August 7th, 2016
About the person of Paul the First
His teacher of the law was Father Platon (Levshin) - one of the most educated people of his time, the future Metropolitan of Moscow. Metropolitan Plato, recalling Paul’s teaching, wrote that his “high pupil, fortunately, was always disposed towards piety, and reasoning or conversation regarding God and faith was always pleasant to him.”
The Tsarevich's education was the best that could be obtained at that time.
Here is a list of books with which the Grand Duke became acquainted: works of French enlighteners: Montesquieu, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Helvetius, works of Roman classics, historical works of Western European authors, works of Cervantes, Boileau, La Fontaine, works of Voltaire, "The Adventures of Robinson" by D. Defoe , M.V. Lomonosov.
Pavel Petrovich knew a lot about literature and theater, but most of all he loved mathematics. Teacher S.A. Poroshin spoke highly of Pavel Petrovich’s successes. He wrote in his Notes:
“If His Highness were a particular person and could completely devote himself to mathematical teaching alone, then in terms of his sharpness he could very conveniently be our Russian Pascal.”
Pavel Petrovich himself felt these abilities in himself. And as a gifted person, he could have an ordinary human desire to develop in himself those abilities to which his soul was drawn. But he couldn't do that. He was the heir. Instead of his favorite activities, he was forced to attend long dinners, dance at balls with ladies-in-waiting, and flirt with them. The atmosphere of almost outright debauchery in the palace depressed him.
A famous doctor who arrived from England inoculates Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. Before this, he conducts a detailed examination of Pavel. Here is his conclusion:
"... I was glad to see that the Grand Duke was beautifully built, cheerful, strong and without any natural illness. ... Pavel Petrovich ... is of average height, has beautiful facial features and is very well built ... he is very dexterous ", friendly, cheerful and very reasonable, which is not difficult to notice from his conversations, in which there is a lot of wit."
The heir's first wife, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, died during an unsuccessful birth.
The second wife, Maria Feodorovna (Württemberg Princess Sophia-Dorothea-August) gave birth to Pavel Petrovich 10 children, of whom only one died in infancy, and of the 9 remaining two, Alexander and Nicholas, became Russian autocrats.
When their first child was born in 1777, Catherine II dealt a strong blow to the soul of Pavel Petrovich, a kind family man, and did not allow him to become a happy parent.
Catherine II only showed the born boy from afar to the parents and took him to her forever. She did the same with his other children: sons Konstantin and Nikolai and two daughters.
Soon after the death of Emperor Paul the First, the first ever book about him was published in Germany. Soon a Russian translation appeared - "The Life of Paul the First, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia." Written in German by a Russian service officer (translated by V.S. Kryazhev). Moscow, 1805, in the privileged printing house of Kryazhev and Mey.
“From the beginning of his reign,” the author writes, “wisdom was supported by power, and the people, feeling their bliss, sacrificed love and gratitude to their benefactor. Prudence and generosity were his innate virtues and could not be overshadowed by ardor.”
Policy of Paul the First:
Weakening of the position of the nobility - for example, corporal punishment was introduced for murder, robbery, drunkenness, debauchery, and official violations. In 1798, Paul I prohibited nobles who had served as officers for less than a year from asking for resignation.
With the manifesto on three-day corvee, Paul prohibited landowners from performing corvee on Sundays, holidays and more than three days a week.
The grain tax, which was ruinous for the peasants, was abolished and the arrears of the poll tax were forgiven.
Preferential sales of salt have begun. They began to sell bread from state reserves in order to bring down high prices. This measure led to a noticeable drop in bread prices.
It was forbidden to sell serfs and peasants without land, and to separate families during the sale.
In the provinces, governors were ordered to monitor the attitude of landowners towards peasants. In case of cruel treatment of serfs, governors were ordered to report this to the emperor.
The perception of Paul by his descendants is very biased. In pre-revolutionary and then Soviet historiography, mainly only the negative aspects of his rule were emphasized.
________________________________________ _________________________________
Catherine the Great's mistake - "Decree on the liberty of the nobility" and playing with the French Enlightenment, as a result of which the Russian nobility became infected with Freemasonry, parodying medieval chivalry, denying its code
For a long time, relics of medieval knights, heroes of the defense of the Mediterranean islands of Rhodes and Malta, were kept in Russia. Three Grand Master Crosses of the Order of Malta were presented to the Russian Emperor as a gift for his protectorate during the period of exile from Malta. Why were Paul I and the Order of Malta so closely connected? And what role did this play in the fate of the Russian emperor?
