A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel (57 page)

1.
     “It would be curious”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 77–79.

2.
     “healthy shoots”: Verner,
The Crisis,
p. 43.

3.
     seventeenth-century costume: Hughes,
The Romanovs,
p. 221.

4.
     Han-Gaffari:
Rech’,
January 3, 1912.

5.
     run away: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 318.

6.
     “Above all”: Verner,
The Crisis,
p. 15.

7.
     saw himself as the heir: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 491.

8.
     wear a full beard: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 190.

9.
     “has the kike come”: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 483.

10.
   “invisible threads”: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, pp. 481, 489.

11.
   enjoyed favor of the tsar: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, pp. 460–61.

12.
   belief in the existence: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 505.

13.
   “no purely rational”: Rogger,
Jewish Policies,
p. 51.

14.
   “missing faith”: Rogger,
Jewish Policies,
pp. 53, 51.

15.
   “jail is hell”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 81, 83.

16.
   “You liked to stab”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 80.

17.
   court acquitted him:
Rech’,
February 6, 1913; Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 203.

18.
   convicted of forgery: GAKO f. 866, op. 10, l. 36.

19.
   “1 ruble”: GAKO f. 866, op. 10, l. 31.

20.
   “Illegitimate”: GAKO f. 866, op. 10, l. 35.

21.
   “greatest quantity of blood”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 80–81.

22.
   “poison me”:
Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 5, 1913, p. 3.

23.
   “you can starve”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 98–100.

24.
   request a copy: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 128–128 ob.; Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 120–22.

25.
   brothers Gorenstein: Pidzharenko,
Ne
ritual’noe,
p. 158.

26.
   dashed for a window: GAKO-DpdB (reel 4) f. 183, op. 5, d. 5, l. 231 ob.; Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 153; Pidzharenko,
Ne ritual’noe,
p. 158; Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 208, speculates on Latyshev’s feelings of guilt.

27.
   forty-two pages:
Rech’,
September 29, 1913.

28.
   “No one can know”: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 5, 1913, p. 3.

29.
   “blind man’s buff”: Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 181.

30.
   “resolute, steadfast”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 256.

31.
   Catholic “import”: Klier,
The Blood Libel,
pp. 23, 9.

32.
   Church, as such, had never advocated: Klier,
The Blood Libel,
p. 10; Klier,
Imperial Russia’s,
p. 427. In the historian
Laura Engelstein’s assessment: “Most voices within the Russian Orthodox community endorsed the blood ritual myth and its relevance to the [Beilis]
trial, but some dissociated themselves from
anti-Semitism in general and this belief in particular.” She also notes that “the [church] hierarchy did not issue an opinion on the matter, thus implicitly supporting the accusation.” Engelstein,
The Keys to Happiness,
pp. 326 and 326n123.

33.
   Liutostansky: Klier,
Imperial Russia’s,
pp. 423–24.

34.
   sure he would be murdered: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 255.

35.
   “disagreeable” information: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 261–63.

36.
   all Jews would stand in the dock: Klier,
Imperial Russia’s,
p. 426.

37.
   minority opinion: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 112–14. Tager and Margolin indicate Kamentsev and Ryzhov resigned over the case, but this is not clear from the record.

38.
   rode alone: Massie,
Nicholas and Alexandra,
p. 239.

39.
   “absence of”: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, pp. 468, 464.

40.
   “Now you can see”: Massie,
Nicholas and Alexandra,
p. 239.

41.
   “blindly devoted”: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, pp. 468, 467–68.

42.
   resolved to reestablish: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 502.

43.
   “The belief or non-belief”: Wortman,
Scenarios,
vol. 2, p. 505.

44.
   publication in Germany: Quotations are from the Russian translation,
Mneniia inostrostrannykh.
Ziemke, p. 31; Forel, p. 76; Wagner-Jauregg and Obersteiner, p. 91. Also quoted in Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 175. The British report is translated in
Mneniia,
pp. 49–58. The original is quoted in: “A Foul Libel Repelled,”
Colonist
(New Zealand), July 15, 1913, p. 2,
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TC19130715.2.8
. Wagner-Jauregg, ironically, was an anti-Semite who later
joined the Nazi Party, though he was married to a Jewish woman and had Jewish assistants. Sengoopta Chandak, review of
Julius Wagner-Jauregg
by Magda Whitrow,
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
70, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 147–48.

45.
   real purpose was to punish: Cohen, “The Abrogation,” p. 7.

46.
   “lack real leadership”: Lifschutz, “Hedei Alilat-Hadam Al Beilis Be-Amerikah” (hereafter, “Repercussions”), p. 209.

47.
   wary of acting: “Politics,”
Encyclopaedia Judaica,
2nd ed., vol. 16 (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), p. 350.

48.
   “Jews, Jews, Jews”: Oney,
And the Dead,
p. 347.

