Blavatsky in Russia

Blavatsky’s influence on Russia Prior to 1891

(CONTINUED)

 

A period of enthusiasm for German idealism was short in Russia. The Russian philosophical tradition was developed from 1840. The Slavophiles contributed much to establishing Russian independent philosophical thought. It was simultaneously religious and physiological, ontological and cosmological. It joined speculative metaphysics, in-depth psychological ethics, aesthetics, mysticism, and science with a profound appreciation of the world’s movement towards expansion. Russian philosophers sought a theory of the world as a whole, including its transformation.

Among Russian religious philosophers the name of Nikolai Berdyaev (1876-1948) is well known. He reasoned the existence of occult forces in man and the existence of mysterious forces in the Universe, based upon the premise, that if the occult teachings could be traced throughout the history of mankind, then “...they have to have some meaning in them”. Berdyaev studied theosophy by books of German and Biblical mystics. Jacob Boehme was one of his favorite writers. Berdyaev admitted that he could find neither man nor God in the occult teachings. He explained their popularity by “... a cosmic attraction of the epoch, the desire to become immersed within mysterious cosmic forces, within the soul of the world” and also by the inability of the church to fulfill all the inquiries of a modern soul.” Berdyaev really appreciated the situation, that had emerged in Russia at the beginning of the century. He wrote: “In Russia, revolution has been preparing for a whole century, and various kinds of revolutionary movements have been the result ... The old historical flesh of Russia, that had been called sacred, has decomposed, and there has come a need for new flesh to appear. In this situation, the process of re-evaluation of traditional spiritual values has been proceeding. The historical orthodoxy represented to me that which was insufficiently universal, that was closeted and almost sectarian... The new age of Christianity has expressed itself principally through the critic and presentiment.”

 

There emerged an active search for spiritual teachers. One group of intellectuals became attracted by the Russian Orthodox Church. Another large group was attracted towards theosophy and  anthroposophy. Both of these teachings were disseminated throughout Russia as sisters of the one occult and mystic Mother. In 1913 the Anthroposophical Society was founded in St-Petersburg. It included many intellectuals connected with the symbolist publishing house Musaget. There were many remarkable names among them: Vyacheslav Ivanov, Andrei Belyi, Maximilian Voloshin18, Daniel Merezhkovskii. There were also many outstanding poets among them. This was a period of widespread and deep impact of Blavatsky and Steiner’s ideas within Russia. Many objectively written books and articles about theosophy and anthroposophy and about Blavatsky and Steiner were published at that time. Valuable information about a few of the representatives of the first generation of Russian theosophists can be found in the article of A. Gnezdilov. He mentioned, for instance, about A. Usov (1872-1941), who wrote fine stories about animals for children.  In 1914-1915 Usov founded a small theosophical ashram in the Caucasus near Sochi. In the nearest village he planned the building of a sun temple in the shape of a star. Many of his friends visited his ashram. Maximilian Voloshin (1877-1932), an outstanding Russian poet and anthroposophist, built a house in the Crimea. It became an ashram for many theosophists and anthroposophists. One of them was Evgenia Gerzik, a fine researcher of Edgar Poe’s works, who was a good friend of N. Berdyev and N. Lossky, both famous philosophers. Her husband, D. Zhukovsky with his uncle took part in building a theosophical ashram on the Crimean land. The park was founded near the ruins of an ancient temple. Kora Antarova wrote a book Two Lives about theosophy and theosophists. The book is very popular among the Russian reading audience.

However, there was also a section of books not very objectively describing Blavatsky’s ideas and her personality. All in all, there was not a single outstanding Russian philosopher who would become a member of the Russian Association of Theosophists. The majority of Russian scholars and philosophers evaluated its activities with much criticism. Not a single one of them entered into the depths of the world understanding of Blavatsky, to include an understanding with her of Russia’s fate and tragic destiny. The esoteric tragedy of Russia was investigated and described only by the thinker-sufferer Daniel Andreev (1906-1959), son of the well-known poet, in his book Rose of the World. (Metaphilosophy of History). Two well-known Russians used theosophy as a style of their creative work. First was Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), a great artist. He studied The Key to Theosophy and read the books of A. Besant and C.W. Leadbeater. Second was A. Scriabin (1872-1915), an outstanding musician and composer. He wrote to a friend: “I will not discuss with you the truth of theosophy, but I know that Mme Blavatsky’s ideas helped me in my work, and gave me power to accomplish my task.” Masonic lodges started to appear and function in Russia since the beginning of the 18th century. At the same time, many Masonic and cabbalistic books were published. Masons in all probability were also interested in works on theosophy, but the archival materials and literature on the subject are unknown to the author of this article. General studies on Cabbala and Tarot such as Encyclopedia of the Occult, written by Professor Gregory Ossipovich Mebes, a leading authority in Russia prior to 1917 were published at the beginning of the 20th century.

