The Decembrists and freemasons played a very important role in Russian history, because they were the only `revolutionaries' that ever contributed something to the well-being of the people of Russia. Many Decembrists and freemasons were killed or imprisoned; some managed to escape abroad, where they lived in exile.
To be able to show what role Russian freemasons'
lodges have played in Russian politics, it seems necessary to explain what
freemasonry is.
What is freemasonry? The notion `freemasonry'
or `masonry' has several meanings, each in a different level. First of
all freemasonry is an organization, a union of freemasons, of which one
can become a member, just like every other club. Freemasonry is however
more seclusive.
After application one is only embraced
after an examination, and the entering itself is a ritual inauguration,
about which secrecy is kept. Not everyone is admitted, but the freemasons
say that race or religion, social standard or status are of no importance.
Second, the notion `freemasonry' is synonymous
with a certain atmosphere, that is the spiritual climate in which freemasons
live and work. He who wants to become a freemason has to be motivated to
go into his Weltanschauung and philosophy of life. It is required that
he independently wants to search for truth, meaning and harmony.
The tools of the freemasons are symbols
of notions like `justice' (carpenter's square), `radiation' (compass) and
`equality' (spirit level). Another symbol is the rough-hewn stone, which
the freemason has to tool into the cubic stone.
The `manual' of freemasonry is the ritual
with its symbols. The `subject material' is divided into three parts Ä
inaugural degrees. Through these three degrees, which are connected and
form one unity, one is inaugurated, from pupil to mate to master. Every
freemason however realizes that he always will stay a pupil, always will
make mistakes, so that he constantly has to refine himself.
The patron of the Order is St. John. The
gatherings outside the temple are called `comparitions', in which certain
subjects are discussed. Sometimes one of the brothers submits a paper,
sometimes non- members are asked to read. Ideally in the lodge one doesn't
speak about politics or religious differences, because these are subjects
which usually lead to discord. Everyones point of view just has to be respected.
Besides all serious matters one also
finds cosyness in the lodge, because after the comparition the freemasons
sit together, having a cup of coffee, a drink, or sometimes a meal.
It is said that freemasonry was brought
to Russia by Peter the Great, but that's not true. The first freemasons
in Russia were foreign merchants, who were attracted by Peter's new capital.
In 1731 Captain John Philips of the English
Grand Lodge was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Russia. In 1740 the
same title was granted to the later Prussian Field Marshall James Keith,
who served in the Russian army. This Scottish laird was one of the most
interesting personalities of his time. Being a supporter of the Stuarts
he had to go in exile, and Philips V introduced him to the Russian Court.
The Russian freemasons' lodges consisted in those days of English seamen
and merchants and some Russian aristocrats.
A very important freemason was Laurentius
Natter, the famous engraver and diamond worker at the European courts,
who came from Florence to St. Petersburg.
Also an important role played Professor
Johann Eugen Schwarz from Moscow, and the eminent writer Nicholas Ivanovich
Novikov, who was the founder of Russian journalism. Two very enlightened
men, who not just contributed very much to freemasonry, but also influenced
spiritual life in entire Russia. Schwarz, a German and Philosophy Professor,
founded adult education centers and teacher training colleges, published
school books and founded hospitals. Novikov also wanted to fight illiteracy
and barbarism. He opened a print shop, published non-specialist and religious
works, and founded a library, which was used by all layers of society.
He and his friends stimulated the education and development of poor, yet
gifted young people.
But Novikov was accused of misleading
the people, for which he was imprisoned four years in the Schluesselburg
Castle.
Soon a new `Provincial Grand Lodge' was
founded, which subsequently was called `National Grand Lodge'. In this
and other independent lodges the high aristocracy set the tone. Well known
freemasons of those days were Count Roman Vorezov, one of Catharina's protégé's,
Lieutenant-General Melissino, the founder of an own lodge, Baron Von Ungern-Sternberg,
the Princes Alexander and Nicholas Troubetzkoy, Gagarin, Dolgorouky, Golitsyn,
Netvitsky and many, many others.
However, all these inspired works of the
Moscovian nobility raised the mistrust of the courtiers in St.
Petersburg. They said that progression
was bad for the Church and the State, and that the Moscovian freemasons
kept arsenals in their cellars, to equip entire armies. The Chief of the
Moscow police was ordered to search everything thouroughly, and to look
for weapons, but nothing was found of course. Yet all the new institutions
were banned, and the founders were bannished to Siberia.
Major Kutuzov's capital was confiscated;
he happened to be in Berlin at the time, so he escaped bannishment. Novikov
however was once more thrown into the dungeons of the Schluesselburg.