Whatever the versions of historians about the true reasons for the Orthodox emperor’s passion for the Order of Malta, many researchers agree that knightly romance attracted Catherine’s son even in his youth. Some even called Paul I the “last knight” of his era. The Maltese cross, the white color of which meant chastity and knightly honor, and the four directions - prudence, justice, fortitude and abstinence, was even included in the system of Russian state signs. On the coat of arms, it fits directly on the chest of the traditional Byzantine eagle.
Paul I decided to accept the Order of Malta on the territory of Russia as soon as its members began to seek protection, anticipating the upcoming coming of Napoleon.
Malta was surrendered to the French emperor without a fight, and already a few weeks before the surrender many knights of the order were in Russia. In 1798, the Russian Emperor was elected Grand Master. This had no precedent in history, since a person of the Orthodox faith could not become such a significant figure in one of the main Catholic spiritual orders. But until now, Paul I, with the de facto mark, is included in the list of Grand Masters of the Order of Malta.
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which Paul I established in Russia, could not organically fit into the system of views of the noble class. For the progressive part of society, he was a strange anachronism. Members of numerous Masonic lodges did not accept him due to disagreements regarding their relationship to the church. Among the conservative part of the Russian nobility, the appeal of the Orthodox emperor to Catholic knighthood, especially, could hardly find a response.
However, Paul I partially merged the hierarchy system of the Order of Malta with the system of government officials of the Russian Empire. Relics of the Hospitallers (the icon of the Philermo Mother of God, a piece of the life-giving cross and the right hand of St. John) ended up in Gatchina, and then in the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands near the Winter Palace. Malta was not only officially accepted as a protectorate, but they even intended to become a Russian province, about which the Emperor’s decree was sent to the Academy of Sciences.
The outpost on the Mediterranean Sea was geopolitically beneficial to the Russian emperor. Therefore, to refer solely to Paul I’s sympathies for medieval knightly ideas in justifying the defense of the Order of Malta would be completely wrong.
However, from the very beginning of the appearance of the “Maltese” at court, the highest ranks of the Russian Empire ceased to try to sympathize with the already unpopular Paul I to an even greater extent.
Assassination of Paul I
They tried to kill the emperor several times. One of the first conspiracies uncovered was the conspiracy of the Kanalsky workshop in Smolensk. The investigation materials were destroyed, and the group members were sent to hard labor, but information about this was preserved in other sources. Rumors of a conspiracy against the Tsar spread in the St. Petersburg barracks and noble meetings. After Malta passed to the British, they increasingly began to find a common language with the capital and Moscow masons, who were increasingly dissatisfied with the ban on the activities of lodges.
Economic factors also played a role. Members of the Order of Malta began to feed themselves from Russian estates. The Russian nobility, in turn, was threatened with the loss of markets in England. Therefore, not only the English ambassador, but also the head of the secret police, Palen, and General Fyodor Uvarov, who was in a confidential relationship with the emperor, and, according to some sources, Golenishchev-Kutuzov, participated in the next conspiracy against Paul I. In total, the number of conspirators was more than a hundred people, who represented the flower of the Russian nobility. In March 1801, Paul I was killed in his bedroom. It is not customary for historians to directly connect the murder of the Russian emperor with his protectorate over the Order of Malta.
Ksenia Zharchinskaya
About the person of Paul the First
His teacher of the law was Father Platon (Levshin) - one of the most educated people of his time, the future Metropolitan of Moscow. Metropolitan Plato, recalling Paul’s teaching, wrote that his “high pupil, fortunately, was always disposed towards piety, and reasoning or conversation regarding God and faith was always pleasant to him.”
The Tsarevich's education was the best that could be obtained at that time.
Here is a list of books with which the Grand Duke became acquainted: works of French enlighteners: Montesquieu, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Helvetius, works of Roman classics, historical works of Western European authors, works of Cervantes, Boileau, La Fontaine, works of Voltaire, "The Adventures of Robinson" by D. Defoe , M.V. Lomonosov.
