On the day after the publication of this article, the papers were full of accounts of meetings of a whole series of medical organizations vilifying him—the Moscow Association of Doctor-Therapeutists, the Medical Union, and others. The following day, the equivalent organizations from other parts of the country sent in their protests, from Kiev, Tula, Sverdlovsk, and elsewhere, denouncing the villainous doctor, the disgrace to Soviet medicine. Among the doctors speaking to, and signing, violent resolutions attacking Pletnev, one finds the names of M. Vovsi, B. Kogan, and V. Zelenin, who were (like Drs. Shereshevsky and V. N. Vinogradov) to be tortured by the MGB in 1952–1953 in the later Doctors’ Plot.
Pletnev was sentenced, in a trial which took place on 17 to 18 July 1937, to two years’ imprisonment. The press said that he had confessed. And thus, crushed and dishonored, denounced by his colleagues, found guilty of a disgraceful offense, he found himself in the cells of the Lubyanka, “where a still greater misfortune awaited him.”171
Just before the present trial, Pletnev had the formal confrontation with Vyshinsky, as Prosecutor, in the Lefortovo. When it was finished, Vyshinsky said to him, “I would like you to explain to me how you took to terror… it interests me psychologically.” Pletnev replied that he would confirm all the lies in court, and not spoil the show, but that for now he asked to be returned to his cell, since it disgusted him to talk to Vyshinsky.172
Now, under Vyshinsky’s questioning, he confessed his role in the murders of Kuibyshev and Gorky. He spoke of the “violent threats [made by Yagoda] against me and against my family.”173
He mentioned a connection with Dr. Nikitin, Tolstoy’s favorite physician, who had been one of a number of doctors exiled some years earlier. But he said that he did not believe Nikitin to be politically minded174—an honorable rebuttal of what was presumably a false charge against a distinguished colleague.
Pletnev’s defense lawyer, Kommodov, elicited his splendid medical record. Then Vyshinsky reexamined on that, raising the assault case. Pletnev made an attempt to reject the charge, but he was borne down by Vyshinsky, now in one of his most arrogant and bullying moods:
How many years did you say was your standing as a physician?
Forty.
You consider your standing as irreproachable?
Yes, I do.
Irreproachable?
Yes, I think so.
During these forty years you have never committed any crime in connection with your profession?
You are aware of one.
I am asking you because you state that your work for forty years was irreproachable.
Yes, but since I denied that time …
Do you think that the sentence in the case which is well known to you, the case of an outrage which you committed against a woman patient, is a blot on your reputation?
The sentence, yes….
Is that sentence a blot on your reputation or not?
It is.
So there were moments of disgrace during these forty years?
Yes.
Did you not plead guilty to anything?
I cannot say that I did not plead guilty to anything.
So you did plead guilty to something?
Yes.
Is this a blot on your reputation?
Yes.
175
Kazakov, the remaining doctor, confirmed his part in Menzhinsky’s death. But at the end of his evidence, he defended his method and asserted that “lysates” could after all not have harmed Menzhinsky:
For what purpose did you introduce these lysates? To kill Menzhinsky?
(No reply.)
Did you introduce the lysates for this end? Were you certain that they would assist your crimes?
You see, lysates have a dual effect.
You dare to assert that these lysates were harmless for Menzhinsky?
Yes. These three lysates were harmless.
And could you have fooled Yagoda?
(No reply.)
In view of the impossibility of getting a direct answer to this clear question, I request the court to adjourn the session and to make it possible for the Commission of Experts to answer the questions I have put to Kazakov.
176
After a half-hour adjournment, the Commission of Experts supported Vyshinsky’s view of the matter:
Such a combination of methods of treatment could not but lead to the exhaustion of the heart muscles of the patient V. R. Menzhinsky, and thereby to the acceleration of his death.
Moscow,
Expert Witnesses:
9 March 1938
Professor D. A. Burmin, Scientist of Merit
Professor N. A. Shereshevsky, Scientist of Merit
Professor V. N. Vinogradov
Professor D. M. Rossisky
V. D. Zipalov, Doctor of Medicine
