15 The so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion had been launched at the turn of the century by the Tsarist secret police as justification for the anti-Jewish pogroms. They were based on a polemic against Napoleon III which originated with a certain Maurice Joly, who had examined the authoritarian tactics of Machiavellian politics in the form of a Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. After the First World War this long-forgotten tract, in its altered form, enjoyed an unprecedented popularity in many countries. It alleged that an international Jewish conspiracy existed, its aim being world domination by means of infiltration into all the influential key positions in all countries.