So far we have seen that departing from the original cosmopolitanism of the Enlightenment, choosing different forms of Masonry, the Russian Masons gradually became more and more invested in the concept of Russia as an organic, separate, national entity that was radically different from that of other countries with regard to customs, outlook, laws, and way of life. This transformation was not confined to Freemasonry. If the beginning of the eighteenth century was associated with Peter the Great, the ruthless westernizer who forcedly shaved beards, in the end of the nineteenth century Alexander III, an ardent Russian nationalist, grew a beard for everyone to see his true belonging to Russia. By the end of the nineteenth century this path led to the integration of a national element into an ideology of Russianness expressed in the formula "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." This slogan was created by Freemason Count Sergey Uvarov, minister of education in 1833-49 and a member of the St. Petersburg lodge Poliarnoi zvezdy, in 1832.

The mid-point of this transition, the eighteenth century attests that the competition with the West was itself made possible by enlightenment cosmopolitanism which, in its turn, was the driving force behind both the early achievements of Russian culture and the beginning of the formation of national consciousness. To form a cultural identity, the Russian intellectual community needed to define whether it belonged to the European civilization and find its own place between the West and the East. If in the majority of the European countries the achievements of eighteenth century were based on the previous developments, in Russia, modernization was almost exclusively borrowed from the West. It is true that for Russian and foreign Freemasons the reasons for entering Freemasonry and the involvement in the dissemination of the Craft in Russia were as diverse as the individuals that composed the lodges. As Russia's Provincial Grand Master Elagin identified, brothers' "motivating forces" varied, and "almost every newly admitted [brother] announces his own will depending on bis character and temperament. While some asserted that they looked for "enlightenment," and that the wisdom and sciences of the lay world were not sufficient for "reaching happiness," others claimed that their goal was ''to acquire a habit for honest and chaste behavior." Yet others were "searching for friendship and Brotherly love, stating that these feelings are expelled from profane society and that only here, in the temple based on friendship and love" man could experience pure feeling of belonging. Elagin was also first to admit that ''unfortunately'' for Freemasons, there were many who were led "by vain and simple curiosity" or "base self-profit" or "simple" vanity. But although the interests of the brothers varied as much as the composition of their lodges and covered a wide range (inc1uding publishing, philanthropy, mysticism, natural sciences, alchemy, or the issues of serfdom and education), their primary focu invariably was in the preoccupation with morality and ethical teaching. The views of Russian Freemasons may be regarded as an attempt to overcome the deep religious and intellectual crisis suffered by Russian society in the eighteenth century. However, the spread of the skeptical "French" version of the Enlightenment associated in Russia with Voltairianism made Freemasons seek a new basis for morality that could raise the moral climate of society, while still having the foundations agreeable to reason. In this search to create a "Science of Man" that could fit Russian conditions, the fusion of different traditions -- including neo-stoicism, various trends of Christian traditions, Renaissance thought, Hermeticism, Cabalistic thought, Pythagorean and Newtonian science – became the most original aspect of the Russian movement. The particular moral vision that inspired Russian Freemasons was an intensely personal one: they were concerned with living the most moral life possible. And although Freemasons all over Europe were confronted with the same problem, the Russians considered it largely in a social and political void. Within the lodges "[f]reedom and equality reign among us [Freemasons],"and a Masonic hymn proudly proclaimed the ultimate equality of Freemasons in a lodge, where "a Czar is equal to us, and we don't have flattering slaves," (OPI GIM, fond 450, folder 558b).

