Russian Rite of the Templar Order

The Russian Rite of the Templar Order is the branch of the Templar Order which operates throughout Russia. It grew to prominence during the era of the Russian Empire and has continued to be active from the Russian Revolution to the present day.
==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 resulted in Ivan's death at the hands of the Russian Assassins in 1581.Assassin's Creed II – Glyphs
===Modern times===
====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.Assassin's Creed: The Fall
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.Assassin's Creed II
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. 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.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Modern Times
====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.Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Rifts
After the Templars infiltrated the , Soviet party functionary and Templar Yuri Petrovich Figatner was assigned to head a special government commission in 1928 to investigate the Russian Academy of Sciences and purge it of "counter-revolutionaries", turning the Academy into a Stalinist organization.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Modern Times: "Assassin Science Cities" Many Assassins, who were allowed to make use of the Academy's facilities under Lenin's regime, and scientists loyal to the Assassin cause were subsequently killed or forced into hiding.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Modern Times: "Fading Hope"
During World War II, the Templars influenced Stalin into taking a leading role in the war and, alongside Adolf Hitler, bring on the turmoil and fear necessary for Abstergo Industries to take control over the working population. The Templars planned to take advantage of the peace that would succeed the war and establish their ultimate goal of a New World Order.
====Dissolution of the Soviet Union====
After World War II ended, the Russian Academy of Sciences was able to reorganize and rid itself of Templar influence.Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Modern Times: "Post-War Science"
On 5 March 1953, Joseph Stalin was eventually killed by the Assassins, ending his thirty-one year rule.
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 "". Abstergo Industries, the primary public front of the modern-day Templar Order, 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.
In September 1999, Abstergo secretly orchestrated terrorists in the Russian cities of , Moscow, and in order to boost the popularity of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin's friend and political pupil, who continued capitalizing Russia.
====The Prophet's Codex====
In 19 October 2002, Daniel Cross infiltrated the library of Ivan the Terrible by attending a play but quietly made his way through it and found the hidden door, which lead to the library hidden beneath the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He had posed as a replacement for the Assassin guarding it, and following this, he opened the Prophet's Codex, written by Ezio Auditore da Firenze and read Minerva's speech to Warren Vidic via his earpiece, noticing the name "Desmond". Afterwards, Daniel took the box holding the codex with him and killed the sentry, before calling in the clean-up team and leaving the library.Assassin's Creed: The ChainAssassin's Creed: Subject Four
==Members==
*Dolinsky
*Yuri Dolinsky
*Yuri Petrovich Figatner
*Grigori Rasputin
*Yakov Yurovsky
===Allies and puppets===
;Renaissance'''
*Ivan IV of Russia
*Ivan Ivanovich of Russia
;Russian Revolution and 20th Century
*Alexander II of Russia
*Alexander III of Russia
*Joseph Stalin
*Leon Trotsky
*Yakov Sverdlov
*Boris Yeltsin
;21st Century
*Daniel Cross 
*Vladimir Putin
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed II – Glyphs 
*Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – Rifts
*Assassin's Creed: The Fall
*Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
*Assassin's Creed: Initiates
*Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
*Assassin's Creed: Great Wall
==References==
Category:Templar Rites
Category:Abstergo Industries