I became the youngest Master Mason in Russia — and from that follows something directly relevant to the subject of this book.
Lodge of the Muses No. 33, Petersburg.
The Lodge of the Muses was founded by Ivan Yelagin in 1772, having received its patent from the Grand Lodge of England. Yelagin was a courtier of Catherine the Great, director of the imperial theaters, the man who copied the empress’s manuscripts in his own hand (all of Catherine’s literary works have come down to us in his handwriting), and at the same time the first Provincial Grand Master of Russia: fourteen lodges, four hundred officials, meetings on Yelagin Island — the same one where Rossi’s palace and park now stand.