Sergei Alexandrovich Nilus

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Sergei Nilus ( Russian Сергей Александрович Нилус ., Scientific transliteration Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus , even Nilius; born August 25 . Jul / 6. September  1862 greg. In Moscow ; † 14. January 1929 ) was a Russian writer and religious anti-Semite .

His work The Great in Small ( Velikoje w malom ) was of particular importance, the second edition of which from 1905 included the first version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion published in book form . These Protocols of the Elders of Zion were and are one of the most influential anti-Semitic scriptures. Based on this publication, they have been translated into around 60 languages ​​(including German, English, Arabic, Japanese). They also inspired Adolf Hitler and had a considerable influence on National Socialism. But they also influenced anti-Semites and extremists in other countries, such as Henry Ford or the Japanese Aum sect , and more recently organizations such as Hamas .

The Minutes of the Elders of Zion are a forgery purporting to be the minutes of a meeting of twelve unnamed leaders of the Jewish people who developed a conspiracy to gain world domination. The conspiracy theory , according to which in the late 19th century right-wing came up Russian circles, liberal ideas and a lot of modern social and political developments are invariably the work of a great Jewish plan.

Life

Nilus, born in 1862, was the son of aristocratic parents who were wealthy in the Oryol area. His parents were more liberal and not very religious. Nilus studied law at Moscow University and briefly held a position as magistrate or judge in Transcaucasia . Soon he resigned and lived on the income from his estate. He was considered educated and should have spoken French, English and German well. He is said to have met the Russian mystic , miracle worker and preacher Johannes von Kronstadt (Iwan Iljitsch Sergiew; 1829–1908) here after 1900 and was converted to mysticism by him. He turned to the publication of mystical-religious writings. For example, he is said to have discovered conversations between Seraphim von Sarov and Justice of the Peace Nikolai Motovilow - including the famous conversation about the goal of the Christian life - and translated them under a large pile of papers . He worked this translation into his work The Great in Small , which appeared for the first time in 1903 - still without the appendix with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . In the second edition, published in 1905, he then included the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for the first time .

From 1907 to 1912 he lived near the Optina Pustyn monastery , where he worked in the monastery archives and had contact with the local starz . During this time he wrote most of his work, including a chronicle of the monastic life of Optina Pustyn in diary form (under the title On the Bank of God's River ). Other works dealt with the Egyptian desert fathers, Russian hermits, described encounters with starz, miracle workers and holy fools or told of true dreams, prophecies and the work of demonic powers. Between 1912 and 1917 Nilus lived in Waldai , then until 1923 on the estate of Prince Vladimir Sevachev, who later became Bishop Ioasaf von Mogilev. After the October Revolution , Nilus is said to have stood out as an opponent of the church renewal movement and, from 1927, the declaration of loyalty of the metropolitan and patriarchal administrator. He joined the Catacomb Church and was arrested several times. From 1923 he lived only for a short time in different places, especially in the Ukraine . He died of heart failure on January 14, 1929 in the house of a priest in the village of Krutez, about 120 km northeast of Moscow.

Different representations of the biography

There is a multitude of partly detailed, partly also fundamentally different depictions of the life of Nilus. Since Nilus stands at the starting point of one of the great conspiracy theories , he was mentioned primarily in literary works dealing with such theories, often with very different representations of himself.

Versions due to a trial in Bern and the Count du Chayla

When it comes to the curriculum vitae, many authors, e. B. Hadassa Ben-Itto , on the testimony of Russian witnesses at the Bern trial in 1934, in particular on information from Count Alexandre du Chayla . However, there are now indications that these statements were previously discussed among the witnesses. However, these statements, which were essentially those of Count du Chaya and which he also published several times, show considerable contradictions and the Count is a rather dubious figure.

