Russian Freemasonry 3

Russian Freemasonry 3

The period following Peter's death until 1762 saw a series of five leaders

who are of no great significance to us except for their German influence.

Anne, 1730-1740, was a sister of Peter the Great, and the widow of the Duke

of Courland. Peter III, 1762, a grandson of Peter the Great, was the Duke of

Holstein-Gattorp, and ruled but a few months before being overthrown in a

palace coup and replaced by his German wife, Katherine, Princess of

Anhalt-Zerbst. She would rule until 1796, become known as Katherine the

Great, and cause the first blows to fall on Russian Freemasonry.

 

As with English Freemasonry, little or nothing is known of the earliest

lodges in Russia. They were most certainly in St. Petersburg and Moscow

and were formed by foreigners, English or German.

 

Following the birth of speculative Masonry in London in 1717, grand lodges

were formed in Ireland in 1730, Scotland in 1736, and in various continental

countries. Those grand lodges were wont to appoint Provincial Grand

Masters over vast territories to expand their authority wherever their people

settled.

 

The earliest reliable information about Russian Freemasonry was the

appointment by the Grand Lodge of England of Captain John Phillips in

1731 as the Provincial Grand Master of Russia. This would have empowered

him to establish lodges in Russia which would have been ultimately under

the control of London. No further information is known of him or of what he

did, although it is speculated that he was a merchant captain.

 

The next Provincial Grand Master was General James Keith who was

appointed in 1740 or 1741. He was of a celebrated Scottish family but made

the mistake of supporting Charles Edward Stuart, Pretender to the Throne of

England. He fled to Spain and eventually to Russia in 1828. He served its

leaders with distinction while attaining the highest military honors. In 1747

he left Russia to serve Frederick the Great of Prussia.

 

While the earliest Masonic lodges in Russia generally were formed by

foreigners, under Keith Masonry started to move into Russian society where

its members were mostly young officers from the best families.

 

In 1756, under Empress Elizabeth (1741-1762), a daughter of Peter the Great

who lead a reaction to foreign influences, Russian Freemasonry met an

obstacle when the Secret Chancellery of the Empire made an inquiry into

what was the foundation of and who constituted its membership. "The

inquiry says first that Freemasonry was defined by its members as 'nothing

else but the key of friendship and of eternal brotherhood'. "(3) Masonry was

found not to be dangerous and it was allowed to continue, "although under

police protection." Until this time, Masonry had existed as a fraternal

brotherhood of no exceptional interest to the government except for its

foreign influence. It was under Katherine the Great that Russian

Freemasonry was to bloom with its own national leaders and organization.

Under her, the first suppression of masonry would begin.

 

The first prominent Russian Freemason was Ivan Perfilievich Yelaguin

(1725-1794), Senator, Privy-Counsellor etc. etc. He belonged to an ancient

family of Russian noblemen and enjoyed the confidence of Katherine the

Great (1762-1796). In June 1771, the Lodge of Perfect Unity was constituted

in Petersburg by the Grand Lodge of England and drew its members mostly

from English merchants who lived there. Many Russian nobles were also

masons and they requested that the Grand Lodge of England issue a warrant

for Yelaguin to be the Provincial Grand Master in the Russian Empire. This

was done and the English system of Masonry met with great success and

growth under his leadership. In 1770, Yelaguin had been elected Grand

Master of the Grand Provincial Lodge of Russia under the auspices of the

Berlin Grand Lodge, "Royal York." On February 28, 1772, he was appointed

by the United Grand Lodge of England as Provincial Grand Master of the

Empire of Russia. Under Yelaguin, members of the best Russian families

joined the craft.

 

In his memoirs, Yelaguin described early Russian Freemasonry "as rather

superficial: 'The worship of Minerva was often followed by the feasts of

Bacchus'. "(4) Yelaguin considered "of paramount importance the Masonic

teachings of self-knowledge, moral perfection, benevolence, charity and

virtue. "(5)

 

Throughout the 18th century, Freemasonry developed down several avenues,

especially on the Continent and in Russia. Orthodox Craft-Masonry from

England was known as "Yelaguin's System." Its chief rival was the

"Zinnendorf System" which emanated from Sweden and came to Russia via

Berlin and a Bro. George Reichel. To the three blue lodge degrees the later

system added certain "Knightly Degrees" which in Russia were felt to

possess some mysterious knowledge.

 

In 1777, Grand Duke Paul Peter, son and political adversary of his mother,

Empress Katherine, was initiated into Freemasonry by the King of Sweden

who came to Petersburg for the occasion. By 1778 the major influence in

Russian masonry was shifting to Moscow and that of St. Petersburg was

declining. This was at a time when the Craft was faced with warrants from

several different authorities and practiced many differing rites. There was no

unifying national soul to Russian Freemasonry.

