Page "Zinoviev letter" Paragraph 17

A paper by the Chief Historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Gill Bennett, was published in January 1999 and contains the results of this inquiry.

Bennett had free and unfettered access to the archives of the Foreign Office as well as those of the Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS ), MI5, and MI6.

She also visited Moscow in the course of her research, working in the archives of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Comintern archive of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Although not every operational detail could be published because of British secrecy laws, Bennett's paper remains the definitive account of the affair of the so-called " Zinoviev letter ".

Her report showed that the letter contained statements similar to those made by Zinoviev to other communist parties and at other times to the CPGB, but at the time ( Anglo-Soviet trade talks and a general election ) when Zinoviev was being more restrained towards the British.

Despite her extensive research, she concluded " it is