Organization of secret societies for dummies. Secret societies that no one knows about Order of the Eastern Templars
There are a large number of large organizations in the world, the nature of which most people know almost nothing about. And, as we know, everything unknown or known, but not completely, always causes a lot of rumors and speculation. Therefore, secret societies that prefer to remain in the shadows are credited with organizing universal conspiracies and communicating with otherworldly forces.
In fact, most of these “interest circles” are much more harmless than they are trying to make us believe, although among them there are some that actually influenced world history. We decided to study the history of the 10 most famous and powerful secret organizations to figure out when they appeared and why and whether they still exist.
Illuminati
The Illuminati most often refers to the “Order of the Illuminati” of Professor Adam Weishaupt, which existed in the 1700s. His task was the comprehensive improvement of the church and the achievement of general prosperity. The ruler of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, called the Illuminati one of the branches of the illegal community of Freemasons and announced criminal prosecution of members of the society, putting an end to history in 1787. Officially, the order ceased to exist, but it is believed that its remaining members did not abandon their cause and simply went underground. The Illuminati is credited with organizing the French Revolution, the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, and influencing world politics in the modern world.
Opus Dei
The organization was founded in 1928 by Catholic priest Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. From Latin, the name of the society is translated as “The Work of God,” and what they do is help them find the path to holiness without renouncing everyday life. Most of its members are ordinary people: businessmen, workers, teachers, housewives, who in appearance are no different from their colleagues. And although the organization does not hide the location of its headquarters, it receives a wide variety of criticism. Due to the closed nature of the community, some Catholic priests consider it dangerous; in addition, Opus Dei is often associated with the use of practices that are characteristic of sects. All this creates a certain aura of mystery around the society, due to which it is often attributed to some kind of secret Catholic society. Adding fuel to the fire of speculation and rumors was Dan Brown, who portrayed Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code as a secret sect hiding important information.
Templars
The official name of the order is “The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and St. John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta.” This is a modern offshoot of Freemasonry and is not related to the Poor Knights of Christ, founded by a group of knights in 1119. But the order was made after his example in order to preserve the spirit of this organization. The Order is part of the York Rite and for membership it is necessary to be exclusively a Christian who has completed all the degrees of the Royal Arch, and in some jurisdictions also the degrees of the Crypt.
Black hand
The South Slavic secret nationalist organization appeared in 1911. According to one version, it arose as an offshoot of the People's Defense group, which sought to unite all Slavic peoples. The organization's goal was to fight for the liberation of the Serbs who were under the rule of Austria-Hungary. It included Serbian army officers and some government officials. The Black Hand was associated with a group of terrorists who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death sparked the outbreak of the First World War. In 1917, by order of the King of Serbia, Alexander I Karageorgievich, the organization was liquidated, and its head, Colonel Dragutin Dmitrievich, and his entourage were shot.
Assassins
The Neo-Ismaili Nizari organization was formed in the 11th century. The society was founded by Hassan ibn Shabbat. Their internal system was built on a strict hierarchy, where the transition to the next level was accompanied by mystical rituals. In the ideology of the sect, the main role was given to anti-feudal, communist and national liberation motives. The assassins have firmly established the reputation of hired killers without fear or reproach, always carrying out their orders. It is believed that the sect ceased to exist in 1256, after the fortresses of Alamut and Meymundiz were taken. According to other sources, some assassins managed to escape and founded a caste of hereditary killers in India. The traditions of assassins were most clearly preserved in the actions of terrorist Muslim sects such as Jihad and Hezbollah, and especially in the fidayeen units.
Thule Society
This occult political German society included all those who later became Hitler's closest advisers. The official name of the organization was the Group for the Study of German Antiquity. They were engaged in researching the origin of the Aryan race. Thule, a mythical northern country from ancient Greek legends, was considered by Nazi mystics to be the capital of ancient Hyperborea. All participants in society viewed the Aryans as a superior race that had lived since the prehistoric era and Atlantis, and the inhabitants of that same Thule were the descendants of the Aryans who managed to escape from Atlantis. Another part of society, which did not believe so much in all sorts of mystical tales, was more interested in the fight against Jews, communists and freemasons. In 1919, members of the Thule created the political organization "German Workers' Party", of which Adolf Hitler became a member. The Thule Society existed until 1933.
