Enlightenment, Empire, and the Road to Revolution

The Age of Enlightenment and Reason

The so called “Age of Enlightenment” refers to the philosophic revolution in Europe during the 18th century. As the Holy Roman Church was unable to keep up its strength against the Protestant movement, an increasing number of people dared to talk and think in a ways that hadn’t been possible (officially) for centuries.

The tyranny, the superstition, the irrationality and the traditions which had become parts of life during the Holy Roman Empire’s many ethic and moral persecutions made intellectual leaders of the Enlightenment movement a brave elite who was leading the world towards freedom of thought and speech.

Prominent philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau questioned and attacked existing institutions of both Church and the States in the areas like ethics, faith, aesthetics, astronomy, science and natural philosophy. Despite the old tyrannies was declining there were still secret Catholic orders like the Jesuits who worked actively against such movements. The Enlightenment movement also provided a framework for the revolutions in America and France, as well as leading to the rise of capitalism and the birth of socialism. This is the age when secret societies within the higher elites flourished.

Towards the end of the 18th century a today well known secret society named “Illuminati” grew quickly all over Europe and as quickly as they grew, they also mysteriously disappeared in the first years of 19th century. Conspiracy theorists believe they survived and are still highly operative in the Great Conspiracy named “The New World Order”.

The understanding of history and the way conspiracy theorists puts Illuminati in a negative light seems contradictious. The general movement of the time was political understanding of ideologies like socialism, capitalism and the separation between church and state. It seem unlikely that a secret society would attract a wide spread elite if they had negative goals. One can wonder if the conspiracies surrounding the Illuminati could just be simple inventions of those who feared them. We’ll dig into that later in this dossier.

Ottoman (Osmanic) Empire

Ancestors of the Western Turks, called “Seljuk Turks” in the northern parts of Persia (modern Iran) moved into mainland during the 13th century after a century of defending the Islamic world against Crusaders from the West. From within the Seljuk Turks the Ottoman state slowly raised and was declared independent by Osman I in year 1299. The so called Ottoman Empire had taken its first steps into becoming one of the worlds greatest Empires ever which at the height of its power, included Anatolia, the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and south-eastern Europe.

The biggest capture was Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) in year 1453 which contained the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople became the capitol and between 1517 and 1922 the Ottoman Empire was synonymous with the Caliphate, the Islamic State. The Ottomans eventually lost territories in the Balkans, Thrace, Syria, Palestine and Iraq to the Allied forces in World War I. Ottomans continued to fight against Russia in Caucasus. The Russian forces retreated after the Communist revolution which led to a great victory for the Ottomans. This victorious Ottomans army was taken home to the occupied Istanbul to later win the Turkish War of Independence (1918-1923). The modern republic of Turkey was founded on October 29, 1923 from the remnants of the fallen empire.

The Ottoman Empire was ended.

Overseas Empires

The great seas had always been feared and were looked upon with respect. In the 15th century boats became bigger which made oversea expeditions the new alternative to discover, to trade and to conquer. Ancient stories and rumors about new worlds beyond the known one increased the importance of exploration and colonization.

Portuguese Empire

Portugal’s only way to expand its territories was by sea as they were by land totally blocked by the Kingdom of Spain, Castile. This resulted in the first and largest European colonial Empires in the 16th century. It was the Prince of Portugal, more known as Henry the Navigator, who organized the Portuguese fleet and made mapping the territory of Africa possible as well as initiating slave trading. Prince Henry is also known to have been the successor Grandmaster of the Temple Knights which by then were reborn in Tomar, Portugal, as the Order of Christ.

“Treaty of Tordesillas”, signed in 1494 Pope Alexander VI and refined in 1506 by Pope Julius II, divided world outside Europe in two parts, pole-pole. The west part was given to Spain and the east to Portugal. This made Portugal the dominating traders and conquesters between Europe and Asia with ports as far locations as for example Goa, Malacca, Macau and Nagasaki and this without competitors. They also took over much of the trade within Asia.