This insistence on the definition of man as a creature that is gifted with free will sounds paradoxical for eighteenth-century Russia where, possibly like nowhere in Europe, the majority of the population was in chains. "And as long as human being has a will that can be corrupted by a dire use of it, I will continue to deem him free, even though he is almost always in chains," Rousseau's words were echoed by famous French Freemason Saint - Martin in a Russian translation of his work. While the elite, the "salt of the earth" as they called themselves, labored to tread the path to perfection, what was to be done for the majority of the population  in Russia? To overcome this tension, instead of political liberty, Freemasons chose to emphasize the inner moral freedom of the politically restricted man in Russia. The central theme of their works has about it something more abstract and at the same time intimate. It was the problem of the self-fulfillment of the individual. It was only in the inner world of the spirit, in the development of a beautiful soul- die schöne Seele – that man was free and able to fully realize himself. Such a soul is produced through the cultivation of noble and moral sentiment, moving naturally in harmony with reason. Freemasons focused their efforts on moral education in Russia and developed their systems in the spirit of broad educational reform. Thus, the result of their practical activities. during 1750-99, there were published 31 book on moral education (as compared to 39 in 1800-50) and 62 books on moral instruction (as compared to 36 in 180050), and 7 on practical ethics (3 in 1800-50). Classified catalogue of the RNB, quoted in Catriona KeHy, Refining Russia: Advice Literature. Polite Culture, and Gender from Catherine to Yeltsin (Oxford University Press, 2001), appendix 1,399. For a select bibliography of advice literature 1700-1800, see pages 408-412.

Besides them furthering  sentimentalism in Russia, many foreign Freemasons were also involved in the project of educating Russia under the premise of "spreading the Art and the Light of Freemasonry." Such educational efforts of the brotherhood as the Pedagogical and Translators ' Seminaries and the Society for the Translation of Foreign Books (1779), the University Alumnus Club (1781), and the Friendly Learned Society (1782), worked to educate the "mind and taste of its members, who, by coming together to read and discuss their own literary experiments, could develop their morality arid love all mankind. " These practical activities were based the idea of a humanistic education and the rhetoric of service to Russia. In the second part of the century the number of educated people engaged in intellectual activity rose dramatically. Masonic lodges and societies were in major part responsible for this increase and became significant channels for directing this intellectual interest. Freemasonry was seen as a force that claimed to unite men of good will in the noble cause of education and philanthropy, filling the spiritual vacuum created by sudden and forced acquaintance with Western ideas. Although for the most part of the century, the goals of Masonic propagators and the westernizing policies of the state coincided, the rhetoric of service to the countty and its people contrasted with the official language of service to the state and its roler. Freemasons, both foreign and Russian, identified themselves with the nation as a whole and considered themselves as the conscience of the fatherland. By the end of the century, by identifying their own principles with the needs of Russia, Russian Freemasons became apart of the self-conscious European public. As V. Kluchevskii suggested, it is possible to argue that Freemasons contributed to the development of "something that was yet unknown to the Russian educated society: a public opinion." (Kluchevskii, "Vospominaniia 0 Novikove," Russkaia mys!' I (1895),58.)

The intellectuals involved in Freemasonry represented not only a nobility whose primary function was service to state, but also the beginnings of a self-conscious, independent intelligentsia serving the people and accomplishing a significant social purpose. By concerning themselves with the state of "souls" of their members and the moral education of the Russian people, Freemasons started formulating aversion of a Russian cultural identity. With its global network, the organization connected people all over Europe. In the context of Masonic interactions between Russia and the West, it is possible to trace international transfers of ideas from one culture to another and to consider how the Enlightenment interacted with social factors and national traditions. On a personal level in turn, it addressed emotional and intellectual needs of its members. Finally, Freemasonry helped consolidate the cosmopolitan Enlightenment identification and, in the case of nascent Russian intelligentsia, bring them closer to the West. By encouraging its members to assume the identity of brothers and friends.

The official version of  dissatisfaction with Freemasonry however, was expressed in several articles of the verdict that the state carried out to Novikov. According to the decree, the Moscow Masonic circle was dangerous because of its; 1) Relations with the Duke of Brunswick;

2) Clandestine correspondence with Prince Hessel-Kassel and a Prussian minister;

3) Attempts to lure "a known person" into a Masonic "sect";

4) Secret religious-type assemblies with the use of religious symbols;

5) Printing books of inadequate moral content in a secret publisbing

house. (OPI OlM, fond 17, opis' 2, folder 343, l64 rev. August 1, 1792)