Engineer V. Shmakov was a leading authority on Tarot in Russia. Several new esoteric doctrines appeared under Blavatsky’s influence – by G. Gurdjieff, P. Ouspensky, and Pavel Florensky. The scientific cosmic philosophy of Konstantin Tsialkovskii, V. Vernadskii, and A. Chizhevskii appeared in Russia during the Soviet time.

 

Underground Theosophy and Agni Yoga (1918- 1991)

The tsarist government tried to somewhat limit the associations’ activity. In contrast, the Soviet government flatly forbade theosophy and the association of Russian Theosophists. A few members were forced to emigrate abroad after 1938. Those of the theosophists who stayed in Russia, died later in labor camps and prisons. Whatever measures were used, the regime was not able to counter the attraction to theosophy that the people had. The continuity of theosophical outlook from the tsarist time to that of post-Communist Russia was established through the Roerichs. They emigrated to Europe, America and later to India. There, in India, Helena Roerich wrote the many volumes of Agni-Yoga. Russian emigrants continued to study theosophy in Shanghai (China), in which a lot of Russian emigrants lived at that time, as well as in European capitals. A. Kamenskaya fled to Europe and lived in Geneva. The Russian Association of Theosophists was dispersed in 1938. A few Russian theosophists joined local theosophical societies in countries of Europe, America, and Asia. Some of them played a great role in spreading the theosophical teaching. One such activist was Boris de Zirkoff, Blavatsky’s nephew. He was 19 years old when he arrived in the USA. He learned theosophy for several years and later he was entrusted with the work of preparing, translating and editing his aunt’s articles for publication. Only the first four volumes of the Complete Works of H.P. Blavatsky were published before the Second World War by the Inter-organizational group of theosophists. This group was headed by A. Trevor Barker. He was selected as Editor owing to his reputation as the Editor of the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett and The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett. The remaining 15 volumes of the Collected Works of H.P. Blavatsky were compiled and edited by Boris de Zirkoff after the War. He collected all the articles and manuscripts, which he found in different newspapers and magazines as well as the archives. Knowledge of seven foreign languages, including Russian, helped him to read and print manuscripts in Blavatsky’s handwriting. In 1981 The Theosophical Society (of Adyar) rewarded him the Gold medal in the name of Subba Row, as the outstanding theosophist for publishing the Collected Works of H.P. Blavatsky.

This academic publication was gifted to the Russian Theosophical Society, restored in 1991. It translated and published a lot of articles but not all, selected by the editors of the Russian Publishing House Sphera in Moscow. After World War II theosophical ideas came to Russia from abroad along with the teaching of the Living Ethics. Svetoslav and Yuri Roerich, poet/writer V. Sidorov and orientalist L. Shaposhnikova did much to spread theosophical ideals of Brotherhood in the USSR, writing about the Roerichs’ works. They were the first to begin writing widely about the theosophical outlook of the Roerichs without calling their concepts theosophical. It is possible now to bravely write about the suppression of theosophical groups in Russia after 1918 and some secret underground activities. Thus, there have after 1991 appeared three such articles, published in theosophical magazines on the history of the Russian theosophical movement. In reality there were a few very small groups of theosophists in Moscow and Leningrad, in which family collections of theosophical classics were preserved. They distributed typed or xeroxed copies of some books and had occasional meetings. They were all afraid of being discovered and arrested by the KGB. Popov’s statement describing how they felt themselves “like those of underground resistance movements in occupied countries” cannot be read without humor. He also wrote that “many of us endured various ordeals, such as questioning, arrests and detentions and our libraries were often confiscated. None of us could be sure that the next day would be survived.” In 1987 Mixail Gorbachev invited Svyatoslav Roerich to lunch at the Kremlin and promised him to sponsor a Roerich Center in Moscow. Since this meeting Roerich societies have proliferated throughout the Soviet Union. Raisa Gorbachev was involved in starting a fund in the name of Roerich.

