Russia, where blood libel never slept

This here blog rarely deals with the ugly and ancient virus of anti-Semitism. There are several reasons why, but to name the chief one - it will most probably be the uselessness. A/S is usually a part of the person's bloodstream, acquired with mother's milk and not susceptible to persuasion, logic or even a liberal application of 2x4. Hopefully this post will continue to be a rare exception.

Russia, the motherland of the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has been one of the countries richly permeated with the virus. Benevolently looked upon by most Tzars, the virus spread quite widely in all walks of life and, like the ubiquitous Protocols, coming up at many occasions, caused murderous conflagrations during the history. Including the history of the USSR, with only death stopping the homicidal dictator from carrying out his plan of removing the Soviet Jews to Siberia in the beginning of the fifties.

Recent years brought another wave of the epidemic, this time coming from an old and temporary made dormant ROC - Russian Orthodox Church. Being suppressed for the 70 years of the great socialist experiment, ROC flourishes and gains popularity, power and lots and lots of its growing flock's money. It has to be said that the A/S virus has by no means infected all of the ROC priests, but a sizable part of them appeared to be ready to return to the old habit of this church.

A Russian liberal site Grani posted an article The Beilis* case lives and wins

The investigation committee plans to appoint a psychological/historical examination to find out whether the execution of the royal family** was not a ritual murder, said ... Marina Molodtsova, senior investigator for especially important cases of the Russian Federation, at the conference "The Case of the Murder of the Royal Family: New Expertise and Materials ... ".
...
According to her, a council of experts is now being formed to include scientists from the Academy of Sciences, Moscow and St. Petersburg universities, historians, archivists and priests of the Russian Orthodox Church. This research will become possible after the receipt of the conclusions from the historical-archival examination, which is currently being performed by experts.

Other sources name the origin of the libel.

Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, who is heading a Russian Orthodox Church commission investigating the execution of the Romanov family by firing squad in Yekaterinburg, said at a conference on Monday that many members of the commission believe it was a ritual murder that held special significance for Bolshevik commander Yakov Yurovsky and his men.

“Ritual murder” has in the past referred to a theory that the last emperor was the victim of a Jewish conspiracy, as Mr Yurovsky was of Jewish heritage.

Grani, quoted above, continue with this:

If you delve into the taste of the ritual accusation, you get a very heavy feeling .... Each of us, speaking to a non-believer, must, therefore, remember that, perhaps, at this very moment the non-believer shivers and thinks: "And who knows whether you ever got a sip from a ritual glass?"

There are quite sincere people among the rightwingers. These people quite sincerely believe that Jews consume the blood of Christian babies; at least that among Jews there is such a sect ... In general, this whole thing is much more complicated. It is especially difficult because the belief in ritual murders is common not only among the right. In a neutral, non-partisan mass, even an intelligent one, too, this suspicion is far from eradicated ... Of course, nice people express this doubt not in more elegant form. They usually say: "Of course, we do not doubt that you and your family don't know about it, but... maybe your rabbis know?"

Well, what can I add to that? Only that, as part of a ritual, I am sometimes raising my ritual glass. Its contents are usually red and, on the occasions when fresh blood of gentile children is available, especially tasty. And I drink to the demise of Jew haters, among other wishes.

(*) Beilis case

Menahem Mendel Beilis (sometimes spelled Beiliss; Russian: Менахем Мендель Бейлис, Yiddish: מנחם מענדל בייליס‎; 1874 – 7 July 1934) was a Russian Jew accused of ritual murder in Kiev in the Russian Empire in a notorious 1913 trial, known as the "Beilis trial" or "Beilis affair". The process sparked international criticism of the antisemitic policies of the Russian Empire.

And an important footnote:

Around six months before his death, Beilis was interviewed by the English-language Jewish Daily Bulletin. Asked for “one outstanding impression” of the trial in Kiev, he paid a final tribute to the Russian Gentiles who had helped him to escape the blood libel, such as the detective Krasovsky and the journalist Brazul-Brushkovsky: “There was real heroism, real sacrifice. They knew that by defending me their careers would be ruined, even their very lives would not be safe. But they persisted because they knew I was innocent.”

Yes, it is crucial not to paint all Russians by the same color - the color of hate.

(**) Execution of the royal family

The last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot in the summer of 1918 in Yekaterinburg. In 2000, the Russian Church canonized Nicholas II and his family members as saints, after the discovery of the burial site near Yekaterinburg, the remains of the members of the imperial family were buried in the tomb of Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg. In the fall of 2015, investigators resumed the investigation into the case of the deaths of the Romanovs. Currently, there are also examinations related to the establishment of the authenticity of the remains found in 2007, possibly the prince Alexis and the Grand Duchess Maria.