From fact to fiction: Bernard Malamud's “The fixer” (1966) as fictionalization of the Beiliss case (1911-4)

Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, n. º 7 ( 2000 ), pp. 9 -16 PROM FACT TO FICTION: BERNARD MALAMUD'S THE FIXER (1966) AS FICTIONALIZATION OF THE BEILISS CASE (1911-4) MART ÍN ÜR DIALES Universidad de Oviedo In his bookBlood Accusation. The Strange Hist oJ )' of the Beiliss Case, Mauri ce Samuel begins a chaptcr on Mendel Bciliss venturing that, Possibly the ge nius of Sholom Aleichem could have turned Beiliss into a «character»; if so, it would have had to be in a non-Sholom Aleichem genre. For Bciliss the Russian J ew did not belong to the world of Sholom Aleichem, ex cept pcrhaps as a peripheral figure; there was little of the folk coloration in him. (Samucl:55) But Beiliss did belong. and full y, to the world and genre of Bemard Malamud, and it is a str ik ing coinciden ce that the same ye ar these words appeared in print -196 6- Malamud's four lh novel, The Fixer. a historical fictionalization of the Beiliss case, should also see the light, thus q ui et in g the critica) voices who h ad accused Malamud of not being socially and politica ll y involved in his earlier works. The fact th at both Blood Accusation and The Fi xer appeared in the sa me year, evidcntly indi ca tes th at both Malamud and Samuel had been commonly researching on earlier material concern ing the B ei li ss case (Kiev, 1911- 4) and thus neither Malamu d's novel n or Samuel's historical account could have been based on one another, even if there might have been contact be tween the two au thors. Bearing in mind the fact that Malamud and Sa muel independently made u se of previously existing material on the Be iliss case, t he aim of this paper will be to discuss Ma!amud's fi ctionaliza ti on of the Beiliss case in The Fixer, in the light of Samuel's hi storical narrative Blood Accusation, and remark how «on the whole, Malamud has altered very f ew of the basic fa c ts of the case» (Alter:37). 10 Martín Urdía/ es Although 011 reading the two books there is an essential difference in terms of focus, since The Fixeris a novel whose narrative perspective. exclusively the victim' s, is fractional and su bj ective, whereas Blood Accusatio11 co nve ys various objective externa! perspectives on all the characters involved, th e co rr espondence between certain historical characters -in particular the officials. lawyers and public persons in general who actas conspirators against Beiliss- and Bok's oppressors in the novel is clearly define<l: ali the an ti -Semites who played active parts in the development of the conspiracy against Beiliss are faithfully reílected by Malamud in the novel. Yakov Bok himself is also an accurate reflection of Mendel Beiliss as he is portrayed by Samuel in Bl ood Accusa ti on. The aspect of the Bcil iss case which Malamud transforme<l most is re lated to his defendants. Yakov's indifference towards Jewishness in cultural, políti ca! and religious te1 ms is one of the signific an t aspects of The Fixer, a fact which fully agrces with Samuel's slatement quoted above, thal Beiliss had «little ofthe folk colorntion in him» to be a Sholom Aleichem charact er (Samuel:SS). In Malamud's novel, Yakov is portrayed as an ordinary handyman, a «fixer» who se skill lies in the use of his tools and who has no political or relig io us involvement of any kind. His abandonment of the shtetl and the risks he accepts by living in a non-Jewish quarter of Kiev, revea! his in <lifference to a Jewish tradition which he finds constrictive. During the questioning following his arrest, Yakov honestly asserts, «I've never belongcd to a política! party or any secrct organizations ... » (84), and regarding b is attitude to Jewish traditions. he later claims « ... I'm nota religions man.» (85), and «I havc nothing against those who want to follow the customary ways, bul for myself I'm interes ted in what 's new in the world» (86). Yakov Bok is thus portraycd in very similar terms to his historical sourcc, Me nd el Beíliss. In relation to Beilíss's Jewishness. Maurice Samuel writes in Blood Accusation: Beiliss. too. had fallen away