As these accusations testify, for the state there were several facets of the problem of Freemasonry: the politica1 component comprising of the possib1e foreign influences and secretive involvements with anti-Catherine faction; and the ideological component that inc1uded a potential damage to the society's morals and opinions. Catherine "was especially distrustful of Swedish Freemasonry and its alliance with Russia's lodges" which led to closing of the Sweden-related lodges. As N. S. Ivanin, "K istorii masonstva v Rossii," Russkaia starina 35 (September 1882): 542-43, points out, some of the Swedish-rite lodges were revived several years later. It is known that the St. Petersburg lodge of Aleksandr continued to work under the Swedish rite, as well as the lodge Dubovoi doliny (Zum Eichental) and Apollo did in the 1780s. The down fall of the Swedish-system lodges contributed to the shift of Masonic affairs from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Catherine also received numerous reports regarding (heir to her throne) Grand Duke Paul's possible Masonic affiliations and the strengthening of the ties between bis court and the Swedes. She, for instance, obtained evidence of the financial transactions and some 5,000 rub1es to be used for the establishment of the Swedish system in Russia. As a result, the chief of Petersburg police was ordered to visit the Swedish-system lodges twice to check whether Freernasons had any correspondence with the Swedish Duke. Catherine also disciplined the people at the very core of the society. In 1781 Gagarin received an appointment to Moscow which for him meant the exile from St. Petersburg. Kurakin managed to stay close to Paul and bis wife in their trip to Europe in 1781. When he returned at the end of 1783, however, he was exiled to his estate in the Saratov province. Prince Repnin had to go first to the provincial Smolensk in 1777 as governor-general and in 1781 to Pskov. Freemasons realized how suspicious their subordination to the Swedish system might have looked to the authorities and closed the majority of the Sweden-related lodges in St. Petersburg.

However, the association of Paul's name with Freemasonry did not stop with the dissolution of the Sweden-related lodges. In the 1780s, the Novikov-Schwarz circ1e with the ties to the Strict Observance and Berlin Rosicrucians claimed Paul as a member. Moreover, it is often assumed that one of the main goals of the Rosicrucians was to make Grand Duke Paul the Master of the Order in Russia.Paul was connected to the Berlin court through his wife, Maria Fedorovna, who was niece to the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. Her two brothers, Frederick and Ludwig, had the associations to the Berlin Rosicrucians led by J. C. Wöllner, later a Minister of State under Frederick William II, through their tutor. Schröder wrote in bis diary: I gave W[öllner] today's letter from Repnin. He said: according to what Holland [the tutor of Prince Friedrich of Würtemberg, Paul's brother-in-law] said about the Grand Duke, we can receive him [into the Order] without fear for the future... W[öllner] said: the Gr[and] D[uke] is in good hands, indeed very good! W[öllner] said: the Order receives no benefit from grand sires, and the Fathers [unknown superiors?] never like [to deal with them]. But when these grand sires are uncorrupt (which is very rare), one must, in this time of black magicians, shelter them so that their souls and the souls of their subjects can be saved. After having re1ayed to Wöllner at least four of Repnin's letters, Schröder recorded in his diary: Wöllner has made an entire report on R[epnin] alone and says 1t is magnificent 1) that everything depends on me, 2) that the R[ussians] are over-excited, and indeed were so even before Gorgonus [Schwarz], 3) that he asks for help, 4) that the harvest in R[ussia] is great, but laborers are few, 5) Repnin, his thoughts, 6) that wonderful things happened every day in the realm of the spirits in Russia, about which Schröder has transmitted a multitude of stories, 7) that R[epnin] has put the G[rand] D[uke] into the right disposition. To make the matters worse, the Russian-language Freemasons' magazine openly wrote in 1784:. . .if there is an opportunity invite into the inner workings of the Order the monarchs, who now look at it [Order] as if it were dangerous and offer them, in all the great clarity all benevolent, generous, noble and people-friendly plans and projects aimed at the good ofthe humankind, then, undoubtedly, they would become zealous advocates of those [plans and projects] equally as many great and enlightened monarchs, who being acquainted with the inner workings of the Order become our leaders, and with the most effective means assist all the projects that useful to the humanity. (Magazin Svobodno-Kamen 'scicheskii vol. I, part 1, Moscow: Lopukhin Press, 1784, 26.)

