Stalin's purge of high ranking Jews and Zionist plot to murder Stalin: (A few hundred Jewish communist were murdered compared to the 30 million Christian murdered by Jewish communist from 1917-1950)
{p. 252} Late on the night of August 12, 1952, twenty-four of the leading
{p. 253} cultural figures in the Soviet Union were rounded up by the MGB and shot to death in the basement of Lubyanka prison. That same night, 217 Yiddish writers and poets, 108 actors, 87 painters and sculptors, and 19 musicians disappeared as well. Most were sent to the camps of the Gulag in Siberia as slave laborers. It was akin to death; many would not return. {yet Kahan does not show the same detailed concern for the Gulag's non-Jewish victims} Among the twenty-four murdered was Peter Markish, considered the best Yiddish poet of the time, whose wife, Esther, a writer and translator of many French authors, was a personal friend of Maria's. Also killed were the poet Itzhik Feffer, a friend of Lazar's, and the writer David Bergelson, who was a friend of Paulina Molotov's.
Lazar was aghast. He had not known anything about this: neither had Molotov, nor, in fact, had most of the inner circle. Stalin had issued the orders on his own. He had consulted with no one except Beria.
Lazar, however, found buried in the reports two little words: "i drugiye - 'and others.'" Obviously, there was much more to come, and he began to have an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was the first time that he felt genuine fear. ...
A few months later, Lidiya Timashuk, a radiologist in the Kremlin hospital, wrote Stalin saying that she had observed a number of eminent doctors applying inappropriate methods of treatment. ...
{p. 254} Abakumov, the minister of state security, ordered Ryumkin, the head of the investigation department, to "misplace" the letter. He even arrested him to make sure it was not found. Stalin caught wind of this and ordered Ryumkin's release. But he didn't stop there. He dismissed Abakumov ...
Israel ... denounced the entire affair as "typical Soviet anti-Semitism." Stalin was even quicker and more graphic. He had a bomb exploded in the Soviet legation at Tel Aviv {Kahan may be right, but provides no evidence that Stalin did it}. It proved fruitful for it gave Moscow the opportunity to sever all diplomatic relations with Israel. By carrying the anti-Semitic campaign to its highest pitch, Stalin had shown, without the slightest doubt, that he now had aligned himself with the Arabs ...
{p. 255} Toward the end of 1952, Stalin succeeded in deporting several hundred Jewish intellectuals, writers, actors, and others he termed "undesirables." {Were these deportations to Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region north-east of Manchuria?} He also banned the Jewish press and closed the Jewish theaters throughout Soviet Russia. Lazar knew that time was running out, but when Paulina Semyonovna Zhumchuzhina, known as Paulina Molotov, Vyacheslav's wife, was facing imminent deportation, that was the final catalyst.
... Paulina was being deported, and Vyacheslav was being forced from Stalin's inner circle. This meant he was also to be excluded from the midnight drinking parties at Stalin's
{p. 256} dacha at Gorinka, a key indicator of who was or was not in the premier's favor. It was evident to all in the administration what was happening. Stalin was about to launch a new terrorist campaign against the party's higher-ranking members, and it appeared that no one was safe, least of all those with Jewish connections. They would be the targets for the upcoming purges.(Note the very membership of the Communist Party. In other words, the Jews were still mostly in control of Communism in l952--sorry goldsnow. It is also interesting that Oppenheimer and the Jewish atomic spy ring was still working hand in hand with their Jewish comrades in the Soviet government.
Besides Molotov, Voroshilov had married a woman of Jewish extraction, Beria's mother was half-Jewish, Khrushchev's son-in-law was of Jewish origin, and Lazar himself was a Jew. Even Bulganin was suspect; he had been strongly in favor of the recognition of Israel. There was no question what had to be done.
Bulganin, Molotov, Voroshilov, and Lazar left Stalin's dacha late one night, actually at 2:00 A.M. ...
They ordered their chauffeurs to drive them to Voroshilov's dacha at Zhukovka. It was the perfect place to meet, and, obviously, such a meeting was expected of them. One could not take chances with Stalin. His eyes and ears were everywhere. Every meeting, no matter how small, was reported back to him. Not even chauffeurs could be trusted. Everyone was a spy. The tiniest conversation between Politburo members reached Stalin's ears.
Voroshilov's home was ideal. He had no children, didn't believe in keeping servants or even guards around, and his wife was away visiting her mother for a few days. Anyone questioning such a meeting would be dismissed rather quickly, for Stalin had instructed them to prepare a report that very morning. ...
{p. 258} It was Molotov who finally summoned up enough courage to approach the subject.
"What do you mean by 'medicine?' "
The moment had arrived. Lazar knew that part of his plan had been flushed out. ... He looked around the room: Molotov, Bulganin, Voroshilov, all old friends, all trusted, all good men ...
Separately, each of them could not do what had to be done. Collectively, in the spirit of the revolution, they could now do the necessary, the essential, for with them would rest the fate of all Russia.
Lazar sighed and looked at the ceiling. They would have to know. They would have to join in.
They would have to understand completely the ramifications of all that he said. He had spoken to Rosa {his sister, Stalin's wife}, many times in fact, but it was also important to him that she not attend a meeting such as this. She had to be protected at all costs.
{p. 259} Voroshilov raised his hand. He usually did that to signify he wanted to say something, no matter how many people were in the room, one or a dozen.
"It seems quite clear to me what we have to do. A small dose of a drug slipped into his wine, which now is usually not pretasted, would render him into a coma, and with his weak heart, his death would be speeded up. But, it would not be poison in the purest sense, but rather a drug to aid in death, a helper."
He sounded almost professorial. All eyes now turned to Lazar. He had specifically suggested this meeting. ...
"We then come to the drug dicoumarol ... in its proper dosage, it is an anticoagulant. It makes the blood thinner and as a result retards the coagulation of the blood. In effect,
{p. 260} it liquefies and dissolves such a clot. This is what Stalin now takes ... I am not a doctor, but I have been told that the dosage is no longer monitored like before."
"What form is the medication in?" Molotov interjected. He was beginning to see where this was all heading.
"White tablets. They are unmarked. This is another reason why Stalin keeps a close tab on his medicine cabinet. He is obviously afraid of someone sneaking in and replacing the pills with something that will kill him."
The Wolf of the Kremlin by Stuart Kahan
William Morrow and Company, NY 1987. Selections by Peter Myers; my comments within quoted text are shown {thus}; September 8, 2001; update April 26, 2002. |
