Blavatsky’s
Writings on Russia
Even though living a rather nomadic life, Blavatsky still maintained much contact with Russia, and often shared interesting news about Russia to english-speaking audiences. Below is a sampling that give an extra glimpse into the Russian character of her personality.
She was actually quite candid about her attitude to her natal country, stating in a newspaper interview:
"No, I
am an American by adoption - I respect American religious freedom - but I am
still a good Russian at heart. Only, there is too little freedom at home; that
is why I do not go back. I have not been in Russia for many years; I would not
care to give my friends and relations a chance of shutting me up in a convent
for life on the plea that I was a victim of illusions. I like the Emperor
personally, if only because of the long relations of my family with the
Imperial house. We have always been loyal supporters of the throne. I see very
little Russian society even at Nice, where I might see everybody. It is so
unpleasant to find them wondering why you do not go to Church, and to the Greek
Church."
The Making of a Global Community:
Blavatsky’s Travelogues from 1879 to 1886
Marina Alexandrova Oct 8, 2021
This paper presents the history of publication and analysis of Blavatsky’s three works written in Russian about India, The Mysterious Tribes of the Blue Mountains, Durbar of Lahore, and From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, all initially published in serialized form in the leading Russian periodicals and separate editions between 1879 and 1886.
Liberation Theosophy: Discovering India and Orienting Russia between Velimir Khlebnikov and Helena Blavatsky
Anindita Banerjee PMLA , Volume 126 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 610 - 624
Anindita Banerjee PMLA , Volume 126 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 610 - 624
Why
would Khlebnikov invoke Blavatsky, the founder of a spiritual movement called
heosophy, in a meditation on
worldly violence framed by the First World War and the impending October
Revolution? And why would he single out India,
geographically and historically distant from Russia’s upheavals in the twentieth
century, as a locus for discovering Russian identity? Khlebnikov’s own account
of a journey to India,
composed simultaneously with A New Lesson about War, provides a tantalizingly complex
answer to this enigma.
The Russian Investigation
another disgrace for science.—the St. Petersburg
professors imitate those of Harvard and London. — A. N. Aksakoff’s noble
protest.
[Spiritual Scientist, Boston, Vol. IV, April 27, 1876, pp. 85-7] Collected
Writings,V.1, 204Translation of a letter of protest against irregularities by the
commission appointed by the society of
physical sciences of the St. Petersburg University, for the investigation of
mediumistic manifestations.
 |
| A. N. Aksakov |
[Banner of Light, Boston, Vol. XXXIX, No. 5, April 29, 1876, p. 8] CW,
V.1, 210
Comments and translation of protest by Alexander Mikhaylovich Butlerov regarding previous irregularities
The Russian Scientists
Excitement in St. Petersburg.—a protest by the highest nobility of the
empire.—the severest rebuke a scientific body ever had.
[Banner of Light, Boston, Vol. XXXIX, June 24,1876, p. 8] CW, V.1, 215
Another letter of protest on the high-profile Russian investigation with an impressive number of signatures. Blavatsky criticizes Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
Turkish Barbarities
[The World, New
York, August 13, 1877] CW,
V.1, 255
Defends Russian against reports of war crimes in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Received correspondence from Alexander Yulyevich de Witte (1846-1877) the second son of Yuliy
Feodorovich de Witte and Katherine Andreyevna de Fadeyev, sister of
H.P.B.’s mother. He was a younger brother of Serguey Yulyevich de Witte who became Prime Minister of Russia.
“I regard this war not as one of Christian against Muslim, but as one
of humanity and civilization against barbarism.”
[New York World, Sept. 25th, 1877] CW, V.1, 262
Blavatsky writes to defend against news statements that Jews are oppressed in Russia.