This was a huge stroke in the sea hearts of France and England, which were refused access to the new lands, unless they ignored the authority of the Roman Catholic Church (which they did). In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached and established the first Indian outpost. A very successful trade route was established all the way to Asia which opened and made Portugal a rich trade Empire. Many islands in the Indian Ocean were discovered and some also became outposts of the Empire. Many of the expeditions also brought Jesuit missionaries to spread Catholic Christianity with mixed success. Portugal suffered a catastrophic earthquake along with a huge tsunami, in 1755, which killed almost 40% of the population. This dramatically decreased the Portuguese colonial ambitions in the late 18th century.

The Portuguese overseas Empire was ended in 1999 when returning Macau to China under similar term which the United Kingdom returned Hong Kong.

Spanish Empire

Beside the Portuguese Empire which was declared rights to the Eastern parts of the world, Spain was declared rights to the West side by the Papals. This by time led to a vastly growing colonial Empire in western parts of the world during 16th and 17th century. Spanish Conquistadors of North and South America brought back gold and silver to finance the military. Spain became the most dominant navy in the west with the peak in the end of the 17th century.

The Dutch navy had grown and had become the Spanish Armadas greatest threat. A number of naval conflicts led to the “Peace of Utrecht” in 1713 were Spain lost most of its power. Nevertheless Spain continued to be a vast overseas empire thru 19th century and 20th century, declining bit by bit until the last parts in Africa was lost in 1975.

British Empire

It was called “the empire on which the sun never sets” and the reason was because it spanned around the whole globe.

The British Empire, initiated in year 1497, lasted over 500 years, to the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, and is today known a the most successful empires of all times. It was King Henry VII who in the late 15th century rooted the pioneering maritime policies. Henry sponsored the voyagers of the Italian John Cabot. The first oversea colony was a fishing settlement in the Island which Cabot called Newfoundland in 1497. Beside the oversea conquests Henry also faced the Spanish Armada, which he with success repulsed in 1588. This was however regained by Spain after the Anglo-Spanish War and following post war campaigns under the reign of Queen Elisabeth I, 1577-1580.

The great Spanish Armada was later defeated by the Dutch fleet, which made the Netherlands the dominant seafaring nation in the Atlantic. Parallel to these events the English navy managed to grown and later peaked in the four Anglo-Dutch Wars, fought in the 17th and 18th centuries. England by time grew into a republic named “The Commonwealth of England”. From about 1720 Dutch wealth declined and the Kingdom of Great Britain grew. The Dutch fleet was defeated in 1797 and after the “Battle of Trafalgar”, in October 1805; the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom became the largest colonial Empire of the world.

By 1921, its territories had a population of about 470–570 million people, which was about 25% of the total world’s population. The Empire covered roughly about 33% of the available land on earth. The Empire facilitated the spread of British technology, commerce, language, and government around much of the globe. Imperial hegemony contributed to Britain’s extraordinary economic growth, and greatly strengthened its voice in world affairs. Even as Britain extended its imperial reach overseas, it continued to develop and broaden democratic institutions in its homeland. The colonies received from Britain the English language, an administrative and legal framework on the British model, and technological and economic development. During decolonization, Britain sought to pass parliamentary democracy and the rule of law to its colonies, with varying degrees of success.

There are many both good and bad stories surrounding the British Empire. The end of the Empire was initiated by the so called “Atlantic Charter” agreement with USA in 1941 to handle the threat from Hitler and his Third Reich. Well, “the end of the Empire”, is hard words in this case. Maybe it’s better to refer to it as a transition over to the Anglo-American society that most parts of the world today are living in.

The Mayas, Aztecs and the Incas

There is much interesting history to explore in the mid-south America region, especially regarding the religions and way of life of the Maya’s, Aztec’s and the Inca’s. However, I didn’t bring them into the big picture as they were rather isolated from the development in the west-east world. Time of course was also the limit.

Maya Civilization

With around 3 millennia’s of history, the yet existing people of Maya were force into foreign rule during the Spanish overseas conquests 1520-1697. The people of Maya were settled in the regions of southern Mexico and northern Central America (Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador). Contrary to popular myth, the Maya people never “disappeared.” Millions still live in the region, and many of them still speak Maya languages.

