View source for Doctors' plot

{{Short description|1951–1953 Soviet anti-semitic campaign}}
{{Distinguish|Doctors' trial}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Antisemitism|Canards}}
{{Stalinism|history}}
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The "'''doctors' plot'''" ({{langx|ru|дело врачей|link=no|lit=doctors' case|delo vrachey}}) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] state-sponsored [[Anti-intellectualism#Soviet Union|anti-intellectual]] and [[Antisemitism in the Soviet Union|antisemitic]]<ref name="YIVO">{{Cite web |title=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe |url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/71 |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=encyclopedia.yivo.org}}</ref> (under the guise of being [[Rootless cosmopolitan|anti-cosmopolitan]]) campaign based on a [[conspiracy theory]] that alleged an anti-Soviet [[cabal]] of prominent [[Healthcare in Russia|medical specialists]], many of whom were [[Jews|ethnically Jewish]], intended to murder leading government and Communist Party officials.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web|date=20 July 1998|title=Doctors' Plot {{!}} alleged conspiracy, Soviet Union [1953]|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Doctors-Plot|url-status=live|access-date=|website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906021014/https://www.britannica.com/event/Doctors-Plot |archive-date=6 September 2015 }}</ref> It was also known as the case of '''saboteur doctors, doctor-poisoners''' or '''killer doctors'''.

In 1951–1953, a majority-Jewish group of doctors from [[Moscow]] were accused of a conspiracy to assassinate Soviet leaders.<ref name="Encyclopaedia Judaica 1972 pp. 144–145">{{cite encyclopedia |title=DOCTORS PLOT |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediajud06jeru/page/n85/mode/2up |url-access=registration |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]] |publisher=Encyclopaedia Judaica |publication-place=Jerusalem, Israel |year=1972 |oclc=651524877 |pages=144–145 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> They were accused of serving the interests of international Jewry<ref name="Britannica" />, as well as Western (primarily [[United States|American]] and [[United Kingdom|British]]) intelligence.<ref name="Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians" /> Following this, many doctors were dismissed from their jobs, arrested, and [[Forced confession|tortured to produce admissions]].

A few weeks after [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|Stalin's death]] in 1953, the new Soviet leadership dropped the case due to a lack of evidence. Soon after, the case was declared to have been a fabrication.

==Beginnings==
A number of theories attempt to explain the origins of the doctors' plot case. Historians typically relate it to the earlier case of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s destruction of the [[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee]] and the campaign against the so-called Jewish [[rootless cosmopolitan]]s in the second half of the 1940s, as well as to the power struggle within the Soviet leadership during that time.<ref>[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], p. 4</ref><ref name=Medvedev148>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], p. 148</ref> The campaign against the doctors was presumably set in motion by Stalin as a pretext to launch a massive purge of the Communist Party,<ref name="Britannica" /> and, according to [[Edvard Radzinsky]], even to consolidate the country for a future [[World War III]].<ref>[[Edvard Radzinsky]], ''[[Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives]]'', Anchor, (1997) {{ISBN|978-0-385-47954-7}}</ref>

In 1948, an allegation was made by a Soviet veteran medical worker, [[Lydia Timashuk]], who stated that "intentional distortions in medical conclusions [were] made by major medical experts who served as consultants in the hospital". Timashuk "exposed their criminal designs" and as such the security bodies of the Soviet Union were made aware of the existence of the alleged conspiracy against Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rapoport |first1=Jakov L. |title=The Doctors' Plot |date=1991 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=978-1-872180-13-7 |page=77 |oclc=59849271 }}</ref> Stalin had strong doubts about Timashuk's allegations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grey |first1=Ian |title=Stalin, Man of History |date=1979 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-14333-2 |page=461 }}</ref> Stalin's daughter, [[Svetlana Alliluyeva]], stated that her father was "very saddened by the turn of events" and that the housekeeper heard him saying that he did not believe the doctors were "dishonest" and that the only evidence against them were the reports of Timashuk.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allilueva |first1=Svetlana Iosifovna |title=20 Letters to a Friend |date=1967 |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=978-0-09-085310-6 |page=217 }}</ref>

