The case of Abakumov. Three versions of the investigation

The Stalin era was a harsh test for most citizens of the Soviet Union. Some of them reached unprecedented heights and power, but not everyone was able to survive this time, avoiding repression.

July 19, 1941. 33-year-old Viktor Abakumov was appointed head of the Special Department of the NKVD. Two years later, the management was transformed into the Main Directorate of the Smersh counterintelligence of the People’s Commissariat of Defense, which was still headed by Abakumov. Together with Smeresh, Abakumov went to victory, and after the war he fought with imaginary and real anti -Soviet organizations. It was Abakumov who oversaw the "Leningrad business", the "case of doctors" and the case of the Jewish Anti -Fascist Committee.
In the summer of 1951, against the former head of the legendary SMERSH, and then the Minister of State Security of the Soviet Union Viktor Semenovich Abakumov was fabricated by the state treason and the Zionist conspiracy within the MGB.
Why did the omnipotent owner of Smersh become objectionable to Stalin and Beria in a matter of years after the war? How did the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and law enforcement agencies participated in Abakumov? Did Abakumov have a chance to stay alive? What matters did he initiate and conducted personally? Using archival documents, the author answers these and other questions