In 1990 Mrs Radha Burnier, President of the Adyar Theosophical Society, was invited to the Soviet Union by a nonpolitical, on governmental association Peace Through Culture, and the Union of Soviet Writers. She visited Moscow and Leningrad in June. An imposing exhibition dedicated to the Mother of modern Theosophy was opened at the Writers’ Union building. There were displayed photos and books of Blavatsky; extracts from her writings, statements by Mahatma Gandhi, J. Nehru, N. Roerich. It was shown on the Soviet TV. On June 19 there was a meeting to honor Blavatsky in the Hall of the Union of Soviet Writers. 500 seats in the hall were insufficient to hold those who came. A large portrait of Blavatsky was surrounded by flowers. These were the days when Mme Blavatsky returned to her Motherland with triumph.

 

Theosophy in Russia Today

The year 1991 was proclaimed by UNESCO as the year of H.P. Blavatsky.

Russian theosophists announced in January that they reestablished the Russian Theosophical Society. D. Popov was elected the Chairman. Two forums dedicated to the 100-year anniversary of the Mother of Modern Theosophy took place in the Soviet Union — in Sochi, (Russia) and Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). Radha Burnier, the President of International Headquarters of Adyar Theosophical Society was invited to take part in the conferences. D. Popov had a meeting with Radha Burnier in Dnepropetrovsk. They discussed the problem of recognition by Adyar of the reestablished Russian Theosophical Society. She refused to recognize it. In her 1991 Presidential Address she explained why she did so:

A Russian TS was formed and registered in Moscow without prior information being sent to us. It consists of persons who have not

become members of our TS, and of groups that have not been  registered as lodges. Their rules also have not been submitted to our International Headquarters, but we were told that they are based on the Rules of the TS in Russia before it was closed down in 1918. This self-styled TS in Russia is, for the reason stated, not an official part of our Society, at least for the present It is therefore necessary to prepare those who apply for the membership in the TS, in order to ensure that the future work of the TS in this part of the world will be  conducted with some understanding of what the Society and Theosophy are.

 

The theme of the history of the theosophical movement in Russia became popular and by 1993 there were published two articles on this subject in American Theosophist (May-June and July-August, 1993), and an academic study titled No Religion Higher than Truth, A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia by Maria Carlson (Princeton University Press, 1993). D. Popov wrote that while restoring the TS, “We saw that one of our first tasks was the need to include all those of the old members who still remained, and to adopt the original by-laws of the Society”. They concerned themselves “with the purity of our ranks and fate of our movement in Russia.” Almost all works on theosophy that had been published in pre-Revolutionary Russia and the ones known to have Russian translation had been reprinted in Russia in the 1990’s. Currently, a lot of works on theosophy are still in the process of translation into Russian. Many of Blavatsky’s works had already been printed by different publishing houses, including Sphera, established by the Russian TS and headed by D. Popov. The books written by the Mother of Modern Theosophy were coming back to her Motherland. In the 1990s a lot of works of the Western philosophers and esotericists have been broadly translated and printed in Russia.

The names and works by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan, by Karlos Kostoneda, Vivekananda,Krishnamurty, Sri Aurobindo and others are well known among Russian esotericists, philosophers, theosophists and occultists. The classic works by the Russian occultists of the beginning of the 20th century have been reprinted. A process of synthesis of Russian religious philosophy, Russian classic occultism with modern teachings of Western and Oriental esotericists and thinkers has commenced and is actively proceeding.

Many esoteric associations, organizations, and groups have been established in Russia since 1991. Some of them are linked with foreign and international associations. Others are independent. The Agni Yoga movement is better organized and better supplied with literature. It is attracting thousands of people into the movement. The Roerich and Agni Yoga associations publish newspapers, newsletters and magazines.

