Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is known as an outstanding researcher of ancient teachings, writer, traveler, philosopher, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society. Some sources call her a supporter of the occult and spiritualism, others see her as a philosopher, scientist and religious scholar.
The combination in it, at first glance, opposite and to some extent secret knowledge caused in society in the nineteenth century. great resonance. And through the centuries, the legacy of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is of interest, is being researched and studied. Scientific conferences are regularly held in Dnipro, for example, the annual scientific and practical conference “Helena Blavatskaya and the Present”.
Today we propose to look into the old red brick building at number 11 on the street of Prince Yaroslav the Wise in the Dnieper, where the woman thinker was born.
House of Blavatsky
Head of the Department of the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum named after D. Yavornitsky, “Museum“ Literary Pridneprovie ”, Helena Alivantseva established that it was in this building that the writer Helena Andreevna Gan lived (Gan is the maiden name of Helena Blavatskaya). Investigating family relations, she established that this house belonged to the noble family of the Fadeevichs in 1816 - 1834, as well as the fact that an outstanding researcher of ancient teachings, philosopher, religious scholar, writer, founder of the International Theosophical Society, Helena Blavatskaya, is the daughter of the writer Helena Andreevna Gan. Today Helena Alivantseva is the author of the concept and scientific director of the museum project "The Museum Center of Helena Blavatsky and Her Family", which is currently being created here.
- It will be a museum, which will tell not only about Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, but also about her family. The pilot exposition is dedicated to seven family members, - says the head of the "Museum Center of Helena Blavatsky and Her Family" of the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum. D. Yavornitsky Yulia Revenko.
In January 2018, by the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the building of the Museum Center received the status of Landmarks of National Importance.
The employees of the museum center dream that a second part will also be created nearby - the Science Center, on the basis of which the heritage of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky will be investigated.
Thus, the house is a classic urban-type manor house of the first half of the 19th century with a nice, large orchard. Inside the house, a lot of probes are outlined in blue paint, which were made in the course of historical and architectural research and the establishment of the initial appearance of the house. They are in no hurry to close these probes, because they are already exhibits.
The museum also displays copies of documents, paintings and more.
Since 2011, during the “summer period”, the Museum Center has hosted various meetings, the theme of which is the legacy of E.P. Blavatsky, the Club of Theosophical Knowledge is in session.
On August 12, on the birthday of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, annual scientific readings are held. On the eve of their museum workers spend volunteer decades. These events involve, first of all, people who are close and interested in the personality and heritage of E.P. Blavatsky, theosophists come from India, America, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain.
Workers and volunteers carry out cleaning here, antifungal treatment of the premises and the facade, in order to protect the old brick from destruction.
The floor in the museum remained wooden, post-war, however, it had a multilayer coating of old paint, which no chemical solvents could take, and construction electrophones could not cope with it, so they had to kneel down and manually pick out and clean up one centimeter with hammers.
The same was done with window frames: they were taken out, glass was removed, cleaned to wood, then painted again, glass and inserted.
After the family of E.P. Blavatsky sold this estate in 1834; several owners changed here: before the revolution, the building housed a women's gymnasium; then - a hostel, where about 20 families lived; after the war, the Budmash plant management was located for some time; later - evening school; then the estate was transferred to the balance of the Ministry of Education and there was a vocational school here. For some time she was no longer working, only the fact that there was always an attendant and a telephone was saved from theft.
Due to its proximity to the center, this city building was attractive to various public organizations and individuals. They tried to take possession of it in any way, because the museum was embroiled in a lawsuit for several years.
- Here, the locks were knocked down, and the attendants were carried out and laid on the ground. Several years ago, three bottles of the flaming mixture were thrown into the house between 3 and 4 in the morning. One crashed somewhere outside, and two flew inside, there was a fire. Fortunately, the attendant woke up and extinguished the flame, which almost reached the ceiling, which is 4 meters, - says Revenko.
MANOR'S OWNER
The museum currently has three rooms with experimental exhibitions. One of them is dedicated to the Blavatsky family. Some of the documents presented at the exposition are kept in the funds of the Dnepropetrovsk Historical Museum, some are taken from various sources.
The owner of the estate on Peterburgskaya Street (the name of the street at the time of Yekaterinoslav - ed.) Was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeev, the grandfather of Helena Petrovna Blavatskaya. In 1816, he acquired this estate from the first owner, the Mennonite Jacob Thevs.
