ALLIANCE 30: "Marx, Lenin and
Stalin On the Jewish Question":
CONTINUED; Links to other sections at Table
of Contents:
The Doctors' Plot
Over this
entire period another phenomena was taking place, the distortion of a legitimate
anti-cosmopolitanism campaign into an illegitimate anti-Semitic
campaign. An increasing number of articles in the press accused persons
of "Cosmopolitanism", but:
"More and more the attacks
take an anti-Jewish character, as most of the attacked bear distinctly
Jewish names, often given in brackets next to their Russified names. From
November 1948 onward, the Soviet authorities start a deliberate campaign
to liquidate what is left of Jewish culture. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
is dissolved, its members arrested. Jewish literature is removed from bookshops
and libraries, and the last two Jewish schools are closed. Jewish theatres,
choirs and drama groups, amateur as well as professional, are dissolved.
Hundreds of Jewish authors, artists, actors and journalists are arrested.
During the same period, Jews are systematically dismissed from leading
positions in many sectors of society, from the administration, the army,
the press, the universities and the legal system. Twenty-five of the leading
Jewish writers arrested in 1948 are secretly executed in Lubianka prison
in August 1952. The anti-Jewish campaign culminates in the arrest, announced
on January 13, 1953, of a group of ASaboteurs-Doctors@
accused of being paid agents of Jewish-Zionists organizations@
and of planning to poison Soviet leaders. Fears spread in the Jewish community
that these arrests and the show trial that is bound to follow serve as
a pretext for the deportation of Jews to Siberia. But on March 5, 1953,
Stalin unexpectedly dies. The ADoctor"s
Plot@ was exposed as a fraud,
the accused are released, and deportation plans, already discussed in the
Politburo, are dropped".
Web site Beyond The Pale; Op
Cit:
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/62.html
The class struggle
in the USSR was culminating in a frenzied atmosphere, where one strand
that was being used by the revisionists was a mounting awareness of an
anti-Semitic campaign. This melded the closing of the JAFC into the new
plot - the so called "Doctor’s Plot":
"On 12 August 1952, a group
of former JAFC members, convicted by the Military Collegium of the USSR
Supreme Court, were put before a firing squad. Many other people of Jewish
nationality - 110 in all -were arrested in connection with the JAG case
on charges of 'espionage' and "anti-Soviet Jewish nationalist activity".
At the time of the trial of the JAG members, preparation of the Doctors’
Plot reached its final stage."
Iakov Etinger; AThe
Doctors' Plot: Ibid; p. 104.
The Doctor’s
Plot was according to the Khruschevite revisionists, entirely the
fabrication of Stalin, and they claim credit as the ones who exonerated
the Doctors named:
AStalin...
issued orders to arrest a group of eminent Soviet medical specialists..
When we examined this "case" after Stalin's death, we found it to be fabricated
from beginning to end.@
N.S.Khruschev: Secret Speech
to 20th party Congress; CPSU, In:@The
anti-Stalin Campaign and International Communism: A Selection of Documents@;
New York; 1956; p.64.
However it is known that Stalin
was dubious about the whole notion of the "Doctors' Plot".
When he was
first informed his reaction was characteristically blunt.
When Stalin first heard about
the alleged "Doctors's Plot" he dismissed it.
It should also be noted that
Stalin's death was certainly not caused by inappropriate medical attention
- but in sharp contrast - by the very deliberate lack or withholding of
medical attention. (See
Bland's chronology of events in ADeath
Of Stalin@; Ibid.)
In 1948, an
allegation was made by a Dr Lydia Timashuk,
described as a Arank-and-file@
doctor, against medical experts. She alleged there had been:
Aintentional
distortions in medical conclusions made by major medical experts who served
as consultants in the hospital. She exposed their criminal designs and
thus opened the eyes of security bodies to the existence of the infamous
conspiracy.@
Rapoport Y: "Doctors's
Plot" Stalin's Last Crime@:
London; 1991; p.77.
Although Khrushchev
alleged that Stalin was behind Athis
ignominious case@, (Khrushchev
secret speech op cit; p. 65) other
commentators tell us that:
AStalin
had strong doubts about Timashuk's allegations@.
Grey I: @Stalin:
Man of History@; London; 1979;
p.461.
And Stalin's
daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote:
AMy
father's housekeeper told me not long ago that my father was extremely
distressed at the turn events took... She was waiting on table as usual,
when my father remarked that he did not believe the doctors were "dishonest"
and that the only evidence against them, after all were the Areports@
of Dr. Timashuk."
Alliyeuva S; ibid; p.215.
Again it is only
Khrushchev or Sudoplatov, who can confirm that Stalin supposedly "changed
his mind" after a full investigation. (Khrushchev
N:@Khrushchev Remembers@;
London; 1971; p.283).