By emphasizing moral and religious qualities associated with light, Russian Freemasons interchangeably used the terms proscheschennyi and prosvetlenyi, which could both be translated into English as "enlightened." They probably followed a German-language nuance between aufgeklärt and erleuchtet as between "enlightened" and "illuminated," reflecting the level ofperson's knowledge, his moral regeneration and clarity that were previously available in Russia only to the highest moral, religious, and secular authority, the country's rightful ruler. Moreover, in the eighteenth-century Russian language the word "light" (svet) acquired a connotation of world, universe, and the whole society (a lay world), so that when Russian Freemasons pledged allegiance to other bearers of light, either foreign or in hopes of luring Paul into the society, Catherine could not let these Masonic involvements in foreign and internal politics go unnoticed. If we take into consideration these facts, constant Masonic dedications to the Grand Duke Paul as their "future father," and the continuous and strong ties of these Russia-based brothers with various Masonic authorities in Sweden, German countries, Britain and France, Catherine's apprehensions about Freemasons trying to interest the Grand Duke in leading the society in Russia could have been justified. Berlin Rosicrucians were in constant communication with Potsdam, and in their conversations, topics of international politics occupied an important p1ace. They knew, for instance, that in 1784, the Grand Duke Pau1 sent a secret instruction to Count Rumiantsev, the Russian Ambassador in Berlin, to act in favor of Prussia against Catherine's international course, promising Rumaintsev compensation after paul's accession to the throne (also mentioned in Vernadskii, Russkoe masonstvo, 231).

Most likely, it was Cagliostro's visit that opened the Empress' campaign against the "mystical and fantastic teaching of Cagliostro, Schroepfer, pater Gassner, Lavater, Swedenborg, and Saint-Martin who were beginning to cloud the thinking of people.. . " While she did not identify Cagliostro and his claims for possessing high Masonic knowledge with Freemasonry as a whole, she took the reception he got from the most educated people in Russia as an indicative and worrisome sign of times. As Catherine noted in the letter to her German correspondent Friedrich Grimm in 1781, "Cagliostro arrived at the time most favorable for him ... when several Masonic lodges nourished by Swedenborg's teachings, wanted to see ghosts at any price. So they rushed to Cagliostro." Much later, in May 1788, she assured anorher German correspondent, J. G. Zimmermann, that she considered the followers of Cagliostro to be "as harmless as those of Mahomet, because they are a sect of weak-minded people and fanatics." She saw Masonic meetings as the occasions for the Russian indolent nobility to engage in

 .. idle talk and children' s games which are as boring as they are loathsome; masquerades and ridiculous adornments of all sorts, all sorts of absurdity with questions and answers that are just as absurd.In the beginning of the l780s, Catherine composed her first play against Freemasonry, Societe Antiabsurde, followed by a trilogy of comedies mocking Masonic ritual and exposing the order as an international conspiracy: pbmanschik (The Deceiver, 1785); Obol'shchennyi (The Deceived, 1785) and Shaman sibirskii (The Siberian Shaman, 1786). Although these plays were almost immediately translated into German and published in a number of editions by the German publisher C. F. Nicolai, "they, together with Catherine's other comedies, passed untranslated and unnoticed in England, except for a short review of the German translations in 1800. Nicolai is deemed ' entitled to the thanks of all those who take a sincere interest in the progress of sound reason and mental illumination" and Catherine is praised for the plays' "highly useful tendency" and "her skill in the great art of making deep impressions on the human mind. Drey Lustspiele wider Schwärmerey und Aberglauben (BerlinStettin, 1788); German Museum. or Monthly Repository ofthe Literature ofGerman)'. the North and the Continent in General I (1800), 570-71; Semeka, "Russkie rozenkreitsery i sochineniia imperatritsy Ekateriny 11," 343-400.