from his fath er's religious standards, and for Jewish leaming he had nev er shown any aptitudc ... It was a strik in g aspect of the Beíliss case that none of thc Jews accu sc d ... of complicity in a crime of rcligious fanaticism was particularly religíous or particularly versed in the t rad ition. The principal figure was an ordin ary working man whose life was taken up with tugging al ends thal could barely be made to mect. (57-58) And regarding the ahsurdity of the accusation in view of what was known of Beiliss's character and personality in general, he continues: The role that the prosecuti on tri ed to thrust on Beiliss. that of the fanatical killer of Christian children and drinker of their blood, had something ludicrous about it in the mídst of its obsceníty. Ha d ít at least been sorne picturesque exalté - but nash Mendel! .. . Martyr he was, perhaps the more so because he was pr ecisely a simp le , good-hearted, worried, bewíldered workíngman who strnck no poses and made no speeches. (59) From Fa ct tO Fiction: Bemani Malamud's The Fixer 11 The two principal pawns of the conspiracy against Yakov -F ather Anastasy, in religious terms, and Prosecuting Attomey Grubeshov, in ju dicial termswere al so closely inspired by historical figure s. Father Anastasy is a « ... defrocked Catholic priest» ( 143) and a firm believ er in the infamous Blood Accusation. Anastasy is inspired very literally by Father Pranaitis, a historical figure who played an active role in the Beiliss case, and who is i.ro nically introduced by Samuel in the following tenns: For its showpiece expert the ad.rninistmtion finally had to content itself with an obscure Catholic priest, Father Justin Pranaitis, whom it discovered in , of ali strange places, Tashkent. This man hada curious history. In 1893, living at that time in St. Petersburg, he had written a pamphlet, The Christians in the Jewish Talmud, or The Secrets of the Teachings of the Rabbis about Christians, to prove that the practice of ritual murder was advocated by the Jewish religion. The pamphlet altracted a modicum of contemptuous attention at the time and was then forgotten. (87) In Tite Fixer. Yakov eventually learns from the Investigating Magistrate Bibikov, that Father Anastasy is a charlatan. He has written a stup id anti-Semitic brochure in Latin which brought him to the attention of the United Nobiliry, who have urged him to testify against you. (143) Anastasy's detailed exposition of the Blood Accusation (during three pages of l71e Fixer, 110-112, too long to q u o te here) as a vast potpourri of magical, salubrious and pseudoreligious applications for Christian blood supposedly attributed to Jews, is evidently based on one of Father Pranaitis' tiradcs at the Beiliss trial, which Samuel partly describes and partly quotes: P ranai tis opened his di scourse by quoting at sorne length from a book purponedly written in Rumania at the beg inning of the nineteenth centu .r y ... Nothing was known about the a uthor , who wrote under the pseudonym «Neopbyte» and represented himself as a converted Jew with special access to the secret prac ti ces of the Jews ... The list of uses to which Jews are supposed to put Christian blood seems almost endless. Th us wmte «Ncophyte»: Four Limes ayear there appears from the aira sort of blood on the Jews' food, and if any Jew tastes of this food he dies ... The Rabbis smear a fork with the bloo<l of a martyred Christian and put it on top of their food, so Lhat the blood mentioned abo ve does not fall on their food .... When J ews marry, the Rabbi gi ves the bridc and bridegroom a boiled cgg sprinkled with the ash of a rag that 12 Mart[n Urdial es ha s been firsl soaked in Christian blood. Wh en th e Jews weep over Jernsalem, th ey smear their heads with the above-mentioned ash. At Passover th ey bake a special dish in which they include the blood of a martyr ed Christian. When an infant boy is circumcised, the Rabbi takes a beaker of wine into which he put s a drop of th e blood from the circumcision. When these are well mixed, the Rabbi puts a fing er into th e beaker and then into the mo u th of the infant. ... Leaving «Neophyte ,» Pranaitis took