In contrast to them the Russian theosophical groups failed to publish regular issues of their magazine. I saw only two of them: No. 1 of 1992 and No. 2 of 1994. The failure in publishing it could be explained only by the lack of original authors. The situation in the Russian theosophical movement mirrors the one existing in the world theosophical

movement. The reestablished Russian Theosophical Society is headed by D. Popov in Moscow. There is also a group, affiliated to the Adyar Theosophical Society, headed by Nina Veligon in Magnitogorsk, an industrial city, located on the geographical frontier between Europe and Asia. The ties between the Roerich and theosophical movements are loose. The Roerichs left all their pictures and books, and associated copyrights to the Russian Roerich Society. It was a rich material heritage, on the basis of which the society started publishing a lot of books on the Living Ethics. As far as we know the Russian Theosophical Society received nothing from Blavatsky’s property of Adyar neither in her lifetime, nor now. The material foundation of the society was made by hands and brains of young members of the society headed by D. Popov. All the Roerich books had been previously published in Russian and it was not necessary to spend energy and money on their translation. As for Blavatsky’s theosophical books and articles they all were written in English and it was necessary to spend a lot of time and money to translate them to Russian first and then to print them in Russia. Thanks to American donors for their support to the  theosophical publishing house Sphera. Translation work took the entire decade.

The Roerich associations are hostile to all other teachings including those of A Bailey, which were translated to Russian during the last decade. Bailey teachings are becoming popular among Russian esoteric students who consider them a new theosophical key the Archaic Wisdom. The main opponent to the esoteric movement in the past and in the present time is the Church, in Russia — the Orthodox Church. Its leaders excommunicated Nikolai Roerich from the church in 1994 like their predecessors excommunicated Leo Tolstoy, a great Russian novelist, from the church in 1901. History always repeats itself in tragic and curious events. The communist regime failed to change the  reactionary and conservative conciseness of the “spiritual fathers of the Russian nation” as they have called themselves during the course of the 20th century. They did not learn the lesson: the Russian nation has forgotten the excommunicators’ names of Tolstoy forever and the same will happen with contemporary excommunicators of the Roerichs and Blavatsky.

 

Conclusion:

Blavatsky understood that Russia spiritually, religiously, and as a territory is situated closer to the Oriental World, than the West. That is why she wrote her works in English for the Western nations, which would study them in the 19-20th centuries. Blavatsky knew, that powerful opposition by religious leaders would be directed against the theosophical ideals of tolerance and equality of all religions. She expected intrigues, attacks against her on the part of clergymen, including orthodox ones as well as of representatives of academic science. She had no doubt that the Russian religious-philosophical elite would not support the theosophical teaching and would counteract the dissemination of theosophical ideas and the development of the theosophical movement in Russia during the 20th century. In 1991 few people in Russia had heard of Blavatsky. Today all people who are interested in occult and esoteric studies, all healers, try to study theosophical classics. They know that Blavatsky’s influence on Russian culture was deep and direct in the beginning of the 20th century and active and indirect in its last decade. Her ideas are traveling over her Motherland conquering the minds of intelligentsia and the youth.

The influence of Blavatsky is growing through her classical works printed in hundreds of thousands of copies, and through works of the Roerichs, Rudolf Steiner and Alice Bailey, in Russia and throughout the world. For example, The Secret Doctrine was printed in more than 250 000 copies in the course of the last decade.

I would not be surprised if the esoteric classics would be studied in Russian universities soon. In Blavatsky’s life time members of theosophical lodges were recruited from aristocratic circles and intelligentsia. Today the main aim of all the esoteric organizations is to recruit members from the young people. Not only political parties and commercial monopolies are fighting for the influence over the youth, but the churches and mosques, as well as esoteric associations.

 

Modern youth differs from that of the beginning of last century in the areas of education and cultural interests. Can modern theosophists work together with European, American and Russian youth? Can they adapt their teaching materials, which were written by authors belonging to the first generation of theosophists? It is clear that young representatives, members of the theosophical lodges of the modern youth in all countries should explain theosophy to young contemporaries in Russia and elsewhere. The influence of Blavatsky in Russia will grow through the wide dissemination of her teachings, and the teachings of Helena Roerich and Alice Bailey among Russian intelligentsia and youth.