Pavel Petrovich knew a lot about literature and theater, but most of all he loved mathematics. Teacher S.A. Poroshin spoke highly of Pavel Petrovich’s successes. He wrote in his Notes:
“If His Highness were a particular person and could completely devote himself to mathematical teaching alone, then in terms of his sharpness he could very conveniently be our Russian Pascal.”
Pavel Petrovich himself felt these abilities in himself. And as a gifted person, he could have an ordinary human desire to develop in himself those abilities to which his soul was drawn. But he couldn't do that. He was the heir. Instead of his favorite activities, he was forced to attend long dinners, dance at balls with ladies-in-waiting, and flirt with them. The atmosphere of almost outright debauchery in the palace depressed him.
A famous doctor who arrived from England inoculates Pavel Petrovich with smallpox. Before this, he conducts a detailed examination of Pavel. Here is his conclusion:
"... I was glad to see that the Grand Duke was beautifully built, cheerful, strong and without any natural illness. ... Pavel Petrovich ... is of average height, has beautiful facial features and is very well built ... he is very dexterous ", friendly, cheerful and very reasonable, which is not difficult to notice from his conversations, in which there is a lot of wit."
The heir's first wife, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, died during an unsuccessful birth.
The second wife, Maria Feodorovna (Württemberg Princess Sophia-Dorothea-August) gave birth to Pavel Petrovich 10 children, of whom only one died in infancy, and of the 9 remaining two, Alexander and Nicholas, became Russian autocrats.
When their first child was born in 1777, Catherine II dealt a strong blow to the soul of Pavel Petrovich, a kind family man, and did not allow him to become a happy parent.
Catherine II only showed the born boy from afar to the parents and took him to her forever. She did the same with his other children: sons Konstantin and Nikolai and two daughters.
Soon after the death of Emperor Paul the First, the first ever book about him was published in Germany. Soon a Russian translation appeared - "The Life of Paul the First, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia." Written in German by a Russian service officer (translated by V.S. Kryazhev). Moscow, 1805, in the privileged printing house of Kryazhev and Mey.
“From the beginning of his reign,” the author writes, “wisdom was supported by power, and the people, feeling their bliss, sacrificed love and gratitude to their benefactor. Prudence and generosity were his innate virtues and could not be overshadowed by ardor.”
Policy of Paul the First:
Weakening of the position of the nobility - for example, corporal punishment was introduced for murder, robbery, drunkenness, debauchery, and official violations. In 1798, Paul I prohibited nobles who had served as officers for less than a year from asking for resignation.
With the manifesto on three-day corvee, Paul prohibited landowners from performing corvee on Sundays, holidays and more than three days a week.
The grain tax, which was ruinous for the peasants, was abolished and the arrears of the poll tax were forgiven.
Preferential sales of salt have begun. They began to sell bread from state reserves in order to bring down high prices. This measure led to a noticeable drop in bread prices.
It was forbidden to sell serfs and peasants without land, and to separate families during the sale.
In the provinces, governors were ordered to monitor the attitude of landowners towards peasants. In case of cruel treatment of serfs, governors were ordered to report this to the emperor.
The perception of Paul by his descendants is very biased. In pre-revolutionary and then Soviet historiography, mainly only the negative aspects of his rule were emphasized.
_______________________
On the topic of the Order of Malta and its relationship to Russia, we can recommend the novel “The Maltese Chain” by M.A. Volkonsky
Mikhail Nikolaevich Volkonsky (1860-1917)- “Russian Dumas,” as his contemporaries called him, wrote more than twenty historical novels and stories. A representative of an ancient family descended from Rurik, Prince Volkonsky was well known not only as an unsurpassed novelist, but also as a talented playwright and publisher of the famous Niva. The basis of the writer’s fascinating works is the unofficial history of Russia, intertwined with many intrigues, secrets, adventures and mysticism. The novel “The Maltese Chain” tells the story of the last years of the reign of Catherine II and Paul I, who replaced her on the throne, who is described by the author very respectfully and benevolently.
Audio version of the novel "The Maltese Chain"
Although, because of his father’s jokes on the topic “it’s unknown where his wife got her children from,” many consider the father of Paul I to be Ekaterina Alekseevna’s favorite, Sergei Saltykov. Moreover, the first-born was born only after 10 years of marriage. However, the external similarity between Paul and Peter should be considered as a response to such rumors. The childhood of the future autocrat cannot be called happy. Because of the political struggle, the current Empress Elizabeth I Petrovna was afraid for Paul the First, protected him from communication with his parents and surrounded him with a real army of nannies and teachers who curry favor with high-ranking officials rather than worry about the boy.