49.
   “American Beilis”: Lifschutz, “Repercussions,” p. 207.

50.
   Anti-Semitism was only one factor: Oney,
And the Dead,
p. 347.

51.
   “filthy, perverted”: “Leo Frank,”
Encyclopaedia Judaica,
2nd ed., vol. 7, p. 193.

52.
   As committee members pondered: The American Jewish Committee, Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee held on November 8, 1913, pp. 12–15. American Jewish Committee Archives. Available at:
http://www.ajcarchives.org/ajcarchive/DigitalArchive.asp
; Lifschutz, “Repercussions,” p. 212.

53.
   Kramer’s Comedy Theater: Lifschutz, “Repercussions,” p. 210.

54.
   “Mendel Beilis epidemic”: Berkowitz, “Mendel Beilis Epidemic,” p. 201.

55.
   performing a duet:
Moment
(Yiddish), “How Beilis Is Being Performed in America,”
Moment,
December 29, 1913, p. 3.

56.
   romantic subplot: Berkowitz, “Mendel Beilis Epidemic,” p. 210. Berkowitz notes Beilis’s daughter’s age as eight, but she was five.

57.
   “voice of the people”:
Moment,
“How Beilis Is Being Performed.”

58.
   “few dollars”: Berkowitz, “Mendel Beilis Epidemic,” p. 201.

59.
   “It is this not knowing why”: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 2, 1913, p. 4.

60.
   “failure to observe formalities”:
Rech’,
October 11, 1913.

61.
   Brazul was charged with lèse-majesté: Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 207;
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
pp. 298–99.

62.
   fortress: Pares,
Russia and Reform,
pp. 363–64.

63.
   Karaev wrote a letter: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 238–39.

64.
   dandyish getups: Samuel,
Blood Accusation,
p. 147.

65.
   “accompanying a groom”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 123–24.

66.
   “go in good health”: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 7, 1913, p. 3.

67.
   looked out the window: “Beilis’s Own Story,”
Literary Digest,
December 6, 1913, pp. 1134–37, 1143–44; Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 125.

68.
   “I will pay you”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 126.

69.
   Karabchevsky: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 127–30.

70.
   led him into the courtroom: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 12, 1913, p. 3.

1.
     “A place can scarcely”:
Vladimir Nabokov, “Na protsesse,”
Rech’,
September 25, 1913.

2.
     news organizations:
Rech’,
August 29, 1913;
Rech’,
August 26, 1913.

3.
     simple peasants: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,”
Haynt,
December 12, 1913, p. 3; Korolenko, “Na Luk’ianovke,” subheading III,
http://ldn-knigi.lib.ru/JUDAICA/Korol_Stat.htm
.

4.
     “strangers to the high aims”: Aleksandr Tager speculated that Chaplinsky’s right-hand man, A. A. Karbovsky, rigged the jury. Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 231.

5.
     three times as great: Korolenko, “2. Gospoda prisiazhnye zasedateli.”

6.
     “state of mind”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 231–34.

7.
     “my bellicose”: Gruzenberg,
Yesterday,
p. 38; Samuel,
Blood Accusation,
p. 177.

8.
     “legal ladies”: Utevskii,
Vospominaniia,
p. 24.

9.
     man obsessed: Utevskii,
Vospominaniia,
149; Karabchevskii, “Rech’ v zashchitu Ol’gi Palem,”
Sudebnye rechi
,
http://az.lib.ru/k/karabchewskij_n_p/text_0050.shtml266
. Trial of Egor Sazonov: Karabchevskii, “Rech’ v zashchitu Sazonova,”
Sudebnye rechi,
http://az.lib.ru/k/karabchewskij_n_p/text_0050.shtml
(Search term: “gremuchei rtut’iu”); Utevskii,
Vospominaniia,
p. 152; Kucherov,
Courts,
pp. 229–30.

10.
   Zarudny: Troitskii,
Sud’by rossiiskikh advokatov,
pp. 82–92,
http://www.sgu.ru/files/nodes/9851/rus_ad.pdf
; Karabchevskii,
Chto moi glaza videli
(Chapter Six),
http://az.lib.ru/k/karabchewskij_n_p/text_0030.shtml
.

11.
   Maklakov: Dedkov,
Konservativnyi liberalism,
pp. 221–31; Zviagintsev,
Rokovaia femida,
pp. 227–34.

12.
   Grigorovich-Barsky:
Rech’,
September 25, 1913.

13.
   “In the world”: Ruud and Stepanov,
Fontanka 16
(Russian edition), p. 323.

14.
   “fair and honest”: Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 217.

15.
   “not by nature”: Gruzenberg,
Yesterday,
p. 113. For Margolin’s similar assessment of Zamyslovsky, see Margolin,
The Jews of Eastern Europe,
p. 218.

