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Freemasonry in Ukraine (Ukrainian:Вільне мулярство,Вільне каменярство) has appeared sometime in the mid 18th century when the first lodges were created on its territory at that time within thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
On a record the first lodgeof Three Brothers was created in the village of Vyshnivka inVolhynia in 1742 by Polish noblemen. In Lviv the first lodgeof Three Goddesses appeared in 1758 (part ofAustro-Hungary).
The first lodge in Malorossiya (Russian Empire) was established inKyiv in 1784 by Russian officers. One of the members of that lodge which was namedBessmertie wasHryhoriy Skovoroda. The lodge was created eventually after the firstPartition of Poland. The next year 1784 three lodges have appeared inKremenchuk:Mars,Dobry Pastyr, andMinerva. The last one Minerva was transferred to theDnieper banks from the city ofPodolieNemyriv. It is known that freemasonry existed in Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Yekaterinoslav,Berdichev, others. Later (1780-90s) couple lodges existed in each of the following citiesDubno,Kremenchuk,Zhytomyr, andKyiv (Bessmertie and Tri kolonny). (Tri kolonny was recreated in 1993.) In the 19th century the popularity of them only increased throughout Ukraine and Crimea.
In theSloboda Ukraine existed a lodge "Palitsynska Akademia". The "Malorusian Secret Brotherhood" that was created by V.Lukashevych and sought the independence of Ukraine also was connected with freemasonry movement that continued to spread rapidly. In Kharkiv the most famous was the lodge "Umirayushchiy Sfinks" (Dying Sphinx) that was created sometime after 1764 when Kharkiv was visited by a Moscow University professorViganda.
In 1822Aleksandr I issued an order prohibiting freemasonry and it seemed that it will stop, however, the movement since then simply went underground.
