In a parting shot before his death in 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had several doctors arrested by state police and charged them with attempted assassination via intentional medical malpractice.
These Moscow doctors, who were primarily Jewish, weren’t held for long, as after Stalin’s death the new Soviet leadership dropped their case against the doctors. What’s more, they said that the case was in fact fabricated.
Historians often described Stalin as incredibly paranoid, turning on his own friends, family, and his closest subordinates to maintain his political power.
There were elements of anti-Semitism contained in the reports, as six of the nine doctors were Jewish. Stalin, meanwhile, was considering sending all Jews to gulags in Siberia. Pravda, the propaganda newspaper of the Soviet Union, named the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, based in New York, as one of the orchestrators of a nefarious plot, suggesting that Jews—American Jews in particular—were trying to take down the communist party.
But Stalin later reportedly had a stroke and died under mysterious conditions at his dacha (country cottage), while recent reportage and studies suggest the tyrant was poisoned. In 2003, the book “Stalin’s Last Crime” said he may have been poisoned with warfarin during a dinner with close confidants who were members of the Politburo.
Stalin was found paralyzed of a stroke at his cottage in Kuntsevo. Guards had become worried about the unusual silence, but didn’t dare enter the home, as they were fearful of what he'd do. After about a day, a maid or a guard eventually summoned the courage and went inside, finding him lying sprawled on the floor. One account claims he was conscious but couldn’t speak or move. Doctors later attempted to attend to him and Politburo members went to the dacha every day. He died on March 5.
