Stalin's last crime : the doctor's plot / by Jonathan Brent and Vladimir P. Naumov

Brent, Jonathan. Naumov, Vladimir P.

ISBN 10: 0719554489 / ISBN 13: 9780719554483

Published by London : John Murray, 2003

About this Item

Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 399 pages; Physical desc. : xi, 399 p. ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Subject: Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953) --Views on Jews --Persecutions --Soviet Union --Physicians. Summary: Stalin revelled in the self-coined epithet 'Uncle Joe' because of its genial connotations. In fact he distrusted almost everyone, often with good reason, and by the 1950s he had taken to bumping off those whose eyes, noses or voices he didn't like. Even his security forces became uneasy at this degree of paranoia and the resulting slaughter, especially among Jews. Realizing this, Stalin hatched his greatest purge of all on the pretext of what became known as 'The Doctors' Plot'. In January 1953 the Russian dictator claimed to have discovered a conspiracy among Jewish doctors to murder Kremlin and KGB leaders. Pravda and other publications displayed the 'proof' of signed confessions. Ten years before the Cuban missile crisis, it seemed the world stood on the brink of another world war, for Stalin claimed that the doctors were being paid by America to bring down his regime. The increasingly unstable Uncle Joe wanted a war against his capitalist enemy. Less than two months later Stalin himself was dead. It was as fortuitous a death as could be imagined, and conspiracy theories have abounded ever since. Many believe that Stalin was poisoned by his security chief, Beria, who knew the Soviets could not win a war against the Americans. Others suggest that Kruschev persuaded Beria to commit the murder, then promptly seized power and had Beria shot. The two authors of this complex book have peeled away decades of conjecture and misinformation, largely thanks to having gained access to previously secret files locked in Kremlin vaults. The story they tell is even more bizarre than has previously been suggested, but they are careful to back up their findings with copious reference to the testimony they unearthed. Both academics, Brent and Naumov rally the evidence meticulously and without the sensationalist spin indulged in by some previous writers. The result is one of the greatest studies yet of paranoia and panic inside the Cold War Soviet Union. 1 Kg. Seller Inventory # 155806

Bibliographic Details

Title: Stalin's last crime : the doctor's plot / by...

Publisher: London : John Murray

Publication Date: 2003

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

This is the full story behind Stalin's last, most complex and most puzzling conspiracy unravelled for the first time through access to previously unseen secret Soviet documents. On 13th January 1953, a stunned world learned that a vast conspiracy among Jewish doctors to murder Kremlin leaders had been unmasked. Pravda reported that several of the doctors had confessed to the crime. Mass arrests followed. The Doctors' Plot, as this action came to be called, was Stalin's last great criminal conspiracy. In the years since Stalin's death many myths have grown up about the Doctors' Plot, while Stalin's motives have been the object of endless speculation. Did Stalin himself invent the conspiracy against the Jewish doctors or was it engineered by subordinates who wished to eliminate Kremlin rivals? Was Stalin merely motivated by venomous anti-Semitism? How was this plot related to the Cold War? And, finally, was the Doctors' Plot connected with Stalin's fortuitous death?

About the Author:

Jonathan Brent is Editorial Director of Yale University Press, New Haven, Conneticut and founder of the widely praised 'Annals of Communism' series. His book 'The Secret World of American Communism' (1994) led to the release of classified Second World War information by the CIA and the FBI.

Vladimir P Naumov is a Professor of History at Moscow State University and the leading researcher for the Presidential Commission on the Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons. He is the author of numerous articles on the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s.