its transformation , to revive Masonry in the Empire of the Tsars . The principal driver of this revival was Maksim Kovalevsky ( 1851 – 1916 ), who had been received into Cosmos Lodge ( GLDF , Grande Loge de France ) and was affiliated with Les Vrais Amis Lodge ( GODF , Grand Orient de France ). He had been a professor of constitutional law at Moscow University but was dismissed in 1887 and went to France , where he became a close friend of Turgenev and founded the École russe des Sciences sociales ( Russian School of Social Sciences ). In August 1905 , with Russia in the process of liberalization , he returned to his home country and ran for office , winning a seat in the first State Duma . He contacted other Russian Masons before writing to the Council of the Order of the GODF on January 11 , 1906 , to request “ provisional powers enabling me to establish , in the Orient of Moscow and Saint Petersburg , a regular Lodge whose work can later be opened in due form by a delegate appointed by you .” Grand Master Gaston Bouley responded in February . On March 23 , several Russian Masons gathered in preparation for the formation of the first two lodges , The Polar Star , later renamed The North Star , in Saint Petersburg , and Renaissance in Moscow . The first initiates included the lawyer Vasily Maklakov ( 1869 – 1957 ), one of the leaders of the K-D Party and member of the second , third , and fourth Dumas , who received the three degrees on April 18 , 1906 . The extremely rich , eccentric , and provocative landowner Count Orlov-Davydov , born in 1872 , who was later elected to the fourth Duma as a
Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
64 member of the Progressive Party , was initiated in Saint Petersburg on January 7 , 1907 . According to Maklakov , the fires of The North Star were lit by ten Brethren on November 15 and 18 , 1906 .
Prince Bebutov wrote a vivid account of his reception . He was recruited by the lawyer Evgeniy Kedrin , who had been initiated into Rénovateurs Lodge in Clichy ( GODF ) in April 1905 and was later elected to the fourth Duma . He suggested to Prince Bebutov that the latter should be received as a Mason on the same day as a gathering of the K-D was taking place , which meant enough Brethren would be in Saint Petersburg to perform the ceremony . Among them was Sergei Propokovich , writer , economist , Trudovik , and future minister of the Provisional Government , who had been initiated in Belgium in 1898 . The ceremony was held on April 27 , 1906 , in the offices of the magazine Strana , edited by Maksim Kovalevsky . Prince Bebutov wrote that he was impressed by the ritual and surprised to encounter some of his friends there . He noted the names of Nikolay Bazhenov ( 1857 – 1923 ), a psychiatrist and leader of Moscow ’ s literary and artistic circle who was initiated into Amis Réunis Lodge in 1884 ; the writer Evgeny de Roberti ( 1857 – 1923 ), initiated into Cosmos Lodge ( GLDF ); the lawyer Vasily Maklakov ; and the diplomat Iosif Loris-Melikov ( 1860 – 1950 ). Bebutov later felt that he had influenced the beginnings of Russian Masonry by asking the first adepts to work to transform society once the political situation had become more stable . In 1907 and 1908 , Bebutov ’ s apartments in Moscow and Saint Petersburg host-