Lesson plan
Sisson Documents
The Sisson Documents ( ) are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the United States Committee on Public Information. Published as The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy, they purported to demonstrate that during World War I, Trotsky and Lenin as well as other Bolshevik leaders were agents directed by the German Empire to bring about Russia's withdrawal from the conflict. Their authenticity was debated even as they were widely publicized to discredit the Russian Revolution. In 1956, George F. Kennan, in an article in The Journal of Modern History, demonstrated that they were forgeries. Various analyses however, including that of Kennan did not exclude the possibility that the Bolsheviks received some German logistical or financial support up to 1917, as opposed to following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918.
Article summary
The Sisson Documents ( ) are a set of 68 Russian-language documents obtained in 1918 by Edgar Sisson, the Petrograd representative of the United States Committee on Public Information. Published as The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy, they purported to demonstrate that during World War I, Trotsky and Lenin as well as other Bolshevik leaders were agents directed by the German Empire to bring about Russia's withdrawal from the conflict. Their authenticity was debated even as they were widely publicized to discredit the Russian Revolution. In 1956, George F. Kennan, in an article in The Journal of Modern History, demonstrated that they were forgeries. Various analyses however, including that of Kennan did not exclude the possibility that the Bolsheviks received some German logistical or financial support up to 1917, as opposed to following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.