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 Jonathan Brent and Vladimir P. Naumov
• Publisher: London : John Murray
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719554489
• ISBN 13: 9780719554483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

On January 13, 1953, a stunned world learned that a vast conspiracy among Jewish doctors to murder Kremlin leaders had been unmasked. Mass arrests quickly followed. The Doctors' Plot, as this action came to be called, was Stalin' s last great criminal conspiracy. In the 50 years since Stalin' s death many myths have grown up about the Doctors' Plot. Did Stalin himself invent the conspiracy against the Jewish doctors or was it engineered by subordinates who wished to eliminate Kremlin rivals? Was Stalin intending a purge of all Jews that might lead to a Soviet Holocaust? How was this plot related to the Cold War then raging in Europe and the hot war in Korea? Finally, was the Doctors' Plot connected with Stalin' s fortuitous death? Authors Brent and Naumov have explored an astounding array of previously unknown, top-secret documents from the KGB and other state and party archives in order to probe the mechanism of one of Stalin' s greatest conspiracies-- and tell for t first time the incredible full story of the Doctors' Plot.