GREGORY ZINOVIEV

This letter caused the Labor Government of Ramsay MacDonald to lose power to the Conservatives. The Conservatives claimed that the British labor movement was in cahoots with the Russian Communists to use British unions to promote Communism and spread propaganda. In 1924 many Laborites claimed that the letter was a forgery and had been planted by the Conservatives who had pulled other dirty tricks before to smear Labor. However, all the British newspapers ran copies of the letter and Labor lost the election. Historians almost all agree that the letter is a forgery because in other parts of the letter, talking about the Russian program, several errors were made describing the Communist program at the time. Gregory Zinoviev, a high ranking member of the Russian Cominterm, would almost certainly have not made these mistakes. Regardless of the fact that it is a forgery, to this day, it is still referred to as the “Zinoviev Letter,”

This letter caused the Labor Government of Ramsay MacDonald to lose power to the Conservatives. The Conservatives claimed that the British labor movement was in cahoots with the Russian Communists to use British unions to promote Communism and spread propaganda. In 1924 many Laborites claimed that the letter was a forgery and had been planted by the Conservatives who had pulled other dirty tricks before to smear Labor. However, all the British newspapers ran copies of the letter and Labor lost the election. Historians almost all agree that the letter is a forgery because in other parts of the letter, talking about the Russian program, several errors were made describing the Communist program at the time. Gregory Zinoviev, a high ranking member of the Russian Cominterm, would almost certainly have not made these mistakes. Regardless of the fact that it is a forgery, to this day, it is still referred to as the “Zinoviev Letter,”