In 1951, [[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|Ministry for State Security]] (MGB) investigator [[Mikhail Ryumin]] reported to his superior, [[Viktor Abakumov]], Minister of the MGB, that Professor [[Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger|Yakov Etinger]], who was arrested as a "bourgeois nationalist" with connections to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, had committed malpractice in treating [[Andrei Zhdanov]] (died 1948) and [[Aleksandr Shcherbakov (20th-century politician)|Alexander Shcherbakov]] (died 1945), allegedly with the intention of killing them. However, Abakumov refused to believe the story. Etinger died in prison (2 March 1951) due to interrogations and harsh conditions. Ryumin was then dismissed from his position in the MGB for misappropriating money and was held responsible for the death of Etinger. With the assistance of [[Georgy Malenkov]], Ryumin wrote a letter to Stalin, accusing Abakumov of killing Etinger in order to hide a conspiracy to kill off the Soviet leadership. On 4 July 1951, the [[Politburo]] set up a commission (headed by Malenkov and including [[Lavrentiy Beria]]) to investigate the issue. Based on the commission's report, the Politburo soon passed a resolution on the "bad situation in the MGB" and Abakumov was fired.<ref>[[#Sebag2005|Sebag-Montefiore 2005]], pp. 611–613.</ref><ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], pp. 150–156.</ref>

Beria and Malenkov both tried to use the situation to expand their power through gaining control of the MGB.<ref name=Medvedev148/><ref>
[[#Zhukov2005|Zhukov 2005]], p. 562.</ref>

==Arrests==
[[Image:Vrachi-timashuk.png|thumb|[[Ukaz]] awarding Lydia Timashuk the Order of Lenin for "unmasking killer-doctors"]]
Abakumov was arrested and tortured soon after being dismissed as head of the MGB.<ref>[[#refSebag2007|Sebag-Montefiore 2007]], pp. 613–614.</ref> He was charged with being a sympathizer and protector of the criminal Jewish underground.<ref>[[#refSebag2007|Sebag-Montefiore 2007]], p. 612.</ref> This arrest was followed by the arrests of many agents who worked for him in the central apparatus of the MGB.<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], p. 157.</ref>

The killer doctors case was revived in 1952 when the letter from cardiologist {{ill|Lydia Timashuk|ru|Тимашук, Лидия Феодосьевна}} was dug up from the archives. In 1948, Timashuk wrote a letter to the head of Stalin's security, General [[Nikolai Vlasik]], explaining that Zhdanov suffered a heart attack, but the Kremlin doctors who treated him missed it and prescribed the wrong treatment for him. Zhdanov soon died and the doctors covered up their mistake. The letter, however, was originally ignored.<ref>[[#refSebag2007|Sebag-Montefiore 2007]], p. 579.</ref><ref>[[#Zhukov2005|Zhukov 2005]], pp. 579–580</ref> In 1953, Timashuk was awarded the [[Order of Lenin]] (later revoked) "for the assistance in unmasking killer doctors", and for a long time Timashuk had an unjust stigma of the instigator of this persecution of doctors after Khrushchev in his "[[Secret Speech]]" mentioned her in this respect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lgz.ru/archives/html_arch/lg372003/Polosy/art5_1.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031114033523/http://www.lgz.ru/archives/html_arch/lg372003/Polosy/art5_1.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 November 2003|title=ЧЕЛОВЕК|date=14 November 2003}}</ref><ref>[http://www.critical.ru/guestroom/opus/bobrov/pages/b8.php Как был создан миф о Л.Ф. Тимашук? ] (How the myth about L.F.Timasuk was created?); from: Бобров, О. Е., "Медицина (нравы, судьбы, бесправие)", Донецк : Регина, 2004, <!-- {{ISBN|966-705198-8}}, ISBN is invalid (checksum), listed invalid ISBN? Please verify. --> pp. 93–102</ref>

The arrests started in September 1952.<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], pp. 168–170.</ref> Vlasik was fired as head of Stalin's security and eventually also arrested for ignoring the Timashuk letter.<ref>[[#Sebag2005|Sebag-Montefiore 2004]], p. 630.</ref><ref>[[#Zhukov2005|Zhukov 2005]], pp. 580–581.</ref>

Initially, 37 people were arrested including 17 Jews.<ref name="YIVO" /> Under torture, prisoners seized in the investigation of the alleged plot were compelled to produce evidence against themselves and their associates.<ref>[[#Sebag2005|Sebag-Montefiore 2004]], p. 636.</ref><ref name=Medvedev181>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], p. 181.</ref>

