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The Last Deadly Days of the Knights Templar

Red Cross of the Knights Templar — Red cross symbol of the Knights Templar

For almost 200 years, the famous Knights Templar had considerable power, wealth, and influence across Europe and the Mediterranean. But it all came to an abrupt and bloody end in 1314. The Knights were originally founded as a Christian monastic-military order, devoted to protecting pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land following the First Crusade.

If a “monastic-military” order sounds a bit odd, you’re right. Thanks to huge donations from Kings and Cardinals across Europe, the Knights Templar became one of the richest and most powerful orders in the Middle Ages. By start of the 1300’s, the Templars had established a system of churches, castles, and even banks throughout western Europe. It was an unusual mix – their Christian work, military skills, and financial know-how. And it was all that wealth and power that ultimately lead to their quick and deadly downfall.

During the First Crusade, Christian armies from throughout western Europe banded together and captured Jerusalem from Muslim control in 1099. Arabs had controlled the holy city since taking it from the Byzantine Roman Empire in 638 AD. Groups of Christian pilgrims from across Europe then started visiting Palestine. Many however, were robbed and killed as they journeyed across dangerous Muslim-controlled territories.

Around 1118, a French knight named Hugues de Payens saw their plight. He created a military order along with eight other French knights, calling it The Order of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. That was quite a mouthful, so they became known over time simply as the Knights of the Temple, or Knights Templar.

With the support of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, they set up headquarters in the palace on the sacred Temple Mount. They then pledged to protect Christian visitors to the Holy Land. Like monks, they took a vow of poverty, chastity and prayer; and were forbidden from drinking, gambling or swearing. As knights, they readily killed to defend Christian pilgrims. The order wore white surcoats with a large blood red cross, signifying their willingness to die as martyrs.

In 1129, the Order received formal endorsement from the Catholic Church in Rome, which helped bolster their reputation and membership. In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a Papal Bull. It allowed the Knights Templar special rights, including exemption from taxes and placing them under the Pope’s sole authority. Though sworn to poverty, suddenly the Knights received vast amounts of gold, land, and even the sons of nobility to grow their order.

They served bravely in the Second and Third Crusades, gaining a reputation as fierce, fearless warriors who never retreated.

As the Knights Templar grew, they established new chapters throughout western Europe and the Mediterranean. They even set up a network of banks. It, allowed religious pilgrims and noblemen to deposit assets in their home kingdoms, and withdraw funds in Palestine. The Templars would also go on to own a sizable fleet of sailing ships, and even the Mediterranean island of Cyprus!

In the late 12th century, during the Second Crusade, Muslim armies under Sultan Saladin retook Jerusalem following the infamous Battle of Hattin near the Sea of Galilee. This forced the Knights Templar to retreat to the Mediterranean coast. European support of the Crusades began to erode over the decades that followed. Many of the nobility and religious leaders became jealous and critical of the Templars’ failures, huge wealth and powerful influence. The Knights were accountable only to the Pope himself, which meant unlimited power and freedom. But as it turned out, this influence could not save them from the power of one ruthless King.

By 1303, the Knights Templar lost Cyprus to the Egyptians, and their key foothold in the Muslim world. They established a base of operations back in Paris, where they unfortunately fell under French King Philip IV. Philip despised the Templars as they had denied the debt-ridden monarch numerous loans. King Philip, AKA the ‘Plague of France,’ had led his kingdom into bankruptcy with endless wars. Heavily in debt, he took any source of money that presented itself.

First, he turned to the Catholic Church, having two Popes assassinated, before making sure Pope Clement V was next. This gave him enough influence and power to have the papacy moved from Rome to Avignon in France. His next target was the Jews. He had them all arrested on a single day, confiscated all their money and property, and banished them from the kingdom. But this was nothing compared to what he had in store for the Templars.

As with any medieval Order, the Knights Templar had secret initiation ceremonies surrounding their religious activities, which served the devious King well. Philip sent secret documents by couriers throughout the courts of France. The papers included lurid lies about the Templars including whispers of black magic, devil worship and scandalous homosexual rituals. He invited the current Templar Grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, to his sister-in-law’s funeral to make sure that he was in close proximity.

In the early morning of Friday, October 13, 1307, he ordered scores of French Templars arrested, including the order’s Grandmaster.

On what grounds? Heresy. The arrest warrants contained the words: “God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in our kingdom.” In the weeks that followed, more than 600 Templars were arrested. He had them all imprisoned. The Knights were kept in isolation and fed meager rations of bread and water. Most of the Knights were brutally tortured until they confessed to the King’s long list of false charges, which included heresy, homosexuality, sodomy, financial corruption, fraud, worshipping Baphomet, spitting on the crucifix, and denying Christ.

Common torture practices of medieval inquisitors included the Strappado, the infamous Rack, or having their feet slowly dipped in boiling oil. The despicable inventions would be used for centuries, up through the Catholic Inquisitions. Given those ruthless conditions, it’s not surprising that within weeks, hundreds of Templars confessed to blasphemy and worse, including Grandmaster Jacques de Molay.

Pope Clement V was horrified. The Templars were still extremely popular with the people. King Philip made sure the allegations against them were so horrific, including graphic details of their supposed heresy, that it would be impossible for the Church to look the other way. The Knight’s coerced “confessions” forced the Pope’s hands. Clement issued a papal bull ordering the other Christian kings to arrest their Templars as well. Their lands and money were confiscated and officially dispersed to other religious orders and also royal coffers.

The pitiful Templars lingered in their dungeon cells for two more years. King Philip declared 54 of them guilty and burned them at the stake in 1310.

Under continued pressure from the French King, Pope Clement V reluctantly dissolved the Knights Templar in 1312. The group’s property and monetary assets were given to a rival order, the Knights Hospitallers, as well as King Philip of France and King Edward of England.

Pope Clement interviewed de Molay himself. The Grandmaster denied the confessions he gave under torture, and begged the Pope to save the remaining Knights. Clement had him acquitted. But he wasn’t released, as King Philip still wanted him to reveal where the all the hidden treasure of the Templars was stored. Given his refusal to do so, and his previous confessions, the King sentenced him to death again, as a heretic.

Knight Templar Jacques de Molay burned at the stake, 1314

Jacques de Molay and several other remaining Templars, were slowly burned at the stake in the plaza in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on a Friday the 13th in the spring of 1314. Legend has it his last words were a curse: “God knows who is wrong and has sinned. Calamity will occur to those who have condemned us.” Interestingly that appears to have worked. Pope Clement died of cancer a month later, and King Philip died of a stroke during a hunting trip that same year.

