Cesare G. De Michelis

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Cesare G. De Michelis, (b. Rome), scholar and professor of Russian Literature at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy — not to be confused with his omonimous cousin, Cesare De Michelis, professor of Italian Literature at the University of Padua, Italy. He is also an authority on the notorious plagiarism known as Protocols of Zion.

The Non-Existent Manuscript:

A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion

(Studies in Antisemitism Series)

University of Nebraska Press, 2004)

424 [i-v, 1-419] pages

ISBN 0-8032-1727-7

We are informed by this post-World War II scholar on the subject that twenty-odd editions had appeared in Russia between 1903 and 1912. He himself gives the text the acronymous name, "PSM," from its Russian title (romanized), "Protocoly sionskix mudrecov". He also informs us that in 1919 PMS entered the "world at large" in "German, Swedish, Polish, English, Hungarian, and French editions." But that the first edition in his native Italian only appeared in 1921.

Arguably this is the most important English language work on the notorious anti-Semitic plagiarism, fraud, and hoax most commonly known by the title Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion since the publication of Norman Cohn's "Warrant for Genocide" in 1967/1970.

But the work is more than that. Pages 183 - 395, consisting of 212, is an alleged reconstruction of the original Russian edition of the transliterated three-word title, "Protocols of the Zionist Elders." Pages 1 - 182 and 396 - 419, consisting of 5 + 182 + 23 = 215 scholarly pages. So that we may say that half of the book reconstructs the notorious anti-Semitic plagiarised forgery, while the other half is the close, scholarly, textual, philological, and bibliographical study of this subsequent "Warrant for Genocide." The author claims that he has identified and authenticated nine (9) distinct printings of five (5) editions of this single text--nine tokens of the same five (5) type, so to speek, of a single text or title, and he proceeds to give each of the nine monary or binary alphabumeric labels as follows:

    1:     K     Krusevan, P./Krushevan               (1903)
    2:     L     Ljutostanskij, I./Lutostanski, I.    (1904)
    3:     A1    Anonymous 1                          (1905)
    4:     A2    Anonymous 2                          (1905)
    5:     N     Nilus                                (1905)
    6:     B     Butmi                                (1906a)
    7:     B3    Butmi                                (1906a)
    8:     D     Demcenko                             (1906)
    9:     R1    Begunov                              [1996]
    10:    R2    ???                                  (1905)
    11:    R3    ???                                  (1906)
    12:    R4    ???                                  (1906)
    13:    I     Begunov                              [1917]/[1996]

Although the writing, translation, literary style, and physical layout make reading De Michelis difficult at best, it is clear that only he made the most complete effort to come closest to the original or initial fraudulent plagiarism before subsequent anti-Semitic editors and translators appeared in later years to further distort the initial hoax.

How De Michelis was able to get his hands on the rare 1903 edition of this Znamya ("Banner") is an open question. But he is nevertheless able to give us an exact reference to the content of this daily newspaper. He says that the paper, on specific successive days, published the plagerism as an authentic reproduction of a document, under the newspaper headline, "Programa zavoevanija mira evrejami," which he translates into English as, "The Jewish Programme for the Conquest of the World." But, we are informed by De Michelis, the actual title of the purported authentic document, is given to it by the translator. In Russian, we have the following title of the document published by the newspaper: Protokoly zasedanij "vsemirnogo sojuza franmasonov i sionskix mudrecov." This De Michelis translates into English as {The protocols of the sessions of the "World Alliance of Freemasons and of the Sages of Zion"}. We therefore learn, thanks to his apparent meticulous scholarly research, that our hateful plagerism was first saw the light of day in St. Petersburg, Russia, on nine (9) almost successive days--on September 5-6, 1903 [= September 18-19, 1903], for two (2) days the paper took a break, for unknown reasons, from its hateful publication. The specific issues which are here under discussion are the following:

  No. 190(28 August [10 September]): 2; 2,
  No. 191(29 August [11 September]): 2; 3,
  No. 192(30 August [12 September]): 2; 4,
  No. 193(31 August [13 September]): 1-2; 5,
  No. 194(1 [14] September): 1-2; 6,
  No. 195(2 [15] September): 1-2; 7,
  No. 196(3 [16] September): 2; 8,
  No. 197(4 [17] September): 2; 9,
  No. 200(7 [20] September): 2.

De Michelis has given the world the most precise, thorough, and complete study of the subsequently titled Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion that exists so far. His work also may be said to present us with the definitive Russian language edition of the complete restored text. The question remains as to whether or not the alleged original French language edition of the late nineteenth century ever existed, or whether it is worth while to translate this new restored "complete" edition into English for further scholarly puposes, or whether anti-Semites will do it for their own purposes.