Victor
Abakumov, was placed in charge of the
investigation of Dr Timashuk's allegations. It was in 1950 that the first
arrest took place, with that of Dr Yakov
Ettinger at the First Ggradeskaya Hospital
of Moscow. (Rappoport
Op Cit; p. 24).
However in
1951, Victor Abakumov was then himself arrested, on the charge of "lack
of vigilance in connection with the "Leningrad
Affair":
"In.. 1951.. Abakumov was arrested..
He was taken to the Lyubanka and put in solitary confinement. Several of
his deputies and several dozen state security officers were arrested along
with him... The charges brought against Abakumov at that time were that
he had not recognised the enemy of the people during his handling of the
"Leningrad Affair".. In September 1951 none other than Khrushchev .. Echoed
Stalin's charge that Abakumov and his officers had failed to recognise
the enemy of the people in the northern city's Party apparatus.@
P.Deriabin:@Watchdogs
of Terror:Russian bodyguards from Tsars to Commissars@;
USA; 1984; p.316-317.
How did the whole matter get
started, and who were the players behind it?
As stated
above, the accusations were a matter of four years old. They had been put
aside as an un-proven allegation. It is speculative, but they might be
seen as having been sent by a potentially disgruntled employee.
The allegations
were put aside until, the accusation became expedient to serve as a further
means of sabotage. In other words to disrupt the faithful Marxist-Leninist
ring around Stalin; and to inflame the population with a divisive anti-Semitism.
Dr Lydia Timashuk
had been the original complainer, and she received the Order of Lenin for
her work, in 1953:
"On 21 January 1953, the newspapers
published the Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium awarding Doctor
L. F Timashuk the Order of Lenin "for
assistance rendered to the government in exposing the murderous doctors".
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; Ibid; p. 115-7
But the letter
"warning of the "Doctor's Plot" itself had been submitted in 1948.
Timashuk
had written to Vlasik, of the MGB Security and a key pro-Stalin
figure.
Neither Vlasik,
Stalin nor those of the MGB responsible for Zhdanov took action.
The letter
warned that during the conduct of medical tests on Zhdanov, there had been
a deliberate mis-diagnosis. Dr Timashuk was the head of the Electrocardiography
laboratory at the Kremlin Hospital. Not only did she allege that Professors
Egorov and Vasilenko (of the Kremlin's
Special Medical Department) insist that Dr Timashuk alter a diagnosis of
Acoronary thrombosis@
to Asclerosis and hypertension@,
but that they also falsified a diagnosis on a form previously reported
by a "physician in charge" - Dr Maiorov:
"It is now known from recently
discovered classified KGB and CPSU Central Committee documents that on
29 August 1948, Timashuk, head of the electrocardiography laboratory at
the Kremlin Hospital, sent a confidential letter to General N. S. VIasik,
chief of MGB security. It was a political denunciation asserting that on
28 August 1948, the head of the Kremlin's special medical department, Professor
P. I. Egorov, summoned her to take an ECG of Politburo Member A. A. Zhdanov.
On that same day she and Professor Egorov, Academician Vinogradov
and Professor V. Kh. Vasilenko flew from Moscow to Valdai where Zhdanov
was at the time. She took his electrocardiogram and diagnosed coronary
thrombosis. She immediately told the professors who had come with her about
it. But, she went on, Professor Egorov and the physician in charge, Dr.
Maiorov, said that the diagnosis was incorrect, that this was not a case
of coronary thrombosis but of functional disorders caused by sclerosis
and hypertension. They proposed that she, "alter" the diagnosis and write
"caution" without mentioning coronary thrombosis as Dr. Karpai had done
on the previous electrocardiograms. Further on Timashuk said
in her letter to VIasik that on 29 August 1948 Zhdanov had had another
acute heart attack and she was summoned from Moscow for the second time.
However, on orders from Vinogradov and Egorov the electrocardiogram was
not taken on 29 August but postponed until the following day. "It was again
proposed in a categorical fashion that I alter the diagnosis, and that
myocardial infarction should not be mentioned. I notified Comrade A. M.
Belov about it." Belov was an MGB official responsible for Zhdanov's safety
.. Timashuk pointed out that the consultants and the doctor in charge of
the case "clearly underestimated Zhdanov's grave condition, for they allowed
him to get up and take a walk in the park". In her opinion "in future that
could lead to fatal consequences'.@
We will leave
aside the vexed issue of inter-physician agreements at the best of times!
Those unfortunate enough to end
up in the hands of physicians will know how they frequently disagree! However,
to stay with the facts -
the letter was, by the 30 th
August, with Abakumov - who responded to Stalin in a memorandum:
"On the desk of the State Security
Minister V. S. Abakumov.