The Catholic Church has since acknowledged that the medieval persecution of the Knights Templar was grossly unjustified. The church claims that Pope Clement was pressured by various jealous and greedy Kings and Cardinals to destroy the order and confiscate their vast wealth. While most agree the Knights Templar fully collapsed over 700 years ago, some groups, like the Freemasons, adopted several of the Knights’ symbols and rituals as their own. And of course, there are some today who believe the Order secretly went underground and remains secretly active behind the scenes to this day. Regardless, the lingering shadow of that infamous Friday the 13^th cannot be denied.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Was Count Saint Germain a real life Dr. Who?

BBC's first Dr. Who portrayed by William Hartnell — BBC’s first Dr. Who, portrayed by William Hartnell

They called him The Deathless One, The Immortal Count and The Man Who Would Not Die. Those who knew him intimately swore he never aged. Count Saint Germain appeared exactly the same near the start of the 1700’s as he did near the century’s end, a span of over eighty years. But how is that possible? He was always described as a handsome, charismatic gentleman, between 30-40 years of age, of medium height and a fit build. Those, however, were the only ordinary attributes of a truly extraordinary man. Ladies beat their fans in his presence, saying he possessed ‘a rare perfection of form’ and ‘soft, penetrating eyes.’ Gentlemen admired his wealth, ‘intellectual countenance’ and ‘princely liberality.’

He was independently wealthy, though no one could ascertain from where it came. He never divulged his true name, his date of birth, or his country of origin. Many tried and failed to uncover his carefully guarded secrets, assuming he’d lived for centuries. European courts hailed him as a learned Alchemist, a musical savant, a trusted Mason, and an astute diplomat. His enemies were far less flattering, denouncing him as a common charlatan, a devious rogue, or even an enemy spy, worthy of arrest and execution.

Estimates of his age range from a hundred to over a thousand years!

The secret of his longevity was coveted by many and scoffed at by others. Was he a Time Traveler? A Vampyre? A Wizard? Regardless of the truth, the Count was somehow able to, by either natural or unnatural means, slow the human clock and extend his lifespan. The Fountain of Youth, Philosopher’s Stone, or the Elixir of Eternal Youth – all means were both suspected and coveted. If we consider, just for a moment that it was somehow true, did such an amazing feat ultimately become a blessing … or a Curse? Image everyone you knew, every family member, every friend, every lover, growing old and dying while you watched and lived on.

We hear accounts of Saint-Germain’s adventures across continents and centuries. In London, he composed operas and spied for the Scottish Rebellion. In Calcutta, he helped the British East India Company defeat the Mughal Empire. For French King Louis XV, he performed alchemy in the fabulous Chateau Chambord. For Catherine the Great, he plotted her successful coup d’etat in St. Petersburg against husband, the despised Tzar Peter III. In between these grand adventures, he vanishes from sight, sometimes for a decade or more, leaving only mystery in his wake. His last known sighting was in the streets of Paris during the bloody French Revolution in 1789.

Portrait of Count Saint Germain in 1783 for the Marquis d'Urfe — Portrait of Count Saint Germain in 1783 for the Marquis d’Urfe

The Count’s contemporaries documented his escapades in their memoirs and letters: colorful figures like the philosopher Voltaire, Madame Pompadour and Marie Antoinette. Through these rare accounts, we raise the veil of mystery and witness the enigmatic Count in action. We hear of him entertaining the French court with his violin at Versailles, or performing alchemy in the cellars of Chateau Chambord. A year later, he is at the Hague in the Netherlands negotiating peace treaties for France to end the Seven Years War. Blink again and he narrowly escapes imprisonment as a Scottish Jacobite spy in London. It may all sound like a Masterpiece Theater program, but it is not.

Le Comte de Saint Germain is not fiction

He was (is?) a true historical adventurer with exploits that spanned both the globe and the 18th century. Unfortunately, like footprints on a beach, most records of the Count have been washed from history. The unknowns regarding this enigma of a man far eclipse the knowns. A dossier of Saint-Germain, kept by a wary French court, was mysteriously destroyed in a suspicious fire in Paris’ Hotel de Ville.

Saint-Germain was, by no stretch of the imagination, a real-life Count of Monte Cristo. In the 19th Century, the Count’s legend lived on thanks to the infamous mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky. Even today, the international Theosophical Society, the I AM Activity, and the Summit Lighthouse Church refer to him as The Violet Flame. They count him among their revered “Ascended Masters,” living on in another astral plane, still attainable through their religion.

In other blogposts, are detailed the research behind a historical novel on the Count, THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE. It traces his adventures across 18th century Europe and the Far East. Somewhere buried within all the many anecdotes and tales, lies a trail of truth behind the mysterious Count Saint-Germain. They allow us to pull back the curtain, if only for a moment, and see him for who he truly was.

Click here for the Count Saint Germain historical novel: The Man Who Would Not Die.

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Podcast: Japan’s Minamata Disease was a Man-made Tragedy

Minamata Disease is a sobering reminder of the dangers of unregulated industries in modern times, a purely human-created disease. It was first seen in 1956 in the children living in Minamata City on the coast of Japan’s southern island of Kyūshū. Medically, it’s a severe neurological syndrome with symptoms including loss of muscle control, loss of feeling in hands and feet, tunnel vision, deafness, and speech abnormalities. Within a few weeks of onset, extreme cases tragically end with paralysis, convulsions, coma and eventually death. In pregnant women, it can also lead to horrible birth defects. But what exactly did humans do to create such a terrible disease?

Mother comforts child with Minamata Disease — Japanese mother comforts child with Minamata Disease

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The Legacy of Russia’s Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

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Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, after the Reactor 4 explosion, 1986

The greatest nuclear disaster the Earth has ever known, was worse than Three Mile Island, worse than Japan’s Fukushima. It began innocently enough in the early hours of Saturday 26 April 1986 in northern Ukraine’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, then part of the Soviet Union.

Prior to a routine shutdown of Reactor #4, the crew disabled automatic shutdown mechanisms, leaving the reactor in an extremely unstable condition. Because of a serious design flaw, when the graphite control rods began to be inserted into the nuclear fuel, a dramatic energy surge occurred. The contact of the hot fuel with its surrounding cooling waters lead to a dramatic increase in steam in the reactor chamber. The intense pressure quickly built up and at 1:23am in the morning a massive explosion occurred, blowing the roof off the reactor containment building, and releasing radioactive particles and gases into the local atmosphere.

