ABSTRACT
In the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe the year 1952 brought increased police terror and economic hardship. In October was held the long-overdue 19th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. In January 1953 the Soviet press announced the discovery of a plot by Kremlin doctors to poison several military and civil leaders of the Soviet régime. It was noted that the doctors were of Jewish origin. The purges of 1951-2 in Eastern Europe had had a marked anti-Semitic character, and now in Russia itself Jews were publicly represented as enemies. The tone of the Soviet press closely recalled that of 1937, the year of the Great Purge. Then Stalin died, so conveniently for his immediate subordinates that it was widely believed (though there can be no proof) that this was no natural death.
