Russian imperial borderlands, Georgian Jews, and the struggle for ‘justice’ and ‘legality’: blood libel in Kutaisi, 1878–80

This article analyses the Kutaisi Trial (1878–80), a little-known case of blood libel in the Caucasus, in which nine Jewish men stood accused of involvement in the killing of a Georgian girl. All defendants were acquitted. While the accusation of killing for allegedly Jewish ritual purposes was not pressed explicitly by the prosecution, the case was widely discussed in terms of blood libel not only by the jurists but also by the authorities, the Georgian villagers, and the press. Existing scholarship on blood libel in Russia has stressed the influence of the Russian administration over court cases and in stirring up intercultural hatred. This article, however, shows much diversity among local and central, administrative and legal actors, and paints a more complex picture of Russian imperial courts and colonialism. It is based on an analysis of archival records from Tbilisi and Kutaisi, published court transcripts, and local and regional newspapers.