Three seconds later, a second even larger explosion blew out radioactive graphite fragments of the reactor core.

Two workers died instantly in the explosions. They were the lucky ones. Thirty one deaths are attributed to the two explosions and the subsequent attempts to put out the resulting fire. The casualties included the brave local firefighters who came and fought the fires, standing on the roof of the turbine building, and would succumb to terrible radiation poisoning in the weeks to come. At first, plant managers were in denial that the core itself had exploded and reported to Moscow that radiation levels were negligible.

Most of the radioactivity was deposited within a few kilometers of Chernobyl as dust and debris. But the radioactive plume went on to drift over large parts of the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Eastern Europe. Ukraine was still a part of Communist Soviet Union at the time. Only after drifting radiation set off alarms in Sweden 2 days later, over 1000 km away, did the Communist government of the Soviet Union finally publicly admit that an accident had occurred. Only after evacuating the nearby city of Pripyat, was a warning message read on Soviet state TV two days later.

Pripyat was built in 1970, just 4 short km away, to house the employees of Chernobyl and their families. It had grown over the years to a population of 50,000, complete with a football (soccer) stadium and amusement park. The city however was not immediately evacuated after the explosion. The majority of its citizens were unaware of the disaster and went about their usual business. Children played outside, gardeners worked on their gardens, men fished in the river. The black smoke rising from the Power Plant was explained away as a routine steam discharge. Curious residents gathered on rooftops to watch the burning reactor and unknowingly exposed themselves to fatal doses of radiation.

Within hours of the explosion, scores of people began to fall ill, reporting headaches, nausea, coughing and vomiting. By Sunday morning, 1200 buses began arriving in Pripyat in preparation for a full evacuation. The order was finally announced at Noon, over a day and a half later. Residents were asked to carry with them only what would be needed for 2-3 days away from home, some food and a change of clothing. Employees’ dosimeters were all confiscated. By nightfall, the city was empty. No one would live in Pripyat ever again. It now lies within a broad Exclusion Zone and remains eerily abandoned to this day.

The Chernobyl disaster caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release ever recorded.

Large quantities of radioactive materials were released into the air for the next 10 days. The core’s fire was finally gotten under control by dropping tons of sand mixed with boron from army helicopters. Chunks of radioactive graphite had to be removed from the turbine roof by hand using shovels. Each man was allowed only 90 seconds before their exposure would be fatal. The unsuspecting pilots and all the brave firefighters from Pripyat would suffer from radiation poisoning, many of them dying.

A massive concrete and metal shell, known as the Chernobyl Sarcophagus, was hastily constructed to encase the remains of Unit 4, both as a means to halt the release of radiation and to allow continuing operation of the other 3 functioning reactors. About 200 tons of highly radioactive material still remain buried within.

The Chernobyl Sarcophagus over Reactor 4, 1986

The “Chernobyl Nuclear Zone of Alienation” is the officially designated exclusion area around the site. Established by the Russian military, it covers the areas worst affected by contamination, an area of 30 km radius evacuated and placed under military control. By May, 116,000 people had been evacuated from the zone. In 1987, the Deputy Chief Engineer on duty that night was found guilty “of criminal mismanagement of potentially explosive enterprises” and sentenced to only 10 years in prison. All of the staff on duty that night died prematurely of radiation poisoning, or later of cancer. The Alienation Zone remains in place to this day.

The effort to contain the contamination and repair the site eventually involved over 500,000 conscripted workers, known as ‘the Liquidators‘ and cost 18 billion Rubles. Unit 2 was shut down in 1991, when Ukraine achieved its independence from Russia, and Unit 1 in 1997. Energy shortages in the Ukraine necessitated the continued operation of Unit 3 until 2000. Almost 6000 people continued to work at the contaminated plant every day till then. The original concrete sarcophagus has since deteriorated and leaked, requiring the construction of an even LARGER megastructure around it. The ‘New Safe Confinement‘ structure resembles a zeppelin hanger and was completed in 2016 at a cost on 2.5 billion euros.

A Russian publication concluded that 985,000 premature cancer deaths occurred across Europe and Asia between 1986 and 2004 as a result of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl. To this day, nearly 5 million people, including more than 1 million children, still live near dangerous levels of radioactive contamination in Belarus and Ukraine. The Exclusion Zone remains one of the most radioactively contaminated areas on planet Earth. Illegal poaching, logging and metal scavenging remain a problem. Other Chernobyl-style RBMK nuclear reactors throughout Russia were grudgingly repaired by the Soviets.

The Pripyat ghost town oddly draws an increased tourist crowd, due to the popularity of a recent and well-made HBO mini-series, entitled Chernobyl. It lies only 63 miles north of the Ukraine capital of Kyiv and there were several licensed tour guides. Up until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, daring visitors were allowed limited tours of the deserted town. Now of course, with the ongoing war, the future of Chernobyl is once again up in the air.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Why China’s Boxer Rebellion Sounds Familiar

Chinese Boxer Rebellion's Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists — **China Boxer Rebellion’s Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists**

By the start of the 1900’s, China had lost a number of humiliating wars with Japan, Russia and other European powers. It fought to resist foreign armies, but lacked a modern military, and suffered millions of casualties. China’s Qing Dynasty was forced to accept humiliating foreign control over the Empire’s economy, as well as an influx of Christian missionaries. All this lead to the Boxer Rebellion.

To make matters worse, by the late 1890s, a series of terrible droughts, famines and floods devastated the northern provinces. Western powers assisted, but only for their own interests, not the general Chinese population. The starving people became both desperate and angry. Out of all this chaos, rose a new secret organization, the “Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists” or Yihequan. They began carrying out regular attacks on both foreigners and Chinese Christians.

An upsurge of anti-Western sentiment was directed at both the foreign presence in China AND the expansion of missionary settlements. By 1900, every major Christian denomination had established religious institutions across China. The northern Shandong province was affected the worst by the unrelenting droughts and famine. The local Chinese felt the missionaries were a threat to Confucianism and Buddhism, angering the gods and stopping the rain.

One European missionary wrote: “The people are very poor; practically no rain has fallen for over a year, plowing cannot be done, crops have not been planted; the whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless peasants, and they are ready to join any solution offered.“

In the 1890s, China had been forced to give commercial concessions to several European nations including Britain and France. Railroads built by Western investors were seen as symbols of ‘European Imperialism‘ and Chinese anger simmered. All this created the breeding ground for an anti-foreigner rebellion, composed largely of unemployed peasants and drought-stricken farmers. They blamed their desperate condition on ‘Foreign Demons‘ colonizing their very own country.

