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

Andrei Yushchinsky’s bloody shirt.

The cave in Kiev where Andrei’s body was found.

Front page of the Double Headed Eagle, the organ of Vladimir Golubev’s right-wing youth group. The bottom lines, under Andrei’s autopsy photo, read: “Christians, guard your children! On March 17 the Yid Peisach begins.”

Pathologist’s diagram showing Andrei’s four dozen wounds.

Andrei Yushchinsky in his coffin.

The crime scene and its environs (a translation of an official map made for the court).

The “Lamplighters,” Kazimir and Ulyana Shakhovsky. They were among the last people to see Andrei Yushchinsky alive. (Russian State Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk/Abamedia)

The home of Vera and Vasily Cheberyak, down the street from that of Mendel Beilis’s family. The Cheberyaks’ apartment is on the upper right.

The headline reads “Who Are the Killers?”

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Vera Cheberyak; her half brother, Peter “Velveteen” Singaevsky; Boris “Borka” Rudzinsky; and Ivan “Red Vanya” Latyshev. Months later, Latyshev would jump out a police precinct window to his death. (Collection of Vladimir Belko)

Zhenya Cheberyak, Vera’s son. He was also Andrei Yushchinsky’s best friend and one of the last people to see him alive.

Vera Cheberyak.

Nikolai Krasovsky, flanked by his two assistants, Alexei Vygranov (left) and Adam Polishchuk (right). Polishchuk would betray Krasovsky and join the conspiracy to frame Mendel Beilis.

Vladimir D. Nabokov, father of the novelist, liberal political leader, and journalist who reported on the trial. (Central State Archive of Film, Photo and Audio Documents, St. Petersburg)

Vladimir Golubev, who first pointed to Beilis as a suspect. (Russian State Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk/Abamedia)

Mendel Beilis leaving court in May 1913, the rolled-up indictment in his hand. (Collection of Vladimir Belko)

The Beilis family during the trial.

Aaron Beilis, Mendel’s brother.

Minister of Justice Ivan Shcheglovitov. (Central State Archive of Film, Photo and Audio Documents, St. Petersburg)

Nikolai Maklakov, minister of the interior and brother of Beilis’s attorney Vasily Maklakov.

Grigory Chaplinsky, Kiev’s chief prosecutor and architect of the case against Beilis.

Vasily Maklakov, member of the Russian parliament and of the Beilis defense team. (Central State Archive of Film, Photo and Audio Documents, St. Petersburg)

Arnold Davidovich Margolin, Beilis’s first attorney, who made it his mission to find the real killers.

The defense team.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Dimitry Grigorovich-Barsky, Nikolai Karabchevsky, Oskar Gruzenberg, and Alexander Zarudny.

Mikhail “Frog” Nakonechny, shoemaker, man of conscience, and star witness for the defense.

Stepan Brazul-Brushkovsky, the ambitious Kiev journalist whose sensational reportage turned the case upside down.

Prime Minister Peter Stolypin. A man with a tragic fate, he was probably the only person who could have stopped the trial.

Georgy Zamyslovsky, attorney for Andrei’s mother, who functioned as a coprosecutor.

Alexei Shmakov, attorney for Andrei’s mother, who functioned as a coprosecutor.

Oskar Vipper, the state prosecutor, was high strung and easily unnerved.

Judge Fyodor Boldyrev, the chief trial judge.

Religious texts being carted into court for the expert testimony on religion.

The courthouse on St. Sophia Square in Kiev remains unchanged to this day.

The jury. They were largely peasants, identifiable by their traditional bowl haircuts and caftans.

Court in session. Witnesses stood facing the judges. Prosecutor Oskar Vipper is at the lectern at upper left.

Dr. Ivan Sikorsky, psychiatric expert for the defense.

Father Justin Pranaitis, the prosecution’s expert on the Jewish religion.

Dr. Dimitry Kosorotov, forensic pathologist for the prosecution.

A Beilis case document bearing the characteristic mark that Tsar Nicholas placed on briefing materials he had read—a slash flanked by two dots—indicating that he was keeping track of developments in the case.

Tsar Nicholas II, the empress Alexandra, and their children. Nicholas declared that his “inner voice” counseled him to repress the Jews. (Courtesy Library of Congress)

Mendel Beilis and his family after the trial.

Beilis in the mid-1920s.

Andrei Yushchinsky’s grave as it appears today in Lukianovka Cemetery in Kiev. Renovated by reputed far-right-wingers in the mid-2000s, the grave stands out as being unusually well cared for.