He said other things of the same mysterious character.

But when I first became acquainted with the contents of the manuscript I was convinced that its terrible, cruel and straight-forward truth is witness of its true origin from the 'Zionist Men of Wisdom,' and that no other evidence of its origin would be needed." Feodor Roditchev, one of Russia's most famous liberals, a member of the nobility, a former member of the Duma, writing recently of the Nilus protocols and of Sukhotin whom Nilus described as a man of his own opinion, says: "For months I hear on all sides about the Nilus book and its success in England, and I am asked, Who is Nilus?
There was a Nilus, an associate justice of the Moscow District Court.

It is said that the manuscript was given to Nilus by Sukhotin, the notorious zemstvo official of Chernsk.
"The Berlin edition contains no mention of Sukhotin, but in that edition Nilus said, 'Pray for the soul of the boyar Alexis.' "The name of the notorious Alexey Nikolayevitch Sukhotin means nothing to the present generation.

But there was a time when his name attracted attention.
"Sukhotin arrested the peasants of a whole village for refusing to cart manure from his stables because the animals there were infected with glanders.

Judge Tsurikov released the peasants.
Tsurikov was removed for this, while Sukhotin justified his act by writing to the Minister of the Interior, Durnovo, that he had arrested the peasants not because they refused to cart his manure but because they dared disobey him as a zemstvo official.