Mikhail Ryumin
Encyclopedia
Mikhail Dmitrievich Ryumin was Deputy Head of the Soviet MGB (Ministry of State Security) who engineered the "Doctors' Plot
" in 1952-1953; the case was dismissed on Stalin's death and Ryumin was arrested and executed.
According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
, he personally tortured prisoners in the Sukhanovka
prison, beating them severely with a rubber truncheon and beating one "Aleksandr D." so badly (this is probably Alexander Dolgun
, one of the few people to have survived to tell of Sukhanovka, although Solzhenitsyn only uses the first initial of his last name, apparently to protect the innocent), that he developed a hernia
and had to be treated in the Butyrki
prison hospital, thus escaping from Ryumin's tortures.
In late 1952, Ryumin reported to Minister of State Security Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov that Professor Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger had committed malpractice in treating Andrei Zhdanov
and Shcherbakov, allegedly with the intention of killing them. When Abakumov refused to believe the story, in spite of being present at a later interrogation of Etinger (Etinger died under interrogation the next night), Ryumin went over the head of Abakumov, directly to the Central Committee and Stalin, who saw the malpractice story as part of a wider conspiracy to kill off the Soviet leadership. As part of this Doctors' Plot Abakumov himself was arrested to be shot, and even Lavrenti Beria may have been in danger. However, when Stalin died in March 1953 the case unravelled and Ryumin himself was arrested. He was tried and executed in July 1953.
Doctors' plot
The Doctors' plot was the most dramatic anti-Jewish episode in the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin's regime, involving the "unmasking" of a group of prominent Moscow doctors, predominantly Jews, as conspiratorial assassins of Soviet leaders...
" in 1952-1953; the case was dismissed on Stalin's death and Ryumin was arrested and executed.
According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
, he personally tortured prisoners in the Sukhanovka
Sukhanovka
Sukhanovka, short for Sukhanovskaya osoborezhimnaya tyur'ma 'Sukhanovo special-regime prison,' was a prison established by the NKVD in 1938 for "particularly dangerous enemies of the people" on the grounds of the old Ekaterinskaia Pustyn' Monastery near Vidnoye, just south of Moscow...
prison, beating them severely with a rubber truncheon and beating one "Aleksandr D." so badly (this is probably Alexander Dolgun
Alexander Dolgun
Alexander Dolgun was a survivor of the Soviet Gulag who wrote about his experiences in 1975 after being allowed to leave the Soviet Union and return to his native United States.- Pre-Gulag years :...
, one of the few people to have survived to tell of Sukhanovka, although Solzhenitsyn only uses the first initial of his last name, apparently to protect the innocent), that he developed a hernia
Hernia
A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach protrudes into the mediastinum through the esophageal opening in the diaphragm....
and had to be treated in the Butyrki
Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison was the central transit prison in pre-Revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow.The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The present prison building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built...
prison hospital, thus escaping from Ryumin's tortures.
In late 1952, Ryumin reported to Minister of State Security Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov that Professor Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger had committed malpractice in treating Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
and Shcherbakov, allegedly with the intention of killing them. When Abakumov refused to believe the story, in spite of being present at a later interrogation of Etinger (Etinger died under interrogation the next night), Ryumin went over the head of Abakumov, directly to the Central Committee and Stalin, who saw the malpractice story as part of a wider conspiracy to kill off the Soviet leadership. As part of this Doctors' Plot Abakumov himself was arrested to be shot, and even Lavrenti Beria may have been in danger. However, when Stalin died in March 1953 the case unravelled and Ryumin himself was arrested. He was tried and executed in July 1953.