I contacted the Scottish rite Masons in Chicago at the time and began visiting them at their local lodge adjacent to the Newberry Library. ![]() “Why was Anderson so reluctant to divulge his name?” On a personal note: while researching Russian Freemasonry as a graduate student oh so many years ago, I felt a powerful urge to find out the identity of that “Unknown Superior” mentioned earlier. In reality, the “Queen of Spades” (later to become an Opera by Tchaikovsky) is a clever riddle in which the author reveals the “secret Masonic code” which is used to unlock the true meaning of sacred texts like the Bible and Koran. Critics to this day believe this to be a supernatural fantasy about avarice and gambling, but it is actually much more. I specifically mention him here because eight years later Pushkin would write a short story entitled “the Queen of Spades”. He was certainly not alone in this regard. The Russian poet and playwright Alexander Pushkin – also a Mason – did not manage to join the Decembrists in their quixotic adventure, but he was very sympathetic to the cause. The brave and idealistic rebels – now known collectively as the Decembrists- were almost all Masons dedicated to giving up their lives in order to light a “spark” and change society for the better. The new Tsar - Nicholas I - would decisively crush this uprising on Senate Square in St Petersburg in 1825. Some insisted he was still alive and had simply walked away from his “day job” to became a reclusive monk (Interestingly, Soviet authorities opened up his coffin in the 1920s only to find it empty). Shortly after their return home, these very same Russian officers began planning an uprising against the Monarchy! Alexander I was no longer around, however, having been buried at the St Peter and Paul Cathedral. What the Tsar did not know was that these particular French Masons were highly political - espousing liberal, anti-monarchist views and shouting “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” while drinking with their new-found friends from abroad. When Alexander’s troops triumphed over the Grand Armee of Napoleon and entered Paris in 1815, Alexander gave specific instructions to his officers to socialize with the French Masons there. De Maistre was a mystical “spiritualist” and their very private talks about Freemasonry profoundly affected the impressionable Tsar. Deeply spiritual and contemplative, Alexander enjoyed philosophizing with the exiled French senator, diplomat and scholar, Joseph de Maistre – a Jesuit-trained Scottish rite Mason. Interest in Freemasonry would return later on during the reign of Tsar Alexander I. Not recognizing that as a definitive and clear answer, the aristocrats became disillusioned and abandoned freemasonry. All Anderson would tell them was that instructions came from “the unknown superior”. However, shortly after the lodges in Russia were established a problem arose: the Russian Masons wanted to know the identity of the “Top Mason” in England giving out orders. ![]() ![]() The basic idea behind Freemasonry – the initiates were told - was to make “good men” even better so that the “good works” of these men would benefit society. At the time, that meant - of course- initiating aristocrats. Under the guidance of the “Royal Arch” in England, all Masonic activity in Russia was really organized by a “liaison” communicating instructions from this very elite lodge: his name was Anderson.įrom the very beginning, only the best and the brightest were selected to become Russian Masons. ![]() The author is Professor of Humanities – Moscow University Touro.īy all accounts, Freemasonry in Russia dates back to 1731, when Captain John Phillips was appointed as the provincial grand master of Russia.
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