Pavel Krushevan


Pavel Aleksandrovich Krushevan was a journalist, editor, publisher and an official in 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.

Biography

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:
Krushevan promoted ultra-nationalist and racist views and was brought to court numerous times for slander, verbal offenses and physical threats. After a homicidal attempt by a P. S. Dashevsky, it was reported that Krushevan lived in constant fear, kept weapons close at hand and was accompanied by a personal cook out of fear to be poisoned.
In 1903 a riot started after an incident on February 6 when a Christian Russian boy, Mikhail Rybachenko, was found murdered in the town of Dubăsari, about 25 miles north of Chişinău. Although it was clear that the boy had been killed by a relative, Бессарабец, published by Krushevan, insinuated that he was killed by the Jews instigating the Kishinev pogrom.
In 1905 Krushevan organized the Bessarabian Patriotic League. He founded the Bessarabian branch of the Union of the Russian People.
From 1906 to 1909 he served as a speaker of Kishinev city in the Duma. In 1907 Krushevan was elected to represent Kishinev in the 2nd Russian State Duma.