How it was №1 21.11.1999 (1999)

Video chronicle: Funeral of Andrei Zhdanov in 1948. Funeral ceremony in Moscow to bid farewell to the Soviet party leader.

At the coffin: Joseph Stalin, Lavreniy Beria, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich and others.

The presenter reads off-camera a letter from the doctor of the electrocardiography office of the Kremlin hospital, Lidiya Timashuk, addressed to the head of the security department of the NGB, Nikolai Vlasik.

Having familiarized himself with the contents, Stalin ordered that the letter be archived.

It will be made public four years later, in the midst of another ideological campaign known as the "fight against cosmopolitanism." Guest of the studio Yakov Etinger, son of cardiologist Etinger, arrested in 1950, names high-ranking patients of his father, among whom were Kirov, Ordzhonikidze, Tukhachevsky, and others.

This arrest became the starting point of the so-called "Doctors' Plot of 1953".

Among the numerous accusations, Etinger, along with Vinogradov, was accused of improper treatment of Alexander Shcherbakov.

Etinger was personally interrogated by the Minister of State Security of the USSR Viktor Abakumov.

Video chronicle: In the Kremlin, Mikhail Kalinin awards the Minister of State Security of the USSR Viktor Abakumov in 1946. A rare video document that survived after the resignation of the minister in 1951. Academician Vladimir Vinogradov - therapist, cardiologist.

Examining a patient.

With students of the 2nd Medical Institute.

Meeting with a group of doctors.

Oleg Shklovsky reads out articles of indictment from the printed media of that time.

The names of the "gang of saboteurs" are mentioned, including professors: Vovse, Vinogradov, Kogan, Egorov, Etinger, and others.

Galina Radygina says that none of the medical workers believed the indictments against Vinogradov and other doctors.

But the patients began to treat them with distrust.

The surgeon recalls how, after the publications, she had to persuade a patient with a serious diagnosis to undergo an urgent operation.

Marina Feigina, whose mother was one of the defendants in this case, shares her memories of how they destroyed the family library for fear of being suspected of anti-Soviet activities.

He tells the story of the arrested Gelshtein family, with whom they were friends.

The participants of the program emphasize that the doctors' case was anti-Semitic in nature and was only one stage of a large-scale campaign that unfolded in the country.

Video chronicle: Stalin at Zhdanov's funeral ceremony.

Air parade in Tushino.

Arrival of Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin on the platform.

A group of planes in the sky line up, spelling out the name "Stalin".

Anastas Mikoyan was also among Vinogradov's patients.

Stepan Mikoyan, his son, tells how the family reacted to the arrest of the doctors.

He names prominent political figures who could have fallen into disgrace.

Yakov Etinger cites the recollections of Svetlana Alliluyeva, who witnessed a telephone conversation between Stalin, who was informed of the death of director Solomon Mikhoels.

The participants in the program agree that the cause of the director's death was murder.

Video chronicle: Belorussky railway station on January 14, 1948. The coffin with the body of theater director Solomon Mikhoels is carried out of a train arriving from Minsk.

Vladimir Naumov talks about the company's more global plans.

The doctors' plot was only the beginning.

Yakov Etinger talks about his meeting with Nikolai Bulganin, who said that he, on Stalin's orders, prepared train trains in all major cities of the USSR intended for the deportation of Jews from the country.

The arrested doctors, as part of this campaign, were supposed to be executed publicly.

Video chronicle: An announcement in the newspaper "Pravda" about Stalin's death.

People at a kiosk sort out newspapers.

The participants of the program recall how their friends - defendants in the doctors' case - returned home after rehabilitation following Stalin's funeral.

Video chronicle: Academician Vladimir Vinogradov in the Kremlin receives a state award from Leonid Brezhnev.