 Stalin nicknamed him the "pygmy".After Etinger had been put through 37 separate interrogations between November 1950 and January 1951, Ryumin was ordered by the Minister of State Security Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov to ease up because medical staff had warned that stress might kill the elderly prisoner, despite which Ryumin carried out another 39 interrogations, accompanied by sleep deprivation and other abuses until Etinger's death on 2 March 1951.Ryumin was reprimanded, and fearing worse was to come, wrote to Stalin on 2 July 1951 accusing Abakumov of covering up a plot by Jewish terrorists.