The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

The Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion ({{lang-ru|????????? ???????? ???????? or ???????? ?????????}}) is a fraudulent document purporting to describe a plan to achieve Jewish global domination.

Related Topics:
Fraud - Jew - Global domination

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It was first published abridged in series from August 28 to September 7 (O.S.), 1903 in Saint Petersburg daily newspaper ????? (Znamya, The Banner) by Pavel Krushevan who four months earlier initiated the Kishinev pogrom. {{ref|Krushevan}}

Related Topics:
O.S. - 1903 - Saint Petersburg - Pavel Krushevan - Kishinev pogrom

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There is evidence that the text was written by an operative of the Imperial Russian Okhranka Matvei Golovinski and was based on an early work by Maurice Joly linking Napoleon III to Machiavelli. For Tsar Nicholas II, who was fearful of modernization and protective of his monarchy, it would have been convenient to present the growing revolutionary movement as part of a powerful world conspiracy and blame the Jews for Russia's problems.

Related Topics:
Imperial Russia - Okhranka - Matvei Golovinski - Maurice Joly - Napoleon III - Machiavelli - Tsar - Nicholas II - Growing revolutionary movement

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The Encyclopædia Britannica describes the Protocols as a "fraudulent document that served as a pretext and rationale for anti-Semitism in the early 20th century".

Related Topics:
Encyclopædia Britannica - Anti-Semitism - 20th century

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The overwhelming majority of historians in the United States of America and Europe have long agreed that the document is fraudulent; this has also been stated in a number of court cases worldwide, e.g., as early as the 1930s in Bern, Switzerland. In 1993 a district court in Moscow, Russia, formally ruled that the Protocols were faked in dismissing a libel suit by the ultra-nationalist Pamyat organization, which had been criticized for using them in their anti-Semitic publications.{{ref|Pamyat}}

Related Topics:
United States of America - Europe - Bern - Switzerland - 1993 - Moscow - Russia - Libel - Ultra-nationalist - Pamyat

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The Protocols is accepted as factual in some parts of the world in which people hold negative opinions of Jews or Israel, as well as in countries such as Japan, where some believe it can be read as a textbook description of means to obtain power. In the current conflicts in the Middle East, the Protocols is sometimes used as evidence of Jewish conspiracy. {{ref|UN}}

Related Topics:
Israel - Japan - Middle East - Conspiracy

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The Protocols are widely considered the beginning of contemporary conspiracy theory literature, such as None Dare Call It Conspiracy and Conspirators Hierarchy: The Committee of 300. The book is popular among those interested in conspiracy theories, although most of them consider it to be false. It has often been declared a major influence to every other book concerning conspiracy theories. Other editions study its great influence in Anti-Semitism during the previous century.

Related Topics:
Conspiracy theory - Conspiracy theories

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Some recent editions proclaim that the "Jews" as depicted in the Protocols are used as a cover identity for other conspirators such as the Illuminati, Freemasons, or even aliens {{ref|aliens}}. Other minor groups that believe in its authenticity have claimed that the book does not depict the way that all Jews think and act but only of those belonging to an alleged secret elite of Zionists.

Related Topics:
Illuminati - Freemason - Zionists

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