> they were the only apocalyptic sect that had ever taken over an “existing heathen empire”: they ruled over the population of the former Russian Empire, which

> they were the only apocalyptic sect that had ever taken over an “existing heathen empire”: they ruled over the population of the former Russian Empire, which was overwhelmingly ignorant of or unreceptive to their teachings I think the Jacobin take over of the French Revolution was similar, both in the totalist philosophy of the revolutionaries, the apocalyptic fervor of it and in the bloody consequences of it.