The Zinoviev Letter: A Reappraisal

Abstract

The letter commonly known to-day as 'the Zinoviev letter' is said to have been sent by Zinoviev, the Russian President of the Third International in Moscow, to the Central Committee of the British Communist Party in London, on 15 September 1924. Inflammatory in tone it urged the leaders of the British Communist Party to stir up revolution amongst the factory workers and the armed forces of Great Britain. In October a copy of the letter reached the Foreign Office. After learning that the letter itself had arrived at the headquarters of the British Communist Party the Foreign Office came to the conclusion that it was genuine and decided to publish it. It appeared in the Times on 25 October together with an official note of protest to Rakovsky, the Russian charge d'affaires in London. By means unknown to the Foreign Office at the time, Thomas Marlowe, the editor of the Daily Mail, had already 48 hours earlier obtained two copies of the letter, and he too published it on 25 October and at the same time distributed it to the rest of the British press.1 Rakovsky immediately denied the authenticity of the letter2 and this was the attitude maintained by the Soviet Government throughout. It was echoed in 1924 not only by the TUC3 but by the majority of Ramsay Macdonald's Labour Government before it fell from office at the end of the month.4 But the Conservative Government which succeeded it set up a cabinet committee to investigate the matter and this committee unanimously decided that the letter was authentic.5 Controversy has raged ever since as to whether it was authentic or not, how it was leaked to the Daily Mail, and what exactly was the part played by the Foreign Office in view of Macdonald's subsequent assertion that he had not intended it to be published. There is no doubt that the importance of the letter was much exaggerated at the time, since it is now generally agreed that it was in