was named as a participant in the conspiracy and died five years earlier in a “car accident.”

Resonance

The “Doctors' Plot” caused persecution of relatives and colleagues of those arrested, as well as a wave of anti-Semitic sentiment throughout the country. Unlike the previous campaign against "cosmopolitans", in which Jews were usually implied rather than directly named, now the propaganda directly pointed to Jews. On February 8, Pravda published an introductory feuilleton, “Simps and Rogues,” in which Jews were portrayed as swindlers. Following him, the Soviet press was overwhelmed by a wave of feuilletons dedicated to exposing the true or imaginary dark deeds of persons with Jewish names, patronymics and surnames. The most “famous” among them was Vasily Ardamatsky’s feuilleton “Pina from Zhmerinka”, published in the magazine “Crocodile” on March 20, 1953.

After a bomb exploded at the Soviet embassy in Israel, the USSR broke off diplomatic relations with Israel on February 11.

Termination of the case

Former investigator for particularly important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Nikolai Mesyatsev, appointed to deal with the doctors’ case on behalf of Stalin, said:

The artificiality of the sloppy “doctors’ case” was revealed without much difficulty. The writers didn't even bother with a serious cover-up. They shamelessly took congenital ailments or illnesses acquired over the years from the medical history of a high-ranking patient and attributed their origin or development to the criminal intent of the attending physicians. So much for “enemies of the people”

He claims that he and his colleagues began work overseeing this case 6 days after the doctors were arrested, that is, on January 19. By mid-February, a conclusion was prepared that the case was falsified. And all attempts to link its termination to the death of Stalin in early March are speculation.

On March 2, the anti-Semitic campaign in the press was curtailed. All those arrested in the “doctors’ case” were released (April 3) and reinstated at work. It was officially announced (April 4) that the confessions of the accused were obtained using “unacceptable investigative methods.” Lieutenant Colonel Ryumin, who developed the “doctors’ case” (by that time already dismissed from the state security agencies), was immediately arrested by order of Beria; Subsequently, during the Khrushchev trials of the perpetrators of repression, he was shot (July 7, 1954).

Question about deportation

There is a version according to which the high-profile trial of doctors was supposed to be a signal for massive anti-Semitic campaigns and the deportation of all Jews to Siberia and the Far East. According to some undocumented data, a letter was prepared, which had to be signed by prominent figures of Soviet culture, the essence of which was as follows: “We, prominent cultural figures, call on the Soviet leadership to protect traitors and rootless cosmopolitans of Jewish origin from the just wrath of the people and to settle them in Siberia." It was assumed that the Soviet leadership should respond favorably to this request. There is numerous evidence from contemporaries that rumors of deportation circulated in Moscow immediately after the news of the start of the doctors’ case. There was information that Jews were evicted from the village of Davydkovo near Moscow, adjacent to Stalin’s dacha (now this is the territory of Davydkovskaya Street, Slavyansky Boulevard, adjacent to Kutuzovsky Prospect, behind Victory Park). Some authors consider that evidence in favor of the fact that Stalin was at least considering the possibility of deportation is that on January 15, that is, two days after the first publication of Pravda, at a rally of students and teachers of the Stalingrad Mechanical Institute, at the proposal of the party committee secretary , a collective letter was written to the Central Committee with a request to evict Jews outside the European part of the USSR; supporters of the deportation version believe that such a request could only be sanctioned from above.

“Doctor Kostyrchenko told me: “Of course, if he [I. V. Stalin] a few more years, it could well have come to this [the deportation of Soviet Jews]” (Samson Madievsky).

Many researchers, without denying the anti-Semitic essence of the “Doctors’ Plot,” cast serious doubt on the existence of plans for the deportation of Jews. For a detailed study of this issue (using archival materials), see the article by Gennady Kostyrchenko, a researcher of Soviet state anti-Semitism. Historian Zhores Medvedev in his book “Stalin and the Jewish Problem” writes that the existence of the plan for the deportation of Jews mentioned in many books is not confirmed by any archival documents.

