S.N. Maksudi and Russian Masons at the beginning of the XX century

The article investigates little-known facts in the life of the famous Tatar and Turkish public figure S.N. Maksudi – a turkologist, an educator, a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Empire and the Majlis of the Turkish Republic at different periods of his life. At the beginning of the XX century a graduate of the Sorbonne University, a young lawyer, Sadri Maksudi, found himself at the center of the political life of the Turkic-Muslim world of Russia. He lived in St. Petersburg and was actively engaged in political activities. Just then he met Russian Freemasons and became a participant in the Masonic movement.

The attitude towards Masonry in the Russian history is characterized by different assessments, for example, they were credited with participation in conspiracies, possession of secret knowledge, etc. In fact, most Masons were liberals who advocated the introduction of a wide range of democratic freedoms in Russia, including expanding the rights of national minorities. This attracted one of the leaders of Russian Islam, who actively defended the ideas of equality and enlightenment of his people.

The article presents the analysis of the history of the opening of Masonic lodges in St. Petersburg after the revolution of 1905-1907 and their activities during the inter-revolutionary period, in which S.N. Maksudi took part.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the views of the Tatar politician S.N. Maksudi through the prism of his participation in Masonic organizations of the early XX century. For this purpose the author used biographical, historical-genetic and historical-comparative research methods, as well as general scientific and dialectical methods of analysis. As a result, we came to the conclusion that despite all the objective differences between the social movement of Muslims in Russia and the teachings of the Freemasons, there were common ideological ideas between them, which attracted the Tatar-Muslim leader Sadri Maksudi to the ranks of the masons, which was reflected in his political life.

1. Lavrinovich D.S. Political Masonry in the opposition movement of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century // Vesnik Magileuskaga Dzyarzhaunaga Universiteta named after A.A. Kulyashova. 2003. No. 4 (16): 22–33.

2. Svezhentsev P. Masons in Russia of the XX century [Electronic resource] // Educational project about Russian-speaking civilization. URL: https://vatnikstan.ru/history/masony-xx-vek/ (date of access: 06.07.2023).

3. Smith N. Political Masonry in Russia, 1906–1918: A Discussion of the Sources // The Russian Review. 1985. 44 (2):157–173. URL: https://doi.org/10.2307/129171

4. Berberova N.N. People and lodges. Russian Masons of the 20th century. M.: Progress-Tradition, 1997. 399 p.

5. Serkov A.I. History of Russian Masonry, 1845–1945. St. Petersburg, 1997. 480 p.

6. Hass L. The Russian Masonic Movement in 1906–1918 // Acta Poloniae Historica. 1983. 48: 95–131.

7. Kiyasov S.E. The last masons of the Russian Empire // News of Saratov University. 2011. V. 11. Series: History. International relationships. 2 (2): 40–45.

8. Ivanov V.F. Russian intelligentsia and Masonry. From Peter I to the present day. 3rd ed. M.: Moscow, 1999. 541 p.

9. Brachev V.S. Russian Freemasonry of the twentieth century. St. Petersburg, 2000. 256 p.

10. From a letter from E.V. Kuskova N.V. To Polsky (Valentinov) November 10, 1955 // Nikolaevsky B.I. Russian Masons and the Revolution / comp. by Yu. Felshtinsky. M.: Terra, 1990. P 109–112.

11. Aida A. Sadri Maksudi Arsal. M., 1996. 359 p.

12. Khabutdinov A.Yu. From community to nation: the Tatars from the Middle Ages to the New Age (late 18th – early 20th centuries). Kazan: Tatar book publishing house, 2008. 213 p.

13. The Tatar Encyclopedia / Ed. by M.H. Khasanov. Kazan: Institute of Tatar Encyclopedia. V. 4. M-P, 2008. 766 p.

14. Serkov A.I. The Russian Masonry. 1731–2000: encyclopedic dictionary. M.: ROSSPEN, 2001. 1224 p.

15. Bebutov D. The Russian Masonry of the 20th century // Nikolaevsky B.I. The Russian Masons and the Revolution / compl. by Yu. Felshtinsky. M.: Terra, 1990. P. 125–147.

16. Kurylev K.P., Dzhangiryan V.G., Stanis D.V. Masonic activity of representatives of the liberal opposition in Russia at the beginning of the XX century (the case of A.I. Konovalov) // Dialogue with time. 2017. 61: 286–299.

17. Lavrinovich D.S. Political Masonry in the socio-political life of Russia and Belarus in 1905– 1917 // Publishing house of Belarus state university. History. 2017. 3: 10–19.

18. Karpachev S.P. Masonry and Masons of Russia in the 18–21centuries. Stages of Masonic Mastery (Ancient and Accepted Scottish Ritual). M.: V.P. Bystrov, 2007. 192 p.

19. Avrekh A.Ya. Masons and the revolution. M.: Politizdat, 1990. 348 p.