Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 7 (Chapter 110 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre at Petersburg. Head of the Masons. Disillusions. The four classes of Masons. Pierre goes abroad. Pierre's report of his visit abroad. Dissatisfaction with Pierre's theories.
Briggs: Pierre, dissatisfied with freemasonry, seeks reassurance from Bazdeyev.
Maude (chapters 7-8): Pierre and the Petersburg Freemasons. He visits Joseph Alexeevich. Reconciliation with Helene
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Pierre and the Masons in Petersburg. His speech.

Translation:

VII.

Two years to that backwards, in the year of 1808, returning to Petersburg from his trips to the estates, Pierre unwittingly became the head of Petersburg’s freemasonry. He arranged dining rooms and funerary lodges, recruited new members, cared about the connection of the institutional lodges and about the acquisition of authentic acts. He gave his money to the arrangement of the temple and replenished, in how much he could, the alm fees, in which the majority of members were stingy and sloppy. He almost alone in his means supported the house of the poor, arranged by the order in Petersburg.

His life between that still went by with those same hobbies and licentiousness. He loved to lunch and drink well, and, although he counted this immoral and demeaning, could not abstain from the amusements of idle societies in which he participated.

In the smoke of his activities and hobbies, Pierre however, by the passing of the year, started to feel that as the ground of freemasonry on which he stood went more away from under his feet, the firmer he tried to be on it. Together with that he felt that the deeper he went away from the ground from under his feet, he involuntarily was bound with it. When he began in freemasonry, he felt the sense of a man trustingly putting their leg on the flat surface of a swamp. Putting his leg on it, it failed. So that to quite make sure of the hardness of the ground on which he stood, he put on another leg and failed still more, was stuck and now unwittingly went knee-deep in the swamp.

Iosif Alekseevich was not in Petersburg. (He at a later time pulled back from the cases of the Petersburg lodges and without a break lived in Moscow.) All the brothers, the members of the lodges, were Pierre’s acquaintances in life and it was difficult to see them as only brothers in stone, but not Prince B. or Ivan Vasilievich D., whom he knew in the majority of life as weak and worthless people. From under the masonic aprons and signs he saw on them uniforms and crosses, which they got in life. Often, collecting charity and counting 20-30 rubles, recorded from the coming, and the majority part of the duty from ten members, of which half were so the same as rich as he, Pierre remembered the masonic pledge that every brother promised to give all of his property for those near; and in his soul rose doubt, at which he did not try to stop.

All the brothers that he knew, he subdivided into four categories. To the first category he ranked the brothers that did not host active participation in the deeds of lodges, or in the deeds humanity, but were busy exclusively with the sacraments of the science of the order, busy with the questions about the triple denomination of God, or about the three beginnings of things, sulfur, mercury and salt, or about the meaning of the square and all the figures of the temple of Solomon. Pierre respected this category of the brothers of masons, to which belonged predominantly the old brothers, and Iosif Alekseevich himself, by the opinion of Pierre, but did not share their interests. His heart did not lie in the mystical side of freemasonry.

To the second category Pierre ranked himself and the similar to himself brothers, seeking, hesitating, not still finding in freemasonry a direct and understandable way, but hoping to find it.

To the third category he ranked the brothers (theirs was the greatest number), not seeing in freemasonry anything, besides external forms and rituals and prized strict execution of these external forms, not taking care about its content and meaning. These were Villarsky and even the great master of the main lodge.

To the fourth category, finally, ranked too great a number of brothers, in particular in the latter time of marching into the brotherhood. These were the people, by the observation of Pierre, that were not believers, willing nothing, and were received in freemasonry only for the rapprochement with the young, rich and strong relations and noble brothers, which were quite in the lodge with them.

Pierre started to feel himself unsatisfied with his activity. Freemasonry, at least that freemasonry which he knew here, seemed to him sometimes established only in appearance. He did not think to doubt in most of freemasonry, but suspected that the Russian freemasonry went by a false way and deviated from its source. And because of this at the end of the year Pierre went for abroad to initiate himself into the higher secrets of the order.

—————

Still in the summer of the year 1809, Pierre returned to Petersburg. By the correspondence with our masons from overseas it was known that Bezuhov had time abroad to get the trust of many high ranking persons, penetrated many secrets, was erected in the higher measure and carried with himself much for the common good of mason affairs in Russia. The Petersburg masons all had arrived to him, ingratiated him, and to all it seemed that he hid something and prepared.

There was appointed a solemn meeting of the lodge to the 2nd degree, in which Pierre promised to report what he had delivered to the Petersburg brothers from the higher leaders of the order. The meeting was full. After the usual ceremonies Pierre got up and started his speech.

— Kind brothers, — he started, blushing, stammering and holding in his hand a written speech. — It is not enough to watch in the silence of our lodges the sacrament — We need act...act. We are found in a lull, but we need to act. — Pierre took his notebook and started to read.

