The Myth of the Masters Revived : The Occult Lives of Nikolai and Elena Roerich [1 ed.] 9789004270435, 9789004270428

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The Myth of the Masters Revived

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_001

Eurasian Studies Library History, Societies & Cultures in Eurasia

Series Editors Dittmar Schorkowitz (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany) David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye (Brock University, St. Catherines, Canada) Board members Ildikó Bellér-Hann Paul Bushkovitch Peter Finke Geoffrey Hosking Michael Khodarkovsky Marlène Laruelle Virginia Martin Willard Sunderland

VOLUME 4

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/esl

The Myth of the Masters Revived The Occult Lives of Nikolai and Elena Roerich By

Alexandre Andreyev

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Cover illustration: N. Roerich: Burning of Darkness (from ‘His Country’ series), 1924, fragment, NRM

This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1877-9484 isbn 978-90-04-27042-8 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-27043-5 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all rights holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

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And finally I summoned you to the Great Service Elena Roerich, Leaves of Morya’s Garden, Book of Joy

…

To those who never stop questioning

⸪

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi ��.����/������4269736–001

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contents

Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements xvii A Note to the Reader xviii Prologue: Helena Blavatsky and Her Masters xix 1

The Artist’s Roots and Formative Years 1

2

Elena, Nikolai’s Muse and Life’s Guide 11

3

The Time of Fulfillment 26

4

Voices from the Beyond 39

5

The Beginning of Exile. A Strange Encounter at Hyde Park 56

6

In New York: Haunted by Spirits 76

7

The Great Plan 97

8

The Apparition of the Black Stone: A Miracle or a Hoax? 124

9

Dreaming of New Russia 146

10

In India: Mahatma’s Second Coming 164

11

An Alliance with Bolsheviks 185

12

The Transhimalayan Journey 205

13

The Moscow Mission and a Trip to Altai 235

14

In New Mongolia 256

15

Leading the ‘Western Buddhist Embassy’ to Tibet 284

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16

Between the Himalayas and New York City 314

17

Suspected of Red Sympathies 344

18

The Manchurian Expedition and the Kansas Project 357

19

The “Chalice of Poison” 399

20 The Final Years in Kulu 420 Epilogue: Inquiring into the Phenomenon of the Roerichs’  Masters 441 Bibliography 459 Index 491

Contents Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements A Note to the Reader Prologue: Helena Blavatsky and Her Masters chapter 1 The Artist’s Roots and Formative Years chapter 2 Elena, Nikolai’s Muse and Life’s Guide chapter 3 The Time of Fulfillment chapter 4 Voices from the Beyond chapter 5 The Beginning of Exile. A Strange Encounter at Hyde Park chapter 6 In New York: Haunted by Spirits chapter 7 The Great Plan chapter 8 The Apparition of the Black Stone: A Miracle or a Hoax? chapter 9 Dreaming of New Russia chapter 10 In India: Mahatma’s Second Coming chapter 11 An Alliance with Bolsheviks chapter 12 The Transhimalayan Journey chapter 13 The Moscow Mission and a Trip to Altai chapter 14 In New Mongolia chapter 15 Leading the ‘Western Buddhist Embassy’ to Tibet chapter 16 Between the Himalayas and New York City chapter 17 Suspected of Red Sympathies chapter 18 The Manchurian Expedition and the Kansas Project chapter 19 The “Chalice of Poison” chapter 20 The Final Years in Kulu Epilogue: Inquiring into the Phenomenon of the Roerichs’ Masters Bibliography Color Plates Index

vii ix xiii xvii xviii xix 1 1 11 11 26 26 39 39 56 56 76 76 97 97 124 124 146 146 164 164 185 185 205 205 235 235 256 256 284 284 314 314 344 344 357 357 399 399 420 420 441 459 491

477

List of illustrations

List of Illustrations Figures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14a-b 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27

Helena (Elena) Petrovna Blavatsky xx Mahatma Morya. Drawing by David Anrias xxv Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Drawing by David Anrias xxvi Nikolai Roerich, in student’s uniform, 1896–08 5 Nikolai Roerich, 1900 14 Elena Shaposhnikova as a child, 1884 14 Elena Shaposhnikova, 1900 15 Elena Roerich, ca. 1910 50 Mahatma Koot Hoomi. From a painting by Hermann Schmiechen 71 Mahatma Morya. From a painting by Hermann Schmiechen 71 The Roerich Circle in New York, 6 December 1924 82 Allal Ming, the Roerichs’ “spirit guide”, automatically drawn by N. Roerich in London, 1920 86 “The Flaming Chalice”, the Token of the Master, drawn by N. Roerich, 1923 122 A wooden box and the Casket with the Stone 131 The Black Stone (Chintamani), 1923 131 The Black Stone (side view) 132 The Casket (with the Stone), 1923 132 Talai Phobrang house, Darjeeling 168 A Shambhala tangka (‘The Kingdom of Shambhala’), fragment, Mongolia, 19th C., Musée Guimet, Paris 169 Yuri Roerich, a Shambhala warrior, 1924 177 Elena Roerich, relaxing, Darjeeling, 6 March 1924 179 Panchen Lama, 6th, Chos-kyi- nyi-ma (1883–1937) 182 Group photo of Maurich Lichtmann, Louis Horch, Frances Grant, Sina Lichtmann, S.M. Shafran, Nettie Horch, Esther Lichtmann, and Sviatoslav Roerich 191 V. Shibaev and N. Roerich on seated camels, in helmets, at Giza, Egypt, January 1925 203 Yuri and Nikolai Roerich, in Tibetan chuba robes, Darjeeling, 1924 203 Main route of Nikolai Roerich’s Central Asian Expedition (1925–1928) 206 Elena and Nikolai Roerich, Ladakh, 1925 215

x 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

54 55

list of illustrations Group photo of Y. Roerich, A.E. Bystrov, N. Roerich and E. Roerich, Urumchi, 1926 229 Yuri Roerich, Nikolai Roerich and Soviet Consul-General A.E. Bystrov, Urumchi, 1926 230 The Roerich house in Ulan-Bator, Mongolia, before renovation, 1990s 259 The same house, after renovation, end of 2010s 259 Group photo of Elizaveta Kozlova (wife of P. Kozlov), B.B. Polynov (geochemist), N. Roerich, Ts. Zhamtsarano, Petr Kozlov, lama Gomboidchin and Y. Roerich 260 Samdan Tsydenov as Dharmaraja, 1919 269 Samdan Tsydenov as Dharmaraja, 1919 270 Baron R.F. Ungern von Sternberg, 1921 273 Agvan Dorjiev (1853/54–1938), mid-1925 274 N. Roerich with the ‘Shambhala Banner’, Urga, April-May 1927 282 The Buddhist Stupa erected by N. Roerich at Sharagol, 1927 289 A letter from the Panchen Lama to Roerich, 1935 293 Nikolai Roerich, “the Dalai Lama of the West”, 1929 298 Marbori Hill with the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa 304 The Potala Palace 304 Group photo of Mrs. F.M. Bailey, Nikolai and Elena Roerich, Nikolai Kordashevsky, Yuri Roerich, Konstantin Riabinin, and Frederick M. Bailey. Gangtok, Sikkim, 1928 308 The Roerichs’ house at Naggar, 2008 324 View of the Himalayas from the Roerichs’ house at Naggar, 2008 325 N. Roerich outside the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, 1930s 326 Urusvati Institute, 2008 326 The Master Building, designed by H.W. Corbett, 1929 330 The Master Building (façade) 330 The Master Building (façade 2) 331 Master Building (entrance) 331 Nettie Horch, Sina Lichtmann and Frances Grant: friends and rivaling co-workers, 1920s, New York 335 N. Roerich standing in front of the complete collection of the Nartang Kangyur and Tangyur, obtained by the Central Asian Expedition, accommodated at the Hall of the East in the Master Building, 1929 337 Esther Lichtmann, Elena Roerich, and Nettie Horch at the Rothang Pass, Kulu, 1930 346 N. Roerich, standing by the triptych Fiat Rex, Naggar, 1933–1934 359

list of illustrations 56 57

58 59a-b 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

Elena Roerich, with the triptych Fiat Rex and Banner of Peace by N. Roerich in background, Naggar, 1933–34 360 Dr Walter Koelz, with antlers collected for the pharmaceutical research conducted by Sviatoslav Roerich at the Urusvati Insitute, 1930–1931, Kulu 361 Group photo of N. Roerich, Mrs D.E. Mahon, Esther Lichtmann, Col. A.E. Mahon, Sviatoslav and Y. Roerich. September 1931 364 Nikolai Roerich in Oriental robe, Naggar, 1932–33 376 N. and Y. Roerich meeting Japan’s war minister Hayashi, 24 May 1934 379 The Manchurian Expedition: N. Roerich, Viktor Gribanovskii, Y. Roerich, K. Gordeev, August 1934 385 Group photo of the staff of the Manchurian Expedition, 1935 392 Esther Lichtmann and Nikolai Roerich, Naggar, January, 1934 400 ‘The Chalice of the Buddha’, painted by Sviatoslav Roerich 402 The logos of the Roerich institutions in New York 410 Nikolai Roerich with sons, Sviatoslav and Yuri, Kulu, 1930s 427 N. Roerich by the altar at his house in Naggar, 1930s 428 Jawaharlal Nehru, Sviatoslav Roerich, Indira Gandhi, Nikolai Roerich, Elena Roerich, Naggar, 1942 430 N. Roerich, 1945–1947, Naggar 434 N. Roerich’s Samadhi monument 436

color plates 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

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N. Roerich: The Treasure of the Angels, 1905 479 N. Roerich: Burning of Darkness (from ‘His Country’ series), 1924, fragment 480 N. Roerich: The Chintamani Stone, 1924, fragment 481 “The Order of the All-Conquering Buddha” (1926), designed by N. Roerich 482 N. Roerich: The Great Rider, 1927 483 N. Roerich: Tibet, 1920s – 1930s 484 N. Roerich. Zvenigorod, 1920–1930s 485 N. Roerich: Star of the Morning, 1932 486 N. Roerich: The Order of Rigden Japo, 1933 487 N. Roerich: Tangla. The Song about Shambhala, 1943 488 Sv. Roerich. Portrait of Nikolai Roerich, 1933 489

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preface

Preface This book was inspired by my keen and long-standing interest in Central Asia and Tibet, and their pioneer Western explorers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The names of these travelers are many, and each has a fascinating story to tell of his or her journey, adventures and discoveries. The Russian-born Nikolai Roerich, his wife Elena and their elder son Yuri (George) belong to that number. In 1925–1928 they led an expedition to Central Asia with artistic and archeological goals, passing through Kashmir, Ladakh, Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia, and Tibet. Yet their journey also had an undeclared mystical aspect – the Roerichs were looking for the signs of the Future Messiah, Buddha Maitreya, they preached his imminent arrival and wanted to visit the mysterious Tibetan ashram of the “Adepts of the highest order” or mahatmas, the key figures of Helena Blavatsky’s theosophy. Nikolai Roerich (1874–1947) was a painter, stage decorator and amateur archeologist, one of the celebrities of Russia’s “Silver Age”. In the years preceding the Great War he, together with his wife, a former pianist, began to take interest in theosophy and Eastern religions, which marked the beginning of their life-long spiritual searching. This quest was continued after the couple, together with their sons, Yuri and Sviatoslav, had left the country following the Bolshevik coup of 1917. The family went to Western Europe, thence moved to New York, and from New York sailed to India, the land of their dreams. Like their famous predecessor, Helena Blavatsky, they eagerly searched for the highest esoteric wisdom-knowledge and believed they were guided by the Masters who had chosen them for a special mission on the planet. The Roerichs gradually turned into mystics, visionaries and gurus as Elena began to mould her Agni Yoga teaching, intending to enlighten the human race and bring it to a higher stage of evolution. Even more, the Roerichs tried to create a social Utopia in Asia, modeled on the mythical Buddhist Pure Land of Shambhala. After their great Central Asian journey they finally settled in Naggar, a hamlet in northern India, facing the majestic Himalayas, and quietly spent the rest of their lives there. My first acquaintance with the writings of Nikolai Roerich took place in the 1970s when I read his travel diary, Altai – Himalaya (1974), as well as his inspiring essays, Heart of Asia and Shambhala the Resplendent, published for the first time in the USSR as part of his Selected Works (1979). The essays were written soon after the artist had returned from his Tibetan journey and focused on Shambhala and the secret existence of the Masters, which entirely occupied his and his wife’s minds at that time. The publications captivated me, then a

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student of India and Tibet, especially the artist’s account of his unusual journey and his allusions to the reclusive Himalayan sages, the mahatmas. The Roerichs’ teaching, Agni Yoga, was at that time practically unknown in the Soviet Union, except among a handful of Roerich devotees. A few years later, in America, I had a chance to read Edwin Bernbaum’s illuminating The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom beyond the Himalayas (1980), which briefly mentioned Roerich’s “scientific expedition” through Central Asia seeking “traces of the hidden kingdom”. Bernbaum’s book encouraged me a decade later to enquire into Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s life histories, their personalities and occult pursuits, yet I could not find answers to my queries in any publications about the artist. His best Russian biography at that time was the one written by P.F. Belikov and V.P. Kniazeva and titled simply Roerich (1972). It discussed N. Roerich’s life and artistic career of the Petersburg period rather minutely and in a somewhat more sketchy manner his Asian travels and public work, avoiding any discussion of such intriguing subjects as Nikolai and his wife’s mysticism and esotericism. These topics were taboo at that time. But even now the authors writing about the Roerichs, both Russian and Western, either totally ignore the role of the occult in their lives or present it from a purely esoteric standpoint as a secret communion with “the Teachers of the East” or “the Teachers of humanity” as the mahatmas are usually referred to in esoteric literature, since the vast majority of these writers fully share the Roerichs’ beliefs. Hence their portrayal of the couple is biased and cultish to a large extent. The theosophical myth of the Masters is still alive, and the fabulous existence of these suprahumans is taken for granted by many, especially the people who have a propensity for the occult and the irrational. As one of the contemporary biographers of the Roerich family, Vladimir Rosov, asserts in the preface to his book, Nikolai Roerich, the Herald of Zvenigorod (2002), the Masters “do exist”, they are “real persons”, because we have records of the Roerichs’ “conversations” with one of them, Master Morya, evidenced by Elena and Nikolai Roerich’s diaries. According to this author, the social, scholarly and artistic activities of Nikolai Roerich were “regulated by these diary notes”; everything he did after he had emigrated from Russia – his travels in Asia, his life in America and India, his political negotiations in Berlin, Paris and Moscow – had “one and the same spiritual source, connected with the Himalayan Mahatmas”. The artist strictly followed their “orders” (ukazy) and his life under their tutelage can be seen as a “unique experience in the history of mankind” (Rosov 2002, 20–21). These occult records, which were primarily Elena’s recording of her channeling over many years of the “psychic sendings” of her Master, were published

preface

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for the first time by Dmitry Popov in 2002 (a short and heavily edited version), and then by Vladimir Rosov in 2006–2012 (the complete texts for the years 1920–1928, with detailed commentaries by the same author). These volumes made quite a sensation as they provided an insight into Elena’s and Nikolai’s “inner worlds”, having revealed their inmost secrets and dreams as well as their grandiose plans which were never articulated openly and were known only to a handful of their faithful devotees. Elena’s diaries offered me a set of clues to the enigmatic “Roerich phenomenon”, having exposed the real driving force of Nikolai’s and Elena’s manifold activities – the Masters. My research was further stimulated by another ground-breaking work, that of American researcher K.P. Johnson titled, The Masters revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge (1994). This was a bold attempt to demystify the Blavatskian stories of the mahatmas and identify the real Masters behind the myth. Johnson’s conclusion that HPB’s adept sponsors were “a succession of human mentors rather than a cosmic hierarchy of supermen” encouraged me to dig deeper into Nikolai’s and Elena’s biographies with a hope of finally unveiling the mystery of their Masters who had the same bizarre names of Morya and Koot Hoomi. Having collated Elena’s most unusual records with the well-known facts of the Roerichs’ lives, I was able to produce a totally new biography of the couple, which was both intriguing and stunning – a story of an idealistically-minded artist and his clairvoyant wife seized with a burning desire to accelerate human evolution by laying the foundations of a more advanced “sixth race” of humanity as prophesized by Madame Blavatsky, under the guidance of some ethereal entities they took for the world’s secret Masters. It was published in Russian in 2008 and was titled Gimalaiskoe Bratstvo: Teosofskii mif i ego tvortsty (The Himalayan Brotherhood: A theosophical myth and its makers). My narrative focused on the three personages – H. Blavatsky and the Roerich couple, whose lives were examined in close connection with the myth they had moulded and sustained. Telling the story of Nikolai and Elena Roerich, I tried to particularly demonstrate to what extent the theosophy-derived mythology and their esoteric practices, the spiritualistic séances above all, had affected their lives, by tracing their gradual transformation over years into mystics and gurus, with their own message for humanity. Special attention was given to Elena’s channeling and her unusual “fiery experience”, as a means of communion with the Masters, with Nikolai’s intimate involvement in the process, which had a significant impact on his artistic career and public work. This new book, The Myth of the Masters Revived, is intended for an English speaking audience. It has basically employed the material of the earlier Russian version but has also made use of many new sources which have become

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available to researchers in recent years. Some of the newest Roerich-related findings were publicized in a collection of articles, Rerikhi: Mify i fakty (The Roerichs: Myths and facts, A. Andreyev, D. Savelli (eds), St. Petersburg, 2011), produced by an international group of scholars. The historical context of the narrative was broadened to allow the Western reader to see the Roerichs in the perspective of their own time as the couple lived through the most remarkable and dramatic events of Russia’s and world history – the Petersburg brilliant finde-siècle cultural revival, the appalling world war and the three Russian revolutions, which eventually brought about the collapse of Imperial Russia, the country they loved so dearly. Much more, the Roerichs were witnesses of and partakers in the great Russian exodus – the post-revolutionary mass emigration from Russia, a humanitarian catastrophe which brought them to America, where they started their new lives as apostles of the New Era. All this, coupled with their persistent spiritual searching, makes the Roerichs and their life stories so intriguingly interesting for us today. The Prologue to the book introduces Helena Blavatsky and tells the reader how her notion of the Masters originated. In the Epilogue, I attempted to solve the mystery of the Roerichs’ Masters and to explain the nature of Elena’s psychic phenomenon, which has never been addressed properly by her numerous biographers. My overall conclusion will probably disappoint Roerich admirers and followers as it makes clear that no “cosmic teachers” guided the Roerichs, and their Masters, unlike those of Blavatsky, were not genuine spiritual mentors, but only mental phantoms. This conclusion, however, is by no means intended to belittle the great spiritual and cultural legacy of the Roerichs. Without the Masters, fake or real, Nikolai and Elena would have hardly become what they are, ranking among the most remarkable and enigmatic personages of the twentieth century. Alexandre Andreyev

St Petersburg, 29 October 2013

Acknowledgements I would like to express my profound gratitude to many of my friends and colleagues who assisted me at various stages of my research and writing of this book. First of all, its first English readers, Ralph Koprince, John Bray, and ­Catriona Bass; then Ernst von Waldenfels, Daniel Entin, Gvido Trepsha, Oriole Feshbach, Mark Yoffe, Natalia Simukov, the late Wim van Spengen, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Hiroko Wako Kuwajima, Dany Savelli, and Aleksei N. Annenko, who helped me obtain some important source material from the archives, public and family sources, and libraries in the USA, India, Japan and Russia. Also, Prof. Tsering Shakya and Tsering Dhondup Gonkatsang who translated some letters from Tibetan used in the book; and finally Brill’s anonymous readers and the series’ editor-in-chief Dittmar Schorkowitz for their valuable suggestions. Without their help and encouragement the book would not have been written. Citation of Russian Sources All quotations from Elena Roerich’s diaries and correspondence, as well as those from some of Nikolai Roerich’s essays written in Russian, were translated into English by the author. The same applies to the original Russian titles of Roerich’s paintings mentioned in the book.

A Note to the Reader Esoteric names of Nikolai and Elena Roerich, their sons and close associates appear in this book as follows. Avirah – Maurice Lichtmann Chakhembula – Nikolai Kordashevsky Fuyama, Guru – Nikolai Roerich Logvan – Louis Horch Liumou – Sviatoslav Roerich Modra – Frances Grant Naru – Tatiana Grebenshchikova Oyana – Esther Lichtmann Poruma – Nettie Horch Radna – Sina (Zina) Lichtmann (Fosdick) Tarukhan – Georgii Grebenshchikov Udraya – Yuri (George) Roerich Urusvati, Tara – Elena Roerich Yaruya – Vladimir Shibaev

prologue:Prologue helena blavatsky and her masters

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Prologue: Helena Blavatsky and Her Masters The minds of the present generation are not yet ripe enough to accept the Occult Truths.

…

I love my countrymen and country dearly – but I love India and the Masters still more ... Helena Blavatsky

⸪ Elena Petrovna Blavatskaia (1831–1891), better known as Helena (Helen) Blavatsky or HPB, was an outstanding esotericist of the late 19th century. She was the founder of theosophy (theosophism), a system of esoteric “wisdom-knowledge”, and a co-founder, together with Henry S. Olcott, of the Theosophical Society, a body intended to diffuse the doctrine worldwide. The publication of her Isis Unveiled, The Secret Doctrine and other writings started an occult revival in the West which forestalled and largely inspired the New Age movement in the latter half of the twentieth century. No less importantly, she moulded a popular myth of the Masters, or mahatmas , as occult “Adepts” of suprahuman powers, the keepers of the ancient lore of esoteric knowledge, who allegedly dwell in some secluded corners in the Trans-Himalayas and Tibet unreachable by anybody. Born at Ekaterinoslav in South Russia into the family of Colonel Peter von Hahn, of German extraction, and Elena Fadeyeva, a novel writer, she was brought up in an atmosphere of legends and folk beliefs, and was a daydreamer and visionary from her early years. One of Elena’s cousins, Count Sergei Witte, recalled in his memoirs, that she had possessed “the gift of hypnotizing both her hearer and herself into believing the wildest inventions of her fantasy”.1 And her niece, Nadezhda Zhelikhovskaya, noted that she was a big fantasist who would often tell tales about herself “just for fun”. “We sometimes split our sides with laughter when she talked to interviewers in London. My mother 1 Quoted from Iverson L. Harris: “H.P. Blavatsky: A refutation of slanders against the foundress of the Theosophical Society”, in Tingley 1921, 20.

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figure 1

Helena (Elena) Petrovna Blavatsky

tried to interrupt her: “Why are you inventing all this?” – To which she replied: “To hell with them, they are all down-and-outers. Let them earn some money to buy milk for their kiddies”. And sometimes when she was in good humour she would also tell all kinds of cock-and-bull stories to her friends, theosophists”.2 This propensity for spontaneously inventing things combined in Blavatsky, in her later years, with some cynicism and a rather disdainful attitude to modern society and people in general. “The more incredible the story, the better”, she once told quite frankly the writer V.S. Soloviev. – “What else can I do, when to be master of people, one has to deceive them; and in order to carry them away and make them run after something, one needs to promise them things and show them tricks …”.3 Most of her life Blavatsky spent in the mystical quest for “the unknown”. This began, in her own words, as a search for the “Astral mineral that had to have the red Virgin, pure and entire”. As she would explain it in a revelatory letter to her friend Prince Alexander M. Dondukov-Korsakov, “What I wanted and searched for was the subtle magnetism that one exchanges, the human salt, and to find it and obtain it, I was ready to sacrifice myself, to dishonor myself”.4 It was basi2 See Pisareva 2003, 782–783 (Translated into English by the author). 3 Soloviev 1994, 88. 4 Blavatsky 1986, 63, letter to Prince A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov, 1 March 1882, Bombay.

Helena Blavatsky and Her Masters

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cally a search for the symbolic “philosopher’s stone” which transmutes the lead of human nature into the gold of divine nature. Blavatsky was keen on esoteric knowledge from her early adolescence. In the large occult library of her great grandfather, Prince Pavel Dolgorukii, who was a Mason, she found hundreds of books on alchemy, magic and other occult sciences she would avidly devour. “I had read them with the keenest interest. All the devilries of the Middle Ages have found refuge in my head”, she wrote to Prince Dondukov.5 It was from the Masonic and Rusicrucian literature of the 18th century that she learned about the hidden rulers of the world, the “Unknown Superiors” (les Supériors Inconnus), an idea which strongly impressed her and inspired her own tale of the Masters. Blavatsky also claimed that she had been constantly leading, since the age of 14, “a double life”, spending days in her human frame and nights in her “astral body”. Having left her home and her husband, the elderly Nikiphor Vasilievich Blavatsky, Vice-Governor of the province of Erevan, in 1848, soon after her marriage, Elena would travel around the world for many years. She moved from place to place, from Asia Minor to northern Africa (Egypt), Western Europe, North and South Americas, Japan, and India, mixing with all sorts of queer people, whom she regarded as “Adepts” possessing some esoteric knowledge, yet her thirst for the occult was never quenched. As the recent study of Anita Stasulane shows, the Blavatskian concept of Masters underwent an evolution between 1873, when she came to America, and the early 1880s, when she moved from New York to India with a group of her followers. Her personal guru went through a series of remarkable transformations during this period – from an ordinary “spirit of the dead relatives” (John King), to whom she attributed all the psychic phenomena she performed in New York, to “a living spirit” (périspirit) named Sahib and Khoziain (Master) in Russian, to a “Brother-Adept”, who finally, already on Indian soil, became a “Mahatma”.6 According to her own definition, a mahatma, which means “a great soul” in Sanskrit, is “an Adept of the highest order”, one of the “exalted beings who, having attained to the mastery over their lower principles are thus living unimpeded by the ‘men of flesh’, and are in possession of knowledge and power commensurate with the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution”. The mahatmas are also called Rahats and Arhats in Pali.7 A radical change in Blavatsky, as she herself confessed, occurred after she, an extremely successful medium, met with Sahib, and under his influence 5 Ibid., 62. 6 See Stasulane 2005, 91–126. 7 See Blavatsky 2007, 201.

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refuted mediumism and spiritism for the sake of something better that she called at first “spiritual spiritism”. As she would explain it in the Key to Theosophy, “They [spiritualists] maintain that these manifestations are all produced by the ‘spirits’ of departed mortals, generally their relatives, who return to earth, they say, to communicate with those they have loved or to whom they are attached. We deny this point blank. We assert that the spirits of the dead cannot return to earth […]. That, which appears objectively, is only the phantom of the ex-physical man”.8 But who was this mysterious Sahib who a few years later would merge with the new theosophical Mahatma Morya? In a letter to her aunt Nadezhda Fadeyeva, written in New York in 1877, Blavatsky portrayed her guru as follows: Sahib has been known to me more than 25 years; he came to London with the Premier of Nepal and the Queen of Oudh. Since then I have not seen him, until I received a letter from him through a certain Hindu, who had come here three years ago to lecture on Buddhism. In this letter he reminded me of several things that he had foretold in London, when he looked at me with the greatest of disdain (deserved) and asked me, if I was ready now to renounce the unavoidable annihilation after death and to believe him. Look at his portrait: as he was then, so is he now. He is a Buddhist, but not of the dogmatic Church, but belongs to the Shivabhavikas, the so-called Nepal atheists (?!!). He lives in Ceylon, but what he is actually doing there I do not know.9 According to Buddhist monk-scholar Mahinda Digalle from Sri Lanka, Blavatsky probably meant Shivabhaktikas, a Buddhist sect of Shiva worshipers in Ceylon, which has existed there since medieval times.10 Another alternative – she might have confused Shivabhavikas and Svabhavikas, the monks of an ancient Buddhist school, whom she would mention in The Secret Doctrine and in The Book of Dzian. In the opinion of B.H. Hodgson, “The most diagnostic tenets of Swâbhâvikas are the denial of immateriality, and the assertion that man is capable of enlarging his faculties to infinity”.11 The Sahib openly defied spiritualism – he purposely went to the powerful mediums and his presence paralyzed all their manifestations, as Blavatsky told her aunt. He and his spiritual brethren “despised” all mediums and regarded 8 9 10 11

Blavatsky 1893, 19. See Blavatsky 2003, 352–353, letter to N. Fadeyeva, 29 October 1877. The information was provided by M. Digalle to the author in a letter in 2006. Hodgson 1874, 23–25.

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the spirits as “stupid kikimoris, earthly, elementary demons”; they did not recognize anything higher on earth or in heaven than “the human immortal allpowerful spirit”. The Sahib, claimed Blavatsky, was “the first one to organize the Theosophical Society” and chose all its members. He left New York “after giving us several dozens of names of Hindus in India, all Kabbalists and Masons, but not of the stupid European and American Lodges, but the Grand Eastern Lodge, into which Englishmen are not admitted. […] All these people are such thaumaturgists that the best of mediums are mere asses compared to them…”. It would be futile, however, to look for this remarkable person in the extant annals of the TS. We will not find his name there, although his portrayal by Blavatsky looks quite realistic. Yet the most fascinating thing about Sahib was his unusual ability of temporarily leaving his physical body, the “outer sheath”, in the form of a “double”, or périspirit (also known in theosophy as a subtle or astral body12), and enter someone else’s body, in our case the body of Blavatsky, which made her talk of living a “double life” when Sahib was “present” in her. The Sahib apparently served as a model for a “perfect mortal”, a “BrotherAdept” later to become a mahatma. As Blavatsky would claim years after, she had known Adepts, the “Brothers”, not only in India and beyond Ladakh, “but in Egypt and Syria, – for there are Brothers there to this day. The names of the mahatmas were not even known at that time, since they are called so only in India. That, whether they were called Rosicrucians, Kabbalists, or Yogis – Adepts were everywhere Adepts – silent, secret, retiring, and who would never divulge themselves entirely”.13 Having formulated her notion of Adepts as “perfect mortals”, Blavatsky naturally had to think of a refuge for them, a place where they could remain unseen and undisturbed by ordinary men, engaged in their special work for the sake of humanity. The location of their communities or fraternities had to be made secret and sacred – as any myth would require, – and therefore she purposefully shrouded it in mystery. As early as 1874, that is, a year before the Theosophical Society was founded in New York, she disclosed publicly for the first time in the article called “A Few Questions to Hiraf” the existence of secret brotherhoods of Adepts – in India, Asia Minor, and “other countries”. And in the Introductory to The Secret Doctrine (1888) she would claim categorically that “in all the large and wealthy lamaseries” there were “subterranean crypts and cave-libraries cut in the rock”:

12 13

Astral body (Astral double), according to Blavatsky, is “the ethereal counterpart or shadow of man or animal, the Linga Sharira, the Doppelgänger”, see Blavatsky 2007, 36. Letter of HPB to Franz Hartmann, 1896, quoted in Johnson 1994, 9–10.

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Beyond the Western Tsay-dam, in the solitary passes of Kuen-lun there are several such hiding places. Along the ridges of Altyn-Toga, whose soil no European foot has ever trodden, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a deep gorge. It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor looking temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living nearby to watch it. Pilgrims say that the subterranean galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which, according to the accounts given, is too large to find room in the British Museum.14 The main residence or Ashram of the mahatmas , according to Blavatsky, was situated in southern Tibet, somewhere near the city of Shigatse, the place known for the huge Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas. But why there? Tibet, due to the isolationist policy of its rulers, the Dalai Lamas, who sought to keep their country and religion secure from Western influence, remained for a long time a terra incognita inaccessible to European visitors; however, it became a great attraction, in the latter half of the 19th century, for a host of Western travelers aspiring to reach the “Forbidden City” of Lhasa as well as occultists and mystics. In the words of S. Batchelor, “as one of the last remaining countries still to be explored and mapped by Europe, Tibet was a preeminent focus for romantic yearning, a spiritual paradise unsoiled by Imperial and materialist progress. Schlegel’s call to find the ‘highest Romanticism in the Orient’ found its ultimate fulfillment in the discovery of the mystic mahatmas concealed in Tibet”.15 What actually prompted Blavatsky to turn her gaze in the direction of the “Forbidden Land” was the travel account of two French Lazarist missioners, Evariste Huc and Joseph Gabet, who visited Tibet and its capital Lhasa in 1845– 1846. In their travelogue they, incidentally, mentioned a “brotherhood of kelans” that allegedly existed at the Tashilhunpo monastery.16 This seems to have been an allusion to the well-known school of Tibetan (Mahayana) Buddhism named Gelug (Tib. dGe-lugs, the Virtuous One), predominating then, as today, in Tibet. Huc and Gabet also recounted a Buddhist prophesy they had heard – that the next Panchen Lama would be reborn in the Urianhai stepppes (i.e. in the Mongolian Altai) and would stir up a rebellion, with the help of kelans (Gelug monks), against the Chinese overlords of the country – he would conquer Tibet, China, Mongolia, and the great state of Oros (Russia), and 14 15 16

Blavatsky 1893–97, Introductory to vol. 1, 8. Batchelor 1993, 269. Huc, Gabet 1850.

Helena Blavatsky and Her Masters

figure 2

xxv

Mahatma Morya. Drawing by David Anrias

would become ultimately the World Ruler. This was in fact the prophecy of the apocalyptic Shambhala War (a part of the Buddhist Shambhala myth), and it fitted well the theosophical concept of the “sixth root race” of humanity to replace the declining fifth one, to which present mankind belongs. So Blavatsky jumped at the idea and would henceforth speak of the Masters’ main Ashram located in Shigatse, in Tibet. But who were these Masters? Their names as given by Blavatsky sounded very odd – Morya, Koot Hoomi Lal Singh, Djual Kul, Chohan. The first two, Morya and Koot Hoomi, were the chief mahatmas destined to play a very important role in world history. According to one of the theosophists, Charles Leadbeater, Morya was “chosen” to become Manu, the progenitor of the sixth race, and his friend Koot Hoomi, its religious preceptor. In letters to her relatives and friends in Russia, Elena would speak very vaguely of her Masters, their residence and doings. Her information was scanty, confusing and contradictory, if highly intriguing. None of the theosophists had ever seen them in the flesh, but only in their astral bodies, in the TS headquarters at Adyar, in India, where the special Occult Room and the Shrine were arranged for “meetings” with the Masters and receiving their “messages” written on ordinary paper by the method of occult “precipitation”.

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figure 3

Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Drawing by David Anrias

Thus Blavatsky would maintain that Mahatma Morya, her main guru, was a Kashmiri, and he had held a high post of “chutukta” at the court of the Panchen-Lama,17 although “khutukta” (Mong. hutagt) is actually the highest rank of the Mongolian Buddhist clergy. She met him, or rather he met her, in London in 1851 (or so) twice – on a street and later at the entrance to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, as she wrote to one of the theosophists A.P. Sinnett. Many years after, in 1873, she received a letter from her “mysterious Hindu” telling her to go to Paris, which she did, and there she was directed to go to New York; from New York she went to California, and thence to Yokohama, where she met her Guru again, after “19 years of separation” (which should be in 1870 – an obvious error in dating!). From Yokohama the Master sent Blavatsky back to New York “with detailed instructions”. She was commissioned to preach against spiritualism, which roused her against 12 million “innocent” in the U.S. who believed in the return in flesh and bones of dead relatives. Mahatma Morya then rejoined Blavatsky in New York to assist her in starting the Theosophical Society with the following main objectives: 1) to promote a feeling of brotherhood among nations, 2) to investigate the hidden laws of 17

See Zhelikhovskaia 1891, 289, 292.

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nature and the powers latent in them, and 3) to encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science. So it must have been this mahatma (alias Sahib) who spelled out the tasks of the TS, an important point for the reader to keep in mind. This Adept-Guru was apparently travelling extensively, like Blavatsky, but at some point he abandoned his native India forever and settled in Tibet – about the same time when she moved to India. From Tibet he started corresponding with the English members of the TS, “keeping them entirely under his mysterious domination”.18 As for Mahatma Koot Hoomi, he was a Punjabi, and, according to Blavatsky, he had lived together with his sister and nephew in the Kunlun Mountains, but later moved to Tibet as well. From there Koot Hoomi began to bombard the theosophists in India with his messages, which arrived in a most unusual way, sometimes simply dropping from the ceiling, but usually in Blavatsky’s presence. These letters caused a great sensation among the theosophical neophytes, having shown them manifestly that mahatmas were real beings, though very elevated and endowed with some extraordinary powers, such as projecting their “astral bodies” to any place they wanted or sending their letters by means of the ether-like akasha “spacious” mail. The same Koot Hoomi also assisted Blavatsky in performing various psychic phenomena before the British aristocrats in Simla, in 1880, to get them interested in theosophy. Yet the most intriguing tale told by Blavatsky was about her esoteric studies at the feet of her Master Morya in Tibet, which allegedly lasted for three (or seven) years! This story, however, does not go well with the above schematic narrative of her occasional and short-time encounters with the mahatma in London, Yokohama and New York. Could she indeed slip into Tibet and stay there unnoticed, alone with her Indian teacher, for such a lengthy period of time? Very unlikely and definitely not anywhere close to Shigatse! (The Tashilhunpo monastics would have certainly learned about a European lady mastering the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings at the feet of a Tibetan lama, if he were a Tibetan!) On the other hand, we know that Blavatsky travelled in Ladakh (known as Little Tibet), and in 1882 made a trip to Darjeeling, a hill-station in Sikkim, on the border of Great Tibet, where she visited the Ghum monastery, inhabited by Tibetan monks. Curiously, it was after this trip that she began to portray both Morya and Koot Hoomi as dwelling in Tibet. So it was not too difficult for someone with a fecund imagination like hers to make up a story of her secret studies in the “Land of the lamas”. Her personal encounters with the learned Tibetan monks and her correspondence with the prominent Buddhist 18

Blavatsky 1986, 21–23, letter to Prince Dondukov-Korsakov, 5 December 1881.

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scholar and traveler, Sarat Chandra Das, who had been to Tibet and had worked in the library of the Tashilhunpo monastery, provided enough source material for such a story. In this way Blavatsky romanticized and mythologized the Masters as residents of Tibet as well as her own life under their direct guidance. The myth of the Masters took its final shape in the 1880s. It became an integral part of the nascent theosophical doctrine believed to have been transmitted to Blavatsky telepathically by her Masters. As she herself asserted, many pages of her fundamental works, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, had been actually “dictated” to her by several of them. Having thus manifested their “presence”, the mahatmas stirred up a real craze, having turned into objects of veneration and idolatry for theosophist. As Blavatsky would lament in a self-revelatory letter to one of her confrères, Franz Hartmann, “… little by little, the Adepts were transformed into Gods on earth. They began to be appealed, and made puja to, and were becoming with everyday more legendary and miraculous… I saw with terror and anger the false track they [mahatmaworshippers – A.A.] were pursuing. The Masters, as all thought, must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent… The idea that the Masters were mortal men, limited even in their great powers, never crossed anyone’s mind, though they wrote this themselves repeatedly”. Reluctantly, Blavatsky had to take a part of the blame on herself, for having remained “too passive in the face of all this desecration, brought on by too much zeal and false ideas”. 19

…

The existence of the evasive Masters of Helena Blavatsky and other theosophists was discussed more than once by scholars in her day and in more recent times,20 yet it still remains an unsolved mystery. One thing is clear, however: there is the incredible – fully mythical – story of the Masters and their secret Tibetan – Transhimalayan abodes as told by Blavatsky in her books, articles and letters (although the adepts of theosophy would certainly never call it a “myth”), and the real Masters, Blavatsky’s occult assistants and sponsors, the men behind the scenes who apparently were directing her activities for years, were intimately involved in the creation of the Theosophical Society and inspired or even authored the numerous so-called “mahatma letters” to the leading theosophists (A.P. Sinnett, H. Olcott, A. Hume and others). The most thorough and insightful investigation of the subject is Paul K. Johnson’s The Masters revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge

19 20

Quoted in Johnson 1994, 370, 372. See Guénon 1921, Johnson 1994, Maistre 2004, Stasulane 2005, Andreev 2008.

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(1994), a brilliant attempt to unmask these mysterious personages and establish their true identities, as far as it is possible today. Most of the Masters, as Johnson’s research shows, were Western European (Italian and English) Masons and Rosicrucians who exerted a strong influence on Blavatsky, and she herself was a member to several secret (esoteric) societies. What seems to be particularly intriguing is her close connection with the Carbonari Society and its leaders, Garibaldi and Mazzini, in Italy and later in England where they lived in exile, and their associates, such as one Signor Bruzzesi who had specially come to New York to meet the “Old Lady” shortly before the TS was founded. Blavatsky deliberately concealed the identities of her occult sponsors because there was “a political aspect to her relations with the Masters, which, if exposed, could cause trouble for them as well as herself”. Johnson spelled out some of the “hidden agendas” underlying the formation of the TS: The Masonic and Rosicrucian Masters ... aimed at promoting HPB as a nineteenth-century successor to Cagliostro. Their main interest was in reviving Western occultism and opposing dogmatic Christianity. After arriving in India, HPB served a second hidden agenda defined by the maharajas and religious leaders with whom she was secretly allied. Broadly defined, their goals were cultural revival and social reform.21 Surprisingly, in April 1878, Blavatsky and Olcott would discuss jointly with several “Adepts” (i.e. high Masons), one of whom was Charles Sotheran, a great admirer of Count di Cagliostro, the possibility of transforming the TS into a Masonic Lodge, with a ritual and degrees, – “to repeat the work” of the legendary Magus of the 18th century.22 After this introductory we will turn now to Nikolai and Elena Roerich, Blavatsky’s true heirs, who, some three decades after her death, would establish “psychic” contacts with the same Masters, Morya and Koot Hoomi, and make a fresh attempt to revive the ancient wisdom-knowledge as well as to elaborate further the sketchy Blavatskian myth of the Masters by substantiating it with their own first-hand experience. 21 22

Johnson 1994, 7–8. Ibid., 89.

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The Artist’s Roots And Formative Years

1

chapter 1

The Artist’s Roots and Formative Years I am a self-loving person…

N. Roerich, From a letter to a friend

⸪ Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich was born in St Petersburg, Russia’s imperial capital, on 27 September (New style: 9 October) 1874. His father Konstantin Feodorovich was a notary at the city’s circuit court, his mother Maria Vasilievna Kalashnikova came from a merchant’s family in Pskov, an ancient Russian city. There were three more children in the family – a girl Lydia (born 1867) and two boys – Boris (1880) and Vladimir (1882). The Roerichs were fairly well off. They lived in a typical 19th century apartment building, dokhodnyi dom,1 on Nikolaevskaia Embankment (University Embankment today),2 facing the river Neva. Their apartment was on the first floor and had a corner balcony from which opened a panoramic and most breathtaking view – a long row of magnificent buildings, symbols of the empire, on the other bank of Neva, including the smart palaces of Russian nobility, the Ruling Senate and the Most Holy Synod, St Isaac’s Cathedral, the city’s foremost Orthodox Church, with its lavishly gilt dome glinting in the sun, the elegant spire of the Admiralty shooting up into the sky and further down the baroquestyled Winter Palace, residence of the tsars, the Romanovs. And there were steamers on the water, with smoking funnels, anchored along the embankment. Nikolai Roerich’s ancestral roots are largely shrouded in mystery. The artist himself claimed that he was of Scandinavian descent, that his Roerich lineage in general was very old and ramified, that his ancestors lived in many countries around the Baltic Sea and elsewhere in Europe – in Norway, Sweden, Friesland, France, Courland, Latvia and Russia – and numbered some distin­guished military figures as well as clergymen. Among his forefathers were bellicose Vikings, known as Variagi in Russia, and he made hints in private about 1 Dohodnyi dom is a privately-owned “income bringing” building with apartments for rent in the 19th and early 20th century Russia. 2 The exact address is Nikolaevskaia (Universitetskaia) Naberezhnaia 25, flat 8. See Anikina, Sobolev 2003.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_002

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Chapter 1

the Roerichs having direct kinship with the legendary Varangian chieftain, Rurik, the ruler of Novgorod, who founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Russia until the 17th century. Nikolai was particularly proud of his time-honored family arms – its shield was decorated with palm leaves, which indicated that there were diplomats among his ancestors, and it was crowned with a turban that can be usually seen on the Crusaders’ arms.3 A contemporary Latvian researcher Ivars Silars, however, disclaims these statements as totally unfounded. According to him, the family name Roerich presumably comes from the German word das Röhricht (reed scrub) or from the male name Roderich and definitely not from Scandinavian Rurik (Hroerikr). The artist’s closest forebears – his father Konstantin, grandfather Friedrich and great grandfather Johann all come from Kurzeme (Courland), the south-west part of Latvia, which was under the Russian rule since 1710. Roerich’s great grandfather Johann Heinrich Röerich (1763–1820) was born in Vetzieskate (AltSexaten in German), a small town in the Kurland Dukedom. He was a shoemaker. The grandfather Friedrich (Feodor) Alexander (1806–1905) served as a steward of the Paplacken country estate in the Courland province (gubernia) owned by Baron Johann von der Ropp and his wife Laura.4 As for Nikolai’s father, Konstantin Friedrich (Feodorovich) (1837–1900), he did not belong to the Roerich family at all, being born of a liaison between Eduard von der Ropp, son of the owners of the Paplacken estate, and Charlotte Constantia Schuhschel, their house-maid. The child was baptized on 7th July 1837 and named Konstantin Christoph Traugott Glaubert. His family name as given in the parish records was that of his mother. According to Silars, Konstantin’s real father Eduard von der Ropp, captain of the Engineer Corps of Communications in St Petersburg, seduced the young woman during one of his occasional visits to his parents’ estate, or this could have been a love affair with no hope of a marital union for the lovers, given the social abyss separating them. Be that as it may, at the age of 12 (in 1849) Konstantin was sent to St Petersburg where he was taken care of by his biological father Eduard von der Ropp. It was him and not Friedrich Roerich who pleaded with the administrative committee of the Technological Institute to admit the teenage boy in the school as “a boarder” and who paid his tuition. He also forwarded to the same committee 3 The Roerichs’ family arms is discussed in an article by V.G. Kirkevich, see Kirkevich 2002, 328–332. 4 See Silars 2005, 61–80. Evgenii Pchelov in his recently published monograph about Rurik and his descendants noted only the etymological affinity of the names Rurik and Roerich, see Pchelov 2010, 287.

The Artist’s Roots And Formative Years

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Konstantin’s birth certificate issued by the town council of Aizpute, to which he was subscribed, and giving his father’s name as Friedrich Roerich. This fact, in the opinion of Silars, suggests that some kind of agreement was probably concluded between the elder von der Ropps and their steward, as a result of which the latter adopted Edward’s illegal son and gave him his family name “to cover Edward’s sin”. This service of Friedrich Roerich was apparently well paid which explains how he earned some good money to be able to rent two estates in Courland about the same time when Konstantin went to Petersburg.5 Silars’s discovery resulting from his meticulous study of Latvian archives was stunning. It evidenced beyond any doubt that the famed Russian painter Nikolai Roerich had in fact no Roerich blood in his veins and belonged to quite a different lineage, that of Barons von der Ropp. This was an illustrious Baltic German family, the progenitor of which was Theodoricus de Raupena who lived in the 13th century and was brother of Albert of Riga (Albert of Livonia), the founder of the city of Riga (in 1201) as well as of the formidable Livonian Order of Warriors of Christ (Fratres militiae Christi Livoniae) also known as the Order of the Sword-bearers, Schwertbrüderorden. Konstantin’s biography was briefly discussed in an essay by G.D. Kapi­ tonenko,6 though it is lacking the sensational details to be revealed later by Ivars Silars. Coming from the empire’s back of beyond the youth was slowly carving his way to prosperity, thanks to the care and support of his patrons – his father Eduard von der Ropp and senator and Privy Councillor K.P. Weimern, Eduard’s wife’s close relative. The young man worked as a cashier and accountant at the Büttner military uniform factory in 1855–1859, an office worker at the Directorate of the Chief Society of Russian Railways and, in 1867, he finally became a public notary. To obtain this post he had to deposit a security of 25,000 roubles, 10,000 of which were to be paid in a lump sum. This money was provided to him by K.P. Weimern. The notary practice was a well-paying job in those days. Hence, already in 1872, two years before Nikolai was born, Konstantin Feodorovich, purchased from the same Weimern a country estate, of 3780 sq. acres, with a house, at Izvara on the Izhora Hills in Tsarskoselskii uezd, outside St Petersburg. This landed property was originally part of the territory of the Great Novgorod Republic, in the 12th–15th centuries. It was a very scenic spot where young Nikolai used to come in summer. At present the house accommodates the Roerich Estateand-Museum (Muzei-usadba N.K. Reriha).

5 See Silars 2011, 8–29. 6 Kapitonenko 2002, 328–332.

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Chapter 1

A few years later, in 1880, Konstantin Feodorovich bought another parcel of land with some buildings on it, this time in St Petersburg, on the 15th Line of the Vasilievsky Island. These included a two-storey wooden house, a wooden outhouse and some auxiliary structures nearby. Twenty rooms in the main building were rented out by the Roerichs mainly to people of German and Scandinavian extraction. Konstantin Feodorovich died of a heart attack in 1900 in the mental hospital at Udelnaia, outside the city, shortly after he had been put there. He was buried according to the Lutheran ritual at the Smolensky Orthodox cemetery.

…

Did Nikolai Roerich know the secret of his birth? Probably not. It could have been part of the agreement between his father and von der Ropps not to disclose the shady story to anybody, otherwise his active mythologizing of the Roerich lineage looks rather strange, if not megalomaniac. What adds weight to this assumption is Nikolai’s confession in his later correspondence with Elena that he had “little understanding” with his father. In other words, they were not kindred souls. In 1893 Nikolai finished the private gymnasium (a secondary school of highest quality in pre-revolutionary Russia) owned by Karl Ivanovich Mai on the 14th Line. His younger brother Boris also went to this school and later on Nikolai’s own children, his sons Yuri and Sviatoslav, would attend it as well. This gymnasium was known for its liberal atmosphere – the spirit of comradery and egalitarianism which made it very popular in Petersburgian intelligentsia circles of the day. Teachers always addressed their pupils by the polite “vy” (you) and their last name, without using any titles. Unlike public gymnasia, the “Maians” (maitsy) never wore any uniforms, which, in the opinion of their progress-minded director, Karl Ivanovich, “unfettered pupils”, and they were not allowed to come to school in either horse-drawn carriages or new-fangled motor-cars7. The well-known Russian painter and art critic Alexander Benois (1870–1969), who also went to K. Mai’s gymnasium, remembered Nikolai Roerich as a “handsome boy, rosy-cheeked and very affectionate, who used to get bashful before his elder mates”.8 Having finished the primary school, Nikolai enrolled in the law department of St Petersburg University, under his father’s pressure, since Konstantin Feodorovich wished his son to follow in his footsteps. Concurrently he joined the Imperial Academy of Arts in the capacity of informal student or “lecture-goer”, following his own vocation, because he wanted to become a painter. Nikolai 7 Likhachev, Blagovo, Belodubrovskii 1990, 68. 8 Benua 1993, 485.

