on dissident activities. These memoranda encompassed subjects as se-
rious as the treason trial of a Jewish dissenter and as relatively minor
as the meetings of clubs, and even an unauthorized funeral memorial
service for John Lennon. For example, the 1985 report of the KGB
chair to Mikhail Gorbachevrevealed that in the previous 12 months,
the KGB had broken up 25 illegal nationalist groups in the Ukraine
and the Baltic republics, as well as 28 Zionist organizations; sup-
pressed 170 underground religious schools; prosecuted 97 authors of
illegal manuscripts; warned 15,274 individuals in prophylactic meet-
ings; and arrested 661 Soviet citizens for political dissident activity.
Similar details are found in every top secret annual summary. The
KGB’s First Chief Directorate also made pursuing and discrediting
dissidents a major objective. Reports of Solzhenitsyn’s speech at
Harvard University in 1975 were circulated to the leadership. When
Yuri Orlov, a leading dissident, did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1979, the KGB rezidentin Oslo called Mikhail Suslov, the CCPC
secretary for ideology, in the middle of the night to announce the
“success.” The arrest, imprisonment, and exiling of dissidents, how-
ever, was counterproductive for Moscow. It did the reputation of the
Soviet state tremendous harm and raised questions about its legiti-
macy in the West. See alsoSAKHAROV, ANDREI.DOCTORS’ PLOT.In 1952, 14 important Soviet doctors, almost all of
whom were Jewish or had Jewish connections, were arrested on
charges of murdering members of the leadership, planning the mur-
der of Joseph Stalin, and working for British, American, and Israeli
intelligence. Among the doctors detained was Stalin’s cardiologist,
who had advised him to retire. The doctors were brutally tortured on
Stalin’s orders to confess their crimes and name their accomplices in
the Communist Partyand the police. Only one physician, Sophia
Karpai, was able to hold out against torture and refused to confess. In
February and March 1953, the Soviet press announced that there
would be a series of trials and executions. The press also hinted of a
possible banishment of all Jews from Moscow and a new series of
purge trials. Stalin’s death on 5 March ended the affair. The 11 doc-
tors who survived interrogation were released, and the security offi-
cers involved in investigating the conspiracy were arrested in 1953
and shot in 1954–1956.DOCTORS’ PLOT•7106-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 71