The Ulyanovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore named after Ivan Goncharov presents the symbolic jewel of the Masonic lodge Les Amis Réunis (United Friends) — two hands interlocking in a handshake inside a Masonic triangle.
The United Friends Masonic Lodge (Les Amis Réunis) existed in Saint Petersburg from June 19 (July 1), 1802 until Freemasonry was banned in Russia in 1822. The Russian lodge was based on the 18th-century Parisian lodge Les Amis Réunis. The motto of the lodge was “Sun, Science, Reason”, and its goal was “to erase differences between races, classes, beliefs, to exterminate fanaticism, superstition, to destroy national hatred, war and unite all mankind with the bonds of love and knowledge.” The founder and Worshipful Master of the United Friends Lodge was Alexander Alexeyevich Zherebtsov, a freemason of the highest degrees of initiation. By 1810, the lodge consisted of 50 active and 29 honorary members, including Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, Master of Imperial Ceremonies Count Naryshkin, future Chief of Gendarmes under Nicholas I Alexander Khristoforovich Benkendorf, famous reformer of European Freemasonry Ignaz Aurelius Fessler, as well as Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadayev, Pavel Ivanovich Pestel, Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov and others.
Simbirsk was one of the few Russian cities where two Masonic lodges were founded: the “Golden Crown” (1784) and the “Key to Virtue” (December 1817). The Golden Crown Lodge was established in 1784 by Ivan Petrovich Turgenev (1752–1807) — one of the most active figures in Moscow Freemasonry during the reign of Catherine the Great and a member of the Friendly Scientific Society, who became the Grand Master of the lodge. The managing master of the lodge was Simbirsk Vice-Governor Alexander Fyodorovich Golubtsov. The Golden Crown Lodge consisted of renowned and influential Simbirsk citizens, including young Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin, who would become a well-known Russian historian. With the accession of Paul I to the throne in 1876, Turgenev received the rank of Active Privy Councillor and was appointed head of Moscow University. The Key to Virtue Lodge was founded in 1817 by Prince Mikhail Petrovich Baratayev — a poet, numismatist, participant in the Russian-French campaign of 1806–1807 and one of the most active representatives of Russian Freemasonry. In 1815, Baratayev became a member of the United Friends Lodge in Saint Petersburg.
The jewel of the United Friends Lodge was donated to the museum in 1970 by Oleg Matveyevich Golovinsky; it belonged to his grandfather Vasily Andreyevich Golovinsky.
