A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel

by Levin, Edmund

  39. “small, thin restless”: Margolin, The Jews of Eastern Europe, p. 169.

  40. Kharkov: STEN I, pp. 479–80.

  41. Margolin’s father: GAKO f. 864, o. 10, d. 5—Protokoly, p. 92.

  42. Grand Hotel: GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 181.

  43. The meeting: Margolin tells the story in his statement to investigators, GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 28 ob.–31, and in Margolin, The Jews of Eastern Europe, pp. 174–77.

  44. “noble avenger”: GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 31.

  45. “being hunted”: STEN I, p. 527.

  46. “untarnished case”: Gruzenberg, Yesterday, p. 111.

  47. “Thank God”: STEN II, p. 119.

  48. poorly paid: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 9. l. 118 ob.

  49. “state of affairs”: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 5—Protokoly, p. 100.

  50. “Zhenya came running”: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 5—Protokoly, pp. 100–101.

  51. “most profuse bleeding”: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 5—Protokoly, pp. 110, 113.

  52. suddenly and summarily dismissed: STEN I, p. 547.

  7. “Who Is a Hero?”

  1. holes in the soles: Beilis, My Sufferings, p. 62.

  2. “completely unreligious”: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 5—Protokoly, pp. 130–31.

  3. “frozen feet”: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,” Haynt, December 2, 1913, p. 4.

  4. the infirmary: Beilis, My Sufferings, pp. 64–65.

  5. important person: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,” Haynt, December 2, 1913, p. 4.

  6. Margolin, received word: Margolin, The Jews of Eastern Europe, p. 243.

  7. Margolin encouraged Brazul: Margolin, The Jews of Eastern Europe, pp. 178–79.

  8. “gang of thieves”: Stepanov, Chernaia (1992), p. 288; Tager, Tsarskaia, pp. 150–51.

  9. escorting him: GAKO f. 864, op. 10, d. 11, l. 3b., l. 103–104b.

  10. indictment: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 168. The entire text of the first indictment can be found in l. 165–69.

  11. visitors’ chamber: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,” Haynt, December 2, 1913, p. 4; “Beilis’s Own Story,” Literary Digest, December 6, 1913, pp. 1136–37.

  12. typhoid fever: Beilis, My Sufferings, p. 79.

  13. “slow blood loss”: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 166–67.

  14. “read between the lines”: Margolin, The Jews of Eastern Europe, p. 182.

  15. requiem: Rech’, March 12, 1912.

  16. stalked into the ball: Rech’, March 14, 1912; Rech’, March 15, 1912.

  17. “firm basis”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 151; Tager, “Tsarskoe pravitel’stvo,” p. 165.

  18. “Personal. Top Secret”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 117; Tager, “Tsarskoe pravitel’stvo,” p. 167.

  19. “inadequacy of the evidence”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 160; Tager, “Tsarskoe pravitel’stvo,” p. 167.

  20. Opanasenko: Tager, Tsarskaia, pp. 171–72; GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 386.

  21. “felt like a bullet”: Beilis, “Mayn Lebn in Turme,” Haynt, December 4, 1913, p. 3.

  22. first mention: Jewish Chronicle, May 5, 1911; New York Times, May 15, 1911.

  23. most hospitable soil: Szajkowski, “The Impact of the Beilis Case,” pp. 198, 203.

  24. “No one has ever accused”: Samuel, Blood Accusation, p. 238.

  25. “vendetta of the Jews”: Samuel, Blood Accusation, p. 239.

  26. “ministers of foreign affairs”: Szajkowski, “Paul Nathan,” p. 179.

  27. solicited no Jews: Szajkowski, “The Impact of the Beilis Case,” pp. 199–200.

  28. open letters: Szajkowski, “The Impact of the Beilis Case,” p. 209; Samuel, Blood Accusation, p. 232; Rech’, March 12, 1912.

  29. fine-tuned: Rech’, March 17, 1912.

  30. Times letter: Times of London, May 4, 1912.

  31. Baron Heyking: Times of London, May 10, 1912.

  32. “end in the exoneration”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 161; Tager, “Tsarskoe pravitel’stvo,” p. 170.

  33. Shcheglovitov immediately: Tager, Tsarskaia, pp. 162–63.

  34. character straight out of Dostoyevsky: Samuel, Blood Accusation, p. 148.

  35. “spark of truth”: STEN I, p. 677.

  36. “seamy side”: Geifman, Thou Shalt, p. 154.

  37. pistol-packing: Montefiore, Young Stalin, p. 10.

  38. bandit gangs: Geifman, Thou Shalt, pp. 126, 135, 25.

  39. Karaev: STEN II, p. 666.

  40. lenient sentences: Geifman, Thou Shalt, pp. 223–26.

  41. Karaev agreed: STEN I, p. 681.

  42. Makhalin dropped by: STEN I, p. 669.

  43. Ferdydudel: GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 345.

  44. restaurant Versailles: GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 347.

  45. thrown up: STEN I, p. 214.

  46. “ministerial brain”: STEN II, p. 7.

  47. outdoor latrine: STEN II, p. 7.

  48. “Brazul’s Declaration”: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 410–12, 409–409 ob.

  49. “outcry in the Yid press”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 187.

  50. “unfavorably disposed”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 186.

  51. “completely sufficient material”: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 159.

  52. “chase my well-wishers”: Tager, “Tsarskoe Pravitel’stvo,” p. 173.

  53. under the code name: Padenie, vol. 3, p. 370.

  54. one hundred rubles: Stepanov, Chernaia (1992), p. 300.

  55. “agent provocateur”: Stepanov, Chernaia (2005), p. 381.

  56. She told Karbovsky: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 402.

  57. Tager, who reviewed: Tager, Tsarskaia, p. 190.

  58. “a Jew, very plump”: GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 264.

  59. Margolin: His version of Kharkov meeting is in GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, l. 26–33 ob. and in STEN I, pp. 522–29.

  60. filed libel suits: Rech’, July 8, 1912.

  61. neutralizing Nikolai Krasovsky: Kovbasa, 16 kopeks—Rech’, August 8, 1912; Lottery ticket—Rech’, May 24, 1912, and June 4, 1913. More on charges in Rech’: September 1, 1912; September 2, 1912; October 10, 1912; November 14, 1912; December 21, 1912.

  62. Sherlock Holmes: Melamed, “Krasovskii,” p. 167; Samuel, Blood Accusation, p. 46.

  63. Makhalin had the good sense: Tager, Tsarskaia, pp. 248, 238.

  64. “Yushchinsky’s murderer!”: Rech’, July 13, 1912.

  65. “caught Zhenya and Andrusha”: Ludmila Cheberyak’s deposition of August 13, 1912, in GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, l. 13–16 ob.

  8. “The Worst and Most Fearful Thing”

  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: GAK
O 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.

  9. “Yes, a Jew!”

  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.