The "linden" process of 1952-1953, known as the "case of doctors", initiated by the "leader of the peoples", but never brought to an end. After Stalin's death, the alleged "killers in white coats" were acquitted, because the absurdity of the charges 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 were not so sad." Although, rather, this kind of phenomenon in a sane person should cause quite understandable bewilderment. Because, despite the obvious gravitation towards the comedy of the absurd, they are painted in very gloomy tones and have mutilated life for many, or even taken it away altogether.
Such events make us shudder and sincerely be grateful to fate for the fact that we were not able to live at that time - a time when people disappeared forever in an unknown direction. When the innocent ended up in the 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 in their native walls.
When a 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, while, 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 henceforth remained only history.
1953, January 13 - another exposing article was published in the Pravda newspaper. The TASS report concerned the disclosure by the state security authorities of the anti-Soviet activities of a group of doctors - "agents of foreign intelligence services, terrible nationalists, sworn enemies of Soviet power." Then a little more than a dozen people were included in the list of pests. But what! Almost each of them headed large departments and clinics or was a consultant to the Lechsanupra Kremlin.
Then, after a short break, a new wave of arrests swept among the medical workers. And the press published a report that the group of "enemies of the bright future" was exposed by L. Timashuk, an employee of the functional diagnostics department of the Kremlin hospital. For a long time, it was believed that the trigger in the "doctors' case" was the numerous denunciations of this woman.
Timashuk never stopped writing "carts" in the name of Stalin: a cardiologist by profession, she assured that the 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 inhumans" that the newspapers spoke about were outstanding therapists - brothers MB and B. B. Kogan, who turned out to be agents of foreign intelligence services, one of which was English, and the other, for some reason, Japanese. Also, the head of the Lechsanupra Kremlin, Professor PI Yegorov (probably seduced by the Jews) worked for the Japanese. Academician V. N. Vinogradov also ended up behind bars along with his colleagues, but already on the personal instructions of Stalin. By the way, if in the beginning there were many Russian surnames in the “doctors' case”, then the subsequent portion of the accused consisted of practically only Jewish specialists.
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The central figures of the conspiracy were named the chief physician of the Botkin Hospital Shimeliovich and the "bourgeois nationalist" Mikhoels, who was killed five years earlier (the criminals were never found then). All "killers" were charged with carrying out the directives of the "Joint" spy organization. Quite quickly, many learned: "Joint" is a charitable organization. But benefactors can easily be turned into spies. So to speak, there would be inspiration.
So the investigation "found" that "the members of the terrorist group, using their position as doctors and abusing the trust of patients, deliberately villainously undermined the health of the latter, deliberately ignored the data of an objective study of patients, gave them incorrect diagnoses that did not correspond to the actual nature of their diseases, and after the wrong treatment destroyed them."
The deaths of Zhdanov, Shcherbakov were attributed to the "killers' doctors", and it was also told about their attempts to kill Marshals Govorov, Vasilevsky, Konev, General of the Army Shtemenko, Admiral Levchenko and other dignitaries from the light.
In fact, the history of persecution of doctors began much earlier. "The first signs" in the case of medical workers appeared in the process of 1938. Then a number of doctors were shot or sentenced to long terms of imprisonment (which not all could endure) for the "murder" of Maxim Gorky and his son, as well as the Chekist Menzhinsky.
It should be noted that in fact the writer, who had been treated for a chronic lung disease (presumably of tuberculosis origin) all his life, died of progressive chronic nonspecific pneumonia with a sharp scarring process in them and complications from the heart. And Menzhinsky died of progressive coronary heart disease, which was caused by sclerosis of the coronary vessels. Experts did not find any crime in the death of the writer's son either.
The state policy of anti-Semitism, inspired by Stalin, reached its climax in 1948-1953, but began to manifest itself even 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 in a strange way passed the attention of the poor people, exhausted by war and hunger, for the "final solution of the Jewish question" in the Soviet Union a more carefully prepared provocation was required.
In the beginning, they proclaimed a fight against cosmopolitans. The latter, "by a strange coincidence," almost without exception turned out to be Jews! It became more and more difficult for Jews to enter universities, specialties began to appear, for which the "children of Israel" were not accepted. Those who managed to get 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 moral beating of the representatives of the “non-statutory” nation. And there it was, so to speak, a stone's throw before the destruction of the physical. The next step on this path was the notorious “pest doctors case”, in which 37 specialists and their family members were arrested.
