“The substance of the “Zinoviev Letter” . . . was a gross forgery”.[1]
On this day (25/10/2024), 100 years ago, the so-called “Zinoviev Letter” was published. This controversial piece of correspondence was addressed to the central committee of the British Communist Party and was subsequently leaked to, and sensationalised by, Britain’s right wing press. It was signed by Gregori Zinoviev, a high-ranking Bolshevik and head of its propaganda division. Put simply, it encouraged British and Irish communists to up their revolutionary game, so to speak, and projected that the arrival of the Labour Party as a major force in British politics would serve to cement relations with the Soviet Union.
As the historian, Gill Bennett, has pointed out, the content of the letter was unremarkable—"Zinoviev wrote letters like this all the time”.[2] It was the timing of its appearance that was significant and, for that matter, suspect—the letter was leaked just four days before the British general election, which was due to be held on 29 October. It has been customary for scholars and commentators to suggest that the fallout from the publication of the letter effectively brought down Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government—the first Labour government in British history, which had been formed, with the support of the Liberals, the previous January—and thus gifted a return to power, via a landslide election victory, to the Conservative Party, then led by Stanley Baldwin.
Bennett has contended, however, that whilst influential, the letter did not simply precipitate the Labour government’s demise. Rather, this process was already well in motion—a vote of no confidence in MacDonald’s government had been passed before the letter was leaked, hence the calling of the general election. If Bennett is to be believed, Labour was probably going to lose the election regardless.
The cabinet assembled by Baldwin following the Conservative victory in the general election of October 1929.
The letter did, however, supply Labour’s opponents with valuable firepower during the election campaign—firepower that they used to good effect, especially when targeting the middle-class vote. Thus, despite the fact that Labour actually gained around a million votes in the general election of October 1924, the party nevertheless came out of the saga dejected, confused, and humiliated, to the point that it has been suggested that it never wholly recovered from the experience.[3] Understandably, the Zinoviev affair generated introspection and in-fighting within the party, as well as throughout the wider communist movement in Britain. It likewise deepened divisions between Labour and the Liberals, and within the Liberal Party itself, thereby further rupturing the centre-left of British politics.
Whilst not referencing the “Zinoviev Letter”, this illustration from The Graphic sums-up the British political landscape that emerged in the wake of the general election of October 1929.
“The Zinoviev Letter was probably forged; almost certainly forged”, according to Bennett.[4] As is somewhat evidenced by the citation which opened this article, which is lifted from a letter that Peter Kerrigan—a committed activist from Glasgow who joined the British Communist Party in 1924—sent to the editor of The Times in 1977, “the question”, as Bennett has put it, “of who forged it [the letter] and what was done with it has remained a mystery ever since”.[5]
If you enjoyed reading this short article, and would like to learn more about the history of the British left, British Online Archives hosts extensive documentation drawn from the archives of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
[1] British Online Archives, Notable Individuals of British Communism, 1886–1997, letter by Peter Kerrigan to the editor of The Times, 17 Nov. 1977, available at https://britishonlinearchives.com/documents/30050/material-related-to-peter-kerrigan-1916-1977#?h=zinoviev&cv=356&xywh=-162%2C14%2C4119%2C2035.
[2] Youtube, “What was the Zinoviev Letter? Gill Bennett,“ available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1b9ZYbXDJA.
[3] “Zinoviev Letter was dirty trick by MI6,’ The Guardian, 4 Feb, 1999, available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/feb/04/uk.politicalnews6.
[4] Youtube, “What was the Zinoviev Letter? Gill Bennett,“ available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1b9ZYbXDJA.
[5] Ibid.