16.
   “Fedya”: Utevskii,
Vospominaniia,
pp. 26–31.

17.
   “course of hydrotherapy”: Tager, “Protsess Beilisa,” p. 92.

18.
   He stayed motionless:
Jewish Chronicle,
October 10, 1913; S. Ansky, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 26, 1913.

19.
   “Yes, a Jew!”: STEN I, p. 3; Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 136.

20.
   “dark-complexioned”: Nabokov, “Na protsesse,”
Rech’,
October 12, 1913.

21.
   “beautiful, restlessly”:
Rech’,
September 26, 1913.

22.
   “near to fainting”: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 136.

23.
   “old friends”:
Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 137.

24.
   sat nervously:
Rech’,
September 27, 1913.

25.
   strong, clear voice:
Kievskaia Mysl’,
September 27, 1913.

26.
   “Do you admit”: STEN I, p. 37.

27.
   deeply resonant sobs: Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich,
Kievskaia Mysl’,
September 27, 1913; S. Ansky, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 26, 1913.

28.
   “Did you love him”: STEN I, p. 41.

29.
   “maybe the Jews”: STEN I, p. 84.

30.
   “We must inform”: Bonch-Bruevich,
Kievskaia Mysl’,
September 29, 1913.

31.
   hours on end: Stepan Kondurushkin, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 29, 1913.

32.
   “strange impression”: Tager, “Protsess,” p. 96.

33.
   police were on
trial:
Rech’,
September 28, 1913; noted in secret police reports—Tager, “Protsess,” p. 97.

34.
   “disappeared”: STEN I, p. 82;
Rech’,
September 28, 1913.

35.
   Tartakovsky: STEN I, p. 291.

36.
   jumpy, unnerved: Tager, “Protsess,” p. 96.

37.
   “scribbled over”: STEN I, p. 164.

38.
   The price quickly:
Rech’,
September 28, 1913; Tager, “Protsess,” p. 97. The
Kievan
had no set newsstand price but would ordinarily have cost a few kopeks.

39.
   “The Beilis indictment”: Shulgin,
The Years,
pp. 114–15. The closest parallel to Shulgin as a defector from the Left was the philosopher
Vasily Rozanov, a decadent sensualist known as “
Russia’s Nietzsche,” who was (and still is) regarded as a brilliant literary stylist. In a series of articles published in the leading right-wing newspaper,
New Times
(
Novoe Vremia
), he scandalized Russia’s cultural and intellectual world by proclaiming Beilis’s guilt. In one passage, Rozanov argued that Andrei’s wounds formed a mystical, coded message that said the boy was a sacrificial victim to God. One critic professed mock admiration that Rozanov could tease out a whole sentence from the wounds, while poor Father Pranaitis could only manage a single Hebrew word, “
echad
.” In reaction to his support of the prosecution, Rozanov was himself put on trial by his intellectual peers and nearly expelled from the avant-garde Religious-Philosophical Society. In the end, the members voted only to severely rebuke, not expel him, but he left the group. He collected his articles in a book,
The Olfactory and Tactile Relation of Jews to Blood
(
Oboniatel’noe i osiazatel’noe otnoshenie evreev k krovi
). See Harriet Murav, “The Beilis Ritual Murder Trial,” pp. 247–58; Engelstein,
The Keys to Happiness,
pp. 324–27; Matich,
Erotic Utopia
, pp. 243-45 and p. 299n73.

40.
   harass the press: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 208.

41.
   fining Nabokov: Vladimir Nabokov,
Speak Memory,
p. 176.

42.
   striking workers:
Rech’,
September 26, 1913.

43.
   although they considered:
Rech’,
September 28, 1913.

44.
   “So you are”: STEN I, p. 144.

45.
   Daria Chekhovskaya: STEN I, p. 157.

46.
   “ ‘day of the black beards’ ”: Kondurushkin, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 30, 1913.

47.
   “Did the detectives”: STEN I, pp. 175–76, 181, 183.

48.
   “full deck”:
Kievlianin,
September 30, 1913.

49.
   “Yes”: STEN I, pp. 191, 195.

50.
   fined him ten rubles:
Rech’,
July 11, 1912.

51.
   confiscated:
Rech’,
June 25, 1912.

52.
   night of September 5:
Rech’
September 9, 1912.

53.
   “No, I can talk”: STEN I, p. 200.

54.
   A refreshed Golubev: STEN I, pp. 201, 206.

55.
   erupted in laughter: STEN I, p. 204;
Rech’,
October 1, 1913.

56.
   piled into twenty-five carriages: Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
pp. 68–76; STEN I, pp. 215–19; Kondurushkin, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 30, 1913.

57.
   “dancing couple”: STEN II, p. 27.