On that same day he sent a top-secret
memorandum to Stalin: To Comrade Stalin, 1. V., I am sending you a statement
by Dr. L. F.Timashuk, head of the electrocardiography laboratory, about
the condition of Comrade Zhdanov. As is evident from Dr. Timashuk's statement,
she insists that Comrade Zhdanov had a myocardial infarction in the area
of the anterior wall of the left ventricle and of the intra ventricular
septum. Head of the Kremlin medical department Egorov and Academician Vinogradov
suggested that she alter the diagnosis omitting any mention of myocardial
infarction.
Enclosed: Statement by Comrade
Timashuk and the ECG of Comrade Zhdanov."
Iakov EtingerAThe
Doctors' Plot@; p. 115-7
Since no action
was still taken, despite the subsequent death of Zhdanov, Timashuk continued
to send more letters - apparently it is true they were at least in some
cases, addressed to a known revisionist Kuznetsov.
Conceivably it is true then that a revisionist would have delayed the "truth"
(if there were any – in Timashuk’s allegations from emerging.
But it was
not till 1952, when the case was re-opened. It was re-opened - it is alleged
by Professor Iakov Etinger (Younger)- by Stalin himself:
"Zhdanov died on 30 August 1948.
After his death Timashuk sent several letters to the Central Committee,
setting forth her opinion about Zhdanov's diagnosis and treatment. At that
point the case was shelved. But Stalin returned to it in the summer of
1952, when preparations for the Doctors' Plot were in full swing.@
Iakov EtingerAThe
Doctors' Plot@; p. 115-7
But the re-opening
of the case by Stalin would mean that he would have in the interim changed
his mind. We have no direct evidence for this.
We have only
the assertions from various interested parties like Professor Etinger,
and Khruschev, that Stalin now "wanted to launch a case against the
Jews." Other than this incantation, we have not yet heard any concrete
evidence that indicates Stalin had changed his mind.
The re-opening
of the case has been described by Timashuk herself, in a letter found in
the Central Committee Archives.
In her letter
she describes being received by Malenkov
and being informed of her Aservice@
having been rewarded with the Order of Lenin. But she herself records that
she had not believed that the doctors were saboteurs. The inference is
that she believed they had been simply "mistaken". She also describes the
revoking of the Order and assurances that she was still considered competent:
"A letter Timashuk sent to the
Presidium of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU in 1966 has recently been discovered
in the Central Committee archives. It said:
"In the summer of 1952 I was
suddenly summoned to investigator Novikov in the MGB investigation
department on matters of highest importance and after some time to investigator
Eliseev in connection with the case of the late A. A. Zhdanov. I
again confirmed everything I had written to A. A. Kuznetsov, in
the Central Committee. Six months later, on 20 January 1953, A. N. Postrebyshev
(Head of the Central Committee's Special Sector, Stalin's personal secretariat)
summoned me by phone and I was invited to the Kremlin. There G. M. Malenkov
told me that a Council of Ministers meeting and Comrade Stalin personally
had just thanked me for my personal courage displayed (that is, four and
a half years ago) when I adhered to my professional opinion in the dispute
with a prominent professor, and officially commended me and decorated me
with the Order of Lenin. I was dumbfounded, for I could not believe that
the doctors treating Zhdanov would turn out to be saboteurs. .. On the
following day, 21 January 1953, the Order of Lenin was awarded to me and
on 4 April 1953, The day the doctors were rehabilitated] the USSR Supreme
Soviet Presidium repealed the decision on my decoration as erroneous. When
I returned the Order of Lenin to the Supreme Soviet, A. F. Gorkin and
N.M. Pegov (prominent party and Soviet functionaries) were present.
They assured me that the government considered me an honest Soviet doctor
and the repeal of the decree on my decoration would not affect my professional
prestige or position. I continued working in the Kremlin Hospital as head
of the functional diagnosis department. Three years later, in 1956, N.
S. Khrushchev sent a secret letter dealing with Stalin's personality cult
to the CPSU Central Committee and mentioned my name there in connection
with the Doctor Plots".
Iakov EtingerAThe
Doctors' Plot@; p. 115-7
The work of the
previously quoted Iakov Etinger becomes of significant interest, not the
least because he was the son of the first imprisoned doctor.
Dr Etinger the elder,
was the first implicated doctor in the APlot@,
and he was accused of the murders of Alexsandr Shcherbakov and Andrei
Zhdanov.
Dr Etinger
was a competent physician who had often been consulted by and on behalf
of leading party and Comintern officials. His degrees and competency were
never questioned. What was questioned was his motives, and whether
he used his knowledge to deliberately mis-treat and kill prominent patients:
"On 13 January 1953, all leading
Soviet newspapers carried the notorious TASS communique entitled "The Arrest
of a Group of Saboteur Doctors'" which accused a number of Jewish doctors
of plotting to murder leading Soviet figures using harmful methods of medical
treatment. These doctors had allegedly caused the death of Central Committee
Secretaries Aleksandr Shcherbakov and Andrei Zhdanov.The provocation was
part of a far-reaching plan to link the JAG case with the doctors" "crimes".
