author
Sergiei Nilus
1862–1930
A Russian religious writer and mystic, he became known for intense books on Orthodox spirituality, prophecy, and the approaching end times. His name is also closely tied to the spread of one of the most notorious antisemitic forgeries of the early twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Moscow in 1862, Sergei Nilus studied law and worked in public service before turning toward religious writing. His life changed direction after a spiritual crisis, and he became deeply drawn to Russian Orthodox devotion, monastic life, and apocalyptic themes.
Nilus wrote books that mixed memoir, religious reflection, and warnings about moral decline and the coming of the Antichrist. He is best remembered for Velikoe v malom i antikhrist (The Great within the Small and Antichrist), a work that helped bring him wide attention among religious readers in late imperial Russia.
His legacy is deeply controversial. Alongside his devotional writing, Nilus is historically linked to the publication and circulation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated antisemitic text that caused enormous harm. He died in 1929, and today he is remembered both as a figure in Russian religious literature and as part of that darker history.