Why did the representatives of the most humane profession not please Stalin? 1952, December - Academician Vinogradov personally examined Stalin and came to a disappointing conclusion: the "leader of all peoples" needs special treatment, long rest, which means a long suspension (!) From public affairs. As a result, seeing the recommendations left by the doctor, the head of state went into a wild rage and began to shout: "In his shackles, in his shackles!"
Earlier, the "leader of all peoples" had a chance 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 is understandable, he was in no hurry to publish such a message. He was more suited to the version of death from appendicitis, which looked unconvincing even to the uninitiated. Then, who knew about the true cause of Alliluyeva's death, the chief doctor of the Kremlin hospital A. Yu. Kanel, L. G. Levin and Professor D. D. Pletnev refused to sign the false bulletin about the death.
But the "linden" was signed by other, less scrupulous specialists (or maybe those who had a healthy instinct for self-preservation), the "great leader" was not going to forgive the refusal, a few years later he "hung" the "murder" of Gorky and Menzhinsky on principled doctors. By the way, in order to hide the traces of a bullet wound, the deceased woman at the funeral hastily changed her hair, combing her to one side (before, Alliluyeva always wore the same hairstyle), and the injuries on the skin were hidden under a layer of makeup. Thanks to pressure on the doctors, a "plausible" bulletin was drawn up about the death of Ordzhonikidze, who allegedly died of cardiac muscle paralysis. In fact, he committed suicide.
What was the “great leader” going to do if he had time to finish the “doctors' case”? The action of "retribution", no doubt, would have touched in this case the overwhelming majority of Jews. They were threatened with deportation to Yakutia, to the Verkhoyansk region, where frosts reach 68 ° C, as well as to other regions of Siberia and the Far East. They have already begun to build barracks near Khabarovsk to receive exiles. They planned to destroy a significant part of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union on the way - by the hands of the crowd, full of "fair anger" against the hated "Yid-poisoners".
All party and Soviet institutions, the leadership of all railways were waiting only for the go-ahead "from above"! On March 6, a trial was to take place over the "killer doctors" who were forced to confess to crimes they had not committed. The method of "exhortation" to lost souls was perfectly worked out - of all the accused, only Shimeliovich did not give the evidence necessary for the investigation.
But as they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. The leader unexpectedly quickly "justified" the diagnosis made by Academician Vinogradov (hypertension, atherosclerosis, periodic disorders of cerebral circulation). 1953, March 5 - a high-ranking patient of the disgraced academician safely passed away. The postmortem examination revealed: "the great leader" died of extensive cerebral hemorrhage; there were also "multiple small cavities (cysts) in the brain tissue, especially in the frontal lobes, formed after small foci of brain tissue softening as a result of hypertension and arteriosclerosis."
Actually, these changes, as well as their localization, just caused Stalin's mental disorders, the consequences of which were felt on their own skin by the population of the USSR. In the "doctors' case" there was some (favorable for the victims of a paranoid psychopath with a twisted logic) confusion, after which the imaginary killers began to be released in a hurry, reinstating in their previous positions and even paying salaries for the time spent under investigation!
Academician Vinogradov was one of the first to be released. They apologized to him for the inconvenience and wished him good health. The wife and children were waiting at home … However, the Doctor (with a capital letter, because in this case it is not a specialty, but a gift from God!) Said: “Nothing, they will 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 of those arrested rescheduled the investigation. But nobody was surprised at this. After all, there was a struggle for a bright future in the country, and not a single struggle is complete without sacrifices. So to speak, the forest is being cut, the chips are flying!
Virtually none of the government officials involved in the “doctors' case” were hurt. Only one of the organizers of the scandalous trial, the head of the investigative unit for especially important cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security, M. D. Ryumin, who had managed to make a good career back in the defeat of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was demoted and shot. It is curious that no further investigations were carried out in the “doctors' case” - to such an extent, all accusations looked absurd and ridiculous.
Now let's get back to Timashuk's personality. Both the doctor herself and her son tried to prove for a long time: she was simply framed, passing off as a "conspiracy debunker." In reality, there were no denunciations of colleagues, no assurances of their involvement in anti-Soviet activities. So how did it really go?