Pavel the First in childhood | Runiverse
The biography of Paul I claims that he received the best education that was possible at that time. The extensive library of Academician Korf was placed at his personal disposal. Teachers taught the heir to the throne not only the traditional Law of God, foreign languages, dancing and fencing, but also painting, as well as history, geography, arithmetic and even astronomy. It is interesting that none of the lessons included anything related to military affairs, but the inquisitive teenager himself became interested in this science and mastered it at a fairly high level.
Pavel the First in his youth | Arguments and Facts When Catherine II ascended the throne, she allegedly signed an obligation to transfer the reign to her son Paul I when he reached adulthood. This document has not reached us: perhaps the empress destroyed the paper, or maybe it is just a legend. But it was precisely such a statement that all the rebels dissatisfied with the rule of the “Iron German,” including Emelyan Pugachev, always referred to. In addition, there was talk that already on her deathbed, Elizaveta Petrovna was going to transfer the crown to her grandson Paul I, and not to her nephew Peter III, but the corresponding order was not made public and this decision did not affect the biography of Paul I.
Emperor
Paul the First sat on the throne of the Russian Empire only at the age of 42. Right during the coronation, he announced changes in the succession to the throne: now only men could rule Russia, and the crown was passed on only from father to son. By this, Paul unsuccessfully hoped to prevent the palace coups that had become more frequent recently. By the way, for the first time in history, the coronation procedure took place simultaneously for both the emperor and the empress on the same day.
The disgusting relationship with his mother led to the fact that Paul I chose the method of leading the country to actually contrast his decisions with its previous ones. As if “to spite” the memory of Ekaterina Alekseevna, Pavel the First returned freedom to convicted radicals, reformed the army and began to fight serfdom.
Pavel the First | Petersburg stories But in reality, all these ideas did not lead to anything good. The liberation of the radicals would come back many years later in the form of a Decembrist uprising, the reduction of the corvee remained only on paper, and the fight against corruption in the army grew into a series of repressions. Moreover, both the highest ranks, who one after another were deprived of their positions, and ordinary military personnel remained dissatisfied with the emperor. They grumbled about the new uniform, modeled on the Prussian army, which turned out to be incredibly uncomfortable. In foreign policy, Paul the First became famous for his fight against the ideas of the French Revolution. He introduced the strictest censorship in book publishing; French books and French fashion, including round hats, were banned.
Pavel the First | Wikipedia During the reign of Paul the First, thanks to commander Alexander Suvorov and Vice Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, the Russian army and navy achieved many significant victories, collaborating with Prussian and Austrian troops. But later Paul I showed his fickle character, broke off relations with his allies and formed an alliance with Napoleon. It was in Bonaparte that the Russian emperor saw the force that could stop the anti-monarchist revolution. But he was mistaken strategically: Napoleon did not become a winner even after the death of Paul the First, but because of his decision and the economic blockade of Great Britain, Russia lost its largest sales market, which had a very significant impact on the standard of living in the Russian Empire.
Personal life
Officially, Pavel the First was married twice. His first wife, Grand Duchess Natalya Alekseevna, was by birth the German Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt. She died two years after the wedding during childbirth. The first son of Paul I was born dead. That same year, the future emperor married again. The wife of Paul the First, Maria Feodorovna, was called Sophia Maria Dorothea of Württemberg before marriage, and she was destined to become the mother of two rulers at once, Alexander I and Nicholas I.
Princess Natalya Alekseevna, first wife of Paul I | Pinterest It is interesting that this marriage was not just beneficial for the state, Pavel really fell in love with this girl. As he wrote to his family, “this blonde with a pleasant face captivated the widower.” In total, in union with Maria Feodorovna, the emperor had 10 children. In addition to the two above-mentioned autocrats, it is worth noting Mikhail Pavlovich, who founded the first Russian Artillery School in St. Petersburg. By the way, he is the only child born during the reign of Paul the First.