Campaign to eradicate cosmopolitanism

How the business began

Investigation of the case

Completion of the investigation

"The Doctors' Affair" - 1953 - is the same "cholera riot", transferred to the 20th century under the conditions of the Stalinist empire. The only difference was that the “cholera riots” of the 19th century were a spontaneous expression of popular rage. The Soviet “cholera riot” was organized, and the resulting rage of the Soviet people was directed and regulated. As in the 19th century, in 1953 the first and main objects of popular anger were doctors, to whom heinous crimes were attributed. As in the cholera riots of the 19th century, in 1953 the embitterment of the people, fooled by the corresponding propaganda, was spread from doctors to the intelligentsia in general, and the channels of anti-Semitism opened by all state means of propaganda were received with special enthusiasm, prepared by the entire long prehistory.

According to general patterns, history repeats itself, but in forms that correspond to the new historical situation. "The Doctors' Plot", according to its intended purpose, is Stalin's "cholera riot", the final chord of Stalin's "unfinished symphony".

The message on January 13 spoke of 9 conspirators: Professor Vovsi M.S., general practitioner; Professor Vinogradov V.N., general practitioner; Professor Kogan M.B. (English) Russian, general practitioner; Professor Kogan B.B., general practitioner; professor, corresponding member AMS, Stalin's leading doctor, Egorov P.I., general practitioner; Professor Feldman A.I., otolaryngologist; Professor Etinger Ya.G. (English) Russian, general practitioner; Professor Grinshtein A.M., academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences, neurologist; Mayorov G.I., general practitioner. They were arrested between July 1951 and November 1952. In addition to them, many more were arrested in the “doctors’ case,” including the creator and custodian of Lenin’s embalmed body, Professor B.I. Zbarsky (December 1952), writer Lev Sheinin (February 1953) Fateev A.V. // The image of the enemy in Soviet propaganda. 1945-1954 / Monograph. Rep. ed. Petrova N.K. - M.: Institute of Russia. History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1999. - 340 pp.

Most of the accused were Jews, including doctors N.A., who were arrested a little later. Shereshevsky (endocrinologist, professor), M.Ya. Sereisky (psychiatrist, professor), Ya.S. Temkin (therapist, professor), E.M. Gelshtein (otolaryngologist, professor), I.I. Feigel (gynecologist, professor), V.E. Nezlin (therapist, professor), N.L. Vilk, Ya.L. Rapoport, Kechker, Leonid Kharitonovich and others. M.B. was also involved in the case posthumously. Kogan and M.I. Pevzner. It was alleged that those arrested were acting on instructions from the “Jewish bourgeois-nationalist organization “Joint”. The famous actor S.M., who died five years earlier in a “car accident,” was named as a participant in the conspiracy. Mikhoels, cousin of one of the arrested doctors, chief therapist of the Soviet Army, Major General of the Medical Service M.S. Vovsi.

The denouement of such a high-profile "Doctors' Case" came unexpectedly. On the fateful Saturday, February 28, 1953, Malenkov, Beria, Khrushchev and Bulganin took part in another feast at Stalin’s nearby dacha in Kuntsevo, near Moscow. The next day the owner did not call any of them, which in itself was already unusual, but they themselves did not dare to disturb him. And only on Monday, March 2, the guards reported with alarm: “He doesn’t come out, doesn’t call, doesn’t answer.” Only after this did they appear in Kuntsevo and, making sure that Joseph Vissarionovich was lying motionless and unconscious, they ordered to bring doctors, call the remaining members of the Bureau of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, as well as Molotov and Mikoyan. Several times after the injections, Stalin writhed and vomited, after which he opened his eyes for a moment and uttered something incomprehensible with his toothless mouth (something like “my friends”) and again fell into oblivion.

On March 3, the medical council answered the question posed by Malenkov: what will happen next? What's the prognosis? The conclusion was clear: “Death is inevitable.” Malenkov made it clear to the doctors that he expected such a conclusion, but expressed hope that they would take measures that would help, if not save life, then prolong it for a sufficient period. They understood his words in such a way that they were talking about the time needed to prepare a new government, and at the same time public opinion.
On March 4, the first government report on Stalin's health was finally published. And on the same day, Beria makes an offer to Malenkov to form and lead a new Soviet leadership. He dictates to the head of his secretariat a sketch of the future composition of the Council of Ministers, and then (after consultations with Beria) makes amendments to it with his own hand.