By 1900, leaders of a new resistance spoke out loudly of making China great and strong once again.

Their aim was to purify China of all foreigners, including their economic, political and religious influence. These rebels wanted to return Chinese culture to its conservative values, including respect for their gods, ancestors, and the Emperor. Girls who joined them were called “Shining Red Lanterns.” They dressed all in red, holding a red lantern in one hand and a red fan in the other. All were unmarried girls in their late teens from most every Shandong village.

These rebels came to be known by Western foreigners as BOXERS, because of the martial arts fighting techniques they employed. The rebels performed specific martial arts rituals they believed would give them the ability to withstand ALL deadly forms of attack, including bullets. The Western press referred to these martial arts techniques as “Shadow Boxing.” The Boxers publicly proclaimed spirit possession as they performed these exercises. They pronounced that their spiritual trances rendered them invulnerable.

“The gods attach themselves to our bodies, becoming Spirit Warriors, invulnerable to swords and spears, our courage enhanced, and in fighting, unafraid to die!”
Yihequan

As the Boxers grew in number, a popular song spread from village to village:

“Divinely aided Yihequan, United-in-Righteousness Corps, Arose because the Devils, Fouled the Empire of yore. When at last all the Foreign Devils, are expelled to the very last man, The Great Qing, united, together, will bring peace to this our land.”

In Shandong, they began killing foreigners and Chinese Christians, burning and destroying their property.

These public displays were popular and helped them recruit scores of new members. The Yihequan Boxers blamed western foreigners, including their religions, for all the ills that plagued China. One public notice was issued to Chinese Christian converts:

“You have abandoned the gods, causing them anger, so the rains do not fall from the sky. Heavenly soldiers will descend to earth and wage a great battle with those of your religions. You must mend your ways and join the Yihequan, so that your entire families do not suffer harm.”

The Boxer Rebellion became international in 1898 when a band of Boxers killed 2 German priests at their missionary in Shandong. In response, Kaiser Wilhelm II dispatched the German Navy and troops, which only angered the rebels further. The foreign military was meant to intimidate and control, but was instead the spark that ignited an Empire-wide Rebellion.

From there, the Boxers continued on their path of violence. “SUPPORT THE QING! DESTROY ALL FOREIGNERS!” was their chant. Their next target was the largest number of Chinese Christian converts (over 100,000) and foreigners, living around Beijing. In January 1900, the Qing Empress Dowager Cixi Tzu’u Hzi formally allied herself with the violent, yet extremely popular, Boxers.

The Boxer Rebellion reached the capital Beijing in the spring of 1900.

The Qing Dowager Empress implored all foreigners to leave Beijing immediately. The Boxers terrorized Christian missionaries, burned churches, dug up European built railroads and tore down telegraph lines. Some large godowns (warehouses) full of valuable foreign merchandise were looted and burned to the ground. They intimidated or killed any Chinese official who attempted to suppress their revolt. In June 1900, the Yihequan Boxers began a siege of Beijing’s foreign legation district, with the embassies of foreign diplomats. The next day, the Qing Dowager Empress formally declared war on all foreign nations in China.

As the Chinese anger over foreigners reached fever pitch, the diplomats’ safety became increasingly precarious. This phase of the Rebellion escalated into what’s known as the “Siege of the Legations,” or the occupation of the Embassy District. Many foreign diplomats were now trapped, barricaded inside out of fear for their lives. The siege stretched on for months, as the diplomats, their families and staff suffered through hunger and increasingly degrading conditions, trying to keep the Boxers at bay. Several hundred foreigners and several thousand Chinese Christians were killed.

Western powers and Japan quickly organized a multinational force to invade and crush the Rebellion.

In response, an Eight-Nation Alliance consisting of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Russia, and the United States sent their own military forces to end the siege. They arrived at the port of Tanggu in June and marched inland. The Yihequan Boxers, together with Chinese Imperial Troops, fought against predominantly Russian, Japanese, and British forces. The Battle of Tientsin (Tianjin) would be the bloodiest of the Boxer Rebellion. In August 1900, after fighting its way through northern China, the international force of 20,000 troops from 8 nations arrived to take Beijing and rescue their foreigners diplomats.

Foreign troops invade Beijing's Forbidden City — Foreign troops invade Beijing’s Forbidden City

The Boxers were overwhelmed. In August, the Empress Dowager and the royal family fled in fear to Xi’an, with her highest-ranking Qing officials. She remained there for months until a final peace agreement was signed. The Boxers and Chinese troops lost against the far more industrialized armies. Just as during the prior wars, the western forces were victorious. Thousands of Yihequan Boxers were arrested and Beijing was looted by foreign troops. In the end, the Rebellion that sought to kick out all foreigners had just the opposite effect.

The foreign victors had the last word with a humiliating treaty in their favor. The Boxer Rebellion formally ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol in September 1901. By the terms of the agreement, China agreed to pay more than $330 million in reparations to the 8 foreign invaders. China had to destroy key defensive forts allowing for easier foreign military intervention. Boxer and Chinese government officials involved in the uprising were to be exiled or executed. The treaty enlarged Beijing’s foreign troops, and allowed the permanent presence of Western armies on the Chinese coast.

What were the lasting effects of China’s Boxer Rebellion on the world? The weakened and disgraced Imperial Family was overthrown ten years later. Following an uprising in 1911, the Qing Dynasty, established centuries earlier in 1644, came to an end and China became a Republic. The Boxer Rebellion, though a failure, had sowed the seeds of the future Chinese Communist Party, which began in 1921. A Chinese Civil War broke out in 1931, between Nationalists and Communists that lasted 18 long years. Then after World War II, China became the Communist People’s Republic of China in 1949, under Chairman Mao Zedong.

