A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel (54 page)

1.
     buried treasure: Stepanov,
Chernaia Sotnia
(1992), p. 266.

2.
     caves had been uncovered:
Evropeiskaia Rossiia: Illiustrirovannyi geograficheskii, sbornik
(Moscow: I.I. Kushnerov i ko., 1909), p. 419; Vladimir Antonovich, “Kiev v dokhristianskoe vremia,” in
Moia spovid’: Vibrani istorichni ta publistichni tvori
(Kiev: Lybid’, 1995), p. 578,
http://litopys.org.ua/anton/ant22.htm
.

3.
     pulverize the stone to powder: Antonovich, “Kiev,” p. 578.

4.
     two thousand human skeletons: “Kiev,”
Encylopaedia Britannica
, vol. 15, p. 788.

5.
     “Lukianovka children’s games”: STEN I, p. 605, reproducing:
Kievskaia Mysl’,
“Zagadochnaia Ubiistvo na Luk’ianovke” (“A Mysterious Murder in Lukianovka”), March 22, 1911.

6.
     crest of the slope:
description draws on Vladimir Korolenko, “1. Na Luk’ianovke (vo vremia dela Beilisa),” subheading VI, published in October 1913. Korolenko’s articles about the case were published in a number of Russian newspapers, including
Rech’
and
Russkie Viedmosti
.
http://ldn-knigi.lib.ru/JUDAICA/Korol_Stat.htm
.

7.
     The entrance to the cave: Description of the discovery of the body draws on the indictment, depositions, and witness testimony in STEN I. Indictment, pp. 17–21; Elandsky, pp. 115–17; Sinitsky, pp. 118–21.

8.
     “It’s Goblin”: STEN I, p. 304.

9.
     avoided saying his last name: Statement of Georgy Konovalov, GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 387.

10.
   insisting: Statement of Konovalov, GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 387; statement of Vladimir Kostiuchenko, GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 184, op. 5, d. 4, l. 399; also statement of Polishchuk, GAKO-DpdB (reel 2) f. 2, op. 229, d. 264, l. 63.

11.
   “Why should I be afraid”: STEN I, p. 362.

12.
   borscht: STEN I, p. 86.

13.
   “very receptive”: STEN I, p. 54.

14.
   Pavel Pushka, saw Andrei: STEN I, p. 69.

15.
   bought for thirty kopeks: STEN I, p. 46.

16.
   lamplighter named Kazimir Shakhovsky: based on Shakhovsky’s testimony and depositions in STEN I, pp. 172–79.

17.
   The neighbor delivered: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
pp. 26–27.

18.
   done the priest: Beilis,
My Sufferings,
p. 25.

19.
   “beaten our millionaires”: Meir,
Kiev,
p. 126.

20.
   Jonah Zaitsev, a sugar magnate: Meir,
Kiev,
p. 226.

21.
   “The Yids have tortured”: The translation is based on Samuel,
Blood Accusation,
p. 17, and Weinberg,
Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia,
chapter 1, document 8.

22.
   Nikolai Pavlovich: Stepanov,
Chernaia Sotnia
(2005), p. 361.

23.
   “consumed by a sense of doom”: Lincoln,
In War’s Dark Shadow,
p. x.

24.
   “smell of burning”: Lincoln,
In War’s Dark Shadow,
p. 386.

25.
   living “on a volcano”: Pipes,
Russian Revolution,
p. 194; Rogger, “Russia in 1914,” p. 95.

26.
   “a mad chauffeur”: David Christian,
Imperial Power and Soviet Russia
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), p. 170; Figes,
A People’s Tragedy,
p. 276.

27.
   strong fatalism: Steinberg, “Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intellectual Portrait,” pp. 13–14.

28.
   “salient characteristic”: Massie,
Nicholas and Alexandra,
p. 114; Fuhrmann,
Rasputin,
p. 16.

29.
   official badges: Lincoln,
In War’s Dark Shadow,
p. 331.

30.
   modern political terrorism: Geifman,
Thou Shalt Kill,
p. 21.

31.
   “sign of good manners”: Geifman,
Thou Shalt Kill,
p. 42.

32.
   Contrary to suspicions:
This is the consensus of the last generation of scholarship despite reasonable suspicions to the contrary. See Klier and Lambroza,
Pogroms
.

33.
   “how the pogroms happened”: “Conclusion and Overview,” in Klier and Lambroza,
Pogroms,
p. 344.

34.
   “Mad Monk”
Iliodor: For a fascinating account of his rise and fall and Tsar Nicholas’s attitude toward him, see
Dixon, “The ‘Mad Monk’ Iliodor.”

