| The Protocols |
|---|
 |
| First publication ofThe Protocols |
| Writers, editors, and publishers associated withThe Protocols |
| Debunkers ofThe Protocols |
| Commentaries onThe Protocols |
Matvei Vasilyevich Golovinski (alternatively,Mathieu) (Russian:Матвей Васильевич Головинский) (6 March 1865 – 1920) was a Russian-French writer, journalist andpolitical activist. Critics studyingThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion have argued that he was the author of the work. This claim is reinforced by the writings of modern Russian historian Mikhail Lepekhine, who in 1999 studied previously closed French archives stored in Moscow containing information supporting Golovinski's authorship. Back in the mid-1930s, Russian testimony in theBerne Trial had linked the head of Russian security service in Paris,Pyotr Rachkovsky, to the creation ofThe Protocols.
Matvei Golovinski was born into anaristocratic family in the village ofIvashevka (Ивашевка), in theSyzransky Uyezd of theSimbirsk Governorate of theRussian Empire. His father, Vasili Golovinski (Василий Головинский) was a friend ofFyodor Dostoyevsky. Both were members of the progressivePetrashevsky Circle, sentenced to thecapital punishment as conspirators and both were pardoned later. Vasili Golovinski died in 1875 and Matvei Golovinski was reared by his mother and the French nanny.
While studyingjurisprudence, Golovinski joined anantisemiticcounter-revolutionary groupHoly Brotherhood ("Святое Братство").[1] Upon graduation, he worked for theOkhrana, secretly arranging pro-government coverage in the press. Golovinski's career almost collapsed and he had to leave the country after his activities were publicly exposed byMaxim Gorky. InFrance, he wrote and published articles on assignments of the Chief of Russian secret service inParis,Pyotr Rachkovsky.
After theOctober Revolution of 1917, Golovinsky switched sides and worked for theBolsheviks[citation needed] until his death in 1920.
On 19 November 1999, Patrick Bishop reported from Paris:
Research by a leading Russian historian, Mikhail Lepekhine, in recently opened archives has found the forgery to be the work of Mathieu Golovinski, opportunistic scion of an aristocratic but rebellious family that drifted into a life of espionage and propaganda work. After working for the czarist secret service, he later changed sides and joined the Bolsheviks. Mr. Lepekhine’s findings, published in the French magazineL'Express, would appear to clear up the last remaining mystery surrounding theProtocols.[1]
In his 2001 bookThe Question of the Authorship of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a Ukrainian scholarVadim Skuratovsky offers a scrupulous and extensive literary, historical and linguistic analysis of the originalRussian language text of theProtocols. Skuratovsky provides evidence that Charles Joly, a son ofMaurice Joly (on whose writings theProtocols are based), visitedSaint Petersburg in 1902 and that Golovinsky and Charles Joly worked together atLe Figaro in Paris. Skuratovsky also traces the influences of Dostoyevsky's prose (in particular,The Grand Inquisitor andThe Possessed) on Golovinsky's writings, includingThe Protocols.
In his bookThe Non-Existent Manuscript. A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion, Italian researcherCesare De Michelis writes[2] that the hypothesis of Golovinski's authorship was based on a statement by PrincessCatherine Radziwill, who claimed that she had seen a manuscript of the Protocols written by Golovinsky,Rachkovsky and Manusevich in 1905, but in 1905 Golovinsky and Rachkovsky had already leftParis and moved toSaint-Petersburg. Princess Radziwill was known to be an unreliable source. Also, the protocols had been mentioned already in the press in 1902.[3]
Golovinski had been linked to the work before; the German writerKonrad Heiden identified him as an author of theProtocols in 1944.[4]
Published under the pen-name of Doctor Faust:
Research by a leading Russian historian, Mikhail Lepekhine, in recently opened archives has found the forgery to be the work of Mathieu Golovinski, opportunistic scion of an aristocratic but rebellious family who drifted into a life of espionage and propaganda work.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