Paul I and Maria Feodorovna surrounded by children | Wikipedia But falling in love with his wife did not stop Paul the First from following the generally accepted rules and having favorites. Two of them, ladies-in-waiting Sofya Ushakova and Mavra Yuryeva, even gave birth to illegitimate children from the emperor. It is also worth noting Ekaterina Nelidova, who had enormous influence on the emperor and it is believed that she tried to lead the country with the hands of her lover. The personal life of Paul I and Ekaterina Nelidova was more intellectual than carnal in nature. In it, the emperor realized his ideas of romantic chivalry.
Favorites of Paul I, Ekaterina Nelidova and Anna Lopukhina When those close to the court realized how much the power of this woman had increased, they arranged a “replacement” for the favorite of Paul I. Anna Lopukhina became his new lady of the heart, and Nelidova was forced to retire to Lode Castle, in the territory of present-day Estonia. It is curious that Lopukhina was not happy with this state of affairs, she was burdened by the status of the mistress of the ruler Paul the First, his “knightly” manifestations of attention, and was annoyed that these relationships were being put on display.
Death
During the several years of Paul the First's reign, despite the change in succession, at least three conspiracies were organized against him, the last of which was successful. Almost a dozen officers, commanders of the most famous regiments, as well as government officials on the night of March 24, 1801 entered the emperor’s bedroom in the Mikhailovsky Castle and committed the murder of Paul I. The official cause of his death was apoplexy. It is worth noting that nobles and ordinary people greeted the news of death with poorly controlled glee.
Engraving "The Assassination of Emperor Paul I", 1880 | Wikipedia The perception of Paul the First by subsequent generations is ambiguous. Some historians, especially during the reign of his successor Alexander I, and then in Soviet times, created the image of a tyrant and tyrant. Even the poet in his ode “Liberty” called him “a crowned villain.” Others try to emphasize Paul the First’s heightened sense of justice, calling him “the only romantic on the throne” and “the Russian Hamlet.” The Orthodox Church even at one time considered the possibility of canonizing this man. Today it is generally accepted that Paul the First does not fit into the system of any known ideology.
For a long time, relics of medieval knights, heroes of the defense of the Mediterranean islands of Rhodes and Malta, were kept in Russia. Three Grand Master Crosses of the Order of Malta were presented to the Russian Emperor as a gift for his protectorate during the period of exile from Malta. Why were Paul I and the Order of Malta so closely connected? And what role did this play in the fate of the Russian emperor?
Knightly romance
Whatever the versions of historians about the true reasons for the Orthodox emperor’s passion for the Order of Malta, many researchers agree that knightly romance attracted Catherine’s son even in his youth. Some even called Paul I the “last knight” of his era. The Maltese cross, the white color of which meant chastity and knightly honor, and the four directions - prudence, justice, fortitude and abstinence, was even included in the system of Russian state signs. On the coat of arms, it fits directly on the chest of the traditional Byzantine eagle.
Paul I decided to accept the Order of Malta on the territory of Russia as soon as its members began to seek protection, anticipating the upcoming coming of Napoleon. Malta was surrendered to the French emperor without a fight, and already a few weeks before the surrender many knights of the order were in Russia. In 1798, the Russian Emperor was elected Grand Master. This had no precedent in history, since a person of the Orthodox faith could not become such a significant figure in one of the main Catholic spiritual orders. But until now, Paul I, with the de facto mark, is included in the list of Grand Masters of the Order of Malta.
One among strangers, a stranger among one's own
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which Paul I established in Russia, could not organically fit into the system of views of the noble class. For the progressive part of society, he was a strange anachronism. Members of numerous Masonic lodges did not accept him due to disagreements regarding their relationship to the church. Among the conservative part of the Russian nobility, the appeal of the Orthodox emperor to Catholic knighthood, especially, could hardly find a response.
However, Paul I partially merged the hierarchy system of the Order of Malta with the system of government officials of the Russian Empire. Relics of the Hospitallers (the icon of the Philermo Mother of God, a piece of the life-giving cross and the right hand of St. John) ended up in Gatchina, and then in the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands near the Winter Palace. Malta was not only officially accepted as a protectorate, but they even intended to become a Russian province, about which the Emperor’s decree was sent to the Academy of Sciences.
