Lest we forget: On January 13, 1953, an article appeared in Pravda, titled, “Vicious Spies and Killers Passing Themselves off as Doctors and Professors.” The newspaper item said that a group of the country’s most eminent doctors---all of them Jewish---had allegedly been plotting to poison Stalin and other members of the Soviet leadership. The accusations were intended to serve as a prelude to a vast purge of Soviet Jews. Boxcars were already in place at train stations throughout Western Russia to deport Jews to Siberia Fortunately, Stalin died on March 5, a few days before the trail was to start. A month after his death Pravda announced that the doctors were innocent.

For more on this and two chapters on Russia today, check out my “The Scattered Tribe, Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press).  http://amzn.to/J3Z47T