The most brutal of all the murders carried out under Yagoda's supervision were those of Maxim Gorky and his son, Peshkov. Gorky was sixty-eight years old at the time of his murder. He was known and revered throughout the world not only as Russia's greatest living writer but also as one of the world's outstanding humanists. He suffered from tuberculosis and a bad heart condition. His son Peshkov had inherited an extreme susceptibility to respiratory infections. Both Gorky and his son were patients of Dr. Levin.
The murders of Gorky and his son, Peshkov, were carried out by Yagoda... In 1934 Yagoda communicated this decision to Dr. Levin and ordered him to carry it out.
"Gorky is a man who is very close to the highest leadership," Yagoda told Dr. Levin, "a man very much devoted to the policy which is being carried out in the country, very devoted personally to Stalin, a man who will never tread our road. Then again, you know what authority Gorky's words have both in our country and far beyond its borders. You are aware of the influence he enjoys and how much harm he can cause our movement by his words. You must agree to undertake this and you will reap the fruits of it when the new government comes to power." ....
During 1935, Gorky's frequent trips away from Moscow, which took him out of Dr. Levin's hands, temporarily saved his life. Then, early in 1936, came the opportunity for which Dr. Levin was waiting. Gorky contracted a serious case of grippe in Moscow. Dr. Levin deliberately aggravated Gorky's condition, and, as in Peshkov's case, croupous pneumonia set in. Once again, Dr. Levin murdered his patient: -
As regards Alexei Maximovich Gorky, the line was as follows: to use such medicines, which were in general indicated, against which no doubt or suspicion could arise and which could be used to stimulate the activity of the heart. Among such medicines were camphor, caffeine, cardiosol, digalen. We have the right to apply these medicines for a group of cardiac diseases. But in his case they were administered in tremendous doses. Thus, for example, he received as many as forty injections of camphor... in twenty-four hours. This dose was too heavy for him.... Plus two injections of digalen.... Plus four injections of caffeine.... Plus two injections of strychnine.
On June 18, 1936, the great Soviet writer died.
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