Ermakov V.A., Koretskaya I.A., Palt E.A. The Development of the Main Approaches to the Study of the History of Russian Freemasonry in the 19th–20th Centuries

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the historiography of Russian Freemasonry. The authors conduct a reconstruction of the main works on the history of Russian Freemasonry in the 19th–20th centuries. The main approaches of Russian historians evaluating the activity of Freemasonry organizations are also critically analyzed. The works of the following authors were examined: N. N. Karamzin, N. N. Longinov, A. N. Pypin, P. I. Melnikov, T. O. Sokolovsky, S. P. Melgunov, G. V. Vernadsky, V. O. Klyuchevsky, V. I. Semevsky and others. The article’s methodology consists of a historiographical analysis of the various perspectives held by the Russian historians studying the development of Freemasonry in Russia. Meanwhile the article’s scientific novelty lies in its historiographical reconstruction of three main approaches to the study of the history of Russian Freemasonry: liberal-democratic, national-conservative and publicistic works. The article demonstrates the fundamental differences in the perspectives of scholars studying the topic of Freemasonry. The authors substantiate the historiographical hypothesis that it was the apologetic approach to the study of Freemasonry of liberally-oriented scholars and the negative approach towards Freemasonry put forward by the national-conservative approach that served as one of the reasons why research on the subject of Freemasonry was closed in the Soviet historical studies. The authors come to the conclusion that the analyzed approaches contained elements of scientific analysis, but stand out in the political sympathies of their authors. The conservative-nationalistic approach was a single-sided defense of monarchy. Meanwhile the representatives of the liberal-apologetic approach reduced the essence of Russian Freemasonry mainly to literary-educational and charitable activities, excluding the mystical component of the hidden political ambitions and secret intentions of the famous Russian Masons.

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