Stalin accused the MGB of incompetence. He demanded that the interrogations of doctors already under arrest be accelerated.<ref>[[#Sebag2005|Sebag-Montefiore 2004]], p. 620.</ref> Stalin complained that there was no clear picture of the Zionist conspiracy and no solid evidence that specifically the Jewish doctors were guilty.<ref name=Medvedev181/>

[[KGB]] archives provide evidence that Stalin forwarded the collected interrogation materials to [[Malenkov]], [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] and other "potential victims of the doctors' plot".<ref>Reported by ''[[Izvestia]]'', 1989, p.155; also ''Istochnik'', 1997, p.140–141.</ref>

==Media campaign==

Stalin ordered the news agency [[TASS]] and ''[[Pravda]]'', the official newspaper of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]], to issue reports about the uncovering of a doctors' plot to assassinate top Soviet leaders, including Stalin himself.<ref name="brent288">[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], p. 288.</ref><ref name="gorlizki158">Gorlizki, Yoram and Oleg Khlevniuk, ''Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle 1945–1953'', Sourcebooks, Inc., 2005 {{ISBN|978-0-19-530420-6}}, page 158.</ref> The possible goal of the campaign was to set the stage for show trials.<ref name="zuehlke99">Zuehlke, Jeffrey, ''Joseph Stalin'', Twenty-First Century Books, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-8225-3421-1}}, pp. 99–101.</ref> Other sources say that the initiative came from Beria and Malenkov, who continued to use the plot for their own interests. Beria pushed the Politburo to decide to publicize the plot on 9 January 1953.<ref>[[#Zhukov2005|Zhukov 2005]], pp. 591–592.</ref> For him, it was especially important that the doctors' plot got more attention than the [[Mingrelian Affair]], which personally affected him.<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], pp. 180, 199.</ref>

On 13 January 1953, nine eminent doctors in Moscow were accused of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.<ref name="Encyclopaedia Judaica 1972 pp. 144–145"/> ''Pravda'' reported the accusations under the headline "Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians":
<blockquote>
Today the TASS news agency reported the arrest of a group of saboteur-doctors. This terrorist group, uncovered some time ago by organs of state security, had as their goal shortening the lives of leaders of the Soviet Union by means of medical sabotage.

Investigation established that participants in the terrorist group, exploiting their position as doctors and abusing the trust of their patients, deliberately and viciously undermined their patients' health by making incorrect diagnoses, and then killed them with bad and incorrect treatments. Covering themselves with the noble and merciful calling of physicians, men of science, these fiends and killers dishonored the holy banner of science. Having taken the path of monstrous crimes, they defiled the honor of scientists.

Among the victims of this band of inhuman beasts were Comrades A. A. Zhdanov and A. S. Shcherbakov. The criminals confessed that, taking advantage of the illness of Comrade Zhdanov, they intentionally concealed a myocardial infarction, prescribed inadvisable treatments for this serious illness and thus killed Comrade Zhdanov. Killer doctors, by incorrect use of very powerful medicines and prescription of harmful regimens, shortened the life of Comrade Shcherbakov, leading to his death.

The majority of the participants of the terrorist group - [[Miron Vovsi|Vovsi]], B. Kogan, Feldman, Grinstein, Etinger and others - were bought by American intelligence. They were recruited by a branch-office of American intelligence – the international Jewish [[bourgeois nationalism|bourgeois-nationalist]] organization called "[[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee|Joint]]." The filthy face of this Zionist spy organization, covering up their vicious actions under the mask of charity, is now completely revealed…

Other participants in the terrorist group (Vinogradov, M. Kogan, Egorov) were discovered, as has been presently determined, to have been long-time agents of English intelligence, serving it for many years, carrying out its most criminal and sordid tasks. The bigwigs of the USA and their English junior partners know that to achieve domination over other nations by peaceful means is impossible. Feverishly preparing for a new world war, they energetically send spies inside the USSR and the people's democratic countries: they attempt to accomplish what the Hitlerites could not do — to create in the USSR their own subversive "fifth column."...