off on his own into the realm of the Blood Accusation. He said he had found a text in the Talmud that sanctified the ritual murder of a Christian on that doubly holy of days, a Day of Atonement falling on the Sabbath. He s pok e of the distribulion of Christian blood in special botlles and of the cabb al istic signs made over t he bleeding victim . .. He went on in this strain for sorne eleven hours ... (Samuel: 212 -4) The other main pawn of the conspiracy aga in st Yakov is Pr osecuting Attorney Grubeshov. Initially the most hostile chara ct er against Yakov, his task it is to elicit a confession from the fixer at all costs, to which en d he resorts to every possible argument, pressure and coercion, in cl uding the attempt to bribe Yakov into ad mitting that « ... the Jewish Na ti on put [him] up to this crime[?]» ( Th e Fixer 117) and his later offer of freedom if Ya kov agrees « ... to sign a confessi on saying [he) committed the murder unwillingl y, und er th e intluence of [his] religious cohorts.» (The Fix er 184 ). In spite of being perfectly awa re of Yakov's in nocence, Grubeshov's behaviour in The Fixer is thus pr esented as r es ponding to two equally strong reasons: his selfish politi ca l aspirations and his anti-Semitism. In both respects, but specially in the former, the main hist or ical so urce for Grubeshov is the state prosecutor of the Kiev appellate court, Chaplinsky, described by Samuel in these terms: Chaplinsky was known as a careerist pur sang and a time-server; to the extent that he could afford a principie, he was anli-Semitic, and he was ardently so when principie coincided with prospects of promotion ... lt was what th e Germans are fond of ca llin g a Konjunktur - anti - Semitism and se lfint er es t were « in phase ». (Samuel:2l) But the radi ca lness of Gmbeshov 's anti-Semitism, whi ch reveals itself in th e scene in which he shows Yakov a notebook of «Jewish Noses» claiming that «With a Jew it is the nose that bu ms and reveals the criminal he is» (The Fixer 11 8), clearly points to a secondary source for this character in th e figure of attorney Shmakov, one of the prí va te prosecutors at the Beiliss t ri al anda very eccentric figure, thus described by Sa muel: Th e other prívate prosecutor, Shmakov, the collector of pi ct ures of Jewish noses, had only one value - bis furious anti-Semitism ... Anti-semitism was a way of life with him and it had unhinged him; he was an avid student of queer anti-Semi tic books and pamphlets ... (Samuel: 179) From Facl to Ficlion: Bernard Malamud's The Fixer 13 Another -less relevantcharacter involved in Yakov's oppression is Bodyansky, the Colonel who is present at Yakov's interrogation as an intimidator (77-89). There are two sources for this character in the Beiliss case: Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ivanov and Colonel Kuliabko. The latter's involvement in the Beiliss case is practically limited to Beiliss's arrest, a scene which Malamud reproduces almost exactly in The Fixer: ... Colonel l. P. Bodyansk y, the red-mustached head of the Secret Police in Ki ev, with severa! other official s, fifteen gendarmes ... , a detachment of police, severa! plainclothes detectives, and two representatives of the Office of the Chief Prosecuting Attomey of the District Superior Court, about thirty in all, rushed up the stairs with drawn pistols and swords, confronting the fleeing Yakov. (62) The manner of Beiliss's arrest was, to say the least, unusual ( .... )( ... ); to br ing in Beiliss it was thought necessary to mobilize in the dead of ni ght a small expeditionary force of fifteen gendarmes headed by the local chief of the okhrana, Colonel Kuliabko. (Samuel:61) Although as far as the arrest is concerned, Kuliabko seems the counterpart of Bodyansky in the novel, Malamud's description of Bodyansky as head of the secret poi ice corresponds more with Ivanov's post than with Kuliabko's; furthermore, it was I va nov who played an irnportant role in the Beiliss case, not Kuliabko. Ivanov is related to another event which Malamud reproduces in The Fixer: in the Beili ss case, Colonel Ivanov was responsible for planting a spy, Kozachenko, in