Sergei Nilus

Photograph of Sergei Nilus, published in the frontispiece of a 1934 English translation of theProtocols.

Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus(alsoSergius,and variants;Russian:Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Ни́лус;9 September [O.S.28 August] 1862 – 14 January 1929) was a Russian religious writer, self-describedmystic,and prolific anti-Semite.

His bookVelikoe v malom i antikhrist, kak blizkaja politicheskaja vozmozhnost. Zapiski pravoslavnogo( "The Great within the Small and Antichrist, an Imminent Political Possibility. Notes of an Orthodox Believer", 1903), about the coming of theAntichrist,is now primarily known for the fact that in its second edition, in 1905, Nilus published thepseudohistoryProtocols of the Elders of Zionas his final chapter. This was the first time that this text was published in full in Russia (an abridged version had reportedly been published in 1903 in the newspaperZnamya). He wrote a number of further books, mostly on topics ofthe end timesand the Antichrist, published between 1908 and 1917. After theRussian Revolution,his warning of the coming of the Antichrist were interpreted as a warning of the impending communist revolution, and his works were banned asanti-Soviet propagandain theSoviet Union.

Life

Sergei Nilus was born on 9 September [O.S.28 August] 1862 inMoscow,the son of Alexander Petrovich Nilus, a landowner in the governorate ofOrel.His father was aLutheranofLivonianextraction (the surname Nilus is a Livonian form of Nicholas), his mother was from Russian nobility. Sergei was baptized in theRussian Orthodox Church.He studiedlawand graduated from theUniversity of Moscow,and was a magistrate inTranscaucasia.He later moved toBiarritz,living there with amistressnamed Natalya Komarovskaya until his estates went bankrupt and she broke off their relationship. Though he was raised in theRussian Orthodox Church,Nilus did not care much about his religion until an accident with his horse caused him to recall an unfulfilled childhood vow to visit theTroitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.Later he met St.John of Kronstadt,whom Nilus credited with both healing a throat infection and turning him back to his Christian faith.

In 1903, Nilus published his bookVelikoye v malom i antikhrist kak blizkaya politicheskaya vozmozhnost'. Zapiski pravoslavnogo veruyushchego(The Great Within the Small and Antichrist, an Imminent Political Possibility. Notes of an Orthodox Believer). The text of theProtocolsappeared as Chapter Twelve of the 1905 reprint of the book. The newly appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers,Pyotr Stolypin,ordered an investigation into the provenance of the text, and it was soon discovered that it had first appeared in antisemitic circles inParis,around the year 1897 or 1898.

In 1906, Nilus married Yelena Alexandrovna Ozerova, who had served as a lady-in-waiting toAlexandra Feodorovna,last empress of Russia. In 1907, the Niluses moved into a small house just outside theOptina MonasterynearKozelsk,where he lived until 1912. During that time he published several books on spiritual topics. One, intriguingly, was to become his most widely read book and one which thelast TsarandEmpresswere to read during their last incarceration at theIpatiev House,On the Banks of the River of God,a diary of Nilus' years at Optina, of his conversations with the many OrthodoxStaretsliving there, and particularly of how they viewed the increasingDe-ChristianizationofRussian cultureeven long before theOctober Revolution.

For example, Nilus wrote, "A nun arrived... and told me that it is impossible now for nuns to travel by train: there is no abuse, mockery, oroaththat Satanic malice will not pour down on their poor heads... She has to put on a dark blue skirt so as to pass for a peaceable old woman, since otherwise she would be unable to walk down the aisle for all the cursing of monasteries and those who practice the monastic life. Such is Holy Rus! The poor people! Pitiful Russia! "

At another point in the same book, an Optina Starets confided in Nilus, "A godless, faithless time has come for Orthodox Russia. The Russian has begun to live by the flesh and only the flesh... He is an Orthodox Christian in name but no longer in spirit."