However, the matter did not come to trial, since Stalin died seven weeks later. Seven doctors were released from prison in April, and two died in prison, unable to withstand torture. Nikita Khrushchev, in his closed speech in 1956, stated: “When we studied this ‘case’ after Stalin’s death, we found that it was a fabrication from beginning to end.”

On the evening of April 4, a regular party meeting was to be held at the CIU, regardless of this resolution. A stupor gripped those present. The meeting had already begun when A.L. appeared in the top row and sat down in his usual place in a strict black suit and a snow-white shirt with a dark tie. Shlyakhman. The numbness did not go away for a long time. In this audience, all these months, curses were heard against the sworn enemies of the Zionists and cosmopolitans, the murderers in white coats Fateev A.V. // The image of the enemy in Soviet propaganda. 1945-1954 / Monograph. Rep. ed. Petrova N.K. - M.: Institute of growth. History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1999. - 340 pp. In this audience there were fiery denunciations of disguised enemies. Here graduate students and students admitted that they had long noticed the sabotage nature of their teachers’ behavior. Here they glorified the vigilance of a modest but remarkable person, the doctor of the Kremlin hospital Lydia Timashuk, whose denunciation served as the formal basis for subsequent arrests. Here they congratulated her on her award - the Order of Lenin for this patriotic act. Now on April 4 there was a decree depriving her of this award.

It was assumed that the Soviet leadership should respond favorably to this request. There is numerous evidence from contemporaries that rumors of deportation circulated in Moscow immediately after the news of the beginning of the case of doctors G.V. Kostyrchenko. “Stalin against “cosmopolitans”. Power and the Jewish intelligentsia in the USSR - M.: ROSSPEN, 2010. - 260 pp..

The “false” trial of 1952–1953, known as the “doctors’ case,” was initiated by the “leader of the peoples,” but was never completed. After Stalin's death, the alleged “murderers in white coats” were acquitted, because the absurdity of the charges that were brought against them was obvious even to non-specialists.

There are many events in the history of the Soviet Union, the essence of which can be very well expressed in the words: “All this would be funny if it weren’t so sad.” Although, most likely, this kind of phenomenon should cause quite understandable bewilderment in a sane person. Because, despite the obvious attraction to the comedy of the absurd, they are painted in very dark tones and have crippled the lives of many, or even taken them away altogether.

Such events make us shudder and sincerely be grateful to fate for the fact that we did not have the opportunity to live at that time - a time when people disappeared forever in an unknown direction. When innocent people ended up in camps virtually without trial or investigation. When any citizen of the USSR awaited the arrival of night with horror, because every night could be the last one spent within their native walls.

When manic hysteria flourished about the “enemies of the people” and “spies of world capitalism” lurking everywhere. When it was possible, if not to treat the sick, then at least to cripple the doctors themselves, and, mind you, all this was done in the interests of the state! Much has been written about all this. And God forbid that the history of those far from bright days will henceforth remain only history.

1953, January 13 - another revealing article was published in the Pravda newspaper. The TASS report concerned the disclosure by state security agencies of the anti-Soviet activities of a group of doctors - “foreign intelligence agents, terrible nationalists, sworn enemies of the Soviet regime.” At that time, a little more than a dozen people were included in the list of pests. But what kind! Almost each of them headed large departments and clinics or was a consultant to the Kremlin's medical department.

Then, after a short break, a new wave of arrests swept among medical workers. And the press published a message that the group of “enemies of a bright future” was exposed by L. Timashuk, an employee of the functional diagnostics department of the Kremlin hospital. For a long time, there was an opinion that the trigger in the “doctors’ case” was the numerous denunciations of this woman.

Timashuk did not stop writing “carts” in the name of Stalin: a cardiologist by profession, she assured that recognized luminaries of medicine ignored her warning about serious violations of the cardiac activity of high-ranking patients, and as a result they left our sinful world.