- Andrei Mikhailovich came here in 1815 to serve in the Guardianship Committee (of the colonists of the southern region) of the settlers of the southern region. The office of this committee was then located in the building of the present museum "Literary Dnieper". A year later, he purchased the estate and moved his family here. They lived in Yekaterinoslav for 18 years, then Andrei Mikhailovich was sent to serve in Odessa, - says Yulia Revenko.
Later, Fadeev regretted that he had to leave everything: a large house, a gorgeous garden - and move to a new place. The garden was really good, because Andrei Mikhailovich was fond of breeding new varieties of fruit trees and stood near the origins of the pomology society in Yekaterinoslav.
The Technical and City Gardens (now the Lazar Globa Park) were located nearby; later they were combined into the Kazenny Garden, which became an outstanding landmark of Yekaterinoslav at that time. In addition to fruit and ornamental trees, it had large vegetable gardens and greenhouses, a vineyard and an establishment for breeding silkworms. A gardening school with a nursery for fruit and forest trees, shrubs, fodder and plant grasses worked at the Garden. This educational institution trained gardeners and gardeners. The garden consisted of 31 thousand fruit and 193 thousand forest trees, 23 thousand shrubs, 569 varieties of flowers and greenhouse plants and many other species.
Vissarion Belinsky, when he visited Yekaterinoslav, wrote in a letter to his wife: "Can you imagine, there are 49 species of apple trees alone."
After Odessa, Andrei Mikhailovich was sent to Astrakhan, where he was the main guardian over the peoples who lead a nomadic lifestyle; then he was appointed governor to Saratov; the last appointment was to the Caucasus, to Tiflis, where he died and was buried.
PRINCESS DOLGORUKAYA
The wife of Andrei Mikhailovich is Helena Pavlovna Fadeeva, nee - Princess Dolgorukaya. It is known that the Dolgoruky family comes from the prince of Chernigov, who was martyred in the Horde for refusing to accept paganism. The cross of Mikhail of Chernigovsky was kept in this family.
Helena Pavlovna Fadeeva, the grandmother of Helena Blavatsky, made the public in the first half of the 19th century talk about women in science. She was very thoroughly and successfully engaged in natural history, botany, mineralogy, archeology. She was a famous collector-numismatist.
In the scientific world, Helena Pavlovna Fadeeva was recognized by European scientists. German scientist-encyclopedist Alexander von Humboldt, English geologist, founder of the Geographical Society Rodrik Murchison, Swedish botanist Christian Steven, who studied the flora and fauna of the Crimea and the Caucasus, corresponded with her.
She died in Tiflis before her husband and was buried on the territory of one of the churches.
PARENTS OF HELEN BLAVATSKY
- Without a doubt, Helena Pavlovna was a talented teacher, knew five foreign languages, painted beautifully, played musical instruments and raised a number of outstanding personalities - her children and grandchildren.
One of them is a daughter, Helena Andreevna Gan, who became the mother of Helena Blavatsky. For her time, Helena Andreevna was a famous writer, wrote 11 stories and entered Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century. Belinsky and Turgenev wrote about her, - emphasizes Revenko.
Her first story "Ideal" was published in 1838 and was about the Yekaterinoslav, whom the writer saw him. And in the story of a later time "Utbala" Helena Gan gives a very good description of the Dnieper rapids. She writes: “There, the waves are always boiling and bubbling, breaking through the granite walls, and one might think that the spirit of the mist has piled stones on stones, rocks on rocks to block the path of the waves and throw the river out of its bed. But the proud river, a witness of the glory of our princes, does not yield, gathering all its strength, it climbs from stone to stone, rushes into the abyss, turns, beats with fountains and, finding no way out, again climbs the cliff with a roar and despair. In the eternal struggle, granites are shaking and, finally, it makes its way to freedom. "
Helena Andreevna Gan was born in the city of Rzhishchev, Kiev province in 1814 and came to Yekaterinoslav with her parents. She grew up here, went down the aisle from this estate, came here to give birth to her first child - daughter Helena. She died early, at the age of 28, from tuberculosis, leaving three children. The eldest Helena at that time was 11, the average Vera was 7 years old, the younger Leonid was more than two years old.
Helena Andreevna herself knew several languages and continued to study them, was creatively gifted, wrote musical works.