Aztec Civilization

In the regions of central Mexico, around 14th, 15th and 16th century, the very cultural and mythical civilization of Aztec’s existed. Their capital, Tenochtitlan, is today known as Mexico. The Aztec’s also fell under Spain’s rule during their overseas conquests around 1521.

Inca Civilization

The Inca Empire rose in the year 1438 but became short a lived civilization. The last ruler, Atahualpa, was killed in year 1533 on orders of the Conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule.

German Empire (2nd Reich)

Germany was a fragmented collection of smaller kingdoms, loosely bound together as members of the German Confederation, since the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The largest and the most powerful part was the “Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights” also known as “Imperial Prussia”, which consisted of the modern regions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and northern Poland. Prussian King William I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister of Prussia, in 1862. Bismarck was a hardheaded officer with monarchist, aristocratic and nationalistic views who were determined to defeat both the liberals and the conservatives, by creating a strong united Germany.

In 1870, after three successive wars, with Denmark, Austria and France, his goal became reality and in 1871 he rewrote the previous “North German Constitution” to become the “Constitution of the German Empire”, officially named the “Deutsches Reich”. Bismarck created a Social reform and the so called “KulturKampf” to meat the threats of Socialism and Catholicism. The social reform was a success and is used as reference even today. The “KulturKampf”, however, faced a reversed impact. The struggle against socialist revolutionaries made him dependant on the Catholic Centre Party, which strengthened rather than weakened Catholicism in Germany.

The Empire flourished as the world leading industrial power under Bismarck’s ministry, which made significant impact in East Asia. The German model of unification, social reforming and modernization became the model for both Japan and China at the beginning of the 20th century. Everything seemed to go upwards for Germany until the death of the German Emperor in March 1888. He was succeeded by his son, Friedrich III, who died in Cancer 99 days later and became replaced with his own 29 year old Wilhelm II.

The young and naive, Wilhelm II, abandoned the Bismarck’s careful policies and became obsessed in expanding Germany by force. Otto von Bismarck was dismissed in 1890 and four successors would be replaced until 1909. Wilhelm II’s popularity collapsed and to meet the increasing threat of socialism, he regained, maybe not on purpose, the old Prussia’s repressive “garrison state” agriculture. He also made Austria-Hungary an ally, which brought him closer to the suppressed heirs of the old Holy Roman Empire and the Teutonic Knights. When the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated in Sarajevo, July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. This led to what the British called “the Kaisers War”, meaning Wilhelm II, was personally responsible for the outbreak. Another more commonly used name of the war is “The Great War” or “World War I”.

Russ, Russia and the Russian Empire

The vast lands of present Russia were home to many disunited and conflicting tribes, which eventually became united by Scandinavians, the Varangians (Vikings), who established a capital at the Slavic city of Novgorod. The Varangians, also called “Russ”, kept ruling the regions for several centuries.

Kievan Rus

A Russ named “Rurik” had established himself as ruler of Novgorod, in around year 860, just before he moved south and extended his territory to include Kiev, were he settled and established order. Rurik who died year 879 was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Oleg, who led a series of attacks against the Byzantine Empire, with commercial treaty with the Empire, signed year 911, as result. During the 10th and 11th century trade routes was created thru the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and all the way to the Orient. Kiev, known as “Kievan Rus”, became the largest state in Europe due to its trade hub between Europe and Asia.

Creation of the Russian Orthodox Church

Due to the collaboration with the Byzantine Empire, Kievan ruler Vladimir I, brought Christianity home to Kiev and made it the state religion as well as initiated the Russian Orthodox Church the year 988. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 made the Rus state the only more or less functional Christian state and the successor to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Vladimir-Suzdal and Moscow

In the mid to late 12th century the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal gained power and eventually succeeded Kievan Rus. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Prince of Halychyna and Grand prince of Vladimir and Tver appointed Metropolitan Peter in Russia 1308. After this meeting Peter became close allied with the Muscovite princes which strengthen his own position and of the House of Moscow. He founded, in Moscow, the Cathedral of the Dormition in 1326 and moved the metropolitan duties there from Vladimir. One year later Moscow became capitol of Vladimir-Suzdal principality and later of all Rus. It was Ivan II, known as “Ivan the Great” or “the grand duke of all the Russias”, who gathered the Russian lands under Moscow, which he called “the Third Rome”.