Nilus discovered the papers ofNikolay Motovilov,a member of theRussian nobility,Fool for Christ,and a disciple of St.Seraphim of Sarov.Nilus published one of Motoviliv's manuscripts as "A Wonderful Revelation to the World: The Conversation of St. Seraphim with Nicholas Alexandrovich Motovilov on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit".That manuscript would become one of the most-read Orthodox texts of modern times. In 1912, a report was received by theHoly Synodthat Nilus was living inside the monastery with his wife. Although the Niluses were not actually living within the monastery, but rather as guests in a small house nearby, Nilus was ordered by the Synod to leave Optina.

Nilus circulated several editions ofThe Protocolsin Russia during the first decade of the twentieth century. Though the early prints were in Russian,The Protocolssoon spread to the rest of Europe viaanti-communist Russian refugeeswho fled after theOctober Revolution.The Russian text was also reprinted inBerlin,in 1922. Meanwhile, due tocensorship in the Soviet Union,Nilus was unable to publish any further writings until his death in 1929.

After thefall of the Soviet Unionin 1991, Nilus' works were again edited in Russia, beginning in 1992, with an edition of his collected works appearing in five volumes in 2009.

Bibliography

• 1903 «Великое в малом» ( "The Great Within the Small" ), 2nd ed. 1905, 3rd ed. 1911.
• 1908 «Сила Божия и немощь человеческая» ( "The Power of God and the Weakness of Man" )
• 1908 «Пшеница и плевелы» ( "The Wheat and the Tares" ), Holy Trinity-St. Sergeius Lavra.
• 1911 «На берегу Божьей реки» ( "On the Bank of God's River" ), 2nd ed. 1916; reprinted by Orthodox Christian Books and Icons, San Francisco, Calif., 1969.
• 1911 «Святыня под спудом. Тайны православного монашеского духа» ( "Holiness Under a Bushel. Secrets of the Orthodox Monastic Spirit" )
• 1911 «Близ грядущий антихрист и царство диавола на земле» ( "The Coming Antichrist and the Kingdom of the Devil on Earth Is Near" ); reprinted 1992.
• 1917 «Близ есть при дверех. О том, чему не желают верить и что так близко» ( "Close by, at the Gates. What They Do Not Want to Believe and Which Is That Close By" ); reprinted 1997, 2012, 2013.

Posthumous editions:

• «С. А. Нилус. Полное собрание сочинений» (Collected Works in Five Volumes), Moscow, 2009.

References

• Michael Hagemeister:"Vladimir Solov’ev and Sergej Nilus: Apocalypticism and Judeophobia" inReconciler and Polemicist(eds.) Wil van den Bercken, Manon de Courten, Evert van der Zweerde, and Vladimir Solov’ev (Leuven: Peeters, 2000), pp. 287–296.ISBN90-429-0959-5
• Michael Hagemeister: "Sergei Nilus" inAntisemitism. A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecutionvol. 2, pp. 508–510, ed. Richard E. Levy (Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-Clio, 2005).ISBN1-85109-439-3
• Michael Hagemeister (2003). "Nilus, Sergej Aleksandrovič". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.).Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL)(in German). Vol. 21. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1063–1067.ISBN3-88309-110-3.

External links

• Alexandre du Chayla,"Nilus and the Protocols",La Tribune Juive:Paris, 14 May 1921, translated from the French by Herman Bernstein, New York, Covici, Friede [c. 1935].
• Autobiographical notes,translated fromNa Beregu Bozhyei Reki,published by St. Elias Publications, Forestville, 1975
• Michael Hagemeister,"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:Between History and Fiction "
• Michael Hagemeister,"The Protocols of the Elders of Zionand the Myth of a Jewish Conspiracy in Post-Soviet Russia "Archived2017-03-20 at theWayback Machine
• Michael Hagemeister,"In Search of Testimony About the Origins ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion:A Handwritten Edition that Disappeared from the Lenin Library "(in Russian)