Introduction

There are more than 20,000 different religions¹ worldwide, and it is impossible for one researcher to study them all in a lifetime. In over 40 years as a religious scholar, I have been able to study, more or less thoroughly, only about 150 denominations.

Of all the religious movements I have encountered or read about, the most interesting to me are Jehovah’s Witnesses. I began studying this religion in 1990. At that time, the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses was still banned in the USSR; it was not registered until March 1991,² shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, which occurred in December 1991.³

In 2002, I defended my doctoral dissertation on the ideology and activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses, for the degree of doctor of philosophical sciences.⁴ As far as I know, this is the only dissertation on Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian Federation.

I continue to study this denomination under the present extreme conditions that have arisen after the April 20, 2017, decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to ban the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and all 395 legally registered local religious organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I am also trying to help believers who have not committed any crimes but are being prosecuted simply for their religious beliefs. At the invitation of lawyers, I appear in the courts as a specialist in religious studies. What, in particular, interests me as a religious studies scholar? Their organization is unique in many respects and does not fall into any typical category. I will provide eight distinctive features of the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The basis for the doctrine of the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses is the Bible, not some charismatic⁵ leader. Most religious organizations emerge as small, radical groups, full of enthusiasm and held together by a vibrant, charismatic leader. After the death of their founder, they seek to turn his legacy into the doctrinal foundation of a religious movement. The doctrinal basis of the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses was not a particular charismatic leader, but the Bible. The history of Jehovah’s Witnesses began with a discussion group of “Bible Students” started in 1870 in the United States by Charles Russell. The Bible Students (who received the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in 1931) do not consider Charles Russell a prophet, or his writings as absolute truth forming the doctrinal basis of their organization. In their opinion, Jehovah valued the sincere faith of C. T. Russell and his followers and their desire to follow the Bible. Therefore, Jehovah gradually revealed and continues to reveal to Jehovah’s Witnesses a deeper and truer understanding of Bible prophecy. I have not seen portraits of C. T. Russell in the halls or centers of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Nor is there any reference in the preaching or literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses to his works as the embodiment of absolute truth. Thus, there is not even a hint of any “personality cult” around Russell among Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Jehovah’s Witnesses base their doctrine on the Bible, not on some charismatic leader

Jehovah’s Witnesses choose their religion consciously. If a new religious movement does not disappear after the death of its founder, the first generation of believers (most of whom chose their religion consciously and were burning with the flame of sincere and deep faith) are replaced by subsequent generations, for whom the religion is no longer the result of their own free choice, but something “traditional,” inherited from their parents and more distant generations of ancestors. In such a religious organization, enthusiasm gradually wanes and the spiritual energy of the believers diminishes.

Jehovah’s Witnesses choose their religion consciously

Jehovah’s Witnesses were able to avoid this danger as well. Remarkably, even second-, third-, and fourth-generation Jehovah’s Witnesses do not take their organization for granted or view their obligations to it as a mere formality. The reason for this is likely that when raising their children, Jehovah’s Witnesses encourage them to make a free, informed choice of faith. I would like to mention that this is how children are raised in most of the families of believers I have had occasion to meet.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have no special clergy “caste.” Another danger that virtually no religious organization except Jehovah’s Witnesses has been able to avoid is the ever-widening divide between leaders and rank-and-file believers, often leading to the transformation of church leadership into a “priestly caste” that dictates its will to ordinary believers. It would be difficult to name a large religious organization whose leadership does not have substantial benefits and advantages over ordinary believers. Here, too, Jehovah’s Witnesses present a rare exception. There is no “chasm” that separates their leaders from other members of the organization, and their leadership has no privileges that set it apart from believers.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have no special clergy “caste”

I had the opportunity to see this for myself when I visited the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the late 1990s and visited with members of the Governing Body (as described in the book The People Who Are Never Without Their Bibles).

Jehovah’s Witnesses give much more attention to preaching than any other religious organization. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth⁶ foretold in the Bible will come after “this good news of the Kingdom” is “preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations” (Matthew 24:14).⁷ Jehovah’s Witnesses devote far more attention to preaching than any religious organization that I know of. To be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses means not only practicing the doctrine and following the moral teachings of the Bible, but also actively preaching.

Jehovah’s Witnesses give much more attention to preaching than any other religious organization

Each annual report of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide shows the number of hours that believers around the world have spent in the preaching work. For example, the report for the year 2021 shows that believers spent more than 1.4 billion hours⁸ in the preaching activity during that year (prior to the pandemic, the numbers were even more impressive. In 2019, for example, they preached for over 2 billion hours!).

Jehovah’s Witnesses have no interethnic conflicts – not in peacetime or in wartime. The fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses have no racial prejudices or ethnic conflicts commands respect. Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the few, if not the only, large religious organizations completely devoid of ethnic enmity. Many thinkers, poets, and writers have dreamed of humanity becoming one family, in which war ceases and mutual hatred disappears. In today’s world, torn apart by military conflicts and enmity, this dream seems unrealistic. Jehovah’s Witnesses have succeeded in creating an international brotherhood with the same beliefs in all countries of the world. They take all possible measures to ensure that there are no social, ethnic, racial, or class divisions among them. There are no disputes about politics among Jehovah’s Witnesses; they remain politically neutral and preach “the good news of the Kingdom” which will eliminate all the problems of humanity, including war. Let us consider an example from recent history. On February 24, 2022, despite the efforts of world leaders to prevent war, Russian troops invaded Ukraine, where about 130,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses live. Not even one of Jehovah’s Witnesses was among the Russian military or among the defenders of Ukraine. Like their fellow believers in other countries, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not take up arms or participate in wars. At the same time, they always actively help victims of military conflicts. Thousands of Ukrainian Jehovah’s Witnesses became refugees. Their fellow believers met them at the borders of neighboring countries to provide relief and to ease their heartache and concerns.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have no interethnic conflicts – either in peacetime or in wartime

Jehovah’s Witnesses remain politically neutral and preach “the good news of the Kingdom” which will eliminate all the problems of humanity, including war

Another striking example is the behavior of the Jehovah’s Witnesses during the genocide of the Tutsi tribe in Africa in the 1990s.