The Artist’s Roots And Formative Years

figure 4

5

Nikolai Roerich, in student’s uniform, 1896–08, Nicholas Roerich Museum (NRM) archive, New York

successfully completed his education in both institutions in 1898. At the Academy he attended the workshop of Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1841–1910), one of the famous Russian realist painters or peredvizniki. Roerich adored his tutor whom he regarded not only as a teacher of painting but also as that of the “art of living”, since Kuindzhi possessed many superior human qualities. He would later often remember Arkhip Ivanovich by calling him the “Teacher with the capital letter”, a Master. Nikolai pursued further his artistic education in Paris in the studio of the historic painter Fernand Cormon in 1900–1901. While visiting the Parisian old Gothic cathedrals he was imbued with the spirit of its mediaeval mysticism. “Paris and France are always dear to me, he would write many years after in one of his essays. – Here, in Notre Dame and in St Chapelle, in the radiance of stained-glass windows ripened my dreams of the fabulous Middle Ages”.9 Since childhood, Nikolai took a keen interest in archeology. When he was nine, he took part for the first time in the excavation of burial mounds on his Izvara estate, under the guidance of a professional archeologist, L.K. Ivanovskii. Hence his fascination with antiquities, old history and all sorts of legends and myths he would carry on through his life. As well as his passionate idealization 9 Rerikh, N. 2002, 3.

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of the past, primarily of the Slavic and Old Russian communal life, his admiration of a commune as the basic cell of human society. The idea of community as a global principle of social organization (‘The World Community’) would subsequently become the cornerstone of the peculiar religio-philosophical system developed by the Roerichs. One of Nikolai’s main tutor-guides in the field of archeology was A.A. Spitsyn, a member of the Imperial Archeological Committee. It was owing to Spitsyn’s representation that he was given permission for conducting excavations “within the Izvara state-owned wood-plot of the Tsarskoye Selo forestry”. Young Nikolai’s other passion was hunting. He studied special literature on the forest and marshland wildfowl of the St Petersburg area, wrote several essays about his hunting trips and sketched them in pencil. This man was a strange mix of idealistic aspirations and crude pragmatism of the type for which Russians have an expression sebe na ume – a calculating and secretive person. His inner world was dominated by old legends, symbols and images. His artistic interests were totally alienated from contemporary life – he drew his inspiration in the remote past of humanity, mostly from Russian fairy and epic tales and from the idealized way of life of the pre-Christian pagan Russia, as is eloquently evidenced by the titles of his early paintings: “A Pskovian knight” (Pskovskii rytsar’), “Tsarevitch Ivan”, “The idols” (Idoly)… It seems that he took little interest in the glamorous trappings of modern society, which was so distinctly alien to the plain communal living “according to the laws of harmony and beauty” of Old Russian and Slavic tribes. The early Roerich strongly embellished the past in which he saw his aesthetic and social ideal, the humanity’s lost “Golden Age”. At the same time Nikolai Roerich was full of self-conceit. “I am a self-loving person”, he once confessed to his academician mate Leon Antokolskii, “and although my self-love often makes me suffer, I am quite content with its abundance in the long run. It’s such a strong whip, such a source of energy without which one won’t be able to achieve much”.10 As an ambitious artist Nikolai was very pleased when his works were praised by the public and could hardly stand any reproaches or criticism. “Praises put me up while harsh rebukes depress and aggrieve me to the extent that I once lost appetite, he wrote in his diary in 1894. And that was because of my self-conceit, oh, what a whip it is, lashing me all the time and never stopping. Still it’s better to have it beyond measure rather than to lack it. When one has it, he can do many things he won’t do without it”11.

10 11

Bondarenko, Mel’nikov 2002, 11. Alekhin 1993, 92.

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Nikolai’s tremendous self-conceit occasionally turned into sheer arrogance which lifted him, an artist and master, high above the narrow-minded philistine crowd. These feelings found expression in some of his early verses, such as these two, written around 1902: I am above you, silly blind men! You always crawl in the mire, Not daring to raise your heads Toward the blue canopy of heaven… Get away from me, catechumens! Get away! Your hands are stained with blood. Here stand we alone, who are illumined By the heavenly light of love. We can gather some idea of young Nikolai’s intimate life, his ideals, his goals and the idols he worshipped from his curt replies given in the confessional questionnaire-album of the Shneider sisters, dated 31 May 1900. (To make a written confession by giving answers to a set of questions as given in such an album was one of the fads with many young men and women in the 19th century). Your favorite virtue: Stay restless. Your favorite occupation: Work. Your chief characteristic: A wanderer. Your idea of happiness: To find my way. If not yourself, who would you be?: A traveler and writer (in one person). Where would you like to live: In my native land. Your favorite poet: A[leksei] Tolstoy Your favorite prose authors: L. Tolstoy, Gogol, Ruskin. Your favorite painters and composers: Beethoven, Wagner, Glinka, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, V. Vasnetsov. Your favorite heroes in real life: Leonardo da Vinci. A monk-ascetic (skhimnik in Russian). Your favorite heroes in fiction: Don Quixote. Your pet aversion: Platitude and complacency.

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Your favorite motto: Forward, and never look back! 12 (This was a saying by the Russian painter I.N. Kramskoi). The quoted document is an important piece of evidence which portrays Nikolai Roerich in a quite unusual light. He, a 26-year old painter, modeled his life on the Wandering Knight, the simple-hearted and starry-eyed Idalgo of Lamancha, a dreamer of the Golden Age and protector of the weak and oppressed. His other model was that of a monk-ascetic! It is worthy of note here that the author of Don Quixote, Cervantes, became a member of the semi-monastic Order of St Francis, a tertiary or Gray Friar, by the end of his life and he was fully ordained shortly before his demise. Roerich’ biographers, speaking of his early formative years, underscore his yearning for self-perfection which the artist claimed to be his life’s main task. This could be fulfilled, he believed, through creative work and art. The questionnaire incidentally names Nikolai’s chief spiritual mentors – Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin. It is most likely from Tolstoy – the late Tolstoy who wrote his well-known essays ‘My Confession’ (Ispoved’), ‘What my creed is’ (V chem moia vera) and ‘About Life’ (O zhizni) – that Roerich borrowed his idea of social transformation by way of religious and moral self-perfection, as well as Tolstoy’s notion of God and genuine Christianity. Tolstoy, inter alia, believed that all religious teachings have one and the same moral foundation: “I think”, he wrote in 1903 to the mufti Mohamed Abdul, “that all truly religious principles stem from this, and that they are the same for Jews, Brahmins, Christians and Mohammedans. I think that the more religions are filled with dogmas, prescriptions, miracles, and superstitions, the more they separate people and generate enmity; on the contrary, the more they get simple and purified, the closer they approach the ideal goal of humanity, that of general unity”.13 Leo Tolstoy is known to have been a great admirer of Ruskin and he actively disseminated his ideas in Russia. John Ruskin (1819–1900) was an English writer and art and social critic, an “apostle of the religion of beauty”. A disciple of Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), he developed an aesthetic theory which asserted the inseparability of art, religion and society. Ruskin claimed that art could improve man “directly and occultly” 12

13

Korotkina 1985, 81–82. The album was printed in London and titled: “Confessions, The album to record opinions, thoughts, feelings, ideas, peculiarities, impressions, characteristics of friends”. The questions were formulated in English and answers were usually given in Russian. Tolstoi 1956, 91–92. Tolstoy’s letter to Mohamed Abdul, 30 April (13 May) 1903.

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and it “served the cause of religion and morality”. He harshly criticized contemporary society by rejecting the political economy based upon competition and he urged the practicability of one based on cooperation. It was towards this goal that he founded in 1871 the utopian St George’s Guild, a kind of cooperative based on principles of natural economy and denying usage of any machinery or technical devices, something which George P. Landow refers to as “Ruskin’s most seemingly quixotic public project”.14 Roerich might have been inspired by some of Ruskin’s advanced ideas as he, two decades later, would try to start an agricultural cooperative and commune in the Altai of which we will speak later. The Russian religious philosopher and essayist Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) could also have had some influence on the artist, though his name was not mentioned in the Schneider sisters’ questionnaire. Nikolai was presumably well acquainted with Soloviev’s teaching of Unity (Vseedinstvo) with its crucial idea of holistic world-view, being a synthesis of faith and science. According to Soloviev, “free theosophy” (svobodnaia teosofia) is “an organic synthesis of theology, philosophy and experimental science”, which alone embodies “the integral truth of knowledge”, an idea which seems to be perfectly in line with Helena Blavatsky’s theosophical thinking. Nikolai Roerich’s career after he had completed his vocational training was fairly successful. In 1898 he took up the post of assistant secretary at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (Imperatorskoe obstchestvo poostchrenia khudozhestv), three years later he was already secretary and in 1906 he went further up, being appointed director of the School of drawing affiliated with the Society. The post of ISEA’s secretary was quite an important one due to Society’s close links with the highest aristocratic circles. The association functioned under the patronage of the tsar and tsarina and included among its members nine august persons. Its honorary President was Princess Eugenia Maksimilianovna Oldenburgskaia, wife of Prince Alexandre Petrovich Oldenburgskii. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts was founded in 1821 by a group of art patronizing noblemen; it used to organize exhibitions and various contests and played a prominent role in St Petersburg’s rich artistic life. The well-known painter and art historian Igor Grabar’ described in his memoirs Roerich‘s career in the following words: “Little by little he turned into “Nikolai Konstantinovich” and became “an important person”; his opinion was taken into consideration and his favor was sought after. He was the sole master of the second St Petersburgian academy, the “Society for Encouragement”. Shortly before the revolution [of 1917], they say, he was promoted to the rank of actual 14

See G.P. Landow’s study of J. Ruskin: www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/pm3.[htlm]

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councilor of state, i.e. a “civil general”, which carried a pleasing title of “your Excellence”.15 His post, title, and constant dealings with the world’s “most powerful ones” certainly pleased the self-conceited artist, making him feel one of “the first rank”. Nikolai’s personal life was also happy. In the summer of 1899 he met the 20year old Elena Shaposhnikova, niece of princess Putiatina, and fell in love with her. Their first meeting occurred in Putiatins’ country house at Bologoye, where Elena used to come in summer together with her mother. Nikolai occasionally visited the place for consultations with Prince P.A. Putiatin, an ardent archeologist and member of the Imperial Archeological Society, and that was how he came to know Elena. They got married two years later. Nikolai and Elena’s love story had many twists and turns and deserves a more detailed discussion which will help delineate their psychological portraits and the peculiar character of their relations. 15

Grabar’ 1937, 172.

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Elena, Nikolai’s Muse and Life’s Guide A pure woman can lead a man far with an invisible hand. N. Roerich, From a letter to Elena, 1900

⸪ Elena was a good match for Nikolai. Born in 1879 in St Petersburg to the family of architect Ivan Ivanovich Shaposhnikov (1883–1898), she had a gift for music. Having finished the Mariinsky female gymnasium in 1895, she entered a private musical school where she attended the piano class of Prof. I.A. Borovko and was thinking of a musical career. Her father Ivan Shaposhnikov was educated at the Academy of Arts and is known as a designer of many tenement and industrial buildings in the city. He also designed the synagogue at the corner of Ofitserskaia and Bolshaia Morskaia streets. Elena’s mother Ekaterina Vasilievna (1857–1913) had aristocratic roots being a descendant of the princely family of Golenistchev-Kutuzov. On her mother’s side Elena was a grand niece of the famed commander-in-chief of the Russian army Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, who defeated Napoleon in 1812. Her father’s lineage was Germanic, according to Elena’s oral testimony. She claimed that her great-grandfather was a Frieslander, von Tessner by name. He was a rich man and an eminent persona, the burgomaster of Riga. When Peter the Great visited the city in the early 18th century von Tessner presented him with the legendary Hat of Monomach (Shapka Monomakha), the cone shaped headgear of the Russian tsars and grand dukes, trimmed with sables and studded with jewels. Hence the tsar Peter gave his German donor a Russian name – Shaposhnikov. Elena also asserted that one of her uncles, Evgenii Ivanovich Shaposhnikov (b. 1814) was a military engineer and member of the Russian Geographical Society. He took part in one the Society’s expeditions to Central Asia from which he never returned. The same man, she claimed, some time prior to that journey turned up at a fancy-ball in St Petersburg, at which the tsar and tsarina were present, dressed up as an Indian raja which suggested that he had been to India before. And she also believed that her great grandmother, Anastasia Ivanovna El’chaninova (1809–1889), belonged to the lineage of the great Mongolian ruler, Chinggis Khan, to be more exact, that of one of Chinggis’s sons.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_003

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This and other stories that Elena as an elderly woman told about her ancestors1 are for the most part fictional as shown by Russian genealogist I.V. Sakharov in his extensive study of the Shaposhnikovs’ family history.2 Ivars Silars, on his part, also maintains that Elena’s account of her high-born German ancestor, the possessor of the Hat of Monomach, is utterly implausible: Since the mid-14th century the German traders and craftsmen of Riga were united in two separate guilds. Therefore it is hard to imagine that any of these traders could meet Peter I and present him with a gift, entirely on his own. “The Hat of Monomakh” in this context does not deserve any commentary at all. It seems most improbable that Peter I, who was not an illiterate Russian muzhik (villager), could reward a German nobleman, by depriving him of his family name. And how he did it – issued a special decree? But when?3 In the late 1920s – early 1930s, when living in the valley of Kulu in Northern India and posing as a spiritual guru and clairvoyant, Elena would actively mythologize her past life by claiming that her invisible teacher Morya had secretly guided her since early childhood. She would recall her ancestors, the Shaposhnikovs, and would particularly admire her vanished uncle. He did not perish during his Central Asian journey as many believed, she would explain, but went to the Himalayan Brotherhood and remained there under the name of Mahometi. In one of his former lives he was incarnated as Abu’l-Fazl, a celebrated 16th century biographer of the Mogul emperor Akbar, the one who wrote Akbarnama. It was then that Elena revealed to her most devoted disciples Sina Lichtmann and Esther Lichtmann some of the remarkable events from her Petersburgian period, unknown to anybody. From these narratives one may infer that she was quite a willful person, strong in spirit and democratic in her ways. She liked to resist her environment, to surmount obstacles and to tread the unbeaten tracks. She recounted, for example, that as a child she had a strong desire to help people – at the age of six she sewed dresses for poor children and had “moments of ecstasy and delight” when she imagined how she would endow them with 1 Their main source is a typed manuscript “Rod Shaposhnikovykh” which belongs to the archive of Pavel Belikov. Similar stories were told by Elena in 1929–1930 to Esther Lichtmann as they were recorded in her intimate diaries which remain unpublished (Notebook 2, entry for 26 June 1929, Notebook 5, entry for 10 February 1930). See Andreev 2011b, 122–123. 2 Sakharov 2002, 496–570. 3 This opinion of I. Silars was quoted in Andreev 2011b, 123.

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warm clothing and “offer them tea with jam”. She also dreamt of marrying a factory owner in order to increase workers’ salaries. Whether these stories are true is hard to say, knowing Elena’s fertile imagination. Her biographers also speak of her acute feeling of injustice and that it was for this reason that Elena’s parents did not allow her to join the Higher Bestuzhev women’s courses, fearing that their daughter might become a revolutionary.4 In the recollections of her contemporaries, Elena was portrayed as a clever and charming girl, a gifted pianist and an art lover. N.V. Shishkina remembered that everyone who met her was struck by her good looks. “She was tall, slim, well-formed, elegant and womanly, full of grace and some inner charm which involuntarily attracted everyone’s gaze. . She had a very melodious and gentle voice and treated people most kindly and she addressed her close relatives by their pet names”. Having lost her father when she was 19, Elena remained alone with her mother who looked after her. Before she married Nikolai Roerich she had lived the high life, typical for girls of her age and social class – “she was fond of smart clothes and was always dressed according to the latest fashion, wearing ear-rings, necklaces and other objects of adornment”5. However this mode of living, shallow and full of vanity, began to depress her soon, and she finally turned away from her environment to search for spiritual values in life. The history of Elena’s and Nikolai’s romance can be traced minutely in the artist’s abundant correspondence to his fiancée, covering the period of 1900 and 1901 and numbering over 200 letters and postcards altogether.6 Having fallen in love with Elena, Nikolai made a proposal to her, in late 1899, and she accepted it. Still the lovers had to overcome many obstacles before they were joined in marriage. Thus, they could not see each other openly any time they wanted because they were not yet formally engaged and had not yet obtained their parents’ consent. Hence correspondence substituted largely for their personal contacts. Elena would later recall that her mother invited Nikolai to her home rather seldom because artists were generally regarded as people of low standing in aristocratic families, unless they were celebrities. So they met occasionally at her uncle’s apartment, in the opera house and such like public places. Once 4 Budnikova 2009, 92. The “Bestuzhev courses” is the name of higher educational institution for women opened in St Petersburg in 1878 and providing education of physicians and teachers. 5 See Shishkina 2001, 27. 6 See Rerikh, N. 2011. This correspondence belongs to the Manuscript section at the State Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, fond 44.

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figure 5

figure 6

Nikolai Roerich, 1900, NRM archive

Elena Shaposhnikova as a child, 1884, NRM archive

Elena, Nikolai’s Muse And Life’s Guide

figure 7

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Elena Shaposhnikova, 1900, NRM archive

Nikolai invited Elena to his studio to see his paintings but her mother strongly objected to such a visit as a violation of the proprieties and agreed only on the condition that Elena would be accompanied by her female cousin. However Elena was shrewd enough to find an occasion for visiting Nikolai’s studio on her own, once in a while. For example, she once asked her music-master for an early leave from the class, hopped a cab and rushed to the Academy of Arts. A spell of unclouded happiness for the lovers had lasted until Nikolai’s departure for Paris in the fall of 1900. Judging by his early letters to Elena, he was a most romantic and unsophisticated soul. Elena was an object of his pure delight, of constant and excessive adoration and veneration. “My sweet and dear one, yesterday night I finally received Your letter, which, I confess shamefully, I reread five times and am carrying on me now, what an inexcusable sentimentality”, Nikolai wrote to his beloved Lada, as he called Elena, in June 1900, still in St Petersburg.7 (Lada was an Old Russian way of addressing a wife by a husband, an equivalent of “my sweet”). Love captured Nikolai completely, took a hold of him. If he did not receive a message from his Lada for several days, he would get angry and rebuke her. As 7 Rerikh, N. 2011, 18, letter # 9, 2 June 1900.

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for Elena, she wrote to Nikolai less often and her letters were much more reserved and sober-minded, in Nikolai’s opinion. One of the most immediate outcomes of his passion was that he grew very purposeful and ambitious. He began to look upon himself as an extraordinary and out-of-the-world personality, because Art, so he believed, uplifted artists, placed them high above other people: To achieve success we must not regard ourselves as ordinary people – then we will lose courage and confidence, the qualities without which one cannot capture a fortress. In moments of creative work … every man gets a feeling of being high above the rest, this is quite an instinctive feeling . 8 The only thing that somewhat shadowed Nikolai and Elena’s romantic relations was Nikolai’s father’s mental derangement. On the advice of doctors Konstantin Feodorovich was taken to a mental hospital at Udel’naya where he passed away quietly, on 26 July. This was a hard blow for Nikolai which seriously affected his morale and psychic condition to the point that he even got some auditory hallucinations, as he confessed in a letter to Elena: “I am finishing writing and hear quite distinctly the dragging of a chair on the floor in the next room … What a riot of nerves!”.9 Nikolai gradually recovered from the blow, heartened up and began to make plans for the future. What he desired most at the moment was to marry his beloved Lada. He scheduled the marriage well in advance for the spring of the following year and in the meantime he intended to take his fiancée away to some major art center in Europe, to Munich for instance, where they could be absorbed in artistic studies. “I will paint and you will attend a [piano] class of some local professor”. The money for the trip Nikolai hoped to obtain from his mother. The journey was also conceived as a means to “strengthen” his and Elena’s shattered nerves. Let us hurry things up toward next spring. I imagine how we will strengthen our nerves living together away from ordinary society, taking baths and breathing the sea air. My creative work will progress freshly and you, too, will succeed in the atmosphere of the art center. You, for various reasons, have grown so weak physically; your agitation when you play [the piano] and spots on your cheeks, all this points to the need 8 9

Ibid., 29–30, letter # 18, 28 June 1900. Ibid., 43, letter # 29, 30 July 1900.

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to strengthen your nervous system. I also need [a break], otherwise I will get a neurasthenia that will prevent me from fulfilling my well-conceived program.10 A day later Nikolai wrote to Elena again: Before going to bed, I again contemplated our life abroad and I am getting more and more exited. Being at rest, we will improve our technique and thoroughly study the entire history of painting and music as well as the most important philosophical teachings. Thus, in a year’s time, we will return home fully equipped and more prepared to realize our idea of a circle.11 Nikolai was probably talking about his plan for setting up in Petersburg an artistic circle of his own that would unite talented painters and musicians and compete with the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) association founded earlier (1898) by Alexander Benois and Sergei Diagilev. In the same letter he insisted that his fiancée should read Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, especially the chapter entitled Das andere Tanzlied (The second dance song) which utterly ravished him. “The more I read [Nietzsche], the more I am convinced that … his teaching has a great future. Just read ‘Zarathustra’ and you will see that we are natural Nietzscheans”.12 The curt mention of Nietzsche suggests that Nikolai must have been acquainted with the concept of Übermensch (Superhuman, Overman) that was developed by the German philosopher in 1883, about the same time when Helena Blavatsky began to preach about suprahuman mahatmas. In his letters Nikolai portrays himself as a loner and an alien in his family, who has little understanding with anybody, including his mother. “Positively, I am getting convinced that I have no genuine kindred relations with my own or am I too demanding?”, he asks Elena.13 The following day Nikolai had a medical checkup by one Dr. Merzheevsky who confirmed his neurotic symptoms, prescribed him some medical treatment and advised to change his mode of life – to work less, expedite his marriage and take a trip abroad. On 16 September Roerich, together with a group of other academic painters, left for Paris for a seven month long probation. When parting with Elena, he 10 11 12 13

Ibid., 51, letter # 36, 24 August 1900. Ibid., 53, letter # 37, 26 August 1900. Ibid., 53. Ibid., 58, letter # 41, 29 August 1900.

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tried to persuade her to accept his rather venturesome scheme – to give up everything and head for Paris to join up with him there. But she turned down this plan and even called it “chimerical” which badly hurt his feelings. “Yesterday you gave me a severe lesson, which will not be lost on me”, he wrote Elena from his Berlin train. – “Although I know I am not to blame – this is a matter of circumstances, but as concerns my various Chimeras I’ll watch myself closely so you won’t hear many of them again. However I can’t do away with these [Chimeras] completely, because thanks to them I live for your sake”.14 Nikolai also asked his fiancée to send him her photos – “in different appearances and poses”. These will be his precious images which he wants to “worship”. He was carrying with him a bunch of Elena’s letters and while on the train he would often read and reread them, sigh and shed tears. “I have all of your letters in my pocket, I just wanted to arrange them in chronological order but I cannot do so because of tears, what a swinish trick”.15 This tearful sentimentality paradoxically combined in Nikolai with a German-like practicality, as he carefully records all his expenses, and with his remarkable capacity for making plans and devising all sorts of schemes for the future. Having finally obtained his mother’s consent for marriage, he began to calculate his and Elena’s family budget and concluded that they would probably have enough to start up with. And this instantly brought him back to his master plan for alluring Elena away to Paris. That is to abandon her mother (her father was dead by that time) and to run away from home, a most scandalous matter by the moral standards of the day. “Well, Ladushka, take a risk!” Nikolai was appealing to Elena. “We’ll work together in Paris, otherwise you’ll be dragged down [by your environment] in Petersburg. … We’ll labor in silence and achieve a lot. It’s really not a Chimera!”. 16 In one of his letters Nikolai expounded his life’s strategy, the theory of “two paths”. One is that of ordinary men, “quiet and smooth”, yet it “savours of commonplaceness”, and the other “stony and rough”, but “it leads higher”. This thorny path is “a new road” of self-perfection which will lead them both to the height of art, per aspera ad astra (through the thorns to the stars). Elena can become an outstanding pianist by giving new interpretation to some musical compositions. But to choose the “stony path” means that both of them will have to take chances, change their lives completely, by discarding their old environment, “the sweet society”, and “plunging into a new atmosphere”.17 The artist 14 15 16 17

Ibid., 61, letter # 44, 16 September 1900, written on the train to Berlin. Ibid., 62. Ibid., 67, letter # 48, 4 October 1900 (New style). Ibid., 67–68, letter # 48, 4 October 1900.

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looks a bit of a rebel and there is clearly a Nietzschean note ringing in his voice when he claims rather arrogantly: “I don’t want any official post, I don’t want to fawn upon Svinyin [an architect, one of his patrons – A.A.]; with time I can rise high above them all and then they themselves will offer me ranks and everything”.18 Nikolai wanted Elena to walk hand in hand with him along this “new road” not merely as his companion; much more, she was to become his life’s guide – his wife and muse in one person, a constant source of inspiration. Therefore he is ready to submit himself entirely to her guidance, her superior command. His first letter to Elena from Paris Nikolai signed “R Izgoi” – Roerich the Outcast, which shows his newly adopted posture of someone, alienated from the rest of the world. With this harsh pen-name he will sign subsequently his essays in the journal Art and artistic industry, the editor of which was N.P. Sobko, the then secretary of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Roerich seems to have been completely at a loss and was unable to make any decision himself. Therefore he turned to Lada as she alone could resolve his doubts, decide whether he should stay in Paris for the whole period of probation, or go to the Crimea and thence back to Paris, or to return to Petersburg to pick her up there. In his next letter Nikolai again set out his “program”, his ideas for the future, and he even lashed himself for his former quixotic manners when he was “swinging arms like a wind-mill, with bulging eyes, and speaking like a windbag”. But now – after he met Elena – he is a different person, treading his new road. He is studying the art of outstanding old masters, trying to find out how they matured and progressed along their own paths and what put them ahead of others and their time. In his pocket he always carries Elena’s short note she once sent him with the words: “Believe your Lada, she won’t deceive you”. To these he is responding with his “I believe and will live on up to this faith of mine”.19 This is Roerich’s genuine credo – his faith in Helen the Beautiful and his uncommon talent. However Nikolai’s faith was shattered all too soon as Elena’s letters became more formal and irregular. The reason was simple – his fiancée indulged in typical high life entertainments. Alarmed, he wrote her in October: “My dear Ladushka, I have read your letter with a heavy heart; there’s something wrong with you. Why on earth do you need all these visits and balls etc. – is it there that you’re seeking your real self? All these social events with their vulgarity, can they bring about the sharpening of senses that will improve your understanding of music?”. And he further admonishes his beloved: “Stay away from 18 19

Ibid., 67, letter # 48, 4 October 1900 (New style). Ibid., 78, letter # 54, 27 September 1900 (Old style).

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jolly crowds! Look deeper into yourself – if you want to achieve anything. To be an artist and make the public follow you, to feel that your music, with its every note, evokes laughter and tears, isn’t it a real joy?”.20 Elena’s nonchalant replies embarrassed Nikolai with their “ambiguity”. She was not at all delighted with his idea of living and studying together in Paris and putting everything at stake, for the future’s sake. Still her influence on Nikolai remained boundless: “You hold me in your arms and You, You only, can order me to be an ideal egoist or a most nasty one. Your will be done!”.21 Of his Parisian life Nikolai spoke rather scantily. Having moved from the hotel into the studio which was formerly occupied by the poet Apollon Maikov, he devoted himself entirely to painting. Occasionally he called on his tutor Cormont and other French painters, visited museums and art galleries and the evenings he usually spent in the friendly company of Madame Lossky, another Petersburger, and her two daughters who entertained him with singing to the accompaniment of a grand piano. Paris in general disappointed him. “The more I get accustomed to Paris, the less I like it. True, it’s a very good place for work, but the [French] nation gives me a general impression of degradation and decay. The people are lecherous and even somewhat cynically lecherous and these Parisian damsels have a repulsive effect indeed on a newcomer”.22 Especially on someone like Nikolai Roerich, a man in the firm grip of his passion. Elena’s messages often brought him to tears. “I have read [your letter] and some unknown [feeling] seized me, some dissonant thoughts rushed into my mind and I burst out sobbing, yes I did (it’s good there was no one around). Now that I’m writing these words I can hardly suppress tears and my whole being is madly crying: I love, I love [you], more than myself! You are everything that attracts me to life… I feel that I love You even stronger than art”.23 There were moments however when Nikolai became acutely aware of the pathological nature of his love. “What a sick love it is that I feel for You now! Suffice it to say that I cannot see Your letters without shedding tears. Oh, yes, love is a terrible feeling. Some time before I was ashamed of it, but now I am ready to shout: “I love and I don’t find my love shameful at all… You alone can make me wholesome; without You I’ll be a wretched creature, a maniac”.24 Nikolai is eagerly waiting for Elena’s pictures: “Your photos will by my talismans, along with Your note that I received in Berlin. You know that I will kiss them all 20 21 22 23 24

Ibid., 84–85, letter # 63, ca 18 October 1900 (OS). Ibid., 92, letter # 66, 30 October 1900 (OS). Ibid., 92. Ibid., letter # 64, October 1900. Ibid., 89, 99, letters # 64 and # 70, October 1900 and end of November – early December 1900.

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over every morning and evening and will put them in every corner of my room, so that I could see my dear one, my joy, Lada”.25 In one of his letters Nikolai explains to Elena that their matrimonial union will surely be a happy one, because both of them are artists who are engaged in creative work, each in his own field. When united, they will inspire each other. “The happiest unions are usually those between artists belonging to different [branches] of art, take Turgenev and Viardot, and I can give you many more examples…”.26 In the meantime in St Petersburg Elena’s aunts were trying to frustrate Nikolai’s plans and separate him from his beloved. A marriage of a girl of aristocratic descent with a son of a petty bourgeois was obviously a misalliance in their eyes. Therefore they insisted that Elena should stop her correspondence with him and demand her letters back. The idea horrified Nikolai beyond words and he immediately responded to this malicious intrigue with a dashing plan he presented to Elena – he will return to St Petersburg for Christmas, they will marry and then will proceed together, already as a married couple, to Paris! However Elena turned down prudently this scenario as she was not delighted at all with her lover’s new “Chimera”. Unlike Nikolai, she was not brave enough to challenge her aristocratic milieu, her glamorous environment which was more and more “dragging her down”. She was still enjoying the high life, visiting balls and flirting with young men of her caste. Moreover, she even got an admirer, Molvo by name, who began wooing her, as she naively (or deliberately?) confessed to Nikolai. This news sparked off an outburst of jealousy in him: “We had one Molvo in the gymnasium – he was a scoundrel”.27 Nikolai was overwhelmed by grief to the point of a nervous breakdown. Your letter of yesterday hurt me very much. Can it be true that you are no better than those thousands of pretty girls who, like many-colored butterflies, fly about the parquet? Does it mean that you can be so easily distracted from your right path? 28 You are writing how You entertain yourself at the balls. These days I feel somewhat unhealthy – it’s my bad nerves and I am having a nervous cough and a general indisposition. And Your last letter offended me bitterly. 29 25 26 27 28 29

Ibid., 88. Ibid., 110, letter # 80, 4/17 December 1900. Ibid., 111, letter # 81, 7/20 December 1900. Ibid., 113, letter # 84, 10/23 December 1900. Ibid., 115, letter # 86, 3 January 1901 (OS).

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Elena herself assessed the situation rather pragmatically seeing three options – “to wait, to break up or to marry”. She was prepared for the worse – to part with Nikolai and it was this alternative that drove him crazy. The final break up seemed imminent as Nikolai wrote a “farewell letter” to Elena at the end of January. In this he refused point-blank to return to Elena her letters and postcards, because they were “sacred to him” and he wanted “to keep them until his death-hour”. At the same time he lamented: “You were unjust to me. You left me at the hardest moment… The way I love You, men love only once. I am writing these words and weeping, and something trembles in me painfully, because I believed in You alone. Now I will renounce the world completely… Farewell, my Lada, farewell my joy, think kindly of me for a long time after … Give my kiss to Ekaterina Vasilievna [Elena’s mother – A.A.], I love her too, very much. Can’t write any further – I am weeping”.30 However a miracle occurred at this dramatic point – Lada “took pity” on Nikolai and sent him a “nice letter”. He was in heavens again and instantly forgot about all his grievances. “You felt sorry for me, which is the most important sign of genuine and profound love”, he wrote back to Elena. This again provided him an occasion for theorizing in his verbose and high-flown style on the nature of women’s love which is either slavish or motherly with nothing in between. The love “when woman’s passion combines with a motherly feeling” is by far superior and it is only now that Elena is beginning to love him with that kind of supreme love, maintains Nikolai.31 Eventually all ended well for Nikolai and Elena. Not to run any further risks Nikolai decided to shorten his stay in Paris and he returned to Petersburg in late spring 1901. Oddly, his correspondence with Elena broke off abruptly at the end of March which leaves us with a somewhat puzzled feeling. Their love story seems to have had another twist at this final stage, totally unknown to Roerich’s biographers. Elena herself would disclose to Esther Lichtmann, many years later, some intriguing details of this “endgame”. According to her narrative, she and her mother traveled to Paris, sometime in spring 1900, allegedly to take away her letters from Nikolai since he said he would return them only to Elena personally. When they arrived, Elena quite unexpectedly changed her mind and declared that she wanted to marry Nikolai. So her mother took her away to Nice and thence to Italy, but Nikolai followed them stubbornly everywhere they went. Little by little Ekaterina Vasilievna softened her hard stance towards Nikolai and even began to feel some sympathy for him. At that point she was informed by her relatives that she had inherited some property and returned to 30 31

Ibid., 117, letter # 87, 21 January 1901 (NS). Ibid., 119–120, letter # 91, February 1901.

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Petersburg together with Elena, Nikolai following them on their heels. This was briefly the story told by Elena to Esther.32 Back in St Petersburg, Nikolai took the post of secretary at the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, having replaced the elderly Sobko. Interestingly, in his Parisian letters he had assured Elena that he would never ever take that post because “creative work is incompatible with civic service”. “One can take such a post only if he wants to abandon art completely; filled up with petty details, chicaneries and gossip, the work of Society’s secretary occupies all his time, and I don’t wish such a sorrowful lot for myself…That’s why the Society has been searching so long for Sobko’s substitute”.33 Nikolai apparently had to discard his conviction and there was a good reason to do so. As soon as he got Sobko’s post, he formally proposed to Elena and obtained her mother’s long-awaited consent and blessing. This happened on May 8, the Day of Ascension.34 The attitude to Nikolai in Shaposhnikov’s family became much more benevolent especially after he had once recounted, in Prince Putiatin’s presence, the tale of his “high-born” Swedish forebears and even demonstrated his family arms which produced a rather strong impression on everybody. Curiously, Nikolai had prepared himself for this show well in advance – in the winter of 1901, while in Paris, he had requested his 16-year-old brother Boris and sister Lydia to get him a sealing-wax impression of the Roerichs’ arms from Riga (where his father went to school), which they did. (It may seem strange that Nikolai who boasted his ancient Scandinavian roots did not possess that precious relic at home as bequeathed to him by his father. Moreover, it was not the genuine image of the arms drawn on heraldic paper but only its crude “sealing-wax impression” of some obscure origin.) Still it took Nikolai half a year before he finally settled his financial and other problems and was able to lead Elena to the altar. The wedding ceremony was held on 28 October 1901 in St Catherine Church at the Academy of Arts. The narrated story allows us to delineate the psychological portraits of Nikolai and Elena at an early stage of their lives. It is easy to see that Nikolai was a man of extremely unstable state of mind, a typical neurotic, irresolute and lacking in self-confidence, living by his many fantasies and “Chimeras”. A talented and original painter, he appears to have been rather impotent and helpless in his day-to-day doings. Materially, he was largely dependent on his parents’ support and found it quiet burdensome. His love for Elena Shaposhnikova changed 32 33 34

See E. Lichtmann’s diaries, Notebook 2, 36, entry for 29 June 1929. Rerikh, N. 2011, 123, letter # 94, March 1901. The fact was recounted by Esther Lichtmann in her diary, Notebook # 2, entry for 29 June 1929.

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him completely. The young woman became his second half, his muse and life’s guide, who gave him tremendous inspiration and much-needed spiritual and moral backing. In this love Nikolai subconsciously sought to realize his romantic ideals – his service of Beauty and veneration of Woman, something that Goethe called ewig Weibliche, eternal Womanhood. Without his Belle Elena he would have hardly become the Roerich that we know today. As for Elena, she was unruly, wayward, and a neurotic type as well; Nikolai’s excessive adoration of her and submissiveness made her feel that she was someone special, his inspiring genius and muse. Like him, she had some high ideals in life and looked for self-realization and a useful social activity. However, her plans for a career as a performing musician were ruined by marriage. Elena abandoned music and somewhat unexpectedly got keen on archeology. She accompanied Nikolai to Novgorod, once ruled by Prince Rurik, to take part in his excavations there. She lived in the earth-house and dressed in simple clothing. This strongly upset her relatives who could not grasp how their sweet Lialichka could put up with the “primitive conditions of life”. Elena also extensively traveled with her husband – in 1903 and 1904 alone they visited about forty ancient Russian towns. Nikolai was delighted with his wife and nearly worshiped her. Elena indeed became his muse – she suggested to him the themes for his paintings which were either her dreams or favorite Biblical subjects and then wrote her detailed commentaries to these. N.V. Shishkina who had once visited the Roerich couple in their house near Novgorod recalled in her memoirs: Elena Iv[anovna], a very amiable and nice hostess, brought out to the terrace after tea two paintings, one of them was ‘Noah’s Arc’ and another one ‘Jonah’s three day’s stay in the whale’s belly’, both painted in dark Biblical colors. Nikolai Konstantinovich painted these while El[ena] Ivanovna provided her lengthy explanations to both, discussing their symbolic meaning. These explanations were written on long bands of paper, which looked like ancient papyri. In this way Elena Iv[anovna] inspired her husband, and he, too, inspired her. In him she found what she had aspired to.35 Soon two children were born to the couple, both sons: Yuri, in 1902, and Sviatoslav, in 1904. The former would become an outstanding Orientalist, specializing in Indo-Tibetan and Buddhist studies, and the latter would follow in his father’s footsteps, by making a career as a painter. In the same year 1904 Nikolai and 35

Shishkina 2001, 29.

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Elena made a second tour of Russian towns in the course of which Lada would try her luck as an amateur photographer. She enthusiastically took pictures of Old Russian churches and fortresses and was quite good at it. Some of her photos would later be reproduced by Igor Grabar, in his History of Russian Art.

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chapter 3

The Time of Fulfillment In this life the creative labor alone is of value. N. Roerich, “The Flame” (1918)

⸪ Nikolai Roerich’s Petersburg period, until 1916 when he moved to Finland, was extremely productive. He managed somehow to combine his great creative efforts as a painter and stage designer, under Elena’s guidance, with his uninspiring office work for the Society of Encouragement of the Arts. The latter was obviously a drudgery which had burdened him so much in the beginning that he was about to give up his prestigious post with all its benefits. Yet he carried on along his chosen thorny path. The artist produced one painting after another working feverishly in his studio and in the open air. Thematically his canvasses focused on the same subject – the idyllic Old Russian world, the Northern Saga, which fully captured him. The titles of these paintings executed in the style of “heroic realism” speak for themselves: Guests from Foreign Lands (Zamorskie gosti), Building a town (Gorod stroyat), The Slavs on the Dnieper (Slaviane na Dnepre), The Polovtsians’s camp (Polovetskii stan), Ilya from Murom (Ilya Muromets, the classical Russian folklore hero or bogatyr). Zamorskie gosti (1901) depicted a group of Vikings (Variagi) aboard their decorated wooden ship sailing to the unknown Russian lands and further to Constantinople or Tsargrad as the Slavs called it in those days “for trade and for service” was one of his best. The Viking theme really spellbound him – suffice it to say that Roerich would subsequently produce over a hundred of variants of the same canvas as well as a separate “Viking” series. In many of his paintings of this period Roerich, according to his modern critics, sought to incarnate his innermost dream of a world where people live in harmony with nature. This world looked perfectly real due to many historic and ethnographic details present in the paintings, still it was a dream world which had never existed before, and the artist who created it so masterly was only a simple-hearted dreamer and visionary who wanted to captivate the public with his dreams and visions. According to art critic L.V. Korotkina, in his paintings depicting the pagan Russia, Roerich “succeeded in reflecting the spirit of the epoch, having

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_004

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poeticized it with his artistic vision. The artist saw in the past “the golden age” of humanity. This beautiful image of the distant past seemed to him an ideal model for the future”.1 Roerich’s other masterpiece from his Petersburg period is his large-sized (3 by 4 meters) “The Treasure of the Angels” (Sokrovistche angelov, 1904–1905). Originally this was a sketch of the mural designed to decorate the burial-vault of Prince Tenishev at the request of his widow Princess Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva, the famous arts patroness and collector, however it was not used to this end and remained as a separate work. The painting executed in soft dark violet and goldish colors showed, in the foreground, a winged archangel with a bright halo around his head standing next to the Tree of Life with the birds of paradise sitting on its branches (on the right) and a huge dark monolith inscribed with mysterious characters (on the left). Behind the archangel, at some distance, there is a host of haloed angels with pikes standing in ranks amidst the paradise garden. Further up, in the background, rise the bulky crenellated walls encircling the Heavenly Jerusalem, which strikingly resembles a medieval Russian town. Roerich himself explained the meaning of the painting as follows: “the angels guard the precious Foundation-Stone of the World, in which both good and evil is concentrated; the symbols of these are written on the Stone”. The idea of the Sacred Stone – the Stone of Wisdom or the Stone of Life – making the focus of the painting goes back to the early medieval European legend or myth of the Holy Grail, the Chalice into which Joseph of Arimaphea allegedly had gathered Christ’s spilled blood. This legend inspired the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach to write his famous romance Die Sage von Parzival. However the Holy Grail, according to Eschenbach, was not the Chalice but the Wandering Stone, Lapis Exilis, which fell down from heavens or, as another German legend has it, was carried to the earth by angels and possessed some miraculous powers. To obtain this magic relic was Parsifal’s supreme goal: “Ich will von keiner Freude wissen Muss ich des Grales Anblick missen… Es sei mein einz’ges Streben, Fortan mein ganzes Leben”. (I don’t want any joy Until I see the Grail. 1 Korotkina 1985, 105.

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This is the only aspiration Of my whole life) The legend of the Sacred Stone also left its mark in the Christian tradition. In the Book of Revelation (2:17), for example, one can read: “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it”. (This is a reference to the God’s verdict passed on every Christian on the Doomsday and written on the surface of a stone). In fact the legend is much older than the early Christian era and can be traced to the pre-Christian times. It seems to have originated in the East, in India in particular, since we find it in the Indian and Buddhist sacred books and folklore speaking of the precious stone Chintamani as “the stone of wisdom”. The same Korotkina reckons that Roerich became familiar with the legend as early as 1893. It was then that a Buddhist exhibition of Prince Esper Ukhtomskii was opened at the Winter Palace which consisted largely of the objects he had gathered during the voyage round the world he undertook in 1890–1891 as an attendant of the heir apparent of the Russian throne Nikolai Alexandrovich to become Nicholas II. Among the items exhibited was “the treasure of Chintamani” described later by Ukhtomskii in his travelogue.2 “It is hard to believe, asserts Korotkina, that Roerich who showed interest in the Eastern cultures since his early age did not attend the exhibition at the Winter Palace and not acquainted himself with its catalogue and [later] publications”.3 She is most positive that Roerich had known the ancient legend of the Sacred Stone by the time he produced his Treasure of the Angels. Korotkina also draws another important conclusion from her research – the painting embodies the “Roerich’s idea of the synthesis of religions” which would later dominate in his artistic work and religio-philosophical writings. This idea however can only be vaguely sensed in the Treasure of the Angels but it is much more clearly pronounced in Roerich’s another mural painting, that of the altar part of the church of Holy Spirit at Flionovo, on the Talashkino estate of Princess Tenisheva, that he executed in 1911–1914. Interestingly, in his memoirs the artist ascribed the concept to Tenisheva: “In the later period of her life in Talashkino she was fascinated by the idea of the synthesis of all iconographic representations. The common work that had united us before crystallized even more in our general thoughts about [setting up] a special

2 Ukhtomskii 1893–1897, Т. III, xiii, xix, xxiv. 3 Korotkina 1998.

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iconographic museum that we wanted to call The Temple of the Spirit.4 Hence it was probably this remarkable woman who inspired the artist with the idea of religious synthesis. The Flionovov’s mural was called The Heavenly Queen over the River of Life. It showed the colossal figure of the Mother of the World, the portrayal of which combined the traditional Orthodox Christian image of the Mother of God, Bogomater’, and the Eastern, mainly Indian, religious imagery. (Elena would later admit that Bogomater was modeled on the Indian goddess Kali, a female counterpart of Shiva). In the same period (1913–14) Roerich participated in the interior decoration of the Buddhist temple erected in St Petersburg by Agvan Dorzhiev, a Buryat lama who presented himself in Russia as the 13th Dalai-lama’s emissary.5 In particular, he designed the stained glass windows, framing the “skylight” in the ceiling of the central prayer-hall. These were decorated with the traditional Buddhist ‘Eight Auspicious Emblems’, stylized in a whimsical art nouveau manner. Roerich would later recall that in the course of the construction of the temple (in 1909–1915) he had heard for the first time of Chan Shambhala (Northern Shambhala), the mythical Buddhist kingdom, from “a very learned Buryat lama who was the first to pronounce the name”.6 This was probably Dorzhiev or another Buryat clerical Geleg-Jamso who assisted Roerich in his work. The latter, like Dorzhiev, was educated in Tibet and was well versed in the Kalachakra symbolism, weighed heavily in the décor of the temple. (Kalachakra or the “Wheel of Time” is the teaching which is believed to have originated in the mythical Shambhala, the highest wisdom known to adepts of Tibetan Buddhism). Roerich’s creative efforts as a set designer in such dramatic arts as opera, ballet and theatre also should not be overlooked. According to N. ChtchetkinaRocher, Roerich attached great importance to ornamentalism seeing in it “the only way and beginning of genuine art” whose ultimate purpose was “to beautify life”. In his later years he would formulate his famous credo that the world can be saved only through Beauty (Art) and Knowledge. In 1908–1909, Roerich designed the scenery for the mystery plays staged at the “Old Theatre” (Starynnyi teatr) in St Petersburg and he also worked enthusiastically in the same capacity for Sergei Diagilev’s “Russian Seasons” in Paris. However the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring (Sacré du Printemps) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élyséés in 1913 was a flop – the French public was shocked by Stravinsky’s innovative music and Vaslav Nizhinsky’s bold choreography, 4 Ibid. 5 On the construction of the Buddhist temple see Andreev 2012. 6 Rerikh, N. 1974a, 110.

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though not by Roerich’s bright costumes and stage decorations. Roerich also developed the concept of the performance – he would later explain that in this ballet he intended “to show pictures of the joy of the Earth and the triumph of the Heavens as understood by the Slavs”.7 It was clearly an apotheosis of pagan Russia. “I love antiquity, whose joys are lofty and thoughts are profound”, he would say.8 In the words of S.M. Volkonskii, The Rite of Spring was something more than a ballet; it was reminiscent of “a real ancient ritual”. Roerich sometimes is compared with the French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin and is called “Russian Gauguin”. True, there are some common features in the artistic arsenal of both painters as was noted by ChtchetkinaRocher such as “excessive sensibility of their chromatic palette toward spiritual values, the use of similar technical methods, and a return to the hieratic religious art”.9 One can perhaps also add to these Roerich’s and Gauguin’s shared primitivism, their fascination with the primordial life (pervobytnost’), eclectic exotism and mystic symbolism. The mystical dimension or what V.P. Kniazeva defines as “pantheistic mysticism” can be traced in such Roerich’s paintings as The battle (Boi, 1906), The celestial battle (Nebesnyi Boi, 1909), The human forefathers (Chelovechyi praotsy, 1911), The starry runes (Zviozdnye runy, 1912) etc. Yet the exotic and idyllic worlds created by Gauguin and Roerich are essentially very different – the French painter drew his inspiration from the real life of the natives of Tahiti and Polynesia that he witnessed whereas Roerich’s ancient Russia – Rus’ – is largely a product of his imagination, his dreamland. The Russian painter and critic of the day Sergei K. Makovsky portrays Nikolai Roerich in his memoirs as “a dreamer of the past”, enchanted by “the beauty of the past ages”, by “pagan charms, remote and alien”. He is “always cold and terribly dumb even when he wants to be gentle and light up with his human feeling the stony desert-like expanses of the hoary antiquity”. And in this he is a complete antipode of Mikhail Vrubel, the “flaming martyr”. (Vrubel suffered from a mental disorder and one of his masterpieces, Demon, was Elena’s favourite). The latter, unlike Roerich, “is always hot and fiery, possessed by his all-illuminating love…”. Another characteristic feature of Roerich’s paintings, according to Makovsky, is their stiffness, “stone-ness”. Roerich loves stones above all therefore the objects he depicts – whether they are humans, clouds, flowers and gods – are all stone-like. The fantastic “world of Roerich” looks completely fossilized, “his paints are solid like mosaics and his forms are not breathing and vacillating as all living and transient things do, but stay firm, resembling with 7 8 9

See Varunts 2001, 440. Ibid.. 448. Shchetkina-Roshe 2011, 30.

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their contours and sides the rocks and cave granites”. The reason lies in the essence of Roerich’s artistic credo – “to paint from his head”, to recount dreams of his imagination (which is extremely fertile), by neglecting nature”. He works with great haste and can produce a painting in just a few days, without any preparatory sketches, intuitively, as if his vision-like paintings were already in his head, with all their details, and all he has to do is to transfer them to canvas”. In these Roerich’s visions or “northern twilights” (severnye sumraki) there is something dark and ominous, what Makovsky calls “Ariman’s principle” (Ariman is an evil spirit in Persian mythology). Although occasionally one can see in his paintings images of Russian Orthodox saints and in his youth he is known to have painted icons, Makovsky refuses to regard Roerich as a religious painter. “Roerich can be anything: a visionary, a soothsayer, a magician, a yogi, but not a humble servant of the Orthodox faith. His imagery is reminiscent of some remote pre-Christian and preEuropean paganism…”.10 In 1906 Roerich changed his method of painting by replacing oil paints with tempera, under the influence of Old Russian frescoes, an important landmark in his artistic career. This change enriched his style by making his works more coloriful and impressive.11 In Roerich’s words, the new epoch – the 20th century has just set in – required a “creative harmony of color”. It was about this time that the artist began to speak about Art as a means to renew “the course of life” which would inevitably demand a major revision of the artwork of the past. Much of what has been recognized and favoured by the public will have to be discarded and the best works of Eastern artists along with those produced by their Western counterparts, of which he particularly praised the brilliant masters of Renaissance, the “insightful primitivists” (thus vaguely hinting to himself) and the “audacious impressionists”, will make “the Pantheon of Beauty of many centuries and peoples”.12 Having become in the same year director of the School of Drawing, Roerich began to reform both the school and the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. What was needed, in his opinion, was to provide a new type of education to students by uniting the conventional study of arts with handicraft (“industrial”) production that would lead to a new profession, that of an “artist-industrialist” (khudozhnik-promyshlennik). Roerich succeeded fairly well in realizing his plans, having promoted a number of special classes of applied arts on the 10 11 12

Makovskii 1999, 81, 91. Roerich used mainly the tempera tube paints of the German manufacturer Richard Wurm. Rerikh, N. 2005, 502.

