Sisson Documents
Encyclopedia
The Sisson Documents are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the U.S.
Committee on Public Information
. Published as the German-Bolshevik conspiracy, they purported to demonstrate that during World War I
Trotsky and Lenin, as well as other Bolshevik
leaders, were agents in the pay of the German government
that used them to bring about Russia's withdrawal from the conflict. Their authenticity was debated even as they were widely publicized to discredit the Russian Revolution
.
In 1956, George F. Kennan
in an article in the Journal of Modern History claimed that they were forgeries.
, as managing editor
of Collier's Weekly
, and then as editor
of Cosmopolitan
before joining the Committee on Public Information (CPI), a wartime unit of the United States government that sought to control information and promote America's war effort principally on the home front but also overseas. He joined the CPI's central administration in April 1917. On October 27 of that year he left the United States for Russia to serve as the CPI's operative
there, but he arrived after the Bolsheviks had overthrown the Karensky government
and was frustrated in most of his efforts. He managed to recruit Russians to deliver U.S. propaganda
to Germany and also distributed a million Russian-language copies of President Wilson's
war message to the U.S. Congress.
He believed his greatest success came when he acquired the Sisson Documents in Petrograd in the spring of 1918. Sisson returned to the U.S. in May and became head of the CPI's Foreign Section in July 1918. His report describing the documents reached President Wilson on May 9, 1918, and the administration released them to the American press on September 15. Most of the press reported without question that the German General Staff had hired Lenin and Trotsky, discrediting the Russian revolutionaries.
The New York Evening Post challenged the authenticity of the Sisson Documents on September 21, 1918, saying they originated with Santeri Nuorteva
, a well-known Soviet propagandist who had worked for the Communist government the Bolsheviks had established in Finland
. Newspapers debated their authenticity for months. The New York Times reported the CPI's version of the documents in September and detailed the damaging charges, with the newspaper claiming:
The CPI produced a pamphlet based on the Sisson Documents called The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy and distributed 137,000 copies of it. It contained translations, a number of reproductions of the documents, and an analysis made by two prominent scholars for the National Board for Historical Service, J. Franklin Jameson
and Samuel Harper, that determined that most of the documents were genuine even if a few were questionable.
Sisson defended the documents as genuine in his 1931 memoir and again in his 1947 memoir.
After World War II, documents discovered in the German Foreign Office seemed to confirm that Imperial Germany had financed the Bolsheviks, but did not address the authenticity of the Sisson Documents.
In 1956, George F. Kennan
claimed that the Sisson Documents were forgeries and authored an article presenting his argument. His arguments were largely technical, "ranging from the use of suspicious letterheads and seals, to language discrepancies, to the presence of defunct dating systems..., to apparently forged signatures, and...evidence that the same typewriter had been used to prepare...documents emanating from different offices."His analysis of the decades-old controversy attracted little public attention, but it proved more important within the scholarly community. It challenged "the growing tendency in academia and government to conflate all forms of totalitarianism, in particular Nazism and Communism," and questioned the wisdom of scholarship's alliance with national interests.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Committee on Public Information
Committee on Public Information
The Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I...
. Published as the German-Bolshevik conspiracy, they purported to demonstrate that during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Trotsky and Lenin, as well as other Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
leaders, were agents in the pay of the German government
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
that used them to bring about Russia's withdrawal from the conflict. Their authenticity was debated even as they were widely publicized to discredit the Russian Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
.
In 1956, George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
in an article in the Journal of Modern History claimed that they were forgeries.
History
Sisson had worked as a reporter for the Chicago TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, as managing editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
of Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
, and then as editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
of Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
before joining the Committee on Public Information (CPI), a wartime unit of the United States government that sought to control information and promote America's war effort principally on the home front but also overseas. He joined the CPI's central administration in April 1917. On October 27 of that year he left the United States for Russia to serve as the CPI's operative
Foreign agent
A foreign agent is anyone who actively carries out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, but generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic mission. Foreign agents may be citizens of the host country...
there, but he arrived after the Bolsheviks had overthrown the Karensky government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
and was frustrated in most of his efforts. He managed to recruit Russians to deliver U.S. propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
to Germany and also distributed a million Russian-language copies of President Wilson's
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
war message to the U.S. Congress.
He believed his greatest success came when he acquired the Sisson Documents in Petrograd in the spring of 1918. Sisson returned to the U.S. in May and became head of the CPI's Foreign Section in July 1918. His report describing the documents reached President Wilson on May 9, 1918, and the administration released them to the American press on September 15. Most of the press reported without question that the German General Staff had hired Lenin and Trotsky, discrediting the Russian revolutionaries.
The New York Evening Post challenged the authenticity of the Sisson Documents on September 21, 1918, saying they originated with Santeri Nuorteva
Santeri Nuorteva
Santeri Nuorteva was a Finnish-Soviet journalist and one of the first members of the Finnish parliament. Nuorteva served in the Finnish parliament as a member of the Social Democratic Party from 1907–1908 and 1909–1910...
, a well-known Soviet propagandist who had worked for the Communist government the Bolsheviks had established in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Newspapers debated their authenticity for months. The New York Times reported the CPI's version of the documents in September and detailed the damaging charges, with the newspaper claiming:
- that the present heads of the Bolshevist governmentLenin and Trotsky and their associateare German agents...that the Bolshevist revolt was arranged for by the German Great General Staff and financed by the German Imperial Bank and other German financial institutions...that the Treaty of Brest-LitovskTreaty of Brest-LitovskThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
was a betrayal of the Russian people by German agents, Lenin and Trotsky; that a German-picked "commander" was chosen to defend Petrograd against the Germans; that German officers have been secretly received by the Bolshevist government as military advisers, as spies upon the embassies of Russia's allies, as officers in the Russian army, and as directors of the Bolshevist military, foreign and domestic policy...that the present Bolshevist government is not a Russian government at all, but a German government, acting solely in the interests of Germany, and betraying the Russian people, as it betrays Russia's natural allies, for the benefit of the Imperial German Government alone. And they show also that the Bolshevist leaders ...have equally betrayed the working classes of Russia whom they pretend to represent.
The CPI produced a pamphlet based on the Sisson Documents called The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy and distributed 137,000 copies of it. It contained translations, a number of reproductions of the documents, and an analysis made by two prominent scholars for the National Board for Historical Service, J. Franklin Jameson
J. Franklin Jameson
John Franklin Jameson was an American historian, author, and journal editor who played a major role in the professional activities of American historians in the early 20th century.-Early life:...
and Samuel Harper, that determined that most of the documents were genuine even if a few were questionable.
Sisson defended the documents as genuine in his 1931 memoir and again in his 1947 memoir.
After World War II, documents discovered in the German Foreign Office seemed to confirm that Imperial Germany had financed the Bolsheviks, but did not address the authenticity of the Sisson Documents.
In 1956, George F. Kennan
George F. Kennan
George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
claimed that the Sisson Documents were forgeries and authored an article presenting his argument. His arguments were largely technical, "ranging from the use of suspicious letterheads and seals, to language discrepancies, to the presence of defunct dating systems..., to apparently forged signatures, and...evidence that the same typewriter had been used to prepare...documents emanating from different offices."His analysis of the decades-old controversy attracted little public attention, but it proved more important within the scholarly community. It challenged "the growing tendency in academia and government to conflate all forms of totalitarianism, in particular Nazism and Communism," and questioned the wisdom of scholarship's alliance with national interests.