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

Abstract

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.