This day occupies pages 272 through 320 of Volume I of the
transcript.
I call this Liars’ Day. We hear from all the Cheberyaks, all of whom tell falsehoods on the stand, as well as more falsehoods from Polishchuk, who once worked for Krasovsky and later threw him under the bus over 75 kopecks so that the government could say Krasovsky had been tried for government corruption.
Lyuda comes first of the Cheberyaks; her story was invented
by the government in July 1912 and is a variant on her father’s story. Zhenya’s three depositions from 1911 are read
out; the last one denies what the first two admit, that Andrey was at his house
in March, 1911. Vera tells her 8th
or 9th set of lies and changes her story 3 times when Vipper pushes
her on why she didn’t go to the police with Zhenya’s supposed story. Vasily tries to tell the story from his 1911
deposition, and also the story Lyuda was taught. All of these stories have been refuted by
testimony from over 80 prior witnesses.
Lyuda testifies that Polishchuk threatened her with death if
she testified against Beilis. It
was after Zhenya’s death but before Valya’s.
It’s probably the only true thing she says the whole day.
The cake is a red herring.
I discuss Zhenya’s death in my “murder mystery” The Anvil.
I included tons of notes on Polishchuk’s testimony. I feel it is important that whoever reads
this transcript knows how his testimony relates to the chronology of the case,
to what other witnesses say, and even to himself because he contradicts
himself. Newspaperman Yablonsky will say
on day 19 that when Vera tells the truth she lies and if she talks in her
sleep, that’s probably lies too. Meet
the masculine version of that statement. Watch Gruzenberg take him apart into
little tiny bits on the stand.
One of the things that happens today is that Boldyrev seems
to wake up and start coming down on hearsay and gossip. From this point on he stops any witness who
says “I heard” or “they told me” and can’t give a name for the source. He starts with Polishchuk who conveniently
blames most of his hearsay on Moishe Arendar or his wife, neither of whom is in
court on this day. Moishe wasn’t much
involved in testimony and his wife not at all.
Another thing, fairly funny when you think of it, is that
after the defense rips Polishchuk to shreds, Vipper starts treating him like a
hostile witness, as we would say in the U.S.
Tager’s work showed that Polishchuk was paid by Opanasenko of the Black
Hundreds; he wrote Chaplinsky a letter about it in 1912. For Polishchuk to testify, I believe, is a
substitute for putting a real government spy on the stand or reading out his
deposition in court – or else admitting that Vygranov never was deposed.
Judge: Fyodor Boldyrev
Prosecution:
Criminal
Prosecutor, Oscar Vipper
Civil
Prosecutor Georgy Zamyslovsky
Private
Civil Prosecutor Aleksey Shmakov
Defense:
Oscar
Gruzenberg
Nikolay Karabchevsky
Dmitry Grigorevich-Barsky
Alexandr Zarudny
Vasily Maklakov
Page
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Witness
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Notes
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Transcript
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Translation
|
Statement
|
Bogdanovsky
|
Lived on Zaitsev property
Testified about fence
|
272
|
603
|
1
|
Aron Beilis
|
Mendel’s brother
Testified about milk cow
|
273
|
605
|
48
|
Adam Polishchuk
|
Krasovsky’s “assistant’
Agent for Black Hundreds
|
277
|
613
|
146
|
Lyudmila Vasilevna Cheberyak
|
Tells government “two rabbis” story
|
295
|
659
|
934
|
Evgeny Vasilevich Cheberyak
|
Zhenya. Testified
by deposition. Died August 1911 of
bismuth poisoning
|
300
|
674
|
1312
|
Vera Vladimirovna Cheberyak
|
Liar in chief
|
303
|
680
|
1389
|
Vasily Petrovich Cheberyak
|
Mr. Liar in chief
|
318
|
718
|
1923
|
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