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premises of his school, those of poker-work, majolica, clay modelling, engraving on metal, painting on porcelain and glass, silk embroidering etc. The newspapers hailed the pioneering character of Roerich’s undertaking – his was an “absolutely informal school” not to be found anywhere in Russia or in the whole of Europe. Anybody, men and women, belonging to any social class, could receive a complete artistic education in his school by paying just nine rubles in halfyear.

…

By the time of the WW I Roerich had grown into a well-known and exceptionally prolific painter with his own niche in Russian and European art, one of the big names of Russia’s ‘Silver Age’. Some of his best works were purchased by the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, the Alexander III Museum in St Petersburg (today the Russian museum), the biggest repositories of modern Russian painting in the country, as well as by the National museum in Rome, the Louvre and the Luxembourg museum in Paris. His paintings were exhibited throughout Europe – in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Vienna and London, together with works of other leading Russian artists. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Arts and concurrently that of the Reims Academy in France. And the following year Roerich became head of the ‘World of Art’ (Mir Iskusstva) Association, originally set up by Alexandre Benois and Sergei Diagilev and revived, after its collapse in 1904, under the slogans of “pure art” and “transformation of life through art”. The Association united a whole galaxy of talented painters, such as K.A. Somov, L.S. Bakst, M.V. Dobuzhinskii, E.E. Lansere, B.M. Kustodiev, I.Ya. Bilibin, whose paintings, as those of Roerich, reflected their fascination with the past, recreated in skillfully stylized fantastic and grotesque images. What was the mature Roerich like? How much had he changed since the time he had married Elena and embarked on his new “stony path”? A good insight into his personality can be gained from the recollections of his contemporaries, his colleagues and particularly the people he was closely associated with. Roerich was enormously admired by Princess Tenisheva who praised him as an artist, gifted with “secret visions” and possessing an unusually rich creative imagination. At the same time she saw in Roerich something unnoticed by anybody else, that he was “the God chosen one” (bogoizbrannik), a man living by the spirit, “through him God’s truth will be revealed”.13 Roerich’s colleagues in the artists’ guild, however, did not share Tenisheva’s rhapsodic view. His relations with members of the Mir Iskusstva were uneasy 13

Tenisheva 1991, 225, 226, 250.

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from the very start. V.A. Serov, for example, was hostile toward Roerich at first calling him “a typical Petersburgian office-seeker”. (It was rumoured in the artistic circles that Roerich had obtained the position of secretary at the Society for Encouragement solely due to the favors of the influential art critic V.V. Stasov and N.P. Sobko.) Another painter-miriskussnik Igor Grabar’ also spoke of Roerich rather critically in his memoirs: Roerich presented an enigma for all of us and I must confess that I cannot tell with certainty to this day of what real traits, not those alleged or ascribed to him, is shaped his complicated human and artistic character. One perhaps could write a fascinating novel about Roerich, much more intriguing and versatile than Zola’s novel about Claude Lantier which portrays a combined image of E. Manet and Cézanne from the 1860s. Even now I do not know and have never known before where Roerich’s sincerity ends, his genuine credo, and begins his posture, his mask, his bare-faced pretence and seduction of the spectator, reader and user, wellcalculated by this life’s sage. That these two elements – truthfulness and mendacity, sincerity and hypocrisy – are intimately linked in Roerich’s life and art, that they lie at the bottom of the phenomenon that will be passed on to the future generations under the name of “Roerich”, there can be no doubt.14 How true was Grabar’s harsh appraisal of Roerich’s personality the reader will see for himself as our narrative unfolds. It is worthy of remark at this point, however, that the distinct ambivalence of the artist’s personality which caught the eye of Grabar’ and other painters brings Roerich close to Blavatsky in whom we find likewise a desire to allure or “seduce” the public, a typical feature of any guru, missionary or anybody who has a “message for humanity”. There is another curious piece of evidence coming from Prince Sergei Aleksandrovitch Stcherbatov, a painter, art collector and patron. In his recollections Stcherbatov devoted several pages to Roerich and here again we see a fairly “compromising” figure of the artist: Completely different, yet also standing alone, apart from other painters, was the figure of mysterious Roerich in Petersburg. He penetrated various spheres, including the court circles, easily and skillfully, yet with a calcu14

Grabar’ 1937, 170–171.

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lation and a subtle choice. He knew how to say what was needed and to hit the target, achieving his goals and making his career. If for Golovin,15 who expected nothing from me and was not seeking anything in me, I was just a person nice to talk to and a great lover of art and theatre, for Roerich I was Prince Stcherbatov. I could see it and I felt it as a burden, although he apparently wanted to play the role of a friend and used to be quite amiable and always interesting. He held a rather important post of director of one excellent cultural institution on Morsrkaia Street – the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, the honorary chairman of which was a princess. To my question or proposal to give his opinion on any issue related to his activities, he usually replied: “I don’t yet have an opinion, until I hear what the princess has to say on the subject…”. He was undoubtedly a clever and sly person, a real Tartuffe, dexterous, mild, well-mannered, flexible, smooth-tongued, insinuating, seemingly unkind, crafty (sebe na ume), and extremely ambitious. One can say that intrigue was inherent in his nature. It looked as if he had a mask on his face, and his sincere laughter has never burst from his soul. There was always something concealed behind his light milk-colored face with pink cheeks, and accurately trimmed hair and beard. He was of northern – Norwegian type and he rather clearly alluded that his family name Roerich was connected with the name Rurik. It was not quite clear though in what way… Stcherbatov, however, had no doubt about Roerich’s great talent and his “ardent love for art”: although he worked for many ends and offered his services to many people, “he served the cause of art faithfully …”.16 Roerich certainly played a prominent role in the artistic life of St Petersburg and Russia in general in the early twentieth century. There is hardly a memoir account relating to art from that period that does not mention him, if only briefly, in a passing reference. A talented painter, archeologist, essayist and writer of sophisticated fairy-tales for adults, he was remembered by his contemporaries also as an efficient functionary running the School of Drawing and concurrently the revived Mir Iskusstva association. Art and archeology obviously dominated in Roerich’s life, being his two biggest attractions. Out of these gradually grew his other passion for collecting 15 16

Aleksandr Yakovlevich Golovin (1863–1930), a painter and theatre designer, another member of the “World of Art” association. Shcherbatov 2000, 142–143.

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things. We know that he was an avid art collector who amassed a very good collection of paintings of the Old Dutch and Flemish masters (which is now in the Hermitage). Roerich and his wife could be often seen visiting the antique shops and art auctions in Petersburg. Likewise Roerich gathered a huge collection of Neolithic items, known as the ‘Stone Age’ collection. This included mainly the objects he unearthed during his amateur archeological excavations of many years in the vicinities of St Petersburg, Novgorod, Pskov and elsewhere, numbering over 30 thousand items.17 We also know of Roerich’s numismatic collection as well as those of Chinese and Japanese decorative (handicraft) objects. He had a great fascination for anything exotic or antique, including old furniture. In 1910 while spending summertime, together with Elena and children, in Haapsalu (Estonia), a medieval town on the shore of the Baltic Sea, he purchased some fine pieces of furniture from the early 18th century (Peter the Great epoch) he happened to find in the house of Count Brevern de la Gardi, a descendent of the medieval rulers of Haapsalu. It was in the same house that the Emperor Nicholas I stayed with his family in 1852 which certainly only added to the value of the purchase in his eyes. The furniture was delivered to St Petersburg and installed in the Roerichs’ apartment on Moika 83, the same place where his School of Drawing was situated. A few words need to be said about Roerich’s political views. He was apparently a monarchist as is evidenced by his reaction to the dramatic events of the “Bloody Sunday” (January 22, 1905) which triggered the first Russian revolution. The massacre of several hundred of peaceful strikers who marched through St Petersburg, with icons in their hands, to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the tsar, antagonized a broad section of Russia’s population. The well-known painters V. Polenov and V. Serov are known to have forwarded a letter of protest to the Academy while another protestant message signed by over a hundred artists was sent to the editorial stuff of the newspaper Pravo (Right). Roerich however did not join the protestors and remained silent. His confused feelings he expressed in a letter to Princess Tenisheva: It’s very seldom that I have been agitated so much as this Sunday. At 10/11 o’clock in the morning a huge crowd of people passed by the windows in a long line, holiday-dressed, silent and sober. At 11 ½ – 12 the same crowd rushed back, in disorder and wailing aloud, while galloping uhlans with sabers in hands were trampling people. No doubt if the crowd attacked an uhlan, I would shoot at it to protect the week, but now when I saw 17

Some information on these collections can be found in Mel’nikov 1999, 354–357.

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horses jumping upon armless people, an opposite [desire] stirred up in me.18 Roerich was obviously shocked by the orgy of violence that he witnessed yet he did not dare to protest since violence was displayed on both sides. Generally speaking, revolution was not his solution to resolving social problems. As an artist and thinker, he pinned his hopes on gradual – evolutionary – transformation of society by peaceful means, through Art, claiming after Dostoevskii that the world could be saved by Beauty alone. From Sina Fosdik’s diary we know how Roerich “cunningly” broke a meeting of a group of revolution-minded pupils from his School of Drawing by simply ordering the keeper to shut the school. And subsequently he sent down these pupils. This was how Roerich nipped in the bud the riot of “revolutionaries” and “pranksters”, in Fosdik’s words.19 The artist remained a loyal subject of the tsar like the vast majority of Russians. A few years later, in 1909, he was invited to Tsarskoe Selo to demonstrate his paintings and sketches personally to Nicholas II and the Tsarina and the visit must have struck a deep chord in the heart of he who believed himself to be a descendent of Rurik. As for Elena, she seems to have had less reverence for the Romanovs. According to Esther Lichtmann, she saw the tsar and his family at the inauguration of Princess Tenishev’s Arts’ Museum in Smolensk (around 1909) and was unimpressed by their personalities. “The Tsarina and her children were dressed vulgarly; the children had poor breeding. The Tsarina was bashful and the heir apparent was naughty and had bad manners. He took a small cannon ball from the museum and put it into his pocket. His attendant warned him: “Don’t dare to throw it into the crowd, Your Highness”.20 Esther Lichtmann also reported that both Elena and Nikolai did not accept the high courtiers’ titles due to them – she the title of the maid of honor, as a descendent of Prince Golenistchev-Kutuzov, and he that of a horse-guards man allegedly because they wanted to remain uncommitted, “to stay free”. And this eventually helped them leave the country safely after the outbreak of revolution.21

…

Roerich had accomplished much as an artist during his 17 years in Petersburg and Russia. Still his many accomplishments went side by side with some bitter 18 19 20 21

Quoted in Korotkina 1985, 124. Fosdik 2002, 86, entry for 2 August 1922. E. Lichtmann’s diaries, Notebook 2, 41, entry for 29 July 1929. Ibid.

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losses and disillusionments. His two biggest patrons, the art critic Vladimir Stasov and the much admired Arkhip Kuindzhi, “a life teacher”, died in 1906 (the former) and 1910 (the latter). The death of Kuindzhi was particularly painful, since his mentor went insane and could not even recognize his favourite pupil of whom he had been so proud. (“My favor with Arkhip has ended – yesterday he already treated me so badly”, Nikolai reported to his wife.) Then, in 1913, Elena’s mother died who also suffered from a mental disorder. When she was discharged from hospital the doctors recommended Elena to take her out to a summer cottage but Nikolai objected fearing that her mother’s illness could affect their children psychologically: We were just when we rebuked [my] mother for not isolating father [from family], but his condition was much better. He did not have any visual hallucinations, recognized his surroundings and was burdensome only because of his endless narratives. We must not repeat the same mistake – Yurik is already very nervous, and these things do not tell on people all at once, but gradually…22 Nikolai himself had many ailments and to restore his health he often visited the balneological resorts at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus and Bad Neuenahr to the south of Cologne in Germany. His hectic activities were wearing him out. The artist’s health condition seriously deteriorated in 1915 when he caught pneumonia which threatened him with a lethal outcome. The disease dramatically spoiled his jubilee widely celebrated in Russia at that time – the 25th anniversary of his creative work. Elena too was having health problems, the biggest of which was apparently her neurasthenia. In 1910 she is known to have undergone a mud cure at Haapsalu (Estonia), the famous Baltic resort favored by middle and high class Petersburgers, including the Tsar’s family. During the decade and a half which had elapsed since he married Elena, Roerich had matured and hardened in ideological clashes with his many opponents and critics. Yet he did not change much inwardly, having remained, surprisingly, the same person, lacking in self-confidence and vacillating, fully dependent on his wife’s opinion. When his doctor in Kislovodsk told him that he needed an operation on the larynx he was completely at a loss and cabled to St Petersburg asking Elena to decide for him whether he should agree to the operation. His correspondence with Elena in 1902–1913 reveals manifestly some rather disagreeable features in him – his self-conceit, arrogance and philistine manners. The public in Bad Neuenahr he mingles with is seen by him as “absolute trash, simply an anatomical museum of freaks”. The works of the German 22

Rerikh, N, 2011, 280, letter to Elena # 300, 18 June 1913, Kislovodsk.

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Secession painters he saw in Berlin in 1911 are “all trash” (khlam). Arnold Böcklin is also “trash”.23 The Italians on street-cars in Genoa are “stinking badly” while the many Russian Jews at the sanatorium in Bad Neuenahr he calls zhidki, a common Russian pejorative. Roerich describes in details his shopping tours, enumerating all his buys and prices he paid, down to the last penny… Paradoxically, when reading these letters one comes across “another” Roerich, materially-minded and chauvinistic, very different from the highly spiritual and idealistic artist we know about. In 1910–1913 this unknown Roerich, together with Elena and her mother, were trying to earn some extra money by stockjobbing. While reporting to Elena enthusiastically about his excavations and his newly-conceived paintings, he concurrently shared with her news of the current fluctuation of prices at the Stock Exchange in St Petersburg. “If only the Stock Exchange supported us, I would do some ten paintings, without leaving home…”.24 In late 1916, on the advice of his doctors the ailing artist moved with his family to the Karelian Peninsula, then part of Finland. The Roerichs settled down in the little Finish town Sortavala (Serdobol’ in Russian), located on the shore of the Lake Ladoga. Still recovery was not forthcoming. Feeling desperate, Roerich deemed it necessary to draw up his last will. The document was penned by him on May 1, 1917, just two month after the February revolution had put an end to monarchy in Russia. Roerich willed everything he possessed to his wife, except one painting which he donated to the museum of Russian art he set up on the premises of his School of Drawing (this was to be chosen by his successor). Despite his ill-health, Roerich continued to run the School, occasionally visiting Petrograd (as Petersburg was renamed after the outbreak of the world war). During one such visit, already after the February revolution, he took part in the meeting of a group of painters convened at the apartment of the famous writer Maxim Gorkii which resulted in the creation of the “Committee for the preservation of monuments of art and antiquity”. At the same time he was elected into the “Special Art Council”, a body set up by Russia’s Temporary Government, also headed by Gorkii, and was proposed the post of minister of fine arts. Little by little the artist was being drawn into the vortex of public and cultural activities of the New Russia. 23

24

Böcklin used to be one of Roerich’s favorite Western painters, but his paintings displayed at the 1906 Berlin exhibition disappointed him by their “ghastly rationality”. Still in his essay “Mares and Böcklin” Roerich ranked the Swiss painter among “the great masters”. See Рерих 2005, 503. Böcklin’s famous Die Toteninsel (The Isle of the Dead) could have inspired Roerich, to some extent, to produce his Sacred Island in 1917 in Karelia. The similarity in composition between the two paintings and their mystical symbolism are striking. Rerikh, N. 2011, 293, letter to Elena # 317, 8 July 1913, Kislovodsk.

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Voices from the Beyond Urusvati knows Our Voices, both spoken and silent. Agni Yoga, Supermundane I, 7

⸪ Both Nikolai and Elena Roerich were baptized Orthodox Christians. Yet they were not hard-core believers or regular church-goers, as far as we know. Orthodox Christianity was not the faith of Roerich’s ancestors who were all Lutherans. Besides, some of the artist’s biographers claim that his closest lineal relatives, his grandfather and father, were Masons. Feodor Ivanovich (Friedrich Johann), according to Maxim Dubaev, was a member of the Masonic lodge in Riga.1 And Konstantin Feodorovich, in the opinion of Oleg Shishkin, was a Martinist, who passed to his son (presumably before his death) “a most rare token of the Rosicrucian Order” – a cross with beryl rays and the image of St George Archistrategus striking the Serpent in the middle.2 The facts, however, are denied by Ivars Silars on historical grounds, since all Masonic orders were banned in the Russian Empire in 1822 by Alexander I and had not existed there for 80 years. The same ban also applied to Latvia (Kurland), then part of Russia, where Masonic lodges were non-existent between 1825 and 1924. Furthermore, Friedrich Johann’s social status was too low for someone to be admitted to a Masonic order.3 As for Nikolai Roerich, he too is claimed to have been a Mason by some modern Russian authors although their claims are unsupported by any documentary proof.4 Elena Roerich, for her part, strongly repudiated her husband’s affiliation with any Masonic orders, yet in her writings she spoke very sympathetically about Masons and Rosicrucians in particular:

1 Dubaev 2003, 8. 2 Shishkin 1999, 23. 3 This opinion was expressed by I. Silars in a letter to the author. In the autobiographic essay “Dedushka” (Grandfather) N. Roerich spoke of some “Masonic signs” he had seen in his grandfather’s home, without giving his name and mention of Riga as his place of permanent residence; see Rerikh, N. 1914 (repr. Рерих 1991, 179–180). 4 See Annenko 2011.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_005

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Let us clarify our attitude to Rosicrucian, Masonic and other organizations devoted to the General Good. Many mahatmas have participated in them. And when we remember the original altruistic principles of these organizations, we must not turn away from them. When it concerns sincere motives, then all workers for the General Good must accept one another… 5 And Elena had a good reason to say so. One of her most celebrated ancestors, Field-Marshal Mikhail Golenistchev-Kutuzov, whom she called the “Savior of Russia”, is known to have been a high degree Mason, a member of the “Three Keys” and “Three Banners” lodges.6 So the spirit of old masonry was certainly present in the atmosphere of the Roerichs’ home. Nikolai’s close university mates, Nikolai Lossky who later became a major philosopher and Sergei Metal’nikov, a biologist who advanced the theory of immortality of single-cell organisms, were both Masons. In the 1910s Lossky taught at the Higher Women’s Courses and Metalnikov at the Psycho-neurological Institute, both schools known to be major hotbeds of masonry in the scholarly circles of St Petersburg.7 Incidentally, Lossky’s parents also had some connections with theosophists – Anna Kamenskaia, the chairman of the Russian Theosophical Society, was occasionally hosted for the summer together with a group of her followers at his parents’ country cottage in Pavlovsk.8 Curiously, when Roerich entered the university, he, together with other students, made a signed statement to the effect that in the course of his studies “he would not join any secret society or even a legal entity without the permission of his immediate superiors”.9 And he kept true to his promise. There is no evidence whatever of Roerich’s belonging to any masonic organization in St Petersburg, Moscow or elsewhere in Russia. Elena’s initial attitude to Christianity also requires a brief commentary here. To one of her close associates, Esther Lichtmann, she would relate years later a rather moving story of how she had lost her faith in God, already at an early age. When a child she loved the Bible more than other books. This was a two-volume edition illustrated by Gustav Doré. The books were very heavy and she used to take them to her room for reading when her parents were absent from home. She loved most of all the persons of King Solomon, Moses, and Jesus Christ, 5 6 7 8 9

Agni Yoga, 473, www.agniyoga.org Sokolovskaia 2007, 331–332. Serkov 1997, 106. See Losskii 1993, 32, 37–38. Reshetov 2002, 448.

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perhaps because of their fine portraits. Her other favorite heroes at that time were Count of Monte-Cristo and Mikhail Lermontov’s Demon, so she told Esther. Quite often Elena heard “an inner silent voice” which blasphemed “against Bozhen’ka” (a diminutive form of Bog or God in Russian commonly used by children). In such moments she would always repeat: “Bozhen’ka is good!”.10 Elena’s faith was dramatically shattered by her mother. She once punished her unjustly for some trifling fault that she did not commit. Elena felt badly hurt but she believed that her mother who went to pray before the icon right after the incident would “learn the truth because Bozhen’ka knows everything”. Yet her mother declared after the prayer: “God told me you have done it!”. Elena immediately exploded: “Then your Bozhen’ka is a liar” and at that moment “her faith was gone forever”.11 There is another curious story told by Elena to Esther: Elena Ivanovna once went to confession. She loved to go to church during Passion-week, because the service then was so beautiful, with music and chorus, which created a special atmosphere. She did not like ordinary services because of the hypocrisy she found [in them] and she was always disgusted to see beggars asking for alms with their “give me, for God’s sake”. Elena Ivanovna went to the priest who loved her very much. When she came up to him, he asked her first of all about her relations with her husband, to which she replied that she had come not because of that, since he knows well that they have no problems in this respect but because she wants him to recommend to her some books for reading as “she is seeking God, but has not yet found Him”. The priest was moved, he stood up and kissed her and said that she should read books about Christian martyrs. Elena Ivanovna already knew all this, and she never approached him for counsels again.12 A Christian devotee will probably see in this account a clear sign of Elena’s arrogance, but it may also testify to her early discontent with the traditional Christian practices, such as alms-giving and confession of sins to a priest. Esther Lichtmann’s diary further reads: We talked about the church and confession, about the harm of confession. The Catholic [priests] perverted the imagination [of believers] with 10 11 12

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, 161–162, entry for 18 June 1929. Ibid., Notebook 2, 129, entry for 17 July 1929. Ibid., Notebook 1, 163, 164, entry for 18 June 1929.

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questions and in Rus[sia] [confession] was a business deal. Elena Ivanovna’s father had not attended confession for 10 years, and he was told that if he did not go to confession, he would be excommunicated and would lose his post. Esther also quoted Elena’s opinion of the Buddhist practices and the persecution of religion in Soviet Russia (their conversation was taking place in 1929): “Beautiful were communal confessions of Buddha’s disciples when everyone said the things he wanted. Buddhism is the teaching of the future. The fact that Russia renounced all religions will probably help her adopt a new religion”.13 Esther’s testimony may explain Elena’s attacks on Christianity in the books of Agni Yoga and her attempts to create a “purified” esoteric version of Christ’s teaching as well as reinterpret his canonical biography. She would claim, for example, that Jesus, “the Great Pilgrim”, was the 9th Maha-Kogan and one of the Hierarchs of Light, that he gave his main teaching in the “subtle body”, and that he willfully decomposed himself into atoms to ascend to Heaven! Nikolai’s and Elena’s spiritual quest was similar to that of other Western intellectuals of the late 19th – early 20th century. It began with the reading of books on exotic Eastern religions, mainly Hinduism and Buddhism, and of course on theosophy, Blavatsky’s “universal religion” of the future, accompanied by spiritualistic séances, a popular fad of many Petersburgers of the “Silver Age”. In his memoirs, published in 1937, Igor Grabar’ wrote with poignant sarcasm that “apart from Roerich the painter, functionary, archeologist and writer … there was and probably still is Roerich the mystic, occultist, spiritualist and the ‘otherworldly’ man”. He further recounted a rather comical story of a séance in the Roerichs’ apartment on Galernaia Street, in which he participated together with their other friend, Alexander Benois. The role of medium was played by one Janek Guzik – as Roerich explained he was the best medium in town “since the materialization of spirits in his presence takes absolutely real forms, up to full physical tangibility”. Some mountain spirit favored Guzik and it usually appeared before him in the body of a hairy man, but, as Roerich warned his guests, “God forbid, don’t touch him as this may bring trouble”. The lights were turned out. It was very hot in the room because of a large number of men who formed a chain with their hands above the table. Suddenly some rapping was heard, resembling [the sounds of] a guitar or 13

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 3, 59, 72, entries for 15 and 18 September 1929.

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balalaika. Something moved and rapped in the room. “Here it comes”, someone whispered. The situation was particularly disquieting under the table, recounted further Grabar’, as the spirit tried hard to take on a material form. I decided that it was time to act, freed my hands from the hold of my neighbors on the left and the right side and, having lowered them beneath the table, began to grope about. In a few seconds I felt something like skin, ran my hands across its folds, easily discovered some solid stuff – either a crown of someone’s head or a knee covered with this skin – and began to pull it to myself. The skin did not budge, someone held it fast and the fuss was noticed. In a few minutes I felt a strong blow with a fist on my back, which made me shriek and stand up. In another second someone turned on the light, and that was the end of it. The séance was spoiled, or rather was recognized ‘as not fully successful’.14 Roerich read Grabar’s memoirs when he was in India, already posing as a guru and a messenger of the mahatmas. He vehemently denied the veracity of Grabar’s narrative, although there was nothing personally abusive for him in it.15 He could not do otherwise after Elena had rejected spiritualism and mediumism as means of spiritual development. (“A medium is but an inn for disembodied liars”, she would claim in the Agni Yoga.16) Alexandre Benois, Roerich’s other friend, in his own memoirs also acknowledged his youthful fascination with spiritualistic séances: In the company of Maria Karlovna [his sister-in-law – A.A.], her sister Sonia, her brother Volodia and Istomin I spent hours in the dark at the one-legged table, marked time, being led by it [the table – A.A.] around the room or listening to the answers which an “embodied spirit” gave by rapping the table’s leg on the parquet. And here I must swear it was me who pushed the table and who lowered it to obtain rappings. In the 1890s Petersburg spiritists began to use a saucepan for communicating with spirits. The technique was simple – a turned-over tea saucepan “moved” 14 15 16

Grabar’ 1937, 174–175. See Dubaev 2003, 406–407 (footnote 2). Roerich called the narrative “ugly and not corresponding to reality” and Grabar’s memoirs in general “a pack of lies”. See Agni Yoga, 228.

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by itself or rather was moved (unconsciously or consciously) by the fingers of those sitting around the table along a sheet of paper with letters written on it. The letters made words and words turned into messages of spirits sent “from the beyond” – meaningless in general but invested with some meaning by the medium. “I must confess”, noted Benois, “that the answers given through the saucepan were sometimes remarkably witty and profound, however these clever utterances were suddenly followed by malicious jokes and even abusive language, moreover the spirit showed a particular inclination to pornography”.17 After one occasion, when the spirit performed some absolutely sacrilegious trick, Benois stopped participating in the séances. Yet, as we read further in his memoirs, “the attitude to spiritualism of my friend, the well-known painter N.K. Roerich, was quite different. Since the beginning of the 20th century he, together with his wife, began to communicate systematically with the world of spirits and later on, in emigration, he turned this into a kind of business, which, according to hearsay, brought him a considerable material profit and high esteem”.18 How systematically Nikolai and Elena participated in séances in St Petersburg is hard to say. The artist seems to have acquired some initial firsthand spiritualistic experience while in Paris, in 1900, where he would take part in the sittings arranged by Mme Lossky. Here are some excerpts from his letters to Elena: In the evening I visited my acquaintances [the Lossky family – A.A.] and was drawn into table-turning, in which, if you remember I told you, I don’t believe. Can you imagine my surprise when the table to my question “Which of my topics is best?” rapped “The Scythians burying a dead man”. None of those present could know this topic because I thought it up this very day and have not yet told anybody about it. What a wonder! Still I don’t’ yet believe in tables, I should somehow have another try.19 … Yesterday, at Lossky’s place, we had a spiritualistic séance, and I asked what the person I was thinking of was doing? The table rapped: “Sleeping”. Then I asked: When will I go to Petersburg? And [the table] answered: “In May”. “Shall I display my painting at the Salon?” – Yes. “Will there be success?” – Yes. “Will it be sold”? – “No. 20 17 18 19 20

Benua 1993, 472–473. Ibid., 473 (fn. 6). Rerikh, N. 2011, 85–86, letter # 63, ca 18 October 1900 (OS). Ibid., 101, letter # 71, 27 November/10 December 1900.

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Thanks to the Losskys Nikolai also had a chance to witness for the first time ever such unusual psychic faculty as clairvoyance. One of Mme Lossky’s guests, a young lady, being put to hypnotic sleep, “travelled” to Elena’s apartment in St Petersburg and was able to relate the things she “saw” there – some guests were visiting Elena, and she was playing Chopin’s music on the piano to entertain them. Nikolai immediately reported everything to Elena asking her to confirm the narrative.21 The event strongly impressed Nikolai and he felt sorry that the clairvoyant lady left Paris too soon because he intended to employ her unusual services further for spatial “communication” with his fiancée. (“The lady who talked in her sleep about you has gone from Paris and now there’s no one I can ask about you and learn about your mood, since I don’t allow anyone to put me to sleep, as you asked me”.22) Yet a few days later Nikolai asked for Elena’s permission to send her “some hypnotic suggestions from here”.23 The above quotations seem to be the earliest evidence of Roerich’s participation in spiritualistic séances. He was slightly skeptical at first but communion with spirits was too thrilling a game to play – through it he obtained answers to his most urgent questions as well as news of his beloved one. (For the sake of direct communication with Elena he was prepared to do anything – “even to take morphine”!24)

…

Spiritualism in the form of spiritualistic séances was Nikolai’s and Elena’s first approach to the “Other World”, the Great “Beyond” which mightily attracted them both. Many years later Roerich would pen an essay on the otherworldly phenomena in which he would maintain that “influences from the beyond are incessant but people, instead of accepting these thankfully, try to wave them off as irksome flies”.25 The Roerichs’ next step was theosophy and Eastern religions, Vedanta and Buddhism. The person who introduced them to theosophy was Konstantin Riabinin. Born in Murom in Vladimirskaia Province in a merchant’s family, he came to Petersburg in 1897 where he joined the Military Medical Academy. However in the heyday of the first Russian revolution he moved to Kharkov 21 22 23 24 25

Ibid., 108, letter # 77, 3/16 December 1900. Ibid., pp. 112–113, letter # 83, 9/22 December 1900. Tretiakov Gallery, Manuscript section, f. 44/205, letter, December 1900; it was not included in the published collection of Roerich’s letters to Elena. Rerikh, N. 2011, 109, letter # 79, 4/17 December 1900. N.K. Rerikh, “Tuda i ottuda”, in Rerikh, N. 1992, 56.

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where in 1909 he completed his medical education at Kharkov University. ­Riabinin specialized in psychiatry and is known to have developed his own methods for treating mental disorders which, according to his biographer A.G. Tobchiev, were “unique at that time and remarkably effective”.26 For two years he had worked as an intern at the mental hospitals in Moscow and in Vilno (today’s Vilnius, Lithuania). Riabinin’s name was well-known in aristocratic circles – he was acquainted with the family of Count Sumarokov-Elston and young Felix Yusupov, who would later become one of the assassins of Grigory Rasputin. Riabinin came to know Nikolai Roerich as early as 1898, as he claimed in his short autobiographical sketch. What brought them close was their common interest in the “aspects of human spirit difficult for the public at large to grasp”. Riabinin described his early contacts with the Roerich couple in the following words: Living in St Petersburg, I occasionally shared with N.K. and his wife E.I. my views and experimental achievements in the sphere of the spiritual. I remember that we talked much at that time about great spiritual accomplishments of India, about the Teachers of the East, whose profound thoughts and teachings testified to their very great knowledge of the spirit, collected and preserved in the hiding-places of some initiation Centers, mainly in the Himalayan Brotherhood which had existed, according to legends, since great antiquity. The latter Center was the source of absolute knowledge and truth. We intended then to make our way there across India.27 These conversations must have taken place some time between 1909 and the beginning of the world war. An expert in the history of Tibetan medicine in Russia Tatiana Grekova claimed in one of her articles that doctor Riabinin “treated Elena Roerich for epileptic fits”, though her claim was not supported by any proof.28 What we know for certain from Elena’s own accounts is that she suffered as a child and in her early youth from anemia and nerves and that her parents took her abroad to Nice to be treated by Charcot douches.29 Theosophy was particularly appealing to the young liberal and artistic intelligentsia, and its popularity in Russia substantially grew in the wake of the lib26 27 28 29

See Topchiev 1996, 104. Riabinin 1996, 33–34. Grekova 1997, 6. See Fosdik 2002, 65, entry for 16 July 1922; Rerikh, N. 1996a, 23, 35–36.

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eralization of public life following the 1905 October Manifesto issued by the tsar.30 On September 30, 1908 the Russian Theosophical Society was set up in St Petersburg as the Russian section of the worldwide theosophical network. Its main objectives were “to serve the idea of the universal brotherhood, a scientific study of all religions, as well as an investigation of nature and of the hidden faculties of man”.31 Apart from theosophy and its doctrinal variety, anthroposophy, founded by Rudolf Steiner, other esoteric teachings also were disseminated freely in Russia. Petersburg, “the rational brain center” of the empire was quickly sinking into the abyss of the irrational. The atmosphere of the “religio-mystical ferment” in the capital, just a few months after the adoption of the October Manifesto, was vividly reflected by a columnist of the popular occultist magazine Rebus: The whole of Petersburg is seized by a strong mystical movement and there is a real vortex of small religions, cults and sects which have already formed there at the present time. The movement covers both the upper strata of society and the lower ones. In the upper strata we find a theosopho-Buddhist trend. The followers of theosophy assemble and already discuss the question of building a Buddhist lamasery (hostel) and a Theosopho-Buddhist temple. On the other hand, there is a strong interest in masonry and there has come into being anew the neglected forms of religious movements of the past century.32 This unprecedented occult boom witnessed by Russia under Nicholas II was generated largely by the French occult revival of the second half of the 19th century initiated by Eliphas Lévi. The ideas of this occult author are known to have influenced the French Symbolist writers (Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine), the painters (Odilon Redon, Puvis de Chavannes – young Roerich’s favourite, Gustave Moreau), the English pre-Raphaelite painters, and the “scandalous poets” Charles Algernon Swinburne and Oscar Wilde. Having “spilled” over into Russia occultism was embraced there enthusiastically by the last three Russian tsars.33 Two French occultists were particularly influential at the Russian court – Dr. Philippe (Nizier-Anthèlme Vachod), who preceded 30

31 32 33

The Manifesto “On the improvement of the state system” issued on 17 October 1905 proclaimed guarantees of personal liberties, religious toleration and the establishment of an elected assembly or Duma. See Rossiiskoe Teosoficheskoe Obshchestvo 1908. Rebus (Ребус), 1906, 25 February, (№№ 8–9), 4. Carlson 1993, 19.

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Grigorii Rasputin as spiritual mentor of the Romanov family, and the celebrated Papus (Gérard Encausse). By 1899, according to M. Carlson, Dr. Philippe and Papus had established a Martinist Order in the court circle of St Petersburg. “Tsar Nicholas II was an initiate of this Order, but left the Lodge when he became more seriously committed to Russian Orthodoxy. His uncles, the Grand Princes Nikolai Nikolaevich and Petr Nikolaevich, as well as other members of the royal family and numerous members of the government, continued as members of Martinist and other Masonic orders”34. Nina Berberova in her study of Russian Freemasonry pointed out that by 1914 “there was no profession, no institution, no official or private society, organization or group in Russia without Freemasonry”.35 Speaking of theosophy and its dissemination in Russia, M. Carlson noted that before 1901 “individual Theosophists and a few small, private circles did exist in the Russian provinces and in Moscow and St. Petersburg; however, the Russian public at large still had only a general notion of the Theosophical Movement and its aims”. The situation had changed after 1901, thanks to proselytizing efforts of Vera Zhelikhovskaia (Helena Blavatsky’s sister) and other Russians, such as Anna Kamenskaia, Nina Gernet and Anna Filosofova, “who had succumbed to the attractions of Theosophy while abroad and shared their discovery and their books with friends and colleagues at home”.36 Being introduced to theosophy by Dr. Riabinin, Nikolai and Elena Roerich, however, did not hasten to join the Theosophical Society, although M. Carlson maintains erroneously that they both did become its members when they were still in Russia.37 There is a story told by Elena herself describing her brief visit to the Society’s main office, which must have taken place some time after 1908. Interestingly, the office was situated in the same house where she had lived with her parents as a little girl.38 Having entered the Society’s quarters, she was met by some “elderly and fat women with knitting work in their hands” whom she asked whether she could borrow books from the Society’s library. They replied that that was “not so simple” because she would have to join the TS first. Elena agreed to do so but again the ladies warned her that joining the Society was “not a simple matter” as the chairwoman, M-me Kamenskaia, usually put the nov34 35 36 37 38

Ibid., 20. Berberova 1986, 20. Carlson 1993, 54. Ibid., 194. The Russian Theosophical Society was located on at the corner of Nikolaevskaia str. 62 and Ivanovskaia str. 16 in the dokhodnyi dom of Schultz (modern address: Marata str. 66, apt. 24). Elena’s parents occupied apartment 14 in the same building in 1880–1884. See Anikina, Sobolev 2003, 30.

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ices to the test and “it may happen that you won’t be able to stand it”. Unwilling to subject herself to this humiliating procedure Elena left the office and henceforth began to look for theosophical literature in bookshops.39 In theosophy she apparently found the spiritual nourishment she needed most, something which satisfied her ambitions and provided a substitute for her abandoned musical career. And it was probably owing to Elena, that Nikolai too adopted the Blavatskian teaching as a gospel of the forthcoming New Era. Being occupied with his administrative duties and incessant creative work, he practically had no time for a real study of sophisticated theosophical writings. Many years later Elena would recount quite a pathetic story of how she once complained to Nikolai that “she got bored living by his interests” to which he replied: “why not have your own interests then”? The words stung her to the quick and since that time she withdrew all at once from the work she was doing for Nikolai’s school and began reading books of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and other authors and thus gradually created “the world of her own”. And Nikolai “came into her world”! She taught him many things – how to paint clouds, to feel colors and nature, the way he did not feel them before.40 Elena’s circle of reading was typical for a seeker of truth of her day and included works of Russian and Western theosophists, published mainly in the ‘Herald of Theosophy’ (Vestnik Teosofii) magazine and other esoteric literature. Helena Blavatsky’s ground-breaking Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine were not yet available in Russian at that time. (Excerpts from the latter work appeared in the Russian translation in Vestnik Teosofii only in 1915). But there were other writings of Blavatsky Elena could get hold of, such as The Voice of Silence, The Seven Gates, The Two Paths, The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, and The Durbar in Lahor. She probably also read Blavatsky’s biography sketched by her sister Vera Zhelikhovskaia, originally published in 1883 as a supplement to the Russian Messenger magazine and then republished several times in various editions. Some essays written by Russia’s leading theosophists Alba-Kamenskaia and Elena Pisareva emphasizing the tasks of theosophy, the problems of spiritual evolution, the role of Beauty, the visible and invisible bodies of men, and the secret meaning of life might have attracted Elena’s attention as all these vital topics would be minutely discussed years later in her voluminous Agni Yoga. Elena was a great gobbler of books. Theosophy apart, her (and her husband’s) favorite authors were Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Ramakrishna (born 39 40

E. Lichtmann’s diaries, Notebook 1, 165, entry for 18 June 1929. Fosdik 2002, 378, entry for 7 October 1928.

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figure 8

Elena Roerich, ca. 1910, NRM archive

­ adadhar Chattopadhyay, 1836–1886) was a famous Bengali mystic whose reliG gious philosophy gave rise to a worldwide spiritual movement, known as Ramakrishna or Vedanta movement. His major work The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Pravozvestie Ramakrishny) was published in Russian in 1914, with a preface and an introduction by Swami Abhedananda. This was followed in 1916 by a collection of sayings by Ramakrishna. From these publications Nikolai and Elena could grasp Ramakrishna’s seminal ideas of Advaita-Vedanta (nondualism), of God-realization through love as the ultimate goal of all living beings and of the “oneness” of all religions as they lead to the same God. And they were captured by the simple wisdom of this real mahatma as the German Orientalist Max Müller called Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda (Narendranath, 1863–1902) was Ramakrishna’s chief disciple. He was instrumental in the introduction of the philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western public, in America and Europe. Vivekananda was known in Russia mainly through the publication of his lectures on the four Yogas (Raja, Bhakti, Jnãna and Karma) he had presented in America in 1895– 1896. These were printed in 1914–1916 by the ‘New Man’ publishing house in the

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form of handy pocket editions. The books of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were extremely popular in the pre-war and war-time Russia winning over many a truth-seeker with their simple yet mightily appealing message. “Throughout Russia”, wrote Roerich in his essay India, “[people] were reading enthusiastically The Gospel of Ramakrishna and the flaming books by Vivekananda”.41 And in a letter to Alexandre Benois, written at the end of 1917, he described Ramakrishna’s Gospel as “a very serious teaching needed by humanity”.42 Speaking of other popular authors whose works contributed to the shaping of the Roerichs’ new world outlook, two more names deserve mention here, those of Zinaida Ragozina and Camille Flammarion. Zinaida Alekseevna Ragozina (born Verderevskaia, 1834 – after 1916) was another remarkable woman of the epoch although her name is completely forgotten today. Ragozina came from a noble family of Tatar extraction. Her brother Eugene Verderevskii was a writer and poet who had served in the Caucasus in the 1840s. In 1874 after the death of her second husband V. Kelsiev, who had closely collaborated with the famous revolutionary and writer Alexander Hertzen, she emigrated to America. There she developed a keen interest in ancient Asian history and ethnography. Her scholarly pursuits made her one of the earliest Russian female Orientalists who could boast of her membership in the American Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and the Société Ethnographique in Paris as well as of her correspondence with such outstanding scholars as T.Y. Rhys-Davids, Max Müller and Fr. Lenorment. Upon her return to Russia in 1900, Ragozina published her major works devoted to the history of ancient civilizations of Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Media and India.43 The latter one was titled Istoria Indii vremion Rig-Vedy (A History of India of the Rig-Veda times, St. Petersburg, 1905) and it was this book to which Roerich specifically referred in his above essay on India. The works of the French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) were also very popular in fin-de-siècle and early 20th century Russia. Elena Roerich, speaking of the books which impressed her most in her childhood, mentioned, along with Gustav Doré’s Bible and the well-illustrated Travels in Central Asia and the Far East by some unknown author (probably Nikolai Przhevalskii), Flammarion’s “astronomical novel” Urania.44 Flammarion, incidentally, was a spiritualist and a member of the Theosophical Society. Some of his other books were probably also known to Elena, such as La pluralité des mondes habités

41 42 43 44

N.K. Rerikh, “Indiia” («Индия», 1945) in Rerikh, N. 1996, 332. Rerikh, N. 1993, letter # 4, 5 December 1917. For Z. Ragozina’s biography see Lebedev 1989. See Fosdik 2002, 317, entry for 30 August 1928; Rerikh, N. 1996a, 24.

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(Mnogochislennost’ obitaemykh myrov, Moscow, 1908), Le fin du monde (Konets mira, 1908) and Dieu dans la nature (Bog v prirode, St Petersburg, 1900). Thus the reading of books was the only way for Elena to acquire esoteric knowledge and broaden her spiritual and mystical horizons at that early stage. At the same time by mastering the subtleties of theosophical and other esoteric and religious teachings, she strengthened to an even greater degree her authority as a spiritual guide for her illustrious husband. Elena certainly took the lead in their spiritual tandem, and it was probably she who articulated the principal “formulas” of the New Era that would be taken up enthusiastically and dwelled upon by Nikolai Roerich in his philosophical pamphlets included in the Path of Blessing collection (1924). India was undoubtedly the strongest “magnet” for the Roerichs, as was the case with other European esotericists and mystics of the 19th century. In that remote country they discovered a whole new world – mysterious and strongly appealing to them, the world of yoga, asceticism and religious fervor, as well as the pantheistic notion of the Divinity, something that was missing in decadent “Christian Europe”. From the books of Zinaida Ragozina on ancient Eastern civilizations Elena could also learn about the worship of female deities in prehistoric times which would later help her formulate her own concept of the Mother of the World, the Spiritual Patroness and Energy-Source of the New Era, the Satya Yuga. Surprisingly, one will find not a single reference to either India or theosophical or religious subjects in Nikolai’s abundant correspondence with Elena covering the years 1900–1913. Yet India was already uppermost in their thoughts and their fascination with it only grew with time. Nikolai’s earliest paintings and prose works employing Indian themes can be traced back to 1905. “Devassari Abuntu”, “Lakshmi, the Conqueror”, “The limits of kingdom”, “Krishna”, “The dreams of India”, “The precept of Gayatri” were the titles of his Indians fairytales. One of these, “Devassari Abuntu”, he even wanted to put on the stage. Roerich’s early interest in the Indian culture and history, as evidenced by his biographers, owed much to his intimate talks with the eminent art critic Vladimir Stasov and the works of Ivan Minaev, one of the leading Russian Orientalists, the founder of the school of Indology at St Petersburg university in the late 19th century. Stasov was a connoisseur of Old Russian art and literature who believed that Russia’s epic tales, byliny, and traditional ornaments had an Asian, possibly Indian, origin. Under the influence of Stasov and Minaev Roerich turned his gaze to India, the cradle of Indo-European civilization, a part of which was the Russo-Slavic world so much admired by him. India entered Nikolai’s life quite early. In Yablonevka, close to the Izvara estate, according to a family legend, lived in the late 18th century, at the time of

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Catherine the Great, an Indian raja. And the name of the estate itself, as Nikolai would later learn from R. Tagore in London, was probably a corrupted form of the Sanskrit word “Ishvara”, the Lord.45 The specialists on St Petersburg toponymy however have a different opinion – izvara in the language of the izhora (izuri) people, the indigenes of the area, they say, means “a big hill”, an explanation which seems more plausible. Remembering his childhood, Roerich recalled that in one of the rooms of the Izvara house hung a painting of “a majestic mountain” at sunset which always attracted his attention. This was the sacred Kanchenjunga, the mountain which Helena Blavatsky had contemplated blissfully in Darjeeling and which reminded her of the mysterious Himalayan Brotherhood. (Nikolai learnt that it was Kanchenjunga many years later from a book by Brian Hodgson46). In 1910 Roerich enthusiastically supported the idea of bringing a “Hindu temple” from India to St Petersburg as was discussed then by a group of Russian Orientalists, saying that this would be “a most timely and remarkable” supplement to the already existent Mosque and the Buddhist temple, under construction.47 The idea actually belonged to the Orientalist Feodor (Theodor) Stcherbatskoi who was on probation in India. As a result some parts of the terrace of an old wooden palace in Nasik – not a Hindu temple at all! – were purchased from its owner, the raja of Bhavnagar, by a military agent, Mikhail Andreyev,48 and shipped by sea to Russia’s capital. (These can be seen today in the Ethnographic museum of St Petersburg.) In 1913 Roerich made friends with a Paris-based Orientalist and art historian Viktor Viktorovich Golubev (1878–1945) who had recently returned from India. This encounter allowed Roerich to make some important discoveries for himself and formulate his theory of a close ethno-cultural affinity of Russia and India and the impact of ancient Indian art on the artistic styles of Byzantium and Old Russia as can be seen particularly in Russian icons and mural paintings. “We have understood the meaning of Byzantine enamels … the value of our beautiful icons. . Through Byzantium we dreamt of India; it is there that we will wend our way. The study of India, her art, science and life style will be [our] nearest aspiration”, wrote Roerich in his essay Indiiskii Put’ (The Indian

45 46 47 48

See N.K. Rerikh, “Indiia” («Индия», 1937), in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 121. Ibid. Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800–1894) was an English naturalist and ethnologist who worked in British India and Nepal. N.K. Rerikh, “Indiia” («Индия», 1945) in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 286. See Kudriavtsev 1953; Vigasin 1999, 257–261, Documents # 191, 192, 194.

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path, 1914).49 His biographers say that it was then that the artist already began to make plans for a journey to India, together with Golubev.

…

Our psychological portrait of young Elena Roerich will be incomplete if we say nothing about her early visionary experience. She herself shed some light on this rather delicate subject in two manuscripts: Sny i videnia (Dreams and Visions) produced in 1949, after she had pieced together her earliest recollections, and Ognennyi opyt (Fiery Experience) written in 1924.50 Elena claimed that she began to see “meaningful dreams and even visions” at a very early age. These were harbingers of her later “fiery experience”, her communication with the “Subtle World” and the invisible Masters, so she believed. Some of her dreams (or visions) were so colorful, vivid and emotional that they sank deeply into her mind. Such was her vision of the Svetlyi Malchik (Luminous Boy), an angel-like creature, clad in white robes with a pink hallo around his head and large deep-set dark-blue eyes, gazing at her. This radiant figure stirred up in the youthful Elena a feeling of great love – for the boy and for every sentient being.51 The dream apparently had a religious implication but so did her other dream of a tall Old Man with a staff walking upon the rough sea. There was also a recurring vision of two giants (velikany) – they appeared usually when she was down with a catarrhal decease and having seated themselves at her feet they began to pull a silver string out of her left side. The vision recurred time and again until she was nine. Between the age of 11 and 13 the image of the “Teacher of Light” possessing boundless knowledge often “flashed” in her mind and she imagined herself a disciple of that Teacher, living in his house and being guided by him. She “knew” somehow that he was trying to “accelerate some physiological process in her body”.52 One of her most scaring dreams was that of her personal enemy, named Konrad. She dreamt once of entering, together with her mother, a smart Italian palazzo, taking off warm cloths and proceeding to her bedroom. There she was suddenly struck with unusual fatigue and threw herself on the canopy bed. Opposite her bed stood the grandfather clock with a pendulum in a trunk. When she looked at it, the trunk door suddenly opened and the figure of a 49 50 51 52

N.K. Rerikh, “Indiiskii put’”, in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 318, 319. Both texts were published in 1996 by the International Roerich Center in Moscow, see Rerikh, E. 1996a. Ibid., 42–43. Ibid., 32.

