Of all the totalitarian sects operating on the territory of our country, this sect most of all even outwardly resembles the Communist Party. Perhaps that is why it manages to achieve such notable success throughout the post-Soviet space. The structure of Jehovah's Witnesses is remarkably similar to that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union with its "democratic centralism." Instead of divine services, Jehovah's Witnesses3 hold "party meetings," "party studies" lessons, and "party congresses" (annual "Congresses of Jehovah's Witnesses"), and in the eschatological perspective they expect a very concrete earthly paradise (read communism), where there will be plenty of food and little work, where everyone will be taken "according to his ability" and given "according to his needs." Neither God (Jehovah) nor Christ has a place in this earthly paradise.

Jehovah's Witnesses are known primarily for their active propaganda activities. More often than members of many other sects, they go from house to house, pester people on the streets, hand out their leaflets and magazines, obsessively offer to study the Bible together and invite them to their meetings.

They are also known because of their specific feature - a fanatical refusal of blood transfusions. They trace the prohibition against the use of blood to the book of Leviticus and to the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where the Apostolic Council recommends that new Gentile Christians abstain from eating animal blood, in particular. In 1961, the leaders of the sect proclaimed blood transfusion to be the same as eating and declared it a mortal sin.4 Because of the ban on blood transfusions, a lot of people died both abroad5 and in our country. Here are just a few examples.

In March 1996, due to the refusal to administer drugs made from donor blood, "Jehovah's Witness" Y.F. Molchanova died in the City Clinical Hospital No. 40 in Moscow.6

According to an information letter from the same hospital, the sick "Witness" "was repeatedly visited by 'brothers' in faith – Jehovah's Witnesses, who exerted brutal pressure on the patient, tried to force the attending physician to refuse to carry out life-saving therapy, and called on him to 'sacrifice himself to Jehovah.'"7 Numerous similar cases have been recorded abroad.8

On September 7, 1996, seventeen-year-old Irina Godlevskaya, who had been injured in a car accident, was admitted to the trauma department of the Riga City Emergency Hospital. She lost three liters of blood, but resuscitators managed to stabilize her condition. Now it was necessary to perform a blood transfusion, but the girl and her parents – convinced "Jehovah's Witnesses" – refused. For a whole week, doctors fought for Irina's life, convincing her family of the indispensability of the transfusion. And all that week, strong young Jehovah's Witnesses with mobile phones were on duty in the hospital department, who made sure that Irina was not given a transfusion without their consent. In the end, the girl and her mother agreed to the operation and the transfusion was started, but it was too late. Irina died9.

But the most terrible consequence of the superstition of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the death of the children of sectarians, to whom their parents forbid blood transfusions, even in case of mortal danger.

On September 27, 1996, three-year-old Vanya Semyonov, a patient with leukemia, died in the intensive care unit of the 1st Children's City Hospital of St. Petersburg. The Jehovah's Witness mother refused in writing the transfusion procedure necessary for her son. On January 26, 1998, nine-month-old Danya Krivtsov died in the same hospital. And in this case, the parents, Jehovah's Witnesses, did not allow the doctors to save the child's life.10

When there was again an urgent need to give a transfusion to the child of the "witnesses" of eight-year-old Diana Leontyeva, the doctors of the 1st Children's Hospital persuaded her parents to prevent the death of the girl for five hours in a row. At the same time, one of the leaders of the sect, Georgy Polyakov, arrived at the hospital to insist on the observance of "Jehovah's laws." He advised Diana's parents to use blood substitutes, having bought them from the sect for a lot of money. Since the Leontievs did not have such money, they were cynically offered to sell the apartment. They refused and, thank God, allowed the doctors to give Diana a transfusion and thus saved the child's life.11

In 1997, a premature infant girl at the Institute of Pediatrics of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences was supposed to receive an urgent blood transfusion, but due to the categorical refusal of her mother, a convinced Jehovah's Witness, the child died.12

The "Witnesses" say that it is possible to use drugs that replace blood instead of blood. However, according to the director of the Hematological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences A.I. Vorobyov, there is a wide range of diseases in which blood transfusion is the only way to save a person's life. Thus, we can talk about forcing a person to commit suicide (or to murder, if the parents are forced to make a choice for their young child). Not only the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves and their children can die, but also people who are unconscious if their sectarian relatives refuse to consent to transfusion.

However, human life has never been a priority for the leadership of the sect. Initially, Jehovah's Witnesses were forbidden to vaccinate themselves, which, of course, led to a large number of serious diseases and deaths. It was not until 1952, after many countries had banned people who had not received the required vaccinations and vaccinations, that the Watch Tower Society lifted its ban. No one took responsibility for the people who died at the whim of the sect leadership. On the other hand, organ transplants were banned, which deprived many people of their last hope of saving their lives. The Jehovah's Witnesses, who needed an eye corneal transplant, were forced to refuse the operation and agree to the loss of sight. In 1980, organ transplantation was allowed, and again the leadership of the sect did not even consider it necessary to apologize for forcibly imposing on people a point of view that was now recognized as erroneous.13 Why did hundreds of people die, and many others went blind? This question still remains unanswered. Perhaps in the near future, the sect's leadership will allow Jehovah's Witnesses to receive blood transfusions.14 And again the sectarians will meekly accept this change, and again no one will demand an answer to the simple question: for what did our brothers and sisters die?

Jehovah's Witnesses deny any earthly government and everything connected with it: military service, oaths to public office, public holidays, honoring the flag, voting and election to elective office, etc. All members of the sect consider themselves citizens of a single theocratic state – the Watch Tower Society with its capital in Brooklyn (a district of New York), where their Bethel center is located near the Brooklyn Bridge (this is the name of not only the Brooklyn headquarters sects, but also the administrative centers of Jehovah's Witnesses in all countries of the world): a complex of squat gray-brown cube-shaped buildings, very boring and reminiscent of either warehouses or barracks. One of them has a turret with crenellated edges at the top, on which is written: "The Watchtower." This is their brain trust, headquarters, world government. There sits the "divinely ordained" supreme body, the Governing (Governing) Corporation, called by sectarians Jehovah's "Faithful and Discreet Slave" (ViBR), his only representative on earth.

The governing body appoints authorized representatives in the large zones, who supervise committees in the branches, to which the overseers in the areas report. Subordinate to them are circuit overseers, who supervise the elders in the congregations to which the rank and file members are assigned. Such is the rigid structure of the sect's management. However, all the local administrative bodies of the sect do not make any decisions on their own – they are only a transmission link for the "implementation" of orders and directives from Brooklyn.