After the French Revolution the anti-masonic
sphere also reached Russia. Catharina II didn't ban the lodges, but she
showed the gentlemen freemasons that she couldn't approve of their membership
of the order, as a result of which the masonic works were limited. Paul
I banned the lodges and in 1803 Alexander I permitted them again, after
which once more lodges were founded. Grand Duke Constantin, Count Stanislav
Potoki, Count Ivan Vorontsov, Alexander von Württemberg, the Chief
Treasurer Alexander Narishkin and a large number of other courtiers entered.
In the first half of the 19th century some writers and poets, like Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, became extremely popular. At first Pushkin sympathized with liberalism and the Decembrists, but later his political opinions became moderately conservative. Many aristocratic young men picked up their liberal ideas in Western Europe, and the plans for a palace revolution became more and more realistic.
Alexander I was a freemason and initially
he introduced very important educational reforms and abolished corporal
punishment, but less than twenty years later he himself was one of the
most harsh opponents of all progressive movements. He banned freemasonry,
after it had existed in Russia for 90 years. Due to the absence of the
telegraph and the railroads the message of Alexander I's death only arrived
in St. Petersburg on December 8, 1825. Grand Duke Constantin Pavlovich
Romanoff (1779- 1831), the second son of Paul I, who should have succeeded
Alexander, had much earlier decided not to ascend the throne, but this
fact was not known to the people. Everyone expected that Constantin would
be the next tsar, but then was announced that on December 26 the oath of
allegiance had to be sworn to Tsar Nicholas I. The Decembrists didn't think
of Alexander's much younger brother Nicholas Pavlovich Romanoff (1796-1855)
as an acceptable Tsar. Nobody ever had bothered to tell the people that
Constantin rejected his rights to the throne a long time ago. The disappointment
and anger were great.
The rebellions, who only later would
call themselves Decembrists, chose this day for a rise. They convinced
the soldiers of some regiments that nobody could force them to swear the
oath of allegiance to Nicholas I and that they were entitled to a constitution.
Some soldiers thought that `Constitution' was the name of Constantin's
wife.
The rebellions occupied the Senate Square.
All negotiations failed. The military governor of St.
Petersburg also tried to persuade them,
but he was killed. The rebellions were badly organized, and with the help
of loyal troops Nicholas I routed the Decembrists. The military rise in
Southern Russia also failed. Immediately afterwards the first Decembrists
were arrested. Over 120 men, most of them aristocrats, were put on trial.
5 of the instigators of the rise, among them Colonel Pestel, were hanged.
31 Decembrists were sentenced to hard
labour camps in Siberia and the others were bannished to Siberia or imprisoned.
Nicholas I renewed the prohibition of
freemasonry in 1826. The harsh measurements of Nicholas I forced the freemasonry
in Russia to go underground. Now and then a modest masonic flame flared
up in small circles. Alexis Feofilaktovich Pisemsky (1821-1881) wrote about
it in his novel The Freemasons.
The lineage of Frolov has a military background
and thanks it's nobility to Peter the Great's table of ranks. The Frolovs
came from the Crimea. Philip Frolov was the commander of the military fortress
in the Kerch peninsula. He had 6 children: Alexander, Nicholas, Peter,
Elisaveta, Claudia and Pelageya. His son Alexander Filipovich Frolov (1804-1885)
studied in the military academy of Sevastopol, to surpass his father's
military career. In the summer of 1825 he was a 21 years old lieutenant
of the Penzensky Regiment, but also a Decembrist, who in 1826, together
with his brother, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in Siberia.
In December 1825 Vasili Lvovich Davidoff
was arrested for his part in the rise of the Decem- brists.
Also arrested were his friends Michael
Orlov and Giuseppe (Ossip) Poggio. In July 1826, some days after the execution
of the most dangerous Decembrists (Colonel Pestel, Riliev, Muraviev-Apostol
and Kachovsky), he and Prince Serge Volkonsky, Prince Evgeni Obolensky,
Prince Serge Troubetzkoy, the brothers Peter and André Borissov,
Yakubovich and Artamon Muraviev were bannished to Siberia. The gentlemen
were to be kept busy, but not so much that it would damage their health.
Nicholas I didn't need any martyrs.
But the food was bad and Prince Evgeni
Petrovich Obolensky (1796-1865) became scorbutic. On December 27, 1826
the chief guard of the political prisoners in the state mines of Nershinsk
wrote in his report, `Obviously Troubetzkoy has a lung disease. He brings
up blood.' The prison physician Dr.
Vladimir wrote, `As the result of scurvy
Obolensky suffers from severe tootheaches.'
Single Decembrists often married local
girls in their place of bannishment. Married Decembrists were usually accompanied
by their wives and children. Prince Evgeni Obolensky, who once was a very
popular guest in the Petersburg salons, married Varvara Baranov (1821-1894),
daughter of the serf Samson Baranov, in Yalutorovsk, West-Siberia. Everybody
opposed to the marriage, even the civil servant who had to marry them,
and even the bride herself. `If Evgeni wishes me well, why doesn't he give
me money, so that I can marry someone of my own class?' she asked. But
the marriage was to be quite a success.