United Russia

In 1547, the sixteen year old, Ivan IV, later known as “Ivan the Terrible”, was crowned Tsar. He was the first ruler who used the term “Tsar”, which derives from Caesar of Rome (Czar). He completed the unifying process by the consolidation of Moscow surroundings and by including the vast regions of Siberia. The United Russia was born. He tried to expand Russia to the West, but only to find himself in conflicts with the Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles, and the Livonian Teutonic Knights, which with the latter became a twenty-two year long war. Ivan IV accidentally murdered his own son which was the reason to his nickname “the terrible”. Ivan himself seems to have been poisoned to death, according to examinations of his body done in the 1960’s.

Birth of the Russian Empire

The ideas of expanding westwards emerged with Peter I, known as “Peter the Great”. Peter was crown as the last Tsar, year 1696, at the age of 24 after a rough youth were many friends and relatives had been killed in front of his eyes. After some bad attempts to conquer westwards, he instead he attacked Crimea which was held by the Ottoman Empire. His attack failed and instead, year 1698, he did choose to take a tour to Europe, searching for allies to handle the Ottomans. But the European Monarchs wasn’t interested, but Peter instead learned much about western culture, shipbuilding and artillery. Same year he sent a delegation to Malta to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet, which resulted in some action against the Ottomans and a peace treaty.

However, Peter now focused on the Baltic’s and declared war against Sweden which was led by the sixteen-year old King Charles XII. The so called “Great Northern War” had begun. Peter’s first attacks against the well-trained Swedes became disasters. However by time his forces became skilled and as the Swedes also fought against many others in the Baltic’s, there was time to recover.

As the Poles and Swedes fought each other, Peter in 1703, managed to capture the town “Nyen” in Ingria, south of Carelia, from the Swedes. He changed the name to “Saint Petersburg” and engaged the Freemasons to build the new Russian capitol there, as a “window to Europe”. The Great Northern War ended as a success for Peter in 1721 with the “Treaty of Nystad”, which made him replace his title “Tsar” with “Emperor”.

The Russian Empire was born.

Peter the Great: The Antichrist?

Peter’s thoughts of making his son his successor became a nightmare since his son had turned against him and was active in antireform groups of reactionary boyars and priests, who encouraged him to hate his father and wish for the death of the tsar-antichrist. With the help from the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, Alexei fled to Italy from were he wrote to Peter asking for permission to become a monk. Peter sent Count Pyotr Tolstoy to find and bring Alexei back.

On the 31st of January 1718 Alexei was back to meet his Father who saw a self-convicted and most dangerous traitor, whose life was forfeit. Peter consulted the Grand Council of prelates, senators, ministers and other dignitaries, whose “clergy” left him to his own decision. On June 26th after months of interrogation and torture he was condemned to death, by the senate, for conspiring rebellion against his father. Peter immediately changed the rules of succession to the throne after he had his son killed in the Petropavlovskaya fortress.

The painting, now exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery, of Peter interrogating his son at Peterhof, by Nikolai Ge in 1871, includes a lot of Masonic symbolism which display Peter and his son’s views (papers) on how to rule the country as well as the Freemason part symbolized with the papers laying on the checkered floor. Peter died in 1722, possible murdered by poisoning, wasn’t able to choose his successor, which led to 70 years of chaos and conflicts until Catharine II claimed the throne from Peter III after he was assassinated.

Russian Enlightenment

Catherine II, also called “Catherine the Great” and “Catherine the Enlightened” continued Peter the Greats plan of “Westernization” that by time transformed the Russian Empire into a major European power. Catherine becomes known as a mediator in European conflicts. Inside the Commonwealth movement, she saw a threat building up against European monarchies and after the French Revolution, Catherine rejected many of the principles of the Enlightenment.

