The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-25
Archives Reveal
Facts in Famous
BeiIiSS Case
THE DECAY OF TZARISM: THE
BEILISS TRIAL, trans. from the
Russian by A. B. Tager: The
Jewish Pub. Soc. of America. $3.50.
htNItWtU UJ
ALEXANDER GODIN

THE history of the class-struggle
is replete with criminal provoca-
tons on the part Of dying autoc-
racies and decayed ruling classes
fighting to retain power; the most
recent Of these, a provocation in
the traditional sense of the word,
was the Reichstag fire, the purpose
of which was the thwarting Of the
rising tide of the revolution in Ger
many.
In staging this provocation, the
Nazi assassins identified themselves
openly with the recently buried
Romanoff dynasty and the feudal
nobility of which it was the figure
head. And in all their subsequent
acts and utterances. the Nazis bear
a striking resemblance to their
spiritual father and guide You
need only compare the Browning
wisdom of Hitler, for instance, with
the solicitous words of Nicholas The
Bloody upon hearing that the courts
of Russia, which were themselves
tarred with the same brush, could
no longer allow the open banditry
and lawlessness inaugurated by the
Black Hundred horde, to know this
He said:
II know that the Russian courts
are too severe towards the partici-
pants in the pogroms. 7 give you
my imperial word that I shall al
ways tighten their sentences on the
application Of the Union of The
Russian People, so dear to mep
These words we're uttered on the
eve Of the War, and when the de-
cay of Tzarism, like that repre-
scented by Hitlerism. made itself
smelt over the wide world.
At THIS time, the ruling reac-
n tionaries, threatened with the
abolition of the Pale Of Settlement
by the Third Duma, staged what
is known in history as the Beiliss
trial, its browning infamy.
Previous to the staging of the
Beiliss trial, based on the medieval
and lying dogma that Jews use the
blood Of Christian children for
ritual purposes, other such trials
had taken place in Russia. None
Of these, however. had so much as
sumed the character of a life-and-
death struggle, as the Beiliss trial.
From this it was clear that Tar
ism was making a desperate effort
to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of
the oppressed population, that 1t
was making last attempt to in
ject the counte:' revolution with new
blood, and thus sidetrack and de-
lay the approaching revolution.
For lack Of space, it is not pos
sible to repeat the details of the
story; suffice it to say that the case
of the government was by it's own
members recognized from the very
beginning as impossibly weak; also,
that the real murderers of the
Christian child in the case were
known and shielded by the govern
ment, and belonged to those very
Black Hundred 80 dear" to the
heart Of Nicholas II.
Nevertheless, and In spite of
these facts, the government dragged
the trial out for more than two
years; and during this time the en-
tire opposition press, which IN
cluded practically all but few re-
dictionary owned papers was muz-
zled, and their editors we're tried
on charges of libelling the charac-
ters of honest people" meaning
the real murderers, the identity of
which was known to ALL At the
same time, the government con-
tinued to organize pogrons from
above, having in mind the success
full conviction of Beiliss.
Beiliss was freed; however; but
it was not until after the Revolu-
ton, which opened the archives
containing the records of this case
and which were carefully ex-
amined and checked for a good
many years by the author of this
book, comprising most Of It's ma
terial-that the extent Of the per-
jury and lying practiced by the
government, the methods used in
eliminating all but the most ignor-
ant peasants from the jury and then
spying on its individual members
to discover reliability, and even
tampering with it, as well as the
wholesale manufacturing Of EVIL
dence, became really known. Added
to this, the ring LEADERS Of the con-
spiracy we're brought to trial, liv-
ing witnesses of this infamy; and.
on the strength of their own tes-
timony as well as the newly opened
archives, they paid the price of be-
trayers Of the people.
The chief value of this book. how
overland every worker as well as
revolutionary intellectual should be-
come acquainted with this most
brazen provocation of all in his
tory which contains many of them
Lies in its photostat reproductions
of the most important letters in
the case, which had been hidden
under the dust of archives. These
are in Russian, of course, but ade-
quate translations of them are fur
nished in the books; and while
great deal of material was crimi-
nally destroyed, as witnessed by
these very reproductions, they are
a sufficient indictment of Tzarism
for it to have been sent to its OBJ