This was alluded to in the following phrase from the TASS statement:"
"Vovsi (one of the accused
physicians) told the investigation that he had gotten orders to kill leading
cadres in the USSR from the US-based Joint (the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee) via a Moscow doctor, one Shimeliovich, and the prominent Jewish
bourgeois-nationalist Mikhoels."'
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 115-7
Etinger the Younger's
interpretation of events was that there was a link between the "Anti-Zionist
Plot", and the current plot - designed to provoke suspicions of the Jews:
"The investigation committee
wanted Shimeliovich, who had been a member of the JAG Presidium and had
already been shot, and Professor Vovsi, Mikhoels's cousin, to play the
role of the connecting link between the JAG and the arrested Jewish doctors
In other words, the upcoming trial was meant to "demonstrate" that the
JAG were the ideologues of a ramified and deeply entrenched "Jewish plot"
that was to be carried out by Jewish "doctor killers".
"Iakov
Etinger: "The Doctors' Plot"; p. 104-105.
In fact it was Riumin who had
provoked further investigations into the case.
It was this
same Riumin who was anxious to implicate Abakumov as having been
Anegligent@
in his prior investigations.
Riumin also
claimed that Abakumov was trying to obstruct the renewed investigation
of Riumin.
Riumin's
actions included personal letters to Stalin.
From a point in June of 1951,
Abakumov was first expelled from the party, and then in July he was arrested.
These details have been written about by a writer in the former USSR named
Kirill
Stoliarov:
"Kirill Stoliarov summed up
the results of his painstaking and profound study of the materials in the
case of State Security Minister Abakumov in his book "Golgofa" (Calvary).
He writes there:
'Riumin investigated the Ia.
G. Etinger case. He claimed that Abakumov, first, did not permit him to
interrogate Etinger as a participant in the heinous murder of A. Shcherbakov..
and, secondly, ordered Etinger... transferred from the inner prison (of
the Lubianka) to the Lefortovo Prison, where he suddenly died and thus
priceless information on an extensive terrorist plot was buried. This calls
for some explanation. In June 1951 (Abakumov) was expelled from the party,
relieved from his post on 4 July and arrested on 12 July. A large group
of high-ranking State Security Ministry officials were also arrested. All
of them were detained on the strength of the information submitted to the
party Central Committee." "Iakov Etinger:
"The Doctors' Plot"; p. 104-105.
Thus Riumin wrote to Stalin
that Abakumov was Aglossing over@
the Etinger affair:
"M. D. Riumin informed the Central
Committee that his superiors were "glossing over" the terrorist plans of
Etinger and "enemy agents" spearheaded against Politburo members and Stalin
personally; they deliberately neglected to record Etinger's interrogations
which made it possible adroitly to conceal from Stalin, mistakes "in the
struggle against the schemes of international imperialism."
"Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors' Plot";
p. 104-105.
Etinger
attributes the subsequent arrest of Abakumov to the actions of Stalin.
It is unknown however whether this was so, or whether there was little
choice in this circumstance but to bide time and order a full enquiry.
In
any case Riumin did obtain his goals: both the arrest of Abakumov and the
control over the Etinger case:
"Sending such a letter to Stalin
was doubtless a risky undertaking. The chances that it would reach him
were very slim.
"But the miracle did occur",
Stoliarov writes,
"and in defiance of common sense
and chance. .. Stalin got the signal and after carefully thinking the matter
over ordered that Abakumov be arrested." The Abakumov case was investigated
by K. Mokichev, First Deputy Prosecutor-General. Stoliarov notes that Mokichev
began the interrogations "with facts" cited by Riumin, namely, that the
terrorist aims of the Jewish nationalist Etinger were being "glossed over"."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 107-8..
Abakumov's testimony
showed that he did in fact conduct an investigation and had come to the
conclusion that the whole matter was NOT
a question of physician sabotage.
In Abakumov's
words "In the course of the interrogation it had become clear to me that
all of this had nothing to do with terrorism, absolutely nothing"@
:
"Stoliarov goes on to say: This
is what Abakumov testified about Etinger:
Question: Why did you
delay Etinger's arrest and subsequently forbid interrogating him about
terrorism, telling Riumin that Etinger would get him "bogged down"?
