Blood Libel in Late Imperial Russia: The Ritual Murder Trial of Mendel Beilis

1: The Initial Investigation

18 The nature of relations among Jews and non-Jews and Kievan politics after 1905 will shed light on why antisemites wanted the authorities to treat the murder of Andrei Iushchinskii as a case of ritual murder. By the turn of the twentieth century, Kiev, the historic cradle of Christianity in the Russian Empire, was a major industrial and commercial center. In 1859 the Imperial government began permitting Jews to settle freely in Kiev. Until then the presence of Jews in the city had been limited, but Tsar Alexander II, who took the throne in 1855, issued a series of decrees opening up the city to Jewish merchants, artisans, and soldiers who had completed their military service. The number of Jews living and working in Kiev exploded in the half century after 1859 due to the migration of Jews from areas surrounding Kiev. Whereas several thousand Jews lived in Kiev in 1864, at the time of the Beilis trial the police recorded some 58,000 Jews residing there, or about 12 percent of the city’s total population .1 MostKievanJewsekedoutmeagerlivingsasshopkeepers,workers, and traders, but some Jews managed to amass fortunes as factory owners, merchants, and financiers. Like cities elsewhere in the Pale of Settlement, Kiev was not spared the ethnic, social, and political strife that characterized most urban centers .TensionsbetweenJewsandnon-Jewscouldrunhigh,especiallyduron e The Initial Investigation 19 The Initial Investigation ing times of political crisis: pogroms rocked the city in 1881 and 1905, resulting in significant property damage, injuries, and loss of life. Kiev also experienced the proliferation of political organizations: in the quarter century before 1914 revolutionaries, liberals, and nationalists were active, vying for adherents and challenging tsarist authority. This was particularly so during 1905 when workers, peasants, students, and nationalists challenged the established order throughout the Russian Empire. Political democratization and mass politics in Kiev after 1905, however , did not result in a shared commitment to civic equality and tolerance . Relations between Jews and non-Jews remained tense in the post1905 period: from 1908 to 1911 Jewish newspapers reported that members of the Union of the Russian People were acting as vigilantes, roaming the streets of Kiev and beating up Jews.2 Right-wing political activists and organizations, in the words of historian Faith Hillis, “mastered the art of mass political mobilization, capturing the city’s political institutions and the hearts of its toiling masses by 1907.”3 They promoted an antisemitic agenda that frequently embraced violence and contributed to a sense of insecurity among Kiev’s Jews. Unlike elected officials in other cities who sought to reduce ethnic tensions, Kiev’s city council offered little consolation to Jews, who viewed the city elders as “reluctant sanctioners” of the pogrom. One daily newspaper in Kiev called the city council “a Black Hundred council with a hooligan mayor.”4 In addition, according to Kiev’s Ukrainian nationalists, Jews dominated the city and benefited from an imperial bureaucracy that curried favor with them. Hence, when Andrei’s body was found antisemitic activists were eager to blame Jews in an effort to unnerve Kiev’s Jewish community, already wary of the open hostility of the city government and right-wing organizations, with accusations of ritual murder. The autopsy found no evidence that Andrei’s killer had drained and collected his blood. Dr. I. N. Karpinskii, the city’s coroner, performed the first autopsy on March 22nd, two days after the body had been found. He removed the top of the cranium as well as the heart and other internal organs for additional examination and use as material evidence. His report, issued on March 24th and published in local newspapers the following day, contained nothing on ritual murder. The autopsy reported that Andrei was found wearing a white linen shirt covered with blood, 20 Blood Libel In Late Imper ia l Russia Cave where Andrei was found. Mendel Beilis, The Story of My Sufferings (New York, 1926), p. 37. 21 The Initial Investigation underpants, also splattered with blood, and one sock caked with blood. Grayclayishsoil(ofthekindfoundinthecave)anddriedleaveswerealso found on his clothing and body. The dead boy’s bloodstained cap, jacket, belt, and other sock were found nearby in the cave, but his pants and overcoat were never recovered. The autopsy report provided a detailed summary of the condition of the body and the nature of the wounds, notingthatsomefourdozenpunctureandstabwoundsonAndrei’shead, neck, and upper torso, some inflicted with such force that the...