Socialism grew and the regime begun to use journals and newspapers to gain support for its domestic and foreign policies. However, liberal, nationalist, and radical writers made sure the result was reversed. Catherine II was succeeded by her son Paul I after she suffered from stroke and died 1796. The succession was against Catherine’s own will, as she disliked her son for being influenced those she didn’t like. Paul was assassinated in his bedroom at St Michael’s Castle, the 23rd of March, 1801 by possible members of the “Order of St. John”, also known as “The Knights Hospitallier”, whom he had supper with the same evening. He was succeeded by his own son who was in the castle and most likely involved in the assassination. As an autocrat, Jacobin and sympathizer of the principles of Rousseau’s gospel of humanity, Alexander I, was indeed a mysterious person, raised by the free-thinking atmosphere initiated by Catherine the Great.

In June 1807, Alexander became ally with Napoleon whom divided Europe between the two powers. This alliance, however, was broken when Napoleon invaded Russia in year 1811 and entered the empty streets of Moscow. Alexander managed to burn down Moscow and drain all food and energy resources and within a month Napoleon was retreating. Russian attacks and the hard winter killed 94% of the 650.000 French retreating troops. The French retreat thru Europe resulted in a series of wars called the “Napoleonic Wars” which eventually led to the battle of Waterloo, June 18th 1815, were Napoleon was defeated. A century without major military conflicts followed.

Raise of Marxist Socialism

The end of the 19th century was filled with political conflicts. Socialism became more powerful than even before. The politically talented Ul’yanov argued for Marxist socialism and during his exile to Siberia, 1895–1899, he took the name Lenin from the mighty Siberian Lena River. Within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, Lenin became the master tactician. Parallel to the internal conflicts, Russian Empire became involved in the “Great War”, which increased the internal conflicts and peaked with the Russian revolution 1917. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) also called the “Soviet Union” was born and Lenin was its father.

United States of America, USA

Declaration of Independence

The Overseas Empires established colonies all over America. Thirteen British colonies in North America rebelled against British rule due to the unfair tax policy and because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. The thirteen colonies declared themselves independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so in the so called “Declaration of Independence”, released the 4th of July 1776. The Declaration was put together by the “Founding fathers”: John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. It was however Thomas Jefferson who did the most of the writing.

The declaration was signed by 56 delegates representing: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and reached London and the British rulers August the 10th, which enhanced the conflict with the thirteen colonies to the War of Independence. The war ended with the British Empire recognition of the declaration on September 3rd 1783. The Constitution of the United States, beginning “We the people…” was adopted in 1787 which become effective in 1789.

The U.S. has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including “World War I” and “World War II” followed by the “Cold War” and along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world’s two “superpowers”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States became the leading economic and military power. There are so many things to tell about the US, that I better don’t as it probably will flood this dossier.

“US has formed itself to become the leading influence in the world today and have got there by pulling the correct strings at the correct time, along with support from many allies.”

America is commonly known as: “the land of the free”. I would however distinguish constitutional freedom and mental freedom, which the latter I would define as a growing problem in America by using the old and rather scary words: “Thinking is great, but thinking right is greater”. I sometimes wonder if America, on a global scale, is trying to, without understanding it, shoulder the papal role of the Middle Ages.

Canada and Australia

Both Canada and Australia has managed to keep themselves outside most major modern conflicts. They have however always been helping the allied side in conflicts, but no enemy has made moved against their territories. Isolated from conflicts they are the perfect hosts for peacekeeping ideologies and missions. They both are very active in the Commonwealth society and have United Kingdoms Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Along with Britain and USA both Canada and Australia is known to be active members in the worlds largest signal intelligence network named “Echelon”, which existence and aims has been discussed in media countless times the last decade.

Canada

Several Viking expeditions to the regions of Newfoundland occurred around year 1000 without any longer lasting settlements. Some say that it was old Viking myths about the existence of new worlds that led to the Europeans overseas expeditions. The British explorer John Cabot reached the Islands that he named Newfoundland in 1497. It was however the French settlements in 1604 which were the first to become permanent. European wars were also reflected in these regions beside growing immigration. During the American Revolution when the Thirteen Colonies formed themselves against the British Empire, many Loyalists fled north and settled in the northern colonies. These colonies were merged into a single colony, the Province of Canada in 1840. Today’s federation of Canada, second largest country in the world, was constituted in 1867, with the so called British North America Act.

