Zinoviev Letter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Zinoviev Letter" is thought to have been instrumental in the Conservative Party's victory in the United Kingdom general election, 1924, which ended the country's first Labour government.
In 1999, an official enquiry[1] finally determined that the letter had probably been a concoction by elements of the SIS (MI6) based in Riga, Latvia to help the Conservatives defeat Labour in the 1924 election. In 2006, a new biography of Desmond Morton, Churchill's Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence by Gill Bennett, confirmed that it was a hoax perpetrated by Morton, then with the Secret Intelligence Service of the British government.[2]
The letter was allegedly addressed from Grigori Zinoviev, president of the presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (Comintern), and Arthur MacManus, the British representative on the presidium, to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It purported to advocate intensified Communist agitation in Britain, not least in the armed forces.
Published in the conservative British Daily Mail newspaper four days before the election, the letter came at a sensitive time also in relations between Britain and the Soviet Union, owing to Conservative opposition to the forthcoming parliamentary ratification of the Anglo-Soviet trade agreement of August 8.
Dated September 15, 1924, the letter is generally thought to be a forgery. Although much of its content otherwise persuasively echoes Comintern vocabulary, the letter contains errors (such as "Executive Committee, Third Communist International" — a nonsensical title) which led many even at the time to denounce it as a hoax.
A particularly damaging section of the document identified the normalization of inter-governmental relations under the Anglo-Soviet agreement as an opportune moment for increased Soviet propaganda activity within the British Labour movement:
- "A settlement of relations between the two countries will assist in the revolutionizing of the international and British proletariat not less than a successful rising in any of the working districts of England, as the establishment of close contact between the British and Russian proletariat, the exchange of delegations and workers, etc. will make it possible for us to extend and develop the propaganda of ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies."
British Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald's attempts to cast doubt on the letter's authenticity were hampered by its widespread acceptance among government officials. MacDonald "felt like a man sewn in a sack and thrown into the sea", he told his Cabinet on October 31 as they prepared to leave office.
The Soviet authorities for their part were prevented by poor communication with the Moscow-based ECCI from delivering the immediate unequivocal refutation of the letter required following a British Foreign Office protest note of October 24: not until November 17 did the ECCI even discuss the matter. On November 21 Britain's new Conservative government repudiated the unratified treaty.
An 11-month study by British Foreign Office chief historian Gill Bennett, undertaken with the assistance of Russian archivists, concluded (January 1999) that the document was probably forged at the behest of "White [i.e. anti-communist] Russian intelligence services" to "derail the treaties and damage the Labour government”. 'Head office' British intelligence responsibility for the letter was "inherently unlikely" as it "implied a degree of cohesion and control, not to mention political will, which simply did not exist".
Anthony Eden, Prime Minister from 1955–57, reputedly believed that the letter was the work of MI5.
[edit] In fiction
The letter appears in Donald Jack's novel This One's On Me, in which the narrator, Bartholomew Bandy, has his knowledge of revolutionary Russia exploited when he unwittingly helps produce the Zinoviev document.
The Zinoviev letter is also featured prominently in the Thames television production of "Reilly: Ace of Spies," detailing the exploits of the famous British spy and anti-Bolshevik agent Sidney Reilly. In the 10th episode, entitled "The Trust" diplomat and Conservative party member Sir Mark Sykes presents the head of British Intelligence with a copy of the Zinoviev document, as well a letter of authenticity from Reilly himself. Despite protestations that the letter is an obvious forgery designed to scuttle the impending Anglo-Soviet trade agreement, Sykes threatens to release the letter with the obvious and intended effect being the downfall of the Labour government. Later, Sidney Reilly is asked by British Intelligence to officially repudiate the Zinoviev letter. He refuses and the letter is ultimately made public.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Telegraph, 5 February 1999.
- ^ Zinoviev Letter in SIS forgery (no) Shock, The Poor Mouth.
The National Archives Your Archives wiki has an article on the Zinoviev letter at [1].
