Originally posted by Dowding:
DMF - there seems to several 'It's a good job Stalin died when he did, because he was about to do this...' theories. I'm not sure how many of them are credible. Although, by all accounts, he was a bit on the insane side of the spectrum at the end.
I mention the Doctor's Conspiracy plot because it's a well-documented one that I've found in several of the books I've got lying around here. It had gotten as far as arresting Stalin's personal physicians and a handful of other doctors, but Stalin died before they could be put on trial. They were released shortly after his death.
Here's a
link to the original Pravda article in 1953 that laid the groundwork for Stalin's plan. Here's a quick quote from it (dated January 13, 1953):
"Investigation established that participants in the terrorist group, exploiting their position as doctors and abusing the trust of their patients, deliberately and viciously undermined their patients' health by making incorrect diagnoses, and then killed them with bad and incorrect treatments. Covering themselves with the noble and merciful calling of physicians, men of science, these fiends and killers dishonored the holy banner of science. Having taken the path of monstrous crimes, they defiled the honor of scientists."
Still not enough to convince you? How about Krushchev himself? In his now famous speech (which you can find
here) to a closed-door session of the Communist Congress in 1956, he details Stalin's crimes against the Soviet people. Among them he discusses the groundwork that Stalin laid for the Doctor's Plot. Here's a quote from that:
"Let us also recall the 'affair of the doctor-plotters.' Actually there was no 'affair' outside of the declaration of the woman doctor Timashuk, who was probably influenced or ordered by someone (after all, she was an unofficial collaborator of the organs of state security) to write Stalin a letter in which she declared that doctors were applying supposedly improper methods of medical treatment.
Such a letter was sufficient for Stalin to reach an immediate conclusion that there are doctor-plotters in the Soviet Union. He issued orders to arrest a group of eminent Soviet medical specialists. He personally issued advice on the conduct of the investigation and the method of interrogation of the arrested persons. He said that the academician Vinogradov should be put in chains, another one should be beaten. Present at this Congress as a delegate is the former Minister of State Security, Comrade Ignatiev. Stalin told him curtly, 'If you do not obtain confessions from the doctors we will shorten you by a head.'
Stalin personally called the investigative judge, gave him instructions, advised him on which investigative methods should be used; these methods were simple -- beat, beat and, once again, beat."
And what became of the doctors? Krushchev explains:
"This ignominious 'case' was set up by Stalin; he did not, however, have the time in which to bring it to an end (as he conceived that end), and for this reason the doctors are still alive. Now all have been rehabilitated; they are working in the same places they were working before; they treat top individuals, not excluding members of the Government; they have our full confidence; and they execute their duties honestly, as they did before."
You're definitely right about Stalin losing it at the end, but let's face it... he was always a few cards short of a full deck anyway.
As for the early revolutionary years, you're right that they were far from bloodless. If anything, Lenin established the "rules of engagement" later used so effectively by Stalin against his enemies. However, it's difficult to imagine that even Lenin at his worst could have unleashed such absolute terror and control over the USSR as Stalin did. As well, Stalin masterminded some techniques of his own, namely rewriting history. As Volkogonov observes, Stalin basically "wrote" himself into history as an important actor in the revolution and a close ally of Lenin despite little evidence that this was actually the case. He also perfected the technique of airbrushing those he'd murdered out of pictures in order to erase all records of their existence. In similar fashion, he actually had himself inserted into old pictures with Lenin.
Talk about a "great" leader, eh?
-- Todd/DMF
[ 07-24-2001: Message edited by: Dead Man Flying ]
