Every Soviet citizen knew that "there is no God, and religion is opium for the people." Knew, but did not believe it, for belief in the supernatural was strong. Therefore, along with adherents of Christianity and Islam, there were sectarians and devil worshipers in the USSR. Already in the 1970s, in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Satanists again made themselves felt.
Satanic cults in Russia appeared even before the October Revolution, but did not become widespread. The tsarist government dealt severely with the whips, eunuchs, Old Believers - what can we say about Satanists ?! The same Black Hundreds could defeat the devil worshipers without trial or investigation. Well, after the Bolsheviks came to power, nothing was heard about the Satanists.
They were the first
The first information about satanic societies in the USSR appeared in the mid-1970s. Along with the revival of Orthodoxy, people appeared who believed that Satan was more powerful than Christ and more profitable to worship him. But in view of the fact that the Soviet adepts did not have any special literature like the Satanic Bible that was available in the West, the movement was scattered and chaotic. However, the authorities could fix something.
So, on an August night in 1973, the watchman of one of the Moscow cemeteries called the police. It seemed to him that someone was trying to dig a fresh grave.
The outfit that arrived at the scene found two young men and one girl there. The girl was naked and stained with blood. At first, it was suspected that she had been beaten and raped. But the behavior of the “victim” was somehow strange: she was not afraid of the guys, and even they were dressed. Nearby, militiamen found the body of a cat with a slit throat. To the question of law enforcement officers: "What were you doing here ?!" - young people found it difficult to answer. In the end, the three were taken to the police station, and since no evidence of a crime was found, they were brought under administrative responsibility under the article “petty hooliganism” and released. None of the policemen even thought that these were the first Soviet Satanists.
By the end of the 1970s, a totalitarian sect was operating on the territory of the Soviet Union, calling itself the Order of Satan. There were branches of the order, in addition to the two capitals, in Kiev, Minsk, Tallinn, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk. It was rumored that KGB officers were involved in the geographic expansion of the satanic underground. The secret services wanted to know what the devil worshipers were up to. It's one thing when they just get together for an orgy or slaughter cats in a vacant lot, and quite another when they are planning a massacre or a terrorist attack. But sacrifice is one of the main rituals of devil worshipers.
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The devilry of perestroika
While the leaders of the "Order of Satan" regularly knocked where necessary, the activities of the underground were out of danger. Satanists were allowed to hold secret meetings where they read Bible texts backwards and summon spirits. In addition to the well-known session of spiritualism with a saucer, individuals were able to "summon a gnome." Say, in the dark, you need to light a candle and hang a candy on a thread at a height of half a meter, and then say the challenge several times: “Gnome, come. Take the candy! " Some claimed that for an hour a certain creature with a beard and big eyes appeared in the dark, and after that the candy disappeared from the thread in an unknown way. It was rumored that Satan sent one of the servants to feast on sweetness. It seemed silly to believe this - but many believed it was possible. Well, young people and adolescents took everything at face value,thanks to which in the pioneer camps "horror stories" were repeated from year to year.
In 1986, at the height of perestroika, the Order of Satan fell apart. New societies appeared: "Southern Cross", "Black Angel", "Black Dragon". The reason for this was the ambitions of mature members of the order. In those days, the fashion for various magicians, psychics and sorcerers was gaining strength. Many Satanists declared themselves professors of black or white magic, shamans, and soothsayers. For several years underground, they have absorbed an impressive baggage of esoteric nonsense, which they fed gullible people. They believed and paid money for treatment, predictions and removal of damage. Satanists who went into commerce quickly lost touch with their colleagues who remained underground. More precisely, the latter did not want to see them in their ranks, considering them traitors.
And although the movement split into dozens of currents, strong support for the Soviet Satanists came from the West. Literature about rituals, "the number of the beast", Lucifer and black masses began to be sold at every turn. The authors of the textbooks directly stated that the devil, in contrast to God, rewards the adherents during their lifetime. And if a person wants power and money, then for this you just need to recognize Satan as his god and begin to worship him.
Ritual killings
Unlike Christianity, Satanism attracted people by encouraging animal instincts. Thus, sex orgies were a powerful recruiting tool. Hard rock was another source of attracting adepts. The music that poured into the Union in the early 1980s found a response in millions of young hearts.
Already in the late 1980s, the number of Satanists in the USSR increased significantly. Orgies and sacrifices of cats and other animals were bound to grow into something more sinister someday. And if in the 1980s the police somehow preempted and prevented such attempts, then in the dashing 90s they were no longer controlled by anyone. And it began …
In April 1996, in Severo-Zadonsk, Tula region, Satanists sacrificed a 15-year-old boy and a 49-year-old man. The latter was forcibly brought to the house of 75-year-old Zinaida Kuzina, who was considered a witch in the district. She lived with her 43-year-old son, who considered himself the leader of a sect of local warlocks. The man was undressed, tied to a table and began to cast spells over him. Then the sect leader took a knife and stuck it in the poor fellow's chest. Other adepts followed the example of the mentor. The second victim incurred anger by disrespecting the old witch in the village. The teenager was tied to a tree and beaten to death with hammers.
On September 19, 1998, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 17-year-old Alexei Shevaldin and 16-year-old Evgeny Platov - members of the satanic sect "Black Brothers" - stabbed a 12-year-old boy. During the ceremony, they stabbed the child twice in the stomach. And then they cut off the head with a ritual sword. After the arrest, the murderers admitted that after such a ceremony they had to move "to a higher level of initiation."
On September 2, 1999, four members of the Satanist sect were arrested in St. Petersburg on suspicion of the murder of at least 12 people. The arrested admitted that they killed people in honor of the devil, and then tore off their skin and soak it in alcohol.
By the way, the connection of Russian Satanists with Western associates had a calming effect on their behavior. Today, the leaders of the most powerful satanic sects urge their followers to abandon sacrifices, because they believe that the devil is confidently taking over the world without that, with the help of money and lies.
Lenin is a messenger of hell
In 1984, a sect was exposed in Kiev, which considered Vladimir Lenin to be its spiritual teacher. It would seem that this was in tune with the official teaching of the CPSU and should not have caused concern for the authorities. But the sectarians considered Lenin not the leader of the proletariat, but the messenger of hell, which drowned Orthodox Christians in their blood and introduced satanic symbols in the form of a five-pointed star on 1/6 of the land. After a short investigation, the sect leaders were found insane and sent to a psychiatric clinic.
Author: Prokhor EZHOV