Among the “evil nonhumans” that the newspapers talked about were outstanding therapists - the brothers M. B. and B. B. Kogan, who turned out to be agents of foreign intelligence services, one English, and the other for some reason Japanese. Also working for the Japanese was the head of the Kremlin's medical department, Professor P.I. Egorov (probably seduced by the Jews). Academician V.N. Vinogradov also went to jail along with his colleagues, but on Stalin’s personal orders. By the way, if at first there were many Russian names in the “doctors’ case,” then the subsequent portion of the accused consisted almost entirely of Jewish specialists.

The central figures of the conspiracy were named as the chief physician of the Botkin Hospital, Shimeliovich, and the “bourgeois nationalist” Mikhoels, who was killed five years earlier (the criminals were never found). All “killers” were accused of carrying out the directives of the spy organization “Joint”. Very quickly, many learned: “Joint” is a charitable organization. But benefactors can easily be turned into spies. It would be inspiration, so to speak.

So the investigation “established” that “members of the terrorist group, using their position as doctors and abusing the trust of patients, deliberately and villainously undermined the health of the latter, deliberately ignored data from an objective study of patients, gave them incorrect diagnoses that did not correspond to the actual nature of their diseases, and after improper treatment they were destroyed.”

The deaths of Zhdanov and Shcherbakov were attributed to the “killer doctors,” and their attempts to exterminate Marshals Govorov, Vasilevsky, Konev, Army General Shtemenko, Admiral Levchenko and other high-ranking officials were also told.

In fact, the history of persecution of doctors began much earlier. The “first signs” in the case of medical workers appeared in the trial of 1938. Then a number of doctors were shot or sentenced to long prison terms (which not all could endure) for the “murder” of Maxim Gorky and his son, as well as the security officer Menzhinsky.

It should be noted that in fact the writer, who had been treated all his life for a chronic lung disease (presumably of tuberculosis origin), died from progressive chronic nonspecific inflammation of the lungs with a sharp scarring process in them and complications from the heart. And Menzhinsky died from progressive coronary heart disease, which was caused by sclerosis of the coronary vessels. Experts also did not find any criminality in the death of the writer’s son.

The state policy of anti-Semitism, inspired by Stalin, reached its apogee in 1948–1953, but began to manifest itself during the Great Patriotic War. This period includes, for example, the defeat of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (1948) with a “trial” and executions (1952). Because, to the chagrin of the “leader of all nations,” the JAC case strangely passed over the attention of the impoverished people, exhausted by war and famine, a more carefully prepared provocation was required for the “final solution of the Jewish question” in the Soviet Union.

At the beginning they declared a fight against cosmopolitans. The latter, “by a strange coincidence,” almost all turned out to be Jews! It became increasingly difficult for Jews to enter universities; specialties began to appear for which the “children of Israel” were not accepted. Those who managed to obtain a forbidden specialty could not find work even if there were vacancies.

In short, the standard project of “saving Russia” began to work in the form of a moral beating of representatives of the “non-statutory” nation. And there, even the destruction of the physical was, so to speak, just a stone’s throw away. The next step on this path was the notorious “case of pest doctors,” in which 37 specialists and members of their families were arrested.

Why did representatives of the most humane profession displease Stalin so much? 1952, December - Academician Vinogradov personally examined Stalin and came to a disappointing conclusion: the “leader of all nations” needed special treatment, long rest, and therefore a long removal (!) from government affairs. As a result, seeing the recommendations left by the doctor, the head of state flew into a wild rage and began shouting: “Put him in shackles, put him in shackles!”

Previously, the “leader of all nations” had the opportunity to seriously “put pressure” on doctors in connection with the circumstances of the death of his wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. As you know, in 1932 a woman put a bullet in her temple, but Stalin, understandably, was in no hurry to make such a message public. The version of death from appendicitis, which looked unconvincing even to the uninitiated, suited him more. Then, the chief physician of the Kremlin hospital A.Yu. Kanel, L.G. Levin and Professor D.D. Pletnev, who knew about the true cause of Alliluyeva’s death, refused to sign the false death certificate.