In the near future we could expect the publication of works on theosophy and the history of the theosophical movement, written by Russian scientists, philosophers, and historians. Passing on Esoteric Teachings to Russia: Surprisingly much is spoken about Russia in the works of the Tibetan and Master Morya. It explains, as is confirmed convincingly by astrological research, that to Russia in the 21^st century will come an extraordinarily important mission — the founding of the New World Religion, of the new world culture of the sixth subrace of the fifth Root Race.

The Tibetans foretold that in the 20th century, there would emerge in the world a wide range of esoteric schools. One of them would arise in Russia, later than in Western Europe or in USA. Then this school will become a higher discipleship-esoteric institution, which will work through all of Northern and Eastern Europe. The problems of discipleship and creating a program of training and education of disciples and members of the group of world servers in contemporary esoteric schools is complicated and interesting. This problem is eternal, and how it is decided in each historical age is dependent upon those tasks, which are placed before the disciples of a Master. The creation of theosophical and esoteric colleges, institutes and universities of distant esoteric training, such as the Seven Ray Institute, is the latest word in esoteric education and psychology. And so Russia is presently passing through a preparatory period. During this period the most important task is a study of the experiences in esoteric training that have accumulated in the West. The New Universal Teaching could not be born in Russia while it was separated from the whole world by the “iron curtain” and the Berlin Wall. Nor is it able to be born in the Russia of today: the changes have only begun, and hardly count in hastening events.

 

Interest in Russia.

This new chapter follows on from the chapter on Fiona Odgren (see HCT Jan/2001), vice-President of the Victoria (British Colombia) T.S., and publisher editor for the theosophical newsletter magazine Pathways. I first read about the work conducted at the Victoria T.S. in an article authored by Fiona in the Moscow magazine, Delphis. In it she explained that the Victoria group is involved in productive theosophical work. The Society holds its meetings in modest rented premises, which house a well-stocked library of the theosophical classics by H.P. Blavatsky, W.Q. Judge, and G. de Purucker for loan by members and visitors. Everyone, who comes to meetings of heosophists, can make use of it. Besides that, members of the Society has its own household library of esoteric books. Their study is an ongoing one in which they try to plumb the depths of the Ageless Wisdom. In her article in Delphis she wrote about their Russian contacts. I asked her permission to take some paragraphs from her article to describe them:

 

"We decided to call our new magazine newsletter Pathways to reflect the eclectic and pluralistic approach of Theosophy and wrote in the first issue’s editorial:  'We have called it Pathways to illustrate the relative universality of the Inner Quest. There are many Ways or Pathways to the mountaintop. Each one of us will have to climb it alone, but in the knowledge that many have gone before and will come after. Thus we hold out our hands to those above and in turn to our comrades below who are in need of assistance.... Copies were mailed out to other theosophists and friends across Canada, the U.S. and several countries abroad…'”

In 1990 heralded the beginnings of our link with Russia. During the fall of 1990 our members read with great interest about the visit of Radha Burnier, the international President of the Theosophical Society, to Russia and her lecture to over 500 people on Theosophy in the hall of the Soviet Writers’ Union. Your great land – on the verge of tremendous changes – was experiencing a resurrection of spiritual movements including Theosophy. These latest reports fired our imagination and we had a desire to reach out to our like-minded Russian brothers and sisters. On behalf of the group I wrote to the newly formed Moscow and St. Petersburg theosophical lodges expressing our friendship and offering support. Within a short time we received letters from Dr. Luba Bytchikhina (now Luba Zubkova le-Pair), the then international secretary for the reviving theosophical movement and Mr. Mikhail Shiriatev of the St. Petersburg Theosophical Society. Both described the enormous task of giving a new impetus to theosophy and popularizing the achievements of those stalwart souls who had kept the flame of theosophy alive through the dark decades of totalitarianism.