If this insurrection familiar, perhaps it’s because rebellions and revolutions throughout the world, whether due to hunger, anger or discontent, are quite common throughout our long, global history. It’s not so much the often violent actions of the disgruntled masses that differ, but rather the response of those in authority, with controlling power, that ultimately defines their course and outcome.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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The Prior U.S. Presidential Contested Election? The Ugly Campaign of 1876

1876 U.S. Election Poster of Hayes and Tilden — **1876 U.S. Contested Election Poster of Hayes and Tilden**

Most remember the 2000 contested election of George W. Bush vs. Al Gore. It ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, with Vice President Al Gore finally conceding to Bush. 2020’s Trump vs. Biden election was contested in numerous courts on a state by state-level, but not at a federal level. The last contested U.S. presidential election that required Constitutional Congressional intervention was over 125 years earlier. How did that one work out? Let’s set the stage. The year was 1876 – 11 years after the end of the Civil War, with Southern Reconstruction still in full swing. Civil War hero and President Ulysses S. Grant had served 2 terms. However Grant’s Republican majority had weakened due to an economic recession and a nationwide fatigue over Southern Reconstruction. Southern Democrats now controlled the House of Representatives.

Back then, the Republican party was strongest in the Northeast and former slave regions of the South. The Democratic party focused around southern whites and northern states that had been against the Civil War. That year, Republicans nominated Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. The Democrats nominated New York Governor Samuel Tilden. So what went wrong?

Well to start, in the South there was widespread voter intimidation against black voters, who would tend to vote for the Republican party of Lincoln. Tilden won the popular vote by 3% and initially, it seemed, the Electoral College too. Not so fast though! Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina had Republican-controlled election boards but in those states, results indicated Democrat Tilden victories.

So Republicans challenged the results, alleging widespread voter fraud and intimidation! The state election boards invalidated enough votes to give their state’s Electoral Votes to Hayes instead. Hayes was now the winner with a narrow Electoral College majority of 185-184. Legal battles broke out immediately in the 3 contested election states, with competing Electors for both candidates being sent to Congress in January 1877.

It was America’s first presidential contested election. At this point, the rarely-consulted provisions of the US Constitution around Congressional certification of elections were in fact finally consulted. The Constitution’s 12th Amendment requires the House and Senate to formally count the certificates of election in a joint session. If the President of the Republican-controlled Senate count the electoral votes, he would declare Hayes the victor. If the Democratic-controlled House counted the votes, they’d elect Tilden.

There would then have been essentially Two Winners, a divided military, a divided people, and probably another Civil War.

President Grant stepped forward and proposed a special bipartisan commission to deal with the ambiguous Constitutional guidance. Congress created a Federal Election Commission of 15 Congressional members and Supreme Court justices to determine how to allocate the Electors from the three Southern states. Seven were to be Republican, seven Democrats, and one swing independent. The commission would be composed of 5 Representatives, 5 Senators, and 5 Supreme Court Justices (2 Republican, 2 Democratic, and 1 independent – Justice David Davis of Illinois.)

Democrats in the Illinois state legislature had just chosen Judge Davis to serve in the US Senate (Senators were appointed back then, not voted in) hoping to ‘win/buy’ his support on the Commission with a vote towards Tilden 8-7. Instead, Davis recused himself from the Commission and was replaced by Republican Justice Joseph Bradley.

With such a close election, the entire country was divided into angry Hayes and Tilden camps. There was credible fear the Commission’s controversial vote would spark violence in the post-Civil War South – maybe even another War between the States. As the time neared in 1877 for the decision to be made, tensions rose around the country, waiting for a spark to set off unrest … or worse. “TILDEN OR WAR!” was a common refrain in the South.

Then, in a series of secret meetings at the Wormley Hotel in Washington, the COMPROMISE OF 1877 was negotiated by the Hayes & Tilden camps. A deal was cut only days before the end of the Grant Administration. The Wormley Agreement would allow Republican Hayes the win, and satisfied Southern Democrats by allowing for an end to Reconstruction. The remaining Federal troops in the South would be withdrawn, thereby giving Southern states the rights to “control their own affairs,” as it were.

The Commission voted along party lines 8-7 in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes. Bradley joined Republicans for a majority awarding all the disputed Electoral Votes to Hayes and an 185-184 victory in the Electoral College. Because of the Wormley Agreement, the Democrats went along with the vote. The Commission’s vote occurred just in the nick of time, almost on the eve of Inauguration Day. The Hayes’s electoral college victory was certified, and he was inaugurated President without incident. The Compromise of 1877 is regarded today as a significant step towards North-South reconciliation.

It left the South in a state of disrepair, BUT free to discriminate against black freed slaves as they wished.

The Compromise more or less destroyed any political clout African-Americans might hope for in the South. Within 2 months of taking office, Hayes ordered federal troops, deployed in the south for Reconstruction purposes, to return to their barracks. Southern state legislatures were now free from Northern oversight under Reconstruction, and would implement Jim Crow Laws, restricting the ability of blacks to vote – up until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So what does 1876 contested election teach us about the contested 2020 Presidential election? Well, the integrity of U.S. presidential elections depends on every citizen’s right to vote without intimidation or ballot-tampering, AND the clear and uncontested certification of a winner per the Constitution. Both were at risk in 2020 as the incumbent President challenged the validity of mail-in ballots in swing states, and state legislators could have disqualified Electors and chosen their own state winner. That did not happen, and the U.S. Senate certified the election on January 6th, 2021.

Unfortunately, the Constitution does not offer detailed guidance on resolving Electoral College disputes, and this time, we have an extremely polarized Congress and nation not prone to compromise. Unless there is a clear landslide, a majority-appointed Supreme Court, like that in 2000, might have to resolve any dispute once again; OR even a major Congressional intervention, like in 1876. President Grant wanted Hayes to win, but not if it risked nationwide unrest, and was committed to a peaceful, bipartisan transition of power.

There is no Ulysses S. Grant in our present world, and a ‘Compromise of 2020′ never occurred.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Mussolini and the Rise of Fascism

Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, *Il Duce*

We hear a great deal from politicians these days about the dangers of Fascism or even just Socialism. Political parties throw the terms about as if they were the same. Democratic Socialism is practiced successfully by nearly every European Union country. But what about Fascism? When most us hear the word, we think of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party during World War II. However Fascism got its start a decade earlier, under Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. It’s mistakenly thought that Mussolini copied Hitler, but it was actually the other way around. Mussolini was in power 11 years before Adolf Hitler.

What exactly is Fascism?

By definition, Fascism is ‘any political movement promoting a highly regimented nation, under a centralized government, with an autocratic ruler, and a forced suppression of opposition.’ Mussolini took it from fascio, the Italian word for bundle, representing bundles of people. Its origins go all the way back to Ancient Rome, when the fasces were bundles of wood with an axe, symbolizing authority.

