Russian Freemasonry 2

Russian Freemasonry 2

List of Lodges

 

While the names and numbers of Russian Lodges are noted below, meeting

details are not — simply because meeting dates and places are not fixed, and

can often be changed at short notice. No Russian lodge has yet obtained

permanent premises. An intending visitor will be informed appropriately

upon inquiry by fax or email to the Grand Lodge office in Moscow. Russian

Lodges recess in June, July and August, except Jupiter No. 7 near Moscow,

which meets all the year round. Otherwise they met monthly.

All lodges use the Russian language, except Lodge Aurora No. 6 and

Brotherly Love No. 10 which work in English, while Northern Radiance No.

9 works in Russian and Armenian, and Alexander Pushkin No. 1 1 works in

Russian and French. A research lodge, Quatuor Coronati No. 8, has recently

been formed in Moscow.

 

Lodge Brotherly Love No. 10, was erected in April 1999, with a travelling

warrant. Uniquely, it was actually consecrated, by arrangement with the

Grand Lodge of Turkey, in Marmaris, Turkey. The initial lodge officers are

Russian, Turkish, with one Lebanese brother. The lodge will travel and meet

in East Asian Republics where no Freemasonry presently exists, and assist in

creating indigenous lodges. It held its second meeting in Moscow in June

1999, a day prior to the Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of

Russia. The lodge can be contacted via the Grand Lodge office in Moscow.

Russia now has twelve lodges under charter, but given the size of the

country, this number is likely to expand greatly in the years ahead.

Currently chartered Russian Lodges are as follows:

 

Meeting in Moscow: Lodge Harmony No. 1, Lodge Lotus No. 2, Lodge

Aurora No. 5, Lodge Quatuor Coronati No. 8, Lodge Northern Radiance No.

9, and Alexander Pushkin No. 11.

Meeting in St. Petersburg: Lodge Astrea No. 3

 

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Meeting in Archangelsk: Lodge Polar Star No. 6

 

Meeting in Voronezh: Lodge Gamaioun No. 4

 

Meeting in Zvenigorod:

 

(Near Moscow): Lodge Jupiter No. 7

 

Meeting in Vladivostok: Lodge Pacific Rim No. 12

 

Meeting variously: Lodge Brotherly Love No. 10

 

 

 

RUSSIAN FREEMASONRY: A NEW DAWN

AN OVERVIEW FROM 1731 TO 1996

 

This paper was delivered by V.W. Bro. Richard L. Rhoda, P.G.J.D., and

Senior Warden of the Maine Lodge of Research at its annual meeting held at

Orient Lodge No. 15 on June 29, 1996.

 

This paper is dedicated to Most Worshipful Brother George Dergachev,

Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Russia, and his 108 brethren.

 

"Russian Freemasonry began and grew in a period of Russian history similar

to that of the present day. The Great War with Sweden, which drew heavily

upon the resources of the country, had just been terminated by Peter the

Great, and his sweeping reforms were bringing great changes to the whole

Russian life. The old culture of Russia was being uprooted, and the dawn of

a new history was just breaking."(l)

 

Bro. Boris Telepneff, 1922(2)

 

While 1995 was the 175th anniversary of the celebration of the Grand Lodge

of Maine, it also marked the rebirth of the Grand Lodge of Russia for the

first time in 173 years. It was constituted by the Grand Lodge Nationale

Francaise on June 24, 1995 in Moscow.

 

At the suggestion of Grand Master Walter Macdougal, this paper has been

prepared to suggest the challenge of considering what Maine Masons can do

to assist in ensuring the survival and growth of Russian Masonry at this

time.

 

Many will be aghast and unbelieving of such a suggestion. Strong will be the

sentiment and pronouncements from certain quarters that we should do

 

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nothing, while others will say do nothing now but wait and see, and most

curmudgeonly of all will be those who will say wait until they seek us out

for recognition.

