Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion

Description: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Protocols of the wise men of Zion, is an antisemitic tract alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination. It has been proven to be a plagiarism,[1] literary forgery,[2][3][4] fraud[5][6] and a hoax.[7][8][9] It was first published in 1903 in Russian, in Znamya ("The Banner," a newspaper). The text has failed to pass any scholarly standards of authentication as an alleged historical document or record. A version of it was published in 1905, as a final Chapter XII in a second edition of a book by Serge Nilus on the subject of the coming of the Antichrist. Accordingly, "The Protocols" are originally intertwined with this author's Russian Orthodox dogma.[10] The original manuscript is not extant. No submissions to direct forensic study have ever been made. Rather, scholars and researchers have been forced to rely primarily on textual analysis and reports from alleged witnesses who claimed to have seen the original. Nevertheless, it has been shown that associated with the alleged original are the elements of a false document.[11] It is also one of the best-known and most-discussed examples of literary forgery.[12] "The Protocols" (the briefest title by which the text is known) is an early example of contemporary conspiracy theory literature.[13] Written in the first person singular, the text embodies generalizations, truisms and platitudes on how to take over the world: take control of the media and the financial institutions, change the traditional social order, etc. It is not a how-to handbook by any means. Although it has never been authenticated, the text is always published by those who subscribe to its authenticity as a revelation of the activities, practices, and policies of Jews.[14] Its 105 year circulation and publishing history shows it to have been distributed substantially in four physical forms - manuscript or typescript form; periodical, both in a journal and a newspaper form; pamphlet or booklet or softcover form; and as a book or hardback; - as well as digitally, online by means of the world wide web and other forms of the internet. From the standpoint of book design, it often consists of 24 or 27 or more paragraphs or sections named or titled protocols, but the diverse editions, imprints, or compilations differ slightly or substantially, but significantly, as to their front matter and back matter. It is known to have commenced such circulation in typescript form, translated from the Russian language, among the diplomats and officials involved in the negotiation and execution of the peace settlement which brought a formal end to World War I. The text was popularized by those opposed to the Russian revolution, and was first disseminated by the instigator of the Kishinev pogrom, Pavel Krushevan, its first editor (and owner of Znamya), in 1903. It was similarly used in opposition to the Russian Revolution of 1905, the October Revolution (1917), and the peace negotiations at the end of World War I which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles (1919), becoming known worldwide during the 1919-1920 period when it was widely circulated in the West, and thereafter. It was also published in 1906 and 1907 in Russian, for the first time in pamphlet form, ed. by G. Butmi, after the pogroms, and in partial response to the Russian defeat in the Sino-Japanese war. These imprints, published by the Union of the Russian People, bore the title, "Enemies of the Human Race" (translated from the Russian). It was first published (printed) in the English language in 1919 as two newspaper articles in the Philadelphia Public Ledger by the famous journalist and subsequent Columbia University professor and dean of the journalism department, Carl W. Ackerman, but all references to Jews were replaced by references to Bolsheviks and Bolshevism.[15] The Great Depression and the rise of Nazism were important developments in the history of the Protocols, and the hoax continued to be published and circulated despite its debunking.