Russian Émigré Freemasons
It comes as no surprise to learn that freemasons were behind the Russian Revolution. They were, after all, behind the American and French Revolutions over five generations before. And although some of the most famous figures involved in all three Revolutions were not individually freemasons, they most certainly were greatly influenced by those who were freemasons and their masonic ideas.
To be a freemason is not of vital importance in itself in order to be a revolutionary. It is passive acceptance of their ideas which actually makes the difference. For instance, although those who carried out the ‘Glorious’ Revolution of 1688 in England could definitely not have been freemasons as such, they would have been very comfortable with most of their later ideas. Ultimately, such ideas were behind the transformation of England into Britain in the eighteenth century and from there into a worldwide Empire.
As regards Russia and its emigration, the jealous Russian bourgeois and aristocrats who carried out their Revolution which led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917, settled principally in Paris. In a little Russian-language booklet written by N. Svitkov in Paris in 1932, ‘Masonry in the Russian Emigration’, published by Editions de la Libre Parole at 53, rue Bobillot, we have a list of Russian masons of the time. I obtained the booklet in Wiesbaden in 1989, when I had already seen through what was going on in Paris.
The list is of interest because we see that many of those listed were instrumental in manipulating the weak Russian hierarchs in Paris (a tradition that has continued there to this day) and so creating the Paris schism. This tore away the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Rue Daru in Paris and many other churches from the Russian Orthodox Tradition and its discipline. It subjected them to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which at that time was headed by a freemason, the notorious Patriarch Meletios Metaksakis, who had become a mason in a lodge in British-run Cyprus before the First World War.
This tragic schism has lasted in Paris to this day, with the ‘Brotherhood’ electing the Council of the Archdiocese. Certainly, in the 1980s masons openly attended the Rue Daru Cathedral and the cemetery church of Ste Genevieve des Bois (where initiation rites also took place) and seven out of twelve members of the Diocesan Council were freemasons. More information can be found in the well-known book by the Russian émigré writer Nina Berberova.
There are nearly 500 names in the 1932 list of masonic Russian princes, barons, counts, ex-ministers, ex-parliamentarians, ex-admirals, ex-generals, ex-ambassadors, ex-consuls, ex-officers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, clergy, writers, artists, journalists, bankers and teachers etc. They belonged to the seven Russian masonic lodges in Paris and others outside France. Among them we find the following names:
Ametistov Tikhon Alexandrovich
Andronnikov Archill Moiseevich
Bennigsen Adam Pavlovich
Bennigsen Emmanuil Pavlovich
Bloom Boris Eduardovich
Bobrinsky Alexei Alexeevich
Bobrinsky Peter Andreevich
Braslavsky Alexandr Yakovlevich
Veliaminov-Zernov Pavel Sergeevich
Gagarin Evgeny Feofanovich
Galperin Alexandr Yakovlevich
Golenishchev-Kutuzov Sergei Alexandrovich
Gorchakov Sergei Vasilievich
Gruenwald Konstantin Konstantinovich
Davydov Alexandr Vasilievich
Davydov Leonid Feodorovich
Izvolsky Grigory Alexandrovich
Kedrin Evgeny Ivanovich
Kerensky Alexandr Feodorovich
Kovalevsky Maxim Maximovich
Kochubei Vasily Vasilievich
Kochubei Viktor Viktorovich
Kochubei Mikhail Vasilievich
Krovoshein Igor Alexandrovich
Kuzmin-Karavaiev Vladimir Dmitrievich
Landau Mark Alexandrovich
Liven Peter Alexandrovich
Liperovsky Lev Nikolaievich
Lobanov-Rostovsky Andrei Anatolievich
Lopukhin Alexander
Loris-Melikov Ivan
Lvov Georgy Evgenievich
Maklakov Vasily Alexeievich
Markotun Sergei Nikolaievich
Mamontov Alexandr Ivanovich
Markov Feodor Stepanovich
Marchenko Mitrofan Konstantinovich
Margulies Manuil Sergeievich
Matveiev Sergei Nikolaievich
Miliukov Pavel Nikolaievich
Nabokov Vladimir Dmitrievich
Nemirovich-Danchenko Vasily Ivanovich
Nikolsky Boris Alexeievich
Nolde Boris Emmanuilovich
Obolensky Dmitry Alexandrovich
Petliura Grigory
Skriabin Alexander Alexandrovich
Skriabin Andrei Nikolaievich
Skriabin Vladimir Vladimirovich
Skriabin Vladimir Nikolaievich
Struve Petr Berngardovich
Taranovsky Feodor Vasilievich
Tatishchev Nikolai
Taube Mikhail Alexandrovich
Telepnev Boris
Tereshchenko Mikhail Ivanovich
Trubetskoi Dmitry Alexeievich
Fidler Ivan Ivanovich
Sheremetev Dmitry Alexandrovich
Shuvalov Pavel Alexandrovich.