Knights of the Golden Ring
In the 1850s and 1860s, a paramilitary organization, the Knights of the Golden Ring, operated in the Midwestern United States. The society was created by Southern sympathizers who wanted to create states where slavery would be legal. The intended areas of action were to be Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean islands. The most famous members of the organization were Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth and the outlaw Jesse James. After the arrest of the leaders and the confiscation of weapons by the government in 1864, the organization ceased to exist.
Sons of Liberty
The organization was founded in 1765 by Samuel Adams. The goal of the society members was to fight for self-determination of the North American colonies. Their motto was “No taxes without representation.” The policy of public resistance included the distribution of thematic pamphlets, protests and open violent actions against the British authorities, for which their activities were equated with criminality and began to be persecuted. After the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the organization dissolved itself.
Skull and Bones
This is one of the oldest student secret societies in the United States. It arose in 1832 at the instigation of Yale University Secretary William Russell, who decided, together with 14 like-minded people, to create a secret fraternity. They accepted into their club only people from the American aristocracy, Anglo-Saxon origin and Protestant religion. Rumor has it that the only requirement for entry these days is that the candidate must be a leader in his or her own campus. The society included US presidents, senators, and Supreme Court judges, which is why it began to be considered a kind of underground group uniting the political elite. Society meetings are held twice a week, but what is discussed and done at them remains a closely guarded secret.
Masons
The official date of the emergence of Freemasonry is considered to be 1717, but there are documents dating back to 1300 years in which Freemasons are already mentioned. Masonic meetings are held in a ritual form, and candidates for regular Freemasonry must believe in a Supreme Being. The Masons themselves say that their goal is moral improvement, the development and preservation of fraternal friendship and charity. It is believed that the community strives to achieve political influence throughout the world. The most famous members of the society were Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, James Buchanan, Bob Dole, Henry Ford, Ben Franklin and many others. In total, about 5 million people around the world are members of the society.
Over the centuries-old history of the world, there have been many different mysterious organizations: from ridiculous to militant. Each such community in its own way represents a story of human stupidity and error.
Mikhail Vinogradov about the world behind the scenes
In 2012, world news agencies reported the decryption of a mysterious document, originally designated as the Codex Copiale. There is no provenance, as well as information about the current owner of the manuscript. According to some reports, the 105-page manuscript, bound in green and gold glazet, was discovered in the archives of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR back in the 1970s.
A group of scientists from different countries managed to crack the code and read the mysterious book. It turned out that the codex, written in German in the 18th century, contained an initiation ritual for a German secret (similar to the Masonic) society, which was called Oculisten("Eye Opener").
Members of the secret society were ophthalmological surgeons from the Lower Saxon city of Wolfenbüttel, who imagined themselves as healers and guardians of all medical knowledge about the structure of the eye and vision. It is known that they were engaged in the treatment of cataracts. But no one except the initiates had any idea what was happening behind the scenes of this secret society, where the newcomer was taught to “see” by plucking hair from his eyebrows. After it was possible to decipher other pages of the manuscript, it turned out that Oculisten had another mission - to monitor the Freemasons.
The documents of this secret society included the completely secret rituals of free masons, up to the highest degrees of Freemasonry. Now they are quite well known, but at that time such information could only be obtained through espionage. It is possible that the Oculisten were either spies or a splinter group of Freemasonry created to protect their core rituals if the Roman Catholic Church decided to deal with them the same way they did with .
