The Rachkovsky Attribution: What Remains

dossier · 2026-04-20 · 7,500 words

Pyotr Rachkovsky, head of the Okhrana's Paris foreign agency from 1884 to 1902, is the most frequently named institutional author of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in scholarly literature. This dossier examines the evidentiary basis for that attribution with primary sources.

The attribution rests on a convergence of three testimonial sources, Catherine Radziwiłł (1921), Vladimir Burtsev (1934–1937), and the Bern Trial record (1934–1935), plus circumstantial evidence from Rachkovsky's documented methods of disinformation production. This dossier traces the attribution chain, identifies the specific evidentiary gaps that prevent confirmation, and frames the archival questions that remain open.

Threshold Press Dossier No. 3. By L.L. Featheringill.

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Table of Contents

  1. Abstract
  2. The Attribution in Scholarly Literature
  3. Editorial Stance
  4. Method
  5. Primary Findings (8 findings)
  6. Rachkovsky: What Is Documented
  7. The Attribution Chain: Radziwiłł → Burtsev → Cohn
  8. Golovinski: The Competing Candidate
  9. What a Confirmed Attribution Would Require
  10. What Remains Open
  11. Primary Source Inventory
  12. Notes

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