Troika

Troika is a meme used in the MicroWiki community to refer to a secretive and powerful cabal exercising behind-the-scenes influence over the community or one of its organisations.

The term originated in 2012 in the Grand Unified Micronational. In August 2011, the organisation was brought back to activity by the then Jacob Tierney, Will Soergel, and Crown Prince Jonathan. The three leaders became Chair, Vice-Chair, and Supreme Judge respectively, holding those positions until 13 December, when Jonathan became Chair.

On 22 April 2012, Bradley of Dullahan was removed as Chair through a vote of no confidence strongly supported by the three. The Crown Prince was appointed Acting Vice-Chair, leading to the three figures once more holding all three leadership positions in the organisation. It was around this time that their unofficial partnership first became referred to as the "Troika". During a period of over two years, from their return of the organisation to activity in August 2011 until the end of Tierney's record-breaking fourth term on 13 September 2013, there was a total of only three months during which at least one member of the "Troika" was not in one of the three main leadership positions in the GUM. Although they exercised no official power as a group, the three figures formed a powerfully influential voting bloc as well as leadership for the interests of the so-called "Old Guard" within the GUM. The Troika shared their title with similar groups of three leaders in the Soviet Union, and so they jokingly appropriated references to totalitarianism and secrecy in reference to their perceived behind-the-scenes power.

The term Troika soon came to be used to refer in a vague sense to some shadowy group secretly controlling the community rather than the three GUM officers specifically, and its use expanded outwards into the wider userbase. For example, a common meme was to respond to the word "Troika" being used with some variation of "NOBODY MENTIONED TROIKA. RETURN TO YOUR HOMES.", and even an anonymous administrator account on the MicroWiki Forums implied it was a Troika member in its signature.

Between 2019 and 2024, Jonathan I, Bradley of Dullahan and Adam I frequently collaborated in what they would later describe as a new Troika, as some of the last active members of the Old Guard within the GUM. All three regularly served in senior positions, including each serving a term as Chair. They generally defended the GUM's traditions, and opposed bureaucracy and Clarkism.