It is not clear why the secret society of Irish-born miners in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in Liverpool, England and Canada was called "Molly Maguires"(Molly Maguires). According to employees at Lehigh University, this was the name of an Irish Catholic woman who refused to leave her home when the Protestant English kicked her out. The first mention of this organization is found on the pages of The Liverpool Mercury newspaper dated May 10, 1853.
In the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, members of the secretive Molly Maguires replaced the absent unions, opposing low wages and shortening the working day from the stock market crash of 1873 until 1878, when the society was dissolved after arrests and executions. Working conditions in the mines, with a complete lack of safety measures, were appalling. Deaths and serious injuries occurred hundreds of times a year.
The Irish miners of this underground organization used against the American coal trusts the proven tactics of intimidation and violence that they followed in their struggle against Irish landowners during the so-called “Land War” (or in Irish Cogadh na Talún) between 1870- x to the 1890s. However, modern historians do not have a unanimous opinion about the Molly Maguires’ commitment to bloody acts.
Members of the Molly Maguires organization were accused of murder, arson, kidnapping and other criminal offenses. Members of the society were brought to trial on the basis of the testimony of a private detective from the Pinkerton agency, Irishman James McParlan, also known as James McKenna.
But "the Molly Maguires themselves left virtually no evidence of their existence, let alone their goals and motivations." Even before the investigation began, based on his personal observations, McParlan believed that the Molly Maguires, under the pressure of their activity, adopted the new name “The Ancient Order of Hibernians.” After the investigation began, he estimated that there were about 450 members of this organization in one of the districts.
It is difficult to accurately answer the question of why there are so many perverts among the British establishment. Perhaps the closed nature of establishments for boys played a role here. Although there were plenty of similar institutions among French and Spanish Catholics, as well as among the Orthodox brethren in Greek monasteries.
On May 25, 1895, the English celebrity was escorted to a London prison after his conviction for sodomy. In the Victorian era, articles that sent people to jail for homosexuality were especially popular.
Unfortunately, the talented Wilde met with the illegitimate son of an English officer and a Spanish baroness, who later became the writer and poet George Cecil Ives. In 1892, Ives tried to attract the attention of a celebrity to the problems of homosexuals, but he, to his great disappointment, did not express the slightest interest in the fate of persecuted gays.
In 1897, Ives created the secret Order of Chaeronea - OrderHehronei. In order to stop the oppression of the gay community, this alleged admirer of antiquity named his brainchild in honor of the Battle of Chaeronea that took place in August 338 BC, when the Sacred Band of Thebes, allegedly consisting of friends-lovers. The mistake was a misinterpretation of a Greek word meaning “close or intimate friend,” although it is possible that some warriors used their comrades as sexual partners.
Examining the corpses of the dead, Philip began to cry and said: “Let those who suspect them of being the perpetrators or accomplices of anything shameful die an evil death.”
Centuries later, a tiny group of Oxford scribes translating ancient Greek texts found nothing more valuable in them than the popularization - alas, sometimes literally - of same-sex relationships. Based on their own perversions, the degenerates of the century before last raised the defense of homosexuality and other sexual perversions to their crap standards.
The brains of these figures were as bad as their morals. You had to be a genius to entrust the task of public (!) defense of the “honor and dignity” of fagots to the corrupt members of the underground society!
In 1912, first the English-speaking and then the world community learned partial details of the activities of the secret Leopard People Society operating in West Africa. The existence of such a cult is so secret in the countries of the Dark Continent, where hundreds of people die every year from the claws and teeth of predators, it is difficult to determine whether an onlooker-tourist or an aborigine was torn to pieces by a beast, or whether he died at the hands of killers imitating a leopard attack.
In the 1950s, a significant portion of the Yoruba people practiced Islam or Christianity, but they still have strong ancient beliefs. Among the most authoritative secret societies in Africa, the ones most often named are Egungun, Oro and Ogboni. In addition to the secret societies of leopards and crocodiles, there is also a secret baboon society.
Little is known about the motives of the members of these societies. For example, whether they are engaged or not. Often, white colonialists invented stories about supposedly savage and barbaric tribes to justify their illegal and blasphemous acts in Western-conquered countries.