Helena Blavatsky's father is Pyotr Alekseevich Gan. His portrait has not survived, but the coat of arms of his family has survived, which comes from the old titled German family Hahn von Roterstern Hahn. According to family legend, the ancestor of Peter Alekseevich was a knight-crusader. In one of the campaigns he was saved by the crow of a rooster, since that time the rooster began to decorate the coat of arms and shield of the Rotersterns, and Gahn was added to the surname (from German - rooster).
Pyotr Alekseevich graduated from the page corps and became an officer of the horse artillery, a battery commander. After leaving military service, he worked as the chief postmaster in the city of Grodno.
The uncle of Helena Blavatsky, Rostislav Andreevich Fadeev, was born in the same estate. He was a military historian, writer, publicist, and public figure. Fyodor Dostoevsky called him a general thinker. As a military specialist, he was even invited to Egypt to reorganize the Egyptian army.
Aunt Blavatsky - Nadezhda and Kate. Nadezhda Andreevna never married, lived with her older sister Ekaterina Andreevna, helping her raise five children.
Nadezhda was a public figure, a publicist; keeping the collection of the mother, increased it to a private museum. According to contemporaries, this museum had a lot of dishes, Turkish and Persian carpets, mosaics, various weapons, and fossils.
But, first of all, she was a friend for her niece, thanks to her, Helena Blavatsky did not lose touch with her homeland, as evidenced by the postcards of Blavatsky, which she sent to her aunt from different parts of the world.
Another member of the family is Blavatsky's own sister, Vera Petrovna Zhelikhovskaya, who, like her mother, became a writer, wrote for children and youth. The books were reprinted six to eight times and were in demand because they helped educate young people on the ideals of Orthodox ethics.
A prominent figure in the cohort of prominent people from the Gan family is the paternal grand-nephew, Pyotr Alekseevich Gan (full namesake of Blavatsky's father), who became a professor at the Institute of Forestry in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan - ed.). He worked at this institute, then headed it, in 2011 the institute was named in his honor.
WORLD BROTHERHOOD
The second exhibition hall is dedicated to the life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. From birth, she was surrounded by signs of a difficult fate. In 1831, a cholera epidemic was raging in Yekaterinoslav. Fadev Sr. was surprised and delighted that his wife, Princess Dolgorukaya, personally treated and nursed the courtyards when one of them was sick with cholera. The pregnant Helena Gan also transferred it, which became the reason that the child was born weak.
It was time for Helena's christening. They were accommodated in the house. At that time, many relatives, guests, servants gathered. Through negligence, the priest's clothing caught fire from the flame of a candle. The fire was extinguished, and they began to say that this was a sign that a difficult fate awaited the girl.
At the age of five, Helena was already studying English and French with the governesses, taking dance and music lessons. At the age of 10, she began to study German, at the same time she learned to ride horses. Moreover, not as it should be for the lady, but as the cavalrymen rode in her father's battery.
After the family moved to Tiflis, Helena at less than 18 years old married the 42-year-old vice-governor of Yerevan Nikifor Vasilyevich Blavatsky, who, according to him, was a descendant of Hetman Blavatko.
Helena very quickly returned to her family, so the marriage can be considered almost formal. At the family council, it was decided to send her to her father, but on the way she decided to go on a journey that lasted ten years.
- First, she will visit Constantinople, where she will communicate with the dancing dervishes. Their dance is a prayer to God. In Africa, Bedouins, sorcerers, representatives of different tribes become her interlocutors. In Egypt, she will study the book of the ancient Egyptians, their language, symbolism, and so on - in every country, wherever she finds herself. Interestingly, in these travels, her goal was not just contemplation of something amazing, she was not looking for entertainment. Blavatsky was interested in how people of different faiths perceive this world.
After that, Helena comes to Europe. In 1851 she attends the World's Fair in London. It is from here that Blavatsky will want to get to Tibet, but the attempt will be unsuccessful.
The second attempt will be more successful, but short-lived, because the Tibetan uprisings will begin. Madame Blavatsky will return to Europe, and after a ten-year absence she will return to her homeland. Together with their sister Vera, they will visit Kiev, St. Petersburg, Odessa, but they will spend most of their time in the Caucasus with their relatives.
From the Caucasus, Blavatsky leaves for Tibet for the third time, the journey of 1864 will be the most successful.
Researchers of Blavatsky's biography agree that Helena Petrovna left Tibet in 1871. First, she came to visit relatives in Odessa, where she stayed for nine months, then went to Europe, and in 1873 arrived in New York.
