Knights of the Golden Bee
| Knights of the Golden Bee | |
|---|---|
| Ritter der goldenen Biene | |
 Commonly used emblem | |
| Foundation | December 1921 |
| Dates of operation | 1922 – Present |
| Country | Swetania |
| Motives | Reestablishment of the Sunrosian Monarchy |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Notable attacks | Hijacking of RevAir Flight 102 East Miersan Embassy Siege |
| Status | Active |
| Annual revenue | Robbery, extortion, and private donations |
| Website | goldenenbiene |
The Knights of the Golden Bee (Weranian: Ritter der goldenen Biene) is a Swetanian far-right militant organisation founded in 1922 as a "counter-revolutionary, monarchist, and Johannist league" explicitely aiming to overthrow the Panswetanian Council Republic and reestablish the Sunrosian Monarchy. The organisation is considered to be the oldest and longest lasting anti-socialist mliitant group, and is designated as a terrorist group by the Swetanian government as part of what it offically terms anti-socialist militant groups.
The group was founded on December 1921 by Sigismund Stackelberg-Laudon and Heinrich von Waal, two members of the intransigeant faction Johannist Loringhoven Circle, naming itself after the primary symbol of the Sunrosian monarchs and planning to use the chaos of the Winter Revolution to accomplish the Circle's goal of restoring an enlightened and absolute monarchy. Despite initially fighting against socialist forces, the Knights' paramilitary arm increasingly fought their nominal allies over doctrinal differences, particularly against the Moderate Chartists, isolating them from the rest of the counter-revolutionary coalition. In spite of this, the organisation emerged as one of the best organised opposition force in the aftermath of the revolution, and continued the struggle against the newly formed Swetanian state.
During the Defence of the Revolution, the Knights of the Golden Bee repeatedly engaged Swetanian forces through guerilla tactics, benefiting from the support of conservative sectors of the population and of neighbouring foreign powers through lobbying from the exiled nobility. The Knights were notable for defeating three attempted campaigns of anhillation led by Oskars Auziňš, though at a cost. With the beginning of the Great War in 1927, foreign support for the group was greatly reduced and was almost entirely eliminated with Swetania's entry in the conflict four years later. Unlike most remaining militant opposition groups, and despite aligning with Gaullica for a time, the Knights survived the Anti-Subversive campaigns, a fact often attributed to the number of members revealed to have been double agents for Swetanian intelligence.
The Knights of the Golden Bee entered a period of leadership challenge and faded from relevance after the war before resurfacing in the 40s as the "second generation" under the leadership of Adalberts Sievers, and renewed its campaign against the Swetanian state through bombings and assassination, culminating with the 12-12 Attacks in 1949 leading to the death of several high-ranking government officials and notably two General Commissars and believed to have precipitated the beginning of the Swetanian-Weranian War. The Swetanian reprisal saw the capture or death of most of the Knights' leadership, the loss of their main supporter Werania, and repressive measures against their suspected supporters, essentially eliminating the group's second incarnation.
The organisation reappeared for a third and current time in the 1970s, with the death of most of its veterans and their replacement by the "New Guard". This new generation of members, most of them born after the Winter Revolution and having lived all their lives under the Council Republic, applied their knowledge of the new Swetanian society to rebuild the Knights "fit for the modern world" as a decentralised organisation using a clandestine cell system. Adopting urban guerillas tactics, the group renewed once again its struggle against Swetania and the rest of the socialist world, claiming responsibility for numerous bombings, assassinations, and most importantly the hijacking of RevAir Flight 102 in 1983 and the East Miersan Embassy Siege in 1991.
While thought to be lacking a central command, the "third generation" of the Knights of the Golden Bee has never been entirely defeated by Swetanian state security forces and last to this day. The group has remained mostly inactive since the 2000s and has stayed away from major actions, focusing on extortion and trafficking actions to finance itself, although the KRS has been reporting an increase in the organisation's activities since 2017.