Jehovah's Witnesses Had Foes Before Putin

When the Russian Supreme Court banned Jehovah's Witnesses and ordered the confiscation of the denomination's property on Thursday, it wasn't the first time. The faithful were outlaws in the Soviet Union, too, until that country's final year. The stubborn group will fight on -- but the court has delivered another chilling reminder that President Vladimir Putin's Russia is even less free than the USSR was.

Jehovah's Witnesses are a U.S.-based global religious organization, and they often are targeted by authoritarian and belligerent governments because members don't believe in government authority. They don't vote, serve in the military, salute flags or hail leaders. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, the Witnesses wouldn't use the Nazi salute because, according to their beliefs, it amounted to idolatry. Hitler responded by sending more than 10,000 "Bible Students," as they called themselves then, to prisons and concentration camps, where their pacifism particularly inspired torturers.