Was Nicolas II a Free Mason?

[matushka]

I read recently in a general Russian article that the last Tsar was a Free-Mason and was quite surprised. I can not find anything more about that. Is this information true? Does anyone knows more about that? Thank you in advance

[Denise]

I just did a quick web search on this, but find no reference to Nicholas being a freemason.  There are pages out there that talk about the assassination having symbolic elements of freemasonry.  I truly do not believe that the murder of the Imperial Family was done as a ritualistic freemason killing, however.

[Belochka]

Many of the nobility belonged to the masons. There is a claim that Peter the Great became a mason in England, and Paul I and Alexander I were all masons. Freemasonary reached its peak during Catherine the Great's era. However, it was under Nikolai I (1825-55), that masonic lodges were closed by Imperial Decree in 1826.

Somehow I strongly doubt that Nikolai II was a member, although lodges did persist without Imperial favor. It was claimed that the clandestine lodges had political aspirations, in that its members were aiming for the abolition of autocracy, and were claimed to have assisted with the establishment of the Provisional Government. Most fled to France on the eve of the Revolution.

BTW the initiation procedure was briefly described by Lev Tolstoy in War and Peace, when Count Pierre Bezukhov became a mason.

[Belochka]

I truly do not believe that the murder of the Imperial Family was done as a ritualistic freemason killing, however.

Denise I agree with you,

There is no way that the massacre was ritualistic. This is just another rumor that needs to go away.

[Denise]

Denise I agree with you,

There is no way that the massacre was ritualistic. This is just another rumor that needs to go away.

You are so right!!  I think that people were in the dark so long about what happened in the basement of the Ipatiev house that stories were invented.  This was a brutal slaughter of a deposed ruler and his wife and their innocent family.  THe Bolsheviks could care squat about masonic rituallistic killing--they were trying to get rid of a political liability in the quickest way possible.

I am reading Fate of the Romanovs at the moment, and it is really making me dislike the Bolsheviks even more than I thought.  

[helenazar]

I truly do not believe that the murder of the Imperial Family was done as a ritualistic freemason killing, however.

Yeah, it was also said that it was a ritualistic murder by the Jews. Just as absurd of a notion...Originates from the denial/refusal to believe that Russian orthodox people would be capable of killing their Tsar.

[Alicky1872]

Ok, I realize this is going to sound really naive, but WHAT exactly do the freemasons do? They're so secretive and mysterious--what is it all about?

[helenazar]

WHAT exactly do the freemasons do? They're so secretive and mysterious--what is it all about?

That's the point - no one knows since they are so secretive and mysterious  ...

[matushka]

Well, I found it myself! Who read russian can read interesting articles of Georgiy Orlov (a freemason too): Galeria massonskikh portretov. He relate about the russian freemasson of the 20th century with great talent. I found that Nicolas II was not part of official masson "Loge", but was officially of the "martinist", as was Monsieur Philippe. I know very few about them (must surch), they are not mason but close of them by there spirit. That the reason why massonery, who was very quite in the time of Alexander III knew under the last Tsar a sort of renaissance.
About them in general every people can read their internet page... but there are of course only official things!
I see nothing "ritual" in the murder of the Imperial family, strange idea!

[Belochka]

That's the point - no one knows since they are so secretive and mysterious  ...

Ask any mason and he will say that Masonry is not secretive but is a society which has secrets.

At the initiation ceremony they are duty bound by their oath never to reveal Masonic secrets.

[helenazar]

Ask any mason and he will say that Masonry is not secretive but is a society which has secrets.

Right, the society itself is not a secret, but what they do is!  

[GD Alexandra]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is a free-masson and why they say that nick II is related to that???

[helenazar]

what is a free-masson

Freemasons are members of a widespread secret fraternal order pledged to mutual assistance and brotherly love.  

why they say that nick II is related to that???

I have no idea...  

[rskkiya]

Freemasonry is currently a bevevolence society popular in western Europe and America...There are masonic temples or meeting houses in almost every large city. While there is a vaguely exotic element mythically attached to the freemasons from the 17th -18th centuries -(and still cultivated by some masons for its dramatic cache) it's really only because in the 17th century, it was not openly encouraged to organise any social groups without church involvement...Most myths about an ancient lineage from Egypt or even Altantis are just historical jokes!

Freemasons have beeen blamed for all sorts of conspiracies from the French Revolution to the World Trade Towers ... but this is really just a lot of silliness! Today most freemasons meet to make business contacts and to raise funds for charity...

rskkiya
(Not a freemason)

PS Matushka
NO -- I don't think that he was a Freemason, but some other members of the Romanovs were involved in the movement. Under Tsarism, freemasonery was thought to represented some "left of center" political views and its members tended to celebrate "the nobility of the average person"...

[ChristineM]

The first Masonic Lodge in St Petersburg was inaugurated - indeed it received its Charter from - Catherine II.  

The Lodge was founded by the Scottish crasftsmen who, with their families, emigrated to Russia in May 1784 in response to advertisement placed in the Edinburgh Courant newspaper the previous February.

They settled in Sophia and the street of houses they occupied was known as Angliskaya Linea (considering they were Scots and this was quite soon after the '45 Rebellion - I bet they hated their address).

The Lodge they founded (indeed I do somewhere have its number and details - it is vested in the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh) was a functioning, rather than the usual, purely symbolic, Masonic Lodge - they were all master craftsmen in the building trade.

I believe this Lodge continued long after many of the Scots had either returned to Scotland or had become absorbed into Russian society.  

I do have, somewhere, details of members of the St Petersburg Lodge which, laterally, did indeed have a number of Romanov and well-known Russian noble families in its midst.   Locating this is the problem.

tsaria

(certainly neither a Free-mason nor member of the Order of the Eastern Star - women' equivalent.