Beiliss's cell: the prosecution had conceived the machiavellian plan that by establishing the friendship between Kozachenko and Beiliss -fac tually proven by Beiliss's tru st ing Kozachenko with a letter to his wife- Kozachenko's subsequent deposition regarding Beiliss had to be true. His deposition -w hich he later admitted before lvanov «to h av ing made ... up from beginning to end» (Samuel :79)- ran as fo llow s: Beiliss had a talk with me, without witnesses. He asked me to see the factory manager and one of the owners. These people were supposed to collect rnoney among the Jews, enough to pay me for poisoning two witnesses ... Beiliss said l could give them sorne vodka with strychnine. I consented, but of course I <lid not want to do it. (Samuel:78) This episode of the Beiliss case was incorporated to The Fixer with certain transformations. Kozachenko's alter ego in the novel is nota Russian spy, but a fellow Jewish prisoner, Gronfein, who is coaxed into incriminating Yakov in exchange for his freedom. Like Kozachenko, Gronfein also smuggles out two letters written by Yakov, although in this case it is only to hand them over to the prison warden, who can then accuse Yakov of breaking prison regulations (1 34). Apart from these differences, Malamud reproduces the event quite literally: 14 Marn'n Urdiales « What's more.» said the Deputy Warden, «We have it in writing that you [Yakov] also tried to bribe him [Gronfeinj to poison the yardkeeper who saw you altempting to kidnap the boy in the brickyard, and also to pay Marfa Golov not to testi fy against you. Is n't that the truth?» he asked Gronfein. The counterfeiter, sweat lrickling from under his hat down his dark lids, nodded once. (135) Both the Czar Nicholas II, as himself, and his Minister of Justice Scheglovitov as Count Odoevsky, appear in the novel as ultimate endorsers of the conspiracy against Yakov. In this Malamud is again strictly faithful to hi story: in Blood Accusatimz, Maurice Samuel devotes two separate chapters to these figures, whom he terms «the angel» and « Lhe producen> of the Beiliss case: The Beiliss case may be described as a drama -or com edy-portraying how a somnambulistic empcror, a scoundrelly minister of justice and a homicida! underworld slut entered into a combination that made an unexpected and not neglígible contribution to world history ... In the language of the theater it can be said that Nicholas 11 was the «angel» of che play - he providcd the backing; Sbcheglovitov was the producer - he providcd the machinery; and the Cheberyak gang [authors of the murder] carne up with the gimmick -it provided the plot line. (97) Histori ca lly, Nicholas IJ's anti-Scmitism was partly leamed but also partly due to his belief that the Jews were solely responsible for the social agitation in Russia, since he thought « .. .international Jewry . .. was fomenting revolution ... through its two wings, Jewish capitalism and Jewish soc ialism» (Samuel: 115). Hence Samuel's definition of him as «a somnambulistic emperor>>. In Yakov's vision, the Czar tells Yakov « ... the Jews are freemasons and revolutionaiies who make a shambles of our laws and demoralize our police by systematic bribery ... » (270). As to th e Minister of Justice, Samuel poinL ~ out, «[ one cannot say enough) ... of the shambles he made of the judiciary, giving rise to the byword 'Shcheg lovitov justice' .» (Sa mu el: l20) . This character is also accurately reflected by Malamud in Count Odoevsky, who al one po'int leaves Bibikov « ... with the unmistakcable impression that he expects the evidence to confirm [Yakov 's ] guilt.» (138). In The Fixer, Malamud presents Bibikov, «lnvestigating Magistrate for Cases of Extraordinary Importance» (65) as Yakov's only defendant in the midst of the developing administrative conspiracy. Bibikov does ali he can to find out the real murdercrs and thus clear Yakov of guilt, as a result of which he is imprisoncd in th e cell next to Yakov 's under a false prctence and commits suicide in despair for being unable to help the fixer (149). After Bibikov's death, the only character to appear in defense ofYakov is the lawyer Julius Ostrovsky, almost a hundred