Answer:
The leadership of the Second Directorate
reported to me that Etinger was hostile. I told them to prepare a memorandum
for the Central Committee. The memorandum cited facts proving that Etinger
was a dirty swine. (Abakumov was referring to the anti-Stalin views Professor
Etinger expressed when speaking to his son, which constituted a counter-revolutionary
crime punishable under Art. 58-10 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. Father and
son were having a private conversation, which was tape-recorded - K. Stoliarov).
That was in the first half of
1950, I do not remember in which month. However, at that juncture we had
no orders to arrest him. After the order from the higher authorities came,
I had him brought to me because I knew that he was an active Jewish nationalist
and vehemently anti-Soviet.
"You better tell the whole truth,
without beating about the bush",
I said to Etinger.
In reply to my questions he promptly
answered that there were no grounds for his arrest and the truth was that
Jews were being suppressed in this country. When I pressed further, he
said he was an honest man, he was treating high-ranking people and mentioned
my deputy, Selivanovskii, and then Shcherbakov. At this moment I said he
would have to describe what exactly he had done to cause his death. He
began speaking in great detail about Shcherhakov's serious condition and
said he had been doomed. In the course of the interrogation it had become
clear to me that all of this had nothing to do with terrorism, absolutely
nothing. Later it was reported to me that nothing new or interesting had
been gotten out of Etinger."
"Iakov
Etinger: "The Doctors' Plot"; p. 108-109.
Etinger then summarises that
Abakumov had concluded that Etinger was not a Acriminal@
but was merely a Jewish nationalist:
"According to declassified
documents of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB, after another regular
interrogation of Etinger in December 1950, Abakumov "came to the conclusion"
that there were no facts pointing to "criminal medical treatment". On 28-29
January 1951, Abakumov issued instructions "to discontinue working with
Etinger", that is, to stop trying to make him confess to "criminal treatment"
and only stick to the charges of anti-Soviet activity and Jewish nationalism."
The excerpts
from the interrogation corroborate the view that Abakumov did not try to
deny - that even physical beating - had failed to produce any evidence
that the physician Etinger had been a criminal. But let us return to the
verbatim records of Abakumov's interrogation.
"Question: Are you aware
that Etinger was transferred to the Lefortovo prison and that conditions
there were new to him?
Answer: This is not correct.
The inner [Lubianka] and Lefortovo prisons do not differ from one another.
Question: Did you issue
orders that Etinger be kept in special conditions, jeopardizing his health?
Answer: What do you mean
by special?
Question: Harder than
for the other inmates. Etinger was placed in a damp and cold cell.
Answer: There is nothing
extraordinary about that because he was the enemy. We are allowed to beat
the inmates - I and my first deputy Ogol'tsov were repeatedly reminded
at the RGPtb) Central Committee that whenever necessary our chektsty should
not be afraid to use physical force against spies and other people who
had committed crimes against the state. An inmate is an inmate, and prison
is prison. There are no such things as warm and cold cells there. There
was talk about a stone floor, but as far as I know all cells have stone
floors. I told the investigating officer that we must get the truth from
the inmate and I may have said that I did not want him to get us bogged
down."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 109.
It is known that Abakumov wrote
to Stalin, protesting his loyalty and that it was at that point, that Stalin
had asked to see the records of testimonies for himself:
"From the "Matrosskaia tishina"
Prison, Abakumov wrote a letter to Stalin, trying to prove that he was
innocent and infinitely loyal to him. The letter said:
"Riumin"s statement about my
alleged hint to Etinger that he should refuse to testify regarding terrorism
(the reference is to charges of causing Shcherbakov"s death) is all wrong.
There was nothing of the kind and could never be. Had we had any concrete
facts to act upon we would have skinned him alive in order not to miss
a case like that."
Abakumov's letter reached Stalin
and he kept it. Three weeks later, the following note came to the USSR
Prosecutor"s Office:
"Comrade Mokichev, at 3 a.m.
there was a phone call from Malenkov. He has gotten instructions to send
the records of Abakumov's interrogation to Comrade Stalin tomorrow. The
note was dated 19 August 1951, 3:10 a.m. and signed by S. Ignat'ev, the
new Minister of State Security. "
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 109-110.
But it was precisely
this step that needed to be somehow either blocked - or check-mated – by
the revisonists.
Otherwise,
Stalin would have been in a position to both free Abakumov, un-ravel the
Doctor’s Plot as a fraud, and in the process further reveal the hidden
revionsit plots.
The check-mate
came in the form of a highly convenient "confession", but one that was
"made" to another trusted revisionist.
The latter
was necessary, so that there could be no more possible re-appraisals, until
the revisionist coup was carried through.
It was ensured that there would
be no opportunity to attempt any further cross-examination of Etinger -
for Etinger was now conveniently dead.
At this juncture the short
term aim of the revisionists was to be put in charge of the investigation
of Abakumov; and to roll out the "Doctors Case".
