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The Grand Lodge of Russia’s Masonic movement has announced the creation of a new branch in the town of Donetsk, Rostov Region (not to be confused with occupied Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine). As The Insider found, the initiative is backed by a resident of the Ukrainian city of Donetsk who fought on Russia’s side in the war in Donbas in 2014.
“The first installation in the history of modern Russian Freemasonry of the Worshipful Master of the awakened military Worshipful Lodge Valor No. 20 in the East of the city of Donetsk, Rostov Region,” a message that appeared on Nov. 17 on the Grand Lodge of Russia’s social media page read. According to the post, the new organization has joined the provincial lodge “South.”
Photos from an event held in Stavropol on Nov. 15 featured the head of the Grand Lodge of Russia, political strategist Andrei Bogdanov, alongside a man named Anatoly Gelyukh.
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As a knowledgeable source told The Insider, Gelyukh initiated the creation of the “military lodge,” planning to recruit “brothers” from among servicemen returning from the war in Ukraine:
“Gelyukh participated in military operations in eastern Ukraine starting from 2014, leading a special-purpose unit. He says he served in the FSB. About six months ago, he unexpectedly retired.”
Gelyukh had been developing the idea of a military lodge for six or seven years before the opportunity to bring it to fruition finally arose.
Bogdanov, for his part, was offered the chance to open a lodge in Ukraine's Donetsk, but he categorically refused. The main value of belonging to Freemasonry is its international connections, and he rightly feared that if he opened a lodge in the occupied territories, his entire organization would lose recognition from foreign lodges.
Bogdanov has recently taken a distinctly pro-Kremlin stance while continuing to open new lodges. As the source told The Insider:
“I don't think the choice of Donetsk in Rostov Region for the creation of the military lodge is a coincidence. Few realize there are two towns named Donetsk: one in Russia, the other in Ukraine. Hearing 'Donetsk,' everyone will think of the occupied city. It is quite likely that the so-called 'work,' meaning Masonic meetings, will take place [in occupied Donetsk]. But any questions from the international community can be answered by saying that the Donetsk in question is in Russia. Originally, there were plans to open the lodge in the town of Shakhty, also in Rostov Region.”
Several factors indicate that the activity of the “military lodge” will be focused primarily on Ukrainian Donetsk rather than on the Rostov Region. First, according to The Insider's source, Gelyukh’s family continues to live in occupied Donetsk. Second, in September, Gelyukh posted to his Telegram channel a photo taken on Ukrainian territory (judging by the Ukrainian language on a billboard), accompanied by the caption: “The first Military Masonic Lodge in the history of modern Russia will bring good and light to where recently there was still a kingdom of fascist darkness.”
The Insider's source also confirmed that the Telegram channel “Kot da Vinci” (Da Vinci's cat) is run by Gelyukh himself. And as The Insider found, Anatoly Gelyukh obtained Russian citizenship in 2018. His personal data is classified, suggesting ties to Russian intelligence agencies.
Combat cell
According to The Insider’s source, six months ago Bogdanov said he had come up with the idea of creating a “combat Masonic unit”:
“He has problems within the Masonic community in Russia. He needs fighters who will protect him if someone tries to take power away from him. Andrei [Bogdanov] wants to create a combat cell. At the same time, I think Anatoly [Gelyukh] has his own agenda. In other words, each has his own plans for this structure, and each expects to take full control of it at some point.”
As Bogdanov told The Insider, he has long wanted to continue the traditions of the “Russian military field lodges of the 18th–19th centuries”:
“I have visited Military Lodges in England, the U.S., Australia, Chile, Japan, and other countries many times. The Argentinians — the Military Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Argentina — regularly invite us, the Grand Lodge of Russia, to their annual Military Lodges gathering held in their Temple. We always declined, because we did not have such a Lodge ourselves.
The idea emerged in 2016, but only now have ten brothers who are military servicemen come forward as founders. The goals are the same as those of all other Lodges: to make a good person even better! I am confident the Lodge will absorb the traditions of the regimental Lodges of the 18th and 19th centuries, in which Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, Field Marshals Mikhail Kutuzov and Nikolai Repnin, and Admirals Samuel Greig and Nikolai Mordvinov worked.”
When asked whether “special military operation veterans” would join the Donetsk lodge, Bogdanov responded evasively, though he did not deny it:
“Why don’t you ask who is in the Military Lodges in the U.S.? It can be assumed that they include those who fought in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan. All servicemen are loyal to the oath to their people, as they should be!”
Bogdanov explained the choice of location for the new lodge as originating from a request from the “brothers”:
“The petitioning brothers wrote this city in their request, apparently because it is more convenient for most of them to gather here. This is the third Lodge in the Rostov Region. There is also ‘Acacia’ in Shakhty and ‘Concordia’ in Rostov-on-Don. We can open Lodges only in territories recognized by the UN as part of Russia, and we observe this rule. Otherwise, we would lose recognition from all regular Grand Lodges!”
Guests of honor
According to The Insider's source, several other notable people joined Bogdanov and Gelyukh for the opening ceremony of the “military lodge.” They included Pavel Stroganov, an FSB officer whose brother Alexander Stroganov works at ANNA News (a pro-Kremlin agency where he mainly writes about the war in Ukraine), and Yevgeny Kosmatykh, whom the source described as “a quirky Mason with political connections.” Notably, Kosmatykh is the chairman of the election commission of Moscow’s Sokol district, and in 2021 The Insider found his business and real estate in Montenegro.