Debunking the Selenkov Quotation

It was recently drawn to my attention that there is a quotation from a supposed Bolshevik leader called Selenkov in 1922 that is often reproduced anti-jewish literature. (1) It is relevant to the jewish question, because it is often used in connexion with the Judeo-Bolshevism thesis to further prove the hostility of jews to non-jewish nationalism.

The quotation runs as follows:

‘We must create a climate of anti-nationalism and anti-racialism amongst Whites. We must reduce patriotism and pride of race to meaningless abstractions and make racialism a dirty word.’ (2)

This quote seems to have come from no-where in terms of the literature in so far that it is not apparently not referred to or re-produced in Robert Wilton’s ‘The Last Days of the Romanovs’ (3) or any other Nationalist/anti-Communist literature I can find. (4) I have largely been checking the indexes for the name rather than re-reading the many works involved, but I am yet to find either the name or the quote being used. I have also checked several standard works on the Bolshevik revolution and the USSR: I am yet to find a Bolshevik leader called Selenkov - or even Zelenkov - in 1922. (5) I have also used several search engines to look for a communist/Marxist/Bolshevik leader named Selenkov/Zelenkov, but have come away empty-handed apart from uses of this quotation none of which have been found with attribution to an originating source for the quote although Birdwood’s use of quotes seems to suggest that the origin may be Eustace Mullins once again.

The fact that in Birdwood’s work the quotation is reproduced after quotations from Eustace Mullins’ book ‘A History of the Jews’ and after the unproven and almost certainly fake quotation from Israel Cohen’s ‘A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century’ would potentially seem to suggest that this is another quotation that we cannot find an origin for that may or may not have been first referenced by Eustace Mullins.

It isn’t in the index of George Knupffer’s ‘The Struggle for World Power’ (6) and nor can I find it in Admiral Sir Barry Domville’s ‘From Admiral to Cabin Boy’ (7) which are all often cited by Birdwood. It isn’t in William Guy Carr’s ‘Pawns in the Game’ or ‘The Red Fog Over America’.

The reason for this is relatively simple in that it is a quote - which is structured on the same lines as the Israel Cohen quotation - isn’t likely to have been written or spoken by a Marxist who would have put in some reference to nationalism as being of ‘bourgeoisie’ origins and how race was a tool of the ‘ruling class’ to keep the ‘proletariat’ divided and hence able to be exploited.

The wording that the Bolsheviks must ‘reduce’ race to ‘meaningless abstractions’ directly infers that this Selenkov knows - and more importantly believes - that race is meaningful and this is deliberately trying to cover it up.

No Bolshevik would have done this for to them race was non existent and the differences between races were merely superficial and without real meaning. I think we may presume that had this Selenkov actually said the above passage he would have been denounced to the Cheka in short order and sentenced for ‘politically incorrect/counter-revolutionary activities’ - especially since we are told - and that this Selenkov was a ‘Bolshevik leader’.

Its also worth mentioning that ‘whites’ in the quotation means the ‘white race’ and not the anti-Communist and usually Monarchist forces for there is no use of ‘counter-revolutionary’ - or its plural ‘counter-revolutionaries’ - in the two sentences - which would almost always prefix any reference to ‘whites’ - if the term ‘whites’ was even mentioned for in Marxist thinking they would just merely be ‘counter-revolutionaries’ or ‘reactionaries’ rather than anything more colloquial.

There was no real concept of the ‘white race’ in Russia in this period since racialism had only just begun to compete for adherence among Imperial Russia’s intellectuals and nobility and most thinking about jews, in particular, was in religious terms with perhaps little strains of racialism here and there. Also what ideas of racialism there were: were pan-Slavic (i.e., based on sub-race) in nature rather than about ‘whites’ (i.e., based on a colloquial term for Caucasoid).

The ‘white race’ is also a colloquial term for referring to ostensive difference in colour between the racial groups - which doesn’t take into account sub-racial groups - and since the Slavs and Germans (8) residing in Russia were part of the ‘white race’ if we define it in the terms the quotation presumably means then the revolution can’t be ‘anti-White’ unless it is jewish or made up of those of Mongoloid and/or Turkic racial stock. Therefore: we also find our argument comes back to where it start in that here we find the assumption behind the quotation i.e., that the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 was in the clear majority jewish in character and what ‘Bolshevik leader’ would make this kind of assumption let alone couch it in such terms, which presume the ‘reactionaries’ - such as the ‘Black Hundreds’ (aka the Union of the Russian People)- are essentially right?

It is safe to say that this quotation is likely a fraudulent one for it lacks Marxist terminology, uses assumptions which are opposed to Marxism and were not current in Russia at that time (i.e., the ‘white race’ rather than pan-Slavic racialism), there appears to be no Bolshevik leader named Selenkov and there is no originating source cited for the quote.

We may tentatively suggest that this is Eustace Mullins, but we can’t be entirely sure of this without finding an early use of the quotation or the original publication where it was used. If any reader has any information about this quotation or knows where it has been used then I would be pleased to hear about it or revise my opinion in light of more definite information (which I will of course happily publish).

Unless the origins of this quote can be traced satisfactorily then it simply should not be used as evidence at all. Since there doesn’t appear on a review of the literature and general commentary to be any trace of the quote or the individual who supposedly uttered it. That in itself makes the quote suspect especially as it further does not fit the phraseology of Marxism and seems in itself to suggest an anti-communist racialist origin.

References

(1) Such as Inter-City Researchers [likely Lady Jane Birdwood], 1991, ‘The Longest Hatred: An Examination of Anti-Gentilism’, 1^st Edition, Inter-City Research Centre: London, p. 22. This is available at the following address: http://www.vho.org/aaargh/fran/livres8/TheLongestHatred.pdf. Note that no source is cited for the comment.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Robert Wilton, 1920, ‘The Last Days of the Romanovs’, 1^st Edition, Thornton Butterworth: London.

(4) Including such works where a quotation such as this would be extremely relevant, such as R. M. Whitney, 1924, ‘Reds in America’, 1^st Edition, The Beckwith Press: New York.

(5) For example George Katkov, 1967, ‘Russia 1917: The February Revolution’, 1^st Edition, Longmans: London and Marcel Liebman, Trans: Arnold Pomerans, 1970, ‘The Russian Revolution: The Origins, Phases and Meaning of the Bolshevik Victory’, 1^st Edition, History Book Club: London contain no mention of a Selenkov and presumably this Selenkov often described as a ‘Bolshevik leader’ should be there at least in notation.

(6) George Knupffer, 1986, ‘The Struggle for World Power: Revolution and Counter-Revolution’, 4^th Edition, Noontide Press: California.

(7) Barry Domville, 2008, [1947], ‘From Admiral to Cabin Boy’, 1^st Edition, Historical Review Press: Uckfield.

(8) An example of such a group would be the Volga Germans.