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knight in slightly glittering silver armour appeared from within. Looking straight into her eyes he said distinctly “Konrad Rudendorf”, and then vanished.53 This frightening visitor from the beyond would haunt Elena for many years. In her intimate diaries started in 1920 he would be occasionally mentioned under his first name Konrad or simply “K” as someone plotting secretly to frustrate her and her Masters’ designs. Elena also recalled her ominous dreams in which she had presentiments of some dramatic events to take place in her family in the near future, like the death of her father and mother, or of global disasters, such as the impending ruination of the earth. In her dreams and visions she often heard a Voice, giving her counsel or providing her with some useful information, so she recounted. For example, in August 1911 when she and Nikolai stayed in Talashkino the Voice told her at night that they must sell all their securities. The next morning Nikolai went to Petersburg, being determined to sell them, yet his friends dissuaded him, saying that “prices are going up”, so he bought some new shares. And a few weeks later an incident occurred which triggered the Balkan war, and all their securities were instantly depreciated. Surprisingly, the same story repeated in 1913, also in connection with the Balkan war.54 In 1901 when she was traveling with her mother in Europe she once saw in her dream, the day before they left for Monte-Carlo, an old man Honoré, who revealed to her the three lucky numbers for the game of roulette: one, three and four. So when they arrived at Monte-Carlo the next day they decided to try their luck in one of the casinos by staking money precisely on these three numbers and, miraculously, all the three won!55 Yet one should be careful when reading these fascinating stories told by Elena as many of them bear visible traces of her later and conscious mythologizing of her past life as lived, since childhood, under direct guidance of her Masters, much in the same vein as Blavatsky did. Thus, she maintained that the vision of the “Luminous Boy” occurred on March 24, 1914, which was exactly ten years prior to her alleged first encounter with the mahatmas in London. The Old Man walking upon the rough sea she identified as St. Sergius of Radonezh, and the twin giants as her Masters. As for the vision of the “Teacher of Light”, it seems to be an exact replica of Blavatsky’s tale about her reclusive studies in Tibet with one of her mahatmas.

53 54 55

Ibid., 38. Ibid., 40–41. Ibid., 36–37.

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chapter 5

The Beginning of Exile. A Strange Encounter at Hyde Park In pains and horror the new humanity is being born. N. Roerich, “Unity”

⸪ Nikolai Roerich moved to Sortavala in Karelia (Finland), together with his wife and sons, in the middle of May 1917, that is, two months after the outbreak of the February revolution. It is this date, according to O.I. Eshalova, that should be taken “unquestioningly” as the beginning of his emigration,1 although Roerich would visit Petrograd henceforth until early 1918 more than 30 times commuting between Sortavala and Russia’s capital. And Elena too would come to Red Petrograd twice at some risk to her life. (Both visits must have taken place in 1917, prior to the Bolshevik October coup.) Moreover, it was actually she who persuaded her husband to abandon Russia, as early as 1916, as evidenced by Esther Lichtmann: When the revolution began, this was [like] Easter for E[lena] I[vanovna]. But she rejoiced in spirit for one week only because she knew that the revolution would entail bloody consequences. Therefore she pressed so hard to leave Russia in 1916, as she had prophetic dreams.2 The first time Elena traveled to Petrograd all alone to collect the most valuable things from their apartment. It was two o’clock at night when she reached her home on Morskaia Street. She packed up her “best things” in boxes and was ready to go but in the morning her husband’s colleagues came, one of whom was a journalist A.V. Rumanov. They told her emphatically that she must not prevent Roerich from making his “brilliant career in Russia” and Elena gave in. She unpacked her things, yet an hour before her train’s departure Rumanov 1 See O. Eshalova’s preface, in Rerikh, N. 2008, 33–36. 2 E. Lichtmann’s diaries, Notebook 2, 38, entry for 29 June 1929.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_006

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telephoned her to say that “there’ll be disturbances in town” and so she fled Petrograd leaving everything behind. On her second trip Elena was accompanied by her husband. By then the revolution was already “at its height” and they wanted to take their things out to Sortavala. Nikolai’s brother Boris promised to send them boxes but these arrived too late. So Nikolai had to leave his paintings and collections in Petrograd. Elena was very upset as she had asked her husband more than once to take his works away to Finland, even before the revolution. “What a pity, this was not done! These treasures could have been saved, as it is rumored that the paintings were cut into pieces and their present whereabouts are unknown”, she complained to Esther in 1929.3 (The rumors, however, proved to be groundless.) Roerich took hard his separation from Russia and the orgy of violence which swept over the country following the October coup made him particularly resentful at Bolsheviks as demonstrated by his essay “Unity” (Edinstvo), written in 1918 in Finland: Can it really be that we shall have to flee to some islands – to rescue ourselves from whom? From our own! Our own! Whence this boundless savagery of yours? What does socialism have in common with the wild hordes of Bolsheviks and their like, bent on robbery and violence? These mobs of workers, who run wild and have lost their human appearance, yet quickly scatter after the first shot. All socialists (if they do exist) must rise and annihilate the brutal mobs. We are shocked by the insanity and savagery of what is going on. Shameful self-destruction! A real riot of slaves against knowledge! Can it be that the lofty principles of unity are so infinitely alien to these savages?4 Having reconciled with the 1917 February democratic revolution, Nikolai Roerich obviously could not do so with the later Bolshevik coup. After a short period of collaboration with the new rulers of the country he suddenly turned his back on them and branded their proletarian revolution as a “riot of slaves against knowledge”. The nascent “new world” of the “brotherhood of laborers” horrified and repulsed the idealistic artist. Or was he perhaps too discouraged with the failure of his scheme for converting the School of drawing into the People’s Free Academy? The special Committee of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, having examined Roerich’s proposal, assessed it positively in general yet it found it “hardly realizable” because of the paucity of Society’s 3 Ibid., 39, 40. 4 N.K. Rerikh, “Edinstvo” («Единство»), in Rerikh, N. 1999a, 228.

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funds.5 Paradoxically, speaking at the meeting of the Committee on December 31, 1917, that is two months after the October coup, Roerich expressed his earnest desire to work “for the welfare of Russia, the welfare of knowledge and art – for the sake of building the one radiant life of humanity”.6 The four Roerichs became totally isolated from Petrograd in May 1918, when the government of independent Finland closed the country’s frontier with Russia. From that moment on only very scanty information would leak to them from their relatives and friends who remained “on the other side” and had to willy-nilly work with the Bolsheviks, like Roerich’s younger brother Boris or Elena’s cousin Stepan Mitusov. A talented architect and painter, Boris Roerich was teaching at the same School of drawing since 1913 and after Nikolai’s departure for Sortavala he took over as director of the school. Moreover, he launched its reformation, according to Nikolai’s designs, precisely in May 1918.7 Roerich’s other brother Vladimir, an agronomist by profession, joined the anti-Bolshevik White movement and fought against the Red Army during the ensuing civil war in Russia (1918–1921), first under ataman A.I. Dutov in the Orenburg area and then under Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg in East Siberia and Mongolia. In particular he was in charge of the ration unit in Ungern’s ferocious Asiatic Division and he fled to Manchuria after its crushing. The news reports on the situation in Russia Nikolai Roerich found in the émigré papers depicted the country as seized by chaos and violence. Yet what made him feel particularly bitter and stirred up his anti-Bolshevik feelings were cases of vandalism – the destruction of old churches and historical monuments, the wreckage of museum items and artwork, which in his eyes was a challenge to Culture. Much more than this, it was a real war waged by the seemingly godless and “savage-like” Bolsheviks against the best achievements of humanity accrued over centuries, and this bitter feeling instantly made him into a “warrior artist”, a defender of the world cultural heritage. Together with his friend, the writer Leonid Andreyev, who also became a Russian refugee against his will, Roerich would take part, in 1918–1919, in the anti-Bolshevik ideological campaign launched by the Russian emigré circles in Scandinavia and Western Europe. His first contribution was a drawing to illustrate Andreyev’s essay ‘SOS’, published in several newspapers and then as a separate booklet, first in Vyborg

5 6 7

See “Khudozhestvennye vesti, Prilozhenie 6” («Художественные вести. Приложение 6») in Rerikh, N. 2008, 227. See “Rech’ N.K. Rerikha na zasedanii Komissii 31 dekabria 1917” («Речь Н.К. Рериха на заседании Комиссии 31 декабря 1917»), in Rerikh, N. 2008, 226. See Rosov 2008, 27–49.

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(Wiipuri) and then in Paris and London in 1919.8 The ‘SOS’ was the writer’s fervent appeal to Russia’s former Allies and European nations in general, calling them to save the country from the Bolsheviks. The drawing by Roerich placed on the front cover depicted an angel bringing the symbolical ‘Sword of Valor’ to the sleeping warriors outside the City gates. All profit from the sale of the booklet went to the Committee of the ‘Scandinavian Relief Society for the Russian Warrior’ (La Socièté Scandinave de secours au Guerrier Russe – Skandinavskoe Obstchestvo Pomostchi Russkomu Voinu), as read the announcement on the back cover. (Roerich worked as secretary of the Society for some time). What occasioned Andreyev’s Appeal to which Roerich unwaveringly added his voice were plans by the leading Western powers, those who were then taking part in the military intervention in Russia (USA, England, France), for a reconciliation with the Soviets by negotiating a peaceful agreement with them at a conference to be convened on the Princes’ Islands in early 1919. Roerich himself also wrote a strongly anti-Bolshevik essay in September 1919, already in London, entitled ‘Violators of Culture’ (Razrushiteli Kul’tury). The piece was a reaction to the Bolshevik-inspired publications in the leftist European press praising the “cultural achievements of the Soviet government”. In this essay the artist accused the new Russian art sponsors, whom he sarcastically called ‘the Petrograd Medici’, of barefaced hypocrisy by listing examples of the Bolshevik vandalism. The best Russian scientists and artists, he claimed, were either shot, like the painter Viktor Vasnetsov, or died of starvation, like the eminent historians A.S. Lappo-Danilevskii and P.P. Smirnov, Prof. Fortunatov, the famous botanist Famintsyn, the pianist Ziloti and many others.9 However some of the quoted instances were incorrect – Vasnetzov, Fortunatov and­ Ziloti managed to survive the extremism of the early Bolshevik rule. “Perversion of all sacred principles of humanity – this is what Bolshevism is”, thundered Roerich. “It is an impudent monster deceiving humanity”. But was he not openly collaborating with this “impudent monster” in the beginning, one may ask? Moreover, we know that he planned to return to Petrograd in 1918 to resume his work at the School of drawing by the beginning of the fall semester.10 8

9 10

The British edition of Leonid Andreyev’s booklet was titled: Russia’s Call to Humanity: “Save Our Souls”, An Appeal to the Allies, [London]: Russian Liberation Committee & Union of the Russian Commonwealth, [1919], 19 pp., with a preface by P.N. Miliukov, the former leader of the constitutional-democratic party in Russia. Roerich’s illustration was not used in it. Rerikh, N. 2004, 35. See N. Roerich’s letter to I.M. Stepanov and S.P. Yaremich, dated 26 June 1918 in Rerikh, N. 2008, 160.

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The illness which brought Roerich to Finland – his creeping pneumonia – receded in 1918, while his wife’s condition worsened – Nikolai thought she was having either neurological or cardiac problems.11 The beautiful – virgin – ­Finnish nature restored his strength and inspired him to produce a large number of paintings and sketches in which prevailed the pale – green-bluish – “northern colors” and which were filled with that special Scandinavian vigour as shown by his Heroica series. The influence of India could be traced mainly in his new poetry. In 1914 Roerich had read Rabindranath Tagore’s collection of poems Gitanjali (Song Offerings) in the Russian translation by Jurgis Baltrushaitis and he immediately fell in love with Tagore.12 He would further try to imitate Tagore’s elegant style by writing similar short poems in blank verse and in 1917–1918 he would produce his own cycle entitled ‘Written Signs’ (Pis’mena). The poems reflected Roerich’s confused state of mind at that dramatic period, his sense of personal and global catastrophe caused by his lingering illness, the violent Russian revolution and the massacre of the Great War as well as his religious feelings, his search for the Supreme. He was obviously parting with this world when he wrote the following lines: I am ready to take the road. Everything believed to be mine I left behind. I will walk round my house for the last time.

To Him, Who summons me, I shall speak, liberated.13 Another source of inspiration for Roerich became the Bhagavatgita, the Song Divine, a book of the Hindu scriptures, believed to be the essence of the Vedas and to contain the highest esoteric wisdom. Bhagavatgita was translated into Russian from Sanskrit and English by Anna Kamenskaia and Irma Manziarly and published in Kaluga in 1914. The influence of the Gita could be felt in the concluding part of Roerich’s essay ‘Flame’ (Plamia), written in Tulolansaari (Finland) in the latter half of 1918 and filled with many autobiographical references: “Look at the action, not its fruit. Let the fruit of action be not your motive”.14 11 12 13 14

Ibid. This was a collection of 103 English poems translated from Bengali which expressed ­Tagore’s metaphysical outlook. Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913 for this book. N.K. Rerikh, “Ostavil” («Оставил»), in Rerikh, N. 2008, 356. N.K. Rerikh, “Plamia” («Пламя») in Rerikh, N. 1979, 71.

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The essay also mentioned – for the first time and somewhat vaguely – a “brotherhood”, building a temple, and the “teachers” who “discovered the path of the future” and to whom the author “bows low”. While in Finland, Roerich continued to cherish his idea of going to India, where he hoped to find some ancient relics – the “sacred signs” – from the epoch of the great migration of peoples: We are going to seek the sacred signs. …. I have just learnt where one of these sacred signs is kept. Our path will be thorny. The East has lightened. It’s time to go.15 Yet his prospects of making such a journey were rather uncertain at the moment. To go to India with his family he needed a British visa first of all and sufficient funds. To earn one’s living by art in a foreign country was not easy but Roerich knew how to do it. At the end of 1918 he went to Stockholm where he succeeded in putting up a big exhibition of his works – those which remained from his ‘Baltic Exhibit’ displayed in Malmö in 1914 and his new ones making 137 canvases altogether. The exhibition opened on 8 November and was a big success which allowed the artist to sell many of his paintings to Scandinavian museums and private collectors. While in Stockholm, Roerich also obtained the Russian passport which the Russian Consulate General acting on behalf of the already non-existent Provisional Government of Russia issued to him on 23 November 1918. Still Roerich would use this document widely during his travels in Scandinavia, Europe and later in the USA. He refused to apply for the so-called Nansen passport designed in 1921 by Fridtjof Nansen to help political refugee to settle down in new countries. This was probably because he did not want to be regarded as a ‘stateless refugee’ by Western authorities. With the Russian passport, albeit an invalid one, he was still a Russian citizen. Like many other Russian émigrés at that time, he believed that the Bolshevik regime would not endure for a long time and he even tried to expedite its collapse by providing financial support to the White army General N.N. Yudenich on behalf of the Committee of the ‘Scandinavian Relief Society’.16 Yudenich, as is known, would attack Petrograd from Finish 15 16

The poem was included in the ‘Flowers of Morya’ (Tsvety Morii) cycle, Rerikh, N. 1921. The Stockholm-based Committee of the Scandinavian Society for the Relief of the

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territory in October – November 1919 but would suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the Red Army. From Stockholm Roerich’s exhibition was taken to Copenhagen, in January 1919 and thence to Helsingfors (today’s Helsinki). It was fairly successful and received very positive coverage in the local as well as Russian émigré press. Some of the Russian language reviews were produced with a little nudge from Roerich himself, who knew all too well, since his Peterburgian days, the importance of publicity. For example, Leonid Andreyev wrote, at his request, a highly laudatory essay entitled ‘The Realm of Roerich’ (Derzhava Rerikha – Roerichin valtakunta). Roerich, in Andreyev’s words, was not an “earthly servant” but the creator and ruler of the vast world, which he dubbed the “Realm of Roerich”. He was the “only poet of the North, the only singer and revealer of its mystical soul, profound and wise…his brilliant fantasy reaches the limits, beyond which it becomes clairvoyance”.17 Mikhail Fokin, a choreographer and director of the Russian Seasons Company, claimed that Roerich was “least of all a realist but always a poet, fatalist and mystic”. His artwork was in harmony with the poetry of Maeterlinck, the symbolism of Ibsen, and the music of Wagner and Debussy.18 Another critic Leo Feigenberg, like Andreyev, spoke of the “world of Roerich” which had its own geography, architecture, its people, temples, prayers, legends and language. This world looked like ours yet it had “another future”19. The artist’s son Yuri Roerich also published several essays on his father’s art in which he emphasized inter alia Roerich’s “profound knowledge of the means of artistic influence through which he opens the door into another reality”.20 Practically all reviewers noticed one special quality of Roerich’s paintings – their mystical undertones. As the artist himself would explain, when he once

17

18 19 20

Russian Warrior at its meeting held on 31 May 1919 allocated 15 000 rubles for General Yudenich. The resolution was signed by the Chairman of the Society Countess OrlovaTaneeva and its secretary N. Roerich; see Rerikh, N. 2008, 191–192. See Andreev, L. 1994, 349–354. The essay appeared in Russian in the émigré paper Russkaia Zhizn’ (Russian Life) on the day of inauguration of Roerich’s exhibition in Helsingfors (Helsinki). It was published in Finnish under the title Roerichin valtakunta in the literary monthly Otava, in April 1919 (pp. 232–239). See Rerikh, N. 2008, 441. Fokin’s essay was published in the Vore Herrer (Copenhagen), 20 February 1919. Ibid., 437, published in Verden og Vi (Copenhagen), 24 January 1919. Ibid., 433, published in Sǿndag, 19 January 1919.

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conversed with Leo Tolstoy, the latter told him that a genuine work of art must have several ‘planes’ or meanings, not only the external one.21 Tolstoy also gave Roerich a good piece of advice. Having examined his early masterpiece ‘Messenger’ (Gonets) showing a rower standing in a boat at night, with a pole in his hand, the elderly genius uttered: “One should always steer high – life will carry away everything”.22 The utterance would henceforth become one of Roerich’s favorite mottos.

…

In 1919 Sergei Diagilev invited Roerich to London to help him stage A.P. Borodin’s ‘Prince Igor’ at Covent Garden. This opera was one of the hits of the ‘Russian Seasons’ before the world war and it admittedly owned its success to a large degree to the excellent costumes and settings designed by Roerich. Nikolai Konstantinovich gladly accepted the invitation and the four Roerichs sailed to England in July 1919. Their coming to London was also motivated by Nikolai’s long-cherished dream of making a journey to India for which he needed a British visa for himself and his sons. The Roerichs would stay in London for over a year. Their life in Albion’s brilliant citadel made a striking contrast to their vegetating in obscurity in Sortavala’s backwater. Here they found the familiar and pleasant cultural milieu – the British royalty, high society and a large Russian diaspora which consisted of many representatives of the old nobility, far superior to that of Helsingfors for which Roerich could find no better word than “trash”. (“The Russian colony in Helsingfors is trash, almost all of it is trash”.23) Roerich plunged into work, both artistic and political, with great fervor. Apart from the scenery for ‘Prince Igor’, he also designed settings for several other operas such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Snow-Maiden’ (Snegurochka), ‘Saltan the Tsar’ (Tsar’ Saltan) and ‘Sadko’ under contract with the British impresario Thomas Beecham, who had earlier sponsored Diagelev’s Russian Seasons. At the same time Roerich executed a number of paintings making the Oriental Dreams series, largely under the influence of Tagore’s Gitanjali. On top of that, he put up an exhibition of his works The Spells of Russia which opened on 29 April 1920 at the Goupil Gallery. 21

22 23

We find an allusion to this conversation in the essay “Legendarnyi Rerikh” («Легендарный Рерих» / Legendary Roerich) penned by A. Khiryakov; see Rerikh, N. 1998, 195. Roerich visited Tolstoy in Moscow in 1897, together with V.V. Stasov, A.N. Rimsky-Korsakov and I.Ia. Ginzburg. N. Rerikh, “Tolstoi i Tagor” («Толстой и Тагор») in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 110. N. Roerich’s letter to L. Andreyev, 3 April, 1919, in Rerikh, N. 2008, 188.

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This intense and time-consuming artistic work was combined by Roerich with political activities. He is known to have closely collaborated with the Russian Liberation Committee in London which published his pamphlet ‘Violators of art’ and Andreyev’s ‘SOS’. Roerich also joined the ‘Russo-British 1917 Bratstvo (Fraternity)’. This organization was set up shortly after the February revolution by a group of British MPs and the representatives of the Russian government in London and existed until the end of 1921. According to O.A. Kazina, the Fraternity was a kind of “elite club which united the state and military circles in Russia with the top echelon of British politics”.24 By the end of 1919 it listed 150 members, the large majority of which were Russian emigrants. Roerich gave a talk before the Fraternity members soon after his arrival in Britain (on 22 July, 1919), devoted to the cumbersome ‘Russian question’ in Finland and Sweden.25 By joining the Fraternity, where he appears under number 36 on the list of its members, Roerich obviously hoped to make new friends and find high sponsors ‘on the alien shores’, the more so that the Honorary President of the Fraternity was the English premier (in 1916–1922) and one of the leaders of the Liberal party David Lloyd-George. It is worthy of note here that many members of the Fraternity were freemasons, although, strictly speaking, the body was not a Masonic lodge. There was another purely Masonic organization in London at that time – ‘The Circle of Russian Masons in England’.26 Elena too found a publicly useful sphere of activity for herself, the first time ever, to satisfy her growing ambitions. She volunteered to work for the Refugee Relief Committee, arranging its meetings, lectures and concerts.27 (The Women’s section of the Committee was run by Georgina Buchanan, the wife of the former British ambassador to Russia George Buchanan.) The propagandist activities of the anti-Bolshevik elements in England to which both Roerichs readily lent their hand, however, proved futile. England had pulled out of Soviet Russia by early 1920, having evacuated her troops from the country. As for Yuri (George) Roerich, he entered the Indo-Iranian department of the newly founded School of Oriental Studies (SOS) at the University of London mainly to study Sanskrit, the language of ancient India. One of his tutors there was an eminent Orientalist and linguist Sir Edward Denison Ross.28 In the 24 25 26 27 28

Kazina 1997, 26. Ibid., 30. More on this see Kazina 1997, 32. Ibid., 266. E. Denison Ross (1871–1940) was Professor of Persian at the University College, London (since 1896); in 1916 he was made the first Director of the School of Oriental Studies (the

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meantime the 16-year-old Sviatoslav pursued architecture and art independently, following in his father’s footsteps. In London the Roerichs made friends with someone in whom they found a kindred spirit, Vladimir Anatolievich Shibaev (1898–1975). Of Shibaev’s background we know very little.29 Born in Riga (Latvia), he moved in the latter half of 1919 to London where he got a job in a publishing company on Fleet Street.30 His encounter with Nikolai Roerich was absolutely casual – the artist was looking for a Russian language typist to type his new collection of poems Tsvety Morii (The Flowers of Morya) and that was how he dropped by his office. Shibaev, like the Roerichs, had a passion for India. He had many friends in the Indian community of London, especially among the SOS students, one of whom was a Bengali, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, later to become a prominent linguist. And he was also keen on theosophy – while in London he joined the Theosophical Society and knew personally many leading theosophists, such as Annie Besant (head of the TS since 1907), C. Jinarajadasa31 and B.P. Wadia.32 One day Shibaev came to see Yuri and it was then that Nikolai Konstantinovich somewhat unexpectedly invited him to take part in a spiritualistic séance, together with his wife and sons. (The very fact that Shibaev and the Roerichs assembled for a séance seems remarkable, knowing that Blavatsky had anathematized spiritualism before she switched to theosophy). Shibaev minutely described the event in an essay “An evening with the Roerichs”.33 The séance took place in a room with the lights on, so that “any chance of fraud was eliminated”, wrote Shibaev. First the Roerichs established contact with the spirits by means of table-rappings and then the medium – who he or she was we do not

29 30

31

32

33

later SOAS) and remained in this capacity until 1938; knighted in 1918; author of memoirs Both Ends of the Candle (London, 1943). He visited Russia twice, in 1895 and 1897–1898. See Annenko 2012, 140–156. Oleg Shishkin in his strongly fictionalized study The Battle for the Himalaya: NKVD, magic and espionage (Shishkin 1999) claims that Shibaev was an emissary of the Petrograd section of Comintern sent to London with a special mission. He delivered funds to British communists to sponsor the edition of the English version of the Communist International magazine. Shibaev had a nickname Gorbun (Humpback) given to him because of his physical defect, see Shishkin 1999, 37–38. The author offers no proofs whatever to support his statement that Shibaev was a Comintern agent. Jinarajadasa, Curuppumullage (1875–1953), a Freemason, theosophist, Vice-President of the Theosophical Society, Adyar (1921–1928); after the death of Dr. Arundale in 1945 he became President of the TS. Wadia, Bahman Pestonji, member of the TS Adyar, later of the United Lodge of Theosophists in Los Angeles; he founded several lodges in Europe (1923–29) as well as the Indian Institute of World Culture in Bangalore (1945). V.A. Shibaev, “Vecher s Rerikhami” («Вечер с Рерихами»), in Fosdik 2002, 691–693.

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know – began to channel messages. Thus Shibaev learnt the name of his otherworldly teacher – he was an Italian, Sarti by name, a resident of Pezaro in 1350. Then everyone proceeded to another room where Shibaev was shown the talismans allegedly sent to the Roerichs by the spirits at the previous séance: some coins, a little cross etc. Nikolai Konstantinovich also showed his new friend the portraits of Teachers drawn by him “mediumistically”. After that the artist sat down at the table, in a fully lit room, shaded his eyes with his left hand and fell into a trance as if he dozed off; at this very moment he began to draw ‘automatically’ with a pencil he held in his right hand. In this way he drew up several heads – of an Italian, of a saint etc. He soon regained consciousness and everyone went “to consult the table”. The “Great Teachers” in the garb of spirits were contacted again and they gave an important piece of advice to the Roerichs – they must depart from England as soon as possible and go to Ceylon, and another one to Shibaev – he must pass a collection of Roerich’s mediumistic drawings to a theosophist B. Wadia.34 Subsequently Shibaev took part in many more séances together with the four Roerichs and he recorded the most significant and meaningful messages they had received from the beyond. From his notes we learn that the spirits which were communing with the Roerichs belonged to three categories: the ‘guides’ or ‘personal preceptors’, the ‘Masters’ – ‘preceptors of humanity’, and ‘Fathers’ who embody “the principle of justice”. Surprisingly, all the entities showed a clear propensity for theosophy and they articulated precisely the things the Roerichs wanted to hear at that time – that the Tibet-Himalayan Abode of mahatmas do exist and that they, together with Shibaev, should go to India to visit Adyar, the headquarters of the TS. “The Teachers of humanity are greeting you. Two of you have great spiritual power. In India this power will increase. Adyar is the center of spiritual development”, reads one of the messages. The Teachers also made some predictions – that the middle of 1923 would witness “the triumph of the artist-mystic” and the year 1931 “the triumph of the spirit”. And more importantly, that “a Great Teacher” will come “from Russia”.35 The séances at the Roerichs’ home were attended apart from Shibaev mainly by Russian émigrés, people they knew well, such as the Shkliavers (Chkliavers, father and son, both lawyers), J.V. Gessen (one of the leaders of the ­Constitutional Democrats who would start in 1921 in Berlin the publication of the monumental series The Archive of the Russian Revolution), as well as stray acquaintances 34 35

Ibid., 691–693. V.A. Shibaev, “Iz soobshchenii za 1919–1920 gg.” («Из сообщений за 1919–1920 гг.»), in Fosdik 2002, 694, 696.

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like one Mrs Tingley36 and a Jesuit woman recently converted into Catholicism, strange as it may seem. The only problem the Roerichs faced was finding a good medium as none of them apparently could perform that role. So they had to resort at first to the help of paid ones. Until one day one of the sitters, Sokolov-Volsky,37 suggested that the three of them (Nikolai, Elena and Sviatoslav) should try to “sit together” and they did and it worked well. They sat down and E.I. felt that the table would go, and it went. They witnessed unusual physical phenomena at the beginning, and they would remain seated all day long and late into the night. N.K. and Svetik proved to be strong mediums. And then E.I. began to spell out [letters of] the alphabet, and the messages streamed to them in a marvelous language. All this E.I. explains by the fact that the Masters were in London right at that time.38

…

The two most remarkable events of the Roerich’s year and half stay in London were Elena’s miraculous encounter with the mahatmas at Hyde Park and Nikolai’s meeting a real Indian mahatma, Rabindranath Tagore. The Roerichs’ residence at Queen Gates Terrace 25 A in South Kensington in West End is well known to their biographers. Here the family settled in 1919, having rented an apartment a part of which the artist turned into a studio. South Kensington was and still is one of London’s wealthiest areas. It is also known for its world-renowned artistic and cultural institutions concentrating around Exhibition Road, such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Geographical Society and several more. To the north of the residential area stretched out the famous Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens. No doubt this was a perfect place to make one’s home, especially for Nikolai Roerich with his cultish attitude to Culture.

36 37

38

This must be Katherine Tingley (1852–1929), a theosophist and author of H. Blavatsky’s biography, see Tingley 1921. This must be Andrei Sokolov (pen-name Stanislav Volsky, a well-known revolutionary and author of political pamphlets and books. He broke with the Bolsheviks after the October coup and left for Western Europe where he published a critical volume entitled “Dans le royaume de la famine et la haine: La Russie bolshevist” (1920). Fosdik 2002a, 701.

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London, as one will remember, was a very special place for theosophists. It was here, at Hyde Park, that Helena Blavatsky claimed to have been approached personally by her Teacher – Sahib or Mahatma, around 1852, almost seventy years before. The fact must have been known to Elena Roerich who spent much time then in reading theosophical literature supplied to her by Shibaev. One day – on March 24, 1920 – she went for a promenade in Hyde Park, as she had done many times before, but this time it was different. All of a sudden she saw in the crowd of the promenading public two striking figures – Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi (!). They were of unusually large stature, were both bearded, had turbans on their heads, and were dressed in British military uniforms with some decorations (medals) on their breasts. Overall, they could be taken for Sikhs serving in the British Indian army. This is how Sina Lichtmann (Fosdick), of whom we will speak later, related the event in her diary, from Elena’s own words, in 1928: “…the crowd parted and she saw Them and was struck with the smile M. and K.H. gave her and even felt hurt by this. Having come home, she said that these were the Teachers, so she believed, because they were so unusual. But her husband and sons laughed at her”.39 In her memoirs written years later Sina recounted the story in greater detail: In London, when she saw Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya in the crowd, she, not knowing Them then, was struck with Their large stature above the crowd and Their handsome faces. She looked more at M.K.H., and he seemed to be smiling at her, while M.M. was looking at her with his slightly screwed-up eyes. She says that the huge crowd of people in which they walked seems to have completely dispersed (under Their aura); she was quite indignant then since They looked at her intently, because Indians never raise their eyes at women. But They gazed at her all the time and M.K.H. seemed to have bent towards her, as if he wanted to say something, when she approached. She gave [them] a very cold glance and passed by, never turning back.40 The story recounted by Elena clearly demonstrates that there was actually no “encounter” as such, or verbal contact between her and the two strange looking Indians at Hyde Park. They just looked at her somewhat over-familiarly which made her angry and that was all. Not a word was said between Elena and the strangers. Yet their unusual appearance struck her imagination so much that 39 40

Fosdik 2002, 316, entry for 30 August 1928. Fosdik 2002a, 700, 701.

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she instantly concluded that these two must be the mahatmas. However the purpose of their coming remained obscure and puzzled Elena for a long time. (The “Teachers” would reveal the secret of their appearance in physical bodies at Hyde Park at one of the séances, later in America). In the last book of Agni Yoga Supermundane (1938) Elena would briefly relate her memorable meeting with the mahatmas at Hyde Park as follows: “Urusvati (i.e. Elena Roerich) remembers how, when she met us for the first time, passersby seemed to disappear as if they dispersed. It would be correct to assume that this was the result of Our mental command…”.41 Elena’s original and rather simplistic narrative served as a starting point for elaborating a myth of her first encounter with the mahatmas in London to be incorporated in a larger and more intricate mythical construct, her new version of the Brotherhood of the Masters as ‘Teachers of humanity’ and ‘Cosmic Hierarchs’. This myth-making is still going on at the present time. This is, for example, how Elena’s story of her “first encounter” was reinterpreted, some 70 years after, by one of the leading Russian Roerich scholars, Liudmila V. Shaposhnikova: She slowed down and halted. The officer stepped toward her, and then she noticed his companion. Both Teachers greeted Elena Ivanovna. A conversation took place at the same spot at the Park’s entrance. She had a feeling as if the street became empty and the bustling crowd at the gates of Hyde Park dispersed. It was then that Elena Ivanovna received a number of counsels in connection with the Roerichs’ forthcoming trip to India. The forecasts of the Teachers were precise and they looked somewhat like predictions. All of them came true.42 The above quotation shows to what extent Elena’s narrative was romanticized and mythologized by a modern author. An episode of a fleeting exchange of glances between Elena and two Indian officers, casually promenading in an English park, grew, under Shaposhnikova’s pen, into a well-motivated tale of Elena’s secret meeting with her Teachers. They allegedly came down from their Himalayan heights, dressed into military uniforms and sailed to London to give the Roerichs some pieces of good advice concerning their journey to India – some four years before it really started. (It would have been much simpler for the Masters, of course, to send Elena a telepathic message instead, but that would have ruined the entire myth of her “first encounter” with them.) 41 42

Supermundane I, 127, www.en.agnivesti.ru/library/agni-yoga-/ Shaposhnikova 1993, 13.

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Another question that comes to mind – how could Elena recognize the theosophical chief Gurus, Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi, in the two Indian officers she saw at Hyde Park? A possible answer is that she might have seen their portraits before in some theosophical literature. The portraits were painted in 1884, in London, by the well-known German portrait-painter and member of the TS, Hermann Schmiechen, at the request of Henry S. Olcott, a co-founder of the Society, from a photographic copy of the original crayon sketch drawn in New York by one Monsiuer Harrisse. Both paintings were then taken to Adyar and installed at the TS’s headquarters there. As Olcott would explain, the portraits were intended to help those who could not as yet go in their subtle bodies (sukshma shariras) to the Ashram and converse with his Guru and his fellow mahatma face to face. The portraits were executed in a masterly fashion and made a very strong, nearly hypnotizing, impression on the people who saw them, especially the two pairs of the “grand eyes” of the Teachers as Schmiechen “poured into the eyes such a flood of life and sense of the indwelling soul as to fairly startle the spectator”. The ‘eyes’ followed one about the room and were “searching his very heart”, in the words of Olcott. “No wonder the religiouslyminded visitor finds himself, as it were, impressed with a sense of the holiness of the room where the two portraits hang, and meditative introspection is easier there than elsewhere. Grand as they are by day, the pictures are even more striking by night, when properly lighted, and the figures seem as if ready to step out of their frames and approach one”, wrote Olcott of the twin ‘Adept Portraits’ in his memoirs.43 “Cheap photographs” were subsequently made from these “glorious faces” and “sold over the counter” by theosophists, much to Olcott’s chagrin, and hence Elena could have acquired the photographic images of the Masters in London, which seems to be another possibility. The “encounter with the Masters” at Hyde Park marks a turning point in Elena’s occult life, although for a long time she had serious doubts about the authenticity of her miraculous experience. She was prudent enough not to report the incident to the Theosophical Society – their reaction would probably have been similar to that of her family members who laughed at her story when they heard it for the first time. The theosophical leaders, those who personally knew Blavatsky, would also have hardly believed that Upasika’s Teachers reappeared, some 70 years afterwards, at the same place in London before someone who was even not a member of the Society.

43

The story of the portraits was recounted in detail by H. Olcott in his Old Diary Leaves (3rd Series, Chapter XII: The Painting of Adept Portraits, pp. 158–166), see http://www.theoso phy.ph/onlinebooks/odl/odl312.html

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figure 9 (left) Mahatma Koot Hoomi. From a painting by Hermann Schmiechen figure 10 (right) Mahatma Morya. From a painting by Hermann Schmiechen

Three months later however while contemplating a trip to India, with a visit to Adyar, the Roerich couple deemed it necessary to join the Theosophical Society and further collaborate with its leaders. At that stage the Roerichs had nothing much to offer to humanity, save for Nikolai’s romantic ideals, his theory of Art as a major instrument of spiritual evolution. The membership certificates were issued to Nikolai and Elena on July 6 and were signed by H. Baillie

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Beaver, General Secretary in England and Wales, and Annie Besant, President of the TS, Adyar.44 Speaking of other unusual phenomena in Elena’s life during her London’s period, we must turn again to her surrealistic dreams and visions. Some of these had a disturbing fiery character. Thus, in November 1919, she saw a vision of the Red Messenger – a flame-colored Archangel on “columns of light with a scroll in his hand and a big golden key at his belt”. There was also a vision of a beautiful Child sitting on a crescent of a new rising moon which Elena interpreted as an Oriental symbol of the beginning of the New Era and New Race.45 In one of her dreams she found herself standing in front of a tall tower, the Watch-Tower of the Masters. It was made of yellow sandstone and had tapering walls, with black T-shaped clamps in them. She came closer to the structure and looked up, but could not see the top. And there was the dazzling blue sky above the tower.46 The dream would later be used by Elena to portray the Himalayan Ashram as a “Watch-Tower” and the Masters as “wakeful sentinels”.47 This is how Elena herself spoke of her visions: During the sojourn in London after my encounter with the Gr[eat] T[eachers], when They had closely approached me, a number of remarkable phenomena occurred. I began to notice bursts of yellow flame in the mediastinum. Every night two luminous subtle figures appeared by the bedside – their heads were shrouded in silverish mist, and I could see clearly only their arms passing books to me. This vision had recurred with minor variations long enough. Sometimes I was shown books in red bindings, on another occasion it was a large opened volume. Often a hand would appear in the air, holding a small Oriental vessel, and would perform libations around me. Two shining silvery figures emerged at my bed with the shining numbers of the dates written on their foreheads. Also, I saw, more than once, many eyes, very lively, looking at me; among them were many Eastern slant eyes.48 44 45 46 47

48

Both certificates were reproduced in Fosdik 2002, 709. See Rerikh, E. 1996a, 46. Fosdik 2002, 68, entry for 18 July 1922. In one of the Agni Yoga books, Brotherhood (1931), she maintained: “The Brotherhood is not a shelter, but a beacon of Light, it is as a Watchtower; thus must the manifestation of the Brotherhood be understood. As a Beacon on a lofty peak, the Brotherhood applies its knowledge for the salvation of humanity”, see: www.en.agnivesti.ru/library/ agni-yoga, 461. Rerikh, E. 1996a, 47.

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According to Sina Lichtmann, Elena was haunted by various odd visions in London. She saw the Face of MM (Master Morya) and his magnetizing Eyes gazing at her from the walls in every room of the apartment, even in the bathroom. And there were rappings heard here and there. A great power was then accumulated – they were often told [by spirits] to sit in the dark quietly and not turn on the light, and the table in front of them, with no hands placed on it, moved, walked and rapped by itself. They asked questions at night, when lying in bed, and received answers by rappings, so they could have a conversation for a long time.49 Many other weird phenomena accompanied the Roerichs’ first séances in London. The malevolent spirits which can hardly be associated with spiritual teachers were clearly playing pranks – they showered matches, coins and handkerchiefs on the heads of those present, metallic items were flying about the room, without touching or hurting anybody, the floor rugs suddenly flew up and hovered in the air etc.50 The description, unless it is a gross exaggeration, a figment of Elena’s fanciful mind, makes one think of the poltergeist intrusion or psychic manifestations for which modern scientists still do not have any good explanation.

…

On June 5, 1920, the celebrated Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, accompanied by his elder son, Rathindranath, came to London. This was his first trip to Europe taken after the Nobel Award in 1913. One of his objectives was to do fundraising for his newly established ‘world university’ at Santiniketan, the international center of culture and learning to which he gave the name VisvaBharat and the motto ‘Yatra visvam bharati ekamidam’ – ‘Where the world will meet in one nest”. (The formal inauguration of the university would take place in December 1921.) Staying in London, Tagore had a chance to catch up with his old friends and made some new ones. One of these was Nikolai Roerich. Their meeting was arranged by Suniti Chatterji, an SOS student and a good acquaintance of both Yuri Roerich and Vladimir Shibaev. On June 17 he brought the artist and both his sons to Tagore’s residence at the Kensington Palace Mansions. This is how the meeting was described by Tagore’s son Rathindranath in his travel diary:

49 50

Fosdik 2002, 108, entry for 26 September 1922. Ibid., 193, entry for 29 April 1923.

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Roerich showed us an album containing reproductions of his paintings which had been printed on the occasion of the celebration of his jubilee by his friends. The pictures are indeed remarkable. There is nothing in Western art to compare with them. Father was greatly impressed. One of his (Roerich’s) sons is studying Sanskrit in London and the other architecture. The whole family is going to India next September. Their genuine simplicity and unaffected manners were charming; so refreshing, so different from the stiffness of the English. We should like to know them ­better.51 A few days later Tagore paid a return visit to the Roerichs, together with his travel companion Kedarnath Das Gupta. Nikolai Konstantinovich showed his guests some of the paintings from his new Indian series, the “Oriental Dreams”, he was then working on. Strictly speaking, it was Elena Ivanovna who presented her husband’s works with some of her subtle commentaries. Tagore praised the Russian artist again, and he was also charmed by the manners of his beautiful hostess. Nikolai and Elena seemed to be an ideal couple to the Indians, a perfect union of Prakriti and Purusha, a man manifested through a woman, his energy source.52 Roerich and Tagore were kindred spirits. The Indian poet was also a great visionary and dreamer, yet having a constructive mind, like Roerich. Since 1915, he was engaged in active political work, taking part in the Indian liberation movement. In this he closely collaborated with Dr. Annie Besant: in 1916 Tagore founded the Self-Government League, which had the same objectives as Annie Besant’s Home Rule League in Madras. Though not a member of the Theosophical Society, he was on friendly terms with many Indian theosophists who strongly advocated Home Rule for India and he particularly admired Annie Besant for her outstanding qualities. There were many vital topics to discuss for the two great artists, including art, education, the Indian svaraj (self-rule) and the deepening crisis of civilization, and Tagore must have told his Russian colleague about his latest educational project, the Visva-Bharat University. These two meetings with Tagore certainly gave Roerich a fresh impulse in his quest for the mysterious India. In late June Nikolai and his sons obtained British 51 52

Tagore 1958, 131. Dubaev 2003, 189–190. In the Indian philosophical tradition, Prakriti is Nature and Purusha is Spirit; together they are “the two primeval aspects of the One Unknown Deity”, according to H. Blavatsy (Secret Doctrine, I, 51). Nikolai Roerich recalled his meeting with Tagore in an essay “Tolstoi i Tagor” («Толстой и Тагор») in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 111–112.

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visas enabling them to travel to the land of their dreams. The formal invitation was issued by B.P. Wadia and the persons who vouched for them were two distinguished British scholars, Sir Denison Ross and Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith.53 They also booked tickets on a steamship bound for Bombay in late September. Shibaev was to join them, as Nikolai Roerich’s secretary. However the Roerichs did not go to India. Nikolai’s British sponsor Thomas Beecham had gone bankrupt54 which immediately deprived the family of the funds for the journey they counted on and the artist’s attempts to earn money by selling his paintings were also of little success. At this critical point a tempting offer came to Roerich from Robert Harshe, Director of the Art Institute in Chicago, then on holiday in London, – to make a museum tour by exhibiting his paintings throughout the United States, and the artist gladly accepted it. This was an excellent opportunity for him to improve his financial position and publicize his artwork. Thus instead of India the four Roerich sailed to America, while Shibaev remained in London. 53 54

Cecil Harcourt Smith (1859–1944), an archeologist and British Museum Director. Beecham’s Opera Company had actually gone into receivership to avoid bankruptcy, see Drayer 2005, 20.

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chapter 6

In New York: Haunted by Spirits You must teach others to search for My World – the World of the Knowing Spirit. Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya‘s Garden, I, 15.

…

Nothing draws people together into such intimate soul-to-soul relationship as psychic quest. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist

⸪ Nikolai Roerich was 46 and Elena 41 when they came to America. It was 3 October 1920, Sunday, when the SS Zealand which took them across the Atlantic dropped anchor in the New York harbor. When they disembarked, they hardly realized that they were stepping into the New World that would soon change their lives completely and irrevocably by transforming them both into entirely new personalities, mystics and gurus, who would herald the New Era and offer ailing humanity their spiritual remedy, Agni Yoga. Upon their arrival, the Roerichs put up at the first-class Hotel des Artists. The hotel was in fact an apartment house where apartments were designed so as to be suitable for well-to-do artists. Each of them had a spacious, double-height studio room, with large windows, to provide the optimal conditions for artists. The Roerichs had rented an apartment in this hotel, but three months later they moved to a cheaper place, the Beaux Art Hotel, and thence, in the fall of 1921, into a poorly furnished apartment at the West End Arena and 103rd Street.1 They were badly in need of money at that time, despite the bright prospects the artist’s arrangement with Robert Harshe had promised them. Their first impressions of the “City of the Yellow Devil” as the proletarian writer Maxim Gorkii dubbed New York were neatly expressed in Yuri Roerich’s letter to Vladimir Shibaev: 1 See Louis Horch, History of Institutions and Roerichs, handwritten manuscript, Amherst Centre for Russian Culture (Massachusetts), Box 1–36, folder 10.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_007

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On October 3, in the morning, we began to draw nearer to New York. From afar New York looks like a medieval city. By its character it resembles Russian and Swedish cities. There’s a lot of life [in it]. The famous sky-scrapers decorate it with their monumental forms. At nighttime the lights of signboards and advertisements flare up all over the city. It’s worth taking a walk down Broadway, this realm of light, in the evening. The bustling crowds, the glowing lights against the dark sky make a nightmarish impression. One feels that the city is still young and has not yet taken on a form of its own like Paris and London.2 Yuri (George) however soon left New York for Cambridge, Massachusetts, having joined the department of Indian philology at Harvard. As for Sviatoslav, who was now a full 16, he enrolled in Columbia University to study architecture but after an academic year there he left this school for the more prestigious Harvard and he also attended classes of sculpture at the University of Massachusetts. The family would stay in America for a period of less than three years, until May 1923 when they sailed to Europe and from there finally off to India. In general, the Roerichs had been faring quite well during this time, as compared to other Russian artists who had immigrated to America after the Bolshevik revolution. The famous composers S. Rachmaninov and S. Prokofiev had already settled in the United States and they were followed in later years by a host of other artists (painters, sculptors, men of letters etc.), such as S.A. Sorin, S.Y.  Sudeikin, G.V. Deriuzhinskii and B.I. Burliuk, to name a few. After the turmoil and chaos of revolutionary Russia they found America a relatively quiet haven of refuge, though many of them now faced another problem, that of adapting themselves and their artwork to American cultural standards and the art market. Luckily for Nikolai Roerich, his artistic work as a painter and theatre designer was widely advertised in the American press, thanks to Harsche, so he found a ready audience for his visionary art when he came to New York. In early December Roerich’s first exhibition opened at the Kingore Gallery on Fifth Avenue, and he could have hardly wished for more. The exhibit was a big success. Among the 175 paintings displayed were some of Roerich’s old masterpieces and his new works, executed in Karelia and Finland, such as his ‘Treasure of the Angels’, ‘Pagan Russia’, ‘Ecstasy’, ‘A Viking’s Daughter’, ‘The Call of the Sun’, sketches from his Heroica and Dreams of the East series as well as his scenery designs. A catalogue of the exhibition with an introduction written by an art critic Dr. Christian Brinton was printed to introduce Roerich and his art to 2 See Rerikh, Iu. 1992, 15, 16, Yuri Roerich’s letter to Vladimir Shibaev, 17 October 1920.

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the American public.3 (Roerich however could not afford to pay Brinton and the printer for their jobs which put him in a rather awkward situation). The New York exhibition was followed, in 1921–1922, by a grand museum tour of 28 major American cities, including Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Madison, St Louis, San-Francisco, Colorado, Denver, etc. The artist’s activity was amazing. He was not only demonstrating his unusual artwork to rank and file Americans but also giving lectures to acquaint the masses with Russian art and enlighten them with his elevated art theory. At the same time Roerich produced new canvases – in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and on the craggy and solitary Monhegan Island (Maine), which so strikingly reminded him of Finland and Russia. The spiritual ‘Realm of Roerich’ was gradually expanding by ‘conquering’ the vast territories of the New World. The reception of Roerich’s art in America, however, was not quite what it had been in Europe, as was noted by Ruth Drayer. Some of the critics found certain “crudities” in his technique and thought that his style needed refinement, yet even then they admitted that Roerich’s paintings had an “indescribable Russian flavor”: “It is as though one traveled through Russia and suddenly came upon some romantic place marked by curious architecture, and peopled by picturesque figures flooded with reverberating color. The strangeness of fairyland descends upon the beholder and he feels it has come true”.4 In his interview with Buffalo Express (March 1921) Roerich expressed his admiration for America: “I am three years out of Russia, and of all countries where I have been, I am happiest here. To Russians, America is a sort of home country, a hope of what Russia herself may become. The freedom and big spaces of both countries must account for the similarities in the people”. The Chicago Tribune for its part emphasized Roerich’s special contribution – the “gospel of spirituality” that he brought to America and cited some of his often repeated slogans “Culture must conquer materialism” and “Culture is of the spirit”.5 The artist’s exhibitions and public lectures, quite naturally, put him in touch with all sorts of people some of whom would become his most ardent admirers, his friends and, of course, his sponsors. The first friends he and his wife made were New Yorkers Francis Grant and the Lichtmann couple, Sina and Maurice. Miss Frances Ruth Grant (1896–1993), a journalist who had recently graduated from Columbia University and was working as a music critic in Musical America came to interview Roerich right in the New York harbor. She was a schoolmate of Nettie Horch, wife of Louis Horch, who would later like­3 The first printing of the catalogue was 5000 copies and then 2000 more were printed. 4 Quoted from Drayer 2005, 32. 5 Ibid., 33, 34.

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wise befriend the Roerichs and become part of their intimate circle. In Horch’s description Francis was red-haired and very homely, with a strongly protruded chin. She was born in Abiquiu, a pueblo in New Mexico and Spanish was her first language. Her father was Henry Grant, a German-Jewish immigrant who owned the general store in Abiquiu. Her mother was a remarkable woman who vaccinated the entire population of Abiquiu for smallpox with a serum she had sent from John Hopkins Hospital, according to F. Perrone.6 Frances entered into closer relations with the Roerichs due to her friend Adolf Bolm, a Russian ballet dancer who had worked for Diagilev’s Russian Seasons before and knew Nikolai Roerich quite well. Bolm brought Francis to the Hotel des Artistes where she had a most thrilling conversation with Nikolai and Elena. They talked to her about Blavatsky, theosophy, reincarnation and similar subjects and they also arranged a séance at which Frances received a personal message from Elena’s spirit-guide. All this produced a strong impression on Frances who later recalled: “It was all truly miraculous… They spoke to me as if I were their daughter and told me everything. From that time on, it all became a part of my life. It was just like a drama unfolding – and I became part of it”.7 The Lichtmann couple met the Roerichs at the opening of the artist’s first exhibition at Kingore Gallery. Zina was spellbound by Roerich’s three large canvases of “superhuman beauty and serenity” (Treasure of the Angels, Pagan Russia and Ecstasy) and he himself and his wife to whom she was then introduced struck her by their appearances. They looked very special. There he stood, a man of medium height, with luminous blue eyes, a pointed beard and a noble head, radiating some invisible benevolent force; he had such a penetrating glance that it seemed that he could look into the depth of one’s soul and see its very essence. By his side stood his wife, E.I. Roerich, so strikingly beautiful that I caught my breath.8 Zinaida (Zina, Sina) Grigorievna Lichtmann (Shafran by birth and Fosdik in her second marriage, 1889–1983) was born into a Jewish family at KamenetzPodolsk, in the south of Ukraine, a medieval town dating back to the early 12th century when it was part of the Kievan Rus’. She had a gift for music from an early age. After she had finished the secondary school (gymnasia) her mother Sofia Mikhailovna Shafran (1871–1954) took her, then only 12, to Leipzig and 6 See Perrone 2000, http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/manuscripts/grantf.html 7 Quoted from Drayer 2005, 25. 8 Fosdik 2002, 34, 35.

