Do you have access to the info of members in Eastern Europe?

Historical accounts and records covering Freemasonry in Eastern Europe are held in the library, dealing primarily with its introduction, suppression, and Rites practiced in Russia and Poland 12.

The records trace early Russian lodges back to foreign and German initiatives in the eighteenth century, including the founding of Lodge Apollo in St. Petersburg in 1771 under the system of the Grand Landes-Loge in Berlin 2. Masonic activity in the region developed through various systems, including the Swedish Rite, the Strict Observance, the Rite of Melesino, and Craft lodges under both English and French authority 1. The record documents periods of growth alongside repeated state bans, notably under Catherine II in 1794, Paul I in 1797, and the imperial decree of Alexander I on August 1, 1822, which closed all secret societies 1.

In the Scottish Rite and Craft degrees working among Russian exiles in the early twentieth century, lodges such as Polar Star and Cosmos were organized in Paris under French jurisdictions, maintaining administrative bodies, lodges of perfection, and Rose Croix chapters to preserve Russian Masonic practice outside the empire 1. The library also covers the distinct yet historically intertwined developments of Freemasonry in Poland, noting its early reliance on German systems and its eventual suppression under political pressures 2.

Broad regional developments across Eastern Europe—including Russia, Poland, and Courland—are further examined in historical papers published in the transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076.