 the doctors' plot (russian: Ð´ÐµÐ»Ð¾ Ð²ÑÐ°ÑÐµÐ¹ [delo vrachey, "doctors' affair"], Ð²ÑÐ°ÑÐ¸-Ð²ÑÐµÐ´Ð¸ÑÐµÐ»Ð¸ [vrachi-vreditely, "doctors-saboteurs"], or Ð²ÑÐ°ÑÐ¸-ÑÐ±Ð¸Ð¹ÑÑ [vrachi-ubiytsy "doctors-killers"]) is considered to be the most dramatic anti-jewish episode in the soviet union under joseph stalin's regime. in 1952â53, a group of prominent moscow doctors (predominantly jews) was accused of conspiring to assassinate soviet leaders.encyclopaedia judaica: doctors plot 1953, vol. 6, col. 144, online retrieval http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/su/encjudaica_doktorverschwoerung-1953-engl.html this was later accompanied by publications of anti-semitic character in the media, which talked about the threats of zionism and condemned people with jewish names. many doctors, officials and others, both jews and non-jews, were promptly dismissed from their jobs and arrested. a few weeks after the death of stalin, the new soviet leadership stated a lack of evidence and the case was dropped. soon after, the case was declared to have been fabricated. ==beginnings==  there are a number of theories about the origins of the doctors' plot case. historians typically relate it to the earlier case of the jewish anti-fascist committee and the campaign against the rootless cosmopolitans in the second half of the 1940s, as well as to the power struggle within the soviet leadership during that time.brent & naumov 2003, p. 4medvedev 2003, p. 148 in 1951 ministry for state security (mgb) investigator mikhail ryumin reported to his superior, viktor abakumov, minister of the mgb, that professor yakov etinger, who was arrested as a "bourgeois nationalist" with connections to the jewish anti-fascist committee, had committed malpractice in treating zhdanov and shcherbakov, allegedly with the intention of killing them. however, abakumov refused to believe the story. etinger died in prison 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 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, which was headed by malenkov and included beria, to investigate the issue. based on the commission's report, the politburo soon p
1952_in_the_Soviet_Union 1953_in_the_Soviet_Union Antisemitic_canards Antisemitism_in_the_Soviet_Union Conspiracy_theories_involving_Jews Health_in_the_Soviet_Union Jewish_Russian_and_Soviet_history Political_and_cultural_purges Political_repression_in_the_Soviet_Union Soviet_phraseology