The article examines the relationship between Alexander I and one of his "intimate" friends, A.N. Golitsyn, in the context of the transfer of European ideas. The Great French Revolution, which led to the destruction of the old established order, gave rise to the antimasonic discourse and the emergence of the myth of the pan-European conspiracy. All of these ideas permeated Russian society, but did't motivate the emperor to change the political course, which was characterized by a mystical orientation and the wide dissemination of lodges. Two concepts were formed: ecumenism and the Masonic conspiracy. Both Alexander I and A.N. Golitsyn continued to following the principles of the first of them, despite the fact that the logical consequence should had been complete and total denial. Only by the mid1820s. the positions of the Russian party had been gradually strengthening, and solely the hysterics of Archimandrite Photius in 1824 made it possible to remove the prince from his positions.