All these are just a few examples of the active propaganda campaign waged by Jehovah's Witnesses in our country. But they have already achieved the main thing: they are undoubtedly one of the many of all modern totalitarian sects in the post-Soviet space.

Chapter 7. A deified organization

In the 1970's, reforms took place at the Watchtower headquarters regarding the power of the president. The ruling corporation was outraged by the fact that all decisions are made by the president alone and his power was limited. Prior to that, the President was the Chairman of the Board of Directors consisting of 7 people. In 1971, a new, expanded structure of the Management Corporation was created, which included 11 people (including 7 members of the Board of Directors). At the meetings of this Ruling Corporation, all issues of governing the sect were decided by voting and achieving a simple majority.

Knorr died in 1977, after another "end of the world", and his place was taken by Frederik Franz – it was he who was supposed to unravel the failure of this prophecy, after which so many left the sect. Franz was the most educated member of the sect – he was the first leader of the Witnesses, who knew at least a little Greek (but not Hebrew). It was he who had to take draconian measures for a new influx of converts. He carried out a thorough purge (even expelled his own nephew from the Ruling Corporation), introduced barracks uniformity and autocracy, and somewhat revised tactics. After that, the sect began to grow again.

Franz was the chief ideologue of the Jehovah's Witnesses for 50 years, until his death at the age of 99 in 1992, i.e., the entire reign of Knorr and his entire reign. After his death, a new president was elected - 72-year-old Milton Henschel. The fifth president of The Watchtower was the second youngest in the Governing Body—only one person was younger than him (he was 69 in 1992), the other two were 75, and the rest were 80 and 90 years old. All these are very old people, they fall asleep at meetings of the Governing Corporation, and by the time the decision is made, they need to be woken up. Henschel was chosen because he was the only one who had any energy left.

Interestingly, Jehovah's Witnesses, like the CPSU in the last stage of its existence, moved to a gerontocratic system of governance. In both cases, there were very old people in the highest posts.

Franz's reforms created the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses that we know today. Franz introduced a new practice – "disconnection" (or "disfellowshipping") – and developed methods for the practical implementation of the sect's total control over its members. To understand what "disconnection" means, you need to make a little explanation. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they live under the only true – theocratic – government. Christ appeared in 1914 and has been invisibly present on earth ever since, and he gave real power to his ViBR, the Watchtower Governing Corporation, which governs the faithful, and in fact the entire earth, because only the faithful recognize this rulership. The ruling corporation is the messenger and embodiment of Christ's rule throughout the world, and because it is a ViBR, Jehovah has placed it over many. But since the Jehovah's Witnesses do not have their own country that would recognize the rule of the VIBR, they do not have real power in any country. If there were such a country, then they could apply their own laws there, which, as we can assume, would be very harsh. For apostates and traitors, there can be only one measure of punishment – eternal death, but the Jehovah's Witnesses cannot execute anyone yet, they do not have the right. However, they can consider everyone who has fallen away already dead, non-existent. And if they see such a person on the street, they have to walk through him, as if they were seeing a ghost; No communication with him is possible in principle. After the Dane mentioned above left the Jehovah's Witnesses, he was "deprived of fellowship" and became dead to his parents. When asked about him, the father and mother said that their son was dead, and in the street they passed by without noticing him. So did all his former friends and acquaintances. Whoever violates the ban on communication with the expelled or left the sect will himself fall under the death sentence, which seems to be suspended in the air, but for the members of the sect is quite real:

Another danger to our spirituality is apostates. By avoiding all contact with these opponents of the truth, we will save ourselves from their perverted thinking.

... In general, one should not talk to an exiled person or even greet him... We must hate them in the truest sense of the word, that is, treat them with extreme and manifest abhorrence, consider them disgusting, vile, filthy, and abhor them.81

Thus, Franz dotted the i's: the only immutable and unchanging object of faith of Jehovah's Witnesses is not the invisible God, with whom communion is not provided for in any way by their doctrine, but the visible and real "Spirit-directed" organization. It is she, not God, who demands unquestioning obedience.

The highest-ranking Jehovah's Witnesses recognized that the basis of the sect's doctrine was the "unity of the organization." After Franz's reforms, the preservation of this unity became an end in itself for the sect: the Jehovah's Witness leadership protects it as a sacred thing, and goes to any lengths to preserve it, not allowing the slightest deviation from the system of requirements established by the organization. The most uncompromising struggle is being waged against dissent.