Which of the Russian tsars was a Freemason, and about whom they talk in vain, and why young nobles went to Masons

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Around the Freemasons - an organization is very conditionally secret, because belonging to it is always known - there are many myths. They, they say, put their rulers - and that is precisely why coups took place so many times in Russia in the eighteenth century until the anti-Free Tsar came to power. The complicated relationship of the Russian tsars with the Freemasons is really worth a separate story.

How Peter I became a Freemason before Freemasons appeared

Although sometimes you can hear the assertion that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a great lover of foreign things, from Baroque furniture to the staging of the Jewish festive play Purimshpil, was still greeted by Masons, in fact the secret organization itself was founded only in 1717. Alexey the Quietest had died almost exactly forty years earlier. Only his son, Pyotr Alekseevich, who was even more than his father, a lover of Europe, had chances to meet. At the time of the founding of the Masonic organization, he was forty-five years old. True, after eight years, Peter I died, so this acquaintance could not be long.

Nevertheless, and about Peter, you can often find the statement that he was recruited by the Freemasons when the king lived in Holland. As you know, returning to Moscow, Peter built the Sukharev tower, in which two foreigners, Jacob Bruce and Franz Lefort, were constantly studying the stars and alchemy. At the time of Ona, popular rumor attributed satanic rituals, magic and the like to foreigners in the tower. Much later Freemasonry was added to them. So, in the book "History of Russian Freemasonry" by Boris Bashilov, beloved by Russian nationalists, Peter's connection with the Freemasons is presented as a fact.

There are different versions of why Peter is credited with bringing Freemasonry to Russia. Perhaps this is due to the fact that both Freemasons and Peter are associated with bringing alien, Western trends to Russia. Perhaps, because both the Freemasons and Peter were more than once suspected of Satanism. Or maybe the rumors were spread by the Freemasons themselves in order to strengthen their reputation with a connection with one of the most revered kings of Russian history.

The first Russian masons were dudes and lovers of freemasonry

The massive penetration of Freemasons into Russia refers, rather, to the reign of Peter's daughter Elizabeth. It was then that foreigners living in St. Petersburg en masse join the Masonic lodges. Since 1740, the general of the Russian service, James Keith, became the grand master of Russia, and he also became the first head of Russian masons, under whom Russians, in fact, were allowed into the lodge. Prior to that, the organization, which set itself the goal of universal enlightenment and the promotion of the ideas of humanism, considered Russians, let's say, culturally far from these goals. Keith, who spent a lot of time with his Russian colleagues, did not share this opinion. Many Russian nobles were already quite enlightened people (although, I must say, later, more than once cases will be noticed when Russian nobles, respected by everyone for their education, enlightenment and good deeds, will simultaneously rape their serf actresses, maids and just peasant women, not forgetting to flog them to serious injuries and illnesses).

It is believed that after that it became possible to meet men with such high-profile surnames as Vorontsov, Golitsyn, Trubetskoy or Shcherbatov in the ranks of the Masons. Moreover, the secret organization was closely monitored by the empress's secret services, and she received reports on each of her subjects who joined the lodge. True, at least some noticeable public activity for the Freemasons of Russia has not yet been found. The Masons were literally going to complain to each other how hard it is for them to live in a country where even the nobility is wild and uneducated, and to be glad that they are already educated, and for all the good.

It is not surprising that joining the lodge was a matter of fashion and the desire to make acquaintance with people, otherwise they were inaccessible for communication - the more noble ones. One of the most famous Masons of Russia - Ivan Elagin, known from his youth only for very dirty and very popular rhymes, wrote in his memoirs, how the meetings of the secret organization were held. According to him, many young Freemasons came to the meetings only so that “at the solemn evening at the meal, they roar incomprehensible songs with dissenting screams and drink good wine at the expense of their neighbors …” In general, many foreign Freemasons probably did not understand the policy of Grandmaster Keith.

