Veliga business. Ritual murder in one Russian city. Avrutin E.

The study is devoted to the most long investigation of the ritual murder (1823-1835) in the city of Veliga, and presents new explanations of the bloody slander, emphasizing the power of faith in witchcraft and magic. The reader is invited to plunge into one of the most fundamental contradictions of Jewish life in the Russian Empire: regardless of how widespread beliefs of ritual killings are, the largest Jewish community in the world continued to feel safe. Special interest is a carefully drawn microhistory of life and relations of a small city.