The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first published in 1903. It was serialized in the Russian Newspaper Znamia in St. Petersburg, Russia. Znamia was owned by Pavel Krushevan, who was an incredibly antisemitic writer who owned many other newspapers to promote antisemitism as well. Notably, the Protocols were written after one of Krushevan’s newspapers aided in inciting a pogrom, which is a riot meant to attack a minority group, in this case, the Jews. The pogrom occurred in April 1903 in Kishinev. Now known as the Kishinev Pogrom, this massacre caused the deaths of 49 Jews, leaving around 600 wounded or raped, while also damaging around 1500 Jewish homes. Months after this horrible massacre, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were published in Krushevan’s newspaper, Znamia. Although the author of this book has not been officially confirmed, many believe it was Krushevan who wrote it because although his newspaper published the book itself, he wrote the foreword and afterword.
Many have claimed that the Protocols were the meeting minutes of the First Zionist Congress that took place in Switzerland in 1897. Although the Protocols were obviously not the meeting minutes from this meeting, this event could have definitely influenced the writing of the Protocols, like the Kishinev Pogrom. Another event that could have inspired some of the writing in this book was the Dreyfus Affair, where a Jewish military officer was accused of treason in France. This affair played a role in the spread of antisemitism during that time. This affair has led to the theory that the Protocols were put together in Paris during this affair. According to the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, there is a possibility that agents of the Okhrana, which was a secret Russian police force, started to put together some of the ideas for this book while they were working in Paris during the affair. Overall, all of these events inspired the writing of this horrid book, and even though the exact author is unconfirmed, the book successfully spread antisemitism at the time that it was published, and has continued to be used in this way over a century later.
In 1905, the Protocols were published in the appendix of Sergei Nilus’s book The Great in the Small: The Coming of the Anti-Christ and the Rule of Satan on Earth, which said that Jews were trying to destroy the world. The Protocols circulated more broadly after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, but were proven to be false in 1920 by Lucien Wolf, a British Journalist who found a chapter in the 1868 German novel Biarritz that had many ideas found in the Protocols. This proved that the main ideas in the Protocols were false because they were taken straight from Biarritz. Alfred Rosenberg introduced the Protocols to Adolf Hitler in the 1920s, who referred to the Protocols in some of his earlier speeches, and they were later used in Nazi propaganda.
Another important piece of context to consider was the fact that the Second Industrial Revolution was also occurring when this book was published in 1903. Similar to the First Industrial Revolution, there was an upcoming sense of modernity and advancement with the rise of new technology during this time period. The new status quo was emerging, encouraging materialism due to mass production and new technology, while also encouraging more political discussion due to urbanization, which gave people the opportunity to discuss politics more since they were in closer proximity. Political discussions about social issues like harsh working conditions and welfare were becoming much more common. The author used many of these new trends and tendencies to paint the picture of the aggressive and evil secret Jewish administration, specifically by attacking these new ideas that were becoming the status quo, in order to get a rise out of people. For example, the Protocols often denounced and threatened education and liberty, which would have gotten a rise out of many of the readers at this time, instilling fear and even anger.
After learning more about the context behind this writing, it is even clearer that the Protocols are false (even though it was obvious based solely on the text itself) and were only meant to spread antisemitism. Although the Protocols were used by many antisemites in the 20th century to spread propaganda and false conspiracies, they are still relevant to this day, being the basis for many modern conspiracy theories in politics. Even though they have been proven to be false multiple times throughout history, the Protocols have unfortunately been a strong basis for antisemitism that is still being seen today.
References
“An Antisemitic Conspiracy: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion | Holocaust Encyclopedia.” 2024. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion.
“The pogrom that transformed 20th century Jewry — Harvard Gazette.” 2009. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/04/the-pogrom-that-transformed-20th-century-jewry/.
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” 2017. Jerusalem Institute of Justice. https://jij.org/news/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion/.
Reid, Scott A. 2025. “Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent document that served as a pretext and rationale for antisemitism mainly in the early 20th century. Investigations found that the document was a forgery compounded by officials of the Russian secret police out.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protocols-of-the-Elders-of-Zion.
Zipperstein, Steven. n.d. “Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History | Department of History.” Department of History. Accessed September 17, 2025. https://history.stanford.edu/publications/pogrom-kishinev-and-tilt-history.