pages later (245). In this respect. Malamud's intention is, on thc one hand, to prcscnt the fixcr's ordeal as a one-man stmggle aga in st the powerful all-embracing conspiracy, the David versus Fmm Facr ro Ficlion: Rernord Malamod's Thc Fixcr 15 Goliath theme. But he is also forced Lo « ... rearrange sorne details of the Beiliss affair in the in terests of nccessaiy simplification or even credibility» (Alter:37). For in the Beiliss case, the events an d characters conc.:eming Beiliss's defense were infinitely more intricatc and no less outrageous. The re were iu fact as many as fi ve people directly involved, at different stages, in attempling to find the real culprits of th e murder and thus clear Beiliss of the absurd acc.:usation: Margolin, Beiliss's first attorney, State Prosecutor Brandorf, Fenenko, «lnvestigating Ma gistrale for Importa nt Cases» (Sa muel:53) and detectives Mischuk and Krasovsky. It is impossible to establish a univalent relationship between an y of these historical c.:haracters and Yakov's allies in the novel, sin c.:e Malamud, for the sake of his story, freely transformed and simplified this a<;pect of the Beiliss case. Fro m Fenenko he took the appellation «lnve s ti ga ting Magistr ale» for Bibikov, although it was Detec tive Krasovsky who played the major role in defense of Beiliss. However, the events surrounding the offic.:ial repression against the non-conspiralors are histori cally accurate: Mischuk, the first detective to be put in charge of thc Beiliss case, was framed by the adminisu·ation and sentenced to pr ison, ju st like Bibikov in The Fixer, because he wa s honestly trying to clear up the case and chus <lid not c.:ollabora te with the conspiracy (Samue l: 29-30). And jusl as Iawyer Julius Ostrovsky tells Yakov that he has been prevented from defending him (25 3 ), Detective Krasovsky, S t ate Prosecutor Brandorf and Investigating Magistrate Fenenko were also removed from the Beiliss case for not fo llowing along with the conspiracy (Samuel:140-l ,53). Altho u gh Mendel Beiliss was no t as alone in his misery as Yakov Bo k is presented, and certain event '> expe ri enced by Yakov are purely fictitious while other « ... actual events are remolded to fit the inner logic of the narrative» (Friedberg:276), in The Fixer Malamud accurately reflects, particularly through the figures of the conspirators. che outrageous spirit of prejudice and inequity whi ch pervaded the Beiliss conspiracy from beginning to cnd: bis « ... distillalion of hi story into a product of artistic imag ination demonstrates the firm ha nd of a skilled crafts m an.» (Fricdberg:276 ). GUIDE TO THE CORRELATION B ET WEEN CHARACTERS IN THE FIXER AND HISTORICAL CHARACTERS INVOLVED IN THE BEILISS CASE Tlze Fixer The B ci liss Case (source: Blood Acc usation) Yakov Bok (thc fi xer) .............. ............. Mendel Beiliss Prosecuting Attorn ey Gmbeshov .......... State Prosecutor Chaplinsky and Attorney Shmakov Father Anastasy .......... .. ........ .. ...... .. ...... Fathcr Pranai ti s Colonel Bodyansky .................. ............ Lt.CI. Ivanov & CI. Kubliako 16 Gronfein (a Jew) .................................. . Minister of Justice ................................ . Count Odoevsky .................................. . Tsar Nicho las II ................................... . Yakov 's defendants: Investigating Magistrate Bibikov, Lawyer Julius Ostrovsky. Kozachenko (a Russian) Minister of Ju stice Shcheglovitov Czar Nicholas II Beiliss '.1· defendantslallies: In v. Magistrate Fenenko, Margolin (lst attomey), State Prosecutor Brando rf , MartÍll Urdía/es Detectives Mischuk & Krasovsky. (no character-to-character correspondence) WORKS CITED AL TER, ROBERT. «Jewishness as Metaphor» in Field L. & Fi el d J., 29-42. FIELD, LESLIE & FIELD, JOYCE, eds. Bema rd Malamud and the Critics. New York: New York University Press, 1970. FRIEDBERG, MAURICE. «History and Imagination. Two Views ofthe Beiliss Case» in Field L. & Field J., 275-84. MALAMUD, BERNARD. The Fixer. New York: Dell Book s, 1967. SAMUEL, MAURICE. Blood Accusation. The Strange History of the Beiliss Case. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1966.