NS Khrushchev, speaking at the XX Party Congress, frankly stated: there was no "case of doctors", everything was based on the statement of Timashuk, an unofficial employee of the state security agencies. She - perhaps under someone's influence or on direct instructions - wrote a letter to the head of state stating that doctors were allegedly using the wrong methods of treatment. Lydia Feodosievna assured: she wrote a lot of letters, at the same time to different officials. But there were no anti-Semitic attacks in them, no accusations of sabotage by colleagues. It was only about the problem of medical diagnostics, and nothing more.
At that time, the "leader of all peoples" did not attach particular importance to the letter and ordered it to be handed over to the archive. And the immediate chief of the "vigilant" cardiologist, the head of the Kremlin's Medical and Sanitary Directorate, Yegorov, summoned Timashuk "on the carpet", explained the difference between competence and asinine stubbornness, and then transferred the woman to the 2nd polyclinic (statesmen of lower rank were treated there). But the doctor did not calm down, continuing to write nervous, quarrelsome messages "to the authorities".
The letters of the cardiologist were remembered in the early 1950s, when the "directors" of the new trial began to compose its script and look for "executors." 1952, August - Timashuk was twice summoned for interrogation as a witness. And on January 21, 1953, Pravda flaunted the decree of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet: "For the help provided to the Government in exposing the killer doctors, to award doctor Timashuk Lidiya Feodosievna with the Order of Lenin."
The day before, the heroine of the article almost got a heart attack: a dark car drove up to the woman's house, a military man got out of it and invited Timashuk to "follow him." But they brought the frightened doctor to death not to Lubyanka, but to the Kremlin, to Malenkov. The latter thanked: they say, your efforts have exposed a group of "killers in white coats." Then he assured that the woman would soon be transferred to her former place of work. The "exposer" only clapped her eyes, trying to understand what was so "heroic" she had done.
As soon as she was home, Timashuk set off again along the same route with the same escorts. This time Malenkov said: "I have just talked with Comrade Stalin, and he proposed to award you with the Order of Lenin." No one was in a hurry to object to Joseph Vissarionovich, being of sound mind, and Timashuk was no exception. Suppose she would have refused the award and wrote to Pravda an appropriate letter of protest against the role that was imposed on her in the "case of doctors." So, what is next? Her cry from the heart would have ended up in the wastebasket, and she herself in the camps.
Of course, if the “Soviet Joan of Arc” had publicly rejected the laurels of the “savior of the fatherland” that had fallen on her head, the plans of the “great leader” would have been violated. But they would quickly find a replacement for the incriminating doctor, and she herself would be put where Makar did not drive calves. Because the laurels of a person who did not give up their principles - perhaps posthumous ones - did not seduce Timashuk, she refused to confess and spent the rest of her life paying for her cowardice.
In truth, the woman's claims that colleagues used the wrong methods are rather dubious. It may be that 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 just as legitimate would be the statement that Timashuk herself did not have enough experience and therefore she diligently found the symptoms of cardiac diseases where there were none at all.
A good example of this is the “villainous murder” of A. Zhdanov. After all, this faithful Leninist was treated for many different diseases for many years, and he died, as a result, not at all from a heart attack, as Timashuk claimed, but from a banal cirrhosis of the liver, an invariable companion of chronic alcoholism. Although the official conclusion, made after the autopsy, said: the patient was brought to the grave by "paralysis of a painfully changed heart with symptoms of acute pulmonary edema."
Still would! Could the same Vinogradov or the head of the Kremlin's Medical and Sanitary Directorate, Professor Yegorov, not to mention less titled specialists, openly declare that one of the leader's close associates was a complete alcoholic ?!
After the “doctors' case” had burst ingloriously, L. Timashuk was deprived of the Order of Lenin. The woman has lost in the eyes of colleagues and many fellow citizens and her good name. Even the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, received in the summer of 1954, for an impeccable long service, did not contribute to its restoration.
And what is noteworthy, the doctor for many years fought for the "restoration of justice", that is, for removing the stigma of the 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 help provided to the government in the case of exposing the killer doctors!). She sent her last letter “upstairs” in 1966. Over the next 17 years, she no longer tried to justify herself and hardly remembered the past; as you can see, "Soviet Joan of Arc" understood: history is a cruel science that recognizes only facts and ignores the cries of the soul.
V. Miroshnikova, M. Pankova