In 1875 Helena Blavatsky, Henry Olcott and William Quin Judge became the founders of the Theosophical Society in the United States. Initially, the only postulate of this society was proclaimed - this is the creation of the basis of universal human brotherhood without distinctions: skin color, gender, faith are not important, people can unite, despite all this, for the sake of some bright goal.
- Did Blavatsky have supernatural powers?
- Yes, we know about some of them. It was in London in 1851, as part of the Indian delegation, that she saw a man who seemed familiar to her. As she said, she saw him from childhood in her dreams. It is also strange that this meeting took place on the day of her 20th birthday, August 12. The next day she again came to Hyde Park and the stranger himself approached her. This is how the meeting between the student and the Teacher took place, whom Helena Blavatsky later calls in her letters Mahatma Moria (one of the Teachers of Wisdom). Master said that he "needs her participation in the work he is about to do," and also that "she will have to spend three years in Tibet to prepare for this important assignment."
Blavatsky saw her purpose in the fact that she should bring theosophical knowledge from east to west. And the society was created in order to spread this knowledge.
Helena Blavatsky converted to Buddhism, but she did not dissuade anyone from her own faith. After all her travels, she came to the conclusion that all religions have one source; beliefs are different, but God is one.
- The name of Blavatsky is still shrouded in secrets, it is impossible to make out where the myths are, and where the truth is, the ignorant called her a liar and almost a witch.
- People at times attributed some strange things to her. In India, she took pity on the married couple, took them to work. Madame Blavatsky opposed the missionaries because they led the Hindus away from their true faith. The missionaries bribed this married couple and began to spread gossip that she was not conducting Ouija, but arranging tricks. Some believed it. Although she practiced such sessions for a short time, her goal was to show people that the world consists not only of physical matter.
Even she was sometimes embarrassed by her own abilities. While staying with relatives in the Caucasus, one day he and his sister met Metropolitan Isidor. He was the exarch of Georgia at a time when the girls lived in Tiflis before marriage, so he recognized them and invited them to dinner. During the conversation, the unexpected happened. At that time, around Helena Blavatsky, there were constantly some sounds, as if bells were ringing. This time the sound was transmitted directly to the Metropolitan's rosary. He began to ask which of the two of them had such abilities.
Madame Blavatsky confessed that she had it. The Metropolitan, who was himself a very educated person, asked how she felt at the same time, how often this happened to her. Already saying goodbye, Metropolitan Isidor said to Helena Petrovna: “You do not need to be embarrassed by your strength, any power from God, the main thing is to use it for the good of people. There is a lot of unidentified in a person, but it is not forbidden for him to cognize it ”.
Two years after the foundation of the society, in 1875-77, Helena Petrovna wrote the first large work "Isis Unveiled" in two volumes in English. The book sold out very quickly. Her sister Vera sent one copy to the Orthodox priest Gabriel Aivazovsky (the brother of the artist Ivan Aivazovsky), who highly appreciated this work. He wrote: “It is very strange that such a serious work came from the pen of a woman. The work, on which the scientist would have to spend several years, was written by a woman in just seven months. "
In 1879, Blavatsky left America and, together with Henry Olcott, went to India, where they founded the Theosophist magazine, which is still being published. First they arrived in Bombay, then moved to the town of Adyar, which today is part of the city of Chennai. Here, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, having bought land, they moved the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society. Later, due to illness, on the recommendations of doctors, she would have to leave India and return to the UK, to London.
For two years she has been living in the city of Würzburg, in Germany, this climate is very suitable for her. Here she finishes the work begun in India - "The Secret Doctrine". Then he moved to London, where in 1888 the first volume of The Secret Doctrine was published, then the second. There was a lot of work, contemporaries recall that she did not get up from the table for 17 hours.
In May 1891, Helena Blavatsky fell ill, her body was exhausted, and in that year she had already had the flu several times. Doctors predicted that everything would be okay, but on May 8, Blavatsky passed away.
Henry Olcott wrote that a year later, white lotuses bloomed en masse in India on the anniversary of her death. Since that time, the Day of Remembrance of Blavatsky is called the Day of the White Lotus.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky underwent unfair humiliation during her lifetime, now we are witnessing the return of her name and heritage to her homeland. Without a doubt, all her knowledge and work will serve her home country. Therefore, the creation of a memorial, scientific and cultural center in the city of Dnipro, where she was born, gives Dnipro the role of a leader in returning the name of Helena Petrovna Blavatskaya to the context of national science, culture and social thought.
Lyudmila Blik, Dnipro, "Point on the map"
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