The "confession" of Etinger was
achieved at this very juncture. This also automatically implicated Stalin"s
own personal physician Vinogradov
- since the two must have been working in tandem, if one was a criminal:
"At that time Riumin was doing
his best to be put in charge of investigating the Abakumov case. According
to Stoliarov, Riumin succeeded in getting what he wanted when Col. M. Likhachev,
former deputy head of the USSR State Security Ministry investigating high
priority cases, arrested shortly after Abakumov, obediently confirmed that
before his death Professor Etinger had confessed to causing Shcherhakov’s
death. It was a stroke of unbelievably good luck opening vast prospects
to Riumin:
the late Etinger had been just
a consultant, while Professor Vinogradov, Stalin’s personal physician of
long standing, had been treating Shcherbakov.
Etinger could not have worked
to kill Shcherbakov without Vinogradov"s consent. Hence, it had been a
joint operation."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 109-110.
Riumin succeeded in taking over
the investigation of Abakumov:
"On 22 February 1952 State Security
bodies were put in charge of the investigation of the case of Abakumov
and his subordinates and the suspects were transferred from the "Matrosskaia
tishina" Prison to Lefortovo. As noted above, by that time Professor Etinger
was already dead".
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 110.
The question then as to whether
Abamumov, was a genuine Marxist-Leninist or not, seems to be answered
in the affirmative.
It seems quite clear that
the revisionists needed him out of the way.
In that light we believe that
he had taken the correct Marxist-Leninist route.
We will come to Beria's view
of him later.
But it is interesting, that
the very same revisionist who was so virulently against Abakumov - Riumin
- had been especially hostile to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee:
"In 1951, Riumin had written
a report on the hostile intentions of S. A. Lozovskii, I.S. Fefer, L. S.
Shtern, B. A. Shimeliovich - 14 people in all. The report said that "the
evidence has established that during their visit to America in 1943, former
JAFC leaders Mikhoels and Fefer were given an assignment by Jewish reactionaries
to get the Crimea settled by Jews and have an independent republic established
there to be used by the Americans as a bridgehead against the USSR at an
opportune moment". In late 1951 Colonel Riumin was appointed Deputy Minister
of State Security and was made responsible for the ministry's investigation."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 109-110.
Etinger’s son,
notes that the timing of the "Doctors’ Plot", was coincident with various
similar events throughout the countries developing towards socialism in
Eastern Europe:
"The main participants in the
Doctors’ Plot were arrested in November 1952. Simultaneously the anti-Semitic
drive in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe was being stepped up.
The trial of the "anti-government conspirators" took place in Czechoslovakia
in late November 1952. The crusade against "Jewish bourgeois nationalism"
was gaining momentum and an unprecedented anti-Jewish purge was being prepared
throughout the socialist camp with the main developments unfolding in Moscow.
In December; subsequent to the CPSU Central Committee Presidium decree
of 4 December 1952 "On the Situation in the Ministry of State Security
and on Subversive Activities in Medical Treatment", the Central Committee
issued instructions to party organizations concerning organs of the MGB.
N. A. Bulganin, then
a member of the Presidium, told me that the instructions contained a passage
about "established facts regarding subversive activities in medicine" and
the comments to the instructions stressed the "key role" of Jewish professors
"closely linked with international Zionism and American intelligence".
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 113.
The announcement of the Plot
was associated with an attempt to light up an anti-Semitic campaign, by
linking it with the use of terms such as "fifth column", and by publishing
lists of names that were apparently of Jewish origin:
"The preparatory phase in the
Doctors" Plot was completed by late 1952. On 13 January 1953, the TASS
statement announced the arrest of "saboteur doctors". On the same day Pravda
carried a front-page editorial under the heading "Despicable Spies and
Murderers Disguised as Professors of Medicine"... the article said:
"US tycoons and their British
'junior partners' know that it is impossible to impose their domination
on other nations by peaceful means. Their frenzied preparations for a new
world war include planting spies in the Soviet rear and the People's Democracies
in an attempt to succeed where the Hitlerites failed: to create their subversive
"fifth column" in the USSR. In other words, a clear hint was being made,
that the "Jewish bourgeois nationalists" were this "fifth column". Unbridled
anti-Semitic propaganda was unleashed in the country. The press was rife
with Jewish names."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 114.
At about this time a letter was
devised that was to be signed by prominent Soviet Jews.
This would call for the deportation
of Jews to resettle them in outlying areas.
A "theoretical foundation" was
given by the Philosopher Dmitrii Chesnokov
of the Party presidium from the 19th Party Congress. This stated that:
"The Jews had proved to be "unreceptive
to socialism". He wrote a book which was .. (widely) circulated".
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 118-119.
This letter called
for punishment against the accused doctors, and to resettle many Jews.