35.
   “Jews as a race of superhuman”: Langer, “Corruption and Counterrevolution,” p. 137.

36.
   “delicate, beautiful”: Dixon, “Mad Monk,” p. 377.

37.
   “filthy” songs: Dixon, “Mad Monk,” p. 396.

38.
   losing all sense of reality: Contemporary observers viewed Iliodor as a warning sign of the regime’s decay. The monk, in the opinion of Count A. A. Uvarov, revealed “the astonishing lack of resistance to evil exhibited by the clergy, and especially the civil power.” As Dixon argues, it says much about the regime that such a figure was allowed to become “a disruptive political instrument.” Dixon, “Mad Monk,” p. 413.

39.
   self-destruct: Just a few years later Iliodor scandalized the right by recanting his reactionary, anti-Semitic views and writing a sensational, confessional autobiography. He moved to America, starred as himself in a silent film,
The Fall of the Romanoffs,
got into a lawsuit over the rights to his story, then moved back to Russia, then returned to America in 1923, and became a Baptist preacher. He died in New York in 1952. See Dixon, “Mad Monk,” pp. 409–13.

40.
   “walked the halls alone”: STEN I, p. 58.

41.
   “There were times when Andrusha’s mother”: STEN I, p. 301.

42.
   “I know that Alexandra”: STEN I, p. 400.

43.
   “Since I had no children”: STEN I, p. 87.

44.
   “I would scream”: STEN I, p. 88.

45.
   “They broke everything”: STEN I, p. 84.

46.
   “because of a nosebleed”: Stepanov,
Chernaia Sotnia
(1992), p. 269.

47.
   “didn’t know whether to live or die”: STEN I, p. 111.

48.
   had long known: Beilis’s wife,
Esther, recalled having an altercation in a store with Cheberyak who she said called her a “
zhidovka,
” the feminine of “Yid.” Esther had heard from her neighbors that “in the house she’s the man and her husband is the woman.”
Rech’,
September 25, 1913.

1.
     “cold and cloudy weather”:
Kievlianin,
April 10, 1911.

2.
     “Why should we worry about cholera”: Hamm,
Kiev,
p. 48.

3.
     “blood of the unfortunate Yushchinskys”:
Moskovskie Vedomosti,
April 23, 1911.

4.
     Fenenko had been assigned:
GAKO DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 4.

5.
     indication that Fenenko was chosen:
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
p. 92;
Rech’,
September 22, 1913.

6.
     Fenenko regarded his integrity: Shulgin,
The Years,
116; Margolin,
Jews of Eastern Europe,
pp. 161, 164.

7.
     autopsy report: V. M. Bekhterev, “The Iushchinskii Murder,” pp. 24–33.

8.
     the first wounds: V. M. Bekhterev, “The Iushchinskii Murder,” pp. 10–14.

9.
     minister of justice was being copied: Pidzharenko,
Ne
ritual’noe,
p. 13.

10.
   public requiem for Andrei: Pidzharenko,
Ne ritual’noe,
pp. 22, 31.

11.
   The authorities did not want a pogrom: Klier and Lambroza,
Pogroms,
pp. 231, 348; E. Semenoff,
The Russian Government and the Massacres,
pp. 193–94.

12.
   owe his position to the empress Alexandra: Gerasimov,
Na lezvii,
p. 171; Fuller,
The Foe Within,
p. 89; Stepanov,
Zagadki,
p. 162.

13.
   “pogrom must be avoided”: Ruud and Stepanov,
Fontanka 16,
p. 249 (Russian edition, p. 304).

14.
   “inflames people’s passions”:
Novyi Voskhod
(1911) no. 17; Lowe,
The Tsars and the Jews,
p. 287.

15.
   “Black Hundred idealist”: Stepanov,
Chernaia
(2005), 367.

16.
   
William of Norwich: This section draws heavily on Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
pp. 209–36. There are two accounts in antiquity of ritual murder by Jews, but Langmuir argues that they played no role in the creation of the medieval myth. The first dates to the second century B.C. during the reign of the Seleucid king
Antiochus IV Epiphanes who, on sacking the Temple in Jerusalem, supposedly learned that Jews had the custom of fattening up and eating a Greek (obviously not Christian) captive. The story was repeated and embellished by the first-century Greek sophist
Apion and refuted by the Roman Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his
Against Apion
. The second account, and first known accusation of the ritual murder of a Christian, dates to around A.D. 415 in Inmestar in
Syria. During
Purim celebrations there, Jews were said to have so abused a Christian boy, tied to a cross to represent the biblical villain Haman, that he died. Neither tale gained wide currency. See Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
pp. 212–16.