The Soviet people should not for a minute forget about the need to heighten their vigilance in all ways possible, to be alert for all schemes of war-mongers and their agents, to constantly strengthen the Armed Forces and the intelligence organs of our government.<ref name="Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians">{{cite news|title= Подлые Шпионы и Убийцы под Маской Профессоров-Врачей|trans-title= Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians|date= 13 January 1953 |work= Pravda|page=1}}</ref></blockquote>

Other individuals mentioned included:

* [[Solomon Mikhoels]] (actor-director of the [[Moscow State Jewish Theater]] and the head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, assassinated in January 1948),<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2005/09/06/191944-kak-ubivali-mihoelsa.html|script-title= ru:Как убивали Mихоэлса|trans-title=How They Killed Mikhoels|work=[[Moskovsky Komsomolets]]|date=6 September 2005|access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref> who was called a "well-known Jewish bourgeois nationalist"
* Miron Vovsi ([[psychotherapy|therapist]], Stalin's personal physician and a cousin of Mikhoels)
* {{ill|Vladimir Nikitich Vinogradov|ru|Виноградов, Владимир Никитич}} (therapist), also a personal doctor to Stalin
* [[Mikhail Kogan]] (therapist)
* Boris Kogan (therapist)
* P. Yegorov (therapist)
* A. Feldman ([[otolaryngology|otolaryngologist]])
* [[Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger|Yakov Etinger]] (therapist)
* {{ill|Aleksandr Grinshtein|ru|Гринштейн, Александр Михайлович}} ([[neuropathology|neuropathologist]])
* G. Mayorov (therapist)<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], p. 186.</ref>
*[https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%80,_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B4_%D0%A5%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 L. H. Kechker] [ru] (therapist, professor)

Although the majority of accused were not Jewish,<ref name="YIVO" /> six of the nine mentioned doctors were Jewish.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=Joseph |title=Soviet Union |journal=The American Jewish Year Book |date=1954 |volume=55 |pages=271–282 |jstor=23603630 }}</ref><ref name=":1">[[#Zhukov2005|Zhukov 2005]], p. 592.</ref>

The list of alleged victims included high-ranked officials [[Andrei Zhdanov]], [[Aleksandr Shcherbakov (20th-century politician)|Aleksandr Shcherbakov]], Army Marshals [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]], [[Leonid Govorov]] and [[Ivan Konev]], General [[Sergei Shtemenko]], Admiral [[Gordey Levchenko]] and others.

''Pravda'' intended to publish a letter signed by many prominent Soviet Jews in response to the plot. Approximately 50 people read the letter and approximately 40 signed the letter. The letter aimed to distance the accused doctors from the Soviet Jewish public and reassert Jewish support for the Soviet government. Two versions of the letter were created, but it was never published. Either Stalin eventually decided not to publish it or it was still being worked on at the time of his death.<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], pp. 204–209.</ref>

==Stalin's death and the consequences==
After Stalin's death on 5 March 1953, the new leadership quickly dismissed all charges related to the plot; the doctors were exonerated in a 31 March decree by the newly appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, [[Lavrentiy Beria]], and on 6 April, this was communicated to the public in ''[[Pravda]]''.<ref>[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], pp. 324–325.</ref> Chief [[Ministry for State Security (USSR)|MGB]] investigator and Deputy Minister of State Security [[Mikhail Ryumin]] was accused of fabricating the plot, arrested and later executed.<ref>[[#Sebag2005|Sebag-Montefiore 2004]], p. 644n.</ref> A [[Komsomol]] official, Nikolai Mesyatsev, was assigned by [[Malenkov]] to review the doctors' plot case and quickly found that it was fabricated.

There is a tale in the Hasidic [[Chabad]] movement that Stalin became sick as a consequence of some metaphysical intervention of the seventh Chabad leader, Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]], during the recitation of a public discourse at a [[Purim]] gathering in 1953, which supposedly caused Stalin's death and averted massive deportations of Soviet Jews to Siberia that were to take place as a result of the anti-intellectual campaign surrounding the doctor's plot affair.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm |title=Purim |last=Rich |first=Tracey R. |year=2010 |publisher=Judaism 101 |access-date=18 March 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090709023100/http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm |archive-date=9 July 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Pinkus, Benjamin |editor=Frankel, Jonathan |title=The Soviet government and the Jews, 1948–1967: a documented study |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1984 |pages=107–08 |isbn=978-0-521-24713-9}}</ref>{{sfn|Brackman|2001|p=390}}

==Khrushchev's statements==
In his 1956 "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Secret Speech]]", First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]] stated that the doctors' plot was "fabricated... set up by Stalin," but that Stalin did not "have the time in which to bring it to an end," which saved the doctors' lives.<ref name=secretspeech/> Khrushchev also told the session that Stalin called the judge in the case and, regarding the methods to be used, stated "beat, beat, and beat again."<ref name=secretspeech>Kruschev, Nikita, [https://web.archive.org/web/20051107221432/http://www.uwm.edu/Course/448-343/index12.html ''SPECIAL REPORT TO THE 20TH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION''], Closed session, 24–25 February 1956.</ref> Stalin supposedly told his Minister of State Security, "If you do not obtain confessions from the doctors we will shorten you by a head."<ref name=secretspeech/>