In 1919, after World War I, Mussolini created the Fascisti Party in Italy. He became prime minister in 1922 and over his two-decade term, slowly gave himself dictatorial powers. He was known simply as “Il Duce,” or “the Leader.” Mussolini promoted strict right-wing nationalism, wielding harsh authoritarian powers through World War II. Any opponents, especially those on the left, were treated with intimidation, terrorism, and even death. How did he accomplish this?

Benito Mussolini was born in the small Italian town of Predappio in 1883. His father was the town blacksmith and a loyal socialist. Benito served briefly in the Italian military, then joined the Socialist Party himself, and began working as a journalist. He was soon arrested and jailed for promoting labor strikes. The Socialist Party newspaper Avanti! rewarded Mussolini by making him editor.

Mussolini’s transformation began when World War I broke out in 1914.

Benito supported the war, but the Italian Socialist Party did not. They expelled him and he began promoting Italian Nationalism instead. Some wealthy supporters allowed Mussolini to start the Milan-based newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia. In it, he denounced socialism as a threat to the nation, and began promoting the idea of a revolutionary vanguard. He re-enlisted, fought in World War I, and was even wounded in action.

After WWI, Mussolini founded a new political movement, FASCISM. He called on Italians to reclaim the once great Roman Empire. He said Italy needed a leader energetic and ruthless enough to revive the nation. Italy’s Vital Space had to be restored, a term laced with racist and bigoted undertones. Mussolini said it was only natural for the strong and superior to subjugate the weak and inferior.

In 1919, his Fascist movement became a political party, the Fasci di Combattimento, named after Italian peasant revolutionaries. They met for the first time in a rally in the Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan. His nationalist message resonated with many white Italians and membership grew like a brush fire. The shocking Russian Revolution had recently occurred, and he exploited a fear of Communism. He brought in Christians as well, who felt alienated by their government in Rome.

The Fascists built a notorious militia arm known as ‘The Black Shirts.’

Many were disgruntled veterans of World War I, who wore all black uniforms. These fascist squads would clash with members of other political groups, particularly socialists and those on the left. Parliament was afraid of a communist revolution in their country, and didn’t interfere, giving Mussolini’s Black Shirts free rein to terrorize anyone they disagreed with or disliked.

Mussolini proclaimed that parliamentary style government was a failure. He said freedom was at risk, and that only Fascism could help the nation under a central power. Under his leadership, squads of Black Shirts attacked, and often killed, fellow Italians who opposed them. The Black Shirt Militias would descend upon towns in trucks, with flags, guns and knives, intimidating and killing thousands.

Mussolini was very specific about who got to be part of the nation. Anything that might impede national unity was denounced or gotten rid of. He regarded Jews, Arabs, and Africans as inferior. Violence for the good of the nation was seen as necessary and even beneficial. Those who didn’t fit the mold were labelled disruptors, and in the twisted Fascist mind, violence was justified.

Wealthy Italian businessmen supported Mussolini, helping him come to power. They agreed with the suppression of organized labor and socialism as being bad for jobs and the economy. Italy was a constitutional monarchy at the time. Ironically, his supporters included King Victor Emmanuel III. Without that support from the rich, Fascism wouldn’t have gone very far.

In 1922, Mussolini, with tens of thousands of Black Shirts, marched on Rome.

The liberal government sought to declare martial law because of the marchers. But King Victor Emmanuel, fearing a civil war, instead asked Mussolini to form a new government as prime minister! As PM, Mussolini created a cult personality around himself. He would rip open his shirt in public, exposing his broad chest, to promote his machismo to fanatically cheering fans, shouting: “IL DUCE!”

Though Fascists were only a small percentage of parliament, Mussolini pressured the legislature to grant him authoritarian powers, essentially melting the state with his Fascist party. By 1924, his nationalist alliance won 2/3 of the vote! A socialist deputy who called out ballot fraud by the Fascists was murdered. The King’s authority was severely cut, essentially making him a puppet and Mussolini a dictator.

“We do not argue with those who disagree with us, we destroy them!”
Benito Mussolini

By 1927, he had created a feared Police State, no longer accountable to parliament. Mussolini certainly didn’t invent dictatorship, he just put a new nationalist spin on it. Socialists or any who opposed him were held in check by government or intimidation. Local and regional autonomy was abolished. Minorities were subjugated or killed.

Mussolini hand-picked the editors of news outlets and exploited mass media for propaganda purposes. He required all teachers to take a pledge of allegiance to the Fascist regime and its teaching doctrine. Free thinking was discouraged and even penalized. Mussolini pushed for the growth of the Italy’s white population. A women’s role in the home was subjugated to produce more white babies for the good of the nation.

Fascism became a very important part of Nazism.

Adolf Hitler was an early fan of Mussolini; writing him letters, trying to meet with him in person. Hitler adapted Fascism to suit his purposes in Germany. The Black Shirts of Italy became the SS of Germany. As rumblings of World War II grew in the 1930s, Mussolini believed Britain & France were doomed to lose to the Nazi’s. He decided Italy should ally itself with the far stronger Germany.

In 1937, Mussolini joined with Hitler, signing a Treaty of Cooperation between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Mussolini entered the war on Germany’s side. When the Holocaust began spreading throughout Europe, Mussolini willingly gave up his Italian Jews to the Nazi Death Camps.

Il Duce however would prove to be the weaker leader than Hitler during WWII. Italy was not as strong militarily as Germany. By 1943, a series of Allied invasions into Italy left the Italian army in desperate shape. Soon US and Allied forces were bombing Rome! Italy’s factories were either bombed to rubble or idle due to a lack of raw materials. Fuel and food shortages were rampant. Hitler was heavily bogged down in Russia and the Nazis were not coming to rescue Italy.

The people slowly began to turn against “Il Duce.”

The Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy in 1943 finally led to a rebellion within Mussolini’s Fascist Party. Mussolini ignored them and maintained his alliance to the Nazis. The Grand Council of parliament rejected Mussolini’s leadership. Il Duce was summoned to the royal palace in Rome by the king and a furious Mussolini was arrested. Marshal Pietro Badoglio took over, and promptly dissolved the Fascist Party. A year later, in 1944, Rome would fall to the invading Allied forces of Britain and the U.S.

**Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler during World War II**

But what of Mussolini? He was imprisoned by the king at Campo Imperatore in the Abruzzi Mountains. Hitler sent in German paratrooper and commandos, and they managed to free him. He was sent to meet the Fuhrer in East Prussia. Hitler was not one to forgive failures. He made Mussolini the puppet leader of the German-controlled northern half of Italy, renamed the Italian Socialist Republic. For the last year of the war, Mussolini was based in Gargnano, Lombardy as the Nazis retreated north around him.

