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Related article: Protocols of the Elders of Zion as it relates to the New World Order
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax with a complex publication history. It appeared in print in the Russian empire (in Russian) as early as 1903. The tract was published in Znamya, a newspaper owned by Pavel Krushevan, as a serialized set of articles. It appeared again in 1905 as a final chapter of a second edition of a book, by Serge Nilus, about the Antichrist. In 1906 it appeared in pamphlet form edited by G. Butmi.
By 1920 several diverse editions and imprints appeared in the Russian language, but it appeared that year in English translation under different titles; in London, published by Eyre & Spottiswoode, under the lead title The Jewish Peril; in Boston, published by Small, Maynard & Company, under the lead title The Protocols and World Revolution; and in New York City, published by The Beckwith Company, under the lead title Praemonitus Praemunitus. Each was edited anonymously, but the editors are now known to have been George Shanks, Boris Brasol, and Harris A. Houghton, respectively. In 1923 there appeared an anonymously edited pamphlet, allegedly a translation by Victor E. Marsden, who died in October of 1920.
Also in 1920 two commentaries or secondary sources were published in Great Britain and the United States, titled respectively as The Cause of World Unrest, associated with the name of H. A. Gwynne (editor of The Morning Post), and The International Jew, associated with the name of Henry Ford.
The text is difficult to pin down in any language because it is published by different antisemitic entities, with diverse front matter and back matter, authored anonymously, alleging that the manuscript was stolen from a secret Jewish organization in Paris, France. There is no “authorized” or “standard” edition. The plot, summarized and derived from these different editions, involves a conspiracy theory alleging that Jews, and/or Masons, are aiming to “take over the world”, or achieve “world domination”. Most versions, however, substantially involve “protocols”, or minutes of a speech given in secret involving Jews who are organized as Elders, or Sages, of Zion, and underlies 24 protocols that are supposedly followed by the Jewish people. The Protocols has been proven to be a literary forgery and hoax as well as a clear case of plagiarism.