Khrushchev also claimed that Stalin hinted to him to incite antisemitism in Ukraine, saying, "The good workers at the factory should be given clubs so they can beat the hell out of those Jews."<ref>Pinkus, Benjamin, ''The Soviet Government and the Jews 1948–1967: A Documented Study'', Cambridge University Press, 1984, {{ISBN|978-0-521-24713-9}}, pp. 107–8.</ref>{{sfn|Brackman|2001|p=390}}

According to Khrushchev, Stalin told Politburo members, "You are blind like young kittens. What will happen without me? The country will perish because you do not know how to recognize enemies."<ref name=secretspeech/>

Khrushchev asserted that Stalin intended to use the doctors' trial to launch a massive purge of the Communist Party.<ref name="Britannica"/>

==Alleged planned deportation of Jews==
Soviet historian  {{interlanguage link|Samson Madievsky|ru|Мадиевский, Самсон Абрамович}} has advanced a view, based on various memoirs and secondary evidence, that the doctors' plot case was intended to trigger the mass repression and deportation of the Jews to the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]], similar to the [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deportations of many other ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union]], but the plan was not accomplished because of the sudden death of Stalin.<ref>Samson Madiyevsky,[https://lechaim.ru/ARHIV/105/madie.htm "1953 год: ПредстоЯла ли советским евреЯм депортациЯ?"]</ref>

According to [[Louis Rapoport]], the alleged deportation was planned to start with the public execution of the imprisoned doctors, and then the "following incidents would follow": "attacks on Jews orchestrated by the secret police, the publication of the statement by the prominent Jews, and a flood of other letters demanding that action be taken. A three-stage program of genocide would be followed. First, almost all Soviet Jews ... would be shipped to camps east of the Urals ... Second, the authorities would set Jewish leaders at all levels against one another ... Also the MGB [Secret Police] would start killing the elites in the camps, just as they had killed the Yiddish writers ... the previous year. The ... final stage would be to 'get rid of the rest.'"<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Soviet "Doctors' Plot"—50 years on|author= A Mark Clarfield|journal=[[The BMJ|British Medical Journal]]|year=2002|volume=325|issue=7378|pages=1487–1489|pmid=12493677|pmc=139050|doi= 10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1487}}</ref>

Four large camps were built in southern and western Siberia shortly before Stalin's death in 1953, and there were rumors that they were for Jews.<ref name="brent295">[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], p. 295.</ref> A special "Deportation Commission" to plan the deportation of Jews to these camps was allegedly created.<ref name="brackman388">{{Harvnb|Brackman|2001|p=388}}</ref><ref name="brent47">[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], pp. 47–48, 295.</ref><ref name="eisenstadt">Eisenstadt, Yaakov, ''Stalin's Planned Genocide'', 22 Adar 5762, 6 March 2002.</ref> Nikolay Poliakov, the presumed secretary of the "Commission", stated years later that, according to Stalin's initial plan, the deportation was to begin in the middle of February 1953, but the monumental tasks of compiling lists of Jews had not yet been completed.<ref name="brackman388"/><ref name=eisenstadt/> "Pure blooded" Jews were to be deported first, followed by "[[Half-Jewish|half-breeds]]" (''polukrovki'').<ref name="brackman388"/> Before his death in March 1953, Stalin allegedly had planned the execution of doctors' plot defendants already on trial in [[Red Square]] in March 1953, and then he would cast himself as the savior of Soviet Jews by sending them to camps away from the purportedly enraged Russian populace.<ref name="brackman388"/><ref name="brent298">[[#refBrentNaumov2003|Brent & Naumov 2003]], pp. 298–300.</ref><ref>Solzhenitzin, Alexander, ''The Gulag Archipelago'', 1973.</ref> There are further statements that describe some aspects of such a planned deportation.<ref name=eisenstadt/>