It provoked unrest amongst the intelligentsia. It was promoted by another
known revisionist - Mark Borisovich Mitin
who had supported the anti-scientific campaign of Trofim
Lysenko. (See "Lysenko, Views of Nature,
Society"; 1990; available, from Alliance p.285).
Nonetheless
despite the evident pressure, some notable figures refused to sign:
"A. N. Iakovlev, former
Central Committee Secretary, who at one time," headed the Politburo commission
for rehabilitation and was well acquainted with many major political "cases"
of the postwar years, said that the letter was devised and put into circulation
by Chesnokov. Iakovlev recalls that another "philosopher", Mark
Mitin, and "historian", Isak Mints, collected the required signatures
of Jewish scientists and cultural figures. We
know that several people to whom the trio turned refused to sign - Ilya
Erenburg, People"s Artist of the USSR, Mark Reizen, Hero of the Soviet
Union, Colonel-General Ia. G. Kreizer, and composer I. 0. Dunaevskii. Among
those who did sign was M. I. Blanter, the
author of the famous song "Katiusha". The full list of those
who signed this document is unknown."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 118-119.
The timing of
these events is highly significant. As all this de-stabilisation of the
USSR state was taking place, Stalin was both ill and most probably - dying.
In some way, all commentators are agreed, the "Doctors’ Plot" was a key
hinge around which took place, all the events of the last few days and
weeks of Stalin’s life were. We here will only cite Etinger:
"On 5 March, if we are to believe
the official version of events, Stalin died. It later came to light that
in the last days of the dictator"s life, the CPSU leadership was in session
around the clock. On that same day, a joint session of the Central Committee
Plenum, the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Soviet Presidium was held.
The session adopted a resolution on the reorganization of the country's
party and state leadership. A major decision adopted there was the merger
of the Ministry of State Security (MGB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MVD) into a single Ministry of the Interior headed by Beria, who was also
appointed first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 118-119.
It is at this point that again we
have to re-discuss whether or not Beria was a Marxist-Leninist? For
Etinger states that he began an "extremely ingenious game" and started
calling "Stalin a tyrant":
"Having taken over the state
security bodies, Beria began an extremely ingenious political game.
He began calling Stalin a tyrant and suggested that Central Committee
members get acquainted with numerous facts showing his cruelty, abuse of
power and political terrorism. The country’s new leadership was extremely
worried by the fact that Beria had attained full control of the state security
organs and could make use of their archives to suit his own purposes -
primarily to expose the entire group of Stalin’s successors as accomplices
and perpetrators of the massive repressions in the 1930's. Therefore, the
elimination of Beria was a matter of vital importance for the new Kremlin
leaders. With his penchant for adventurism, Beria was increasingly becoming
the main contender in the struggle for power."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 119.
However, it emerges that Etinger
is using his own personal interviews and friendships with both Bulganin
and Khrushchev to substantiate his viewpoint.
This is clearly inadequate!
As stated
above, Beria now moved to discredit and
stop the fear-mongering and de-stabilisation associated with the alleged
"Doctors’ Plot".
Even so Etinger asserts that
Kaganovich attacked Beria"s "sensationalising" of the "Doctor’s Plot" and
taking all credit for free-ing the doctors:
"Beria used the Doctors’ Plot
as his trump card in this struggle for power and demanded that the doctors
be immediately released. It is worth recalling Kaganovich’s statement at
the July 1953 Central Committee plenum in which he went out of his way
to deny that the Doctors’ Plot had any anti-Semitic overtones. He also
stressed that Beria used the Doctors’ Plot in order to consolidate his
position in the country and to curry favour with world public opinion as
the man who denounced the provocation and had the framed victims released.
Kaganovich stated: Let us, for example, take the Doctors’ Plot, which some
elements have erroneously linked with Jewry as a whole. The party was right
in releasing the doctors, but Beria sensationalised it out of all proportion,
resorted to his usual method of patting himself on the back and alleging
that it was he who had done it and not the Central Committee, that it was
he who had set things right and not the government."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 120.
But undoubtedly
it was Beria and his investigations into the events that had led to the
pressure for the release of the physicians.
This came
after Beria had forced some rather startling revelations into the hands
of the Presidium of the Party. We have already discussed this, the murder
of Mikhoels and Abakumov's allegations:
"On 2 April 1953 Beria sent
a letter to the party presidium addressed to Malenkov stating:
"An examination of the materials
in the Mikhoels case has revealed that in February 1948, in Minsk, former
USSR MGB Deputy Minister Ogol’tsov and former Belorussian MGB Minister
Tsanava illegally.... liquidated Mikhoels on orders from USSR MGB
Minister Abakumov... In this connection Abakumov .. Gave the evidence...
