The Beilis case and the ‘crucified boy’ myth: Kyiv, 1911
In 1911, a twelve-year-old boy is brutally murdered in Kyiv. Suspicion falls on a Jewish brickworks employee, and an investigation begins that shakes the Russian Empire. The case is soon turned into a political trial fuelled by antisemitic blood-libel accusations, lies and religious hostility.
Against the decline of the monarchy and a climate of paranoia and growing hatred, it becomes much more than a criminal case. I trace the beginnings of one of the early twentieth century’s most notorious scandals.
0:00 The case begins
10:05 The investigation
1:02:15 The trial
1:30:20 The aftermath
Background music: Scott Buckley — “I Walk With Ghosts”.
Sources
Edmund Levin. A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel. New York: Schocken, 2014.
Ірина Берлянд, Справа Бейліса: київський вимір, Київ 2023.
Against the decline of the monarchy and a climate of paranoia and growing hatred, it becomes much more than a criminal case. I trace the beginnings of one of the early twentieth century’s most notorious scandals.
0:00 The case begins
10:05 The investigation
1:02:15 The trial
1:30:20 The aftermath
Background music: Scott Buckley — “I Walk With Ghosts”.
Sources
Edmund Levin. A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel. New York: Schocken, 2014.
Ірина Берлянд, Справа Бейліса: київський вимір, Київ 2023.