Australia

The Dutch navigator, Willem Jansz, was the first European who sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606. Dutch sailors claimed the western and northern coastlines, which they called New Holland, but did not create any settlements. The British sailor, James Cook, sailed along and mapped the east cost in 1770, which he named New South Wales. The British Crown Colony of New South Wales started with the establishment of a penal settlement at Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip on 26 January 1788, which today is Australia’s National day. Britain continued to colonize Australia and claimed the whole western part in 1829. More and more colonies became “free” and the transportation of convicts to Australia was phased out between 1840 and 1868.

In 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was born as a dominion of the British Empire. And in 1927 the Capital of the federation became Canberra. Britain’s defeat in Asia against the Japanese Empire, in 1942, caused Australia to turn to United States as a new ally and protector. The ANZUS treaty signed in 1951 binds Australia, New Zealand and USA into a military alliance.

The Great War (World War I)

There was a tense atmosphere in Europe after years of political and internal instability. The growing democratic, ethnic and socialistic movements were seen as threats among dynasties like the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans and the Romanov’s. Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia after the assassination in Sarajevo, July 1914 and literally “hell broke lose”. The British blamed Wilhelm II of Germany for the war and called it “the Kaisers War”. The Great War became a conflict between Allied Forces (Great Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, and USA) and Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), which evolved into a devastating inferno of horror. The new modern types of weapons, chemicals and bombs killed over 9 million soldiers on the battlefield.

The, at the time, weak Ottoman Empire, also called “the sick man of Europe”, suffered a revolution in 1908 and a group called “The Young Turks” seized power and joined the Central Powers when it seemed that Germany would win the war. Bulgaria also joined and hoped to gain land from Serbia once the Allies were defeated. In April the 2nd 1917 US President Wilson asked the Congress to declare war on the Kaiser of Germany whom together with the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Wilson pointed out as a growing threat against world democracy.

One by one the central powers left the war, starting with Russia who suffered from internal problems. Then Bulgaria left followed by the Ottomans who lost all territory except what modern Turkey consist in today (Treaty signed 1923). Parallel to the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed due to internal ethnic problems, which initiated the independence movements of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania. The imperial government surrendered to the Allies as both Hungary and Austria left the no-more-existing empire.

Germany was left alone to fight the Allies, without the support from its own people. Strikes and civil disorder made Germany incapable to continue fighting. Parallel to the declining war months of negotiations took place and November 11th 1918 Germany and the Allies agreed to end the four year world war. World War I became the decisive break of the “old world order”, marking the final chapter in history of absolutist monarchies in Europe.

Soviet Union

The Russian Revolution emerged right after Russia had entered “the Great War”, due to the increasing power of socialism and the tactics of Lenin. A Russian Civil War was the immediate result after Tsar Nicholas II was pushed off the thrown. The Allied forces intervened in the Russian Civil War, which they feared might become a world socialist revolution. The Allied intervention continued even after the end of “the great war” in 1918.

But Europe was tired of war and the military leader of the newly formed Red Army, Leon Trosky, proved to be a man of great organization and discipline, which in 1922 made him, Lenin and the Bolshevik’s the winners. Over 8 million people had lost their lives in the Russian Civil War when Lenin and the Communist Party, in December 1922, took over power and changed Russian Empire into “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” (USSR) also known as “Soviet Union”.

Lenin died of stroke in January 21 1924 after a time of declining health since after both the war and an assassination attempt. As a surprise, Stalin became Lenins heir, were the obvious choice of leader would have been Trotsky. But Stalin had made some “background” moves within the Party which led to his own leadership. Trosky was expelled from the Party in 1927 and from the Soviet Union in 1929, leaving Stalin with undisputed control.

Stalin with his Communist Party, the only permitted political party, introduced the first five-year plan to rebuild the country to a socialist economy in 1928. The state assumed control over all existing enterprises and intensive programs of industrialization was initiated. The raise of a major industrial power was achieved on the cost of widespread misery for some segments of the population.

The Purges

As the party had absolute control, membership meant respect, status and a good contact network. But in an absolute socialistic society with only one permitted party, socialism didn’t really seem to work. This led to so called “Purges”. The definition of “Purge” is to remove “undesirable” people from an organization (most often political), usually by violent means. Purges are often associated with the Stalinist and Maoist regimes but take place all over the globe even today.