According to this version, Nilus is said to have gone to France after he resigned from his judicial position and lived there with his lover Natalia Komarovskaya. There he is said to have fathered a child with her. Around 1894 he is said to have suffered a severe mental breakdown and as a result turned to a fanatical religious mysticism of the Russian Orthodox character. In the context of this mysticism he developed the idea of ​​a near end of the world with the end of religion and the monarchy in Russia, whereby this would be brought about by the Freemasons and the Jews. In 1900 he is said to have learned that his estate was about to bankrupt, after which he is said to have returned to Russia. He is said to have blamed the bankruptcy on the financial policy of the then rather liberal Finance Minister Sergei Witte , who he believed was part of the conspiracy he suspected. The publication of his mystical writings, in particular the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", is said to have attracted extreme right-wing court circles. The Grand Duchess Jelisaveta Feodorovna , the sister of the Tsarina, is said to have developed the plan in 1902 to make Nilus the confessor and advisor of the Tsar in order to minimize the influence of the French hypnotist Nizier Anthelme Philippe on the Tsar . For this purpose, Nilus was presented to the lady-in-waiting Jelena Alexandrovna Oserova (* 1855, † 1938). He married her in 1906. The plan is said to have failed because of his previous way of life, because the Russian clergy did not want to ordain him a priest because of his lover and the illegitimate son, even if he were married. Nilus is said to have retired to the Optina Pustyn monastery , where he is said to have shared a small apartment with his wife and lover. In 1905 the second edition of the book appeared, this time with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion . In 1910 a bishop is said to have been sent to check Nilus' state of mind. He then had to leave the monastery and stayed with friends or in other monasteries. There he continued to write mystical writings. Witnesses to the Bern trial only reported from hearsay that after the October Revolution he first went to Germany in 1918 or 1919, but then returned to Russia. He lived in southern Russia, was imprisoned twice and died on New Year's Day in 1930.

This version was also used in the fiction literature, e.g. B. gladly included in the comic Will Eisners.

Occasionally, it is claimed that Nilus is a pseudonym of an unknown author.

Nilus as a literary figure

In Umberto Eco's novel The Foucault Pendulum , Nilus is described as follows: “A wandering monk who wandered through the woods in gown-like robes, armed with a long prophet's beard, two women, a young daughter and an assistant or lover or whatever all hung on his lips. Half guru, one of those who then run off with the cash register, half hermit, one of those who keep screaming that the end is near. And actually his obsession was the Antichrist . "

Publication and drafting of the "protocols"

In 1905, that is certain, the second edition of The Great in Small was published , this time with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion attached. What is certain is that these "protocols" were already circulating in various forms in extreme right-wing Russian circles. In 1903 they were reprinted in continuation in the extremist newspaper Znamia . How Nilus got the "protocols" is unclear, however.

His own positions on this are already profoundly contradicting.

  • In the foreword to the second edition of his book, he initially claimed that he had received it from a prominent Russian conservative whose name he did not mention. This got it from an unknown woman who is said to have stolen it from a high-ranking Freemason at a meeting in France.
  • In a later edition, Nilus claimed that a friend of his had stolen the logs himself, this time in Switzerland.
  • In 1917, in the foreword of the fourth edition, Nilus claimed that the minutes had been read out at the Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. All in all, Nilu's statements about the origin of the protocols cannot be believed.
  • The most widespread assumption is that the "Protocols" were originally a forgery by the Ochrana , the tsarist secret service. They had been commissioned by Pyotr Ratschkowski , the Ochrana's chief agent in Europe, and written in French by his assistant Matwei Golowinski in Paris. The purpose was to discredit Finance Minister Sergei Yulievich Witte's policy with the Tsar. The "protocols" were then passed on to Nilus or reached him in a roundabout way. He then willingly integrated them into his work. This assumption was confirmed by the witnesses at the trial in the 1930s before the Bern court.
  • Cesare G. de Michelis thinks in his book The Non-Existent Manuscript. A Study of the Protocols of Sages of Zion to be able to prove through text analysis that the original text must not have been French but Russian and that it developed gradually in extreme Russian circles. Presumably the original and later modified text was written in right-wing extremist circles at the end of the 19th century .
  • It is also argued that Nilus came across one of the specimens circulating there during his stay at the tsar's court. This theory is compatible with both the former and the latter.