":
'As far as I can remember in
1948 the head of the Soviet Government I.V.Stalin gave me an urgent assignment
- to promptly organise the liquidation of Mikhoels by MGB personnel.."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 121.
Again we must
discuss Abakumov’s testimony. Until further
evidence comes to light, we argue that Abakumov was an honest Marxist-Leninist
misled into "believing" that an order had come from Stalin. This is the
most likely interpretation of the turn of events.
As discussed
above, the role of Suslov and Ponomoraev
make the murder of Mikhoels
a suspiciously pro-Revisionist event.
What was Beria's attitude to Abakumov?
Again - some
might argue here that Beria was not a Marxist-Leninist. But in the light
of the other events of his life, we argue that far more evidence is needed
to discredit Beria's Marxist-Leninist credentials. It seems that Beria
either could not attempt a "rescue" of Abakumov from jail, or he might
have believed that Abakumov was a revisionist or revisionist mis-led force.
The revisionists who had benefited
from Stalin's death, were anxious about Beria.
Given the
revelations, and Beria's potential for completely un-ravelling the entire
revisionist conspiracy, for the moment his insistence upon releasing
the doctors was heeded.
It was Beria who ended the episode
of the "Doctor's Plot"
Despite Professor
Etinger’s annoyance, it is hardly surprising that in this context, Beria
ensured that it was his name - and not that of Khrushchev’s - that would
be associated with the ending of the plot and the restoration of order
:
"Beria insisted on the immediate
release of the arrested physicians. Finally, on 3 April 1953 at 12 noon,
the CPSU Presidium adopted a decision to set free 37 doctors and the members
of their families being held for investigation in the Lubianka and Lefortovo
prisons. The decision was to be published in the central press and broadcast
over the radio on 4 April. At this juncture Beria made a brilliant political
move. During the night he called the Pravda editorial offices and demanded
that the title of the communique on setting the doctors free be altered.
The heading now read "Communique of the USSR MVD" instead of "Decree of
the CPSU Central Committee Presidium". Naturally, people reading this communique
on the physicians" rehabilitation got the impression that Beria's rise
to power in the MVD led to his investigation of the Doctors" Plot and the
release of the innocent victims. Beria was scoring points in the struggle
for power not only within the country but also abroad, for world public
opinion was greatly concerned about the outburst of anti-Semitism in the
USSR."
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 122.
The immediate
consequences of this were that the revisionists Riumin
and Ignate'ev were arrested:
"Two days after the publication
of the MVD communique", a Pravda article revealed that the doctors" investigation
had been headed by Riumin, who was "now under arrest". More
than 15 months later, from 2-7 July 1954, the Military Collegium of the
USSR Supreme Court heard the case of Riumin, who was accused of crimes
specified in Articles 5-7 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. It is noteworthy
that in the announcement of the USSR Supreme Court there was no mention
whatsoever that the Doctors' Plot had any Jewish aspect. ".
Iakov Etinger: "The Doctors'
Plot"; p. 119-122.
The revisionists later managed
to effect the release of their most important ally Ignat"ev.
They did not exert themselves
for Riumin.
Both Riumin and Abakumov were
shot.
Of course these
temporary set-backs showed the dangers to the revisionists of leaving Beria
at the top.
He was swiftly
toppled by a plot in which Malenkov and Molotov and Zhukov were
persuaded to participate.
These final events - sealing
the revisionist victory and successful take over of the socialist state
of the USSR - have been best dealt with by Bland in the already referenced
booklet: "The Doctors’ Case & The Death Of Stalin"; and the Book "Restoration
of Capitalism In The Soviet Union".
CONCLUSION:
1) The Marxist-Leninists have
always stood against both anti-Semitism and Zionism.
To be anti-Zionist is
not equivalent to being an anti-Semite or anti-Jewish.
It is the Zionists - both in
the past and in their current manifestations as the supporters of Israel
in its present imperialist puppet state from - that confuse progressives
by insisting that they are the same.
2) Revisionists used the tactic
of confusing anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism
The distortion of anti-Zionism
into anti-Semitism formed part of the revisionist underground campaign
to subvert the USSR from socialism.
It reached a peak under the
so called "Doctor’s Plot".
That more will be learnt about
all of the episodes discussed in this report, is certain. Until further
data becomes clear to Marxists-Leninists however, the role of Stalin in
supporting the establishment of a partitioned Palestine for a Zionist Israel
- is extremely unlikely.
This was a policy foisted
upon the USSR by the revisionists led by Gromyko, Ponomorev and Manuilsky.
In subsequent reports, we will
examine Pan-Islamism and the attitude to it of Marxist-Leninists.
FOR REFERENCES
FOR APPENDIX:
A FULLER ANALYSIS OF MARX ON THE JEWISH QUESTION GO
TO:
GO TO: TABLE
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