Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich

Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich (8 September 1867 – 22 October 1926) was a Russian count who moved to the United States following the Bolshevik Revolution. He was a Tsarist general and White Russian loyalist. He was involved in Pan-Slavism, White Russian and anti-semitic activism, including various chivalric orders and cultural organisations, amongst the diaspora community in America. Spiridovich is perhaps best known for authoring a book positing a concise conspiracy consisting of 300 Jewish families, titled Secret World Government or The Hidden Hand.

Not to be confused with Alexander Spiridovich.

Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich
Born(1867-09-08)8 September 1867
Russian Empire
Died22 October 1926(1926-10-22) (aged 59)
Arrochar, Staten Island, New York City, U.S.
OccupationSoldier, political activist, writer
Notable worksSecret World Government or The Hidden Hand

Biography

Spiridovich claimed to be well versed in international affairs and claimed a number of political successes and insights. He claimed to have been a Russian Major-General, to have warned King Alexander I and Queen Draga Mašin of Serbia before their assassination in 1902 and warned Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia in 1904 before his 1905 assassination. He also claimed to have foreseen the First World War and in 1926 foresaw another international war.[1]

Spiridovich was President of the Slavonic Society of Russia and also of the Latino-Slavic League of Paris and Rome. Politically he was a supporter of the Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and an opponent of Bolshevism. According to Lord Alfred Douglas, well-known men like Henry Ford and newspapers like the Financial Times in London took him seriously and helped him to reach a fairly wide public.[2]

He moved to Harlem, New York in 1920[1] where he was detained at Ellis Island for a special inquiry by the Immigration Bureau before being admitted.[3] In the US, he opened a branch of the Anglo-Latino-Slav League, where he advocated for unification of "white peoples of the globe against the domination of the colored peoples".[4] He also organized the Universal Gentiles' League among Russians in the US.[3]

Also after his arrival in the US, he became associated with anti-Semite Boris Brasol, who is associated with the text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Spiridovich wrote numerous Anti-Semitic leaflets himself, including "The Secret World Government". He stated that in 1922 he was ready to publish a book on the subject titled "The Unknown in History", but was stopped by armed men posing as US government officers. He also claimed the support of Henry Ford for his anti-Semitic beliefs.[3]

Death

Cherep-Spiridovich died in a Staten Island hotel on October 22, 1926. The New York Times newspaper reported his death to be from accidental asphyxiation from a gas line, which was officially ruled a suicide by police nine days later.[5] Many Jewish sources including several newspapers from the time, also reported his death as a suicide.[3][6]

At the outset of World War II, Nazi propagandist in America Victor H. Broenstrupp took the name Count Victor Cherep-Spiridovich in honor of Cherep-Spiridovich.[7]

Works
  • A Europe without Turkey—the security of France requires (1913)
  • Towards Disaster: Dangers and Remedies (1914)
  • How to Save England (1920)
  • Let Us Prevent the Second World War Already Prepared! (1921)
  • Secret World Government or The Hidden Hand (1926) – a transcript may be found here

References
  1. "Count Summons Slavs to Formulate a New Empire". The Tampa Tribune. Tampa, Florida. 22 August 1926. p. 33. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  2. Laqueur, Walter Ze'ev (1 January 1965). Russia and Germany. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412833547.
  3. Count Spiridovich, Rabid Anti-Semite Under Czar Dies in a N.Y. a Suicide at 75, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 29 October 1926, page 2, accessed 9 October 2017 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14295048/
  4. "For World-Union of White Races". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. 19 June 1921. p. 1. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/1926/10/31/archives/russian-count-ended-own-life-police-say-new-investigation-said-to.html
  6. http://pdfs.jta.org/1926/1926-10-25_601.pdf
  7. Fake General Turns Out to be German Stooge, The Fresno Bee, (Fresno, California) 29 July 1941, page 14, accessed 9 October 2017 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14294658/

Sources
  • The Non-Existent Manuscript by Cesare G. De Michelis, (University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 2004), pp. 146, 161; ISBN 0-8032-1727-7
  • Russia and Germany, A Century of Conflict by Walter Laqueur, (Boston/Toronto: Little, Brown and Company: 1965)
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