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 Central Committee of the CPSU and the murder of prominent party members. The events of 1948 became the reason for starting the investigation. Doctor Lydia Timashuk diagnosed Andrey Zhdanov, secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, with myocardial infarction. But under the "pressure" of the authorities, she not only prescribed the wrong treatment, but also completely rewritten the medical history - because of which comrade Zhdanov died a few days later.
Campaign to End Cosmopolitanism
The prehistory of the "killer doctors" case 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 the ideas of anti-Semitism.
The case of doctors goes back to 1946, when Stalin first removed Lavrenty Beria from the leadership of the NKVD to strengthen his positions. Instead of General Merkulov (close to Beria), he appointed Viktor Abakumov. There were more “Leningraders” in the CPSU - Zhdanov, Kuznetsov, Voznesensky. Kuznetsov appointed Dr. Yegorov as the head of the medical and sanitary department - the one who in the future will appear in the "doctors' case". It was Yegorov who did not allow Timashuk to treat Zhdanov “correctly”, and the cardiologist wrote a denunciation to the Party Central Committee. Stalin ordered that the report be sent to the archive, 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 keep his post.
How the business began
On January 13, 1953, all major newspapers of the USSR published a message with the following heading "Arrest of a group of pest doctors." The report said that "some time ago, the state security agencies discovered a terrorist group of doctors, who set as their goal by means of wrecking treatment to reduce the lives of active leaders of the Soviet Union." Further, it was said that these doctors abused their position and the trust of patients, diagnosed patients with the wrong diseases, and killed them with the wrong treatment.
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In January 1953, the arrest of pest doctors was officially approved, most of whom were Jews: Vovsi, Etinger, Feldman, Kogan, Grinstein. Everyone was charged with the same charge - 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 longtime agents of MI-6. They were arrested earlier, but the society received information only in 1953.
Lydia Timashuk, who "informed" the Central Committee of the CPSU about the secret plan of the pest doctors, was awarded the Order of Lenin. She was declared a folk 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 the intelligence services of England and the United States. He gave the order to "knock out" the truth from the 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 innocence. Then all the prisoners were transferred to another prison to tighten the interrogation methods.
Lieutenant Colonel Ryumin was appointed the head of the investigation. Back in 1951, he informed Stalin about a conspiracy of Jews in the state security organs. In October 1952, the conspiracy of Jewish doctors was confirmed, the doctors were arrested. At the end of November, the information "knocked out" seemed 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 officer of the MGB Nikolai Mesyatsev was appointed to conduct an independent investigation into the case of pest doctors. Stalin appointed Mesyatsev. After several days of work 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 criminals."
A month later, the case was declared invalid due to false and fabricated evidence. On March 5, 1953, Stalin died, and anti-Semitic policies in the media stopped. Lavrenty Beria on March 13, 1953, initiated the cancellation of the criminal case, and already on April 3, doctors were reinstated.
Lidia Timashuk, awarded the Order of Lenin, was stripped of her award on April 4, 1953, promising to retain her position and authority. But the promises were not kept: in 1954 she was dismissed on a pension in the prime of her medical career, without the right to receive a service apartment and a personal medical pension.
Lieutenant Colonel Ryumin was fired and arrested for abuse of power and bullying. In 1954 he was shot.