Secret organizations - the plots of countless films and books are dedicated to them; they are capable of awakening endless curiosity in mere mortals who are not privy to all the horrors happening behind closed doors. Conspiracy theorists believe that these societies are up to no good, while their leaders continue to remain silent about their deeds, thereby fueling the emergence of even more rumors. Today, the main task for an ordinary person is to separate the wheat from the chaff, in other words, it is important to distinguish between what is the fruit of the imagination of theorists and the grains of truth.
Since most of our knowledge about such organizations is based on films, television shows and books, their reliability is highly questionable. We often do not have at our disposal even basic information that could confirm or refute the very fact of the existence of many secret societies. The rumors about the members of these communities and their activities are sometimes so surprising and disturbing that it is difficult to imagine that it could be true.
In this article, we tried to select the most reliable information, clearing it of gossip and rumors, and present it to your judgment. Meet: ten of the most mysterious organizations and communities on our planet.
10. Opus Dei
If you've read or watched The Da Vinci Code, then you probably already know what we're talking about. Opus Dei is a secret society dedicated to protecting the secrets of the Catholic Church and the supposed lineage of Jesus Christ. In fact, Opus Dei was created in 1928 with the blessing of the Pope. Members of this community believe that every person should lead a holy lifestyle, including celibacy. This community has been criticized for being too strict in its principles, although none of the atrocities attributed to them have been officially confirmed. Moreover, the Catholic Church itself prohibits the creation of any secret societies, as well as participation in them.
9. Bilderberg Club
The Bilderberg Club is a rather interesting organization whose existence is not denied by anyone; moreover, they even publicly announce the topics of their meetings. Unfortunately, ordinary visitors are strictly prohibited from entering there. The first meeting of this club took place in 1954 at the Bilderberg Hotel in the Netherlands. The guest list is usually quite exclusive and includes the most powerful people on the planet - from senior IMF officials to EU presidents and leaders. All guests are guaranteed the highest level of security and anonymity. Everything that was said at the meetings, as well as who said it, remains a secret.
As for reality, it is much less exciting. The group meets to discuss world problems and issues in an informal setting. Participants can freely share information obtained here, leaving only its source unknown.
8. Rosicrucians
The Rosicrucian Society is widely believed to have been founded in the 1600s by a group of German Protestants who dreamed of changing the political map of Europe. Since this society was organized by a group of Protestants, it was considered dangerous - the vast majority of the population of Europe professed Catholicism. At that time, the secrecy of the society was the only way to protect against persecution by the Catholic Church. The Rosicrucians exist in our time - several groups of this secret society are scattered in different parts of the globe and each of them claims the right to be considered the ancestor of this movement. Members of this community typically include religious leaders and philosophers.
7. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Also known as the Golden Dawn, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in the late 19th century. Its members studied the occult, paranormal phenomena and metaphysics. The organization was considered a magical order; its circles included such famous personalities as Bram Stoker, author of the famous book “Dracula”. Today there are several groups that follow this order, but it is reliably known that none of them has a direct connection with the original order. Members of the order are still required to undergo a special initiation ritual that will move them from the so-called "outer circles" to the "inner circles." According to Llewellyn's Encyclopedia, today more people than ever before have access to the Order of the Golden Dawn. Many of them call themselves "practicing Golden Dawn magicians."
6. Knights of the Golden Circle
At one time, this organization was a real secret society, many believe that it still exists to this day. The Knights of the Golden Circle were supporters of the slave system. The organization itself was founded in the mid-19th century and was highly active before and during the American Civil War. Initially, the society wanted to annex the so-called “golden circle” of lands located in Mexico in order to subsequently divide it into 25 slave states. The mere suggestion that you could be a member of this society could land you in prison at that time. Some historians believe that after the end of the Civil War, the community went underground. For some time there were rumors that the circle was going to finance a second civil war, but they turned out to be empty. Some sources state that the group ceased to exist in 1916.
5. Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis or as it is briefly called O.T.O. is an international brotherhood based on religious unity. The group was created following the example of the Freemasons, and its most famous member was the British writer and occultist Aleister Crowley, who was also the leader of the community. When you think of secret societies, you probably think of typical movie anti-heroes armed with daggers and wearing capes. This image came to us precisely from the Ordo Templi Orientis. The rite of passage, as well as brotherly ties, were highly valued here. The entire existence of the group was reduced to the practice of the occult, which, according to some sources, continues to this day. Here, too, over time, smaller groups have appeared that constantly compete with each other and try to prove their belonging to the original family of the founders of the order.
4. Order of the Dragon
The Order of the Dragon included a community of knights and military nobles who devoted their entire lives to the defense of Christianity. They destroyed everyone who went against Christ. The order was founded in 1408 by Sigismund, King of Hungary, who later became Emperor of Europe. One of the most famous members of this order was Vlad II Dracula, the father of Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
3. Freemasonry
Masons are most often accused of participating in and creating world conspiracies. The very idea of Freemasonry arose when four small groups of masons came together to create the Masonic Grand Lodge. The Masons brought the concept of conspiracy and the use of passwords to a new level (passwords were originally used by stonemasons so that they could quickly find work when moving to a new city). They say that Masons stick together and help each other, no matter where they are in the world. This fact means that all high-ranking officials have excellent connections around the world.
2. Skull and Bones
The Order of Skull and Bones isn't as bad as you might think. It is actually a student body at Yale University, originally known as the Brotherhood of Death. There is just one fact that cannot be denied - the fraternity is famous for some of the most educated and successful graduates in the world. Both President Bushes were members of this fraternity, and all the other graduates achieved heights in their fields, receiving their own: be it career growth, fame, luck or success in politics. The Brotherhood meets every Thursday and Sunday in a building code-named "The Tomb" and is believed to seek to form a group of future world leaders and CIA agents. The community itself was founded in 1832, allowing only the elite into its company.
1. Illuminati
The Illuminati is the main mystery and mystery of our time, full of contradictory facts. Although all evidence indicates that there is currently no such order left in the world, this may not be true. The Order of the Bavarian Illuminati was founded on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt. The purpose of creating this society was the desire to counteract the abuse of government power, the desire to keep the influence of religion away from politics and the desire to expand the rights of women. The current version of the Illuminati, as described by conspiracy theorists, is a powerful mechanism for controlling the world's banking systems and government. High-ranking celebrities are usually associated with the society, but again, at this time there is no obvious evidence that the Illuminati society is still active. Here there are only two options to choose from: either they are hidden too well, or they really no longer exist.
Have you always dreamed of becoming a member of a private club, but don’t know about any of them? Do you want to come across as a mysterious person who is part of an elite organization and knows more than the rest? Create a secret society just for your friends!
Create your own secret society
Read a few topical books, such as the Clique series by Lisey Harrison, to learn the basic information. Just don't be as cruel as the characters in the book. Ask a few friends to also read these books, and talk privately with one of your close friends who is also inspired by the idea of creating a community.
Come up with a name for the club. Together with a friend, discuss what your society will be called and who else you will accept into it. Remember that even if you have a lot of friends, not all of them are suitable for membership in a secret organization. After all, they still won’t know that they were not accepted, which means that they won’t be offended.
Create a rite of passage for you and your partner. You must go through it yourself before accepting other people into the club in order to feel and sensibly evaluate your plan. The rite of passage is one of the most important aspects of a secret society. It should be something that you wouldn't do just like that in your everyday life. Light candles - this will give any action a serious and mysterious atmosphere. You can give participants special names, which from now on other club members will call them.
Determine what your society will do. A community must have rules. Create a schedule of specific “club” activities—for example, dressing the same on specific days or having monthly rituals. Have fun! It all depends on your creativity. You can also organize distribution of intra-club news.