"It was in 1776 that Balsamo re-appeared as Count Cagliostro accompanied by the countess Serafina (as Feliciana now styled herself), once more in London. During the intervening continental wanderings Cagliostro assembled his identity as an Eastern magus, master of the Egyptian mysteries, christal ball gazer, devotee of the Grand Architect, and friend of mankind." Robert Miles, Romantic Misfits, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p. 101.

Case Study The Life of Cagliostro:

Cagliostro P.1

Cagliostro P.2 Cagliostro P.3	Cagliostro P.4 Cagliostro P.5

 

Cagliostro as Conspiracy Theory.

 

Catherine's Deceiver revolves around the figure of a mysterious foreigner Kalifalkzherston. An alchemist, necromancer, and healer with supernatural powers, he enters the Samblins family in order to trick them out of money and valuable possessions. As the author herself explained in the letter to Zimmerman, "[t]he first of these comedies [The Deceiver] represents Cagliostro as he really is, and the second [The Deceived] depicts those deceived by him."(letter on 10 January 1786). Despite the common theme, these two pieces are somewhat different in tone and the emphasis. While the first one simply exposes Kalifalkzherston as a dishonest person, the second play focuses on the harm the people like him cause to naive people. In the Deceiver the charlatan's machinations seem bizarre; in the Deceived, they are not only misleading, but also potentially dangerous. As Douglas Smith points out, in general, the Deceived marks an important shift in the image of Freemasonry in Russia: the leaders of secret "sects" are not simply odd people. They are greedy and smart charlatans.

In all of her anti-Masonic plays, despite a lot of talk about establishing schools, hospitals, and other beneficial public work, the deceivers are especially anxious about involving wealthy people in their cause. As I mentioned earlier, Catherine was aware of the financial funds sent by the Swedes to Russia for the propagation of the Swedish Masonic system. She also did not have any illusions about Cagliostro's special interest in wealthy and influential Russians. Already in the Societe Antiabsurde, the director of the anti-absurd society explains to the novice: "Our society does not send its own money to foreigners; we dine together in a friendly and gay atmosphere; now it depends on you to increase our number; you will pay your ruble the next time." After Novikov was interrogated, Catherine learned that money were transferred not only to Russia, but also from Russia. Supporting Catherine's suspicions, Novikov testified that during Schwarz's administration, the Moscow circle sent at least the equivalent of 300 rubles to Berlin. 200 of this amount went to Wöllner, and 100 rubles for the causes that were unknown to Novikov. During the leadership of baron Schröder, another 300 rubles were sent to Berlin.

In the Deceived, Protolk, a swindler of Cagliostro's rank, enters the wealthy Radotovs family. This time the deceiver is not a foreigner. The members of the family desperately strive for a higher enlightenment and the ability to communicate with spirits that Protolk promises to them. On his part, Propolk is tempted by the dowry offered with Radotov's daughter and schemes to obtain the promise on her hand in marriage. The charlatan organizes the meetings of a mysterious band of brothers to perform various ceremonies. Radotov is drawn to Protolk by bis own curiosity. The desire to be apart of the selected group of "enlightened" people comes later, and by portraying this Russian aristocrat's desperation to follow the trend, the Catherine lashes out against the need to set themselves apart from their surroundings. As Radotov explains, At first, I was driven by curiosity; I was convinced by the aspirations of two-three acquaintances of mine; then my pride found satisfaction in distinguishing myself and being able to think differently from my family and friends. I was also taken in by a naive hope that perhaps I would be able to see and hear what is deemed impossible. And by implying that there were "better virtues" available only to a limited circle of the initiated, Freemasons, according to Catherine, deceived themselves. But even more importantly, they became dangerous to the state by trying to exercise a harmful influence on the society. According to the transcripts of Lopukhin's interrogation, he was amused by the question of why Freemasons were hiding from the police. And although he pointed out that times and places of Masonic meetings not only were well known to the police, special enforcements were sent to regulate traffic during special Masonic celebrations, it was a tongue-in-cheek answer. Eshevsldi, "Neskol'ko dopolnitel'nykh zamechaniik stat'e "Novikov i Schwarz," Russkii vestnik 19 (1864), 175. For the members, the leaders commonly justified the need for secrecy by moral considerations emphasizing that charitable actions were morally valuable only when performed without expecting anything in return. In NIOR RGB, fond 14, folder 1 (1-2), 2rev. (Ustav iIi pravilo svobodnykh kamen'schikov, 181, 1783. Often, Russian Freemasons described Freemasonry not as a secret society, but as a "meek" one, meaning that true Freemasons did not boast their knowledge and good deeds. See, for instance, NIOR RGB, fond 147, folder 54, 150-152rev. In this sense, in Margaret Jacob's words, Masonic secrecy can be considered as "an extreme form of privacy" (Jacob, Strangers Nowhere in the World. The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). However, no matter how much Lopukhin tried to present Freemasonry as a publicly accepted institution in Russia, it still remained more secretive than many of its European counterparts.

