Freemasonry In  Russia Today

Michel Garder, 33
Lt. Grand Commander Supreme Council of France
128, Avenue de Villiers, 75017 Paris

Freemasonry first appeared in Russia in 1731 with its creation by Lord Lonewl, the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. M\W\ Captain John Philipps led the "Provincial Grand Lodge of Russia."  The practical beginning of Freemasonry in Russia, however, did not take place until 1762, when Empress Catherine the Great came to its support. Catherine's intent was meant to thwart atheistic trends, such as the influence of Voltaire and the French Encyclopedists, and to create a new, genuinely Russian and spiritually minded intelligentsia. During this time, Russian Masonry was divided between British, Prussian, and Swedish influences.
	With many Lodges all over the country and such outstanding Masons as Novikov, Shwars and Elaguin, Russian Freemasonry involved many important people, both civilian and military, from the ruling circles of Europe during the last decades of the 18th century. The first two decades of the 19th century, under Czar Alexander I, was the "Golden Age" of Russian Freemasonry. Nearly all of Russia's elite belonged to Freemasonry during this time. Unfortunately, the period ended when Alexander I fell under the influence of Baroness Krdner, a fanatic mystic. Under her recommendation, he restricted Masonic activities in 1821. In 1825, after the death of Alexander I, a group which included some Freemasons unwisely participated in a failed coup attempt to replace the czarist regime with a democracy. This attempt caused Nicholas I to outlaw Freemasonry in Russia.
	Masonry survived for a short period in secret after being banned and then disappeared totally in the second half of the 19th century. French Masons from both the Grand Lodge and the Grand Orient tried to create secret Lodges in Saint Petersburg and Moscow with no real success in the first part of the 20th century.  However, Russians residing or travelling abroad were initiated in Germany, France, and England during this period.
	After the February Revolution of 1917, some Lodges were opened in Russia, but none could work during the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. At the end of the four-year civil war, the Bolsheviks once again outlawed Freemasonry in the new Soviet Union.
	A new Russian Freemasonry in exile was created in France in 1921 under the initiative of Ill\ Bro\ Kandaurov, then Consul General of Russia in France and a member of both the Grand Loge Nationale Francaise (G.L.N.F.) and the Supreme Council for France. A number of Russian Masons initiated abroad before and during World War I participated in the creation of this French-based Russian Freemasonry. The attempt was immediately successful because of the flood of Russian refugees to France.
	Shortly thereafter, five Symbolic Lodges and a special Russian branch of the Grand Loge Nationale Francaise were created. During this same period, a Lodge of Perfection Amici Philosophi, a Chapter Astree, an Areopagus Ordo Ab Chao, and a Consistory Rossia were consecrated under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council for France. Over 400 Russian Freemasons were working with genuine Russian rituals, all A\&A\S\R\, in their own Masonic building on 22 Rue de l'Yvette in Paris during the early thirties.
	In 1929 and 1935 the World Conference of the Supreme Councils of the A\&A\S\R\ proposed that a "Council of Russian Sovereign Grand Inspectors," as part of the Supreme Council for Russia in exile, be created within the Supreme Council for France. This Council was officially created in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War II. France, however, was defeated and occupied by Germany in June 1940. Freemasonry was one of the first victims of that occupation.
	After the war, surviving Russian Freemasons did their best to continue in the face of many difficulties.  They lost their prewar meeting places, and the remaining Symbolic Lodges were forced to join the French facilities. Nevertheless, their Masonic work continued.
	In 1965 most of the Russian Masons in France decided to follow Grand Commander Charles Riandey and the French Brothers who joined regular Masonry. They constituted two Lodges within the Grand Loge Nationale Francaise- Astree, a Russian-speaking Lodge, and Vox Ucrainac, a Ukrainian-speaking Lodge. During this period, all the Bodies working under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council for France renewed their activities with the exception of Rossia which was not re-established until December of 1992. Two Brethren of the Russian branch were later active members of the Supreme Council for France, the late Ill\ Serge Theakston, 33, and Michel Garder, 33, Lieutenant Grand Commander.
	The ultimate goal of these Brothers was to participate in the rebirth of Freemasonry in Russia as well as in Ukraine. The first step in the rebirth of Freemasonry in Russia was achieved in Paris on January 14, 1992, when Brother George Dergachev of Moscow was installed as Worshipful Master of the new Lodge Harmony. This was followed by the Moscow Brethren attending a meeting at the Lodge Astree during which Michel Garder delivered a speech about the seventy years of Russian Freemasonry in France. The second step of Russian Freemasonry's rebirth happened September 8, 1992, in Moscow. Attended by Ill\ Brother Michel Garder and a delegation of the G.L.N.F., led by M\W\ Brother Yves Trestournel, W\M\ George Dergachev installed his officers in the first official meeting of the Lodge Harmony and initiated 12 candidates into the First Degree of Masonry.
	Since then, the Lodge Harmony and its 24 members have been active and very fruitful. The Brethren have found a large apartment in Moscow which they have converted into a Masonic Temple. They meet every week and have already initiated five additional candidates.  They have also begun an information program in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and hope to create two new Lodges. They are also trying to extend their influence to Novosibirsk, the home of the famous scientific center Acadeingorodok.  W\M\ Dergachev stays in permanent contact with Brother Garder in Paris and hopes to open two or three Lodges in 1993.     s