Historian [[Yakov Yakovlevich Etinger|Yakov Etinger]] described how former [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU Politburo]] member [[Nikolai Bulganin]] said that Stalin asked him in the end of February 1953 to prepare railroad cars for the mass deportation of Jews to the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]].<ref name="Etinger">[https://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/auth/?t=page&num=9997 Y. Y. Etinger, "This is impossible to forget: Memoirs" (Russian)] – Этингер Я. Я. Это невозожно забыть : Воспоминания / ред. О. А. Зимарин. – М. : Весь мир, 2001. – 272 с, pp. 104–106.</ref> According to a book by another Soviet Politburo member [[Alexander Yakovlev (Russian politician)|Alexander Yakovlev]],<ref>Александр Яковлев, ''По мощам и елей'' (Russian), {{ISBN|978-5-88268-015-1}}, 1995, [https://www.livelib.ru/book/1001223657/about-po-moscham-i-elej-aleksandr-yakovlev link]</ref><ref name="Etinger"/> Stalin started preparations for the deportation of Jews in February 1953 and ordered preparation of a letter from a group of notable Soviet Jews with a request to the Soviet government to carry out the mass deportation of Jews in order to save them from "the just wrath of Soviet people." The letter had to be published in the newspaper ''[[Pravda]]'' and was found later.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2000/0314/koi/erenburg.htm|title=ПИСЬМО И.Г.ЭРЕНБУРГА К И.В.СТАЛИНУ [KOI-8]|work=vestnik.com|date=14 March 2000|access-date=15 May 2018|archive-date=1 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501115300/http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2000/0314/koi/erenburg.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://berkovich-zametki.com/Nomer38/Chmelnicky1.htm Дмитрий ХМЕЛЬНИЦКИЙ. Письмо Эренбурга Сталину], ''Заметки по еврейской истории'' no.38, 27 January 2004</ref> According to historian Samson Madiyevsky, the deportation was definitely considered, and the only thing in question is the time-frame.<ref>{{cite journal|title=1953: la déportation des juifs soviétiques était-elle programmée|author=Madievski, Samson|journal=Cahiers du Monde Russe|volume=41|issue=4|year=2000|pages=561–568|doi=10.4000/monderusse.59|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brandenberger |first1=David |title=Stalin's Last Crime? Recent Scholarship on Postwar Soviet Antisemitism and the Doctor's Plot |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History |date=December 2005 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=187–204 |id={{Project MUSE|179628}} |doi=10.1353/kri.2005.0001 }}</ref>

However, Russian historian [[Zhores Medvedev]] argued against these allegations, saying that no documents were found in support of the deportation plan.<ref>[[#CITEREFMedvedev2003|Medvedev 2003]], pp. 238–239</ref> In addition, while historian [[Joshua Rubenstein]] argues it would not have been so unusual for an idea like this to not show up in documentation, he argues that the evidence is still weak and many of it has better, more plausible explanations. For example, he argues that many Russian leaders at the time may have propped up stories like this to increase their reputations by claiming they convinced Stalin to relent.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubenstein |first=Joshua |date=1976 |title=The Last Days of Stalin |publisher=Yale Publishing House |pages=56–96|isbn= 9780300228847}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Dmitry Pletnyov (doctor)]] – Soviet doctor that performed a clinical diagnosis of Stalin and was later executed in 1941.
* [[Antisemitism in the USSR]]
* [[History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union]]
* ''[[Khrustalyov, My Car!]]''
* [[Night of the Murdered Poets]]
* [[Prague Trials]]
* [[Stalin and antisemitism]]
* [[Lina Stern]] –  The sole survivor of [[Night of the Murdered Poets]]
* [[Vladimir Bekhterev]] – Soviet neurologist that performed a diagnosis of Stalin and died a day later under suspicious circumstances in 1927.
* {{annotated link|The Betrayal (Dunmore novel)|''The Betrayal''}}

