Working the Rough Stone: Freemasonry and Society in Eighteenth-Century Russia

Douglas Smith. Working the Rough Stone: Freemasonry and Society in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Northern Illinois University Press, 1999. x, 257 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $38.00, cloth. Russian Freemasonry has always been an elusive topic, despite the fact that before the Revolution Russian historians devoted numerous major studies to the movement. Douglas Smith has provided a thought-provoking study that portrays Russian Freemasonry as a West European import, which brought a sense of community and stability at a time of chaos. Smith also asserts that, regardless of the general fear of the secretive movement across Europe, Freemasonry was an integral part of an emerging civil society in eighteenth-century Russia. The first chapter focuses on the social makeup of Russian lodges. Smith estimates that there were only about 3,000 active members in the eighteenth century. Most of them were noblemen, military officers, government bureaucrats, and merchants; there were few of lower social origins. At this time in Russia only three lodges were established for women, however, none of them in St. Petersburg or Moscow. Freemasonry stressed strict rules of behavior and a certain piety in its members for the construction of a new man or in the working of the rough stone. They believed in the possibility of attaining moral perfection through a strict adherence to lodge rules. The allegiance to the lodges was often stronger than that to God or nation. This conservative moral attitude coincided with the tone of contemporary writings by such notable figures like M.M. Shcherbatov. In the second chapter, Smith considers the impact of Freemasonry in Russia. He posits that the movement was an integral force in fostering the values of an emerging civil society. He traces the rise of public discourse back to the era of Peter the Great. Smith asserts that through community activities, which included societies, clubs, and circles, civil society was developing in Russia. Smith acknowledges that civil society was fragile then and that, in the late eighteenth-century, the international dimension of Freemasonry was stronger and more important than in other Russian clubs and societies. The third chapter reveals in greater depth the details of the Freemasonry movement in Russia. It is clear that the movement enjoyed little interference from the state until Catherine the Great began distrusting it in the late 1770s. The distrust increased as the eighteenth century ended, which only increased the secrecy between Masons and non-Masons and even between the different levels of Masons within the lodges. The fine distinctions among levels is an important point that Smith draws out well in this section. He notes that the emphasis on rank and merit coincides well with Peter the Great's Table of Ranks. …

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