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The "doctors' plot" (Russian: дело врачей, romanized: delo vrachey, lit. 'doctors' case') was a Soviet state-sponsored antisemitic campaign based on a conspiracy theory that alleged a cabal of prominent medical specialists, predominantly of Jewish ethnicity, intended to murder leading government and communist party officials.[1] It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors or killer doctors. In 1951–1953, a group of mostly Jewish doctors from Moscow were accused of a conspiracy to assassinate Soviet leaders.[2] This was later accompanied by publications of antisemitic character in the media which talked about the threats of Zionism and condemned people with Jewish surnames.[3] Following this, many doctors, both Jews and non-Jews, were dismissed from their jobs, arrested, and tortured to produce admissions. A few weeks after Stalin's death in 1953, the new Soviet leadership said there was a lack of evidence regarding the doctors' plot and the case was dropped. Soon after, the case was declared to have been a fabrication.
- ^ "Doctors' Plot | alleged conspiracy, Soviet Union [1953]". Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 July 1998. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.
- ^ "DOCTORS PLOT". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem, Israel: Encyclopaedia Judaica. 1972. pp. 144–145. OCLC 651524877 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Medvedev 2003, pp. 68–170.