VLADIMIR SOLOWOV
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without any preliminaries, barked, "What the hell do you want? Is this
some kind of setup?" The caller must have realized whom he was dealing
with and hung up immediately.
The only people in the country who were ignorant of Stalin's
condition were his Kremlin doctors, thrown in jail at his orders. Yakov
Rapoport tells of having been summoned to his investigator's room -
for a consultation rather than for questioning. "What is Cheyne-Stokes
respiration? When does it occur? How does one eliminate it? If it has
been diagnosed, can the patient get better?"
The entire Soviet people, young and old, already knew what
Cheyne-Stokes (also known as "tidal") respiration was, due to the
medical releases on Comrade Stalin's condition. Dr Rapoport, not even
suspecting the patient's identity, diligently explained the causes and effects
of Cheyne-Stokes respiration to his investigator. The latter wrote down
the answers, completely unruilled, and asked at the end if Rapoport
could recommend any prominent specialists for treating this serious con–
dition. Rapoport answered that he did not know which of the high–
ranking specialists were still not jailed, putting the investigator on the
spot: under no circumstances was the inmate to know what was going
on outside.
After a pause, the investigator repeated the question.
"Vinogradov is an excellent doctor," Rapoport said, "but you are
holding him. Vovsi is splendid also, but you are holding him, too. Et–
tinger is a very good diagnostician, but, again, you have him. Both Ko–
gans are good, but one died in jail, and you have the other one. If you
need a neurologist, then Greenstein is the best clinical neurologist
around, but - you have him, too. For ear-nose-throat, I'd recommend
Preobrazhensky or Feldman - you've got them both."
Later it turned out that other arrested doctors were consulted as
well - that is, those still able to do so after torture.
Meanwhile, in Kuntzevo the situation was drawing to an end. Be–
sides Svetlana, they summoned Stalin's son Vasily as well. He brought
some flying charts with him, fearing his father would again test his profi–
ciency - he had been made a two-star Air Force general by then. As
usual , he was tipsy, and when he learned that Stalin had had to wait for
half a day for medical assistance and that no surgery had been performed,
he started yelling, "You murdered my father, you bastards!"
The Politburo members were keeping vigil at Stalin's bedside in
pairs. Khrushchev's partner was Bulganin, and Khrushchev recalls how
they discussed the cabinet shuffie there would be after Stalin's death.
When Malenkov and Beria's turn came, they must have discussed the
same subject. Just as Stalin had feared his allies' intrigue and worked to
beat them to the punch, now they were plotting against one another,