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further to Berlin where she would take piano classes from the well-known pianist Leopold Gordovsky. She later traveled with her teacher to Vienna where she joined the Gordovsky-run Meisterschule at the Royal Musical Academy. Having finished it, she would perform in concerts in Europe for a while. After her father’s death in 1912 Sina, together with her mother, immigrated to America. By that time she was already married to Maurice Moiseevich Lichtmann (1887/88– 1948), a Jewish immigrant who had attended the same musical school as she. Professor Gordovsky followed his pupils shortly afterwards and he established a piano institute in New York, where both Sina and Maurice would give music classes. Later on they started their own school, the Lichtmann Piano Institute.9 Sina and Maurice visited the Roerichs at the Hotel des Artistes on the same night and this visit changed their lives completely. Roerich (“this great man”) and his wife received Sina and her husband most cordially – “as if they had known me for years”. They immediately let their new friends in on their plans for the future, their “mission” in the United States and they also showed keen interest in the couple’s teaching of music. Some important decisions were made in the course of their late night talk over tea – the Roerichs and the Lichtmanns resolved to unite their efforts and work together by setting up a “school of united arts” for children and adults, on the lines of Roerich’s Petrograd school, with a view of disseminating “art and knowledge among the American youth”.10. The idea seemed brilliant as it opened up new perspectives for both the Roerichs and the Lichtmanns. The school was to offer classes in music, painting, sculpture, ballet, drama, and to host lectures, concerts and exhibitions. Very soon a location for the newly-conceived institution was found by Nikolai and Maurice – a large studio above the Greek Orthodox Church on 310 West 54th Street. This was the beginning of what would emerge a year later – on 17 November 1921 – as the Master Institute of United Arts. It took the Roerichs and the Lichtmanns some time and effort to turn the studio they rented into a working classroom. At the beginning it was just one large room later to be divided into several rooms with the help of partitions, with two Steinway concert grand pianos by the windows, some furniture and a “magnificent collection of rare Italian and Dutch masterpieces loaned by a nearby gallery” decorating the walls.11 Yet even before the Master Institute became a reality, Roerich had succeeded in creating, in the spring of 1921, one more artistic institution – an association or brotherhood of artists in Chicago, named Cor Ardens (Flaming Heart). This 9 10 11

Ibid., 7 (Daniel Entin, Introduction). Ibid., 36. Drayer 2005, 57.

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was followed by an international art center Corona Mundi (Crown of the World), set up in 1922 in New York, and finally, in 1923, there emerged the Roerich Museum, again in New York, the first one-artist museum in the United States which made Roerich particularly proud. To this cluster of American institutions Roerich would add in later years a few more – in Europe and Asia. This was verily the artist’s spiritual realm arising beyond and above frontiers. The faculty of the Master school was Russo-American and included originally Sina and Maurice Lichtmann, who taught piano; Deems Taylor, who taught musical theory and composition; Robert Edmund Jones and Lee Simonson, who taught theatre design; and Mikhail Mordken and Mikhail Fokin, who taught ballet. Guest lecturers included such artists as George Bellows and Rockwell Kent. The post of Executive Director of the new art school was taken up by Frances Grant who had to resign from Musical America for that reason. Three more co-workers joined the Roerich – Lichtmann group in 1921–1922, Esther Lichtmann, Maurice’s sister, and Louis and Nettie Horch. Esther (Esfir’, Jenta) Lichtmann (1892–1990) was also born at Kamenetz-Podolsks. She had two brothers – one of them was named Maurice or rather Maurice was the name he later adopted in Germany; the name of the other is unknown. She was musically gifted like her brother and also played piano. In 1913, her father took her to Düsseldorf, where her second brother had earlier moved to with his wife. She settled down with her relatives, changed her Jewish name Esfir’ to Jenta and began to prepare to enter the conservatory at Köln. Jenta’s life in her brother’s family was rather miserable because of her uneasy relations with his wife. Many years later, remembering her past, she would say that her sister-in-law was “a poor soul, tortured by hatred” who made life so hard for her, yet she taught her a good lesson that “family ties are no ties and that above all ties there are spiritual ones which we find in friends”.12 For some reason Jenta failed to enter the conservatory. She saw her parents last in 1914, i.e. before the outbreak of the world war. Two years later she moved to Geneva in Switzerland, where she earned her living by giving piano classes. And then, in early 1921, with Maurice’s help, she moved to America. In her Declaration of alien about to depart for the United States we find a photo attached – a charming blonde in a fashionable wide-brimmed hat, Jenta Lichtmann, on the threshold of her new life in the land of the American dream. The last to arrive on the scene was the Horch couple. Louis L. Horch (Levi by birth, 1889–1979) was a thriving New York foreign exchange broker. Of his earlier life we know almost nothing save for the fact that he was of Jewish-German descent and made a brilliant career on Wall Street. His wife Nettie was an art 12

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 6, entry for 5 October 1930, 161–162.

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figure 11 The Roerich Circle in New York: sitting, left to right: Esther Lichtmann, Sina Lichtmann, Nikolai Roerich, Nettie Horch, Frances Grant; standing: Louis Horch, Sophia Shafran, Sviatoslav Roerich, Maurice Lichtmann, Tatiana and Georgii Greben­shchikov, 6 December 1924, NRM archive

lover and she was also keen on Buddhism and theosophy. According to R.C. Williams, when the Horchs met Roerich, “he was simply another down-and-out Russian émigré artist forced to pawn his paintings to the Fifth Avenue Bank; he was deeply in debt to the bank, his landlord, lawyers, and the printer who did his catalogue for the Kingore Gallery exhibit. Sales from his art barely met his living expenses. In addition, the bank was threatening to auction off his paintings”.13 The Roerichs easily made friends with the Horchs. They knew how to attract people and win their confidence – “magnetize” them, in the Agni Yoga parlance. As Elena once put it, the New Era does not need heroes, but wonder-workers who “overwhelm public with their occult knowledge and faculties”. They both were certainly charismatic persons: he, with his enigmatic gaze and ingratiating manners, and she, with her refined beauty and melodious voice. Recalling his first meetings with Elena, Louis Horch noted: “She was a beautiful woman, very well dressed and very well versed in Oriental philosophy. Perhaps, she was one of the smartest women ever to visit these shores, [a woman] of the international type – she spoke French and English with a charming accent”.14 Nettie Horch met the Roerichs and joined their Circle in mid-1921 as did her husband somewhat later. Frances Grant once took her friend Nettie to meet Madame Roerich at her apartment at 103rd Street and their conversation fol13 14

Williams 1980, 118. L. Horch, History of Institutions and Roerich (see fn. 1).

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lowed exactly the same pattern as was earlier the case with Frances and the Lichtmanns. Elena talked to Nettie of the ‘great mission’ the Roerichs were assigned by the ‘Great White Brotherhood’, made some prophetic predictions, and invited her to take part in developing the Master school. At a later date Nettie brought her husband to the Roerichs, and Louis too ‘fell victim’ to their magnetic charisma. He immediately felt a strong sympathy for the émigré artist – bought two of his paintings for $ 2700 and, more importantly, agreed to join the Roerichs’ “enterprise on a basis of art”. Subsequently Horch would help Roerich get out of his financial straits, by paying all of his debts. He would also invest hugely in his various artistic and educational projects, sponsor the family’s journey to India in 1923 and provide money for the education of Yuri and Sviatoslav. This incredibly lavish sponsorship by a Wall Street broker seems difficult to explain. But so does the irresistible gravitation towards the Roerich couple of other members of the Circle. What actually rallied them round the Roerichs was not so much the artist’s rhetorical flourishes, his eulogy on Art and Beauty as humanity’s only rescue in the age of decline of culture or Elena’s fanciful ­predictions, but spiritualism and Elena’s new teaching. Yet spiritualism came first.

…

New York, since the days of Blavatsky (1870s), was a place haunted by spirits. Just a year before the Roerichs arrived there, the New Yorkers hailed a new writing prodigy named Patience Worth. The woman produced remarkable literature – poems, short stories, plays etc., seemingly ‘on the spot’, by ‘automatic writing’, in the way Nikolai Roerich made drawings at the séances in London. It turned out however that the writer was not real – Patience Worth was a St. Louis housewife of limited education, Pearl Lenore Curran, who, since 1913, was channeling a 17th-century spirit by means of a Ouija board.15 Almost overnight Pearl Curran became a celebrity who traveled the country giving performances ‘starring Patience’. “Night after night Pearl, a tall, blue-eyed woman in a fashionable dress, would sit with her Ouija board while her husband, John, recorded Patience’s utterances in short hand. Those who witnessed the performances, some of them leading scholars, feminists, politicians and writers, believed they’d seen a miracle”, wrote Gioia Daliberto in her essay discussing Pearl Curran’s phenomenon. In the opinion of Stephen Braude, a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland and expert on paranormal phenomena, “What is extraordinary 15

The word Ouija is a combination of French “oui” and German “ja”, meaning “yes”. The Ouija board or “witch board” as it is often called was specially designed for communication with spirits. It had an alphabet and digits from one to zero written on it as well as a hand operated pointer.

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about this case is the fluidity, versatility, virtuosity and literary quality of Patience’s writings, which are unprecedented in the history of automatic writing by mediums”.16 There was a similar prodigy in Russia in the late XIX – early XX century – a popular novelist Vera Kryzhanovsky-Rochester (b. 1861), often spoken of as ‘the first lady writer of science fiction’.17 The woman likewise owed her gift to her invisible astral ‘guide’, named I.V. Rochester, a spirit, who, according to B. Vlodarzh, “has fully materialized owing to Vera Ivanovna’s mediumistic faculties… and encouraged her to write books under his guidance”.18 In this way she produced, like Pearl Curran, some good quality literature in the fantasy genre. These works of hers were well-known to Elena Roerich who must have found in them some of her favorite topics, such as a ‘brotherhood of the immortals’ and an ideally organized society of the Martians. Kryzhanovsky wrote her books by ‘automatic writing’ in a state of trance or stupor which lasted for 20–30 min. after which she usually fainted. These facts suggest that her case was apparently a psychic phenomenon pertaining to the field of parapsychology. After this introduction we will now turn to Elena Roerich’s own channeling, also taking place in New York. The séances held by the Roerichs in the Hotel des Artistes and their other residences in the city were attended at first, before their Circle took its final shape, by various people, mainly Russian émigrés, as was the case in London. These included the Muromtsev couple – Ksenia (Sana) Muromtseva was Elena’s cousin, married to Colonel Semion Muromtsev; a sculptor Gleb Deriuzhinskii who would later mould the busts of Roerich and Tagore, one Alexandre Zak, a zoologist Andrey Avinov and other people. In Elena’s letter to Yuri in Cambridge written in early November 1920 we read: “Yesterday Zak along with his sister, Deriuzh[inskii] and Sakhnovskii visited us. We had a séance, accompanied by strong rappings and resistance of the table. We’ll have another one on Saturday together with Avinov. No interesting messages were received”.19 All channeled messages, which in most cases were no more than short staccato sentences, were written down by Elena and separately by Sana Muromtsev, thus forming what they called “protocols”. Sana’s husband, S.E. Muromtsev, did not believe in the spirits at first however their manifestation at the séances gradually convinced him and “other skeptics” of their reality, as Elena reported to her son. Judging by her correspondence, she and Nikolai communicated with 16 17 18 19

Gioia Daliberto, “Ghost Writer”, Smithsonian, September 2010, 41 (5), 84. See Kharitonov 1996. Vlodarzh 1961, 32. Rerikh, E. 1999, 15, letter to Yuri, 3 November 1920.

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spirits quite often, on various occasions, when they needed a piece of advice on worldly matters from their otherworldly “guides”. The spirits generally tried to cheer up the Roerichs, calling them “to keep strong and wait for better times to come soon”. At the end of January 1921 the Lichtmann couple joined the sessions at the Roerichs’ place and then other members of what would later become the Roerich Circle came along. The group consisted of nine people altogether – the Roerich, Lichtmanns and Horch couples plus Frances, Esther and the elderly Madame Shafran, Sina’s mother. “We decided to gather round us the interesting people alone”, – Elena wrote to Yuri. – “Unfortunately, our circle is not yet developing and occasionally reveals some sheer flippancy. The Lichtmanns behave themselves better than others. Tomorrow I’ll let you know of the results of today’s séance. I am afraid it won’t be of much interest, since we haven’t gone to bed earlier than 3 a.m. for 5 days in a row”.20 The séances in New York, as earlier in London, were “guided” by different spirits, but the main “spirit-guide” channeled by Elena was Allal-Ming. This strange semi Arabic semi-Chinese name is reminiscent phonetically of GulabLal-Singh, described by Blavatsky in The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan. The spirit first manifested itself in London and its portrait was then automatically sketched by Nikolai – a lean but rather delicate face of a young Oriental, with a pointed beard, long hair and a turban on his head, certainly not an old man as one might expect from a spiritual teacher; the man had thin and highly raised brows and his eyes seemed closed or downcast. Outwardly, this portrait had no resemblance whatever to either Blavatsky’s description of Gulab-Singh or Hermann Schmiechen‘s famous portraits of mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi. Thrilled by the manifestation of spirits, Elena tried to solve their enigma with the help of theosophical literature and some latest scientific publications, such as Phenomena of Materialization by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, the German pioneer of psychical research.21 She found the latter work at a bookshop for an exorbitant price of 15 dollars, so the members of the Circle had to club together to buy it. To give readers some idea of the séances in New York, I will now briefly chronicle Allal-Mings’s most important “messages” addressed to the Roerichs and their Circle in the early half of 1921:

20 21

Ibid., 21, letter dated 26 January 1921. Schrenck-Notzing 1920.

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20 February. “You will establish the Society of Spirit-understanding in Russia”.22 3 March. Allal-Ming identified himself as “the Guide of the spirits of the third plane”.23 Three days later four-and-a-half year-old niece of Gleb Deriuzhinskii who was present at the séance described Allal-Ming as a “young man” with a “long face, long black hair, and a two-prong beard” who lived in “a house” in Dokyood, together with two other spirits, ShogDir and Ramzes.24 (Dokyood, according to Elena’s teaching, is the Abode of the Great Teachers in the Subtle World, the same as heavenly Shambhala. In her last Agni Yoga book Supermundane she would quote the Master as saying that Dokyood is a place “where Our co-workers relax before undertaking their new job”.) 18 and 19 March. The names of Nikolai’s and Elena’s “spirit-guides” were given. Their main “guide” was Allal-Ming Shri Ishvara25 (the latter two 22 23 24 25

Rerikh, E. 2009, 13. Ibid., 16. Ibid., 17. Ibid., 19.

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words mean “Lord” or “Master” in Sanskrit.) Surprisingly, the same spirit guided concurrently the séances in Cambridge held by Yuri Roerich and his mates of which we will speak below. On 9 May Allal-Ming confessed that he was Elena’s husband in one of her former lives, when she was the “queen of Mexico”. He then enumerated Nikolai’s and Elena’s major reincarnations. Nikolai was incarnated several times as a Chinese native – an Emperor of China Fuyama-Tsung-Tao (3rd c. bc), a Chinese priest (1st c.), a Dalai-Lama of Tibet (17th c. ad which means he was an incarnation of the 5th Great Dalai Lama Ngawang Lozang Gyatso, 1617–1682, as would be further confirmed by the spirit); then he was the ‘Tsar of uluses’ (14 c. bc), one Yasuf – “a very honest man, a reader of prayers in the temple of Shiruman, the Pacifier of Elements”, 26 and so on. Elena’s incarnations included the queen of Mexico named Yabuchtuu, a Pharaoh’s daughter Yaluru, the queen of powerful Judea – wife of Solomon, Josephine Saint-Hilaire, a nun in the 14th century, Elena Golenistchev-Kutuzov, the tsarina of Kazan in the 16th century, the sister of Morya, who was “the leader of the first nations which migrated from Asia”, the daughter of the Buddha, a Greek girl at the time of Origen, a “tsarina” from the Chinggis Khan’s clan, HashtepsutMokara-Hnum Ra, the Egyptian queen, the queen of India, wife of Emperor Akbar who died in 1623, the land-owning lady from Riazan’ Natalia Rokotova. Elena also incarnated several times as a priestess – in Carthage, in Sicily, in Assyria and elsewhere.27 Oddly, Allal-Ming, having told Elena that she was his sister, very often addressed her as “my wife”. Even more oddly, the same spirit occasionally called himself the “Lord” (Gospod’ in Russian), being one of the appellations of God in Christianity. Allal-Ming also named some past incarnations of other participants in the séances, on various dates. For example, Yuri Roerich’s most fateful incarnation was that of Tamerlane (Timur), the celebrated Mongol-Turkic warlord of the 14th century, which explained to the Roerichs their son’s strange attraction, since childhood, to military subjects. His “last”’ incarnation was the Russian scholarly genius of the 18th century Mikhail Lomonosov, which apparently accounted for Yuri’s thirst for knowledge.28

26 27 28

Ibid., 30. Ibid., 30–31. Ibid., 54, entry for 6 July 1921.

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Elena was eager to know who her “spirit-guide” Allal-Ming was, yet she received a rather evasive reply from him: “Try to find me with your heart” (20 May).29 When she remarked that she had a feeling that Allal-Ming was Morya, the otherworldly entity replied: “Your heart will prompt you” (28 May).30 AllalMing then called upon Elena to start writing her own books, as other people’s books “give little” and promised his help. He also promised many other things, such as giving the Roerichs “a sum of money from Logan” for their journey to “the blissful land”31 and to send her some “best talismans which were lost” (30 May)32 – a very important message pointing vaguely to the magic “Black Stone” and the “Chalice of the Buddha” Morya would send to the Roerichs ­subsequently. After that Allal-Ming told Elena that he wanted “to teach her” (1 June). The spirit’s teaching at this stage, however, was no more than simple yet persistent invocations of universal love as was proclaimed by Christ and Ramakrishna in their gospels. For example: “I teach love. The disciples must know happiness in Christ’s love” (4 June, evening). And slightly earlier (on 27 May): “Pray to Christ … and read Ramakrishna”! Allal-Ming would reiterate in his messages time and again: Love Me, Love one another, Love humanity, Love and Wisdom are equal, etc. Speaking in Russian to his audience, the spirit apparently confused the words uchitel (teacher) and muchitel (tormentor), so it is rather amusing to hear him calling upon Elena to love her “tormentor”.33 Allal-Ming was particularly lavish with promises and he did not hesitate to promise his chosen “disciples”, Nikolai and Elena Roerich, the things most coveted and valued in the world – wealth, fame and power. Money was to come to them through Logvan (Louis Horch) and other wealthy American sponsors the artist had met on his museum tour or was planning to come in touch with. To make Nikolai Roerich world-famous Allal-Ming promised to arrange a Nobel Prize for him and suggested that he contact to that end the influential Ludwig Nobel’s uncle through his theosophist friends in Stockholm. “You are entitled to have [the Prize]. Inform My Society in Stockholm of your international peace-making activity. … Two honorary chairmen of Cor Ardens have received the prize. (A likely reference to M. Maeterlinck and R. Tagore – A.A.) Miracles happen in life through love and aspirations. I think you should act most vigor29 30 31 32 33

Ibid., 33. Ibid. Logan should probably be read as Logvan, an esoteric name to be given by Elena to Louis Horch, the Roerichs’ chief financial patron in America, Ibid., 36. Ibid., 37. Ibid., 39, 43, entries for 5 and 14 June 1921.

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ously. You yourself should go [to Nobel’s uncle]”.34 And finally Roerich was to attain to great power as a spiritual guru who would spread among nations the lofty teachings of a “new religion of Spirit-understanding” or “Pure Spirit” to be transmitted to Elena by Allal-Ming. And on top of that, he was to wield the scepter of New Russia! The essence of this new religion remained unrevealed for the time being. Instead Allal-Ming recommended to Elena some books for reading, primarily those of Blavatsky, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and especially Leadbeater’s Inner Life and Florence Huntley’s Harmonies of Evolution. He also insisted on her doing regularly the pranayama breathing exercises. More importantly, he assigned her a task – to assemble his messages into a “Book of Séances”, which was to be published in Russian prior to her journey to India.35 To recreate the exalted atmosphere of the Roerichs’ séances I will quote now several excerpts from Elena’s letters to Yuri: 27 January 1921. “Yesterday we had an interesting séance. Again we were given some eloquent counsels. . Sana was taking notes; at the beginning we reread protocols of the previous séance. It turns out that we forget many things, yet many predictions have already come true”. 1 February 1921. “…The third séance, message of Allal-Ming: My friends! Happiness means service for the salvation of human souls. Leave all your prejudices behind and, keeping strong, assist people spiritually”. (Elena sent to Yuri all the five messages from their new “guide”, Allal-Ming.) 10 February 1921. “I am reading theosophical books, but the Eastern ones are much more interesting!!” 16 March 1921. “After your departure we changed places moving over to the big table. Some phenomena of weight increase [of the table] and the table’s strong movements were manifested. We were even afraid that the table would go flying. Then it was repeated several times that we must forget the past, become more profound and try to raise our consciousness. Markov came over to tell us that ‘Russia will conquer the world’; he advised Muromtsev to adopt the American citizenship. In April the recognition of Bolsheviks [by the West] will take place”.

34 35

Ibid., 55, entry for 11 July. Ibid., 52, entry for 3 July.

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The latter message evidently referred to the protracted negotiations between Britain and Soviet Russia toward concluding a bilateral economic and political agreement which were completed in mid-March 1921. On March 23 the British premier Lloyd George speaking at the House of Commons declared that the Anglo-Soviet accord meant the formal recognition of the Soviet regime. It is also worth reminding the reader that in the spring of the same year the Bolsheviks adopted the New Economic Policy (NEP) in place of their earlier “war communism” which provided for the revival of free markets and private enterprise as well as attraction of foreign capital into the country. This allowed some Western politicians to talk about the “restoration of capitalism” in Russia. As a result the Roerichs softened their stance towards the “barbarian” Bolsheviks and their change of mind immediately reverberated in the messages of their “spiritual” peers. On 20 March Elena put down in her diary: “The Teachers again hint at approaching colossal developments – ‘A window is cut into Russia’, ‘The Motherland will soon be given a Code of laws’. We had a communication about the seizure of Omsk by anti-Bolsheviks”. [Omsk was the headquarters of one of the leaders of the White movement, “the Superior Ruler of the Russian State” Admiral A.V. Kolchak – A.A.] At the same time she made a revealing confession: “We have reread the records of our séances. I see that we are fully blind, we give our own interpretation to the utterances of the guides”. Nonetheless Elena accepted one of the “spirit-guides”, Allal-Ming, as her teacher: “… it is only now that many things have become clear. All my doubts concerning Allal-Ming have evaporated!”. Elena’s channeling in New York was accompanied not infrequently by some odd and rather disagreeable “fiery” sensations, as happened to her earlier in London: “I am beginning to see again the fiery tongues inside. This time they are of a different color and are seen not between the eyes, but in the throat” (4 April).36 In the middle of April Nikolai left for Chicago to take part in the inauguration of his exhibition there. While in Chicago he got in touch with some remarkable, if eccentric, individuals, of whom he reported to Elena. One of them was an elderly surgeon “of the Hoffman kind”, being a “White Brother”, probably a Mason. He made some predictions to Nikolai which did not impress him much though and gave him an address of one “lady” in New York who could be of some help to his mission. Roerich also became acquainted with Dr. Hermann Hille, a chemist and a Mason of the 33rd degree, who showed him around his chemical laboratory and demonstrated the results if his latest experiments: “1/1000th of 36

Ibid., 22–28.

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a drop of the decomposed gold and silver” and the growth of crystals – “how a stone can turn into a plant” (!) – to prove that “matter is condensed spirit”. From Nikolai’s letter to Elena we further learn that he was an “often sitter” at the séances in Chicago. “Our Allal-Ming helped me in many ways. Of course, he did not pour dollars, but on the other hand I have a lot of friends and disciples now”. In Chicago Roerich also met a female fortune-teller and clairvoyant, Debey, of Dutch extraction, who cast horoscopes for him, his wife and sons and made some most stunning predictions: Your guide is standing near you, he is an Oriental, dressed in a violet garment, he has long black hair and beard, his eyes are large and deep-set; he is very strict and has very big arms… He is not only your guide but your teacher, he lives in you, he is one with you. Behind him there is another one, in white clothing, and much older, and [there is] one more in dark red… Don’t ask many [people] for money, address him directly and he will help you. You will become a great teacher, at the age of 50 you will attain prominence, your fame will be great and you will live a long life. Your fame will be so great that you will be able to get money from everywhere. I see your funerals but these are not funerals in fact, but a coronation!! The 21st year is very important for you! Your wife is your friend who understands you well. You and she often feel you are falling ill, but it’s not an illness; you both are changing, and by the age of 50 you’ll have the third eye opened. You will not return to Russia soon since you have a mission here. You are not a refugee, but you have been ‘transplanted’ [the word was written in English by Elena – A.A.], and you must realize this. You have been transplanted to America too, that was your teachers’ work. I saw you all traveling, apparently in the East.37 Nikolai Roerich would further stay in touch with such remarkable individuals as Dr. Hille and Debey. Curiously, Elena too, when in London, had consulted a fortune-teller (a “female clairvoyant”) who prophesized that in 1928 her happiness would culminate and that her husband by that time would hold “a great post”; also that in 1922, when she would be 43, they would start some very important work.38 Roerich’s meeting Dr Hille and a “White Brother” in Chicago poses a question of the artist’s Masonic connections in America, his secret or disguised sponsors 37 38

Ibid., 32. Fosdik 2002, 81, entry 31 July 1922, 107–108, entry for 26 September 1922.

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and benefactors, and even a more intriguing one – of his own possible affiliation with a Masonic society or lodge. And indeed, in the summer of 1921, Morya gave a counsel to Roerich through Elena – he should join the Masons through Dr Hille and take the 18th degree,39 but whether he followed the advice, remains unknown. There are two more instances when Nikolai was directly approached by Masons, of which he recounted himself. First in 1922 at the Metropolitan Museum, where he went to meet a lady – probably the one recommended by the “White Brother” in Chicago – to discuss the prospects of creating a new artistic institution (Corona Mundi). Waiting for her, he suddenly noticed a tall man who was circling around him. The stranger then came up to the artist and looking at the tapestry on the wall uttered: “They knew the lifestyle and we have lost it”. Roerich said something in the same vein in reply and the person then invited him to sit down at the bench. There while placing a finger on his forehead he pronounced: “You’ve come here to talk over a certain matter, but don’t do it. Nothing can be done towards that end for three months more and after that everything will come to you by itself”. The stranger then gave him several pieces of advice, rose up abruptly and saying “Good luck!” walked out.40 The story was recounted somewhat differently by Sina Lichtman in her diary. According to her, the person allegedly said to the artist: “Your intellect is much superior to that of other people present here. You need money, but one day you’ll become a rich man”.41 In his letter to Shibaev Roerich narrated the same story as follows: A tall man with greying hair passed him “a very important message” and later on he received the needed funds which were delivered by some unknown “messengers”. The incident prompted him to conclude that “everything that is bound to happen takes place, if it is directed towards the Great Service”.42 The second encounter took place in early 1923 at the railway station in Detroit. Nikolai was about to board the train when someone who looked like a “simple laborer” or “mechanic” approached him and said: “You are Prince Rurik from the House of the Ruriks, aren’t you?”. “How do you know that? – asked bewildered Roerich, to which the stranger replied that he was a Mason and that he “understood much” from the catalogue of Roerich’s exhibition. They then had a short talk. The stranger wanted to know the artist’s opinion about the 39

40 41 42

See Annenko 2012, 22–23, letter to Shibaev, 25 July 1921; E. Roerich’s diary: Rerikh, E. 2009, 54, entry for 6 July 1921; see also: http://lebendige-ethik.net/fremd./tetrad2 01.06.1921– 05.09.1921.html. N.K. Rerikh, “Vekhi” («Вехи», 1935) in Rerikh, N. 1992a, 32. Fosdik 2002, 63–64, entry for 16 July 1922. Annenko 2012, 37, N. Roerich’s letter to Shibaev, 11 October 1922.

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future of various nationalities in Russia but Roerich did not give him any direct answer. He said only that as a Mason the inquirer should know about the construction of the Temple by Solomon and if he believed in reincarnation he should also remember that Solomon was reborn in Russia in the 14th century as St. Sergius of Radonezh, the great ascetic, founder of several monasteries and reformer of monastic communal life.43 But this implied that a new spiritual leader was to appear in Russia soon to continue St. Sergius’s work, Roerich! These few instances suggest that American Masons or Masonic lodges knew about Roerich and his activities and possibly gave him some financial support. But did Roerich know his secret benefactors? Probably yes, or he might have suspected who they were, although he never disclosed their identities. To his casual meetings with “mysterious strangers”, like the person he met at the Metropolitan, he ascribed a providential meaning and regarded these events as his life’s important “landmarks”.

…

In the meantime in Cambridge Yuri Roerich, played the same game of spiritrapping, with much the same fervor as his parents, in the company of his mates Vladimir Pertsov and Vladimir Dickson, both Russian immigrants. This occupation of her son alarmed Elena Ivanovna at first, as she feared that the séances could distract him from his studies and even affect him mentally. “Are you doing the right thing by pursuing spiritualism?”, she asked him in one of her letters. But her apprehensions were gone as soon as she learnt that her son’s “guide” was the same Allal-Ming Shri Ishvara. His parallel messages to the Harvard circle continued for over a year, starting in February 1921, until the circle broke up some time in 1922. Yuri would forward the “protocols” of his séances to his mother in New York and some of them were later incorporated in the first two Agni Yoga books which came out under the title Leaves of Morya’s Garden.44 The first of Allal-Ming’s messages to the Harvardians sounded quite sensational: The Bolsheviks will be overthrown by an uprising in two and half years. A coalition government will be formed, with monarchists and Constitutional Democrats making the majority. The Caucasus, the Ukraine, Bessarabia, Finland and finally Poland will be annexed to Russia in one to

43 44

Ibid., 153–154, entry for 16 January 1923. The story of this circle is briefly outlined by V. Rosov in Rosov 1998, 183–185. The messages were published by the same author, see Rosov 2002b, 45–57; Rerikh, E. 2009, 409–435.

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seven years. Russia will become a constitutional monarchy. Your life in Russia will be a happy one.45 Allal-Ming made some more political predictions relating to the forthcoming great changes in Russia – the approaching death of Lenin, the collapse of the Bolshevik regime, the proclamation of the “will of the people” by the “Land Assembly” (a body which existed in Muscovite Russia but was no more), and finally, the revival of the country under the sceptre of its new ruler, the “tsarmystic” (!). The four Roerichs were assigned a special task by Allal-Ming – they were to found, upon their return to their homeland, a “mystical university” named “The Temple of Knowledge and Beauty” at Zvenigorod, the City of the Tolling Bells. One of the messages read as a monarchic manifesto: “By the Grace of Our Sovereign the University of Saint Tyron, the Savior of our State, is now established”. The school was to offer 70 courses and its faculty was to include 30 professors, among them the members of the Roerichs’ circle and their friends in Europe and America, such as Shibaev, Shkliaver, Dickson and Pertsov. Nikolai Roerich was to head the “mystical university” as its Rector. All this was to take place in 1931. The spirit-guide also recommended to Yuri Roerich and his mates some important spiritual literature for reading – Rudolph Steiner, Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Meister Eckhart, the Gospels, Daniil Zatochnik (the Confined One, a 13th century Russian author known for his book of prayers), Vivekananda, being a rather odd mix of old and new mysticism, theosophy, Christianity and Vedanta. In general the messages received by Yuri largely duplicated or supplemented those sent by the same Allal-Ming to his parents in New York. Surprisingly, some of them sounded precisely like telegraph communications or newspaper headlines – Kyakhta seized by unrest, The Bolshevik despotic rule collapsing, Russia to be liberated soon, etc. It goes without saying that none of these prophesies of Allal-Ming came true – Lenin died four years later (in early 1924) and the Bolshevik rule in Russia survived for 70 more years, with no chance for a monarchist restoration in the country. Allal-Ming’s proclaiming himself the Roerichs’ “Teacher” in early June, one month after Nikolai’s return from Chicago, was an event of paramount importance for the family. “What a great joy and honor!”, Elena reported to Yuri enthusiastically.46 “I am so full of Allal-Ming that sometimes I feel elated the whole day. We were all looking for a Teacher, but he was close to us and we did not 45 46

Rosov 2002b, 45. Rerikh, E. 1999c, 34–35, letter to Yuri, 6 June 1921.

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recognize him. Call upon Allal-Ming and believe in his help! He asks [us] to have no doubts, to believe and love him and then it will be easier for him to help us, because he has good connections”.47 Despite this ecstatic declaration, Elena did have some doubts regarding AllalMing’s identity at first. However, after the séance of May 29 when Allal-Ming left it to her to decide which of the two famous mahatmas he was, Morya or Koot Hoomi, Elena’s heart prompted her that her spirit-guide was none other than Morya, the mahatma with a fiery look! And she would henceforth call him by this name although the familiar Allal-Ming would not be dropped by her altogether. This Morya , as one would further learn from Elena’s diaries and letters, was in fact a great “Spirit-Teacher” whose former incarnations included such spiritual masters of the past as Moses, King Solomon, Origen, Lao-Tse, Comte de Saint-Germain and the Russian saint and ascetic (podvizhnik) Sergius of Radonezh. Having accepted the Roerichs and the members of their Circle as his “disciples”, Morya would soon give them all, except Madame Shafran, new – esoteric – names which allegedly were their real names in former lives, as required in the occult tradition. Thus Elena would become Urusvati (“Morning Star” in Sanskrit, an appellation of Venus), Nikolai – Fuyama, Yuri – Udraya, Sviatoslav – Liumou, Sina Lichtmann – Radna, Maurice Lichtmann – Avirah, Jenta (Esther) Lichtmann – Oyana, Frances Grant – Modra, Louis Horch – Logvan, Nettie Horch – Poruma. (All these bizarre-sounding names were articulated by Elena, of course.) The immediate result of the séances was that the otherworldly Master wielded a full control over the Roerichs. He had actually become the fifth invisible member of their family, and his messages were regarded by everyone as orders or instructions (Ukazy in Russian) of some exalted being which were to be carried out without questioning, casting away all doubts. Morya would instruct the Roerichs as well as their friends what to do or say, where to go and who to meet and they did not object to his persistent guidance, but accepted it thankfully and with much enthusiasm. Thus Morya would suggest to Nikolai, through his wife, the subjects for his new paintings and he even inspired him to write a mystical poem Instructions for a Hunter entering a Forest (1921) while he was on the train to Chicago. Moreover, he promised to the couple a new religious teaching by calling it a religion of “Spirit-understanding” (Dukhorazumenie). The séances in New York, as earlier in London, were accompanied by Elena’s most whimsical visions and dreams of her Master and otherworldly “scenes”. In his letter to Shibaev, in March 1922, Roerich reported: “Of late, we have had an 47

Ibid., 35, letter to Yuri, 27 August 1921.

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[inner] ear opened and my wife is having visions daily. Recently we were shown, in full light, our appearances in former incarnations”.48 Gradually, the woman was turning into a clairvoyant and a clairaudient, so she believed, and she explained these new faculties of hers by the opening or activating of chakras in her body by her Master which made it possible for her to establish a permanent link (provod) between This and the Other Worlds.

…

At the beginning of August 1921 the Roerichs with the three Lichtmanns, Madame Shafran, Frances Grant and Nettie Horch went to Santa-Fe (New Mexico) and thence to San-Francisco to attend Nikolai’s exhibition of paintings. Before their departure Morya had communicated to Elena through the table that he would meet them at Santa-Fe and at Cliff Dwellers, a “holy place” in the Grand Canyon.49 He even gave an accurate description of the spot: On the way to Cliff-Dwellers you should find a place where pine trees purely grow. I don’t like guns, so don’t take them with you. Roerich will be happy to see Me first. Others will not believe him, an artist, [witnessing] the apparition of the Master. On the Mexican highway you will see Me. I’ll appear before him on Monday.50 However, the Master did not turn up either at Santa-Fe or Cliff-Dwellers. He must have changed his mind judging by his message of 27 August: “Don’t worry about My appearance. I’ll come when [I know] I won’t hurt you”.51 But whom was Morya taking care not to hurt? Obviously, Elena. According to Sina’s diary, Elena Ivanovna was in a bad condition in Santa-Fe – her elbows swelled and she felt unusual heaviness in her body. The strange illness continued for ten days and then passed away by itself. It was during this trip to Santa-Fe, in August 1921, that Elena confessed to her husband that she came to realize her special destiny of a guru: she does not want to be either a musician, or an artist or a writer, but “only to have the best people around and be their guide”.52 48 49 50 51 52

Annenko 2012, 29. Rerikh, E. 2009, 63, 65, entries for 6 and 18 August 1921. Ibid., 65, entry for 18 August 1921. Ibid., 68. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Note-book 1, 68, entry for 20 May 1929.

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The Great Plan The Plan of the Masters is accurate, no one can avoid it E. Roerich

⸪ In the course of 1921–1922 Elena channeled a number of messages which spoke rather vaguely of the “Masters’ Plan” which she would later interpret as the “Great Plan for the salvation of humanity”. The Plan territorially covered the mahatmas’ four most favored or “chosen” nations – America, Russia, India and Tibet. Yet Russia – New Soviet Russia – would soon become the Master’s major concern. The Great Plan in fact had global and even cosmic dimensions. Shortly before Roerichs’ departure for India Nikolai addressed the faculty of the Master-school with a farewell speech in which he called on his co-workers to expand their activities worldwide. A special emphasis was made on publicizing the work of the Roerich institutions through the press and the artist even envisioned starting in the near future his own press agency which would spread around the world his gospel – “the ideas of beauty and spirit”. As Sina Lichtmann recorded in her diary, “Behind our three Institutions stands the fourth invisible one – the great idea which we must apply to the whole world”.1 She also underscored the special role of the Roerichs – if not for them, the Master-School, the Corona Mundi and the museum would not have emerged; these institutions were created not by Horch and his money, but by Master Morya “through the Roerichs”. N.K. is not only a great world artist, not only a great sage, but he is also a Brother of the White Brotherhood and a great spirit, who allowed us to partake of the Great Mystery, the Great Plan. We have received this treasure of power, knowledge and spirit through the Roerichs, who are the disciples and children of M., the fulfillers of His Will on the planet.2 1 Fosdik 2002, 193, entry for 30 April 1923. 2 Ibid., p. 178, entry for 30 March 1923.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_008

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At the very beginning the Great Plan seemed to be no more than a fantasy, a dream of a better world. The Roerichs themselves did not grasp fully the lofty designs of the Masters – quite often they were puzzled by their messages and tried hard to penetrate into their hidden meaning. At the same time it is not hard to see that these messages reflected to a large extent Nikolai and Elena’s own thinking, their aspirations and expectations – the fall of the Bolsheviks and restoration of the monarchy in Russia, but even more importantly, the advent of the Messiah or the World Teacher as was prophesied by theosophists. Nikolai’s own dreams of the upcoming New Era and the New World where Art and Knowledge will reign supreme were neatly articulated in his public talks and short essays carried in the American press and later published in a separate volume entitled Adamant. The Great Plan, being actually the Roerichs’ blueprint of the Radiant Future, the way they perceived it, would not take its more or less concrete shape, however, until 1924 when they would find their new earthly patron, the New York-based and well-connected Soviet agronomist Dmitry Borodin. America, in the eyes of the Roerichs’ Teacher, was a young country of great potential, a successor of the legendary Atlantis. Their “American mission”, being part of the Great Plan, envisaged the spiritual enlightenment of Americans through Art and Knowledge. It was to this end that Nikolai started his institutions in New-York and Chicago and he believed that this work of his might serve in the long run as an example for the Bolsheviks, the builders of New Russia, when they knew about it. In his letter to Shibaev written in mid-1921 he reported: “You already know that Allal-Ming is Master Morya. He took me and my family under his guidance. He assigned me to instill spirituality into American art, by establishing an art school in the Masters’ name and a society Cor Ardens. The society has already been set up”.3 The gist of Nikolai Roerich’s teaching – simple and utterly idealistic – can be found in his lectures and publications from that period. Serge Whitman in his introduction to Adamant spoke of it as “Roerich’s gospel”: “Peace and wisdom through Beauty! Such is the message of Nicholas Roerich, pronounced at the very time when so many are vainly seeking the secret of international peace through suppression, through armament, through hate”.4 What Roerich was vigorously preaching was a new culture and a new religion needed for the transformation of humanity into the Sixth Race, one of spirit, as was prophesied by Blavatsky. The Gates of the New World, announced Roerich, would be open by 3 Annenko 2012, 21, letter to Shibaev, 25 July 1921. 4 Roerich, N. 1923, 5.

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Love, Beauty and Action, being a new formula of the “international language”, and he specially emphasized the importance of “active beauty”. This formula, which now belongs to the museum and stage”, he wrote in the essay New Era, “must enter everyday life. The sign of beauty will open all sacred gates. Beneath the sign of beauty we walk joyfully. With beauty we conquer. Through beauty we pray. In beauty we are united. And now we affirm these words – not on the snowy heights, but amidst the turmoil of the city. And realizing the path of true reality, we greet with a happy smile the future.5 According to Roerich, genuine Art as a manifestation of Beauty should be both spiritual and prophetic. It can work miracles and has a healing power. Art (Beauty) can solve the most difficult social and national problems in a moment “because they do not exist in reality”. The worship of Beauty should become a new religion: “Beneath this ascendancy of Beauty, you can distinguish the great visage of our religion, manifesting itself in the simplest way under the wings of beauty”.6 In the same essay Roerich spoke of the “three gifts” of perception sent to humanity. The first is the “perception of One Spirit” which brings into being the “unity of Love and Religion”. The second is the “perception of the miracle of Art” which creates the realm of Beauty. And the third is the “perception of cosmic force” which brings to us the idea of “one universal Power”. “And in the name of the enlightened New Era, we have to accept these blissful gifts with prayers and in constant readiness for action”.7 In this and other essays as well as in his public talks Roerich presented for the first time his special message not only for his American audience but for entire humanity. This transformation from a romantic artist into a preacher and guru, an apostle of Beauty, came about in him in 1920–1921, largely under the influence of theosophy and spiritualism. Automatic writing became Nikolai’s real fad and it convinced him in the existence of the beyond. Already in London, in his essay Adamant, the first in the series of his spiritual writings, Roerich had articulated his “sacred ideals” by using another universal formula expressed in the two watchwords: Art and Knowledge, same as Beauty and Wisdom. “More knowledge! More art! There are not enough of these bases in life, which alone can lead to the golden age of unity”.8 The “knowledge” Roerich talked about was “the great wisdom of all ages and all nations” speaking of the “human spir5 6 7 8

Ibid., 103. Ibid., 105. Ibid., 99. Ibid., 12.

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it”, while in his strong emphasis placed on art as a great transformer of life it is easy to see the slogans of Mir Iskusstva as the artist was probably thinking of launching a cultural revival in America, along the lines of Russia’s “Silver Age”. Roerich called himself a “practical idealist” and he boasted of his idealism, saying that “from the highest mountain one attains the brightest outlook”, that is, gets a better understanding of reality. The institutions he started in America based on purely idealistic principles, however, turned out to be quite practicable and fully working at that time, and this was only the beginning of the Grand Plan. The scope and boldness of the artist’s initiative were truly amazing. The aims of the Corona Mundi art center he founded in New York in 1922 were global and required a whole legion of workers of various capacity and practical skills – “the new international army of the New Era”. They were to arrange touring and loan exhibitions, plan them in all kinds of galleries, factories and schools, even in hospitals, prisons, and in villages far from centers of art; organize artistic and archeological expeditions; establish agencies and branches in all foreign countries; catalogue and systematize collections as well as evaluate and restore them; buy and sell art treasures and act as agents for all types of art, etc. Verily, Roerich’s designs were unparalleled, if utopian, his intentions most noble and altruistic and, what is more, he had – or rather believed that he had – the strong backing of the Masters and was actually carrying out their commissions, their Great Plan. His faith in the Masters was unshakable and pushed him forward, while the difficulties he faced only made him work harder. The artist used to say: ‘Everything is possible’ (vsio vozmozhno) and his other catchphrase was ‘to make a tall tale come true’ (sdelat’ skazku iaviu) – both sayings could well serve his life’s mottos. Roerich’s message to Americans and all of humanity – “a vital call at once idealistic and practical” was expressed in the motto he gave to Corona Mundi, being a quotation from his lecture “Beauty and Wisdom”: Humanity is facing the coming events of cosmic greatness. Humanity already realizes that all occurrences are not accidental. The time for the construction of future culture is at hand. Before our eyes the revaluation of values is being witnessed. Amidst the ruins of valueless banknotes, mankind has found the real value of the world’s significance. The values of art are victoriously traversing all storms of earthly commotions…9

9

Ibid., 83.

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Roerich however would have hardly succeeded in his endeavors at this early stage if it were not for Louis Horch and his money. In 1922 Horch bought a new residence for the Master Institute, a beautiful three story building at 310 Riverside Drive from Mrs. Grace H. Mitchell for $ 195,000. He would later also purchase two more adjacent buildings (311 and 312 Riverside Drive) for $ 110,000 and make them a gift to the Master-Institute. In addition to this Horch purchased in Europe in 1923 over $ 100,000 worth of paintings and art objects in Italy, France and England, again for the Master-Institute. To attract students he also spent thousands of dollars advertising the school in Musical America and other magazines. And we have already spoken of him paying off all Roerich’s debts and providing money for Yuri’s and Sviatoslav’s education. Horch’s lavish investments quickly got things going. By the end of 1923 the faculty of the Master Institute included over 60 members who were instructors in all branches of art and at the same time artists ‘of broad vision and ideals’. The Master Institute established four annual scholarships for the most able students – bearing the names of Rabindranath Tagore, Maurice Maeterlinck, Nicholas Roerich and Louis Horch – and also made provisions for granting several prizes for the most noteworthy work done by students during the school year. On top of that, the Master Institute jointly with Corona Mundi held several artistic competitions among students every year to encourage their creative efforts. For example, in 1923–1924 there was a competition for the best song to be written to the text either of a psalm or one of the poems of Rabindranath Tagore or Walt Whitman, and another one for a costume design on a theme to be based on Atlantis, one of the favorite subjects of theosophists. (On May 2, 1922 Morya named the world’s greatest political figures and artists, a list of which included Washington, Lincoln, Whitman, Longfellow, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.) While America was Roerich’s priority for the time being, the main focus of the Great Plan was Russia. Of his Russian commission Morya spoke quite plainly: “Roerich, love Russians, you are destined to rule Russia. We have work to be assigned to every one. I’ll give the creator the power to build New Russia. From all sides, from every country I will send you helpers. There’s no need to choose, accept those coming to you. Your trip to India will strengthen your endeavours”.10 Strictly speaking, it was Morya himself who wanted to rule Russia, but since he had his domicile in the Ashram, he needed a deputy or assistant to act on his behalf. Just a week after the above message, Elena channeled another one: “Morya took over Russia. When we start building Russia in the desert, we’ll manifest an 10

Rerikh, E. 2009, 87, entry for 5 November 1921.

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unearthly Ruler, who will descend from the ancient walls and enlighten the minds. The future is with Russia”. On the same day she also had a vision of a hand holding an orb and two other hands presenting someone an oblong object, a scepter, and the voice of Master Koot Hoomi saying in English: “You must know He is the King, you must remember that He is the King”.11 (Koot Hoomi, since Blavatsky’s days, had difficulties with Russian and preferred to talk to his “chosen ones” in English.) The Masters also gave the Roerichs a few names of those who would help them build New Russia “in the desert” – these were mainly Russian émigrés, the people Nikolai and Elena personally knew, such as the Muromtsev couple, Rumanov and P.A. Chistiakov who held an important post on the Chinese Eastern Railroad (KVZhD) in Manchuria. Yet the first on the list was Charles Crane, a wealthy Chicago industrialist and philanthropist. According to R.C. Williams, Crane’s millions came from the plumbing company of his father, the Crane Company, “whose fixtures adorned the Winter Palace in St Petersburg before World War I and many American embassies afterward”. Crane was a Russophil of long standing – he visited Russia many times before and after the Bolshevik revolution and he was also an active supporter of the US campaign to recognize Soviet Russia. In 1921–1922 he was working in Washington to arrange for representation of the Soviet-engineered Far-Eastern Republic and that was when he got to know Roerich.12 Crane would soon become the artist’s second important source of income, apart from Horch, though he was not a very close friend and was not admitted to the Roerichs’ Circle. This was perhaps because of his very special relations with Elena – the woman’s extremely good looks turned his head so much that he, being a married man, began to court her, as we learn from Esther Lichtmann’s diary. Esther relates an amusing story – once Crane wanted to kiss Elena’s foot in the motor car, but when he bowed down a basket of cherries suddenly fell on him – in this way the Teacher protected her from Crane’s harassment, explained Elena.13 Crane’s and Chistiakov’s experience and connections in the Far East and China were most valuable for Roerich. Towards the end of 1921 Morya quite unexpectedly proclaimed Harbin, the major seat of the “white” Russian emigration in North-Eastern China, to be “the center of construction of the future Russian culture”. Chistiakov was to start a Russian school at Harbin and help “collect the friends of Russia” in Manchuria. Already at this stage Morya charted a route for the Roerich’s forthcoming journey – from India across China and 11 12 13

Ibid., 90, entry for 12 November 1921. Williams 1980, 121–122. Esther Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, 76–77, entry for 24 May 1929.

