How foreign leaders were treated and treated in the USSR.
In the Soviet Union, many leaders of friendly foreign states were treated for free. Information about their health was sometimes more valuable than any military secret.
Friendship in exchange for health
Beginning in the 1930s, the Soviet leadership began to invite communists from different countries for recreation and treatment in the USSR. After the war, this practice resumed: communist leaders from Austria, Hungary, Finland, China came to improve their health in the sanatoriums of the Moscow region, Crimea, Caucasus. Many heads of states-satellites of the USSR annually underwent medical examination in the Soviet Union. The number of foreign VIP patients was constantly increasing and by the beginning of the 1970s it had reached several thousand a year! If the dear patient himself could not fly to Moscow, a plane with the best specialists was sent to his homeland.
The leadership of the USSR believed that friends can be acquired not only by supplying them with weapons and food, but also by taking care of their health. In addition, medical information about leaders was sometimes more important than military secrets. Intelligence agencies of many countries of the world hunted for her. The disclosure of the diagnosis of the head of state could lead to large-scale political and economic changes not only in the country itself, but also in the world political arena.
Foreign friends were treated by the 4th Main Directorate under the USSR Ministry of Health, which also served the highest party leaders of the Soviet Union. For almost twenty years, starting from 1967, this department was headed by Evgeny Chazov.
Change of government for medical reasons
One of the cases when the medical report of Soviet doctors led to a change of power in the country was the case history of the General Secretary of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Yumzhagin Tsedenbal. The 68-year-old leader suffered from atherosclerosis and alcoholism, which caused his memory lapses and also led to partial degradation of his personality. In fact, Tsedenbal's wife Anastasia, a Russian by origin, capricious and willful woman, ran the affairs of the state. She resisted any attempts to remove her husband from office, despite his apparent incapacity.
The Politburo of the Mongolian Party was afraid to make a fateful decision. The resignation of the secretary general, who had been in power for more than forty years, could lead to unpredictable consequences.
Soviet doctors were called for help. In 1984, Tsedenbal was brought to Moscow. He barely understood what was happening. An examination on a tomograph showed that he had pronounced changes in the cerebral cortex. It became obvious that Tsedenbal could no longer rule the country.
The head of the 4th department of the USSR Ministry of Health Yevgeny Chazov had to fly to Ulan Bator and speak at a meeting of the Politburo of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, show medical pictures there.
As a result, the change of power in Mongolia took place without political storms and in the political key necessary for the USSR.
Tsedenbal was ill with alcoholism. All affairs in Mongolia were run by his wife Anastasia.
Cannibal saved from indigestion
The leaders of developing countries especially often turned to the USSR for free medical care. The most exotic patient of the 4th Directorate was President and Emperor of the Central African Republic (CAR) Jean Bedel Bokassa, who arrived in the Soviet Union with complaints of abdominal pain. During examination, the emperor was found to have cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder) and colitis (a disease of the colon). Prescribed treatment and diet. But it turned out that the African president had brought his own food and cooks to Moscow, and at first he demanded that they prepare food for him from his products. To settle the situation, the head of the 4th Directorate, Evgeny Chazov, was summoned to the hospital. According to his recollections, he was shocked by the "provisions" he saw.
“They were some small snakes, animals such as lizards, dirty meat of unknown origin … I asked to throw everything that was brought in the trash,” Chazov shared in his memoirs.
On the Kremlin food, Bokassa quickly recovered. The friendship between the CAR and the USSR has grown stronger. Bokassa was even invited to Artek, where he was accepted as a pioneer.
Later, in his homeland, Bokassa was convicted of murder, treason and embezzlement. During his arrest, parts of human bodies were found in his refrigerators. The accusation of cannibalism Bokassa was rejected. He convinced the court that the bodies in the refrigerators were needed not for food, but for victories, since "the enemy's liver brings good luck."
It is said that Bokassa called human meat "sugar pork".
How the President of Egypt was put on his feet
Intelligence agencies around the world hunted for information about the health of Egyptian President Abdel Nasser, as the situation in the Middle East in the late 1960s was extremely tense. Even the smallest details related to the well-being of the region's key politicians could swing the unstable ceasefire in any direction. The USSR possessed complete information about Nasser's health, and they managed to keep it secret.
In 1968, Nasser flew to Moscow for a consultation with complaints of severe pain in his legs, making it impossible for him to walk. He had to hide his illness, which brought additional torment to the president. Nasser was diagnosed with atherosclerosis of the vessels of the legs, and was prescribed a radon bath. Soon he flew to the USSR, according to the official version - on vacation, in fact - for intensive treatment. They managed to put him on his feet: Nasser even started playing tennis.
More than once, Soviet doctors saved his life and health: they secretly treated him for a heart attack in Cairo (the media reported that the president had the flu), for heart failure at Barvikha. But the patient put the affairs of the state above his own health - he did not follow the recommendations of doctors, he worked without rest. This led to the fact that in 1970, Abdel Nasser died of a second heart attack.
Khrushchev rewards sick Nasser.
Death of the Yellow Scorpion
One of the most unpleasant stories for the Kremlin was the treatment and death of Algerian President Huari Boumedienne, who was nicknamed the Yellow Scorpion for his cunning and blond hair in his homeland.
In 1978, Boumedienne suddenly, without prior agreement (which is unthinkable for politicians of this level), flew incognito to Moscow. He had a severe fever and signs of an infectious disease. The best Soviet specialists were attracted to the treatment, but Boumedienne continued to languish. He could die at any moment, and the Soviet leadership decided: it would be undesirable for this to happen in Moscow. The Algerian president, accompanied by Moscow doctors, went home, where he fell into a coma and died 39 days later.
According to the conclusions of Soviet doctors, the cause of his illness could be a virus or "toxic factors from the outside." This means that Huari Boumedienne could have been poisoned. He is far from the only one who died after or during treatment in the USSR. Soviet doctors did everything they could, and even more. But often the guests came to the Soviet Union already terminally ill, hoping for a miracle. But medicine turned out to be powerless against nature and politics.
Author: Elena Rotkevich