 

Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, in A History of Russia, writes that during the

reign of Katherine the Great, Russian Freemasonry reached a zenith of about

2,500 members in some one hundred lodges in St. Petersburg, Moscow and

some provincial towns. He further writes that "in addition to the contribution

made by Freemasonry to the life of polite society, which constituted

probably its principal attraction to most members, specialists distinguish two

main trends within that movement in eighteenth century Russia: the

mystical, and the ethical and social. The first concentrated on such

commendable but illusive and essentially individual goals as contemplation

and self-perfection. The second reached out to the world and thus constituted

the active wing of the movement. "(6)

 

The mystical aspect of Russian Freemasonry came through the Rosicrucians

who were Christian mystics and students of mystical and occult lore. They

were sometimes called "Martinists," from the great respect which they at one

time held for the teachings of Louis Claude de St. Martin. At this time the

Rosicrucian movement became dominant in Russian Masonry with one of its

leaders being Nicholas Novikov (1744-1816), who was perhaps the most

active publicist in Moscow. He, along with I. G. Schwarz, were prime

movers in the Moscow period of Russian Masonry.

 

Mysticism permeated Russia during the reign of Katherine with St.

Petersburg's fashionable society leading the way. The traditions of Russian

Masonry and the Rosicrucian of the 18th century included: the practice of

Christian virtues and self-improvement, philanthropy, Christian mysticism,

and opposition to atheism, materialisms, and revolutionary tendencies.

 

Especially after 1782, the Rosicrucian movement was spread by I. G.

Schwarz in Russia. He had gained the recognition of the independence of

Russian Masonry from the Swedish system. In July 1782, he attended a

Masonic Convention in Wilhelmsbad held by the Duke of Braunschweig,

Grand Master of the Rite of Strict Observance. He also obtained from

German Rosicrucians the authority to promote the Order in Russia.

 

In 1783, Schwarz broke from the Duke of Braunschweig and "Russian

Masons joined the main body of the Rosicrucian brotherhood" (7) which

became a dominant influence in Russian Masonry for some time.

 

The Rosicrucians relied on the "lower" Masonic degrees for a new brother to

learn of his vices and shortcomings. He was to become a better man through

instructions in science and ethics while being delivered from the seven

deadly sins of pride, arrogance, gluttony, lust, greediness, laziness and

anger. After he regained for himself the prelapsarian state of man, he could

pursue a mystic union with God in the higher grades of the order.

 

In 1784 Schwarz died and the fortunes of Russian Freemasonry would not

survive his loss. A board of three plus two elected Grand Wardens oversaw

the Craft and it even developed and spread into provinces but intrigue and

suspicion brought it down.

 

In the 1780's two other factors played in the demise of Russian

Freemasonry. As Peter III had been very favorably disposed towards

Freemasonry, Katherine was somewhat hostile to any favorites of her late

husband. Since the estrangement from the Grand Lodge of England, Russian

Freemasonry had become too much associated with German Masonry which

was under the leadership of Frederick the Great of Prussia, archenemy of

Katherine.

 

Katherine's leading political rival was her son, Grand Duke Paul, who was

her open enemy. If he in fact was not a Mason he was favorably inclined

towards the Craft, at least the symbolic lodges. He was Grand Master of the

Knights of Malta which had a rivalry with the Masonic Templar degrees.

 

The Masonic Rosicrucian leader, Nicholas Novikov had a prominent

bookshop in Moscow. Following a raid on it in 1786, books on Masonry

were declared to be more dangerous than those of the French

"Encyclopaedists" . This was in spite of a decision by the Metropolitan of

the Russian Church in Moscow that the books, some 461 works, were all

faithful to the church. At this time the schools and hospitals sponsored by

the Masons were taken away from their control.

In 1787 a terrible famine swept over Russia. The Masons organized the most

effectual help for the stricken population through the efforts of Novikov who

formed a society especially for that purpose. There were fears that some

Masons were trying to acquire popularity among the masses for political

purposes through their charity.

 

Prior to 1790, Katherine had presented a front of being favorable to the

teachings of the Enlightenment and of Voltaire but she became frightened by

the French Revolution. Novikov was supportive of a book by Alexander

Radishchev, Journey from Petersburg to Moscow, which showed the terrible

plight of the Russian peasants. Radisheckev's call for the reform and

emancipation of the serfs was the final straw and the pendulum swung back

from any liberal views that Katherine had been masquerading behind.

 

In April 1782, secret societies were prohibited by the government but

Masonry had not been subject to the regulation. In 1791, the General

Governor of Moscow undertook to suppress Masonry. Novikov was arrested

and confined while others received milder punishments. By 1794, Katherine

made it known to her statesmen who she knew belonged that the Craft did

not meet with her approval. While there was no open prohibition to the Craft

many lodges in St. Petersburg voluntarily closed in compliance with the

desire of Katherine. Yelaguin issued an Order closing all of his English

orientated lodges which had generally opposed the Rosicrucian influence.

 

With the accession of Paul I to the throne in 1796 he abolished the sentences

against Masons which had been passed on them under his mother's reign.

While Masonry remained prohibited, officially, it existed and even began to

increase again. He was killed in a palace revolution in 1801.