Pavel Krushevan

Who was Pavel Krushevan?

Pavel Aleksandrovich Krushevan was a journalist, editor, publisher and an official in the Imperial Russia. He was an active Black Hundredist and was known for his far-right, ultra-nationalist and openly antisemitic views and was the first publisher of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Born Pavolaki Krushevan into a family of impoverished Russianized Moldavian aristocrats in the village Gindeshty Bessarabian guberniya, he completed four grades of school.

Krushevan served as a clerk in Chişinău City Duma. His writings were first published in 1882. In 1887-1896, he worked as a journalist in newspapers Минский листок, Виленский вестник, and Бессарабский вестник.

During the decade that followed, Krushevan founded and served as a publisher and editor of several newspapers:

In 1897, Chişinău daily newspaper Бессарабец which published materials fomenting anti-Semitism. Krushevan was reported as being one of initiators of the Kishinev pogrom in April 1903.