In the 1930s, during the so called “the Great Purge”, Stalin changed the meaning and being expelled from the party almost certain meant arrest, imprisonment and execution. Stalin ordered, as his general line, his secret police (NKVD) into many operations were artists, scientists, teachers, people in military and communists who dared to disagree with party leadership and others were sent to labor camps or executed. The peak of the purge activities occurred while Nikolai Yezhov led the NKVD from September 1936 to August 1938. Several hundreds of thousands were executed by firing squad and millions were resettled and/or sent to labor camps built under force. The Memorial Society, a human’s right group, has official evidence of almost 1.5 million victims. The real figure still is unknown.

Yet, despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II.

The Soviet Union in World War II

Stalin didn’t want to get involved in the war and therefore signed the “Nonaggression Pact” with Hitler in 1939. But after Hitler became successful in so many other places, he turned his focused against the Soviet Union and initiated the invasion in 1941. However, Hitler committed the same fault as Napoleon did, a century before, when he underestimated both the Russian/Soviet tactics and the hard winter conditions. The Red Army stopped the Nazi offensive at the battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and pushed them back all the way to surrender in Berlin 1945. Even if the Soviet Union suffered great losses during the war, they quickly establish themselves as one of the two leading powers of the world, beside United States of America.

Post War

As soon as the war was over Soviet Union began to consolidate Eastern parts of Europe to apply Communism as well as established good contacts with Peoples Republic of China to begin spread Communism over the world. The Soviet foreign policy of world wide communism became a threat to the allied nations, which led the so called “Cold War”. Stalin died in 1953 and Khrushchev became his successor. Cold War which was an intelligence tactics war meant new types of repressive actions against the citizens from new types of secret police forces. The Cold War also meant conflicts like the Vietnam War and the Korean War along with an arms race never seen before + much, much more.

The “Cuba Missile Crisis” trembled the world in October 1962. Khrushchev got the stupid idea to put nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba. World War III got as close as it could get, but the crisis was solved in the last few minutes. Two year later, in October 14 1964, was Khrushchev replaced with Leonid Brezhnev due to the aftermath of the Cuba crisis. Soviet economics declined quickly during the 1970s and the 1980s, which increased internal party conflicts. Brezhnev died of stroke in 1982 which led to some four changes of leadership in only 2 years. Brezhnev -> Andropov -> Chernenko -> Mikhail Gorbachev in 1984.

End of Communism

Under the repressive coat of Communism a new movement, known as Solidarity, slowly was formed with Lech Walesa as its lead character. To meet this internal socialistic threat to stability Gorbachev softened up economics, politics and even the frankness of the Soviet Union. But he failed to address the essence of the problem, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) had grown dramatically with Boris Yeltsin behind the wheel and in June 1991 he won 57 percent of the popular vote in democratic presidential elections. This was an obvious threat to Communism and in August 1991 Conservatives in the Communism leadership, led by Vladimir Kryuchkov launched the so called “August Coup” in an attempt to remove Gorbachev from power. Gorbachev was rescued and put back to power, but the internal crisis couldn’t be stopped and Yeltsin’s power had grown over the declining USSR structure. In December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk (Ukrainian president) and Stanislau Shushkevich (Leader of Belarus) jointly announced the dissolution of the USSR and that they would establish a voluntary “Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)” in its place.

Soviet Union with its Communism rule thereby was ended.

Raise of the Russian Federation

Yeltsin ordered restoration of Kremlin back to the “look and feel” of the Old Russian Empire. Over the thrown chair in Grand Kremlin Palace, one can now again find the enlightened shining triangle, which is one of the great symbols of Freemasonry. Good or bad, the old enlightened ideals of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great thereby seems to have regained control over Russia.

Yeltsins health slowly declined and he retired in 1999, after the consultancies with the so called “Family”. As it seems, there was no predetermined successor to Yeltsin and best choice was the ex-head of KGB, Vladimir Putin. Putin was elected successor to Yeltsin in December 1999 and still is.