Rozenblium, Anna Anatolievna

(c. 1900–?)

   An NKVD doctor at Lefortovo prison, Rozenblium nursed tortured prisoners back to health and shielded many from torture sessions. She documented for the NKVD that 49 prisoners had been tortured to death in the prison in the short time she labored there. In January 1939 she was arrested on Lavrenty Beria’s orders, tortured, and sentenced to a forced labor camp for 15 years. Rozenblium somehow survived the gulag and returned to testify against her tormentors in trials of members of Beria’s circle. Referred to as “the good fairy of Lefortovo,” she exemplified the courage of the old Russian intelligentsia, which Beria sought to destroy first in Georgia and then in Moscow. Her fortitude was unusual, and there is little evidence that other officials in the Stalinist system ever demonstrated the moral courage of Anna Rozenblium.