The house that houses the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists is one of the most famous and prestigious places in the artistic and cultural life of Saint Petersburg. The artistic history of the house begins with the decree of Catherine II (1763), when the building was acquired by the treasury and gifted to I. P. Elagin, one of the empress’s trusted persons who, from 1766, managed theaters. In his Petersburg home, I. P. Elagin held gatherings where Fonvizin and Sumarokov performed, and staged plays of the “German Comedy House.” The owner of this noble house, belonging to a Masonic lodge, hospitably received Freemasons not only from all over Russia but also from many European countries. The legendary adventurer Cagliostro, who arrived in Petersburg in 1799, stayed with him. Initially, the Masonic “Lodge of the Muses” gathered in Elagin’s mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, where Ivan Perfilievich was listed as the “master of the chair” (magister). Over time, Elagin came to lead an entire union of Masonic lodges of the so-called “English system,” which we will discuss later.

As the “president of the main Masonic lodge,” Elagin hosted the legendary adventurer Cagliostro, who arrived in Petersburg in 1779 in vain hopes of obtaining the position of the Empress Catherine II’s personal physician and establishing a branch of his “Egyptian Masonry” on the banks of the Neva. Elagin and Cagliostro attempted to “make gold” in a special alchemical laboratory.

The Great Provincial Lodge in Petersburg was opened in 1770. From that moment, systematic records on the history of Freemasonry appear. According to Elagin, Freemasonry in Russia before 1770 was not serious. Attention was paid to ritual aspects, some charity was done, and empty disputes were held, sometimes ending with Bacchic festivities.

In 1770, Elagin received permission from the Berlin lodge “Royal York” to open the first provincial grand lodge in Russia and became its grand master. In 1772, Elagin appealed to the Grand Lodge of England and received a second permission to open a provincial grand lodge. He was sent Anderson’s Constitution and a patent of provincial grand master. Besides Elagin himself, the provincial grand lodge in Saint Petersburg included such well-known Freemasons of the time as Count Vorontsov (provincial master), Major General Shcherbachev, Prince Nesvitsky, and others. Under the management of Elagin’s grand lodge, 14 lodges operated in the first half of the 1770s.

Elagin developed active work both in spreading Freemasonry and in its improvement. As a result, the system prevailing in the lodges dependent on him was called “Elagin’s”; it was initially copied from the English one, and later influences from other systems were added. The total number of members of Elagin’s lodges was approximately 400 Freemasons.

There is a report from 1778 by Count Olsufiev, a popular figure of Russian enlightenment and participant in Masonic meetings at the time. He informed Empress Elizabeth Petrovna about the “decorations” in Masonic rituals in Russia, which were simpler than the English ones. Elagin was negative about increasing the number of degrees: “Do not hope,” he said, “for new order degrees, lower than vain decorations.” He preserved the three original degrees — “apprentice, companion, and master.” Later, he accepted four higher, knightly degrees, which did not play a major role and were simply honorary.

The first goal of the order according to Elagin: “To preserve and hand down to posterity some important mystery from the most ancient ages and even from the first man to us, from which the fate of the entire human race may depend, as long as God wills to reveal it to the whole world for the good of humanity.”

Elagin had a mentor in Masonic affairs named Eli. This Eli knew many languages, was versed in Kabbalah, theosophy, physics, and chemistry. Eli, it seems, was primarily a Rosicrucian. His texts contained much pseudotheology and alchemy.

https://www.citywalls.ru/house2151.html

Oleg Dankir “Masonic Perslov. Russian Freemasonry”

S. E. Yurkov “Antibehavior under the Sign of Extraordinariness: Freemasonry, Eccentricity”

Sergey Lebedev “FROM THE HISTORY OF HOUSE NO. 38 ON BOLSHAYA MORSKAYA STREET IN SAINT PETERSBURG”