But the “linden” was signed by other, less scrupulous specialists (or perhaps those who had a healthy instinct of self-preservation), but the “great leader” was not going to forgive the refusal, and a few years later he “pinned” the “murder” of Gorky and Menzhinsky on the principled doctors. By the way, in order to hide the traces of a bullet wound, the deceased woman’s hairstyle was hastily changed at the funeral, combed to one side (previously, Alliluyeva always wore the same hairstyle), and the damage to the skin was hidden under a layer of makeup. Thanks to pressure on doctors, they also compiled a “plausible” bulletin about the death of Ordzhonikidze, who allegedly died from paralysis of the heart muscle. In reality, he committed suicide.

What was the “great leader” going to do if he had time to finish the “doctors’ work”? An action of “retribution,” without a doubt, would have affected the vast majority of Jews in this case. They were threatened with deportation to Yakutia, to the Verkhoyansk region, where frosts reach 68 ° C, as well as to other areas of Siberia and the Far East. Near Khabarovsk they have already begun to build barracks to receive exiles. A significant part of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union was planned to be exterminated on the way - by the hands of a crowd filled with “just anger” against the hated “Jews-poisoners”.

All party and Soviet institutions, the leadership of all railways were only waiting for the go-ahead “from above”! On March 6, the trial of the “killer doctors,” who were forced to confess to crimes they had not committed, was to take place. The technique of “exhorting” lost souls was well worked out - of all the accused, only Shimeliovich did not give the testimony necessary to the investigation.

But as they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. The leader unexpectedly quickly “justified” the diagnosis given to him by Academician Vinogradov (hypertension, atherosclerosis, periodic cerebrovascular accidents). 1953, March 5 - a high-ranking patient of the disgraced academician died safely. A pathological autopsy showed: the “great leader” died from a massive cerebral hemorrhage; There were also “multiple small cavities (cysts) in the brain tissue, especially in the frontal lobes, formed after small foci of softening of the brain tissue as a result of hypertension and arteriosclerosis.”

Actually, these changes, as well as their localization, caused Stalin mental disorders, the consequences of which were felt by the population of the USSR first hand. There was some confusion in the “doctors’ case” (favorable for the victims of a paranoid psychopath with inverted logic), after which the alleged murderers began to be released in a hurry, reinstated in their previous positions and even paid salaries for the time spent under investigation!

Academician Vinogradov was one of the first to be released. They apologized to him for the inconvenience caused and wished him good health. My wife and children were waiting at home... However, the Doctor (with a capital D, because in this case it is not a specialty, but a gift from God!) said: “Nothing, they’ll wait a little longer. I still have time to make a detour. The patients have been waiting for a very long time.” Unfortunately, not all those arrested survived the investigation. But no one was surprised at this. After all, the country was fighting for a bright future, and not a single fight is complete without sacrifice. So to speak, the forest is being cut down, the chips are flying!

Almost none of the government officials involved in the “doctors’ case” were harmed. Only one of the organizers of the scandalous process, the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security M.D. Ryumin, who managed to make a good career during the defeat of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was demoted and shot. It is curious that no further investigations were even carried out in the “doctors’ case”; all the accusations looked so obviously absurd and ridiculous.

Now let’s return to Timashuk’s personality. Both the doctor herself and her son tried for a long time to prove that she was simply framed, passing off as a “conspiracy whistleblower.” But in reality, there were neither denunciations against colleagues, nor assurances of their involvement in anti-Soviet activities. So what was it really like?

N.S. Khrushchev, speaking at the 20th Party Congress, frankly stated: there was no “doctors’ case”; everything was based on the statement of Timashuk, an unofficial employee of the state security agencies. She - perhaps under someone else's influence or on direct orders - wrote a letter to the head of state saying that doctors were allegedly using incorrect treatment methods. Lidia Feodosyevna assured: she wrote a lot of letters, and to different officials. But there were no anti-Semitic attacks or accusations of sabotage among colleagues. We were talking only about the problem of medical diagnostics, and nothing more.

