A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel (70 page)

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.

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