A Russian court ruled today that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a document commonly used as a pretext in this century for anti-Semitic attacks, is a forgery and that to publish it is an anti-Semitic act.

The ruling is thought to be the first by a Russian court on the document, which was fabricated in Russia by the czarist secret police and first published in 1903.

The decision came at the end of a 10-month libel suit brought by Pamyat, an anti-Semitic and far-rightist Russian organization, against Tankred G. Golanpolsky, the editor and publisher of The Jewish Gazette, a Russian-language semimonthly with a circulation of 42,000.

The Jewish Gazette included Pamyat on a list of anti-Semitic organizations after Pamyat's newspaper serialized the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in 1992. The leader of Pamyat, Dmitri Vassilyev, sought some $40,000 in "moral damages" from Mr. Golanpolsky in the libel suit.