15. The Spread of an Insidious Hoax
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion slowly spread out from Sergei Nilus and his conservative circles. Eventually, the forgery caught on, went viral, and gained traction throughout Russia and the world beyond. For years after their creation, the Protocols had languished in relative obscurity, confined to Russian right wingers. That changed with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Bolshevik seizure of power later that year. The conservatives had plenty of anti-Semites, and they sought to discredit the Revolution with a myth that depicted it as part of a vast Jewish conspiracy for global dominance.
Their claims resonated, and it did not take long for the forgery to go from a Russian right wing curiosity to a global phenomenon. In Britain, The Morning Post published the Protocols, with an introduction that warned its readers of the Jewish plot: ” …the Jews are carrying it out with steadfast purpose, creating wars and revolutions…to destroy the white Gentile race, that the Jews may seize the power during the resulting chaos and rule with their claimed superior intelligence over the remaining races of the world, as kings over slaves.”