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Harbin – and he said also that he began “the work of alignment of India and Russia”.14 In 1920–1923 Elena received several intriguing messages from her Master concerning Russia and the Roerichs’ future work there. None of these predictions however came true. For example, the Master prophesied that the family would return to their homeland in 1930 and that the following year some crucial developments would take place in the country, probably hinting at the ascension of the new “tsar-mystic” to the Russian throne. The year 1931 was spoken of by Morya as “the Date of Russia’s Great Happiness”. In fact the Roerich couple would be able to visit Russia in the summer of 1926 only, but this would not be their triumphant homecoming. Morya also gave them the erroneous date of Lenin’s death as 31 October whereas Lenin died on 21 January (1924). In general the information that came from the Master was very inaccurate, obscure and evasive. Allal-Ming, alias Morya, usually evaded direct answers to Elena’s queries and often made irrelevant replies leaving it to her to decide what he meant. And when she persisted in getting a more intelligible and definitive reply and repeated her questions the Teacher would get angry and interrupt her harshly with the word dovolno (enough, no more asking). India and Tibet also figured prominently in the Great Plan. Both countries were the Masters’ “promised lands”, the arenas of some epoch-making events in the near future that would change the entire course of the world’s history. India was the home of Buddha, the Enlightened One, and it was also there, in Ladakh, known also as the Little Tibet, according to the late 19th century Russian journalist Nikolai Notovich, that Jesus had spent many years as a young man mastering esoteric knowledge under Indian gurus before he came to Judea as a Messiah.15 India was the spiritual Mecca for Western occultists and truthseekers and it gave the world such great teachers as Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Krishnamurti and Shri Aurobindo. Therefore the country was apparently favored by the Masters – when Elena asked Morya about the whereabouts of their ashrams he emphatically repeated thrice the word India.16 At the same time Morya also claimed that his home was Tibet, more precisely it was somewhere in the vicinity of Shigatse, the residence of the Panchen Lama, as had been earlier reported by Blavatsky. (“I am showing my Face from behind Shigatse”;

14 15

16

Ibid., 105, entry for 25 December 1921; 106–107, entries for 26, 27 and 28 December 1921. Nikolai Notovich (1858 – after 1916) claimed to have discovered in November 1887, while traveling in Ladakh, a manuscript of what he himself alleged to be a “Tibetan Gospel” of Christ; see Andreyev 2009a, 31–32. Rerikh, E. 2009, 129, entry for 18/19 February 1922.

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“Shigatse will triple your knowledge”.17) Roerich was assigned a special task by the Master – to lead an “embassy” to Lhasa (though not to Shigatse, as one might expect), to the Dalai-Lama, and present him an icon, or rather his own painting, of St. Sergius.18 No details of the Tibetan mission were revealed to the Roerichs at that stage – Morya only said that they would have to bring something new to Tibet that never arrived there from Europe, the “spirit-creativity” (dukhotvorchestvo). He also mentioned Blavatsky who had come to Tibet secretly whereas the Roerichs would go “upon the call” of the Masters. “Such an Embassy had never taken place before. The aim of the journey is to discover some [ancient] cities. Urusvati’s story (skazka) will come true – Our boat will appear”.19 Elena, as Morya’s disciple, had a separate assignment from her Teacher. She was to undergo a course of studies in India – first for one year in Adyar where she was to examine “some important items” collected by Morya; then under Aurobindo Ghosh, a religious philosopher and founder of the “integral” Vedanta, and finally for three years more under Morya himself,20 exactly like he had taught Blavatsky some 70 years previously!

…

The question of Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s relations with the leading theosophists and the Theosophical Society at Adyar is of no little interest for our narrative. We know that their spiritual quest began and continued for quite a while within the framework of theosophy, that they planned to work in team with the Adyar Center and for that reason joined in 1920 the TS; yet as time went by they got more and more disappointed in the theosophical mainstream and eventually drifted away. This happened mainly because of Elena’s channeling, her “fiery practice”, which they believed gave them access to a new source of higher esoteric knowledge, one revealed to them directly by the Masters at this crucial stage of human evolution. Curiously, the Roerichs tried to link their American mission from the very start with the theosophical movement, using Shibaev as a go-between. Thus Roerich sent to Annie Besant through Shibaev copies of the Cor Ardens founding documents as well as a clipping of an article about him published in the Messenger journal. This was not incidental as the Great Plan was largely inspired by Helena Blavatsky’s ideal of future humanity, a spiritually advanced Sixth Race. Roerich strongly disdained modern civilization calling it “mechanical”, 17 18 19 20

Ibid., 146, 156, entries for 30 March and 23 April 1922. Ibid., 147, entry for 2 April 1922. Ibid., 148, entry for 4 April 1922. Ibid., 108, entry for 31 December 1921.

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consisting of robot-like creatures or “homunculi”. Yet he thought he knew how to make the world change. He had his vision of the future and his best formula of global social transformation – through Art and Knowledge (Beauty and Wisdom) – with the help of which he hoped to unite mankind into a Universal Brotherhood, something which theosophists, Freemason and Bolsheviks dreamt of alike. The couple’s other link with Adyar was a Russian émigré and theosophist, the Paris-based Irma de Manziarly. And in the spring of 1922 Nikolai also established contact with the Theosophical Society’s new luminary Jiddu Krishnamusti (1895–1986), the head of a messianic organization named the Order of the Star of the Orient. M-me Manziarly was a frequent visitor to Adyar and besides she and her daughters were on friendly terms with Krishnamurti or Krishna whom they hosted in their Parisian apartment in 1920. As was mentioned before, Manziarly was a talented translator – apart from Bhagavadgita she would translate into French in the 1920s, in collaboration with P. Masson-Oursel, one of the major works of the eminent Russian Buddhist scholar F.I. Stcherbatskoi and would publish her travelogue describing her many journeys and sojourns in the Near East, India, China, Korea and Japan.21 More importantly, at least for Roerich, she was his ardent admirer who highly praised him and his work in several publications. Through these the theosophical leaders and Annie Besant in particular could acquaint themselves with the Russian artist and his activities towards the spiritual enlightenment of humanity. In Manziarly’s opinion, Roerich was “a great practical mystic”, which was quite an accurate definition though the artist himself in later years would strongly deny the mystical character of his personality and work. He preferred to present himself rather as a “practical idealist”. The name of the theosophical rising star, Krishnamurti, was well known in esoteric circles of Russia. In 1917 a branch of his Order of the Star of the Orient was established in Petrograd under a female theosophist V.P. Pushkina to disseminate the idea of the coming of the World Teacher. Krishnamurti’s earliest work At the feet of the Master appeared in Russian as early as 1911 and it was followed in 1917–1918 by publications of S. Jinarajadasa, Ch. Leadbeater, E. Woodhouse and other authors, speculating on the character of the World Teacher to come and his new teaching, and Pushkina’s own illuminative opus ‘Brotherhood and love as the foundations of the coming era’ (Bratstvo i liubov’ kak osnova griadustchego veka, Petrograd, 1918). 21

See Stcherbatskoi 1926, Manziarly 1935.

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The Order of the Star was formed by A. Besant in 1911 with youthful Krishna, her adopted son, at its head, and a year later she announced publicly that Krishna’s physical body had been chosen by Lord Maitreya, the Future Buddha, as the ‘vehicle’ for the spirit of the World Teacher. The decision, certainly, put much psychological pressure on the youth who was not prepared to play the role of the Messiah. Having visited Krishna in 1919 in England, Besant noticed with surprise that he had lost interest in theosophy and the organization which he headed. Still the Order continued its activities by attracting new members around the world. One of them was Vladimir Shibaev who joined the Order in 1921 while in London. He did so actually on the advice of Roerich who thus wanted to forge a closer link with Adyar. Judging by Elena’s diaries, Nikolai Konstantinovich seems to have vacillated at first between a Masonic lodge and Krishnamurti’s Order as agencies through which he could disseminate his ideas, his theory of Art almighty. Yet the situation changed after the Roerichs had found their occult Master who summoned them on his “Great Service”. “The Service is our only common task – in it lies the daily joy of the battle of the spirit and without it there is darkness and life’s usual banality”, Roerich admonished his son Yuri at the end of 1922.22 Having thrown their lot with the invisible Master Morya, the Roerichs were extremely secretive about the Great Plan which they regarded as his precious “gift” to the four of them and to them alone! They did not share any information about the Plan with anybody outside the Circle, including the theosophical leaders. On the contrary, as time went on the couple grew more and more critical towards Adyar, though outwardly they did not show it and stayed friendly with both Besant and Krishnamurti. By doing so, they actually followed the advice of their Master who – what a paradox! – was concurrently the Master of Blavatsky, ­Besant, Krishnamurti and several other theosophists. Here is what Sina Lichtmann wrote in her diary at the end of 1922: E[lena] I[vanovna] talked to me about her future study under M. She is not looking for greater development of her hearing or sight, but wants a teaching [that will give her] the highest aspiration, the knowledge of the higher worlds, of the world plan. The M. himself promised to teach them. E.I. was thinking who in mythologies or history attracted her most as the world soul and decided that it was not the Buddha, who was serene in his ecstasy of love and meditation, but Prometheus as the soul aspiring to and encroaching upon the new heavens, wishing to know what there is behind them. She talked much about M. giving them a chance to under­stand the personalities of leading theosophists… About 22

N. Roerich’s letter to Yuri, 28 November 1922, N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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Besant the Roerichs know a lot. Wadia they met in London and were disappointed. Krishnamurti’s personality they deduced from his letters. They were told [by M], as concerns [their visit to] Adyar, to be silent, to listen, and not belittle His Guidance, that is not become Besant’s disciples.23 In the opinion of the Master, “Besant has fulfilled her mission, now there is another task ahead”.24 And at the same séance, on 7 November 1922, Elena channeled: “Let Urusvati take the honorary wreath from the Mother of the World”, which clearly indicates that Elena Roerich was to replace Besant as a new spiritual leader and guru. More comments on theosophical leaders followed the next day: “Expect nothing from Leadbeater. Keep clinging to Raja” [Jinarajadasa – A.A.]. And then someone unexpectedly: “You know, the Theosophical Society will be closed soon”.25 (Despite Morya’s prediction, the Society has survived to this date). Why were Nikolai and Elena and their Masters so discontent with Annie Besant? Was it because of her excessive involvement in earthly matters, taking an active part in the political developments in India, whereas the Society’s primary concern should be spiritual work? It is quite possible. The general atmosphere in Adyar was far from that of a real brotherhood, the Society being riven with discord and intrigues. One result of this sorry situation was Wadia’s breaking away from the Society and starting his separate Theosophical Lodge in New York in 1921. As Besant admitted at that time, “From time to time the Theosophical Society becomes a battle-ground in which the forces of the Light and the Darkness battle for mastery”.26 Interestingly, Besant was the first to use the word mahatma as Gandhi’s ­honorific title. She was a woman of “extraordinary vitality and energy” in Mircea Eliade’s words, though during the theosophical period “her unbelievable naiveté which surpasses all limits of the credulity expected of an occultist” reached “delirium or hypnotic stupidity”. And yet, the work she did for Indians was outstanding: “Annie Besant was awakening India from its secular lethargy, organizing the first centers of propaganda and political education. Gandhi came later. He benefited from everything A.B. had accomplished”.27

23 24 25 26 27

Fosdik 2002, 121, entry for 7 November 1922. Rerikh, E. 2009, 228. Ibid., 203, entry for 8 August 1922. Besant 1922, 589. This opinion was expressed by Mircea Eliade after reading Arthur Nethercot’s biography of A. Besant (Annie Besant, Vol. I-II, 1961–1963), see Eliade 1977, 219, 220.

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Nikolai Roerich wrote a few times to Besant, the first time in May 1922 asking for her permission to found two scholarships in her name at the Master-school. However half a year later Morya pronounced his final verdict on Besant – her mission is over and she will be replaced by a new and abler leader, Urusvati, that is, by Elena Roerich. One will remember at this point that while telling Elena to spend a year as a disciple at Adyar Morya did not name Besant as her mentor there. All he said was that Besant did not have any “enthusiasm” but had only “experience”. The Roerichs wanted to go to India very much, already in the latter half of 1922, yet they were prevented by Morya who said they should apply for visas only after the 5th of January 1923. Towards the end of the year 1922 he revealed to his disciples a great secret which made their hearts throb – it was He, Master Morya (and not Krishnamurti!), who was the real Messiah, the future Savior of humanity. On 23 November Sina wrote in her diary: “How amazingly the threads of our lives’ fairy tale are being woven. E.I. told us how they [she and Nikolai – A.A.] determined the fact that every seven years M. played a great role in her life. Many things were opened to them at yesterday’s séance, but they were not allowed to talk. E.I. almost confirmed the thing that Nutsia [Maurice Lichtmann – A.A.] had so often repeated that the M. was the future Messiah who would soon come again to the earth, but she said she had no right to explain everything”.28 And two weeks later the Circle received the final confirmation: .

We were at the Horchs’ place yesterday for automatic writing which we do every Saturday… When everyone finished writing, we sat in the dark and we were told, as before, marvelous words by Morya, which confirmed His advent as a Messiah. E.I. had already revealed to us before the séance that M. told them – He is the Messiah, coming to Earth right now. Nutsia has sensed this since last year and he talked about it, and we are very happy that his feeling was accurate as was confirmed by M.29 This was the most stunning news – Morya was the Messiah, Morya-MaitreyaChrist in one person! But what about Krishnamurti? Strangely enough, Morya who used to comment on most casual and unimportant household matters said nothing to his disciples of the event of great import which had occurred on 17–20 August of the same year – the descent of the spirit of Buddha Maitreya upon Krishnamurti while he was on a retreat in the Ohai valley in California

28 29

Fosdik 2002, 128. Ibid., 136–137, entry for 9 December 1922.

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which finally made him the Messiah.30 A most inconceivable paradox! Does it mean then that Krishnamurti was an impostor and the theosophical leaders deceived their many followers? Or maybe Elena grossly misinterpreted her Master’s words? Or the problem was the double-minded Masters themselves? The news of the Messiah, or rather three Messiahs in One – Morya-MaitreyaChrist, became a source of inspiration for Nikolai Roerich. In the early half of 1923 he started a new series of paintings called Messiah by producing two works in tempera –Skazanie (Legend) and Chudo (Miracle). Curiously, each of them had a familiar American landscape as background – that of Arizona (the former) and of the Grand Canyon (the latter). The Miracle, like many of Roerich’s earlier paintings, had profoundly symbolic imagery – it depicted the radiant Messiah approaching a bridge and seven figures prostrated before Him, apparently an allusion to the Roerichs’ New York Circle.

…

In 1922 Yuri Roerich graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in Indian philology. His main tutor Charles Lanman, a specialist in Vedic and Buddhist literature, urged him, as early as 1921, to go to India, to either Benares or Puna, for practice, as was part of the school’s curriculum, yet his parents talked him out of doing so. They said he would have better possibilities of research work in India when they travel there together. The Roerichs obviously did not want to leave him to his own resources, fearing that he might go astray, as he had ‘a bad horoscope’. Morya had already reprimanded Yuri for his habitual drinking of alcohol and smoking31 and his younger brother for keeping company with wicked persons one of whom was Vladimir Dukelsky later to become a wellknown composer and songwriter Vernon Duke.32 In his memoirs L. Horch recounted that he had hired detectives, obviously at the Roerichs request, to follow Sviatoslav who was “drinking a great deal and associating with the wrong people”.33 So Yuri went to Paris instead of Benares in August 1922, with parental approval. There he enrolled in the Collège de France and the School of Oriental Languages (Ecole des Langues Orientales) at Sorbonne to complete his education. He would also pursue military science and jurisprudence at the same university for one year, which may come as a surprise to readers. Why should the 30 31 32 33

On J. Krishnamurti see Lutyens 1990. Rerikh, E. 2009, 158, entry for 27 April 1922. Ibid., 129, 133; see also Fosdik 2009, 133, 143 and Rerikh, E. 2009, 286 (“Dukelsky calls Fuyama a fool”, entry for 10 April 1923). Louis L. Horch, History of Institutions and Roerichs.

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young and talented Orientalist, a translator of Upanishads, give his time to the study of uninspiring military subjects unless he planned to make a military career? The answer to this question lies in the Roerich family mythology as well as in mystical and messianic aspects of the Great Plan. As an alleged descendent of the Scandinavian Vikings, Yuri claimed that he sensed a militant spirit in his veins, and the fact was further confirmed by the Master who revealed that he had been Tamerlane in one of his former lives and prophesied that he would again lead the Mongolian hordes in the future apocalyptic Armageddon – Shambhala War. So Yuri apparently wanted to prepare himself for the battles he would wage for the sake of the Messiah. As for jurisprudence, he might need it as a participant in the Roerichs’ mission or “spiritual embassy” to the ruler of Tibet. Being keen on automatic writing, Yuri put down in English in mid-1922 the following phrase: “… and Tamerlane will again lead hosts of Mongols towards the good conquest”.34 And in 1924, already in Darjeeling, Elena would channel several messages speaking of the forthcoming ‘Shambhala campaign’ and an ‘extraordinary military mission in Mongolia’35 and Yuri, so it seems, was to participate in both in the capacity of a military commander. He was even given an appropriate name to that end by Morya – Colonel Narukhan.36 Before going to Paris Yuri was given a number of assignments by his father. First, he was to establish and maintain friendly relations with Irma Manziarly so as to keep up her admiration for Roerich the artist and thinker because she was his important link to Adyar. (“Manziarly will help to retain the atmosphere of influence”, pointed out Morya37). Manziarly could also be of help to Roerich as he planned to extend the activities of Corona Mundi to France by setting up a branch office there (Parisian committee of CM). Yuri’s another commission was to start recruiting people in Paris for the future work in Russia following the example of Vladimir Shibaev. Having moved to Riga in his native Latvia at the end of 1921, Shibaev organized there a theosophical circle he called the Lodge of Morya, formally under the aegis of Adyar. So Yuri was to assemble a similar group in Paris, with Manziarly’s assistance. Furthermore, Yuri was to gather information about the “ceremonial aspect” of the Roerichs’ projected embassy to the ruler of Tibet. Finally, he was to contact the antique dealers in Paris and elsewhere in Europe as Roerich was planning to purchase things for his nascent one-man museum in New York. 34 35 36 37

Ibid., 192, 391–92 (fn. 394), entry for 20 July 1922. Rerikh, E. 2011, 210, 211, 214. Naru is not a Mongolian word, though if shortened to Nar it can mean “sun” in Mongolian. Rerikh, E. 2009, 209, entry for 28 August 1922.

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Upon arrival in Paris, Yuri put up at the Shkliavers’ apartment at 270, rue de Vaugirard yet his real home very soon became M-me Manziarly’s place at 85, rue Lafontaine in Auteuil, a borough in the south-west part of the city. Irma Vladimirovna Manziarly lived there together with her three daughters – Marcelle (the elder one, aged 23), Marie (Mima) and Iolanta (Io). All of them were staunch theosophists which made things easier for Yuri, the more so as his hosts were also devotees of the same Master Morya. Nikolai and Elena Roerich were highly esteemed in the family – as Yuri reported home, his father was regarded by exalted Irma Manziarly as “a prophet and saint” and his mother as the “saint’s wife”. Yuri enjoyed the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of Manziarly’s home. Here are some excerpts from his letters to New York which shed light on his life in Paris as well as his anxiety caused by the latest political developments: 1 October 1922. I.V. [Manziarly] made an awfully good impression on me… We talked about India, about Aurobindo Ghosh and Tagore. In Shantiniketan they are waiting for us. I was strongly impressed by her account of Aur. Ghosh. Indeed, he is the man worth visiting. He works now with his disciples towards the synthesizing of consciousness. It’s difficult to meet him because he is in a deep yoga. I.V. talked much about father (N. Roerich) and it seems that she feels all of us deeply. In Germany38 I bought an interesting book, it’s Spengler’s ‘Das Untergang des Abendlandes’, i.e. ‘The Fall of the West’, which predicts the collapse of Western civilization and the rise of Russia and the East. At present we are living through events of paramount importance, namely the struggle of Britain with the East. I am certain that Turkey will win and that will be the end of the British rule in the East. 7 October 1922. The course of the world evolution is getting clearer to me. Here in Europe one gets a feeling that everything has become antiquated and rests upon rotten-through columns. What is needed is that everything collapse and there’ll be a new beginning. So gradually one comes to the thought of the Masonic ideal, the Temple of Solomon. I think that the great upheaval will take place soon; one can hardly feel it in America, whereas it is apparent here.

38

Yuri Roerich accompanied by George Shkliaver made a trip from Paris to the Rhineland in the early fall of 1922.

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23 October 1922. I cooperate most actively with I.V. [Manziarly]. We see each other almost every day. [We] talk about the existent spiritual group, of the future work in Russia, etc. 6 November 1922. I am eagerly waiting for messages from M.M. Here something miraculous is happening to us. We write automatically, see visions, etc. Before the writing we often see how the atmosphere is getting filled with blue stars and spheres. Irma Vladimirovna is one of the valuable co-workers for the cause of M.M., especially as she places father (N. Roerich) so highly. Only at rue Lafontaine I feel myself at home … In a word, I’m trying to mould the group that will go to work in Russia. Very quickly and easily Yuri made friends with one of Manziarly’s daughters Marcelle or Mara and their friendship grew into a strong mutual affection before too long.39 Mara Manziarly was an artistic soul, a gifted musician, whose music, in Yuri’s words, had “something occult” as that of Skriabin. Several of her original works were performed in concerts at the Salon d’Automne music hall. In Mara he found a kindred soul, his female counterpart – “my own Ego dressed in skirt”. This was Yuri’s first romance, his grand amour, and what seems particularly interesting about it is that he earnestly believed that Mara was sent to him by the Master. Their meeting in Paris was not a casual circumstance but an outcome of their karmic connection as Mara was his wife when he was Tamerlane several hundred years ago. In his letter to parents, on 21 September 1922, Yuri rejoiced: “I am so madly happy!!! MM has become much closer to me and I am so thankful to him for this great gift of his. Not a trace is left of the Harvardian Roerich. I knew it was the Teacher’s reward to me because I chose to follow the path of Great Service”.40 In a later message he portrayed his sweetheart in more detail: I would like to tell you about Mara. She is a remarkable person in many ways. She is different from her sisters, being very profound, mystical and sensitive. A close friend of Krishnamurti, and what’s most important she is devoted to our cause and the Service. She is an excellent musician, and I am so happy that I will have music in my life. Today her ‘Trio’ was played in concert and it had great success. On December 11 a Russian choir will 39 40

Yuri’s and Mara’s love story is briefly recounted in Rosov 2002c, 11–25; the same author also published Mara’s twelve letters to Yuri, written in 1923–1925 (Rosov 2002d, 27–40). Archive of the N. Roerich Museum in New York.

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chant her ‘Songs without words’. I have already heard them and they are wonderful. Soon her ballet will be staged; it is called “Nataraja”, a God who manifests himself through the world dance.41 Towards the end of the year Yuri made a proposal to Mara and she gladly accepted it. “Today, on the 17th [of November], I declared my feelings to Mara and it turned out that we both deeply love and feel each other. In a word, I decided to marry and go to India as a married man”.42 In the same letter Yuri asked his parents to cable their consent to him as soon as possible, by giving them to understand that his decision was final and could not be changed: “If my chalice is broken, there’ll be nothing left for me but to go and sacrifice myself in some crazy expedition into Africa or Indo-China”. Three days later Yuri wrote to New York again to say that as soon as he got his parents’ consent he would begin preparations for wedding already scheduled for 19 January. This was shocking news for Nikolai and Elena. The marriage of their 20-yearold son seemed not only premature but absolutely untimely to them as it threatened to frustrate their immediate plans, which were actually the Masters’ Great Plan assigned for the four of them. Their journey to India was spoken of by Morya as a “procession of the four”, which left no room for an extra person in their party. Besides, the Roerichs planned to go to India on Krishnamurti’s invitation but Krishna was a good friend of the Manziarlys. He was attached to Marcelle and Io, especially to the lovely Marcelle; he believed them both to have entered the spiritual path, which excluded marital life. Therefore the Roerichs feared that Krishnamurti could cancel his invitation, once he learnt of Yuri’s and Mara’s engagement. However Yuri pressed them hard and even made it clear that their refusal would not only break his heart but cause his “spiritual death” and would ruin everything – “the group, his work and himself”.43 So they had to yield and give him their consent. On the 14th of December Yuri received a cable from his father with a laconic “Your decision accepted”, yet this did not solve the problem. As it turned out, to contract a marriage Yuri, who was only 20 at that time, that is not of the full age, needed written statements from his both parents certified by the consul general of France in New York or, in case of the consul’s refusal, by a public registrar with a visa of the consulate general of Russia attached because the Roerichs were formally Russian citizens. So Yuri sent his parents the French text of the required document to which he added more of his entreaties and threats.

41 42 43

Quoted from Rosov 2002c, 25. Yuri’s letter to parents, 17 November 1922. Yuri’s letters dated 21 September and 22 November 1922.

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However this time the elder Roerichs were in no great haste to comply with their son’s wishes. They became strongly prejudiced against M-me Manziarly and Mara after they had received a few letters from Yuri’s Parisian hosts, the Shkliavers. The latter portrayed the Manziarlys as an “immoral family” – M-me Manziarly, according to Shkliaver Sr., was trying to inveigle “poor Yurik” into marrying her daughter and he, being naïve and “pure in heart”, easily “fell into her trap”. He had allegedly abandoned his classes and was spending most of his time with his fiancée in Auteil. As a result Elena Ivanovna took the radical decision to rescue her son from M-me Manziarly’s grasp, by persuading him to postpone his marriage, at least until the time of her and Nikolai’s coming to Paris already scheduled for the fifteenth of May the following year. She inundated Yuri with the Master’s messages addressed to him personally, such as: “Udraya should take care to avoid hasty decisions”, “You should tell Udraya to respect my counsel”, “Udraya, learn to act your age”, “Let Udraya wait for your arrival. I advise him to stay at the old apartment and not to disclose [his intentions]”, “You all will rejoice on the 15th of May in Paris”, etc.44 Then she reported to Yuri that January was not a good time for wedding for occult reasons, reminding him of his bad horoscope. In the meantime Manziarly’s youngest daughter Io left for New York where she was invited by Nikolai Roerich to teach a class of Dalcroze eurythmics at the Master School and she was soon followed by Mima and Irma Vladimirovna herself. Madame Manziarly visited the Roerichs a few times in early 1923 and, quite predictably, she made a bad impression on them and the members of the Circle. The Roerichs did not share her enthusiasm about Yuri’s and Mara’s karmic romance, fully trusting the inside information of the Shkliavers. “E.I. told that Madame Manziarly had visited them twice and their impression of her was rather poor. E.I. found it hard to stay with her and she had had severe headaches and physical indisposition for two days after her last visit. There was one thing only that reconciled E.I. with her – her devotion to the Teacher and submission to His will”.45 As for Nikolai, he particularly disliked the article Manziarly published about him and his art in the Herald of the Star. He thought the piece was “childish and primitive” and besides had too many misprints.46 Overall Yuri’s situation was desperate. He found himself between two women – his strong-willed mother and his soft-hearted and complaisant fiancée. Both were dear to him yet he grew up in the household totally dominated by 44 45 46

These messages, channeled by Elena between 27 November and 4 December, were enclosed in her letter to Yuri dated December 5, 1923. Fosdik 2002, entry for 26 January 1923. Ibid., 160, entry for 29 January 1923.

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his mother who was the family’s chief and incontestable authority, especially on occult matters, so her arguments eventually overweighed the urges of his basic instincts. She found the right words to talk him out of a hasty marriage, with the Master’s strong backing. Yuri finally gave in and agreed to postpone his wedding. “I resign and am waiting for a new Counsel from the Teacher”, he wrote to his mother on 19 February. “In a word, I have resigned without any conditions”. Yuri admitted his grave fault – he did not realize that he was actually put on trial by the Master and misinterpreted his words (those sent to him and Mara directly in Paris, in automatic writings and séances), so Elena explained to him the situation by presenting his passionate romance in the occult light. “Everybody is destined to undergo a trial, so leant to accept it joyfully”; “In your age I craved for a sacrifice and heroic exploits (podvigi) for the sake of the Great Ideal, and you, my son, should awaken this [feeling] in you. Just think of the things you can miss… Every day miracles happen around us, everything is provided by the Teacher, all obstacles are gradually removed and the road is clear. The Signs of His confidence are so great and the future unfolds more and more. How wise and amazing is everything!” (30 January 1923). So Yuri had nothing but to stay firm and follow the same path of the Great Service, the more so that he was chosen by the Master together with the other Roerichs for his World Plan, which meant no outsider, no extra person, could join them. Therefore he was to be in constant readiness to commit a podvig, an act of heroism, – and, if need be, to sacrifice his attachments, his love and even his whole life to the great cause of the Masters! In every letter Yuri received from his mother he would find some new arguments against his marriage. “Remember, Yurik, that we are not guided by any personal considerations [underlined by Elena – A.A.], but set our minds only on our common plan and your place in it. Do not cede it to anyone else !!! My dear Yurik, find strength to avoid such an early marriage. Mara could change your karma before the time is due! Your karma is brilliant and it leads you to us, to walk with us and be our successor, otherwise you’ll be left on your own”. To strengthen her point she would refer to the Master: “Your early marriage is not envisaged in the Teacher’s plan. The early marriage is your ruin. Can it be that our ways will part and you won’t be able to follow the Teacher?”.47 By emphasizing Yuri’s “brilliant karma” as their successor holding a special place in the Master’s Plan, Elena apparently touched some very sensitive chords in his soul. Being one of the Roerichs – Ruiriks, he must share their destiny. Yet Yuri had his own vision of the future and his own plans. After the wedding he wanted to go to India together with Mara – there he intended to read lectures 47

Elena’s letter to Yuri, 25 January 1923.

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on Central Asia at Tagore’s University in Shantiniketan while his wife could write music and thus continue her artistic career. Another possibility was to take part in archeological excavations in India or elsewhere in Asia. Therefore he continued to press his point in favor of marriage: “The female principle is a great thing and it inspires [man] to creative work [as much as the path of bhakti], he wrote to New York in the spring of 1923. – And I am so proud that my future wife is an outstanding personality. So I’m asking and begging you please not to ruin my happiness”. The thing the Roerichs apprehended most – that Krishnamurti would learn about Yuri’s engagement – came true. The news about it somehow leaked into London where the local theosophists publicized the event in the Herald of the Star, a publication of Krishnamurti’s Order, in early March 1923. Yuri was upset and he immediate reported to his parents: “I would like to warn you that Krishnamurti knows about our engagement, but of course nothing about the occult aspect of the matter. In case you see him in New York don’t tell him anything about this occult aspect”.48 At the same time he reassured the elder Roerichs that practically no one in Paris knew about the fact since only two persons there received the theosophical magazine. Even then the compromising announcement, at Mara’s request, was clipped from the official copy belonging to the French TS. Surprisingly, the ultimate purpose of Roerich’s journey to India remained unclear to him so he questioned his parents: “Are we going to search for the Teacher, or father wants to do the frescoes at Adyar?” (28 March 1923). The questions bewildered and even angered Elena and her answer shows that she and her husband were absolutely certain that everything had been already pre-arranged and taken care of by their Masters so there was no need to worry: “We know where we meet [the Teachers] and we know what is to be accomplished, therefore your questions are out of place. We’ll depart [for India] in November [1923]. In the meantime expand your knowledge and [collect] practical information about the country of our aspirations. The more you grasp, the better for you” (10 April 1923). From what we know Yuri led an extremely busy life in Paris. His time was split between his Oriental and other classes, his meetings with various people on his father’s many errands, and his emotional daily rendezvous with Mara. He had to walk miles on foot from his school (the Sorbonne) to Auteuil and back to the Shkliavers’ house. Sometimes he had to stay overnight at Manziarly’s place not to have to walk to the Shkliavers, which gave occasion to gossiping in the neighborhood and cast a shadow on his fiancée’s reputation, given the 48

Yuri’s letter to parents, 3 March 1923.

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Puritanic mores of the day. Eventually Yuri had to shorten his dating with Mara to three times a week, on Morya’s demand, as the Master watched him and other Roerichs’ closely, which makes the whole situation absolutely grotesque. Despite his hectic schedule, Yuri also found time for occult practices. These included his favorite automatic writing (in the company of Mara) and occasional séances (together with George Shkliaver), though he disliked the latter, feeling that communication with spirits wore him out. As a result he developed a new technique – “to sit before a dark corner with a sheet of paper in hand and sketch (his) visions”. “I often reread the Counsels and they are engraved on my memory. I know that the Teacher is with me, I feel his presence and I see amazing visions. The Teacher prompts to me automatically all the time his idea of spiritual service”.49 Judging by his letters to parents, Yuri’s life, like that of his mother and father, was also split dramatically between the two worlds. The invisible one he came in touch with in his visions, automatic writings and séances seemed to him so real and fascinating, a better place than our imperfect physical world which brought him so much trouble and pain after he had known Mara. Yet something changed in him after his emotional breakdown when he had finally yielded to his mother’s persuasions. “If everything that happened to me was a trial indeed, he wrote bitterly to New York on February 1, then this trial is undeserved and a very cruel one. Certainly, I stopped writing automatically, because this kind of occult quest only disturbs the nervous system. You don’t have to think that I ceased believing in the guidance of the Teacher, it’s a too great thing to have doubts about, yet I do not dare any more to plunge into the misty sea of occult experience. I do this because of my work which I place above all and which requires tranquility. Now, as never before, I need complete solitude. It’s hard to live among people”. Yuri was still intent on making Mara his wife and therefore was waiting for his parents’ coming to Paris, with hope and fear.

…

The elevated atmosphere in the New York Circle prior to the Roerichs’ departure found a neat reflection in Sina’s diary. On 13 January 1923, for example, she wrote: M. has often talked of late that they [the Roerichs] should have enough time to board a ship and go to India before serious events break out – a fire in Europe. 49

Yuri’s letter to parents, 21 September 1922.

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The year 1924 is the year of their coming to India. The Roerichs advised the Horchs to have an underground chamber in the house purchased for the school to preserve the works of art there in view of the troubled times, as well as to save up the gold, starting from now. N.K. dreams about the future when we shall have a bureau or a department at the School accumulating information about the latest discoveries in all branches of science: chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, biology etc. that would express them in an accessible and simple language so that these could be applied to life. Sitting next to her (Elena) it is easy to embrace the world, and she teaches me every time how to understand better the Master and the Great Plan of His Creation. The idea of the King of the World is getting clearer and the advent of the Messiah becomes a beautiful and eagerly awaited event.50 Already in 1922 Morya began to prepare his disciples for their “World Mission” – on his advice they were to study carefully Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine and P.D. Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum. This semi-philosophical, semi-esoteric work by G. Gurjiev’s former disciple was published in England in 1920 and had two subtitles: The Third Canon of Thought and A Key to the Enigmas of the World. As the author explained to his readers, he called the system of higher logic ‘Tertium Organum’ “because for us it is the third instrument or the third law of thought after Aristotle and Bacon. The first was Organon, the second Novum Organum. But the third existed before the first”.51 In this ground-breaking work Elena Roerich found the ideas she would later develop in her Agni Yoga, claimed to be the ‘Third Testament’, such as the occult interpretation of energy, the noumenal world she would call the “Subtle World”, and “expanded consciousness”. One of Ouspensky’s main topics and certainly the ultimate message of his book was the formation of a new “four-dimensional man” who possesses a capacity for cognizance of the transcendental or noumenal world inaccessible by sensual perception. It is most likely that Elena’s seminal idea of “bringing together” of the earthly (physical) and astral planes in the New Era was prompted to her by Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum. Elena’s communication with her Master had become by then an everyday practice. One may speak of four basic methods of her rapport with the “Subtle World”:

50 51

Fosdik 2002, 128. Ouspensky 1982, 221.

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spiritualistic séances in which she acted as medium; “automatic writing” encouraged by Morya: “I’ll give you the best method: one day you talk through the table, and the next day you write down the thoughts you want to express”52; visual concentration on the Master’s image (“See my portrait before going to bed, Urusvati”53). This was an easy way to contact the “spirit-teacher” Elena would call the “introduction of Teacher into the third eye”. The method was actually a Buddhist Tantric practice of visualization of a tutelary deity or idam; Elena’s painful fits of some strange illness which instantly put her into the trance-like state of “altered” or split consciousness she herself would later describe as “fiery experience” and “sacred pains”. This method of “subtle” communication with otherworldly beings gradually replaced the séances and automatic writing and made her speak of superiority of mediation over mediumism. In a letter to Yuri she confessed that her visions were occasionally accompanied by “splitting of consciousness”54 which is reminiscent of Blavatsky’s similar experience and may provide a key to understanding her unusual psychic phenomenon. (The subject will be discussed in more detail in the Epilogue).

And of course a large amount of information of most bizarre nature came to Elena from her visions (hallucinations), dreams and an intermediate dream-like state between “dreaming and awakening”. Her visions had several recurring themes, such as seeing her Masters luminous eyes, face and hands as well as seeing a violent “battle” (bitva) going on around she would later describe as “Armageddon in the Subtle World”. Nikolai Roerich in a letter to Shibaev, in early 1921, however, spoke of three methods only by which he and Elena communicated with the “Subtle World”, that is, by way of “trance”, séances and automatic writing.55 By “trance” he ­probably meant visual concentration on the Master’s portrait. But this was at the early stage of their occult experimentation, prior to Elena’s overwhelming “fiery experience”, when the couple had several “spirit-guides” who manifested themselves during séances at which the artist often acted as a medium. In the same letter Roerich wrote: “Here we all develop mediumistic capacities. It looks as if they [members of the Circle–A.A.] catch it from me (as it was said in the 52 53 54 55

Rerikh, E. 2009, 93, entry for 19 November 1921. Ibid., 238, entry for 11 December 1922. Elena’s letter to Yuri, 24 November 1922. Annenko 2012, 19, letter to Shibaev, 24 February 1921.

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messages!). Three persons from the Circle have gotten the power. On the advice of the spirits, I’ll go to the Society of Psychic Research. [The spirits] said it would be helpful”. Elena’s daily contacts with her Teacher, her mediation between the two worlds, eventually made her into a guru and oracle. In a letter to Yuri in Paris she wrote about her role in the Circle: The thing the Teacher said in June 1921 – ‘You should become the fullmother to my disciples’ – came true. They are indeed our spiritual children and they show much devotion and love. How painful our departure will be to them. We are their source of inspiration and joy. It’s not only that their entire lives have changed, even their faces look different: the people around see this and do not understand [what happened].56 Nikolai Roerich also turned gradually into a guru, Fuyama, although his was purely pragmatic guruism of an enlightened artist which originated largely in the course of his much publicized exhibition tour across America. He earnestly believed that Master Morya was behind his many-sided activities as the Master “chose” his artwork and himself for the task of promoting art in America.57 Shortly before departure for Europe Nikolai would give instructions to…” his remaining co-workers. Thus Modra (Frances Grant) was to take upon herself all publicity, or the PR work: “She must maintain relations and send articles everywhere, be it South Africa or the island of Java, to organize the publicity in such a way as to have all threads in her hands and use them for spreading out the great ideas of our Teaching, and not just through the medium of the School, Corona Mundi and the Museum”. To the future disciples, those who will approach the Circle seeking spiritual knowledge in the Roerichs’ absence, the co-workers were instructed to tell about the great power of art and beauty in general. And then if someone finally chose the spiritual path, they were to give the person Krishnamurti’s At the feet of the Master and other “small-sized religious booklets” (such as those published by theosophists). “If he asks about the Masters, [you should] talk to him about Them, confirm our communion with the Teacher but never speak of our method of communication and say simply that everyone has his own way and this will be Shown to him if the person is Called”.58

56 57 58

Elena’s letter to Yuri dated 24 November 1922. Annenko 2012, 21, letter to Shibaev, 25 July 1921. Fosdik 2002, 191–192, entries for 23 and 26 April 1923.

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At the end of 1922 while preparing the Roerichs for their departure Morya “sent” them his special “Sign”. This was automatically drawn by Nikolai and depicted a cup of flame encircled by a stylized image of a serpent. The artist called it “the Chalice of the fiery Spirit” or the “Flaming Chalice”, being a symbol of the Holy Grail.59 This was to become something like an identification token for the Roerichs’ followers. (“I entrust you with My Sign. With its help I will gather My people”, said Morya). Roerich then had a cliché of the token made and sent out a certain number of imprints to his friends and confidents in Europe, Asia and America. These chosen and most trusted ones included Yuri Roerich (Udraya), V. Shibaev (Yaruya), P.A. Chistiakov in Harbin, S.S. Mitusov (Elena’s cousin in Petrograd), A.M. Remizov, Tumarkina, A.V. Rumanov, Debey, S.M. Shafran (Sina’s mother). Nettie Horch (Poruma) was to keep the imprints at home and give or send them to people on N. Roerich’s instruction only. Furthermore, Roerich ordered in Paris (through Yuri) special silver rings for the members of the New York Circle, with the esoteric symbol of the Master – three triangular-shaped orbs. The same symbol was used in the logos of Corona Mundi and the Roerich Museum. According to Sina Lichtmann, eight rings were manufactured for the Circle60 and 117 images of the Flaming Chalice printed on a crimson-color oil-paper for the Roerichs’ trusted followers and associates around the world. This “Sign of Faith” called Plat in Russian was to be used not only as a token but as an object to meditate upon as well. The Circle as we know it was a tiny group of people who had voluntarily placed themselves under the guidance of invisible Master Morya and acknowledged Nikolai and Elena Roerich as their gurus. They were a handful of zealots of the nascent universal religion articulated by Elena, who challenged the old world and were working hard to lay the foundations of a new and better one. Basically a spiritualistic community, the Circle would continue as such until Elena renounced spiritualism, following Blavatsky’s example, for the sake of her new teaching, Agni Yoga, the gospel of renewed humanity. In early 1923, when the Roerichs were already preparing for their Indian journey, Morya, through the medium of Elena, assigned special roles or commissions to every member of the Circle which transformed the group into a 59 60

The “Flaming Chalice” as a universal symbol to be found in different cultures was briefly discussed by N. Roerich in his travelogue Altai – Himalaya; see Roerich, N. 1996, 33. These eight people were the three couples of Roerichs, Horchs, Lichtmanns plus Esther Lichtmann and Frances Grant, Sina’s mother Sophia Shafran excluded. However from Yuri’s letter to his mother we know that Yuri also possessed a similar ring. When Madame Manziarly saw his ring she ordered a pendent with the Master’s sign she gave as a wedding gift to her daughter Mara.

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figure 13 “The Flaming Chalice”, the Token of the Master, drawn by N. Roerich, 1923

hierarchic structure, reminiscent of a Masonic lodge. At the head of it was Nikolai and Elena – Fuyama and Urusvati – the Guru and the Spiritual Mother and Conductress (Dukhovnaia Mat’ i Voditel’nitsa). Both of them were the chief ­executors of the Great Plan. One step lower was the Horch couple – Louis (­Logvan) – “Fuyama’s Hand” – and Nettie (Poruma) – “Urusvati’s Eye”. Both of them were to direct all Roerichs’ institutions in America and they were also to coordinate or “synthesize” everyone’s efforts. The roles of other members of the Circle were delineated as follows: Oyana (Esther Lichtmann) was to become the “Witness”, recording everything taking place on both the physical and spiritual planes. All events or ­phenomena witnessed she was to put in a separate book. Radna (Sina Lichtmann) – the “True Guard” – was to take notice of all ­dangerous setbacks in the work of every member and tell them about these. Avirah (Maurice Lichtmann) – the “Standard-bearer” – was “to keep the ­Master’s Standard high and make it stream wide when the moment comes”. Modra (Frances Grant) – the “Messenger of the Treasures given by the ­Teacher” – was “to be imbued entirely with the great essence of the Message she was carrying”. Sophia Shafran – the “Looking-out One” – was to keep a look out and “accept the great gift of good things sent”.61

…

On 8 May the three Roerichs – Nikolai Konstantinovich, Elena Ivanovna and Sviatoslav – left for Europe. There in France they were to reunite with Yuri and make preparations for their journey to India. The date of their sailing off from 61

Elena Roerich spoke of the “distribution of roles” in the Circle in her message to the Circle of 17 August 1930, see Rerikh, E. 1999c, 101.

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Marseille – 15 November 1923 – was determined in advance by Debey who warned them they should not depart earlier this date as a great calamity might ruin their plans in that case. This was how Sina Lichtmann described their departure from New York: Today we were seeing off our luminous great teachers, E.I. and N.K., to Europe. They left together with Svetik on SS Mauritania at 10 in the morning. Although we feel sad, yet the thought that they have gone to continue their great mission on the way to M. made us joyful. N.K. said that we all must rejoice because we must live for the future and sadness is a feeling of the past. While parting with us he said: Deistvuite! (Stay active). And he gave a kiss to all of us. Their marvelous figures remained imprinted in our hearts. In five years we’ll be in Russia, and in seven years, on 28 October 1931, we’ll see them again and hand them the letter given to us. Today an important, lucid and marvelous chapter in our lives has ended and began a new one, of our enormous and crucial work to be done here.62 62

Fosdik 2002, 195–196, entry for 8 May 1923.

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The Apparition of the Black Stone: A Miracle or a Hoax? The greatest hope of humanity pinned on the Stone is being revived.

Elena Roerich, Diary, 10 September 1923

⸪ On 14 May 1923 the SS Mauritania carrying the three Roerichs – the artist, his wife and their younger son – anchored at Cherbourg, France. Yuri was out at the landing-stage to welcome them and thence they all moved further to Paris. There the Roerich couple and Sviatoslav put up at the Hôtel Lord Byron on rue Lord Byron in the very center of the French capital, an important detail to remember. The hotel was recommended to them by M-me Shkliaver who had stayed there before because it was relatively inexpensive and had a telephone service. Meeting with Yuri nine months after was certainly a happy family reunion yet there was the thorny question of Yuri’s marital plans still pending. It needed to be settled right away before they went to India. The elder Roerichs must have put more pressure on their stubborn son to talk him out of marriage and he, despite his Tamerlane’s warrior spirit, could not resist any more. It was finally decided to relegate the issue to the supreme competence of the Master who alone knows what is good for his chosen ones. A vague reflection of the uneasy talks in the family can be found in some of Morya’s clumsy messages channeled by Elena-Urusvati in the latter half of May: 20 May. Urusvati is right. Manziarly should be told about friendship only. 21 May. We don’t see marriage… Udraya has disobeyed the Order, stirred up the waves of old karma… a good lesson for Tamerlane.1

1 Rerikh, E. 2009, 298, entries for 21 and 22 May 1923.

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The Master warned the Roerichs that violation of his edifying Ukazy, being his Orders, Instructions, and Counsels at the same time, could be very harmful for them. A further important message was channeled on May 28 which spoke rather cryptically of a “miracle” (chudo) being sent to Yuri (Udraya). “I sent the miracle of affirmation (chudo utverzhdeniia) to Udraya. This marks the beginning. Udraya will understand the miracle”.2 The Russian word utverzhdenie can also mean “persuasion”, “confirmation” and even “strengthening” which suggests some disagreement between Yuri and his parents. The Teacher’s earlier message of May 27 seems to support this assumption: “Yuri can easily return to you, but let him have pure thoughts”. But what seems even more surprising is Morya’s promise of Chudo – Miracle, since in the first Agni-Yoga book published in the same year 1923 the Teacher “abnegated” the manifestation of miracles: “One should discard miracles as a means of persuasion, because miracles have never convinced”.3 On May 25 the Roerichs were joined in Paris by Nettie and Louis Horch and shortly after that they all set out on a sightseeing trip across Europe (France, Italy and Switzerland). Mara did not accompany them although she wanted to very much. Her letters to Yuri written in June – August from Paris, London, ­Vienna and Erwald show how much she was in love with him and how badly she suffered her separation. “I can’t imagine my path without you. In a few years, maybe in Russia, we shall live together”.4 Like Yuri, she believed in the Master’s supreme wisdom and providence, and that He would surely unite her with her beloved sooner or later, as they were already karmically connected. This, however, was not to happen. Both Yuri and Marcelle would sacrifice their love to the great cause of their Master, the one they believed in so faithfully. Before leaving Paris, Elena Roerich visited a physician because of her disturbing heart condition. This was one Dr Lapeyre who diagnosed his patient with “cardiac neurosis” also known as hysteria magna to medieval physicians. ­According to Lapeyre, some catholic saints, such as St. Therese and St. Catherine of Sienna, suffered from the same illness.5 This was not the first time that Elena went to a doctor – in February 1923 a physician in New York determined that she had “a poor heart” and advised her to avoid “any agitation”.6 Dr. Lapeyre’s diagnosis, as soon as Elena Ivanovna heard it, gave a new turn to 2 Ibid., 300. 3 Leaves of Morya’s Garden, Book 2: Illumination, Part II, II, 6. The book was translated into English in 1925, www.agniyoga.org. 4 Quoted from Mara’s letter to Yuri Roerich from Vienna, 18–20 July 1923; see Rosov 2002d, 35. 5 E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 7 (1930), 26. 6 Letter from N. Roerich to Yuri, 12 February 1923, N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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her thinking and even changed her self-awareness as she immediately ranked herself among “superior beings”, like those catholic female saints. In a letter to the New Yorkers she, already posing as their spiritual Mother, wrote: “We [she and Nikolai – A.A.] are surrounded by four children, which is quite tiresome. Of late I have weakened a bit – the attacks of cardiac neurosis began and the doctor says the only remedy is to spend some three months in full solitude. I may find it in Kashmir in a year’s time. I feel so tired that I can hardly restrain my tears…”.7 The illness prompted Elena to undertake some fascinating reading – the ­biographies of St. Catherine and St. Gertrude.8 In these books she found things reminiscent of her own situation: “Their visions have much in common with those that we have. How similar are their teachings to ours! I can’t read these books without tears rolling in my eyes. There’s so much inspiration, love and beauty [in them]”. Elena then recommended the books to her spiritual children in the Circle suggesting that they should look for them in the library of the catholic convent in New York. While in Italy the Roerichs went to pay homage to a modern saint – Pio of Pietrelcinathei, popularly known as Padre Pio (born Francesco Forgione). He became famous for his stigmata and also had a reputation as worker of miracles. They found him among the friars of San Francesco Rotondo convent. What seems interesting about this visit is that Padre Pio’s whereabouts were given to the Roerichs by Mara. In her letter to Yuri she also suggested that the best time to see the Padre would be during the mass because “it’s the only occasion when the stigmata on his palms are open”.9 On 12 September, already in Paris, awaiting the arrival of Oyana (Esther ­Lichtmann), who had spent the whole summer in Switzerland, Elena Ivanovna sent a very important message to New York: I am going to tell you now the most secret thing. A Great Day is approaching! The Greatest Gift will be delivered [to us] and we in the Circle [underlined by E. Roerich – A.A.] must wait reverentially and accept It. Rejoice, witnesses of the Greatest Miracle and do not reveal the most sacred Mystery to anybody! The preceding and the following days [let us] spend in harmony.

7 8 9

Elena’s letter to the Circle, 2 June 1923, N. Roerich Museum, New York. Elena mentioned two books in the letter – Vie de St. Catherine de Sienna by Raymond de Capone and St. Gertrude, sa vie interieure by Dolan. Rosov 2002d, 30, Mara’s letter to Yuri, early July 1923, London.

