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Boris Brasol

1885 – 1963

Russian lawyer and literary critic

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About Boris Brasol

Lived 1885 – 1963 (aged 77). Boris Brasol was a Russian and American linguist, biographer, translator and jurist.

Boris Leo Brasol, born Boris Lvovich Brazol (; ; March 31, 1885 – March 19, 1963), was a Russian lawyer and literary critic. After the October Revolution he settled in the United States.

Biography Boris Brasol was born in Poltava (today in Ukraine), in 1885. His father was the homeopath Lev Evgenevich Brasol (aka Léon Brasol or Léon Brazol) (1854 – January 1927), who was Superintendent of the Petrograd Homoeopathic Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia. After graduation from the law department of St Petersburg University, Boris served in the Imperial Russian Ministry of Justice, where he took part in the prosecution of the Beilis blood libel case, in which Jewish factory superintendent Menahem Mendel Beilis was accused of ritual murder. In 1912, Brasol was sent to Lausanne to study forensic science.

During World War I, Brasol held the rank of Lieutenant in the Tsar's army. In 1916, he was recalled from the front and sent to the United States to work as a lawyer for an Anglo-Russian purchasing committee. After the October Revolution broke out Brasol stayed in the United States. He was a founding member of the Russian Imperial Union-Order in 1929. Brasol pursued a successful career as a literary critic and criminologist and published several books in each of these fields.

Brasol was a virulent antisemite, and he said about his work on disseminating the English translation of the Protocols, that "Within the last year I have written three books, two of which have done the Jews more injury than would have been done to them by ten pogroms."

He also contributed to anti-Semitic writings in Henry Ford's The Dearborn Independent newspaper.

Brasol was member of Aufbau Vereinigung, which financed the Nazi Party. He received funding from American industrialist Henry Ford. In 1938, Brasol, who now had American citizenship, secretly helped organize an Anti-Comintern Congress in Germany with the support of the Gestapo. The assembly included representatives from Canada, France, England, and Switzerland. Heinrich Himmler showed interest in Brasol in August 1938, and even asked Heinrich Müller to compile a report on the previous activities of the white emigration.

He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York.

Some of his papers are preserved in the Library of Congress Manuscript Collection.

Publications 1920: Socialism vs. Civilization. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1921: The World at the Cross Roads. London, Hutchinson 1922: The Balance Sheet of Sovietism. New York, Duffield 1927: Elements of Crime (Psycho-Social Interpretation). Oxford University Press 1934: The Mighty Three: Poushkin - Gogol - Dostoievsky. New York: William Farquhar Payson 1938: Oscar Wilde: the Man, the Artist, the Martyr. New York: Scribner's Sons

Translations 1949: F. M. Dostoevsky, The Diary of a Writer, trans. Boris Brasol. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1954: --do.-- New York: George Braziller

Protocols Anonymous The Protocols and World Revolution including a Translation and Analysis of the "Protocols of the Meetings of the Zionist Men of Wisdom" (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1920) A digital copy of the original 1920 text is currently available through Online Books Page: .

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Frequently asked questions

Who was Boris Brasol?

Russian lawyer and literary critic (1885–1963)

When was Boris Brasol born?

Boris Brasol was born on 31 March 1885 in Poltava.

When did Boris Brasol die?

Boris Brasol died on 19 March 1963 in New York City.

What was Boris Brasol's occupation?

Boris Brasol was a linguist, biographer, translator and jurist.

What nationality was Boris Brasol?

Boris Brasol was Russian and American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Boris Brasol

· Wikidata: Q3920819

· DBpedia: Boris Brasol

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Boris Brasol. https://biography.guide/boris-brasol/

MLA: "Boris Brasol." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/boris-brasol/.

Chicago: "Boris Brasol." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/boris-brasol/.

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