By 1945, Italy was overwhelmed by the Allies and surrendered unconditionally. Mussolini attempted an escape to Switzerland in April with his mistress, Clara Petacci, but was captured by Italian partisans. They were both executed the very next day by firing squad. Their bodies were taken to a Milan piazza and infamously hung upside down by their feet for public ridicule.

So what lessons can we learn here?

Since World War II, numerous military dictators in Africa, the Middle East and various Third World countries have adopted a Fascist style rule. With the help of a carefully coded language, the old nationalist-style mandates returned. Fascism was refitted for a new generation of dictators. Mussolini’s Fascists and Hitler’s Nazi’s were secretly idealized by 21st century neo-Fascists and neo-Nazis.

Today’s Fascist leaders skillfully spread a sense to the population that Times are Desperate, the powerful Elite leaders are corrupt and failures. Beware the ‘Other‘ dark elements’ (other parties, other races, other countries) are plotting leftist conspiracies to take control of your lives. Using the potent emotions of Fear and Anger, they suppress democratic institutions, while slowly gaining authoritarian powers.

Fascism’s principles haven’t changed: hyper-nationalism; a worshiped, cult-like leader; fear of decline in the ruling ‘privileged’ class; blatant racism; anti-feminism; anti-socialism; anti-LGBTQ; and armed militant-backed oppression. Some of the language may be coded as ‘dog whistles’ and some blatantly obvious. Hate crimes against minorities, immigrants and religions have continued around the globe for all the decades since Benito Mussolini.

History shows us that even the strongest democratic republics, ones that took centuries to build, can be internally fragile and be overturned in a matter of years, if not months. While Mussolini’s and Hitler’s Fascism may have died in 1945, its principles and believers did not. New generations of fanatics have picked up the cause and grown slowly in the shadows. The advent of social media gave them a new and powerful tool to spread hatred and fear. The true price of freedom is constant vigilance by the free.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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10 Forgotten Facts about Women’s Suffrage

Women's suffrage -Suffragettes protesting for the right to vote — Suffragettes protesting for the right to vote in 1910

August 18th, 2020 marked 100 years since women in the U.S. were finally given the right to vote. Though the Declaration of Independence in 1776 declared that all ‘men’ are created equal, the U.S. Constitution did not grant such equality to women. For the next 144 years, U.S. women were denied the right to vote, up until the start of the Roaring Twenties in 1920. So America had the automobile, the telephone, even the airplane, all before women had the equal right to vote, same as men. Women’s suffrage corrected all that.

Here are 10 forgotten facts about Women’s Suffrage, lost over time, but certainly worth remembering:

1) Women’s Suffrage was around for many decades, long before the U.S. 19^th Amendment. In 1848, a group of 300, mostly female, abolitionists gathered at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss women’s rights, including the right to vote. They were invited by famous reformers Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

2) In 1869, after the U.S. Civil War, a new group called the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Elizabeth Stanton and slavery abolitionist Susan B. Anthony. They began to fight for decades, unsuccessfully, for a universal-suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Sadly, it would take another 51 years, after they had both died.

3) The famous Susan B. Anthony, the woman on the dollar coin, was first active in the temperance and abolitionist movements. This was before she met Elizabeth Stanton and devoted herself to women’s suffrage for the rest of her long career, never marrying. She died in 1906 at the age of 86, sadly never getting to see women get the vote over a decade later.

4) After the passage of the 15^th Amendment in 1869, giving black men – former slaves, the right to vote, black abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglas was a strong supporter of the women’s suffrage movement. He attended the Seneca Falls Conference in New York and became a long time friend and supporter of Susan B. Anthony.

5) In 1872, Susan B. Anthony publicly and illegally cast her ballot (for Ulysses S. Grant) in that year’s presidential election. She was promptly arrested at the poll and brought to trial in Rochester, New York. She was found guilty by an all-male jury, but refused to pay her $100 fine, giving a fiery speech in the courthouse. The frustrated judge decided she would serve no jail time.

6) In 1878, a Woman Suffrage Amendment was proposed in the U.S. Congress by a senator ally of Susan B. Anthony. It goes nowhere, due to a lack of male support in Congress and none from President Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House. BUT, when the 19th Amendment finally passes forty-one years later, it is worded nearly exactly the same.

7) Just as women today don’t represent a single, united voting block— some women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s actually opposed women’s suffrage. A substantial group of women believed voting would distract women from their ‘far more important roles’ as wives and mothers, and interfere with their husband’s role as the Head of the Household.

8) Women’s suffrage was not just an American phenomenon. The first country to grant national voting rights to women was the self-governing British colony of New Zealand in 1893. Finland was the first European nation a decade later in 1903. The British Empire took until 1918. The last European country to do so was Switzerland, believe it or not, as late as 1971.

9) In 1912, Woman Suffrage is supported for the first time by a major political party — Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Bull Moose Party, which lost in the general election to Republican William Taft. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support woman’s suffrage in his second term. But then World War I began in Europe …

10) Prior to the 19^th Amendment, eighteen U.S. states allowed women to vote in elections. The first was Wyoming when it was admitted to the Union in 1890. Colorado, Utah and Idaho would soon follow in that same decade. Other western frontier states would follow suit as well. Mississippi was the last state to formally ratify the 19th Amendment decades later, in 1984!

Women's suffrage - Suffragettes protesting against President Wilson — Suffragettes protesting against U.S. President Wilson in 1918

In June of 1919, following World War I, the U.S. Senate finally passes the 19th Amendment 56 to 39, and the state ratification process began, requiring ¾ of the American states. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature, the 36^th state, narrowly approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and it was finally ratified. Women could freely vote in all 50 states that November. Today, it is known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. On November 2nd of 1920, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the very first time.

In 1923, the National Woman’s Party proposed an amendment to the Constitution that prohibited ALL discrimination on the basis of sex. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment has been around for decades ever since, but never been ratified. Even with the passage of the 15th and 19th Amendments, all was still not right with the world.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 would finally eliminate the Jim Crow obstacles that both black men and women faced in exercising their Constitutional right to vote. Today, voting rights are once again at the forefront of our political debate. ‘Progress’ is certainly in the eye of the beholder … and the hands of the politicians.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Welcome to the Gates of Hell – the Darvaza Fire Crater

There are some places on earth, whether natural or man-made, that simply defy description. This is certainly one of them. At Darvaza, deep in the heart of Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert, there lives a large, fiery crater that glows hellish-red, both day and night. Known locally as the Gates of Hell, it is NOT volcanic. This man-made disaster has been burning uncontrolled, non-stop for over half a century. So what the heck makes this crater burn perpetually for decades, and why is it in the middle of an Asian desert?