Find potential members for the club. Casually drop something about society in a conversation to gauge the degree of interest of the interlocutor. Make sure he doesn't betray you or go against the rules. Don't mention the club to people you don't trust 100%.
An important aspect of secret organizations is secret meetings. Gather in a new place each time or find a “secret room” where you are sure no one will find or recognize you.
Come up with a dress code. In most small societies, the form of clothing is robes, and in large ones, elaborate aprons.
Keep everything under wraps and have fun. You and your friends will become closer than ever.
Select new club members carefully. Initiate the most outstanding and active people from the school, those who can inspire and motivate others.
Be friendly, but don't give away all the company's secrets right away. New members must first earn your trust. You don't want them to spill the beans right away, do you?
Come up with a way to exclude from the society if suddenly some members become objectionable to you, or start chatting about the secrets of the club. If this suddenly happens, pretend it was never a secret and immediately come up with something new. Add this point to the club rules.
Come up with a secret or secret task. A secret society must have a purpose to protect something.
- Create a secret handshake.
- Don't talk about the company to people you don't trust.
- A good place for secret society members to meet is the school library. Choose a remote location and hold meetings there. Just be quiet so as not to attract attention!
Warnings
- Delete your browsing history in your browser so that no one knows that you read this article.
- If you suddenly choose the wrong members for society - partygoers, sports fans, those who strive to control everything, or those who are busy with their own things, like competition and self-affirmation - be prepared to communicate with people you do not trust. They may perceive the secret society as an opportunity for competition, and then it will be difficult to keep them silent.
- Make sure you are not doing anything illegal.
What can you do so that life doesn’t seem boring and empty, like on a desert island that relatives occasionally visit? Just don't sit at home! Every city has many different clubs for seniors. And if you have a lot of creative ideas, you can open your own club!
Go to university
In the Novoilinsky district of Novokuznetsk at the library named after. D. Likhachev has a unique club for older people. People come here to study! This is a university for the older generation “New Start!” Everything here is like in a real educational institution: lessons, teachers, breaks, graduations, holidays. “Our university has been operating for the second year,” he says. manager Natalya Suvorova, - more and more people come to us. To be honest, such popularity surprises us, because everything we do now in the club, we did before in the library. Obviously, the chosen form of association turned out to be very successful - there is both knowledge and communication!”
The idea of creating such a club came from the “students” themselves. Someone has already seen similar ones in other cities of Russia, and they were all very popular, because it’s never too late to learn! And if it’s also with like-minded people, then it’s interesting and useful. “The council of veterans of the district approached me with a request to open a university for older people,” continues Natalya Sergeevna. - The idea seemed very interesting to me, especially since we already had some kind of base at the library. We compiled a passport and regulations of the club, in which we outlined its main goals, objectives, direction of work, and the category of “students”. We keep a log of visits and a curator from the library staff is assigned to the university, and we select a leader from among the club participants.”
“University” is good because it gives both knowledge and communication. Photo: From personal archive/
The university opened its doors, as it should be for all educational institutions, on September 1. “Students” attend classes in literature, local history, computer science, art history, English, Orthodox culture, physical education, and even Esperanto! Lecturers from the Pension Fund, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, health centers come to them, and they not only tell them, but can, for example, even check their blood for sugar or do some other express tests. “Students” go to the fire station, various museums, exhibitions, and meet interesting people in the city.
But not all lessons are serious. There are many creative activities that over time began to be carried out not only by volunteers, but also by the “students” themselves. They share their experience with great pleasure: some show embroidery, others do floristry, decoupage, knitting. The teachers at the university are different: they are library staff, and volunteers (current and retired teachers from educational institutions in the city, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, government agencies), and now the students themselves, who prepare for lessons with great pleasure and responsibility. Classes are held once a week, on Fridays. As a rule, there are two or three lessons a day, one of them is necessarily creative.