Besides showing the unlawfulness of Nicholas I's ascending the throne as Tsar of all Russians, the Decembrists protested against other serious abuses in Russian society, like serfdom. Alexander I had started to take the abolishment of serfdom into consideration, and Nicholas I was more or less forced to follow this policy, but since the rise of the Decembrists he didn't trust the nobility anymore. The government conceived the idea to leave the exploitation of the farmers to the landed gentry, only supervised by the government. The act of 1842 said that the landowners had to determine the duties of the farmers, but that's all what happened. In fact nothing changed.
Nicholas I hated consultations and mutual
agreements, and soon he took refuge with the autocratical system. They
who advocated a more democratic administration were considered traitors
and were bannished to Siberia. The freedom of the press was limited, the
universities were placed under control of the state, and the `Third Division'
of the Imperial Chancellery, a special unit of the political police, was
founded. This unit could at all times make an appeal to the also just founded
Corps of Gendarmes.
Everyone in military or civilian service
who was in the slightest way suspected of political unreliability, was
fired, which meant the end of their careers. This way the quality of the
civil servants and the military decreased considerable, because everyone
with deviant political views was arrested immediately and bannished after
imprisonment.
By the way he crushed the Decembrists'
rise, Nicholas I showed that he was as harsh as his father. His motto was,
`Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism.' Feodor Dostoevsky, one of the greatest
writers Russia has ever known, was bannished to Siberia in 1849, because
he was a member of a group which was interested in the backgrounds of French
socialism.
Because Nicholas I granted him a reduction
of his punishment - he wasn't a real nobleman, so he probably could be
trusted - Alexander Frolov was released on December 14, 1835. However,
he was not allowed to leave Siberia. In the winter of 1846 he got married
in Shusha, Siberia, to Yevdokia Nikolaevna Makarova. She was a daughter
of the Cossack ataman Nicholas Makarov from Kaptirevo, 10 miles south of
Shusha. They had 4 children: Nicholas, Nadezhda, Peter and Fedia. In February
1855 Frolov was a free man, as long as he didn't show his face in Moscow
or St. Petersburg. The Frolov family left for the Crimea, where Alexander
started a sheep farm, together with three serfs he had redeemed.
Just like his companions in misfortune
Vasili Davidoff was bannished for more than 30 years. 7 of his 13 children
were born in Siberia. He died in 1854. Two years later Alexander II announced
a general pardon, after which Vasili's family could return to Kamenka,
the family estate.
Prince Evgeni Obolensky and his Varvara
became five children. Ivan (1850-1880) became a physician and Peter (1851-?)
became a lawyer and District Attorney in Kiev. Evgeni lived soberly, and
the irony of fate wished that he also died during the days in which Alexander
II granted the bannished Decembrists general pardon. His wife has never
noticed his homesickness and depressions; he didn't want to place that
load on her shoulders.
Nicholas I wanted to limit Western influences at the cost of everything. He died in the Crimean War, on March 2, 1855. The official cause of death was a cold and a nervous shock, but there were rumours that he had poisened himself.
In April 1858 Nicholas Alexandrovich Frolov
became a student in the military academy of St. Petersburg, and his brother
Peter followed his steps some years later.
In 1884 Nicholas and Peter were both
colonels. Alexander was proud of his children. He died on 6 May 1885, a
happy man. He was burried on the Vaganskovskoe cemetery in Moscow, and
the inscription on his tomb says, `Decembrist. Alexander Philipovich FROLOV,
1804-1885.' His wife Yevdokia died in 1901.
Nicholas' daughter Anna Nikolaevna Frolova
married Captain Yuri Daniloff in 1895. They had three children, Serge,
Michael and Serjoia, and spent much time at the Daniloff estate in the
Ukrain. In 1904 Yuri Daniloff was promoted Colonel, and in 1914 he was
a General and Substitute Chief of Staff of the Army, under General N.N.
Yanushkevich.
In 1906 the freemasons in Moscow and St.
Petersburg were organized once more. About 15 prominent Russians, most
of them members of the Constitutional-Democrats Party (KaDets), became
freemasons in France and subsequently founded new lodges in Russia. In
St. Petersburg the lodge `North Star' was founded, and in Moscow the lodge
`Renewal', both with the greatest caution.
The prominent members of the innovative
urban intelligentsia entered these and other lodges: representatives of
the Duma, scientists, lawyers, writers etcetera. But 3 years later the
Russian secret police discovered their activities, after which the brothers
once more had to go underground.
During World War I the monitoring of
freemasons became less strict. In 1917 there were about thirty lodges all
over Russia.
