Victor E. Marsden - Translated Protocols

Translated Protocols

The first English language publication of this text was in London in 1920. However, prior to its publication, the Morning Post, in 1920, utilized the text as a basis of 17, or 18 (depending on which authority is cited), articles making antisemitic allegations against the Jews. Thereafter, but that same year, the paper published a book on the same matter, entitled The Cause of World Unrest. Marsden is generally credited with a translation of the Protocols around this time. Marsden continues to be associated with most subsequent American English language imprints of the text, known by many different titles, but most briefly, as the Protocols of Zion. In that regard he is only second to Serge Nilus.

The first British English language edition, titled The Jewish Peril, whose Preface is dated, London, December 2, 1919, was published anonymously, but has subsequently been discovered to have been translated by George Shanks, an employee of The Morning Post (London). The publisher was Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd. edition.

The so-called Marsden translation first appears in 1923. The librarian and bibliographer, Robert Singerman, identifies the following as the first Marsden imprint:

Singerman 0147
Victor E. Marsden
"Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion"
Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion
Translated from the Russian Text by Victor E. Marsden
(London: The Britons, 1923)
"The Marsden translation has become the standard English Text."

Singerman lists the Wiener Library (London) as having this imprint. That library has the following catalog entry for the Marsden imprint:

: Protocols of the meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion
Author: Victor E. Marsden, Victor E. Marsden
Language: English
Place of publication: London
Publisher: The Britons
Year of publication: 1923
Pagination: 75 p.
Material: Microfilm
Notes: Translated from the Russian text. - Not indexed
Accession number: 97484
Shelfmark: 388/Z180

The British Library holds and describes the following imprint in its catalog record:

System number 009601120
Author - personal Nilus.
Title Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion / translated from the Russian Text by Victor E. Marsden.
Publisher/year London : The Britons Publishing Society, .
Physical descr. 65 p. ; 21 cm.
Holdings (All) Details
Shelfmark W73/5522 DSC Request

In 1978, Colin Holmes wrote that George Shanks, a British citizen born in Russia, first translated the text into English for The Britons — a publishing entity which subsequently became "The Britons Publishing Society."

Marsden is explicitly associated with the 1934 edition, however, and its subsequent imprints. Marsden worked as a correspondent for The Morning Post, a conservative London daily newspaper. On assignment he reported on events in Russia. As a consequence of the October Revolution, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was subsequently released and returned home to England. Marsden's name is associated with the 1934 text issued by "THE PATRIOTIC PUBLISHING CO." as the "author of the translation."

The standard work on the Protocols of Zion has been for some time Norman Cohn's Warrant for Genocide. Cohn only mentions Marsden in a single page, saying that the "Morning Post accepted everything it was told by its correspondent in Russia, Victor Marsden" and "Marsden was an Englishman who had lived many years in Russia and had adopted, with passion, the outlook of Russian right-wingers... Marsden went further and produced a new translation of the Protocols (it is still on sale in London today)." That is all we are told about Marsden by Cohn.