History & Ancient Civilizations Theories

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an antisemitic forgery first published in the Russian newspaper Znamya in 1903 by Pavel Krushevan, with later editions promoted by Pyotr Rachkovsky of the Okhrana (Tsarist secret police). The text plagiarises Maurice Joly's 1864 satirical Dialogue aux Enfers (targeting Napoleon III) and elements of Hermann Goedsche's 1868 novel Biarritz. Times of London journalist Philip Graves documented the direct plagiarism in August 1921. Henry Ford serialised the text in the Dearborn Independent (1920–22). Swiss Bern Trial (1933–35) declared it a forgery, though overturned on technicality in 1937. The text has been used by the Hamas Charter (1988), Iranian state media, and white supremacist organisations. Verdict: debunked.

A fabricated antisemitic text, first published in Russia in 1903, claiming to document a Jewish plan for world domination. Extensively proven a forgery — plagiarized from Maurice Joly's 1864 Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (a satire about Napoleon III, not Jews).