The outpost on the Mediterranean Sea was geopolitically beneficial to the Russian emperor. Therefore, to refer solely to Paul I’s sympathies for medieval knightly ideas in justifying the defense of the Order of Malta would be completely wrong. However, from the very beginning of the appearance of the “Maltese” at court, the highest ranks of the Russian Empire ceased to try to sympathize with the already unpopular Paul I to an even greater extent.
Assassination of Paul I
They tried to kill the emperor several times. One of the first conspiracies uncovered was the conspiracy of the Kanalsky workshop in Smolensk. The investigation materials were destroyed, and the group members were sent to hard labor, but information about this was preserved in other sources. Rumors of a conspiracy against the Tsar spread in the St. Petersburg barracks and noble meetings. After Malta passed to the British, they increasingly began to find a common language with the capital and Moscow masons, who were increasingly dissatisfied with the ban on the activities of lodges.
Economic factors also played a role. Members of the Order of Malta began to feed themselves from Russian estates. The Russian nobility, in turn, was threatened with the loss of markets in England. Therefore, not only the English ambassador, but also the head of the secret police, Palen, and General Fyodor Uvarov, who was in a confidential relationship with the emperor, and, according to some sources, Golenishchev-Kutuzov, participated in the next conspiracy against Paul I. In total, the number of conspirators was more than a hundred people, who represented the flower of the Russian nobility. In March 1801, Paul I was killed in his bedroom. It is not customary for historians to directly connect the murder of the Russian emperor with his protectorate over.
215 years ago, at the very end of 1798, the Russian emperor Paul I was proclaimed Grand Master of the Order of Malta.
This was not prevented by the fact that Pavel was, firstly, married. Secondly, he generally professed Orthodoxy, while the knights were Catholics.
Tricky Nelson
Order Saint John the Baptist, also known as the Order of Hospitallers, was founded during the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century. The Order of Malta began to be called after the Arabs expelled the knights from Fr. Rhodes, from where they moved to the island. Malta. Relations between Russia and Malta were established during Peter I, and by the end of the 18th century. the knights could no longer live without our country. During the Egyptian campaign Napoleon captured Malta and expelled the knights from there, many of whom found shelter in Russia. Paul I, who considered himself a knight, treated the exiles favorably, and they elected him Grand Master. Protest from Popes not received.
Many European countries did not dispute the legitimacy of the choice of a new grandmaster of the order. English admiral Nelson, approaching Malta with the fleet, addressed Emperor Paul as Grand Master with notice of his upcoming appointment captain Bella commandant of the island. The admiral asked that this appointment be considered temporary until Pavel appoints someone to this post at his discretion. Consent was received, and moreover, Paul awarded Captain Bell the title of commander of the Order of Malta.
Nelson did not keep his words and, after the expulsion of the French from Malta, he restored the power of the former Grand Master in the order. But Paul already considered Malta his own and even ordered the production of new geographical maps, on which it was designated as a province of the Russian Empire! This event not only alienated Paul I from England, but also may have forced him to launch a Cossack campaign against India.
The Knights of the Order of Malta themselves, who reached Russia, were ranked among the Russian nobility. Many of them received positions at court and in the army, and the 26-year-old holder of the order Julius Litta became the youngest general in the Russian army. By the way, until the 1810s, the Order of Malta received 90% of its income from Russia, only 10% came from Western Europe. But after the murder of Pavel, the history of the Russian Maltese came to an end.
Secret and obvious
The Order of Malta is not a state in the full sense of the word, but more than 100 countries of the world, including Russia, maintain diplomatic relations with it. The modern structure of the Order of Malta is a monarchy headed by a Grand Master, who has the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
You won’t remember the official name of the order the first time: Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta. It has a coat of arms, a flag, an anthem and even its own currency. The residence of the order is in Rome (where it owns a building on Via Condotti) and a large castle in Malta. The territory of the “order state” (if you add up the area of both buildings) is 12 times smaller than the Vatican, and its subjects around the world number only about 13 thousand people. Among them are the heads of royal families and prominent politicians. You cannot join the order, but you may be called to join it. This distinguishes the order from the Masonic lodges, with which it is often and unfairly confused.
The Order of Malta is a Catholic organization and has nothing to do with Freemasonry. So, in any case, I assured First Consul of the Order of Malta in Moscow Nicola Savoretti. However, in history there have been cases of Masons converting to Knights of Malta and vice versa. Suffice it to recall the same Emperor Paul I, who in his youth was fond of Freemasonry.