On the basis of compelling evidence, this book overturns the generally
accepted view about the authenticity of the Zinoviev letter, proving it
was genuine. The minority Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald had
called an election for November. In the last days of the election
campaign, the press broke the news of a letter purporting to have been
sent from Moscow by Grigory Zinoviev, Chairman of the Soviet-controlled
Communist International, to the Communist Party of Great Britain. The
letter urged members of the Party to increase their efforts to gain
power by manipulating the Labour Party, which was hostile to Communist
aims, so as to move the Labour Party to a revolutionary position, and by
recruiting disenchanted military personnel to form the basis of a
British "Red Army." The Zinoviev letter had reached the Foreign Office
via the Secret Service. It caused a storm with accusations that it was a
fabrication by White Russians or by British elements hostile to Ramsay
MacDonald's Labour Government, and possibly lost Labour the election. It
has never been established whether it was leaked to the Daily Mail by
British officials or by someone from the British Communist Party. The
author reveals that Zinoviev's letter, sent to British Communists by the
Comintern, was not a fabrication, as has been widely believed for almost
a hundred years.