The Siberian Shaman continues the same theme. The members of the Bobins family are fooled by an oracle Amban-Lai, a native of Siberia and a self-proclaimed Master of the 140th degree. He is a charlatan of the same caliber as Kalifalkzherston and Protolk. As the previous two plays, the Siberian Shaman ends with the state police capturing the deceiver. However, this time the deceiver is accused not only of playing tricks and being a charlatan, but first and foremost of starting a school to propagate his ideas. On 21 April 1787, Catherine explained to Zimmerman that at the least her last play was written as an explicit warning to both the deceivers and the deceived: I am very glad you spoke well of The Siberian Shaman, but I am afraid the comedy will not correct anybody. Absurdities are catching, and these particular absurdities have become fashionable... I remember that in 1740 the least philosophical people pretended to be philosophers, and by this means at least reason and commonsense were not lost. But these new erroneous ideas have made fooled of many who were not fools before. Despite Catherine's intentions, the points that she made in her plays about Freemasonry became pretty commonplace in Europe by that time. Compare, for instance, with D. Knoop, G. P. Jones, D. Hamer, eds., The Earl)' Masonic Pamphlets, Manchester University Press, 1945).

None of Catherine's plays specifically targeted Moscow Freemasons, and she restrained the mockery to the objections well known both in Europe and in Russia. The debates on the nature of true and false enlightenments, the distinctions between Aufklärung and Schwännerei, and the nature of the societies of Illuminati, Martinists, and Freemasons, were at the time on the agenda of the intellectuals all over Europe. Le Mercier de la Riviere popularized the name "Martinists" in the Tableau de Paris by describing under it the followers of the mystical doctrines of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin. Many people in Russia, however, understood by this name the disciples of the occult teachings of Saint-Martin's early mentor, Martines de Pasqually, who in the later eighteenth century were led by Jean-Baptist Willermoz (VuilIermoz). Saint-Martin had brought his doctrine close to Catholicism by rejecting the elements of occultism and magie, but Willermoz was the direct heir of Pasqually's occultist rituals. L'Ordre martiniste des Elus-Cohen de I' Univers founded by Don Martinez de Pasqually in 1768 was merged with Freemasonry by his successor Jean-Batiste Willermoz. (c. Lenning, Encyclopaedie der Freimaurer, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1882-1828), 398ff; Schneider, Quest for Mysteries, 54). Russian eighteenth-century Martinists should be distinguished from the members of L 'Ordre Martiniste that Papus (Dr. Gerard Encausse) created in 1888.

