The Relationship Between Russian and French Freemasonry ( 1905 – 1945 )
about the reality of Soviet Russia from more recent émigrés . He added that the adepts were of a wide range of nationalities and religions and that the agapae enabled serious but amicable “ exchanges between the most divergent views .” He also explained that for the émigrés , living in a foreign environment and “ most in the position of having to earn their living , the lodges offered them moral support from their compatriots , help finding a job , sometimes even material assistance ,” and that “ they no longer felt the loneliness that oppressed them .” Conferences were held on subjects from history , philosophy , sociology , economics , literature , and science .
The domineering Kandaurov , who died in 1936 , envisaged a Masonic scale going from the 1 st to the 33 rd degree under the control of a Supreme Council , which differed from the vision of the GLDF . He received the 33 rd degree in 1924 and saw himself as a patron of the higher degrees . He presided over the Rossia Consistory of the 32 nd degree , which opened on February 10 , 1927 , superseding the Provisional Committee of Russian Freemasonry in its role of presenting the Russian Brethren to the higher degrees . Kandaurov ’ s overbearing influence eventually caused trouble , however , and Nikolay Teslenko , who had been a member of the second Duma and was a Kerenskyist , persuaded Hermès Lodge to meet in rue Puteaux in order to demonstrate its allegiance to the GLDF . There were around 250 Russian Masons in the GLDF during the 1930s , about a hundred of whom belonged to Astrée , although this figure does not take into
73 account Brethren who belonged to more than one lodge . A lodge of perfection called Amici Philosophae opened in 1925 , but an areopagus , named Ordo ab Chao , only opened in 1933 . The following year , the GLDF approved the constitution of a Groupement des loges de la GLDF travaillant en Langue russe ( Group of lodges of the GLDF working in the Russian language ), which was presided over first by Vyazemsky and then by Aleksandr Davydov . The latter was already head of a Russian Supreme Council of the 33 rd degree established in agreement with the SCDF and the general assembly of Supreme Councils held in 1935 in Brussels . During the 1930s , the hope of reviving Masonry in the mother country grew fainter . Russian Masonry entered a period of reflection and , like all branches of Masonry in Europe , was confronted by accusations against the Order . A significant number of émigrés , hostile to democracy , which they blamed for their misfortunes , falsely claimed that Lenin and his staff were Masons . They believed that the Bolshevik leader Radek had been the Grand Master of Russian Masonry and accused the Masons , or Judeo-Masonry , of having caused the fall of the monarchy and even of hostility towards the Orthodox religion .
IV . The Two Russian Lodges Within the GODF
The two Russian-language lodges in the GODF were born out of the desire to revive The North Star and to practice a Masonry more oriented towards political and social questions . Kandaurov