The Petersburg Crucible: Alchemy and the Russian Nobility in Catherine the Great’s Russia*

Abstract

This article studies the cultural significance of alchemy among the Russian nobility in St. Petersburg during the reign of Catherine the Great. It is argued that Catherine the Great perceived alchemy as a Western practice promoted by foreign charlatans and by mystically-inclined Freemasons, which threatened to undermine the foundations of her vision of Russia being a beacon of reason and enlightenment. The first section of this paper concentrates on Petr Ivanovich Melissino and examines the manner in which this prominent Russian aristocrat incorporated alchemy as a core component of his seven-grade Masonic Rite. The high-grade system came to prominence in St. Petersburg in the mid 1760s and it is argued that it acted as a focus for Russian and European aristocrats. The second part of this article studies the impact on the Russian nobility of the visit of Cagliostro to St. Petersburg between 1779 and 1780. This section includes an in-depth examination of the empress’s personal response to Cagliostro’s visit, which included a series of remarkable letters to Grigorii Potemkin. The final part of this article studies the public response of Catherine to the attraction of alchemy among her nobility in the 1780s, via the medium of theatrical comedies.