The lecturers at the “University” are different: library workers, current teachers, employees of various services. Photo: From personal archive/
“Our “students” are getting younger before our eyes! - continues the head of the university. - Indeed, they turn into mischievous, cheerful students. And how elegant they come! We also have the first bell, we celebrate Knowledge Day, Student Day and, as expected, graduation with the presentation of certificates. Our grandparents get what they began to miss when they retired - new information and communication. They get acquainted with us, find new friends, then go to the dacha together, visit each other and even go on vacation together, for example, to a sanatorium.” And this year, “students” of “New Start” began to take part in the new project “Granny for an Hour”. These are free creative activities for children, who are taught by the “grandmother” on duty from among the university students. They conduct various creative master classes, read books together, help with homework, learn to play musical instruments, chess and checkers. This is how a simple idea to combine knowledge and communication has grown into a big interesting concept, the implementation of which brings so many benefits to both its organizers and students.
Share yourself!
In 2005, Iraida Borisovna decided to engage in social activities, created a club for veterans of her native Zavodsky district of Novokuznetsk and called it “My Family”. The social service met halfway and allocated premises - in the Komsomolets cultural center. “In order to open a club, you just need a great desire and necessarily creative potential,” says Iraida Zinovieva. “I didn’t even have to come up with activities: everything that I knew myself, I decided to pass on to my grandparents. She knew how to sew - she opened a sewing club, she knew how to draw - in drawing, she knew how to sing - she organized an ensemble, she knew how to write poetry - a poetry club, she was involved in landscaping - she began teaching landscape design, she sculpted from clay - now I teach others how to make clay plastic. And in the end there were seven circles.” The average age of “club youth” is respectable - 80 years. “Despite their age, they are young at heart, because they are busy with creativity,” continues the head of the club. - We write songs, poems, music, and sing ourselves. We constantly participate in various competitions, art meetings and festivals. Our grandmothers beat out young ones at competitions and take prizes! They are full of creative ideas and optimism in life, because they feel that they are benefiting people and giving them joy, setting an example of how to live actively and not be discouraged!”
When people are creative, they are young. Photo: AiF/Pavel Kazakov
“Infected” with irrepressible energy from their leader, the “club youth” also actively became involved in social activities. Now they go with charity exhibitions and concerts to specialized institutions for children and the elderly. They believe that only in this way, by feeling needed and realizing your creative potential, can you live in joy and harmony with yourself.
Cinema is not for entertainment
The intellectual film club “Dialogue” turns 38 this year! Perhaps this is one of the oldest clubs in Novokuznetsk. The participants here are different, of course, and there are many retirees. It arose from the desire of townspeople to discuss problematic cinema. “In the pre-perestroika years, we were simply excited by films such as Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Ivan’s Childhood, Five Evenings, The Ascension, The Escape of Mr. McKinley, Father Sergius,” says club member Andrey Ivanov.- No one talked about this on television, like now, no one discussed them. You won't hear the truth! And we really wanted to understand the film and discuss it with like-minded people. And until then, at times the discussions were so heated that fists were used! Can you imagine?
The founder of the club was infectious disease doctor Boris Gilev. And in 1979, “Dialogue” began organizing meetings in the library. N.V. Gogol. “There was a time when people were allowed into the club only based on exam results,” continues Andrey. - You had to know the basic film terms. I remember we even wrote cheat sheets for beginners so that they wouldn’t fail the exam.” The club was very popular: it was a member of the Society of Cinema Friends at the Union of Cinematographers, went to various film festivals, and collaborated with the Cinema Museum in Moscow. At one time, film experts from Moscow and famous cameramen came to visit the club. A unique collection of films by the best directors has been formed here!
“Of course, now people have more opportunities to watch and discuss interesting films: there is the Internet, various forums,” says Andrei Ivanov. - But we come here precisely for live communication. We older people miss him. We learn to listen to each other, express our point of view, meet new people. Many of us then just become friends, go to visit each other. We get interesting knowledge and communication here, which is exactly what we miss in life.”
