On August 1, 1822, Alexander I signed the rescript "On the Prohibition of Secret Societies and Masonic Lodges." Rescript-rescript, but the Masonic lodges, showing enviable vitality, are still in good health.
Pushkin
“On May 4 I was accepted into the Freemasons,” wrote Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in 1821 in his diary. The lodge, which the poet joined, was called "Ovid" and was located in Kishinev. The members of this lodge acted surprisingly openly. There is evidence that, when ordaining the Bulgarian Archimandrite Ephraim as brothers, he was blindfolded and led through the courtyard to the basement. The Bulgarians, crowding in the square, immediately rushed to save their archimandrite, deciding that he was being taken to prison. However, there is no evidence that the same was done with Pushkin. And what kind of Mason is Alexander Sergeevich? In his papers, there are still blank counting books of the lodge, on which the poet wrote … poetry. Until 1823, he used them as his draft notebooks (the so-called notebooks 836, 834, 835)! Kishenevskaya lodge was never legally formalized, and it is unknownwhen Pushkin left it - most likely, it happened by itself, when a year and two months after Pushkin was accepted into the order, Emperor Alexander I closed all Masonic lodges by his decree. Nevertheless, Vyazemsky put a glove in the poet's coffin before the funeral as a sign of recognition as his brother in the bed …
Suvorov
In the department of manuscripts of the Russian State Library, you can find a description of a handwritten book - the minutes of the meetings of the Masonic lodges of St. Andrew and the Three Crowns in Konigsberg for 1760-1768. In this book, in particular, there is a mention of the famous commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. In the early 1760s, the Russian military generally actively participated in the work of the Konigsberg lodges. One of the most active Russian members of the Königsberg lodge "Zu den Drei Kronen" ("To the Three Crowns") - he recommended at least 6 new members for initiation - was Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Suvorov, "oberstleutennt Alexander von Suworow". By the way, his father was in the same box. Suvorov himself was ordained a freemason and passed three degrees (reaching the degree of master) in St. Petersburg in the lodge "Aux Trois Etoiles" ("Three stars"). It is believed that this happened at the end of the reign of Elizabeth. At this time, Freemasonry had not yet come into fashion, and Alexander Vasilyevich was one of the first "free masons". On January 27, 1761, he was promoted to Scottish master in the already mentioned lodge "Zu den Drei Kronen". He was a member of this lodge until his departure from Konigsberg at the beginning of 1762.
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Karamzin
Masonry saved Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, perhaps, from the fate of Eugene Onegin: as an eighteen-year-old boy he served in one of the best guards regiments, and then went to Simbirsk to shine in society. The famous freemason and writer Turgenev noticed the gifted young man and drew him into the Rosicrucian order. He settled him in a house that belonged to the lodge, and made him delve into science, develop his writing skills. Young Karamzin worked and communicated a lot with the Masons, during this time he began to write poetry and prose, but four years later he became disillusioned with Freemasonry. However, in 1792, he criticized the actions of the authorities when they destroyed the Moscow Masonic organization and imprisoned the former teacher Karamzin Novikov in the fortress. Despite the fact that Karamzin himself was under Catherine's suspicion as a student of the Freemasons,he published an ode To Grace, in which his rejection of the empress's actions is clearly read.
Chaadaev
When Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev left Freemasonry, he had one of the highest degrees of initiation into the order - the eighth degree of the "Secret White Brothers of John's Lodge" out of nine possible. The reasons why Chaadaev left the box are consonant with those that Griboyedov, a member of the same “United Friends” lodge, lamented: rituals for its own sake, spectacular rituals, empty talk about intentions instead of actions. True, this is only part of the letter written by Chaadaev to leave the lodge, the second part has been lost, but experts do not deny that it will “emerge”, as is typical of Masonic documents. Chaadaev's biographers emphasize his leadership traits and believe that between the lines of this letter one reads “I would be glad to serve, it’s sick to serve…”. Chaadaev is one of the brightest characters among the Freemasons and Decembrists.
Griboyedov
It was not enough for diplomat and writer Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov to be a member of the most numerous Masonic lodge in St. Petersburg, “United Friends”. He wanted to improve it, his letters and notes about this have been preserved. According to Griboyedov's project, this lodge was supposed to be called “Blago”. Instead of the official French language, the language of all her affairs was to be Russian, despite the fact that there were many foreigners in her. And this goal - the goal of enlightening Russia, spreading the Russian literacy - the members of the lodge should have seen as their primary task. Griboyedov was convinced that the energy spent on the splendor and gloomy solemnity of meetings, on rituals, could be used with great intelligence. Griboyedov's projects show the seriousness of his attitude towards membership in the Masonic organization and, of course, his ambition and some idealism. By the way,he was not the only Freemason diplomat, and connections among the Freemasons greatly contributed to his diplomatic career. Unlike Karamzin or Chaadaev, Griboyedov never left the Masonic lodge - at least with papers and a manifesto.
Alexander Kerensky
One of the most prominent representatives of XX Freemasonry is Alexander Kerensky. After two years in the Masonic lodge, Kerensky even entered the leadership of this secret organization, and only Nikolai Nekrasov, the general secretary of the Masonic lodge, a member of the Cadet party, was higher in rank at that time. However, already in 1916, by a majority of votes at the next congress of the Masonic lodge "The Great East of the Peoples of Russia" Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky was elected General Secretary instead of Nekrasov. Skillfully using his new secret position, Alexander Kerensky, throughout 1916, vividly increased his influence on the sidelines of Russian politics, which led to the meteoric rise of his political career, which the whole world watched in 1917. Kerensky even wrote about his membership in the lodge afterhow the versions about the guilt of the Masonic lodges in the revolution and the "collapse of Russia" became popular.
Gumilyov
Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev is a member of the “Guild of Poets”, an acmeist, which in itself is already associated with the ideas and symbols of Freemasonry, because the word “acme” contains the image of a stone, and also “Cadmus” is a reference to Adam, the “first freemason”. The "Poets' Workshop" was conceived as a "poetic lodge" headed by the "perfect master" Gumilev. Many of Gumilyov's works (the play "Actaeon", the collection "Quiver", "Gondla", the cycle "To the Blue Star" and, especially, "The Pillar of Fire") contain Masonic motifs. It is assumed that in 1917 or 1918 Gumilyov was admitted to the "mystical lodge of English free masons", but this is not known for certain. Although in one of the poet's poems we meet: “Do you remember how before us / There was a temple, blackened in the darkness, / Above the gloomy altars / Fire signs were burning. / Solemn, granite-winged / He guarded our sleepy city,/ Hammers and saws sang in it, / Masons worked at night …”.