The Protocols of the Elders of Zion began to circulate more broadly after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. That year, the Russian tsar abdicated his throne in the midst of a popular uprising. Demonstrators demanded food, the end of World War I, and an end to the tsar’s imperial rule. Several months later, the Bolshevik Party seized power in Russia in a coup known as the Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik Party later became known as the Communist Party.
Fear of similar Communist revolutions spreading throughout Europe reinforced one of the main antisemitic conspiracy theories contained in the Protocols: that Jews were to blame for Communism and for plotting this revolution. This false accusation is often referred to as “Judeo-Bolshevism.”
In the following years, the Protocols found receptive audiences in many other countries. It was translated into dozens of languages and published around the world. A German-language edition appeared in Germany in 1919. During the 1920s, versions of the Protocols surfaced across Europe and in the United States. There was a French translation in Paris, as well as English translations in London, New York, and Boston. Editions soon could be found in Japanese (1920), Italian (1921), Swedish (1921), Norwegian (1921), and Polish (1923). An Arabic translation was available in Syria by 1925.
The Protocols inspired many other books that promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. Among the best known in the United States was Henry Ford’s The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem. Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He was one of the most famous and respected people in the United States by the 1920s. The International Jew was first serialized in Ford’s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. It was quickly published as a book and translated into at least 16 languages, including German. Nazi Party leaders, among them Adolf Hitler, took inspiration from The International Jew.
As the Protocols circulated around the world, the specifics of the text often were modified to address current events and local circumstances. This is one reason why the content of the Protocols varies from edition to edition and language to language. Nevertheless, the core antisemitic ideas in all versions remain the same.