Given the persistent rumors about involvement of the Grand Duke Paul and Freemasonry, and the participation of secret societies (without distinguishing among Freemasons, Martinists, or llluminati) in the French Revolution, the state's measures against the Moscow Masons were dictated by important political and ideological concerns. If we consider the Novikov affair in European context, it becomes clear that bis arrest and the state control over the activities of his group were not exemplary acts of extreme autocracy. After the 1784, authorities in many European countries exercised the similar caution towards Masonic lodges. In 1784, for instance, Masonic lodges were banned in Bavaria. In 1787, Joseph II closed down all but a few Masonic lodges in his territories. In Prussia, numerous controversies around secret societies complicated the work of the German Freemasons. In France after 1789, members of Masonic lodges were suspected of political plotting by all sides, and the lodges virtually extinguished by 1794. In the 1790s, lodges came under intense scrutiny in Britain. However, repressions of the Novikov group can also be considered as apart of Catherine's larger campaign against political opposition. Moscow Freemasons from the Novikov-Schwarz circle emphasized that their work was not political in any way. In a well-known dialogue between Novikov and Baron Reicheil, the former distracted by his vain search for mystical truths in the lodges he attended, asked the latter to help him distinguish the true Freemasonry from the false, whereby Reicheil pointed out that; Every Masonic organization that has a political motive is false; if you notice even a shadow of a political aspect and connections, or if you see anyone preaching the words equality and freedom, then regard it as false. But if you see that it leads, through self knowledge, to improvement of oneself, along the path of Christian teaching, in the strict sense, if it is foreign to all political appearances and unions, drunken feasts, depravity of members' morals, if [they] speak of freedom among members in the sense of being liberated from passions and vices and of controlling them, then such Freemasonry is already a true one or leads to the discovery of a true Masonry. (Longinov. Novikov i Moskovskie martinisty, 074-075.)

In their search for "true" Freemasonry aimed at the betterment of self, Freemasons in Russia arrived at the idea of betterment of the society and started to develop an increasingly public stance. Freemasons were anxious to incorporate some of their Masonic "truths" and regulations in the framework of the community. "Your fatherland has a right to claim your life and your service," emphasized Russian Freemasons in the country where the public sphere was underdeveloped. According to Masonic commentators, just as charity and love of humanity are tied together, "charity and true Patriotism are inseparably connected." The rhetoric of Freemasons' obligation to serve the public and a country that infuses rhetoric of Freemasons in Russia corresponds with their practical idealism. Novikov's characterization of his own destiny could also be applied to many Freemasons in Russia: "I was born and reared in the womb of the fatherland. For this I am obligated to serve it by my labors and to love it." (Quoted in Walter J. Gleason, Moral ldealists, Bureauerac)', and Catherine the Great (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1981, 56.) And Freemasonry was supposed to only accentuate this feeling by making its members "beuer people useful to themselves and to the state." (Magazin Svobodno-Kamen 'scicheskii vol’, part 2, 85)

While Prince Prozorovskii was trying to uncover the designs of the Martinists and find certain evidence against them, a letter to Novikov from the Bavarian Illuminati with clearly mystical leanings was intercepted. .. The Empress was keeping some important documents about the Martinist affair, including a list of names, a letter from the Munich Illuminati to Novikov, and the interrogations of the most important members of the society. For bibliography on Novikov and Catherine's relations, see Madariaga, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, 522-31; Jones, Nikolay Novikov; Gilbert McArthur, "Catherine II and the Masonic Circle of N. I. Novikov," Canadian Slavonic Studies IV.3 (Fall, 1970): 529-546.
 
 

E. European Freemasonry P.1.

E. European Freemasonry P.2.

E. European Freemasonry P.3.

E. European Freemasonry P.4.
 
 
 

Archival Sources

Russian Federation

Nauchno-issledovatel'skii otdel rukopisei Rossiiskoi gosudarstvennoi biblioteki (NIOR RGB) [Manuscript Division ofthe Russian State Library, Moscow]

Fond 14, V. S. Arsen'ev collection of Masonic manuscripts
Fond 147. S. S. Lanskoi and S. V. Eshevskii collection ofMasonic manuscripts Fond 178, Museum collection
Fond 237, D.I. Popov collection

Otdel rukopisei Natsional'noi rossiiskoi biblioteki (OR NRB) [Manuscript Division of the Russian National Library, St Petersburg]

Fond 487, N. M. Mikhailovskii collection
Fond 550, Principal collection of the manuscript books

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov (RGADA) [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents, Moscow]

Fond 8, Kalinkin Dom and Files of Crimes against Morality
Fond 8, opis' 1, I. P. Elagin papers
Fond 10, Private Office of Catherine II
Fond 17, Science, Literature, Art
Fond 168. Relations of Russian Sovereigns with Governmental Posts and with Officials

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv (RGIA) [Russian State Historical Archive, St Petersburg]