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Poruma and Logvan are already with you. They are dear and close to us – they know about the approaching Miracle [literally, “about the Miracle which is under preparation” – A.A.]. Take tender care of Frances, but do not reveal the full significance of the gift of the Stone to her – you should remember about her milieu. While telling her the legend, don’t go into details and don’t hand her the records. The message needs some brief commentary. The first thing that arrests one’s attention is the utmost secrecy in which Elena was trying to shroud the miraculous event which was to occur on a certain date in the near future – the “apparition” of the legendary Black Stone allegedly sent to her and Nikolai by their Master from his Ashram. Another important point is the Legend of the Stone. This was actually nothing but a long series of Morya’s messages channeled by Elena in June – early October and pieced together so as to form a more or less coherent narrative. Still her account remained rather loose and muddled up and had a strong mystic flavor. It would be published in 1924 in New York under the title ‘Legenda. Prorochestva Vostoka’ (A Legend: The Eastern prophesies), with Elena’s brief introduction. Later on, in 1929, Elena would reproduce the story in her new opus Kriptogrammy Vostoka (The Cryptograms of the East) printed in Paris under one of her pen-names, Saint-Hilaire. The material for the Legend was apparently gleaned from various mythological, folklore and esoteric sources to which Elena added her own ‘synthetic’ interpretation. One of these sources was H.A. Jäschke’s Tibetan-English dictionary, from which she could learn, with Yuri’s help of course, that the Stone, known to Tibetans as nor-bu rin-po-che, was “a fabulous precious stone, the possession of which procures inexhaustible riches”. And even more specifically, that it had the shape of an oval fruit of the size of a large lemon, according to a medieval mathematical work ‘Waiduria Karpo’.10 Another authoritative source, the Indian linguist and traveler Sarat Chandra Das, whose work Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet was well known to Elena, described the stone as “the priceless gem in which lies the chief wealth and property of the Chakravarti Raja”.11 (Chakravarti Raja is a name of the Universal Sovereign, the One who turns the Wheel of Dharma, according to the Buddhist doctrine). The Legend spoke of the magic Stone as a most sacred ancient relic of the East, of its great occult implications, of its former possessors, such as King Solo­ mon, Alexander of Macedonia, the Mogul emperor Akbar, Tamerlane and 10 11

Jäschke 1992, 308. Das 1991, 746.

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others, and of its destination in the upcoming events at the threshold of the New Era. The Stone which allegedly fell down on the Earth from Orion, the constellation of three bright stars, in time immemorial was not an ordinary meteorite (aerolite) but a very special cosmic object which possessed some supernatural qualities. It was a powerful psychomagnet as it incorporated a very rare astral substance named moryi which affected the fate of its possessors, as Elena would explain later. Moreover, its emanations (“subtle energies”) could exert an influence on other people and even on entire nations. The main body of the Stone known in world history under various names, such as the Treasure of the World, the Holy Grail, Lapis Exilis (the Wandering Stone), Chintamani, Norbu-rinpoche (Precious Gem), etc., was preserved in secret in the mountainous abode of the Great White Brotherhood. The object that was wandering around the world for many centuries was only a small part of the Stone or a sliver. One of this Minor Stone’s owners in the 19th century was Napoleon Bonaparte who presented it to his wife Josephine, but after their split-up, it disappeared without trace. (The fact provided a brilliant occasion for modern myth-makers to continue the legend further and claim that the Stone’s last custodian, already in the 20th century, was the most secret French “Order of the Priorate of Zion” (l’Ordre du Prieuré de Sion) of which we will speak below.) What was the purpose or destination of the Stone in the new epoch of the “changing of races”? Or, to put it in other words, why did the Masters decide to send it to the Roerich couple? From Morya’s messages prior to the “arrival” of the Treasure of the World in Paris we learn of its practical usefulness due to its magic or ‘psycho-magnetic’ qualities. First, it would help Elena and Nikolai to maintain a permanent – magnetic – connection with the Masters and their Brotherhood where the main body of the Black Stone remained. Secondly, the Stone could serve as a protecting “shield” and a powerful “new weapon” for Fuyama: If holding it in his right hand Fuyama turns towards his enemy and pronounces thrice his name, the person will drop dead and “a whirlwind will sweep him away”.12 With this Stone in his hand, Fuyama will also be able to lead the hordes of Mongols after him.13 At the same time the mysterious signs or characters on the casket or “ark” will allow Urusvati and Fuyama to concentrate on the new religion they are to reveal to the world. The Roerichs’ ultimate purpose was to bring the donated sliver across Tibet and return it to the citadel of the White Brothers where it was to “reunite” with its main body, the Big Stone, and this symbolic act would bring all their plans to fruition – “complete the victory”.14 12 13 14

Rerikh, E. 2009, 311, entry for 7 July 1923. Ibid., 325, entry for 1 September 1923. Ibid., 307, 323, 333, entries for (20 June, 24 August, and 25 September 1923.

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Surprisingly, when the Stone had already come into the hands of his beloved disciples, Urusvati and Fuyama, the same Morya sent them another message saying that the Treasure of the World was to “ascend” the silver mountains of Altai15 where it was to be laid at the foundation of the new temple of One Religion.16 Conflicting statements or predictions like these are not infrequent in Elena’s diaries. Here is another striking example – the two different scenarios of the miraculous appearance of the Stone at the Roerichs’ place. At first Morya informed Elena (on 2 and 20 June) that they would find it “among their things” and that there would be a note attached. But then the Master changed his mind as on August 4 he announced that a “parcel” with the Stone would be delivered to them by a messenger. The latter scenario was certainly more spectacular and more mythical, as a messenger of the divine forces was an indispensable actor in all ancient religious myths. The messages from Morya mentioning the Stone, despite their vagueness and clumsy style, came to Elena between June 1 – when the Roerichs and Horchs left Paris – and continued at short intervals all through the summer and the beginning of autumn until October 6, the ‘Great Day’ when the Stone miraculously ‘appeared’ in Paris. There was also one very strange message for Yuri channeled as early as May 28, quoted at the beginning of the chapter (“I sent the miracle of affirmation to Udraya”), which may be crucial in solving the mystery of the Stone as readers will see below. When reading these messages in Elena’s diary one will find in them nothing much but a set of curt and obscure psychic communications of the Master – “You will get Morya’s pure gift in Paris”, “You will understand in October; That House of the Runes will send the Stone, then you may go to me”, “You should not show the Stone for three years”, etc. – and general statements keeping the woman in constant suspense, such as “The Miracle is approaching…”, “The ancient Vessel has returned”, “I am walking across a desert, carrying the Chalice … there’s a treasure in it, the gift of Orion”, etc. The most important ones were received on the 3rd and 5th of October, the day before the Stone finally arrived: Keep the Stone in the ark brought from Rottenburg. There are four squares on it with the ‘M’ sign in each. The stone is like a human heart. It’s even more remarkable that the Stone which has arrived from the East has an oblong shape of a flattened fruit or a heart. There are letters on the ark – their meaning is unknown (3 October).

15 16

Ibid., 338, entry for 8 October 1923. Rerikh, E. 2011, 394, entry for 26 December 1923.

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I remember its size – it’s my fifth finger’s length, of grey color, [looks like] a dry fruit. Positively, I possessed the Stone and will find It. They say the Stone comes by itself, one cannot take It. I advise you when the Stone arrives, to take out the ark but do not open it until the 28th of October. Then open it but do not touch [the Stone], take a photo and shut it again until India. There you will get an ivory box and should put the Stone into it. And put the box into the ark. Keep the arc intact – there are My letters on it” (5 October)17. And now we will come to the most intriguing part of the story, the miracle itself. Elena’s diary entry for the 6 of October reads: “On Saturday October 6 at 11 a.m. Udraya received a parcel”. Later on the same day Elena asked her Teacher about the person who brought the parcel and received a rather obscure reply: “The Birds bring, but do not talk much since there are many hounds following in the tracks”. To this Morya added further that a great mystery was entrusted to the Roerichs and knowing it they should now “walk like lions”.18 The parcel was a white wooden box with an address written in red ink in French by some bold hand: Madame et Monsieur N. Roerich 5 Place Vendõme Banque Banquers Trust de la part de M.M.19 Inside the box was an old casket – the “ark” – coated with iron and leathercovered, having a roof-like lid, a massive lock and an elegant metal handle on top of it. In the corners of one half of the lid there were four squares with the Gothic letter M in each. (The casket would be reproduced several times on the paintings by Nikolai and by Sviatoslav Roerich20). According to Elena, the casket was manufactured in the 13th century in Rottenburg, Germany, from an ancient piece of leather allegedly belonging to the biblical King Solomon. This leather 17 18 19 20

Rerikh, E. 2009, 336–337. Ibid., 337. The box and the casket were reproduced in several editions; see, for example Shaposhnikova 1996, 90. See Shustova 2005, also Shustova 2004.

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figure 14a-b A wooden box and the Casket with the Stone

figure 15 The Black Stone (Chintamani), 1923, NRM archive

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figure 16 The Black Stone (side view)

figure 17 The Casket (with the Stone), 1923, NRM archive

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or “parchment”, in Elena’s words, came from Spain, where it was possessed by a learned rabbi Moses de Leone, who, upon the order of the Great White Brotherhood, compiled in Guadalajara a cabbalistic treatise Zogar. Having fled from persecution by Spaniards to Rottenburg in Germany, the person found there shelter in the castle of one female landowner (“feudal lady” – feodalka), who was none other than Elena Roerich in one of her former lives. As a token of gratitude the old Jew presented to the woman the sacred Stone as a talisman and the piece of leather from which subsequently a casket was made for storing the relic.21 The traces of time left on the decrepit leather Nikolai and Elena interpreted as “alchemic signs” while Sina Lichtmann, when shown the Casket for the first time in 1926, saw “painted shields, birds and a seated figure” on its surface.22 Sviatoslav Roerich, for his part, asserted that there were images of a knee-bent man and woman on the Casket and that the woman was holding the Stone in her hand. Moreover, both figures were encircled by three-dotted triangles. “Almost the same design I found in the ancient manuscript on alchemy”, claimed Sviatoslav.23 Modern scholars offer more intricate, if fanciful, interpretations. For example, A. Shustova, saw the mythical Phoenix in the lower left corner of the lid, “a symbol of the changing of cosmic cycles and of the beginning of the New Era in the evolution of the planet”, and some other birds, such as halcyons, symbolizing the regeneration of the world. Hence, concludes Shustova, the Casket of the Stone “is a symbolic message from the past to the future, addressed to its recipients”.24 The Stone was wrapped in a piece of old tissue with the embroidered image of the sun on it. Inside the solar disk were Roman letters: I.H.S. The acronym was interpreted by the Roerichs as In hoc signo victories (By this you will win) but it could also mean In has salus (By this you will be saved). This was the motto of the Roman emperor Konstantin the Great and it decorated his banner.25 Konstantin is known for his radical change from a ruthless persecutor of Christianity to its ardent protector who moved his capital from Rome to ­

21 22 23 24 25

See E. Roerich’s letter to R. Ya. Rudzitis, 18 November 1935, in Rerikh, E., Rerikh, N. 2000, 113–114 (quoted in Shustova 2005, 71–73). Fosdik 2002, 248, entry for 18 June 1926. Rerikh, S. 2004, 143, Sviatoslav’s letter to Maurice Lichtmann, 5 July 1935. Shustova 2005, 74, 78. Ibid., 79–80.

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Constantinople. (Getting ahead of the story, Roerich also planned to move the capital of the future monarchic Russia from Moscow to the city of Zvenigorod to be built by him in the Altai, that is, from the West to the East). According to Elena, this change in Konstantin was not accidental. He was instrumental in the evolution of humanity and was inspired by the Masters who sent him a personal message recorded in Western annals.26 On the same day October 6 the artist cabled to New York triumphantly: “Today 11 a.m. received promised great gift – great joy – Roerichs”.27 The news made a tremendous impression on the Circle. “So the great gift – the Stone promised by the Teacher was received”, recorded Sina Lichtmann in her diary. “We all are extremely happy. We don’t know how it happened, but we hope to learn the details. There’s full harmony among everyone and great joy at School”. A few days later a letter came from Elena with a description of the miracle. “A marvelous letter”, Sina commented on it. – “We are all amazed; in the evening we met at the Horchs’ place and we read it all together. An unfor­ gettable day”.28 The story of how the Master’s gift came into the hands of the Roerichs as recounted by Elena was as follows. On Saturday, October 6, Nikolai received a notice with the morning mail from the American bank ‘Bankers Trust’, saying that someone had left there “a small packet” for him and Elena. He did not attach any importance to it, thinking that the packet probably contained some books or documents. So he said nothing to Elena and asked his son George (Yuri) to collect the item. He himself had no time to do it since he had an appointment with the Secretary of Interior regarding their entry visas to Pondicherry. As for Elena, she, not suspecting anything, went out for a walk. She was in an elated mood for a third day, feeling some “unusual joy”. Returning to the hotel she saw the figures of her husband and her son in the window. They had been waiting impatiently for her “for two hours” already. Back in the room Elena finally saw the thing picked up by George at the bank – this was a wooden box with an inscription in French ending with the words “de la part de M.M.». You can imagine my feelings when we saw the inscription M.M. We opened the box and inside, wrapped in purple-red velvet, stood the sandalwood shrine, covered with leather of a dark red color and old silver, 26 27 28

Rerikh, E. 2002b, 117. Fosdik 2002, 297, entry for 6 October 1923. Ibid., 202, entry for 17 October 1923.

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[and decorated] with images of shields, triangles, red and white spheres, birds, trees, and figures with halos. On the other side were four squares, two green, two red, and in each the letter M in old Gothic style. Silver encircles the shrine from all sides and makes three ornamental circles. Elena and Nikolai took out “the shrine” and unfolded the velvet which, as she remarked, was of her “favorite color”. They were amazed to see the “stamped image of our sign” on the casket, “the Chalice with a ring”, with the only difference that “instead of the girdle” there was “the letter M, adorned by leaves”, Elena explained further. Another striking thing was “a remarkable aroma and heat” emanating from the shrine they all immediately felt. Concluding her account Elena related some curious details of how Yuri collected the parcel. He did it “at the post department” of the bank, by showing the notice to a lady-attendant there. He paid no attention to the inscription on the wooden box at first and therefore did not enquire of the lady about the person who had brought the parcel. It was only later when he was “sitting in the taxi” that Yuri read the inscription. He was so excited that he immediately changed his plans and instead of going to the dentist went straight home. So this was Elena’s own account of the miraculous apparition of the Black Stone. The next day Nikolai sent word about the miracle to Shibaev in Riga: I am revealing to you a great and joyful secret. Only the circle in New York and you will know it. Any divulgence of it will bring incalculable calamities to the entire plan. Yesterday, October 6, at 11 a.m. the Stone was received in a packet from the Bankers Trust. It is enshrined in a casket not to be opened for three weeks. The casket is wrapped in a piece of old purple velvet with the image of the Sign as is on the ‘Plat’ given to you, but with the letter M. There’s a special fragrance coming from the casket, which became stronger a day after. We’ll take a picture and send it to you. . Enclosed are the English description and the schematic drawing. All this is so important that I cannot write about anything else. Keep the secret carefully (as there’ll be those who will try to know it) and rejoice in spirit for the sake of the Future”.29 Years later Nikolai Roerich would briefly refer to the miraculous event in the biographical essay Vekhi (Landmarks). Speaking of himself and Elena in the third person as “friends”, he maintained that they had had “an indication” 29

Annenko 2012, 53, N. Roerich’s letter to Shibaev, 7 October 1923.

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(ukazanie) that a very valuable parcel would be sent to them. “The friends had nearly forgotten about it when they came to Paris”. And then “one day they received from the bank ‘Bankers Trust’ a notification about the arrival of the packet [my italics – A.A.]. It turned out that in this most usual way the most unusual parcel was delivered”.30 Elena’s and Nikolai’s accounts of how they got the Stone from their Master were fully trusted by their disciples as seems only natural. Yet an inquisitive and unbiased researcher will easily find some drawbacks to their firsthand and seemingly trustworthy evidence and will immediately start asking questions. Such as, how did Yuri who lived at a different place in Paris happen to be in his parents’ room at the Lord Byron hotel precisely at the time when they received a notice from the bank? Why was it he who collected the parcel at the bank and handed it over to his parents? More questions relate to the bank. Why the ‘Bankers Trust’? Why didn’t Morya send the Stone to the Roerichs directly to avoid the risk of a theft, as his precious gift could be stolen from the bank by some opponent of the Masters from the satanic ‘Black Lodge’? Getting to the bottom of the story we are actually faced with a dilemma – either to believe Elena and Nikolai and the things they tell us about the Stone and its ‘miraculous apparition’ in Paris, although in that case we will have to acknowledge the physical existence of theosophical mahatmas, or offer some rationale of our own to explain the miracle as was recounted by the Roerichs. There are three purely rational explanations that can be given to the ­Roerichs’ story which we will discuss now. 1: The Stone was sent to N. Roerich by his Masonic sponsor(s), either European or American. 2: The Stone was sent by a secret society in Paris, the last possessor of the Stone (as posited by Vladimir Rosov). 3: The Miracle was performed or ‘staged’ by Elena and Nikolai Roerich according to a well-conceived scheme, secretly from their sons, and therefore was basically a mystification or hoax. But first let us give a closer look at the ‘precious gift’ itself, the Stone. There are no historical records whatever to prove the existence of such a great relic either in ancient or modern times and absolutely no evidence that King Solomon, Akbar, Tamerlane and Napoleon possessed anything like it, one after another. If so, there is no backstory of the Stone. What we actually have is a number of unrelated narratives of mythological, folklore, or esoteric origin speaking of 30

Rerikh, N. 1992, 34.

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various magic stones, which Elena pieced together into one highly romanticized tale of the Black Stone. It is very tempting of course to assume that Roerich had some powerful patron, a Mason of a very high degree of perfection, his secret admirer and promoter, as was the case with Helena Blavatsky, especially if we recall the artist’s mysterious encounter with his benefactor incognito at the Metropolitan museum. Yet Roerich, as far as we know, has never had such a patron. Even though he had close contacts with Dr. Hille and other Masons in Chicago, New York, London, Paris and elsewhere, none of them seem to be the right men for the role of Master Morya. Theoretically someone among these mysterious patrons could possess some ancient or sacred relics, though not the mythical Black Stone. As for theosophists, they have never attached any particular importance to the myth in their many writings. Also, one should keep in mind that the Altai as the final destination of the Stone was not articulated by Roerich until the time when he met an émigré-writer, the Altai-born G.D. Grebenshchikov, which was in Paris in the latter half of 1923, i.e. already after the ‘apparition’ of the Stone. It was only then that the artist began talking expressly about the future construction of the Temple of One Religion at the Altai ‘silver mountains’ with the magic Stone to be laid at the foundation of the new shrine. The Roerich scholars in Russia – who are practically all mahatma-believers – have never really tried to investigate the miraculous incident and take Elena’s account at face value. Thus historian Vladimir Rosov holds that the Stone after Napoleon and his wife Josephine31 had possessed it for some time “disappeared mysteriously” after the split-up of the august couple. “It is believed that for more than a century it had remained in Paris in the hands of a secret society specially set up to take care of the treasure. In the 1920s the society was headed by the famous French film director Jean Cocteau who was acquainted with the Russian émigré artists – N. Roerich, I.F. Stravinsky, S.P. Diagilev and others. On the advice of the Teacher and the decision of the Council of the secret society the Stone was to be returned to India. And it was the Roerichs who were chosen to carry out the commission”.32 The “secret society” referred to by Rosov, if truth be known, has never existed in either Paris, or elsewhere in Europe. Rosov’s theory is actually based on the utterly fabulous account of the Order of the Priorate of Zion (l’Ordre du Prieuré de Sion), allegedly founded by a French occultist Pierre Plantard (1920–2000). According to Plantard, this order existed in medieval Europe and possessed some precious Christian relics, such as the bowl used by Jesus at the Last Supper 31 32

Josephine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon, empress of France (1804–1809). Rosov 2002a, 77.

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and the chalice into which Joseph of Arimathea had collected the Savior’s spilled blood. (This chalice in medieval literature was associated with the Holy Grail). The Order of the Priorate of Zion was closely linked with the celebrated Order of the Templars which emerged in 1118, moreover the former entity had actually generated the latter. The Order of the Priorate of Zion, claimed Plantard, survived into modern times in the guise of that secret esoteric society located in Paris, to which belonged Charles Nodier, Victor Hugo, Claude Debussy, Jean Cocteau and François Ducaud-Bourget (all of them were its “Grand Masters”). The story of the Order and its ancient treasures as told by Plantard looks absolutely incredible. In reality the Order with this name was founded in 1956 by Plantard himself in Annamasse, a little town in the High Savoie region in the Alps, and was one of the many neo-knightly organizations of the 20th century, according to an Italian researcher Massimo Introvigne.33 Hence Jean Cocteau could not send the Casket with the Stone to the Roerichs. He had never belonged to any secret societies. Moreover, Roerich’s personal attitude to Cocteau was strongly derogatory. In his famous travelogue Altai – Himalaya one may read the following statement: “We recall how all types of ungifted Jean Cocteaux in Europe offer Americans a special dish of nonsense…”.34 But this leaves us with the only option – the Stone was sent to the Roerichs by … Roerichs themselves! No one else could send them a thing which exists merely as an object of folklore and mythology. Interestingly, Yuri Roerich, who received the parcel with the Stone, would define norbu rinpoche in his TibetanRussian-English dictionary years after as the “fabulous precious [stone the possession] of which procures inexhaustible riches; one of the seven ratnas or jewels of Buddhist mythology”.35 The starting paragraph in Elena’s letter may suggest perhaps that she was not implicated in the “plot”, so to speak, and it was all Nikolai’s crafty doing, as he wanted so much to revive the old mythology and make it work “for the great Future” towards his and his Masters’ end. However this could hardly be so. We know that Nikolai, since the time when he fell in love with Elena, had fully submitted himself to the woman’s superior authority and wisdom. He was too dependent on Elena – her ideas, her opinions, and, since the 1920s, her channeling and visions as well, and would have hardly dared to act entirely on his own, without her knowing what he was doing. But this means they both were 33 34 35

Introvigne 2006, 93, 138, 139. Roerich, N. 1996, 233, entry for 9 March 1926. Rerikh, Iu. 1985, vol. 5, 72. The words in square brackets are missing in the entry, which must have been the printer’s fault.

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intimately involved in the process of “materialization” of the myth of the Stone of their own making! As for their son Yuri, his involvement in his parent’s mystical “plot” seems to be more intricate. The fact that he collected the parcel with the Stone made him an important witness of the miracle as well as an actor in the “mystery-play” conceived and staged in a masterly fashion by his parents. The miracle restored his shaken faith in the Masters (and one will have to remember Morya’s message of May 25: “I sent the miracle of affirmation to Udraya”) and helped him make a difficult decision to leave his beloved Mara behind in Paris. Thus it was not a mere coincidence that he turned up in his parents’ room on the day scheduled for the miracle (which might have been calculated by an astrologer, probably the same Debay) – two days before October 8, St. Sergius’s Memorial Day. The occult world of the Roerichs knew no coincidences; all events of “cosmic dimension” there, such as the apparition of the sacred Black Stone, were predetermined and occurred, according to their, or their Masters’ supramundane (“cosmic”) plan or scenario. Yuri was to receive the precious gift of the Masters and transmit it to his parents, “the chosen ones”, which was an act of great symbolic, mystical and mythical implication. An important thing to keep in mind at this point – two members of the Roerich family had already possessed the Stone in the past: Elena as a German “feudal lady” (in the 13th century) and Yuri as Tamerlane (late 14th century). So the Stone simply “returned” to its former possessors. But if the whole thing was a hoax or a staged miracle, how did the Roerichs do it? The Stone, being just a sliver of a meteorite, would certainly not have been a difficult thing to obtain, in either America or Europe. Roerich either could have stumbled upon one by chance – and he surely knew what meteorites looked like – or he could have purchased one from someone36 or this could have been an item from his huge collection of various historic and pre-historic artifacts which he had amassed in St Petersburg known as the “Stone Age Collection”. (One will have to remember at this point his excavations in the vicinity of Pskov, a site known for its large meteorite field.) There is yet one more possibility which surprisingly was suggested by the Master himself to Elena in one of his messages in the late 1922: You will ask, ‘How amidst the stream of life one can remember the Treasure of the World?’. I shall smile and say that it is simple – select at the 36

Such a possibility is suggested by a very curious message Elena channeled from Morya which reads: “You pay dearly for the Stone”, 22 September 1922.

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seashore a pebble smoothed by the waves and carry it with you, remembering the Treasure of the World. And when they press around you and cover your garments with dust, then take in your hand the chosen stone, and remind yourself of the Treasure of the World which I commanded you to take to its destination”.37 However we have to reject this simple explanation. There is a photo of the Stone taken by Nikolai soon after its ‘apparition’, and the item does not look in it like a smooth pebble picked up at the seashore. Not at all! The picture shows a fragment of solid rock resembling a meteorite rather than a pebble. So the Stone could have been a meteorite indeed. However the possibility that it fell on our planet from the far-off Orion is next to impossible. As is well known to astronomers, all meteorites originate in our Solar system, which means they could not “come” from some distant constellation. Yet Elena was of a different opinion. In the introduction to her Legend of the Stone she mentioned a rare phenomenon recently observed by astronomers – the emanation of pink rays from Orion: “The September 1923 issue of the Bulletin de la Société Astronomique in Paris speaks of the pink rays emanating from the constellation of Orion. In this way the [recent] Japanese catastrophes became connected with the manifestation of the new era of humanity”.38 As for the ancient Casket, Roerich could have purchased it in an antique shop. He maintained contacts with many antique dealers in America and Europe in 1920–1923. And the special “sacred signs” on the lid were probably added later by someone, Roerich not excluded. The tissue in which the Stone was wrapped seems to be an old piece of Communion-cloth as used by Catholics, so the mysterious letters on it (I.H.S) will stand simply for Jesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus the Saviour of humans). Roerich seems to have conceived the idea of possessing and carrying around a sacred stone a long time before. We already spoke of the artist’s unusual attraction to anything ‘stony’. “If you ask Roerich what he likes most of all he will tell you: Stones”, wrote Sergei Makovsky in his memoirs.39 And there is a strange verse written by Roerich as early as 1911: Kamen’ znai, Kamen’ khrani. Ogn’ sokroi. Ognem zazhgisia. 37

38 39

Rerikh, E. 2009, 228, entry for 4 November 1922. The passage was cited in the first Agni Yoga book, Leaves of Morya’s Garden (The Call, Book of Joy, 366); see the online English edition: www.agniyoga.org Rerikh, E. 2001b, 5. Makovskii 1999, 91.

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Krasnym smelym. Sinim spokoinym. Zelionym mudrym. Znai odin. Kamen khrani. Fu, Lo, Ho, Kamen’ nesite. Vozdaite sil’nym. Otdaite vernym. Ienno Gujo Dia – Priamo idi! (Know the Stone. Guard the Stone. Hide the Fire. Set yourself on Fire. The red brave one. The blue tranquil one. The green wise one. Know alone. Guard the Stone. Fu, Lo, Ho, carry the Stone. Reward the strong. Give to the truthful. Ienno Gujo Dia – Walk on straight!).40 These mysterious lines resemble a spiritualist message put into verse. What is important here is the mention of four persons who “know”, “guard” and “carry” the precious Stone. And one should also remember at this point Roerich’s masterpiece “Treasure of the World” depicting the World’s “Foundation-Stone” carefully guarded by angels. But this only means that the image of the fabulous magic stone was deeply imprinted on his mind and haunted him since that early period. It should be no surprise then that many years later the artist, who earnestly believed that any legend or myth was grounded in reality, decided to recreate the old mythology by giving it a new twist appropriate for the approaching New Era. By doing so he quite naturally made himself, his wife and his elder son the key actors or “heroes” of the neo-myth conveniently shaped by Elena. “The Law of filling up the space is like cement”, we read in her diary. – “The existence of legends, prophesies and various omens is important not for separate individuals bur for the cementing of space.41

40 41

Rerikh, N. 1921, 11. The verse constitutes the concluding part of a short poem Zakliatie (Oath). Rerikh, E. 2011, 13, entry for 8 February 1924.

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The Roerichs certainly needed the myth for their new teaching and the Great Plan in particular. The fact of their possession of the legendary Black Stone made their undisguised claims of being spiritual gurus and messengers of the great “Hierarchy of Light” fully legitimate in the eyes of their followers, few though they were. At the same time the miracle of a new “apparition of the Stone” proved without the slightest doubt the reality of the Masters and their Great White Lodge (earthly Shambhala), which helped the Roerichs rally the Circle more closely and manage it more efficiently. And last but not least – the myth helped them bring their strayed son Yuri back into the family fold and thus retain the integrity of the Circle. It was for this reason mainly that Yuri was made the recipient of the lofty gift. And now about the Bankers Trust. The bank was an American banking institution, a trust company, which had a Paris-based branch located at 5 Place Vendõme, right in the center of the city. What seems particularly interesting about the bank is that it had many clients from the Russian diaspora in NewYork and probably in Paris as well. The director of Bankers Trust between 1917 and 1938 was Herbert L. Pratt (1871–1945), head of Standard Oil Company of New York who was also known as an art collector. It seems that Nikolai regularly used the bank to transfer money to Yuri in Paris and this was how the Bankers Trust was chosen for a temporary “asylum” of the Stone, according to the Roerich’s scenario of the miracle. There was no need whatever to keep the Casket with the Stone in the bank if they were sent directly to the Roerichs. Why on earth their benefactor, if he really existed, should deposit the relics in a bank for some time before sending them to the Roerichs cannot be reasonably explained. There seems to be only one plausible explanation – the person apparently could not keep the items at home. But this immediately points to Nikolai and Elena Roerich as the Stone possessors. Staying at the hotel where they occupied a single room, separately from Sviatoslav, they certainly could not keep their treasures in secret, concealed from anybody, mainly from their sons, until the appointed Day X. It is difficult to interpret the obscure messages relating to the Stone channeled by Elena, still one may find in them some little bits and scraps of information that help a researcher unravel the whole mystery of the Masters’ “gift” to the Roerichs. Thus one of the messages dated 22 September reads: “The Miracle is near, already in town”,42 which may indicate that this was perhaps the time when Nikolai obtained the Stone. And then, as we already know, between October 3 and 5 Elena described the Stone, its color and shape, as well as the Casket. 42

Ibid., 331, 332.

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So the miracle, if thoroughly investigated, does not seem to be a miracle at all but a well-designed and masterfully performed hoax. However believers in miracles and Roerich devotees in particular see the whole story differently and their opinion can hardly be shattered by such arguments as were given above.

…

The first thing the Roerichs did after they had received the parcel with the Stone was to send a word of the miracle to the Circle, together with photographs of the Stone and the Casket. On November 4 Elena wrote to Nettie Horch: “Poruma, my dearest daughter, I am sending to you the signs of the greatest trust of the W. L. [White Lodge – A.A.] – the pictures of the great gift and the images of Our Beloved M. – Know how to guard them, they are entrusted to you. Give two small images to Radna [Sina Lichtmann – A.A.] and M-me Schafran, take one for yourself and the remaining two keep until you are told to give them away”. These were the images of the ‘Chalice of the fiery Spirit’, specially printed in Paris as symbolic signs and identification tokens for the Roerichs’ disciples and followers. “I am happy beyond words to feel that harmony reigns in your circle”, Elena continued, “it will bring most marvelous results. Don’t we know that disciples must be united as the fingers on one hand and must be tuned as the strings of a lute, each different from the others, yet each emitting sound in harmony with all. Only then they can respond to the slightest touch of their Master”. By this time an important event has taken place – Oyana (Esther Lichtmann) has been declared by Elena to be the ‘Heart’ of the Circle,43 which placed her in a privileged position, together with the Horch couple. “We trust her and know that she will never walk off her chosen path”, Elena wrote to Sina Lichtmann from Paris. “The messages regarding her, given to you by the Master, have profound occult meaning”.44 As a result of this unusual elevation Oyana, when meeting with the Roerichs in Paris in September, was entrusted by her ‘Spiritual Mother’ with a notebook of the Master’s latest messages for a period of five months (when the Roerichs were away from New York) which she was to deliver personally to Louis and Nettie Horch, ‘Fuyama’s Hand’ and ‘Urusvati’s Eye’. The Roerichs left Marseille for India on November 15, an auspicious date calculated by their friend-astrologer Debay. Five days later, already on board SS Macedonia approaching the fabulous Land of Pyramids (Egypt), Elena wrote a new message to the Circle. In this she tried to encourage her abandoned ‘spiritual children’ and warn them against their many enemies around the world: “No 43 44

See Rerikh, E. 2009, 320, entry for 12 August 1923. Letter from Elena Roerich to Sina Lichtmann, handwritten, 12 September 1923, N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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doubt that we will be greatly watched, especially the first year; to this effect we already have some indications – here people are greatly interested in us. Thus let us mutually be careful in letters. Call us friends, parents, mother, father, but cross out the address ‘Guru’ and ‘Teacher’ and the signature ‘circle’. The visions, [automatic] writings and indications [the Master’s messages – A.A.] will very well pass for a page from a story of Grant. The writings of Oyana must be translated for the Russian language or German may seem suspicious”.45 Elena’s last exhortation was neatly expressed in the phrase: “Patience, courage and resourcefulness is the weapon which will lead us through all snares and will bring us to the House”, i.e. the Abode of the Masters. Later on, in the course of their four-year long travels in India and Central Asia Nikolai would develop a special code language for communication with the Circle. In that language Michigan will stand for Moscow, Mexico for Mongolia, Tambov for Tibet, Cowboy for Uriankhai (Tuva), Paradise for India and so forth. The Soviet leaders and diplomats will also be given aliases, such as Krepyshev (Stalin), Zaikin (Rykov, head of the Soviet government), Uncle Boris (Borodin, Nikolai’s new American sponsor) etc. This may be regarded as a well-motivated precautionary measure, given the revolutionary character of the Great Plan, though one can perhaps also perceive in the Roerichs’ excessive secretiveness and division of people into “friends and foes”, “servants of the Masters” and their opponents, or Satanists, an alarming sign of a quasi-religious paranoia. Nikolai’s own instructions to the Circle sent from Paris separately from Elena were very practical and well thought-out. The most important one related to his long cherished desire to become a Nobel Prize winner as the award would certainly place him among the world’s cultural leaders such as Tagore and Maeterlinck and thus help promote the Master’s cause worldwide. The nomination procedure was to be started by the members of the Circle who were instructed to send a proposal to Ludwig Nobel in Paris as the latter valued Roerich highly and the man would then relay the paper to the Nobel Committee in Stockholm. “But in that case, don’t call me an ‘artist’ as there is no prize for art, Roerich wrote to the New Yorkers. – Call me the world famous figure doing the peace propaganda”. The proposal was to be accompanied by Roerich’s collection of essays Adamant and his first English biography The World of Roerich written by Nina Selivanova.46 In the petition itself the applicants should indicate that Roerich had conducted “peace propaganda” in 21 countries and had founded several “unifying institutions”’. The effort was to be repeated after a while: “Write on 45 46

Letter from Elena Roerich to the Circle, 20 November 1923, typewritten, N. Roerich Museum, New York. Selivanova 1922.

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behalf of groups of intellectuals. Every year sign [your petitions] with different names. Also write to Yaruya [Shibaev – A.A.] to encourage him to apply on behalf of the Riga people (by attaching the same books). If I get the award, it would be helpful for the Institutions”.47 The instructions show Roerich to be an excellent self-promoter as well as a man of great ambition, striving for universal recognition of his achievements and world fame. At this point readers may recall the words he wrote to Elena, his Lada, some twenty years before: “… with time I can rise high above them all and then they themselves will offer me everything”. 47

Rerikh, N. 1998, 22–23, letter from N. Roerich to the Circle, undated.

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Dreaming of New Russia New Russia and her borders have been manifested. E. Roerich, Diary, 3 February 1924

⸪ All four Roerichs were great visionaries and dreamers. Thus Yuri, while in Paris, would often be carried in his dreams to the time of the glorious future, not too far off, he believed, when the family would return to their homeland: I feel now more and more that people will later make legends of our group, the group of the followers of M.M. I think a lot of our future work in Russia, of the unification of East and West. In Russia, despite the horrors of the present government, a revival is taking place and one can already see the shoots of new life, the creation of a new mentality and new consciousness. And here the work of the Teachers is manifested in all its fullness. There is need of the collective coming of messengers [to Russia] bringing a message of the Good Ruler.1 These messengers were the “new ones” who would later be given the name of Agni yogis or “fiery men”. Nikolai already started to recruit these “new ones” in America by setting up “spiritual groups” consisting of visionaries, occultists and mystics like himself. Apart from his New York circle, there sprang up one in Chicago and yet another one in Santa Fe. “In Chicago I left a group of confidants – Debay, Horckner, Mrs Busch and Mrs Mattias”, Roerich wrote to his son in Paris. “The latter can achieve much. She was notified about my coming in a vision. She is rich, young and has all of the personal capacities needed for spiritual growth”.2 Roerich also had a few good friends and sympathizers in Carmel, California, such as Francis Adny and Mrs Taffinder, both staunch theosophists collaborating with the ‘Herald of the Star’ and concurrently corresponding with Nikolai and Elena. In Europe there was the Shibaev group represented by his Morya’s Lodge in Riga, also known as the Riga Lodge, with a Russian theosophist 1 Yuri’s letter to his parents, 28 December 1922, N. Roerich Museum, New York. 2 N. Roerich’s letter to Yuri, 20 November 1922.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_010

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T.V. Sinevitch at its head. Furthermore, in the fall of 1923 the ranks of Roerich’s “new ones” were joined by several more people, all Russian emigrants, – G.D. Grebentschikov with his wife Tatiana, V.V. Zavadsky and Colonel N.V. Kordashevsky. The former three would soon move to America where they would work closely with the Roerich institutions there. Georgii Dmitrievich Grebenshchikov (1882–1964) was a Siberian writer and scholar from the Altai region. In 1910–11 he took part in several ethnographic expeditions to the areas inhabited by the “Old Believers” (starovery)3 in the Uba and Bukhtarma Valleys in the Altai. In his many essays and lectures Grebenshchikov spoke with great sympathy of the traditional way of life, the customs and beliefs of these recluse Orthodox sectarians.4 He fled from Bolshevik Russia during the Civil war (in 1920), together with his wife Tatiana Denisovna (1894–1964), by crossing the Black Sea from the Crimean Peninsula to Constantinople, and thence they went to Paris, which was then the usual route of many Russian refugees. Having met Roerich, he told him much about Altai, the beauty and the great natural resources of the country, its indigenous population, the old-believers and their communal living untouched by modern civilization. These stories made a strong impression on Roerich, and he immediately fell in love with Altai, the more so as he heard the Altaian tale of the sacred Land of White Waters (Belovodie), the Russian equivalent of Shambhala, and it was then that the artist started talking about building the “Temple of One Religion” atop the sacred Beluha (White) Mount, the highest peak in the Katunsky range. Georgii Grebenshchikov and his wife Tatiana would be given esoteric names by Roerich: he – that of Tarukhan derived from the name of one of his ancestors, Tarlyk Khan, and she – Naru. “Just imagine”, Roerich reported to the New Yorkers shortly after his meeting with Grebenshchikov, “Tarukhan comes exactly from Altai, given by the Master!! I imagine how he and Logvan [Louis Horch – A.A.] will talk about the [Altaian] silver mountains and rivers carrying the inexhaustible water energy. And how all of you will listen to his tales of the Siberian hidden treasures. And the Temple of Orion”.5 While in Paris, Grebenshchikov gave lectures on the ethnography of Siberia and Altai at the School of Oriental languages. And then, in the spring of 1924, he and his wife moved to America where they immediately joined the Roerichs’

3 Starovery is a sect of adherents of the “old belief”, who opposed the ecclesiastic reforms launched in the 17th century by the Patriarch Nikon. They had been persecuted by the Russian government until 1906. 4 On Grebenshchikov see Rosov 2002a, 86–113; Sannikova 2008, 17–25. 5 Quoted from N. Roerich’s letter, 1 November 1923.

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Circle in New York. (They entered the country on Roerich’s invitation which helped them avoid the strict American emigration quota.) Nikolai Viktorovich Kordashevsky (Chakhembula) (1877–1945) was a Lithuanian landowner who served in the Russian army during the world war. As a liaison officer he was transferred in 1917 to the ‘Dunsterforce’ in the British Service, an Allied military mission established under Gen. Lionel Dunsterville. With this unit Kordashevsky fought in Persia, Mesopotamia and India, but was later (in 1918) reattached by his commanders to the British Siberian Military Mission under Sir A. Knox. He subsequently took part in combat action against Bolshevik troops in Siberia, first under Ataman Dutov and then Ataman Semionov, but eventually, wearied by fratricidal fighting and disgusted with it, he abandoned the battlefield and fled to Peking via Mongolia. There he found asylum for some time at the Russian Orthodox Mission. In October 1919 Kordashevsky went to his home in Lithuania, through India and London. His new life, one of spiritual quest, began in 1923 in France where he joined the followers of Georgii Gurjiev, settled at the Château Prieuré in Avon near Fontainebleau.6 This was Gurjiev’s school of the “Fourth Way”. The practice involved meditation, mental exercise, ritual dances and obligatory communal work as methods of awakening self-awareness. Kordashevsky was apparently discontent with this elaborate practice as in August 1923 he turned for spiritual guidance to another Russian guru, Nikolai Roerich. Roerich accepted Kordashevsky as his disciple and a servant of Master Morya, gave him an esoteric name Chakhembula, the token of the “Flaming Chalice” and later also a silver ring with the Master’s symbol that other members of the Circle had. After the Roerichs’ departure for India, Kordashevsky moved back to his family estate in Lithuania, near Kovno, where he would live the life of a recluse, reading esoteric books, meditating on the Plat and regularly getting encouraging and edifying messages from his new guru through Shibaev.7 Kordashevsky-Chakhembula held a special place in Roerich’s plans. As a battle-hardened warrior he was perfectly fit to take part in the future combat in Mongolia as a prologue to the Great Battle of Shambhala, vaguely referred to as a “military mission” in Elena’s diary. He especially boasted of the document 6 Georgi Ivanovich Gurjiev (1866–1949), a Russian mystic who developed his own esoteric ­teaching. He founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Tiflis (Tbilisi) in 1919, then, having fled from Russia, in Constantinople (1920), and finally in France, in the fall of 1922. The essence of his doctrine was expounded by P.D. Ouspensky, see Ouspensky 1977. 7 On Kordashevsky see National Archive of India (New Delhi), Foreign & Political department, file 331 (2) X (1926–1927), Appendices to Notes, 37; Rosov 1999a, 317–342.

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(gramota) issued to him by the theocratic ruler of Mongolia Jebzun Damba Khutuktu, most likely a letter of thanks for his service in battle in that country, and Roerich too thought the paper could be of great avail when they all went there. Vasilii Vasilievich Zavadsky (1893–1954) was a composer and pianist. An admirer of Roerich, he wrote a suite on his poems The Flowers of Morya for a dramatic soprano and orchestra, and he is also known for his psalms in the style of Russian church music and waltzes. Zavadsky also immigrated to America in 1924 where he would teach music for some time at the Master-Institute. In Elena’s already quoted letter to the Circle from Paris, we find a brief reference to Grebenshchikov and Zavadsky as the Roerichs’ neophytes: We spend much time in preparing the new ones who will join you in America. The writer is quite a remarkable personality. A self-made man! He is the son of a miner from the Altai region in Siberia. Broad-minded, bold and strong. – The composer is very gifted and a refined soul, but a child in all matters of life. He has much to learn. Their wives are not very interesting but good souls. [They are] hard workers but without any wings. … You must be prepared to meet them.8 There was one more person in Paris, for whom Roerich felt a great sympathy and whom he regarded as his spiritual co-worker, the writer Aleksei ­Mikhailovich Remizov (1877–1957). Together with Grebenshchikov and Zavadsky (Tarukhan and Morey), Remizov belonged to Roerich’s Parisian group of artists. A brilliant stylist and mystic, he created an imaginary world of his own in his fairy-tales, legends, religious parables and skazy (tales), specially stylized à la Russe ­antique, as well as dramatic works reminiscent of medieval mystery-plays. One of his best known books was a collection of prose Nikoliny pritchi (Nikolai’s parables) (Petrograd, 1917), the title of which alluded to the popular Russian saint Nikolai Ugodnik. Roerich liked the book very much and it would be republished in 1924, on his initiative, in New York in the new publishing house Alatas, started by Grebenshchikov, under the title Zvenigorod Oklikannyi: Nikoliny pritchi. Intererstingly, the second half of the book included a number of Remezov’s skazy written in 1914–1915, the first one of which was Grad – Kamen Rerikha (The Stone City of Roerich). In this he portrayed Roerich in the guise of his great Scandinavian ancestor Riurik, a “builder” (stroitel’) of Russia. First, he came to Rus’ in ancient times from behind the Varangyan Sea, as a “brave Viking”, and he built 8 Elena’s letter to the Circle, 4 November 1923 (written in English), N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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himself “a stone city” (grad-kamen). Then, centuries later, he again appeared in Russia, this time coming from Kostroma. He settled in Petersburg on the Moika River and was known then not as Rurik, as they called him in Novgorod, but Roerich. And again, as in olden days, he “built his stone city”.9 Other skazy in the volume were named after some of Roerich’s most celebrated paintings, such as Gorod Stroiat (Building a town), Zlovestchee (An ominous thing), ­Sokrovishche Angelov (Treasure of the Angels). This evidently betrays Remizov as a great admirer of Roerich’s artwork. His opinion of the artist he expressed once in the following statement: “N.K. Roerich knows the entire prehistory of the world, 200 000 years look through his stony eyes”. Roerich undoubtedly knew Remezov’s skaz of Rurik-Roerich as the great builder of Russia, since its writing was occasioned by his artistic jubilee celebrated in 1915. The idea of building a “Stone City” to become the cradle and the core of a whole new state, like Velikii Novgorod (Great Novgorod), must have entirely captivated his fertile imagination and it is in this skaz that one should perhaps look for the origin of Roerich’s utopian project for the construction of Zvenigorod, a symbol of New Russia revived under the scepter of a “tsar-mystic”. And it seems only natural that such a grand – suprahuman – project was articulated not by the artist himself but by his semi-divine Master. No doubt, Roerich had much to talk about with Remizov, who left Russia in mid-1921, having lived through the country’s most dramatic years of civil war triggered by the 1917 Bolshevik coup and waged desperately between various conflicting social groups forming two major combatant forces, commonly known as “reds” (followers of Lenin and his Bolshevik party) and “whites” (their opponents of many political shades, from democrats to monarchists). In his memoirs Vzvikhrennaia Rus’ (The Whirlwinded Russia) Remizov recalled this period with mixed feelings. The year 1918, in his words, was the time of “murderous hunger” for the poor and 1919 was the year of “cold and death”. Yet, “there were many things marvelous and miraculous in those days in Russia! The most fantastic dreams that the land would soon turn into a paradise and … the most unexpected grim realities”.10 By preparing his co-workers for their mission in Russia, Roerich as a matter of fact had no clear idea of the situation in the country after the end of the civil strife in 1922. His information about the political, economic and cultural life in Bolshevik Russia came mainly from the émigré press in America and Europe and was scanty and largely biased, i.e., anti-Bolshevik. He knew about the New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced in 1921 at the 10th congress of the 9 10

Remizov 1993, 329–331. Remizov 2002, 281.

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Bolshevik party, and about the party leaders, the new rulers of the country – Lenin, Trotskii, Lunacharskii and Rykov, yet what seems to have interested him most at that time was the social and cultural climate in Soviet Russia. As the country was gradually recovering from its wounds, Roerich did not want to stand aside and watch the events from the “other shore”, the more so as Russia had been “chosen” by the Masters and he personally had been “chosen” as her new – spiritual – leader. His great energy and ambitions urged him now to come out of the shadows and join the sweeping reconstruction of Russia – under the guidance of the Masters. He expected that his and Elena’s theosophy-based spiritual substitute for religion – a mix of theosophy, Vedanta, Buddhism, esoteric Christianity plus their parascientific ideas of cosmic “subtle realities” – would find a welcome response from the new Soviet intelligentsia aspiring to “higher knowledge”, and that eventually he would be able to weld the ancient esoteric teachings to the modern Marxist-Leninist communist doctrine. Such expectations were utterly naïve and quixotic, no more than wishful thinking. Yet Nikolai and Elena held fast to their dreams. They earnestly believed that their nascent doctrine of “spirit-understanding”, which did not yet have the name of Agni-Yoga, would take root on Russian soil and with its help thousands of Russians would be turning into Agni-Yogis, people with expanded “fiery consciousness”, those of “sixth race”. They also believed that the hardline Bolshevik regime would collapse soon and Russia would turn into a constitutional monarchy with a “tsar-mystic” as its ruler – because the Master had told them so! The introduction of the New Economic Policy, which quickly revived the free market, small businesses and other elements of capitalism in the warworn Russia, albeit under strict state control, was greeted by Russian émigrés with guarded optimism as a sign that the Bolshevik regime was becoming more ‘civilized’. That same year (1921) a group of émigré intellectuals published a collection of essays in Prague titled Smena Vekh (Change of Signposts), which called for reconciliation with Soviet Russia. The volume gave rise to a new political movement (smenovekhovstvo), whose leading spokesman, N.V. Ustrialov, would soon elaborate a theory of “national Bolshevism”, an ideology of a renewed “Great Russian national state”. The NEP became a turning point in the attitudes of many in the Russian diaspora toward Bolshevism as it urged émigrés to consider returning to their homeland to take part in the construction of a new Russia. Among them were smenovekhovtsy Yu. V. Kliuchnikov and Yu. Poteknin, who re-emigrated to Russia (now named the USSR) in 1923 and N.V. Ustrialov would do the same a decade later. It was also in 1921 that the Soviet Russian Republic was recognized by ­Germany, to be followed by other leading European nations a few years later. Nikolai Roerich must have watched all these developments closely, however

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without siding with any Russian émigré political grouping. He had his special vision of New Russia and his own recipe for its revival, along the lines of “mystical monarchy”. But who would be the new Russian monarch? It is well known that Russian monarchists in Europe rallied round their leader Grand Duke Kirill (Cyril) Vla­ dimirovich, the first cousin of Nicholas II,11 who in 1922 openly laid claims to the Russian throne. On 8 August 1924, he issued a Manifesto, To the people of Russia, claiming to be the only legitimate successor to the throne and three weeks later (August 31) he proclaimed himself Cyril I, the Sovereign of All the Russias (Gosudar’ Vseia Rusi). The Roerichs were already in Darjeeling at that time and their Master did not comment on the proclamation, perhaps simply because he was unaware of the fact as the family had no access to the Russian émigré press. Be that as it may, Cyril was definitely not the Roerichs’ and their Masters’ choice. The Roerichs’ vision of New Russia at this critical juncture was not clearly articulated anywhere. In general Nikolai’s thinking, as we know it, comes closest to Eurasianism (evraziistvo), a historiosophic teaching set forth, in the early 1920s, by a group of Russian émigré intellectuals (N.S. Trubetskoi, P.N. Savitskii, L.P. Karsavin, G.V. Florovskii). The Eurasianiasts spoke of Russia as a unique civilization, which incorporated elements of both Western and Eastern cultural traditions especially emphasizing its Eastern heritage. Having advanced their concept of the “Third Way”, they did not support the White movement, which aspired to the restoration of monarchy in Russia, nor the Bolshevik “red ideology”. Their ideal was a federated Eurasian state within the borders of the USSR, including Mongolia, built on ideocratic (ethic and religious) principles, the “state of Truth” as opposed to modern Western democracies ruled by Law.12 One may find certain contiguity in the Eurasianists’ and Nikolai Roerich’s strong emphasis on Russia’s Asian roots (“our truly beautiful Asian home”) and in their shared belief that the mission of the Russian people lies not in the West but “within the vast expanses of Asia”. However the spiritual quest of both Nikolai and Elena Roerich, as has been already noted, was inspired from the very start not by any advanced theories of Russian thinkers but the Eastern religions and religious philosophies, primarily those of Ramakrishna and Vivekanada, and of course the Blavatskian theosophy with its concepts of human evolution, 11

12

Nicholas II Romanov abdicated the throne in 1917, following the February revolution, was deported to Ekaterinburg together with the tsarina and their children by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and there in the same year the last Russian tsar and his family were shot secretly by order of the Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of the Bolshevik party. See Kliuchnikov 1994, 69–74.