The Darvaza Fire Crater is located in central Turkmenistan, north of Iran, just over 150 miles from the capital of Ashgabat. The crater is the size of a soccer pitch or football field – about 235 feet wide and 66 feet deep. This gaping hole in the otherwise flat desert does indeed appear to be unleashing the Fires of Hell. It’s quite a sight to behold. From time to time, locals and visitors have witnessed camel spiders plunging into the pit by the thousands, lured by the heat of the glowing flames.

So how did this bizarre inferno end up in the middle of nowhere?

It all started in 1971. Back then, Turkmenistan was not an independent nation, but rather a republic in communist Soviet Union. A group of Soviet geologists came to the Karakum Desert in search of oil. They thought they found a substantial oil field near the village of Darvaza (Derweze in Turkmen), set up a drill derrick and eagerly began drilling in earnest.

Instead, the unsuspecting engineers drilled not into oil, but rather a huge cavern of natural gas, with just a thin layer of sedimentary rock supporting the top of it. The pocket was so large, its roof could not support the immense weight of the Soviet drilling rig and pump. One day, a deep rumbling occurred, and the entire site collapsed and plunged into the earth itself, taking the entire rig and all the pipes and pump equipment with it. Reportedly, no one was injured, which is hard to believe, but all records of the disaster have long since been covered up by Communist leaders.

After the crater collapsed, the geologists realized they had a second, equally serious problem. Not only had this Door to Hell swallowed their entire drilling camp, but it was now rapidly leaking natural gas into the atmosphere. Though natural gas is mostly non-toxic methane, it still displaces the oxygen in the air, making it difficult to breathe. The wildlife of the Karakum Desert began to suffer, collapse and eventually die off. There was a real concern not only for the animals, but also for the people living in the nearby village of Derweze.

In addition to harming the people and the wildlife of the desert, the gas presented yet another problem. Methane is highly flammability, and just 5% methane in the air can burn and can cause an explosion. The high levels seeping from the open Darvaza crater made the area highly susceptible to a devastating explosion, resulting in a major environmental disaster for the Soviets.

That’s when Soviet geoscientists made a very bad decision.

They decided that since the natural gas could not be trapped, they would simply burn it off as a quick and easy fix. Their solution was to set the Darvaza crater on fire. As crazy as that might sound, it’s a common practice in natural gas drilling, known as “Flaring.” Unlike oil, which can be stored in large tanks or years, natural gas needs to be piped away and processed ASAP. If there’s an excess, drillers simply burn it off in a controlled fashion. It wastes millions of dollars worth of natural gas across the world every day.

But the Soviet engineers had no clue how much gas was underground and it proved to be far more than anyone could ever have imagined. They expected the burn off to take just a few weeks, but they were Very, Very Wrong. The flames they started have been burning for decades ever since. In fact, scientists today still don’t know how much natural gas is under the desert. Instead, the crater became the fiery Gates of Hell. What was supposed to be a few-week burn has turned into almost a 50 year desert bonfire. And, it doesn’t look like it’s stopping any time soon.

In 1991, the USSR collapsed and Turkmenistan became an independent country. In 2010, Turkmenistan’s president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, visited the Gates of Hell personally. He worried that the fire would threaten the country’s ability to develop usable natural gas fields nearby. Turkmenistan’s natural gas reserves rank 5th in the world, so the prospect meant major income for his country. He ordered authorities to come up with a plan to put out the crater fire once and for all, and then to fill it up and bury it.

George Kourounis at the rim of the Darvaza Fire Crater

For a while, the fire crater’s future was at risk. However, a lack of any international natural gas pipeline and the question of exactly HOW to extinguish the Gates of Hell have never been pursued. No action was ever taken, and the crater continues to burn as hellish as ever. In 2013, he instead declared that part of the desert, containing the fire crater, a “Natural Reserve.” That same year, explorer George Kourounis, became the first person to walk into the crater and collect samples, in an expedition funded by National Geographic.

So what next for The Gates of Hell?

Social media has opened up a window on the world like never before. People post pictures of their pets and their food and their vacations. More and more are turning their backs on traditional family vacations and instead opting for a bit of adventure. The Darvaza Fire Crater now attracts thousands of daring tourists a year who come to the lonely desert to take in the evil-looking phenomenon. Its wicked orange glow can be seen for miles at night.

The fire crater is located about 161 miles from Ashgabat, about a 4 hour, remote desert drive. The nearest village with any amenities is Erment, over 50 miles away. You can rent an off-road vehicle and with a strong sense of adventure, go check it out for yourself. You’ll see some wild camels, a few scattered yurts, and the local Teke tribe who live in the nearby Darvaza village. There are no roads, no protective fences at its edges, no souvenir shops or cafes – just the endless flat desert and a hellish pit of fire.

It’s best to go at dusk or dawn, when the Satanic glow in the sky can be seen for miles. The contrast between the dark, desert skies and the deep, fiery pit below is indeed surreal. Once at the rim of the Gates of Hell, flames spew from thousands of individual gas leaks in the earth, generating a unique and otherworldly Fire Show. Stand at the edge if you dare, for falling in would mean a truly horrific death. All that said, for the truly adventuresome of you out there, if you happen to find yourself in Turkmenistan with a few hours to spare ….

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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Podcast: A Diver’s Defection, Summer Love and the Montreal Olympics

In July of 1976 at the Montreal Olympic Games, 17 year old Russian diver Sergei Nemtsanov finished 9^th in the Men’s 10 meter Platform diving competition. As punishment for not earning a medal, his Soviet coaches told him he’d be banned from further international Olympics. His Soviet coaches, wary of defectors among their athletes with the diving competition over, would fly out the diving team as soon as possible and not stay the remainder of the games. It was then he made the gut wrenching decision to defect from the Soviet Union. At the games, Sergei witnessed the amazing freedoms available in the West. He realized if he wanted the same, it was Now or Never, so he quietly approached the Canadian diving team and asked for help.

Sergei Nemtsanov diving at the Montreal Summer Olympics, 1978

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Watch Sergei dive at the 1976 Montreal Games

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