Bidspirit auction | (ANTISEMITICA). Chwolson, Daniel. употребляють-ли евреи

(ANTISEMITICA). Chwolson, Daniel. употребляють-ли евреи христианскую кровь (“Do Jews Drink Christian Blood?”). Text in Russian. pp. 69. Ex-library. Some foxing. Contemporary boards. 4to. St Petersburg, Cederbaum & Goldenblum, 1879.     The present work was written on the heels of an infamous blood libel that roiled tensions throughout Russia. After a six-year-old Christian girl disappeared from her home in the tiny Georgian mountain village of Perevisa (outside of Sachkhere), nine Jewish merchants were arrested on the suspicion of murdering her for use of her blood to bake Matzah.     Tried in the regional captial of Kutaisi over the course of 1878, the case was covered heavily by the Russian media; conservatives clamoring for the death penalty and progressives shocked that such accusations could still be taken seriously.              As a general rule for the Jews of Russia in the 19th century, no publicity was good publicity. Thus, the national interest taken in the libel case prompted Chwolson (1819-1911) to author the present work. It was immensely popular with multiple editions selling out in the same year.     On March 13th, 1879, the prisoners were acquitted and released. Sadly, many local Georgians were not convinced, and simmering tensions came to a head with a brutal pogrom in Kutaisi in 1895 leaving dozens of casualties.