About 40% of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a satire by Maurice Joly against Napoléon III. was taken. The satire is a dialogue between Macchiavelli and Montesquieu about politics in 25 dialogues. Machiavelli's cynical statements - and some Montesquieu - were attributed to the nameless participants in the meeting. Another source was the book Biarritz by Hermann Goedsche, published in 1896 , which he had published under the pseudonym John Retcliffe . This had been widespread in extremist circles in Russia in various copies and translations since the 1870s. This is where the framework story at the Prague Jewish Cemetery and the claim that these meetings take place every hundred years come from. This was proven back in 1921 in articles by Philip Graves in the Times , which had previously benevolently discussed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which appeared in English translation in 1920 .

Dissemination of the "protocols"

In Russia, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion soon achieved considerable dissemination even in the highest circles. After the shooting of the tsarist family by the Bolsheviks , the tsarina found not only a Bible but also the fourth edition of Nilus The Great in Small with the protocols attached.

After the October Revolution and during the Russian Civil War , the “White” counterrevolutionary forces printed the “Protocols” in large numbers and distributed them to the troops as propaganda material . This writing also came across Allied troops (Japanese, French, English) fighting on the side of the White Armies , but also to German units on Russian territory. Furthermore, the Russian emigrants took the script with them into their exile .

In the Soviet Union , the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were banned. In the meantime, Nilus's writings have grown in popularity overall in religious and nationalist Russian circles.

Sergei Nilus Prize

A Sergei Nilus Prize has been awarded annually in Russia since 2002 for literary contributions to the spiritual life in Russia. The designation of the price has been criticized internationally for its anti-Semitic work.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sergei Nilus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Hagemeister:  Nilus, Sergej Aleksandrovic. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1063-1067.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  2. ↑ An overview can be found in Michael Hagemeister, Sergej Nilus and the "Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion" - reflections on the research situation , revised version of a lecture, dated December 14, 1994 at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin
  3. ↑ Hadassa Ben-Itto: 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' Anatomy of a fake . Structure, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-7466-8070-5 ; so also Cesare G. De Michelis, The Non-Existent Manuscript. A Study of the Protocols of Sages of Zion. Lincoln, 2004.
  4. ^ Cesare G. de Michelis, Richard Newhouse: The Non-Existent Manuscript. A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2004, ISBN 0-8032-1727-7 , pp. 419 (English, online [PDF; 65 kB ; accessed on January 7, 2017]).
  5. ^ Memories of Count du Chaya, first published in the Paris newspapers Poslednie Novosti and Jewrejskaja tribuna from May 12 to 14, 1921.
  6. ↑ Michael Hagemeister, Sergej Nilus and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - reflections on the research situation , revised version of a lecture, dated December 14, 1994 at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin
  7. ↑ The plot. The True Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (comic book). DVA 2005.
  8. ↑ For example Luigi Bauco / Francesco Millocca: The secret of the pendulum decrypted - Umberto Eco's new world bestseller 'The Foulcault Pendulum' , 3rd edition Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-04324-3 , keyword: Nilus, Sergej; Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh , The Heirs of the Grail.
  9. ↑ On these contradictions in Nilus' assertions, see Irene Harand in her book His Struggle from 1935.
  10. ^ Lenni Brenner, The Protocols Of Zion - A Literary Forgery
personal data
SURNAME Nilus, Sergei Alexandrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Нилус, Сергей Александрович (Russian); Nilus, Sergej Aleksandrovič (scientific transliteration); Nilus, Sergei Alexandrovich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION religious Russian writer and anti-Semite
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1929