 

How long might we have to wait before the Masons of the Grand Lodge of

Russia decide that they wish to be recognized by the Grand Lodge of Maine?

Somehow I suspect that the few brave Russian Freemasons will have much

more on their minds for years to come. Really, what is the State of Maine in

the eyes of a Russian? Almost guaranteedly an unequivocal "Unheard of!"

 

With no offense to the many Grand Lodges in Brazil or Mexico, how many

Maine Masons know of those various Grand Lodges or feel a need to reach

out to them? With no national grand lodge in those countries, as here in the

United States of America, Masonic recognition can be very slow in coming

and perhaps only then because it is part of a wave when other grand lodges

are doing it.

 

The Masonic issue for us has to be what can we do today to help ensure the

successful rebirth and growth of Freemasonry in Russia! Formal recognition

and all that good stuff can and will come in time, if Russian Freemasonry

succeeds. But if it does not, when might the light be rekindled?

 

Russian Freemasonry has been reconstituted by the Grand Lodge Nationale

Francaise with which we are in fraternal relations. We could sit in lodge

with one of those Russian Freemasons and not be in violation of our

Masonic obligations. So, why not reach out and correspond, encourage, and

assist these Russian brethren if we can? Would not one of their lodges, or

better yet another new lodge, appreciate receiving a used set of officers'

jewels or aprons that one of our lodges no longer needs? Would one of our

lodges be interested in purchasing two dozen white cloth aprons or gloves as

a gift for one of the lodges? There is much we could do in the finest

tradition of Masonic Brotherhood and Charity.

 

Getting off the bully pulpit, let us take a brief look at the history of

Freemasonry in Russia. This must be brief and detached from Russian

history which profoundly affected its existence and demise. Yet, a few lines

about the country's leaders are necessary to start to understand the conditions

and circumstances under which Freemasonry existed.

 

 

 

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Today our own Freemasonry is well established with no fractious bodies and

eccentric leaders. Our Freemasonry is not derived from tablets of orthodoxy

existing from time immemorial. While our system with its concordant bodies

functions smoothly and without question in this day and age, such was not

always the case. This observation is made so that we do not look too askance

at the history of Russian Freemasonry which underwent birth and growing

pains not unlike our own. The albatross for the Russians were their

totalitarian rulers who were the norm for Europe at that time. Democracy as

America brought to the world in 1776 with its Declaration of Independence

was unknown and soon greatly feared. The French Revolution instilled fear

throughout Europe. We must remember that it is only now that the seeds of

true democracy are trying to catch hold and grow and be pursued to reach

their ideals in Russia.

 

Peter the Great, the reformer, brought about the Imperial Age of Russia. He

was the grandson of Michael Romanov, the founder of that line which ruled

Russia from 1613 to 1917. Peter opened Russia to the west, embracing its

ideas and seeking association with it. He traveled throughout Europe and

sent students to study and learn its ways. He built a city on the Baltic Sea, St.

Petersburg, better known in our life times as Leningrad, which became

Russia's window to the west. He moved its government there from Moscow,

the historical capital of Russia since the mid-thirteenth century.

 

Peter the Great was co-tsar from 1682 to 1689 with his half-brother, Ivan V.

He was but 10 years old when ascending the thrown from which he solely

ruled from 1694 to his death in 1725. One Russian tradition has it that Peter

became a Mason on a trip to England and brought it back to Russia. There is

no hard evidence of this and most likely it is but another example of trying

to gain acceptability by reference to association with a revered leader. It

must be remembered that organized speculative Masonry had only existed in

England for eight years before Peter died. Peter's greatest contribution to

Russian Freemasonry is that he made it possible by opening up Russia to

foreign merchants who settled and traded in Russia.

 

The most influential group of foreigners in Russia in the eighteenth century

were the Germans from their various states who were connected with the

Romanov family. Also of significant importance, both masonically and

politically, were the Swedes who were a dominant political power in Northern Europe.