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Charles Taze Russell was a 19th-century religious teacher who began a Bible study group in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. His followers became known as Bible Students, and their movement helped shape the organization that is now known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russell and his followers wanted to study the Bible independently and, as they understood it, recover teachings they believed had been obscured by established churches. They emphasized using the Bible to explain Christian beliefs and shared their interpretations through lectures and publications, including the magazine Zion’s Watch Tower. The name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was adopted in 1931, after Russell’s death, under the leadership of Joseph F. Rutherford. So Russell started the movement that led to the modern group, but he did not found an organization under that name.