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“Freemasonry started to develop in Russia in Petrine times, but it blossomed under Catherine. It was the start of Russia’s public sphere, Russian society at least in some ways independent from the throne. Douglas Smith offers a perceptive analysis of the ways in which public sphere can function in an unfree and undemocratic country, which doesn’t have open modes political debate. For Russia, the masonic lodges provided a sort of alternative network across social boundaries. Smith shows this role of Masonry.” Read more...
The best books on Catherine the Great
Andrei Zorin, Historian
