Miron Semyonovich Vovsi (; May 13, 1897 in

Krāslava Krāslava (; , , , , ) is a town and the administrative centre of Krāslava Municipality. The town lies on the Daugava, upstream and to the east of the city of Daugavpils. Most of the town is situated on the right coast of the Daugava. As defined ...

Vitebsk Governorate Vitebsk Governorate (, ) was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting Belarusian Governorate and existed until 1924. Today most ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, now

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

– June 6, 1960 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) was a Jewish

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and a victim of the

doctors' plot The "doctors' plot" () was a Soviet state-sponsored anti-intellectual and anti-cosmopolitan campaign based on a conspiracy theory that alleged an anti-Soviet cabal of prominent medical specialists, including some of Jewish ethnicity, intend ...

leading to his arrest and imprisonment. After first studies in Dorpat (now

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

), Vovsi graduated in 1919 from the Medical department of the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

. He worked for a while as a doctor in

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, then started in 1922 a scientific career as an assistant and scientific fellow at Moscow State University and in the Medical-Biological Institute. From 1935, he simultaneously headed the chair of internal diseases at the Central Institute of Doctors' Post-Diploma Education and the therapeutic department at Moscow Botkin hospital. From 1941 to 1950 he occupied the position of Major Therapist of the Red Army ranked as a major-general of Medical Service. Along with scientific activity (he was elected a member of USSR Academy of Medical Sciences) Vovsi had a lot of practice as a therapist and became famous in this quality. As a physician, he consulted and treated many members of the Soviet government and leading generals of the Red Army in the Kremlin Hospital, now Central Clinical Hospital. This is why at the end of January 1953, Miron Vovsi was arrested within the frame of the so-named

and was "designated" by the investigators to be one of the main figures of the plot, along with Stalin's personal physician Vinogradov. Vovsi's wife Vera was also arrested, while his daughter, an engineer, and his son in law, a navy officer, were just fired from their positions. Vovsi was the cousin of

Solomon Mikhoels Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels ( lso spelled שלוימע מיכאעלס during the Soviet era , – 13 January 1948) was a Soviet actor and the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater. Mikhoels served as the chairman of the Jewish ...

, famous Jewish actor and director of

Moscow State Jewish Theatre The Moscow State Jewish (Yiddish) Theatre (Russian: Московский Государственный Еврейский Театр; Yiddish: Moskver melukhnisher yidisher teater), also known by its acronym GOSET (ГОСЕТ), was a Yiddish theat ...

(GOSET), who was secretly assassinated in 1948 at the orders of Stalin and

Georgy Malenkov Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov (8 January 1902 O.S. 26 December 1901">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 26 December 1901ref name=":6"> – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who br ...

. Vovsi was released by

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...

shortly after Stalin's death in 1953.Jonathan Brent, Vladimir Naumov. ''Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953''.

Harper Perennial Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins Publishers. Overview Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney. The imprint is descended from the Perennial Library imprint foun ...

, 2004. pp. 211–233.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vovsi, Miron 1897 births 1960 deaths People from Krāslava People from Vitebsk Governorate Academicians of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Latvian Jews Soviet major generals Soviet military doctors Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet rehabilitations Burials at Donskoye Cemetery