Russian Rite of the Templar Order

I wanted to ask you something. Which is... what's your name? This article title is conjecture. Although the article subject is canon, no official name for it has been given.

The Russian Rite of the Templar Order were a group of like-minded individuals who swore allegiance to the Templar ideals and operated throughout Russia during the Russian Revolution period of the early 20th century.

History

Tsardom of Russia

In the 16th century, the Templars were affiliated with Ivan Ivanovich, the son and heir apparent of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. This affiliation resulting in Ivan's death at the hands of the Russian Assassins in 1581.

Russian Revolution

During the late 19th century, the Templars started gaining strong influence over the Russian Empire and the ruling House of Romanov. Both Tsar Alexander II and Tsar Alexander III became strong allies of the Templar Order, and supported their goals. As a result, the Russian Assassins and its left-wing terrorist offspring, the Narodnaya Volya, targeted the Romanovs, eventually managing to kill Tsar Alexander II in 1881. The Assassin Nikolai Orelov made an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III, in which he was unsuccessful due to the Tsar's surprising strength, stamina and his possession of a Staff of Eden, and the event eventually turned into the Borki train disaster.

Tsar Alexander III died in 1894 of kidney failure. His son Nicholas II, who was not an ally to the Templars, gained control over the Empire, and the Templar agent Grigori Rasputin infiltrated Nicholas' close circle by "miraculously" healing his son. After being close enough, Rasputin replaced the Staff of Eden with a replica, taking the real artifact to a Templar research station in Tunguska.

The Tunguska explosion

In 1908, Orelov obtained the station's location and, together with a group of other Assassins, was sent to destroy the artifact. While the Assassins killed the Templars inside and secured the station, their ally Nikola Tesla sent a bolt of electricity from the USA, causing the station to explode and the Staff to be scattered into pieces; known commonly as the Tunguska explosion. Rasputin somehow managed to obtain one of those pieces and used it to hypnotize and control the Imperial family.Assassin's Creed: The Fall - Issue #3</ref> Rasputin himself was later killed by the Assassins, and the Templars lost control over Russia.

The Russian Imperial family was overthrown during the Russian Revolution, and power shifted to Vladimir Lenin, an ally of the Assassins and leader of the newly formed Soviet Union.

Controlling the Soviet Union

After Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin, his subordinate, who was secretly controlled by the Templars, took over control of the Soviet Union. Under his rule, the Soviet Union became a totalitarian, corrupt and decrepit state, presenting the capitalistic economies of the Western powers – a system created by the Templars – in a more positive light. However, on 5 March 1953, Joseph Stalin was eventually killed by the Assassins, ending his thirty-one year rule.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the head of state of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, wanted to reform the country through his policy of "perestroika". The Templars realized that Gorbachev did not share their interests, so they had the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, contact Boris Yeltsin, after which Yeltsin began to stand up to communism and gain popularity. In December 1991, the Templars called a secret meeting in Belavezhskaya Forest, and later that month, Gorbachev was unseated and Yeltsin became the head of the newly-formed Russian Federation.

Members

• Dolinsky
• Yuri Dolinsky
• Yuri Petrovich Figatner
• Grigori Rasputin

Allies and puppets

• Alexander II of Russia
• Alexander III of Russia
• Ivan IV of Russia
• Ivan Ivanovich of Russia
• Joseph Stalin
• Vladimir Putin
• Leon Trotsky
• Boris Yeltsin