17.
   “did not alter the course”: Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
pp. 234–35.

18.
   “a certain poor maid-servant”: Quotes about William of Norwich are from Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
p. 222, and Thomas of Monmouth,
Life and Miracles,
pp. 28, 93–94.

19.
   
Chaucer’s story: In the words of
Alan Dundes, there is “little doubt that the most famous literary articulation of Jewish ritual murder is Chaucer’s ‘The Prioress’s Tale’ ” (
The Blood Libel Legend,
p. 91). Strictly speaking, it is not an example of the blood libel, since there is no mention in it of the draining or ingesting of blood. Chaucer, though, may well have been aware of that charge against the Jews, given that it had already been in existence for a century and a half.

20.
   Fulda:
Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
pp. 264–65, 275, 278; Strack,
The
Jew and Human Sacrifice,
pp. 179, 240–41.

21.
   papal bull from Innocent IV: Langmuir,
Toward a Definition,
p. 265; Smith,
The Butcher’s Tale,
p. 94.

22.
   most reliable count: Smith,
The Butcher’s Tale,
p. 123. For the best overview of the history and sources of the blood accusation, see Smith, chapter 3, pp. 91–133.

23.
   “Golubev has quieted down”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 66.

24.
   On April 18: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 67.

25.
   Black Hundred thugs:
Haynt,
April 28, 1911, p. 2.

26.
   Jews and Gentiles could mix easily: Meir,
Kiev,
p. 203.

27.
   “Bronze Horseman”: Stepanov,
Chernaia
(1995), p. 123.

28.
   views were extreme: Lowe,
The Tsars,
p. 286.

29.
   “pursue the whole malignant sect”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 84–85.

30.
   boisterous floor fight: Samuel,
Blood Accusation,
p. 27.

31.
   “most fearful two days”:
Haynt,
May 8, 1911.

32.
   Liadov—vice director: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 86–87. In
Materialy Chrezvychainoi
—depositions of Liadov, pp. 68–71; Fenenko, pp. 56–58; Chaplinsky, p. 208.

33.
   ritual-murder theory:
Haynt,
May 13, 1911.

34.
   “patiently refrain”:
Haynt,
May 8, 1911, p. 2.

35.
   record was disturbingly mixed: Klier,
The Blood Libel,
p. 14. Klier’s article is available in English only in an unpublished manuscript. It was published in Russian as: “Krovavyi navet v Russkoi pravoslavnoi traditsii,” in M. Dimitriev, ed.,
Evrei i khristiane v pravoslavnykh obshchestvakh vostochnoi evropy,
pp. 181–205 (Moscow: Indrik, 2011).

36.
   David Blondes: “Blondes, David Abramovich,”
Evreiskaia entsiklopediia Brokgauza i Efrona,
http://brockhaus-efron-jewish-encyclopedia.ru/beje/02-7/014.htm
.

37.
   the “Christian Letters”: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, 1. 413–418.

38.
   “At the market they’re saying”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
pp. 89–90.

39.
   “Now it seems to me”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
p. 88.

40.
   “if the Jews were beaten up”:
Materialy Chrezvychainoi,
p. 56.

41.
   danger of a pogrom: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 32.

42.
   Brandorf recommended: GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 22, 22 ob.

43.
   spiritual awakening: On the imperial couple’s mental world, see Mark Steinberg’s superb “Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intellectual Portrait.” On spiritual life and God-seeking: Steinberg, “Russia’s Fin de Siècle,” pp. 80–81; on lower classes, Steinberg,
Proletarian Imagination,
pp. 228–29, and Steinberg and Coleman, “Introduction” in
Sacred Stories.

44.
   Nizier-Vachod: Steinberg, “Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intellectual Portrait,” p. 12.

45.
   Sikorsky’s worldview:
Menzhulin,
Drugoi Sikorskii,
pp. 243, 311, 320–22.

46.
   races could be divided into two types: Menzhulin,
Drugoi,
p. 317.

47.
   “hereditary degeneration”: Menzhulin,
Drugoi,
p. 155.

48.
   “but gone rotten”: Menzhulin,
Drugoi,
pp. 25–26.

49.
   fanatical anti-Semitism: Menzhulin,
Drugoi,
pp. 371–73.

50.
   Their autopsy report differed: STEN II, pp. 245–46.

51.
   Ambrosius: STEN II, pp. 144–45; GAKO-DpdB (reel 3) f. 183, op. 5, d. 4, l. 170 ob.

52.
   “racial revenge and vendetta”: STEN I, p. 30.

53.
   “a certain Yid”: Tager,
Tsarskaia,
90; Stepanov,
Chernaia
(2005), p. 367.