"For the spreading of pure truths and delivering the celebration of virtues, he was reading, we must clear people from prejudice, spread rules consistent with the soul of the time, accept in ourselves the upbringing of youth, connect an inextricable bond with the smartest people, boldly and together prudently overcome superstition, disbelief and stupidity, to form devotees of our people, related between by ourselves the unity in goals and having power and force.

"For achieving these goals we must deliver the virtues of superiority above vice, we must try so that an honest person gains more in this world than an eternal reward for their virtues. Yet in these great intentions we are quite hindered by current political institutions. What again are we to do in such a position of things? Are we to favor revolutions, subvert all, and expel strength by force?.. No, we are quite far away from this. Any violent reform is blameworthy because of how little it corrects evil while people stay such as they are, and because of how wisdom has no need for violence.

"All plans of the order should be established so to form people into a solid, virtuous and related unity of beliefs, beliefs consisting so that everywhere and by all forces hunting for vice and stupidity and to patronize talents and virtue: extracting from this dust people worthy, and attaching them to our brotherhood. Only then will our order have power — insensitively knitting the hand patrons of disorder and managing them so that they have not noticed. In one word, we need to establish a general dominant form of government, which would spread above all of the world, not destroying civil bonds, and in no way could all other governments continue its ordinary order and do anything, besides this alone, to hinder the great goals of our order that is a delivery of virtue celebrating above vice. This is the objective Christianity has assumed itself. It taught people to be wise and kind, and for our own benefit to follow the example and instructions of the best and wisest people.

"So when all was submerged in gloom, it was enough to be sure of one preaching: the news of the truth gave it particular force, but now it is needed of us of much stronger means. Now it is needed as people, operating on their own feelings, are found in the virtues of sensual charms. It cannot be to eradicate passions; we must only try to direct them to noble goals, and because it is needed so that everyone can satisfy his passions in the limit of virtues, and so that our order is delivered to that means.

"How soon it will be that some number of worthy people in each state, from every one of them forms two others, and all of them closely between themselves unite — then all will be possible for the order, which will secretly have time now to do much to benefit humanity."

This speech produced not only a strong impression, but excitement in the lodge. The majority of the same brothers, seeing in this speech the dangerous plans of the Illuminati, with surprise to Pierre accepted his speech with coldness. The great master began to object to Pierre. Pierre with more and more heat began to develop his thought. It had been a long time since such a stormy meeting. Parties were made up: one blamed Pierre, condemning him to the Illuminati; others supported him. Pierre for the first time was struck that gathered there were endless varieties of the human mind, which made no truth equally presented to two people. Even those members, who seemed to have been on his side understood him with restrictions and changes in which he could not agree, so the main need of Pierre consisted in that to deliver his idea to another exactly as he himself understood it.

By the end of the meeting the great master with ill will and irony made to Bezuhov a comment about his fervor and that he did not alone love virtues, but in enthusiasm to fight led them into a dispute. Pierre did not respond to him and shortly asked whether they would accept his proposal. He was told no, and Pierre, not waiting for ordinary formalities, got out of the lodge and left for home.

Time: Two years before, in 1808 (Maude, Mandelker, and Dunnigan add Nearly), at the end of the year, summer of the year 1809

Locations: St. Petersburg, the Masonic lodge
Mentioned: Pierre's estates, Moscow, Russia (also Russian), abroad

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

As we flip to Pierre, we get a bit of a step back in time, going back to 1808, when Pierre became head of the Petersburg Masons. "His life meanwhile went on in the same way, with the same diversions and licentiousness...he could not refrain from the amusements of the bachelor companies he participated in." Iosif Alexeevich has left and Pierre feels stuck, the analogy of a man stepping in to sinking ground is used.

"He divided all the brothers he knew into four categories. In the first category he included brothers who took no active part either in the affairs of the lodges or in the affairs of the people, but were taken up exclusively with the mysteries of the order's science...In the second category Pierre included himself and similar brothers, seeking, vacillating, who had not yet found in Masonry a straight and clear path, but hoped to find one. In the third category...the majority...saw nothing in Masonry except form and ritual...In the fourth category...were people who...did not believe in anything, did not desire anything..."

After "Pierre went abroad to be initiated into the highest mysteries of the order." there is a line break which flips us to the summer of 1809. Pierre's speech about action and universal brotherhood is not received well. "Pierre was struck for the first time at this meeting by the infinite diversity of human minds, which makes it so that no truth presents itself to two people in the same way." Pierre is rejected, both literally and emotionally and leaves the lodge.

Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):

Pierre Bezukhoi

Iosiph Alekseyevitch (Dole offers this alternative spelling and "Osip". Dunnigan uses the same spelling from earlier and does not add any variation of "Osip" for clarification. Garnett, Wiener, and Briggs keep Osip as the first name as Maude keeps Joseph. Mandelker switches to "Iosif". Edmonds not only keeps Osip, but uses all three names instead of just the two. Bell uses "Bazdeiew")

Villarsky

Grand Master of the Supreme Lodge

(of course, many different undifferentiated members of the lodge)

(Prince B--- and Ivan Vasilyevitch D--- should not be considered as characters since their names are censored and they don't have any attributes other than Pierre mentioned relationship with them)

Abridged Versions:

Line break after "into the highest secrets of the Order." in Mandelker. Briggs, Wiener, Dole, Dunnigan, Maude, Garnett, Bell, and Edmonds also have one in the same spot. No chapter break in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 3: followed by a line break instead of a chapter break.

Fuller: In the opening we get Pierre has returned to his old way of life of falling into temptation, but then all the freemasonary plot is cut, with it cutting to him getting a letter from his wife, which is in the following chapter in the full version.  

Komroff: Some detail is removed, the most dramatic being the four different groups Pierre sorts his Masonic brothers into with the gloss "His masonic brothers wen who, as far as Pierre could observe, had no belief in anything, nor desire of anything, but had entered the brotherhood simply for the sake of getting into touch with wealthy young men, powerful through their connections or their rank, who were numerous in the lodge." This is then followed by him getting a letter from his wife and then his conversation with the freemason he does not respect, which is the subject of the next chapter, removing most of the freemasonry plot.

Kropotkin: Chapter 2: The freemasonry trek and speech is removed, as only the first three paragraphs (ending with "in spite of himself he wades in to the knee") are preserved, cutting then, without a break to him receiving a letter from his wife.
Simmons: Chapter 3: entire chapter is cut and replaced with "Though Pierre works hard at Freemasonry, he cannot resist the temptations of his former life. He tends to ascribe his failure to the emphasis on externals in Russian Masonry, and he seeks wisdom from Masonic lodges abroad. But when he delivers a speech to his fellow Russian Masons on the necessity for action in order to obtain the victory of virtue over vice, he is denounced."

Additional Notes:

Mandelker: Illuminism: the reference is to a German group founded in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt. It was a conspiratorial organization, with strict subordination of members to leaders. Its secret aim--to substitute republican for monarchical institutions--was known officially only by those at the head of the order. The Illuminati were suppressed by the Bavarian government in 1785, but their tendency continued to exert influence among other Masonic orders...the concealed political agenda permeated the Russian branches, and their connection with the Decembrist uprising in 1825 led to their suppression by Nicholas I."

Maude: "Their (Illuminists) ideas were, in part, taken up by Joseph de Maiistre in his Soirees de Saint-Petersbourg, a work that markedly influenced War and Peace."

Hosking: Page 254: "In 1824 the Bible Society was denounced in a vituperative pamphlet by Archimandrite Fotii of the Iuriev Monastery, near Novgorod. He warned of certain "Illuminists"--that is, freemasons--who were plotting to destroy "all empires, churches, religions, civil laws, and order" and to replace them with a universal rationalist faith. The Bible Society was their agent in Russia, distributing pernicious books and "degrading the word of God" by peddling it "in the apothecaries' shops, along with tinctures and ampoules." Fotii appealed to Alexander: "God defeated the visible Napoleon, invader of Russia. Let him now in Your Person defeat the invisible Napoleon."

Ridley: Page 114: "Adam Weishaupt, a Jew...(page 115)...believed that he and his handful of Illuminati could overthrow all governments of kings and bishops in State and Church, and then rule the world; for only the Illuminati could introduce a tolerant and libertarian regime on earth...But most Freemasons did not go along with all the doctrines of the Illuminati; many of them had no idea what these doctrines were, and some of them had not even heard of the Illuminati. When the Freemasons realized what were the ultimate aims of the Illuminati, some of them objected to being associated with them."

Rey: Page 130: "We lack the sources to be precise about Alexander's feelings about Freemasonry, but we do know that many of his close friends (all those in the inner circle), ministers, and advisers were Freemasons and that he himself was undoubtedly initiated in 1803-1804 by Rodion Koshelev."

Bloom: Page 166: “During Pierre’s address to his brother freemasons on a way of regenerating the world, the reader is told that Pierre was driven by the need “to convey his thought to another exactly as he understood it.” That, for Tolstoy, is the impossibility.”

Davis: Page 634: “the most impressive document about freemasonry is its membership list, which is said to include, Francis 1 of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia, Gustav IV of Sweden, Stanislaw-August of Poland, and Paul I of Russia; Wren, Swift, Voltaire, Montesquie, Gibbon, Goethe, Burns, Wilkes, Burke; Haydn, Mozart, Guillotin, and Marat; Generals Lafayette, Kutuzov, Suvorov, and Wellington; Marshals MacDonald and Poniatowski; Talleyrand, Canning, Scott, Trollope, O’Connell, Pushkin, Liszt, Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Kossuth; Leopold I of Belgium, William I of Germany; Eiffel, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Masaryk, Kerensky, Stresemann, and Churchill; and all British kings except one from George IV to George VI.”