The “Leader of all Nations” did not attach much importance to the letter at that time and ordered it to be handed over to the archives. And the immediate boss of the “vigilant” cardiologist, the head of the Kremlin’s Medical and Sanitary Department, Yegorov, called Timashuk “on the carpet”, explained the difference between competence and donkey stubbornness, after which he transferred the woman to the 2nd clinic (lower-ranking government officials were treated there). But the doctor did not calm down, continuing to write nervous, quarrelsome messages “to the authorities.”

The cardiologist’s letters were remembered in the early 1950s, when the “directors” of the new trial began to write its script and look for “performers.” 1952, August - Timashuk was summoned for interrogation as a witness twice. And on January 21, 1953, Pravda carried a decree from the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council: “For the assistance provided to the Government in exposing the killer doctors, award the doctor Lidiya Feodosyevna Timashuk with the Order of Lenin.”

The day before, the heroine of the article almost had a heart attack: a dark car drove up to the woman’s house, a military man got out and invited Timashuk to “follow him.” But the frightened doctor was taken to death not to the Lubyanka, but to the Kremlin, to Malenkov. He thanked him, saying that your efforts have exposed a group of “murderers in white coats.” Then he assured that the woman would soon be transferred to her previous place of work. The “whistleblower” just blinked her eyes, trying to understand what she had done that was so “heroic.”

As soon as she was home, Timashuk again set off along the same route with the same guides. This time Malenkov said: “I just talked with Comrade Stalin, and he offered to award you the Order of Lenin.” Being in their right mind, no one was in a hurry to object to Joseph Vissarionovich, and Timashuk was no exception. Suppose she refused the award and wrote a corresponding letter of protest to Pravda against the role that was imposed on her in the “doctors’ case.” So, what is next? Her cry from the heart would end up in the wastepaper basket, and she herself would end up in the camps.

Of course, if the “Soviet Joan of Arc” had publicly renounced the laurels of “savior of the fatherland” that had fallen on her head, the plans of the “great leader” would have been violated. But a replacement doctor would have been quickly found, and she herself would have been sent to a place where Makar did not send his calves. Because the laurels of a person who did not compromise on her principles - perhaps posthumously - did not appeal to Timashuk, she refused confession and spent the rest of her life paying for her cowardice.

In truth, the woman's claims that her colleagues used improper methods are quite dubious. Perhaps the luminaries of medicine actually sometimes made mistakes in prescribing treatment for high-ranking patients; Perhaps they were too distrustful of the then young cardiology. But it would be just as legitimate to say that Timashuk herself did not have enough experience and therefore she diligently found symptoms of cardiac diseases where there were no traces of them.

A good example here is the “villainous murder” of A. Zhdanov. After all, this faithful Leninist was treated for many years for many different diseases, and in the end he died not at all from a heart attack, as Timashuk claimed, but from banal cirrhosis of the liver, an invariable companion of chronic alcoholism. Although the official conclusion made after the autopsy stated: the patient was driven to the grave by “paralysis of a painfully altered heart due to symptoms of acute pulmonary edema.”

Still would! Could the same Vinogradov or the head of the Kremlin’s Medical and Sanitary Department, Professor Egorov, not to mention less titled specialists, openly declare that one of the leader’s close associates was a complete alcoholic?!

After the “doctors’ case” ingloriously burst, L. Timashuk was deprived of the Order of Lenin. The woman lost her good name in the eyes of her colleagues and many fellow citizens. Even the Order of the Red Banner of Labor received in the summer of 1954 for impeccable long service did not contribute to his restoration.

And what is noteworthy is that the doctor fought for many years for the “restoration of justice,” that is, for removing the stigma of being an informer, and at the same time, for the return of the first award (and as we remember, the Order of Lenin was awarded to her “for the assistance provided to the government in the case of exposing murderous doctors! She sent her last letter “to the top” in 1966. Over the next 17 years, she no longer tried to justify herself and hardly remembered the past; Apparently, the “Soviet Joan of Arc” understood: history is a cruel science that recognizes only facts and ignores the cries of the soul.