==References==
'''Citations'''{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}'''Bibliography'''
* {{cite book |last=Brackman |first=Roman |title=The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life |publisher=Frank Cass Publishers |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7146-5050-0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Brent| first=Jonathan |author2=Vladimir P. Naumov| year=2003 |title=Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953 | publisher=HarperCollins | location=New York | isbn=978-0-06-019524-3 | ref=refBrentNaumov2003}}
* {{cite journal |title=Stalin's Last Years: Delusions or Dementia? |journal=Eur J Neurol |date=March 1999 |first=V. |last=Hachinski |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=129–32 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-1331.1999.tb00004.x |pmid=10053223 |ref=refHachinski1999 }}<!--|access-date=2007-03-01 -->
* {{cite book |last=Medvedev |first=Zhores |author-link=Zhores Medvedev |title=Сталин и еврейская проблема: новый анализ |trans-title=Stalin and the Jewish Question: New Analysis |publisher=Prava Cheloveka |location=Moscow |year=2003 |isbn=978-5-7712-0251-8 |url=http://scepsis.net/library/id_1473.html}}
* {{cite book | last=Sebag-Montefiore |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Sebag-Montefiore |year=2005 |title=Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4000-7678-9 |ref=Sebag2005}}
* {{cite book |last=Zhukov |first=Yuri |author-link=Yuri Zhukov (historian) |title=Сталин: Тайны власти |trans-title=Stalin: Secrets of State Power |publisher=Vagrius |location=Moscow |year=2005 |isbn=978-5-475-00078-6 |ref=Zhukov2005}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Citation | first = Arno | last = Lustiger | title = Stalin and the Jews: The Red Book | chapter = The Tragedy of the Soviet Jews and the Anti-Fascist Committee | publisher = Enigma Books | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-1-929631-10-0}}.
* {{Citation | first1 = Jonathan | last1 = Brent | first2 = Vladimir | last2 = Naumov | title = Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948–1953 | date = 17 February 2004 | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 978-0-06-093310-4}}.
* {{Citation | author = [[Louis Rapoport|Rapoport, Louis]] | title = Stalin's war against the Jews: the Doctors' Plot and the Soviet solution | place = Toronto | publisher = Free Press | year = 1990 | isbn=0-02-925821-9}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Rapoport |first1=Yakov |title=The Doctors' Plot of 1953 |date=1991 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-21477-4 |oclc=21669416 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Smilovitsky |first1=Leonid |title=Byelorussian Jewry and the 'Doctors'Plot' |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |date=December 1997 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=39–52 |doi=10.1080/13501679708577858 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rampton |first1=David |title=The Doctors' Plot: Some Classic Nineteenth-Century Novels Revisited |journal=Modern Language Studies |date=1992 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=57–66 |doi=10.2307/3194939 |jstor=3194939 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315036205 |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-135-20510-2 |editor-last1=Ro'i |editor-first1=Yaacov |chapter=The Doctors' Plot: Stalin's Solution to the Jewish Question |first1=Iakov |last1=Etinger |pages=103–124 }}
* {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315036205 |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-135-20510-2 |editor-last1=Ro'i |editor-first1=Yaacov |chapter=The Doctors' Plot: The Non-Jewish Response |first1=Alexander |last1=Lokshin |pages=157–167 }}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* {{Citation | title=Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians|url = http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/vrach-ubijca-e.html | newspaper = Pravda | type = translated article | date = 13 January 1953 | publisher = Cyber USSR}}.
* {{Citation | title = The Soviet "Doctors' Plot"—50 years on | first = A Mark | last = Clarfield | publisher = NIH | pmc=139050 | pmid=12493677 | volume=325 | issue = 7378 | journal=BMJ | pages=1487–9 | doi=10.1136/bmj.325.7378.1487| year = 2002 }}.
* {{Citation | url = http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/newsletter/doctors_plot.htm | title = Byelorussian Jewry and the Doctors' Plot, 1953 | first = Dr. Leonid | last = Smilovitsky | publisher = Jewish gen}}.
* {{Citation | url = http://www.pseudology.org/Veizman/ | title = Materials on the case of Maria Weizmann | language = ru | publisher = Pseudology}}.
* {{Citation | url = http://forum.grani.ru/jews/articles/eak/ | title = Group photo of the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee | publisher = Grani | place = [[Russia|RU]] | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050217214758/http://forum.grani.ru/jews/articles/eak/ | archive-date = 17 February 2005 }}.
* {{Citation | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/13/world/soviet-survivor-relives-doctors-plot.html | title = Soviet Survivor Relives Doctor's Plot | date = 13 May 1988 | newspaper = The New York Times}}.
* {{cite web |title=SPECULATION ON THE CLEARANCE OF THE MOSCOW DOCTORS |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91T01172R000200290033-4.pdf |website=Central Intelligence Agency|date=4 April 1953}}

{{Joseph Stalin}}
{{Antisemitism topics}}
{{Jews in the Soviet Union}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctors' Plot}}
[[Category:Antisemitism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Persecution by the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1952 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1953 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Political and cultural purges]]
[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
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[[Category:1953 in Judaism]]
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[[Category:1953 in Moscow]]
[[Category:1952 in Moscow]]