Dmitry Dmitriyevich Pletnyov (Russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Плетнёв; 1871 or 1872, Moskovsky Bobrik village, Kharkov guberniya — 11 September 1941, Medvedev forest near Oryol) was a Russian doctor, medical scientist and publicist. He defended his dissertation on cardiac arrythmias in 1906. He was a member of the liberal

Kadet ) , newspaper = ''Rech'' , ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchismLiberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism , position = Centre to centre-left , international = , colours ...

party. He worked in the Moscow University and since 1929 led the therapeutic clinic of the Moscow oblast clinical institute. 1933–1937 he led the research institute of functional diagnostics and experimental therapy. His patients included

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

, Nadezhda Krupskaya,

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physio ...

and other party and state leaders/figures of the USSR. Pletnyov is one of the founders of Russian

cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular h ...

. He often visited Western Europe and worked in the best clinics of Germany, Switzerland and France; he was fluent in many languages. In June 1937

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...

published a slanderous article on Pletnyov "Professor-rapist, sadist" after which he was imprisoned in Lubyanka and sentenced to two years in prison on probation by a case fabricated by

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. In December 1937, Dmitri Pletnyov was again arrested and in 1938 was a defendant on the process of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites", a show trial arranged by the

. He had been severely tortured – which led to paralysis of half of his body – and deprived of sleep.Дмитриев Ю."Дмитрий Плетнёв: "Я готов кричать на весь мир о своей невиновности..." Трагическая страница из жизни видного деятеля отечественной медицины" – Trud, June 1988, vol. 5. So he had to "admit" absurd charges such as having caused the death of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

by deliberately choosing "wrong methods of treatment" etc. Even in prison, he remained a scientist: In his cell he requested many books and monographs in order to continue research. Many of those were in foreign languages. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail and finally extrajudicially executed in 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pletnyov, Dmitry 1870s births 1941 deaths People from Sumy Oblast People from Kharkov Governorate Russian Constitutional Democratic Party members Russian cardiologists Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites" Great Purge victims from Russia