 

From that moment on, with the promise of exchange of materials, a productive and enriching relationship was initiated between our group and Russia .... “Soon we received through Luba an article written in English based on a talk given by A. V. Gnezdilov of the St. Petersburg Theosophical Society in which he described the lives and work of little known theosophists during the dark decades of Communist rule. To us, it was a great honor to print this article in our modest Pathways magazine (Autumn 1991, Vol. 6 no. 3) for this was certainly the first time it had seen the light of day in the western world. In the following year, Luba sent us another intriguing article: A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, which was based on material she had researched in the archives at Adyar... This too we printed in ‘Pathways’ (Autumn’1992 issue, Vol. 7 no 3.) to the great interest of the readers. ... “Then with the help of my Russian language teacher and her husband (Alex and Ina Smolov who originally came from Odessa nearly 20 years ago) we assembled a special Russian version of  Pathways, which we called The Path to Enlightenment. It was a potpourri of articles from earlier issues and included art-work by a notable Hungarian artist in our midst, Judit Fisi. We printed 50 copies of the magazine and through Luba they were distributed to theosophical centres in the major Russian cities. ... “The Russian karmic connection with our group took a surprising turn in the summer of 1992. Through a Russian friend (Gennady Ploshkin) I heard about a Peace Through Culture Society (independent from the one in Russia) operating at the beautiful, Alpine-like ski resort of Whistler, 80 miles north of Vancouver. It had been started by Dr. Paul Weinzweig, a Canadian born and bred and an ex-university teacher in the fields of social sciences, and his wife, Paulina, an engineer from Odessa who had fled from the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

 

The society had been involved in projects for a number of years both in Canada and Russia and was inspired by the noble principles and work of the Roerichs, especially the Banner for Peace movement, which Nikolai Roerich inaugurated in the 1930s. “In the summer of 1992, the Weinzweigs had arranged for a number of Russian musicians and artists to come and take part in cultural-philosophical programs in British Columbia. Intrigued by their work, I wrote to Paul and was invited to attend a performance in the Russian Orthodox Church in Vancouver. It was called Illusions and took the unusual format of a musical interspersed with a philosophical narration. The music consisted entirely of Russian songs from folk, to operatic and religious, and featured three outstanding Russian singers - a soprano, tenor, and bass. Paul Weinzweig provided the philosophical narration in between the musical items. Like a modern day Socrates he contemplated and commented on the present situation in Russia as a mirror of what is happening in the world at large and with the help of ancient myths conveyed the message that in order to regain our sanity and wholeness we need to rediscover our spiritual roots and divine heritage. During the intermission I struggled through the crowds to the basement area (it seemed the entire Russian population of Vancouver had turned out in full force!) to view the Russian painting and to meet Dr. Weinzweig. That meeting precipitated a significant karmic relationship between our group and the Weinzweigs, which is still unfolding. “On the basis of my enthusiasm for the Illusions program, our theosophical group decided to invite the Weinzweigs and Russian singers to a repeat performance in Victoria. Not having any pre-arranged engagements on Vancouver Island, they were more than happy to agree and then of course the ball was in our court to find a suitable venue and attract an audience.

The local television station showed interest in the forthcoming event and I was invited to speak about it on a local arts program. We chose an auditorium in a local community college and the show went ahead on September 19 of 1992, to a packed house. As with Intimations we could not have wished for a better outcome. The audience was spellbound with the high caliber of singing and expression of the Russian soul. ...“The following day, Paul gave a well received public talk at our theosophical meeting place entitled Culture and Spiritual Path. The two days’ unforgettable events were crowned that evening with a reception and buffet for the Weinzweigs and the Russian performers held at my sister’s house. There, after the repast, the singers suddenly surprised us with an impromptu concert of more soul-stirring music…“Our gratefulness to Paul cannot be fully expressed in words. During the past two years, he has given us a number of admirable discourses including Education in the New Age, Initiation and Discipleship, The Teachings of Agni Yoga, Citizens of the Universe, SpiritualPolitics: Cuba at the Crossroads, Healing and the Feminine Principle and led numerous discussions based on excerpts from the Mahatma Letters, Key to Theosophy, Andrew Harvey’s Dialogues with a Mystic, and video presentations such as When We Die, The Search for Shambhalla, and Spiritual Politics. It should not be neglected to mention too, that with Paul’s leadership and knowledge of Agni Yoga and the Roerichs’ Teaching of Living Ethics, since June 1996, a group of members from our lodge have been meeting on Tuesday evenings to study Agni Yoga.”

 

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