In April 1994, a wave of violence swept across Rwanda and some neighboring countries, driven by the intent of the Hutu tribe to destroy the Tutsis. Within 3 months, over 500,000 men, women, and children were killed. Millions of people became refugees.

Unfortunately, local religious organizations of different denominations were also divided along ethnic lines and did not oppose the genocide; some clergy even played a direct part in it. The only exceptions were Jehovah’s Witnesses, who remained strictly neutral and not only did not participate in the genocide, but also, at risk to their own lives, protected their fellow believers, saving them from being massacred. Some Witnesses were killed by extremists for hiding fellow believers belonging to other tribes.

A warm and friendly atmosphere is typical of the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Racial and national conflicts remain one of the most acute problems in the twenty-first century; the experience of Jehovah’s Witnesses could help to solve it.

A warm and friendly atmosphere is typical of the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Another important feature of the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia is the spirit of Christian unity, mutual help, friendly camaraderie, and willingness to forgive offenses. They consider the optimal size of a congregation to be about one hundred people. If a congregation grows larger and reaches 150 members, it is divided into two congregations. Jehovah’s Witnesses do this so that all members of the congregation can get to know each other and maintain warm, trusting relationships.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Determined and Consistent Pacifists.⁹ A unique trait of Jehovah’s Witnesses is their commitment to nonviolence – their refusal to take up arms, to participate in wars and politics, to serve in the army, or to resort to violence of any form. Jehovah’s Witnesses are determined and consistent pacifists. Pacifists are people who openly declare that they oppose any military action, violence, or the use of force to resolve conflicts (including political conflicts).

Jehovah’s Witnesses are determined and consistent pacifists

Steadfast under persecution. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Jehovah’s Witnesses is their amazing perseverance under persecution. They withstood the terror in Nazi Germany, prohibition, persecution, and mass exile to Siberia under Stalin, and brutal persecution in various countries of the world. Despite persecution, Jehovah’s Witnesses continued to tirelessly preach and to add to the number of believers.¹⁰ I will give just one example. In 2021, the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned or significantly restricted in 33 countries. Despite persecution, there were more than 209,000 believers in these lands, and their number increased by 0.8 percent during 2021.¹¹

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Jehovah’s Witnesses is their amazing perseverance under persecution

The steadfastness of Jehovah’s Witnesses under persecution will be the main theme of this book. The authors will tell about events in the Russian Federation after 2017 that they have been able to observe personally.

Teresa Wontor-Cichy, Imprisoned for Their Faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses in KL Auschwitz

Max Liebster, Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm

Bernhard Rammerstorfer, Unbroken Will

Horst Schmidt, Death Always Came on Mondays. Persecuted for refusing to serve in the Nazi army (autobiography)

M. I. Odintsov, Council of Ministers of the USSR Decides: “Evict Forever!”: Collection of Documents and Materials on Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Soviet Union (1951-1985) [only in Russian]

S. I. Mokritskiy, The Way of a Christian [only in Russian]

70 years after Operation “North” – materials from International Academic Online Conference on April 8, 2021, scientific editor Petr Lavrentyevich Yarotskiy, Lviv, Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies, 2021 and others.

*Sergei Ivanenko during the years when he was working on his doctoral thesis, which was dedicated to the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Moscow, 1999*

1
This figure is given by experts from the Religious Studies Center at the Russian State University for Humanities (http://religion.rsuh.ru). ↩︎
2
On March 27, 1991, Jehovah’s Witnesses were officially registered by the Russian Ministry of Justice. ↩︎
3
On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of the USSR, resigned, and the next day, December 26, 1991, the Council of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration to dissolve the USSR. ↩︎
4
The public defense of the thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy “The development of ideology and activity of the religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia (socio-philosophical analysis)” in Religious Studies, Philosophical Anthropology, Philosophy of Culture (specialty 09.00.13.) was held at the Russian Academy of Public Administration. ↩︎
5
Charisma (from Ancient Greek – a gift from God) is a special giftedness, exclusivity of a person in spiritual, intellectual or any other way. ↩︎
6
The prophecy of the millennial Kingdom of God on earth at the end of history is found in the book of Revelation 20:1-4. ↩︎
7
Unless otherwise indicated, this and all following Scripture quotations are from the modern-language New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. ↩︎
8
The exact number was 1,423,039,931 hours. ↩︎
9
Pacifism (from Latin “pacificus” – peacemaking, from “pax” – peace and “facio” – to make). ↩︎
10
More about the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany and the USSR: ↩︎
11
2021 Service Year Report of Jehovah’s Witnesses Worldwide, p.7 (https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/2021-service-year-report/). ↩︎