The State of Russia (From a
Correspondent)
[The Pioneer, Allâhâbâd, May 4, 1881] CW, V.3, 155
Dramatic, eloquent, insightful account of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.
 |
| Alexander II |
War in Olympus
[The Theosophist, Vol. I, No. 2, November, 1879, pp. 40-42]
The Teutons and Slavs in the case under observation, are not
fighting according to their nationality but conformably to their
respective beliefs and unbeliefs. Having concluded, for the occasion, an
offensive as well as a defensive alliance, regardless of race—they have
broken up in two camps, one representing the spiritualists, and the
other the skeptics. And now war to the knife is declared. Leading one
party, are Professors Zöllner, Ulrici,
and Fichte, Butleroff and Wagner, of the Leipzig, Halle and St.
Petersburg Universities; the other follows Professors Wundt,
Mendeleyeff, and a host of other German and Russian celebrities.
[H.P.B.’S Writings in Russian]
CW, V.1, 313
There are some Russian newspaper writings of Blavatsky that do not seem to have been located.
A Russian folk belief related by Evgeny Lvovich Markov
[The Theosophist. Vol. I, No. 12, September, 1880, pp. 308-309] CW,
V.2, 444
The Study of Russian by Indian
Officers
[Bombay Gazette, Bombay, February 21, 1881] CW, V.3, 46
Likes the idea of Anglo-Indian-Russian cross-cultural language learning exchanges.
A Russian “Symposium”
[The Pioneer,
Allahabad, March 1, 1881] CW, V.3, 75
Comments on Russian writers articles on Anglo-Indian/ Russian relations. ''We need hardly explain that, in giving an account of this controversy,
we aim merely at showing on what inaccurate pictures of the whole
situation the public opinion of Russia is nourished—not at reproducing
views which have any substantial claims to attention.''
What scientific Russia knows
of Ceylon
[The Theosophist,
Vol. V, No. 5 (53), February, 1884, p. 110] CW, V.6, 138
Debunks reports that the Singhalese practice polyandry.
Are all Russian ladies Russian
agents?
What Madame Blavatsky has to say
[Pall Mall Gazette, London, Vol. XLIX, January 3, 1889, p. 7] CW, V.10,
291
A good example of all the truly amazing amount of rumours circulating about her, even in her own lifetime, to which she would frequently respond to. Blavatsky is portrayed in a novel, 'Miss Hildreth' by Augusta de Grasse Stevens. Gives a hint as to the origin of the doubtful correspondence with 'Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff'. ''Prince Doudaroff Korsakoff stands probably as the cunning anagram of
Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff? This gentleman has been a friend of my
family and myself since 1846; yet beyond two or three letters exchanged,
I have never corresponded with him. It was Mr. Primrose, Lord Lytton’s
Secretary, who was the first to write to him, in order to sift to the
bottom another mystery. The Anglo-Indian Mrs. Grundy had mistaken me for
my ‘twin-brother’ apparently, and people wanted to know which of us was
drowned in the washtub during our infancy—myself or that
‘twin-brother,’ as in the fancy of the immortal Mark Twain. Hence the
correspondence for purposes of identification.''
Neo-Buddhism
CW, V.12, 334
Unpublished
response to Vladimir Solovyov’s review of The Key to Theosophy , in Russkoe obozrenie, 1890, no. 8,
pp.
881–886.
An
example of a certain type of intellectual who refuses to engage with
her writings per se, due to her reputation and the misconceptions
regarding Theosophy. She does quite well in dealing with this and
despite obvious struggles, succeeds in remaining fairly diplomatic. Not
too sure how this even begins to be about the Sarva-darsana-Sangraha of Mâdhavâchârya, but serves to show her capacity to go head-to-head with a leading Russian intellectual, defending the traditional six darshanas, schools of Hindu philosophy, which today are considered much more standard than the Mâdhavâchârya listing.
from the diary of an old physician By N. I. Pirogoff (Translated from
the Russian by H.P.B.)
[Lucifer, Vol. VII. December, 1890, and January and February,
1891; Vol. VIII, March, April, May, June, July, August, 1891;
Vol. IX, October, 1891.] CW, V.12, 403
Interesting esoteric commentary on the mystical observations from a great Russian scientist's memoirs.