Fond 796. Chancellery of the Holy Synod papers (1721-1918)

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI) [Russian State Archive of LiteratUre and An, Moscow]

Fond 191, Efremov collection
Fond 442, M. K. and T. O. Sokolovskii collection
Fond 1189, M. M. Kheraskov papers
Fond 1270, N. I. Novikov papers
Fond 1764. I. P. Elagin collection and papers

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (RGVA) [Russian State Military Archive, Moscow]

Fond 175, Masonic Lodges and Chapters (1781-1939)
Fond 1311, Knightly Orders (1785-1931)
Fond 1412k, Documentary materials of Masonic Lodges
Fond 1311, opis' 1-2, Documentary materials of Masonic Lodges (1755-1928)
Fond 730, opis' 1, Masonic Lodge Astrea

Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF) [State Archive ofthe Russian Federation, Moscow]

Fond 1137, G. V. Vemadskii collection

Odel pis 'mennykh istochnikov gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeia (OPI GIM) [Division of Wrinen Sources of the State Historical Museum, Moscow]

Fond 17, Uvarov's personal collection
Fond 281, Document collection of the history of culture, science, and sodal movements
Fond 282, Document collection of the Museum of the Revolution
Fond 398, P. P. Beketov col1ection
Fond 440, I. E. Zabelin collection
Fond 450, E. V. Barsov collection

Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Tverskoi Oblasti [State Archive of the Tver' Region, Tver']

 Fond 103, opis' 1, folder 1169, collection of Masonic documents.

Great Britain

Archive and Library of the United Grand Lodge of England, Freemasons' Hall (FHL), London

Archive of the United Grand Lodge of England (including Letter-books, Minutebooks, Freemasons' Calendars, and General Correspondence)
Personal Papers of Eighteenth-Century Masons

British Library, Modern British Collections and Manuscript Col1ections, London

Add. 23,644-23,680, Correspondence and papers of General Charles Rainsford Sloane 3329 f. 142, Masonic papers
Add. 20645 ff. 190, 199,211-256, Papers relating to Freemasons in Italy and France .
Add. 29970, Proceedings of the lodge at the Thatched House Tavem (1777-1817) Add. 23675, Papers relating to Freemasonry (1783-1796)

Bodleian Library, Oxford

MSS, Dep. Bland Burges, Burges collection
MSS Clar. Dep. C. 346-47, Clarendon papers
Fld MSFP(2)-70-71, Somerville collection
MS Rawlinson C. 136, Rawlinson collection of Masonic manuscripts

National Library of Scotland (NLS), Edinburgh

Ms 3942, f. 301v., 1. Robison's ]etters
Ace. 4796 Box 104, A. Ramsay's papers
Adv MSS 22.4.13, W. Richardson papers

National Archive of Scotland (NAS), Edinburgh

MSS Seafield Papers GD 248/518/6 H.M., Letters of Cameron' s workers GD 1/620, Rogerson papers
GD 156/62 Elphinstone papers, Keith papers
Abercairny MSS, GD24/1826, Mounsey letters

Aberdeen University Archive (AUA), Aberdeen

MS 3064/B 198, J. Keith papers MS 3064/B 146, J. Keith papers MS 3064/B 335, J. Keith papers
MS 2711/1-12, Correspondence, family and estate papers of Keith family (155078)
MS 2707 1/l1l and 1/l/2, Documents of A.W. Keith Falkoner
MS 3163, Documents ofH. Godfrey
Ms 3295, Documents from Marischal Keith's Despatch [sic] Box

Archive and Library, Grand Lodge of Scotland, Edinburgh

 Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Scotland (1770-1800)

Glasgow University Library, Glasgow

 Ms Murray 503, ff. 5-6, William Poner, paniculars respecting Mr. Robison (1769-1774 )
 Davis WestOn, Slavica: an Exhibition of Books and Manuscripts from the University's Collections (1990)

Latvia

Latvijas Valsts vestures arcivs (LVVA) [Latvia State Historical Archive, Riga]

Fonda 4038,2 apraksts (1394), documents of the Lodge zur kleinen Welt.

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