Alexander Fyodorovich Labzin (Александр Фёдорович Лабзин; 1766–1825) was a leading figure of the

Russian Enlightenment The Russian Age of Enlightenment was a period in the 18th century in which the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences, which had a profound impact on Russian culture. During this time, the first Russian unive ...

who developed an idiosyncratic mystical system and founded an influential

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

lodge, ''

The Dying Sphinx ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

''. His wife Anna Labzina was a noted memoirist. Labzin attended the

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

, where he came to know two leading Freemasons,

Ivan Schwarz Johann Georg Schwarz (Иван Григорьевич Шварц; 1751–1784) was a philosophy professor at Moscow University who headed the Russian branch of the Rosicrucian Society. A Transylvanian Saxon, Schwarz settled in Moscow in 1776. He ...

and

Nikolay Novikov Nikolay Ivanovich Novikov (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Новико́в) (, Moscow Governorate – . Moscow Governorate) was a Russian writer and philanthropist most representative of his country's Enlightenment. Frequently consi ...

. He curried favour with

Emperor Paul Paul I (russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич ; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her l ...

by preparing a historical account of the

Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

and held a string of offices during his reign and that of his son, including Chief of the Navy Department and Vice President of the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...

. He also had time to translate

Jakob Böhme Jakob Böhme (; ; 24 April 1575 – 17 November 1624) was a German philosopher, Christian mystic, and Lutheran Protestant theologian. He was considered an original thinker by many of his contemporaries within the Lutheran tradition, and his firs ...

and

Pierre Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satiris ...

, as well as write his own poetry. Labzin revived the tradition of Novikov's "libertine" magazines with "The Messenger of Sion", a religious monthly that celebrated a "religion of the heart" and rebelled against the ritualistic side of Orthodox worship. The magazine was attacked by the church officials led by

Archimandrite Photius Archimandrite Photius (russian: Архимандрит Фотий, Arkhimandrit Fotii, link=yes, secular name Pyotr Nikitich Spassky, russian: Пётр Никитич Спасский, link=no; Julian calendar: 4 June 1792, Novgorodsky Uyezd – 2 ...

and was discontinued. In 1822 he was exiled to

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born ...

for opposing Arakcheyev's election to the Academy of Arts. When told that Arakcheyev was "the nearest person to His Majesty", Labzin proposed to elect the Tsar's coachman instead "not only as being the nearest to the emperor, but having a seat before his majesty". He died in exile. Labzin's young protégés included

Alexander Witberg Karl Magnus Vitberg (26 January 1787 — 24 January 1855) was a Russian Neoclassical architect of Swedish stock. Biography Vitberg was born in Saint Petersburg. As a young man he was a member of Alexander Labzin's Masonic lodge, the "Dying Sph ...

, an architect who won the commission to construct in Moscow the

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour ( rus, Храм Христа́ Спаси́теля, r=Khram Khristá Spasítelya, p=xram xrʲɪˈsta spɐˈsʲitʲɪlʲə) is a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskv ...

but tsar Nicholas I abandoned the "Masonic" plan for a less "Roman Catholic" neo-Byzantine construction.Konstantin Akinsha, Grigorij Kozlov, Sylvia Hochfield. ''The Holy Place: Architecture, Ideology, and History in Russia''. Yale University Press, 2007. Page 30.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Labzin Russian Freemasons 1766 births 1825 deaths 18th-century Christian mystics 19th-century Christian mystics Eastern Orthodox mystics Male writers from the Russian Empire Poets from the Russian Empire Translators from the Russian Empire Moscow State University alumni Place of birth missing Russian male poets Russian Christian mystics