58.
   “Of course, we knew him!”: Korolenko, “Na Luk’ianovke,” subheading VI,
http://ldn-knigi.lib.ru/JUDAICA/Korol_Stat.htm
.

59.
   Vipper the prosecutor fretted: Kondurushkin, “Vpechatleniia,”
Rech’,
September 30, 1913.

60.
   shambled: Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
p. 61.

61.
   air of hopeful confidence: Samuel,
Blood Accusation,
p. 70.

62.
   “What do you know”: STEN I, p. 222;
Rech’,
October 2, 1913.

63.
   crossing herself:
Jewish Chronicle,
October 24, 1913, p. 20.

64.
   “nauseous case”:
Times
of London, October 15, 1913.

65.
   Simon of Trent: Po-Chia Hsia’s gripping
Trent 1475
is the definitive account.

66.
   Tiszaeszlar: Yehouda Marton, “Tiszaeszlar,”
Encyclopaedia Judaica,
2nd ed., vol. 19, p. 735;
Gale Virtual Reference Library
. The dead girl, whose name was Eszter Solymosi, was later established to have committed suicide by throwing herself into a river. The Tiszaeszlar case was of considerable political significance.
Anti-Semitic parliament deputies vocally supported the case, which was accompanied in 1883 by violent attacks on Jews in Budapest and elsewhere. In some areas, the authorities declared a state of emergency to protect Jewish lives and property. In the trial’s aftermath, an anti-Semitic party was founded that won seventeen seats in the Hungarian parliament.

67.
   Talberg:
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
p. 81.

68.
   He complained:
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
p. 147.

69.
   Koshko: Koshko, “O dele Beilisa,” pp. 165–66, 173–77. Koshko later became the head of criminal investigations for the entire empire, so
his opposition to the Beilis case did not obstruct his advancement. The value of Koshko’s memoir, written years after the
trial, is mainly in the account of the conversation with Shcheglovitov. Regarding details of the case, it contains significant factual errors and needs to be used with caution.

70.
   “Let him [Beilis] be acquitted”: Stepanov,
Chernaia
(1995), p. 392.

71.
   “severely unnerves”: Tager, “Protsess,” p. 98.

72.
   “the judge skillfully”: Tager, “Protsess,” p. 101.

73.
   Boldyrev was aware:
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
pp. 171, 186.

74.
   “sheds rivers”: Berkowitz, “Epidemic,” pp. 204–205; see also, “Ritual Murder Play: Actor Acting in His Stage Version of Beiliss Case to Crowds,”
New York Times,
November 21, 1913.

75.
   “three-dimensional newsreels”: Stefan Kanfer, Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America” (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), p. 114.

76.
   “deep Jewishness”: Berkowitz, “Mendel Beilis Epidemic,” p. 205.

77.
   assimilationists to be “furious”:
Jewish Chronicle,
October 17, 1913, pp. 23–24.

78.
   “discreet diplomacy”: Szajkowski, “The Impact of the Beilis Case,” p. 205.

79.
   state legislatures: 1914
American Jewish Yearbook,
p. 135; Lifschutz, “Repercussions,” note 39.

80.
   “elegant women”: Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
pp. 95–96.

81.
   gold buttons:
Kievlianin,
October 3, 1913.

82.
   ravenous:
Kievlianin,
October 3, 1913.

83.
   “illiterate Jews”: STEN I, p. 276.

84.
   “gesticulation”:
Jewish Chronicle,
October 24, 1913, p. 20.

85.
   elegantly dressed:
Rech’,
October 3, 1913; Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
p. 90.

86.
   Polishchuk, startlingly: STEN I, pp. 282–84.

87.
   chestnut hair: Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
pp. 93–94;
Rech’,
October 3, 1913.

88.
   the girl told the court: STEN I, pp. 295–97.

89.
   eye-to-eye: STEN I, p. 298.

90.
   feather pom-pom: Bonch-Bruevich,
Znamenie,
p. 96.

91.
   Beilis could stare: Viktor Sosedov, “Otryvki,”
Kievlianin,
October 4, 1913.

92.
   skeptical reporter:
Kievlianin,
October 3, 1913.

93.
   “Would you be so kind as to read aloud”: STEN I, p. 303.

94.
   “metallic”:
Kievlianin,
October 3, 1913. Vialtseva’s voice can be heard on YouTube by searching her name in Russian letters (Vial’tseva).

95.
   “running away”:
Rech’,
October 3, 1913.

96.
   eyewitnesses and liars:
Kievlianin,
October 3, 1913.

97.
   sent Zhenya: STEN I, p. 309.

98.
   “Were you questioned”:
STEN I, p. 310, pp. 310–13.

99.
   “boy suddenly shrank”:
Kievlianin,
October 5, 1913.

100.
 “slightly increased”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 125; Tager, “Protsess,” p. 98.

101.
 “lying bitch”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 199.