At the same time, the Freemasons were already taking their first political steps. It is known that the future Empress Catherine, in a conspiracy with Bestuzhev and Keith, was going to prevent the war of Russia against Prussia, under any pretext, delaying the advance of the Russian troops. The conspiracy was revealed. For Catherine, everything worked out, but Bestuzhev and many Freemasons ended up in exile without trial and unnecessary scandal. By the way, much, much later, Catherine herself will fight against Freemasonry in Russia.

Paul I: the first and last freemason in the kingdom

The history of Freemasonry of Catherine's son begins with the fact that his mother assigned him to the Freemason Panin, an educated Russian count with impeccable manners. Later, with his manners and outlook, the already grown-up Tsarevich Pavel would amaze Europe. But humanism was enough for him until the first outburst of rage. And this rage, I must say, was almost always aroused by representatives of the nobility. Pavel was often more than merciful to mere mortals, but in every nobleman he saw evidence of his humiliation in his youth, when his mother tried to push him not even into the background, but into the background, and a potential traitor who could kill him, as his father was killed., Peter III.

By the way, it is believed that the second burial of Peter III was precisely a Masonic ritual. As you know, a month after the death of Catherine, by order of Paul, the remains of his father were removed from the coffin and taken to the palace. Pavel himself with his family in mourning clothes accompanied the hearse from the cemetery, and in front of the coffin they carried the imperial crown on a pillow. Many, having seen this spectacle, at first decided that the new tsar had gone mad: what kind of funeral was it the other way around? By that time, Peter had been dead for thirty-four years.

Even stranger, Paul had previously performed the co-crowning of the corpses of both parents. True, they performed it in different places, without bringing the coffins to each other, and yet it was a single ceremony. Nobody understood the meaning of it. Emphasize that Paul does not recognize Potemkin as the mother's husband, and affirm that she could have only one husband? Or maybe an expression of grief devoid of any idea - both old, for the father, and fresh, for the mother? Here is just one detail that attracted the attention of the nobility: the freemason Kurakin, close to Paul, took part in the co-crowning. This gave rise to a hypothesis that is difficult to refute or prove: everything that happened was a Masonic ritual, full of secret symbolism.

By the way, Paul was never admitted to any Masonic Order. He was a member of two lodges. But under him, the Masons in Russia, no doubt, flourished. This did not prevent Paul, who constantly - in a good spirit - expressed the humanistic values of the Freemasons, humiliate his own mentor, the Freemason Panin, calling him a fool after Swedish.

Alexander I: secret societies banned

In the early nineteenth century, when Alexander ascended the throne after the assassination of Paul, Masonic lodges were in great fashion. True, women were not allowed there, but not everyone was embarrassed. The famous mystical writer Alexandra Khvostova at that time created her own closed non-Masonic, but spiritual lodge and reigned in it like a guru in a sect. Her circle was considered among the elite, and owners of high-profile names, for example, Alexander Suvorov, were included there. Without a doubt, this was not the only circle created in imitation of the Masonic lodges by those who were not accepted into them or did not strive to go there.

In the early years of the reign, Alexander Pavlovich looked at all this spiritual and mystical revival in the capital and other large cities through his fingers. However, twenty-one years after his accession, he issued a command: "All secret societies under whatever name they exist, such as Masonic lodges or others - to close and their institutions will not be allowed in the future." A year earlier, the secret police had begun to work under the tsar. And all because of the riots in the army due to cruel corporal punishment. The rioters were seized and … subjected to cruel corporal punishment: chased through the ranks with sticks. Each episode caused more and more discontent in the army, including among the officers, and the king felt the throne shaking under him.

Khvostova also fell victim to the persecution of lodges, circles and other "secret societies". She was expelled from St. Petersburg, and she left for one of the most enlightened cities of the empire at the time - Kiev. With her new mission, she chose to raise women's education, and for the rest of her life she coped with it safely. I must say that its influence is also possible in the fact that Kiev, during the voting of universities for or against the admission of women to higher education, half a century later, voted “for”. Masonic lodges ceased to exist in Russia until the twentieth century.

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