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the expanded consciousness, and the universal brotherhood of nations, It is there that one should look for the sources of Roerich’s “synthetic” thinking – his search for the “new synthesis” (that of Art and Knowledge), “new man”, “new humanity” and “new religion”, and even more, the “new cosmos” spiritualized by the ever-present hierarchy of the Masters. Elena’s diary provides a rather sketchy and grotesque futuristic picture of the Roerichs’ social Utopia – the future society in Russia would be egalitarian, with no division into classes or even professional groups; the people would differ only in “shades of color”, which probably alluded to their mental auras.13 The color of “unwise” would be dull, whereas intellectuals would have a “milk color”.14 As for religion, the Masters were of the opinion that traditional piety (“religiosity”) was something obsolete. What “new Russians” needed primarily was to enter into “conscious communication” with the Masters who would lead them along the path of evolution. There was one thing, however, of which the Roerichs were most positive – their New Country as they dubbed it would emerge on a cooperative basis and they even talked of a future “Cooperative State” (Gosudarstvo-Kooperativ). The idea was not new as cooperation played an important role in the incipient Soviet economy and there was also a strong cooperative movement in the United States in the 1920s they heard of. The Roerichs apparently saw in cooperation a key to the solution of most vital economic and social problems, the fundamental principle of the global transformation of humanity. Curiously, the new cooperative system, according to the Roerichs, was to be introduced in Russia with the aid of America’s leading industrialists and financiers, such as Ford, Rockefeller and Morgan, who, they believed, would gladly invest their capitals in her economy, especially in the mining industry in the Altai region, as this could bring them huge profits. These ideas are clearly ringing in some of Morya’s ­messages: [The name of] Ford is on My list of things helpful to Russia.15 Striving toward a genuine cooperative lies at the basis of the Plan. Igno-

13

14 15

The idea seems to have been suggested to Elena by the book of Walter J. Kilner The Human Atmosphere, or the Aura made visible by the aid of Chemical Screens (Kilner 1911). The book was one of the first Western medical studies of the “human atmosphere”, or aura. Rerikh, E. 2011, 65, entry for 30 April 1924. Ibid., 62, entry for 27 April 1924.

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rance can be eradicated only by the awakening of creativity. Let the Fords save millions for the Russian cooperative”.16 Cooperation is the only salvation.17 Along with cooperation, the Roerichs also talked much about setting up a whole network of welfare institutions such as St. Sergius’s refuges for cripples (Doma Sergiya), Morya’s hospitals and Our Lady of Kazan’s orphanages. And of course, speaking of the forthcoming ‘Era of the Mother of the World’, Elena highlighted the special role of women and women’s organizations, indicating that women could be very helpful as practical workers, particularly as healers and teachers. The major principles on which the foundation of New Russia was to be laid, according to Elena Roerich and Morya, were: direct communication with the Masters, spirituality, cooperation, beauty, female social activity and com­ munism!18 The mention of communism in this context may come as a surprise, given the original hostility of the Roerichs to the Bolshevik regime. However in 1924–1925, while contemplating their return to Russia, they radically changed their views having adopted a more reconciliatory stance. On 29 May 1925 Elena put down in her diary: “Everything has changed – Lenin is with us…”. And a month later she would channel a new instruction from her Master, calling her and the Circle to “work for the sake of communism”. “Communism is needed for Evolution, therefore Russia should be honored for taking the first step. Lenin’s cooperation will be enlisted”.19 (When Elena argued that Lenin had so much blood on his hands, the Master explained to her that Lenin should be compared to Saul – the future apostle Paul – and that Christ had much more blood on him! Despite the fact that Lenin died in early 1924, Morya assured Elena that he was presently ‘taking rest and cleansing his auras’ and would return to the earthly plane, in 1931.) Speaking of the Roerichs’ sudden and least expected bias for communism, one should keep in mind that they had a very peculiar understanding of the term. By communism Elena meant not so much the doctrine of Marx and Lenin but Buddhism in its originally pure form as was once practised by the Buddha and his disciples. She claimed that the ultimate purpose of the Buddhist teaching was to create a world community of laborers, as a step towards human

16 17 18 19

Ibid., 97, entry for 1 June 1924. Ibid., 243, entry for 21 January 1925. Ibid., 292, entry for 20 April 1925. Ibid., 318, 339, entries for 29 May and 28 June 1925.

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evolution,20 and her Master defined Buddhism in fact as “ideal communism”.21 Furthermore, she would speak of allying the Buddhist and communist doctrines: “The advance of communism should be closely linked with the name of Maitreya”.22 So it was this odd doctrinal blend of Buddho-Сommunism that the Roerichs actually aspired after. While planning their work in the Altai and in Central Asia they were instructed by Morya to employ “a type of communist philanthropists” to that end at the beginning because “only by preaching communism (read: Buddho-Сommunism) to the tribes in Gobi, one can earn their trust”.23 Elena got keen on Buddhist philosophy in 1924, already in India, having Yuri as her immediate tutor. She studied some special literature on the subject and would eventually come up with her own opus entitled Osnovy Buddizma (Foundations of Buddhism) written in Russian, under a pen-name Natalia Rokotova, and published in 1927 in Urga,24 on the eve of the Roerichs’ journey to Tibet. In this tiny book she spoke emphatically of the urgent need to purify Buddha’s teaching because of the approaching New Era, the Age of Maitreya, when the lofty principles of the World Community would be put into life – a perfectly globalist message for humanity. To back up her argument she referred to the Tashi Lama who had left his Tashilhumpo residence and the country itself (this occurred in late 1923), since he found it impossible to remain among those who perverted, or “betrayed”, the Teaching, and his example was followed by many of Tibet’s learned lamas. To conclude, the samples of Elena’s envisioning of the future as given above demonstrate clearly that the Roerichs had no blueprint for the construction of New Russia and had to improvise a great deal, by adjusting their fantastic dreams to reality, as much as they could. They sensed keenly the nerve of the epoch, the growing social tension spreading around Europe and Asia, which they took for manifest signs of the approaching global catastrophe, the fall of the decadent West to be followed by the new rise of the East, the cradle of esoteric wisdom, and they believed that Russia would lead other nations in the creation of a new world order, under the banner of the Masters. Some of their conceived innovations in the economic and social spheres were apparently

20 21 22 23 24

Rerikh, E. 1992, 46, 54. Rerikh, E. 2011, 159, entry for 17 August 1924. The Master advised Yuri Roerich to include the phrase into the manuscript of the book he was writing (Roerich, G. 1925). Ibid., 340, entry for 30 June 1925. Ibid., 211, entry for 15 November 1924. Rokotova 1927.

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b­ orrowed from the Bolsheviks but attributed to their superior otherworldly mentors. In 1924 the Roerichs would give their dreamland a code name New Country. They would also use other appellations such as New State, New Realm, United States of Asia, Russian Asia and Sacred Union of the East. The term New Country would occasionally be applied to Soviet Russia as well, a most confusing thing for readers of Elena’s diaries. The Roerichs however were not alone in their dreams of a spiritual transformation of Russia. Various sections of the Russian diaspora were also dreaming of the New Russia liberated from “godless Bolshevik commissars” and had their own visions of the country’s revival. Thus a group of Russian Masons in France belonging to the Astreia Lodge founded in Paris in 1922, under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of France, planned to revive Russia with the help of broadscale propaganda of masonry as “a means for the restoration of order in the country on the principles of moral emancipation, progress and solidarity of nations”.25 One of the founders of the Lodge was Nikolai Vasilievich Tchaikovskii(1850–1926), a prominent figure in the political life of the late XIX – early XX century Russia. An active participant in the revolutionary, public and cooperative movements in the country, a member of the socialist-revolutionary party and of the Agrarian Socialist League, he turned into a most vigorous fighter against the Bolsheviks after the October revolution, having headed the “League for the Revival of Russia” and the “Centre for the Struggle with Bolshevism inside Russia”, in 1920–1923.26 Having settled in Paris, Tchaikovsky established contacts with Nikolai Roerich, knowing him to be a staunch opponent of the Bolshevik regime. Tchaikovsky attempted to enlist Roerich’s cooperation, in the 1920, for his new literary and political journal Griadustchaia Rossia (Future Russia) and the artist responded positively to his proposal by sending him his essay Krasota i mudrost’ (Beauty and Wisdom). In the accompanying letter Roerich expressed his hope that “these foundations” would be included in the creative plans for the reconstruction of Russia and also voiced his willingness to collaborate with Tchaikovsky as well as the “Russian Political Committee” for the support of the White movement,27 of which Tchaikovsly was an active member: “If you or the Com25 26 27

Soloviev 1998, 90. On N.V. Tchaikovsky see Makarov 2002. The Russian Political Committee was set up in Paris in 1918 and consisted of various leading diplomatic and political figures of the former Russian Empire. Its main task was to secure Western military support for the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik White movement in Russia.

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mittee needs my work along these lines, I am at your disposal”.28 However Roerich’s contacts with Tchaikovsky came abruptly to an end after he had moved to the United States.

…

In late 1923, while in Paris, N. Roerich had founded two institutions: The World Service (Pan-Cosmos), a trade and transport company, with a Baltic branch in Riga, and a publishing house Alatas (“White Stone” in the Kazakh language), the latter jointly with Tarukhan (G. Grebenshchikov). Both were incorporated in the Roerich Museum in New York. Two more followed in 1924 – New Syndicate, being the international News Agency, designed to “reinforce” the World Service, and the Beluha (White Mountain) Corporation. Beluha was a jointstock company established for developing the silver mines at the Altai and for carrying out some experiments with radioactivity, later to be of use in agriculture.29 It was through Belukha that Nikolai Roerich would seek to obtain concessions from the Soviet government in the Altai – Kazakhstan area, in 1925, in hopes that this would allow him to begin the construction of the New Country and the City of the Tolling Bells, Zvenigorod, at the foot of Beluha. This was to become the capital of the new polity and even more – the new spiritual center of Asia and of the whole world! The most fantastic of Roerich’s projects, the culmination of his idealistic – futuristic – aspirations and his passion for grandiose things. And this was not all. Both Nikolai and Elena made plans, in the same 1924, for setting up two cooperatives – Alatyr’ (White Stone) for “improving and beautifying life” and another one named the Altaian Sisters, a female organization for medical and educational work. On top of that Nikolai also came up with an idea of creating a museum of American art (American Museum) that would accumulate some of the best samples of American modern and traditional (Indian) artwork. There is a curious entry in Elena’s diary speaking of the “Nine Deeds” commissioned to the Roerichs by the Masters. These included their three institutions already working in New York (the Master Institute, Corona Mundi and the Roerich Museum), the two new ones (Alatas and the World Service) and the ones to be founded in the near future.30 “That makes a whole State!” rejoiced Elena, adding further that Turukhan’s publishing house Alatyr’ should become “Ford’s mediatory [agency] in Siberia” and that “the hands of the cooperative should grow in America”. But this indicates that the building of 28 29 30

The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), f. 5805, op. 1, d. 160, ll. 1–2. Rerikh, E. 2011, 8, entry for 29 January 1924. Ibid., 109–110, entry for 15 June 1924.

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New Russia, the way it was originally conceived by the Roerichs jointly with their Masters, depended largely on American money! The artist’s earliest overtures to Bolsheviks were made as early as 1921. It was then that he, having learned of the severe famine in Russia, decided to transfer all profits from the publication of his poetic volume Tsvety Morii to the Inter­ national Russian Famine Relief Fund administered by Fridtjof Nansen. This was rather a symbolic act – the Master’s Aid to Russia, as the book was a very modest paper-back edition of limited circulation. At the same time Roe­rich’s most trusted lieutenant in Europe, Vladimir Shibaev, having returned to Riga, went to work for the same organization in the capacity of assistant manager of the transport department. According to available information, he worked very hard sending off daily from 20 to 25 vans with foodstuffs to the famine-stricken population in Russia.31 Later on Roerich placed Shibaev at the head of the ­Baltic branch of his newly founded World Service (WS), which was started on Louis Horch’s money. This was a totally commercial enterprise engaged mainly in importing tea from Holland’s colonies in West India and exporting fine Latvian flax to European markets. Roerich however planned to expand the activities of the World Service in Riga by directing its transports right into Soviet Russia. “Try to organize transports into Russia. This will give you excellent prospects”, ­Roerich instructed Shibaev in mid-1924.32 Shibaev undoubtedly acted as a frontliner in Roerich’s far-reaching designs – it would not be too difficult for him to travel from Riga to Moscow as a commercial director and strike up some useful contacts there. Shibaev’s other sphere of activity was publishing. In the beginning Roerich wanted to publish in Riga the first book of Morya’s teachings ­entitled Leaves of Morya’s Garden: The Call as well as Elena’s Legend of the Stone in its Russian version and he even sent his instructions to that end to Shibaev. Both editions were to be small-size paperbacks on the model of popular theosophical publications. The Call started with an epigraph: “Into the New World my first message” and was intended primarily for circulation in Russia, as “the first step towards the future Russia”, in Roerich’s words.33 Roerich’s plans, however, changed and he eventually published the Master’s Call in Paris while in Riga he issued only a collection of his selected essays Puti Blagoslovenia (Paths of Blessing) in the same year 1924. Yaruya-Shibaev would circulate both books in the three newly emerged independent Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania,34 in Germany and he would send some copies to Bolshevik 31 32 33 34

Rosov 2002a, 75., Annenko 2012, 74, N. Roerich’s letter to Shibaev, 5 June 1924. Ibid., 33, N. Roerich’s letter to Shibaev, 31 May 1922. Estonia and Lithuania proclaimed their independence in 1919 and Latvia followed their example in 1920, in the wake of the civil war in Russia.

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­ ussia as well. Thus the Roerichs’ message to their compatriots calling them to R recognize the genuine rulers of the world, the Masters – “Strengthen the awareness of our Presence in your life”35 – had already reached the USSR in 1924, the year of Lenin’s death. The WS office in Riga had become Roerich’s main link with Soviet Russia and an outpost for disseminating his ideas there, in the opinion of Vladimir Rosov36. But it was also a recruiting center for the “new ones” (novye), the young men and women from the midst of Russian emigrants, who were to become the builders of New Russia. They were to carry the Roerichs’ teaching to the masses and raise the Master’s Lodge in the country – the Bolshevik Russia. Here are some of Roerich’s instructions to Shibaev: In Russia the Lodge will hold a special place. New elements are needed. We should renew the plumage of the good arrows, which means there’ll be battles and we’ll have to fight for the cause of the Master. Remember the Teacher’s words: ‘He who pronounced Beauty will be saved’. And the gates of our Lodge should be upheld by Beauty and Knowledge. New paths proceed from these sources. So my dear, be a new one and understand that there’s a great work in Russia ahead. The main thing now is to collect, slowly and persistently, reliable people for the Russian work. Let them harmonize themselves – learn to get rid of their prejudices and remember the four signs, those of chalice, belt, finger-ring and the ‘white-horse’ symbol. Look for new ones. Collect at least seven people and let each of them find seven more, those who have grasped the Teaching and are ready to labor.37 These “new ones” were to be recruited regardless their nationality, religion and age. The ten-year-old teenagers were also fit for the job as they had plenty of time to grow up before the crucial year 1931 set by the Master. Roerich was most indignant when he learned that Shibaev was unwilling to collaborate with Jews, which showed him to be an anti-Semite. “Jews, especially ‘new’ Jews, the 35 36 37

Leaves of Morya’s Garden, The Call (1924), see: www.agniyoga.org. Rosov 2002a, 80. Annenko 2012, 33–34, 37–39, N. Roerich’s letters to Shibaev, 22 June, 11 October, 11 December 1922; 48, letter of 2 September 1923.

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‘­seekers’, are very important for the Russian work”, he admonished Yaruya. “New Russia, under the guidance of Our Teacher, cannot put obstacles in the way of those seeking. … It’s only by disregarding nationalities that one can create a new common cause. So open the door wide to anyone knocking on it and be careful not to betray Our Teacher”.38 The same task of looking for “new ones” was also assigned by Roerich to Kordashevsky. Having retired, after their meeting in Paris, to his out-of-the way house near Kovno, in the woodlands of Lithuania, Chakhembula, like Yaruya, would begin to circulate the Master’s first book in his country. Roerich would maintain contacts with his new co-worker through Yaruya by sending him regularly his instructions, councils as well as the Master’s latest messages. Shibaev proved extremely helpful at his Riga “outpost”. Through him went all Roerich’s private correspondence with his many acquaintances and friends in Europe, China and Russia, including his younger brother Boris and Elena’s cousin Stepan Mitusov (Kai), both living in Leningrad, as well as advertisements for the Roerich’s institutions and their activities.

…

The vague contours of the Roerichs’ utopian New Russia became clearer and more distinct in 1924 thanks to Elena’s visions augmented by her abundant channeling. It was then that Urusvati sketched out briefly a fanciful picture of the new capital of Russia, the City of Knowledge, Zvenigorod. This dreamcity was to be built at the foot of the sacred Beluha Mount in Altai. Above the city, some 7000 ft high, she envisioned the beautiful Temple of the Spirit and still higher, at the level of 12000 ft, an observatory with a special “Room for the Masters” modeled on the “Occult Room” the theosophists had in Adyar. It was there that Master Morya and other Brothers and Sisters of the Great White Brotherhood were supposed to come in their subtle bodies to meet their chosen disciples and devotees. Jesus Christ too was expected to descend upon Beluha on the appointed date to visit the Temple of the Spirit there. “Thus there will be three levels of life”, Morya explained to Elena. “Below is the city of the New Era, above it the Temple of human achievements and a place where the Earth meets the Spirit. The Stone will be placed in the Temple”.39 Strictly speaking, two temples were to crown Beluha – the second shrine was to be dedicated to the Mother of the World to be connected by a passage with the main Temple of the Spirit. Elena worked out the principal worship services 38 39

Ibid., 37, letter of 11 October 1922. Rerikh, E. 2011, 68, 70, 178, entries for 3, 5 May and 6 September 1924. For the construction of the Temple see the same diary, 188, entry for 17 September 1924.

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in both, along with the main prayers – the invocations of the Masters (Christ, Buddha, Maitreya, Mohammed, Solomon, the Great Teachers and Prophets) and of the Mother of the World.40 More religious shrines were to be erected in Zvenigorod itself, at the ground level, including the Christian temples of the Savior and of St. Sergius, some mosques and a Buddhist prayer-house for the Altai Kalmucks. At the same time Zvenigorod was to give shelter to various educational, scientific and cultural institutions, such as schools, laboratories, libraries and museums, in addition to its grand University of the new type, where “exact sciences would finally merge with the spirit-understanding”.41 The general idea behind this futuristic project was to ally science and religion (i.e. cognizance of the Subtle World) and more importantly, to “connect the earth with the heavens” on top of the sacred White Mount, the acme of Roerichs’ mystical visioning. It was to that end that the Masters, according to Elena, had started, in 1921, their great and absolutely unprecedented experiment of placing the central “wire” (provod) of the Brotherhood into the hands of a human – a living earthly woman – as a mediator between the two worlds.42 The design, layout and construction of the Temple of the Spirit (also spoken of as the Temple of One Religion) were described by Elena in detail. The temple was to be built of stone and wood in mixed Russian and Roman styles by “representatives” of various nations, with the participation of old believers and other Orthodox sectarians from the Altai area – molokans (milk-drinkers), shtundists, Pashkovists and dukhobors. The Mother of the World annex Elena visioned as being built of cedar and cypress and its floor covered with mats. Its interior decoration was to be simple yet impressive, such as wall panels depicting podvigi (heroic exploits), with plant and bird motifs on them. Gold and precious stones were not to be used as decorative materials. The sides of the altar were to be decorated with the images of Eastern Teachers, those of the First Unknown Teacher, Moses, Solomon, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed and one more, whose identity was not to be disclosed until the time when human consciousness would expand. The St. Sergius Temple was to be of medium size so as to accommodate no less than 200 people. The service therein Elena imagined as being accompanied by music performed by a whole orchestra.43 Of what would be the life of the common people in Zvenigorod Elena said nothing in her diary or correspondence. Her imagination of the mystic was 40 41 42 43

Ibid., 17–19, entries for 26 and 28 February 1924. Ibid., 397, entry for 26 January 1924. Ibid., 38, entry for 1 April 1924. Ibid., 70, 188, entries for 5 May and 17 September 1924.

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focused mainly on things lofty and sacred and never descended to the level of the ordinary and profane. This said, there are still some very important questions facing a researcher. One of these concerns Nikolai’s monarchic claims, since he was to become a ruler of New Russia, according to Morya’s prediction. But how did he intend to return to the country ruled by Bolsheviks whose regime he had openly repudiated in 1918? Entries in Elena’s diaries provide a rather baffling answer to this question – Nikolai Roerich would return to Soviet Russia triumphantly at the head of an Eastern “embassy”, via Tiumen’, a town in West Siberia, the center of Russia’s colonization of this vast area in the 16th century. Roerich, as “Morya’s son”, was supposedly to be welcomed there by one of his disciples, Maurice Lichtmann (Avirach), as a representative of the Russian Jewish community, with the sacred Torah in his hands, and by leaders of other Eastern nationals inhabiting Russia, Muslims and Buddhists alike – Tatars, Buryats, Karaims, Kirghizes and Sarts.44 More details were added by Elena to this whimsical picture of her husband’s homecoming two years later: Roerich would come to Russia in 1926 from the East, visit Altai and East Siberia first and then come down to Moscow (in June), apparently for some important negotiations with the Soviet leaders. Hence he would have ‘American papers’ (i.e. documents) and would be accompanied by Shibaev, as a businessman.45 There are two more curious passages that we find in Elena’s diary for the year 1924. The first of these was Morya’s remark on Nikolai’s striking facial resemblance to the last two leaders of Russia – the tsar Nicholas II Romanov and Lenin. “Nikolai Romanov and Nikolai Lenin did not have long beards. Remember that it is all the same to the people nowadays which of them is Lenin and which is Romanov, and your face resembles both”.46 The second passage mentioned briefly some legend of the Russian tsar who had “hidden with his family, through Persia”.47 The legend referred to by Elena was probably the story recounted in a novel by Petr Krasnov, a White Russian general, Ataman of the Don Army and a talented writer. Having fled from Russia in 1920, Krasnov wrote a fascinating book, a “monarchic Utopia”, published in 1922 in Germany under the title Za Chertopolochom (Behind the Thistles). In this we find an appalling picture of the ruin of the Russian state in the flame of revolution, through the fault of the leaders 44 45 46 47

Rerikh, E.2009, 206, 242, entries for 22 August and 21 December 1922. Rerikh, E. 2011, 102, entry for 6 June 1924. Ibid., 64, entry for 29 April 1924. Ibid., 18, entry for 27 February 1924.

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of the Third International, so that nothing remained of the once great empire of the tsars except for “a large black spot on the map inscribed The Plague with red letters”, an allusion to the notorious “sanitary cordon” – a blockade of Russia by her former Allies during the civil war. Her tsars, Romanovs, were all gone. But this was only what the situation looked like from outside, through the eyes of the Western public and Russian exiles. In reality the country did not perish, she survived her many trials and revived through the general repentance of her population! Monarchy was restored in Russia, her new tsar being now Vsevolod, son of Mikhail. But whence did the man come? And here the author told his readers a most thrilling story of the emperor, having emerged unexpectedly … in one of the monasteries of Lhasa!!! He was discovered there by a White Russian general Annenkov who had formerly fought against Bolsheviks in Chinese Turkestan. “Annenkov went to Lhasa to the Dalai Lama. Here in a remote mountain monastery he found the dying Grand Duke Mikhail with his son Vsevolod. He remained with them. He spent almost a year in the monastery, having learnt the things the Tibetan monks knew alone. He learnt to read people’s souls and see their thoughts in their eyes. He also learnt to transmit thoughts at a distance, and in some hidden cave a 120-year old monk revealed to him the book of the future and the lists of people known to God for their humility”.48 The young tsarevitch Vsevolod then went to Russia, by way of Pamirs, having descended the Alatau Mountains, so Krasnov tells us further. “He was a genuine Romanov and no one doubted his claims to the Russian throne. He was a boy of 15, of royal bearing, with a handsome face and large luminous eyes”.49 But here we find an exact portrait of young Yuri Roerich who, with his moustache and little beard, looked very much like Nikolai Romanov, as was noticed by many Russian emigrants. He was only 18 when Krasnov met him and his father in London, in 1920. Does it mean then that Yuri and Nikolai Roerich served as prototypes for the Grand Duke Mikhail and his son Vsevolod portrayed by Krasnov? It well could have been. There is a striking parallel between Krasnov’s account of the rescued tsar in Lhasa and his subsequent return to Moscow to ascend the Russian throne and Elena’s bizarre vision of the Roerich Embassy returning to Russia from Tibet and being hailed by people there as the country’s saviors which gives a wide scope for speculation. 48 49

Krasnov 2000, 320. Ibid., 317.

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In India: Mahatma’s Second Coming In the close interrelation between the visible and invisible, and in the epic simplicity of their interplay, lies the charm of India. N. Roerich, Altai – Himalaya

⸪ On 30 November, after a two-week voyage, the four Roerichs finally reached their destination, the land of their dreams, India. Their passage from Marseille to Bombay (today’s Mumbai) was a fascinating journey, with ‘sacred signs’ from the world’s biblical history accompanying them on the way. In his letter to Shibaev from Aden, Nikolai wrote: “During these days we have passed by the Mount Sinai, the rocky [islands] of the Twelve Apostles, and in three days more we will pass the Khorya Morya Bay in the Arabian Sea. And there’s Orion high above the bow of the ship. Isn’t it miraculous? All sacred symbols assembled on the same way…”.1 The Roerichs would stay in India over a year. Their first few weeks they spent travelling across the country, from Bombay to Calcutta, which was a kind of pilgrimage to her most celebrated architectural, historic and religious sites. In the course of the trip they visited the Elephanta and Ajanta Caves famous for their rock-cut shrines decorated with remarkable sculptures and frescoes; the captivating and sorrowful Agra with its white-marble mausoleum of Taj Mahal, one of the eight wonders of the world; Fatehpur Sikri – the city of Akbar, “the great Unifier” of India; Jaipur, renowned for its “fairylike astrological observatory” and a palace of Thousand Windows; the city-fortress of Amber in old Rajputana whose architectural beauties absolutely ravished Elena (“Amber, without doubt the most beautiful of all we have seen”2); the Goltepass with the temple of warring monkeys which “could not be imagined in any fantasy”; the thrice-blessed-by gods Benares on the shores of the Ganges, the most sacred of Indian cities, and they finally landed in Calcutta in West Bengal, the river city of many haunting images of history, the symbol of the British Raj. 1 Annenko 2012, 59, letter to Shibaev, 24 November 1923. 2 Elena’s letter to the Circle, 1 January 1924. N. Roerich Museum, New York.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_011

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As an archeologist Nikolai was struck by the outward appearance of some ancient monuments – the gigantic Buddhist stupas in Sarnath reminded him the burial mounds, or kurgans, of all centuries and nations, “the world’s unifying symbols”. “The Kurgans of Upsala in Sweden; Russian Kurgans of Volhov on the way to Novgorod; the Steppe Kurgans of Scythians, surrounded by stones; all tell the legends of the same solemn cremations…”.3 As much as India was admired by the Roerichs, she disappointed them just the same. They were badly shocked by the country’s blatant social contrasts and some crude religious practices – the manifest signs of decline of the once great civilization. The Fakirs are seated, ‘charming’ the old, half-living toothless cobras. The pitiful Hatha-yogi is whirling in the bazaar, making the most gymnastic contortions for the purification of his spirit. ‘The spiritualist’ offers to make the carriage move without horses, but to do this it is necessary ‘that there should not be one cloud in the sky.4 The Lingam phallic cult in Elephanta made Roerich bewail: “From the ancient wisdom we know that ‘Linga is the vessel of knowledge’ and we know the scientific explanation from times immemorial of this wise distribution of energy. But now the basis of this worship is forgotten and it has degraded into superstition”.5 Another ugly spectacle was the bloody sacrifice of a white little goat in the famous Golden Temple of Benares. “She (the goat) was led into the sanctuary… In a minute she was stretched out on the threshold of the temple and the broad knife cut off her head! It was difficult to believe that a sacred action had taken place!”. Roerich was disgusted with the ritual; even the appearance of the Hindu priests (brahmins) he found “undecorative”, asserting that “they cannot guard the beauty of the symbols of knowledge” and blaming it all on the improperly comprehended “rules of castes” which impeded the development of the country.6 One of the most grotesque pictures witnessed by the Roerichs shortly after their arrival in India was in Bombay:

3 4 5 6

Roerich, N. 1996, 8–9. Ibid., 6–7. Ibid., 11. Ibid., 11–12.

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From the purest to the most hideous: In special streets of Bombay, behind bars, sit the women prostitutes. In this living merchandise which clings close to the bars, in these outstretched hands, in their calls, is contained the whole terror of bodily desecration. And a Hindu Sadhu passes through with his burning incense in order to purify the spot!7 The artist’s lofty ideals of beauty and knowledge were obviously at odds with life’s harsh realities – a perennial conflict of things ‘ideal’ and ‘real’ to which India made no exception. While in Calcutta, the Roerichs tried to find their old friend Rabindranath Tagore, but he was not at his home there. Instead they met the relations of the famous poet – his brother Abindranath Tagore, artist head of the Bengal School, and his nephew Gaganendranath Tagore, also an artist. Another remarkable personality they came to know was Jagadish Chandra Bose, a plant biologist and a follower of Vivekananda. Roerich was particularly impressed by Bose’s experiments with plants, which showed him to be a scientist of a different mentality. “Sir Jagadish Bose affirms that the sensitiveness of plants is completely astonishing. As the plants feel the formation of a cloud long before it is visible to the eye, so the East feels the thought at its inception”, he wrote in his travel diary. And this led him to another conclusion: “In the close interrelation between the visible and invisible, and in the epic simplicity of their interplay, lies the charm of India”.8 Bose and Tagore were praised by Roerich as India’s “noble images”. He also spoke with much sympathy about one of Bose’s pupils, a young biologist Bose Sen whose house and laboratory he visited in Calcutta. And again what pleased him mightily was Bose Sen’s spirituality, as his research work was largely inspired by the Masters. He began his laboratory in the name of Vivekananda. In his peaceful little house above the laboratory is a room dedicated to the relics of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and other teachers of the group. This young man, pupil of the closest pupil of Vivekananda, carries into life the principles of this master, who fearlessly proclaimed his evocation to action and knowledge. In this little top chamber he formulates his thoughts, surrounded by the things which belonged to his beloved leaders.9

7 8 9

Ibid., 6. Ibid., 19. Ibid., 5.

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Roerich also wanted to meet India’s another seer, Aurobindo Ghosh, but he was apparently out of reach in his Pondicherry ashram. Still the artist praised him highly in the Russian version of his book, saying that Aurobindo’s insights were remarkable and his work was “full of knowledge [needed] for the future”.10 Having arrived in Calcutta, the Roerichs of course could not miss the opportunity of seeing the ‘two monuments to Ramakrishna’ outside the city – the temple where he had long lived and the Mission of Ramakrishna, “the mausoleum” of the teacher himself, of his wife, of Vivekananda, and a collection of their many memorabilia. At the Mission they met Sister Christine, one of the few living pupils of Vivekananda, who presented his photographic portrait to Elena. “There is a great peace here and it is with difficulty that one realizes oneself so near to Calcutta with all the terror of its bazaars and confusion, remarked Nikolai in his diary”.11 From Calcutta, the family headed up north, in the direction of Darjeeling located in the foothills of the Himalaya, their final destination. There they would spend the rest of their time in India. But why Darjeeling – a hill town noted for its tea industry, the highest railroad in the world and a place of refuge for British residents escaping the scorching summer heat of the plains? The answer can be found in Elena’s first letter to the New Yorkers, written on 1 January 1924: “Today began (the) so much expected year … I am writing from the hotel but in front of me is the view of Kanchenjunga, behind her peaks is the Holy Ashram”. Yes, the Roerichs came to Darjeeling mainly because of the Masters as they yearned for a new encounter with one of them, their dear Master Morya, and wanted be taken by him to the secret Himalayan Ashram as he had promised them before. They were apparently following in the footsteps of Helena Blavatsky. Peering through the window at the twin peaks of Kanchenjunga Elena channeled on the same day a most sensational message – Christ’s newest “commandment” to the Buddha (!). In this he instructed his elder Brother to gather people with the opened “third eye”, help them “cross the desert” and “endow them with skills for building” so that they might erect the Temple for the Masters and their “Assembly”. And then the Masters would choose a person for tolling the bells ‘unto the whole world’ from the City of Zvenigorod.12 Once in Darjeeling, Roerich immediately started looking for a dwelling-place. This was to be a comfortable and nice looking house appropriate to his status 10 11 12

Rerikh, N. 2009, 30–31. The passage was omitted from the English edition. Ibid., 5, 6. For this and other letters quoted in this chapter see www. agniyoga.org; see also Rerikh, E. 2011, 395.

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figure 18 Talai Phobrang house, Darjeeling. NRM archive

as an internationally acclaimed artist, and besides it should provide a good view of the Himalayan range. He eventually found one – this was the house where the 13th Dalai Lama lived in 1910–1912, during his second flight from Lhasa, commonly known as Talai Phobrang, the Dalai Lama’s Palace. Here the Roerichs found what they needed: “calmness, solitude and the entire chain of Himalaya before us”. However their tranquility would be often disturbed by local Tibetans for whom the Dalai Lama’s former residence was an object of much veneration: “Not on one occasion only were we awakened by the chanting and the rhythmic beats around the house. These are the lamas who, bowing to the ground many times, marched around our dwelling”. At the same time there were people who “babbled” that a devil lived in the house which appeared as a black pig. “A haunted house, as we were told. But we are not afraid of devils, and in the neighboring village, Bhutia Basti, there are many black pigs which resemble boars. Did not our dear monkeys who came into the bathroom and ate peas and flowers around the house play the part of the devil?”13 One of rooms in this house Elena turned into her study and a place for ­communication with the Master. There she arranged two separate altars, one Buddhist and one Christian, decorated with Tibetan statuettes and tangkas of Buddhist divinities (the former) and the icons of Christ and St. Sergius (the latter). Having settled down in Talai Phobrang, filled with memories of Tibet’s ruler who was now back in his grand Potala Palace in Lhasa, the Roerichs entertained many visitors, including a high Tibetan official Kusho of Doring, a venerated 13

Roerich, N. 1996, 14.

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figure 19 A Shambhala tangka (‘The Kingdom of Shambhala’), fragment, Mongolia, 19th C., Musée ­Guimet, Paris

incarnate lama from the Chumbi Valley Geshe Rimpoche, a group of lamas from the Moru-ling monastery in Lhasa, Lady Lytton – granddaughter of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the author of The Coming Race, the Political Officer in Sikkim F.M. Bailey, Sister Christina, the members of the third British Everest Expedition under Capt. J.B. Noel and many more. The British mountaineers, as Roerich deemed it necessary to tell his readers, recognized in his new painting Szhiganie T’my (Burning of Darkness), depicting the Masters filing along a mountain path, carrying the casket with the sacred Stone which glowed brightly in the dead of the night, “the exact image of the glacier near Everest, and they did not understand how this characteristic view, seen only by them, could have come into the picture”.14 One can easily imagine the elated atmosphere of Roerich’s home from Elena’s letters. In one of these she recounted a legend she had heard from a “local inhabitant” about “the fairy-like country Shambhala” ruled by the “King of Truth” of noble descent. In this realm there is a high tower with a huge diamond placed on top of it emanating light all around. According to this legend, in the future a powerful leader from the midst of common people, not a Buddhist, would manifest himself in Shambhala as the King of the World and he would come from this land with his trusted lieutenants, being spirits of highest incarnations. 14

Ibid., 28–29.

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Some of the Tashi (Panchen) Lamas had visited Shambhala in their astral bodies, Elena reported to the Circle, and one of them even wrote a book in which he described his journey to this holy land.15 Elena also learnt from a lama-astrologer that the year 1924 was a very special one; it marked the beginning of the new cycle, according to the traditional Tibetan sexagenarian calendar. Fifteen full 60-year cycles had elapsed since the introduction of the system in Tibet in 1024, hence in 1924 began the new sixteenth cycle and this immediately signaled to her that that was the beginning of the New Era, the blissful Age of the Mother of World! Today it was again joyous to hear how simple people and lamas are anticipating the soon coming of the King of the World, Savior of the people. According to their belief, he is not a spirit but a man who attained full perfection. There are already his images [to be seen] among the people in the form of a King surrounded by warriors of all nations and religions. He is a King-Warrior and even the animals will soon take part in the battle. The lamas tell that many prophecies are already fulfilled and consider the year very important as the beginning of the new era.16 From the moment the Roerichs arrived in Darjeeling they were expecting a “call” from their Master inviting them to come to his Himalayan ashram and finally Elena “heard” it on February 12: “Urusvati, Fuyama, come, as was said in the vision, – we shall wait in the snow. Chunda17 will bring you to the line where Our snows begin and show you the direction, since you must come further by yourself. Such is the custom. We’ll come out ourselves to meet you. Chunda will return to the world since he took up a commission. The custom is not to return to the snow line, until the commission is fulfilled”.18 Hence, on 15 February the Roerichs set off to Sikkim, the “Land of Lightning” – a Himalayan state under British protection lying north of Darjeeling. The journey was sketched out in Roerich’s essay Struny Zemli (The Strings of the Earth) written upon his return to Darjeeling and was incorporated later in his travelogue Altai – Himalaya. The narrative strikes the reader from the very 15

16 17 18

E. Roerich’s letter to the Circle, 18 January 1924, N. Roerich Museum, New York. The book referred to was written by the 3rd Panchen Lama Lobzang Paldan Eshe (18th century); see: Grünwedel 1915. E. Roerich’s letter to the Circle, 25 January 1924. The name of Chunda was first mentioned in Elena’s diary on 29 January 1923 as one of Akbar’s warriors; see Rerikh, E. 2009, 257. Rerikh, E. 2011, 15, entry for 12 February 1924.

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beginning with its strong mystical undertones. The author would speak of the “two worlds” which can be observed in the Himalayas. One is the “world of the soil”: “deep ravines and grotesque hills rear up to the cloud-line, into which melts the smoke of villages and monasteries. Upon the heights gleam banners, suburgans and stupas…”. Yet there is also another world shining above the clouds: “It is strange, unexpectedly startling, to behold new ramparts mounting the clouds. Above the nebulous waves, above the twilight, glimmer the sparkling snows. Erect, infinitely beauteous, stand these dazzling, impassible peaks. Two distinct worlds, intersected by a mist!”.19 “It is difficult to discern – continued Roerich – that just at that point are hidden the snowy summits of Jelep-la and Nathu-la on the way to Shigatse and Lhasa – the fog seems especially often to envelope the road”.20 Here for the first time we come across a reference to Shigatse – the residence of the Panchen (Tashi) Lama and … the invisible ‘Abode of Light’ inhabited by the Masters, as Master Morya had once revealed this great secret to Elena. The mention of Shigatse and of the Jelep-la, the major mountain pass leading to the city, seems unconnected with the narrative unless Roerich was indeed thinking of making a trip in that direction with the help of Morya’s messenger and guide, a Tibetan called Chunda. Access to Tibet via Sikkim, however, was not easy, especially for foreigners, as the Government of India deliberately restricted penetration into the country by European and other foreign travelers. Only few of them managed to sneak into Tibet unnoticed, such as a French Buddhist and traveler Alexandra DavidNeel (in 1916) and William McGovern (in 1923), who was the first American known to reach Lhasa. The latter traveled through Tibet disguised as a Sikkimese monk with a group of Sikkim natives and he subsequently published a book describing his secret journey. Here is what a British traveler Thomas Holdich wrote about the roads by which Tibet could be reached from India and Sikkim in Tibet, the Mysterious, a book published in 1904 and probably known to Yuri Roerich: The most significant group of passes leading from India into Tibet is that of Sikkim, connecting the basins of the Tista and of the Ammu Chu (river of Assam) with the valley of the Tsangpo near Lhasa. Two or three routes into Tibet diverge from our railway base at Siliguri on the eastern frontier. One is carried by the mountain railway line to Darjeeling; and from Darjeeling as his base the traveler (such travelers as 19 20

Roerich, N. 1996, 32. Ibid., 33.

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Dr. Waddell, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, and the Bengali pundit Chandra Das, etc.) descends into the Tista valley, and makes his way by an easily recognizable, but occasionally difficult, route along the Lanchen affluent of the Tista and over the Kamba La or Kangra pass (16, 600 ft) to Kamba Jong. Kamba Jong is separated from the trade and religious centre of Shigatze on the Tsangpo by cross-country roads, for the most part no better and no worse than the ordinary unmade country tracks passing through the uncultivated areas of India, but with one or two crossings of mountain passes en route. 21 Could the four Roerichs follow McGovern’s example a year later and cross into Tibet from Sikkim? It seemed very unlikely, even if they were assisted by their Master, as they could have easily got into trouble after crossing the border if stopped by a Tibetan frontier cordon on the way to Shigatse, their proposed destination. So it was not really worth running the risk. All the family could afford was a trek across Sikkim which they made from Darjeeling between February 15 and 24, of course with due British approval in the form of a travel permit obtained from the British Political Officer in Sikkim (F.M. Bailey). Nikolai, Elena and their two sons were accompanied by Lama Mingyur who acted as their guide and interpreter. Their caravan consisted of 40 men and 12 horses. Most of the time the three male Roerichs traveled on horseback and Elena in a palanquin but in some areas they all had to dismount and walk on foot. The family visited Sikkim’s two largest monasteries Tashi-ding and Pemayangtse, and the four most ancient ones – Dubdi, Sanga Chöling, Daling and Robling as well as other Buddhist sites. The mystically-minded artist described poetically his journey across the “enchanted world” of Sikkim in his essay The Strings of the Earth. The narrative was fragmented into a long series of his impressions of the places visited, the legends, prophecies and anecdotes he heard, and his general ideas as a mystic philosopher focused on two subjects – the sacred land of Shambhala and the future advent of the Messiah, Buddha Maitreya. Thus he recounted that some two years before a gigantic statue of Maitreya, “bearer of the new age of universal Unity”, had been placed in Tashilhunpo, the monastery of the Tashi Lama. The idea had been invoked “with the new approaching era of Tibetan calendar”.22 In the monastery of Tashi-ding which the Roerichs visited on 20 February, in the first full moon after the Tibetan New Year, they attended the annual festival devoted to “the miracle of the self-filling chalice”. 21 22

For a description of routes leading into Tibet through Sikkim, see Holdich 1994, 23–24. Roerich, N. 1996, 46.

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Since ancient days – more than eight generations ago – this miracle had been ordained. From a designated spot in the mountain river a small vessel of water is drawn and poured into an ancient wooden chalice. In the presence of witnesses, representatives of the Maharaja of Sikkim, the chalice is closed and hermetically sealed. A year later at sunrise during the same full moon, the chalice is unsealed amidst due ceremony and the quantity of water is measured. Sometimes the water has diminished but sometimes it has increased considerably. In the year of the Great War the water tripled in quantity, which meant war. Now the water has diminished by half, which means famine and disorder. This evil omen, Roerich added further, has been “intensified” by another sign: on February 20th there occurred a complete eclipse of the moon. “Never has there been so evil a sign”. But there was also a good omen – at sunrise the head lama saw “garlands of fire starting to glow upon the peaks of the mountains”.23 It was during the festival that Roerich met a Sikkimese artist who had decorated the local temple approaches. He demonstrated to his Russian colleague the local technique of painting and painted, at Roerich’s request, the Blessed Maitreya. Upon his return to Darjeeling Roerich would immediately start a new series of paintings The Banners of the East presenting a gallery of portraits of the world’s greatest spiritual teachers – Buddha-the Conqueror, Christ, Confucius, Mohammed, Moses, Nagarjuna, Padmasambhava, St. Sergius. Another series started by Roerich in India was named His Country (“His” means Morya’s). Its two best known paintings were The Burning of Darkness and Chintamani, the Treasure of the World. The latter depicted a magic horse on a mountain ledge carrying the Casket with the Stone put on the saddle and surrounded with flames of fire. This was perhaps how the artist imagined his return of the treasure to the Masters. Sikkim was intimately linked with the mahatmas, maintained Roerich. Here once stood one their ashrams, though he never said where exactly. “To Sikkim Mahatmas came on mountain horses. Their physical presence communicates a solemn importance to these parts. Of course now the Ashram has been transferred from Sikkim. Of course now the mahatmas have left Sikkim. But they were here, and therefore the silver peaks of the chain glimmer still more beautifully…”.24 Surely, the Roerichs came to India, and Darjeeling in particular, because of the mahatmas as Nikolai made it clear to readers of his book: 23 24

Ibid., 52–53. Ibid., 15.

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And where are those for whose sake you have come to India? They do not sit in the bazaars and they do not walk in processions. And you will not enter their dwellings without their consent. But do they really exist? Are not leisurely authors writing about them only for the sake of being unique? Yes, yes, they exist, and there exists their knowledge and their skill.25 Roerich’s account of Sikkim is crammed with information about various secret or hidden places in the Himalayas and Tibet and in other parts of the world and he seems to have been absolutely fascinated with this idea. For example, he quotes a legend of the “mysterious nation” of underground dwellers of the kingdom Agharti he learnt from the book of a Polish traveler and writer Ferdinand Ossendowski26 which reminds him the Russian legend of the mysterious people Tchud (Чудь) who went underground “to escape the persecution of the evil forces. To this secreted place also leads the sacred legend of the subterranean Kitege”.27 Under Kinchenjunga [N. Roerich’s spelling – A.A.] are secreted the caves in which are resting the treasures. In stone coffins the cave dwellers are praying, torturing themselves in the name of the future. But the sun already has defined the future; not in secret caves but in full sunlight one perceives the worship and expectation of Maitreya-Buddha.28 When visiting Tashi-ding Roerich learnt about the cave Kandro Sampo where the great Tibetan ascetic had lived for some time. A certain giant, thinking to penetrate across to Tibet, attempted to build a passage into the Sacred Land. The Blessed Teacher rose up and growing great in height struck the bold venturer. Thus was the giant destroyed. And now in the cave is the image of Padma Sambhava and behind it is a stone door. It is known that behind this door the Teacher hid sacred mysteries for the future. But the dates for their revelation have not yet come.29

25 26 27 28 29

Ibid., 23. See Ossendowski 1922. Roerich, N. 1996, 37. Ibid., 65. Ibid., 63.

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Yet there was one very important date which Roerich must have heard from the lamas that he chose to reveal to his readers, that of the coming of “Someone of greatness” into the world, the Messiah, in the year 1936!30 Reading Roerich’s travel diary one gets the impression that there was no clear division between the real and the visionary for him. His mind easily absorbed all kinds of legends, myths and fables and he himself was turning his life quite consciously into a living legend. But so did Elena, with her own life. She, for her part, sketched their journey in one of her letters to the Circle. (Curiously, some parts of her account were repeated, almost word for word, in her husband’s later essay, yet there were some peculiar details missing in Nikolai’s narrative.) Elena was somewhat disappointed with the trip. All monasteries in Sikkim, in her opinion, were imbued with “indescribable sadness” because of the “layers of superstition” which had spoiled the “original crystal-pure teaching of Buddha”. Great darkness was veiling the minds of lamas and there was no “purifying fire of spirit” in their hearts. Still she personally enjoyed her meeting with the elderly abbot of Tashi-ding who, despite his “childish simplicity” was a man of “astounding energy”. During the temple’s festival “he was the first one everywhere, taking care of everything and in the evening he still found time to drop into our tent and tell us many interesting legends about the place”. Due to the recommendation of Colonel Bailey and the Maharaja of Sikkim “we were given the most honored reception”. All along the borders of the provinces of the country tents were put up made of many-colored fabric and decorated with flowers. Inside them there were tables with fruit and drinks – the latter reminded Elena the Russian home-brewed beer (braga) – in vessels from the bamboo stalk. “The landowners offered us fruits, eggs, chicken, and even fodder grass for horses. As a token of reverence they hang up khatags (white silk scarfs) on our necks which we had to wear for the whole day, without taking them off, as they were signs of longevity. In the monasteries the receptions were even more pompous. Lamas in full regalia, wearing mantles and high hats, were coming to the gates to meet us and one could hear the sounds of drums and trumpets played by them from a distance of a quarter of the mile”.31 The Roerichs were received enthusiastically, as great Sahibs, everywhere they went in Sikkim, according to Elena. The most remarkable event took place at their farewell meeting with the monks in the main temple of Tashi-ding. The lamas said they saw on Elena “the same signs” they had earlier seen on Queen Victoria which made them conclude that she was “a reincarnation of the Goddess Tara”, a most popular female Bodhisattva in Tibetan Buddhism. “That 30 31

Ibid., 63. Letter to the Circle, 1 March 1924.

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means, as it was explained to me later, that several qualities of the goddess were reincarnated in me. According to the [Buddhist] teaching, the abilities of the great teachers are partially incarnated in chosen people”. The fact of Elena’s identification as ‘incarnate Tara’ by lamas impressed her profoundly and certainly affected her self-appraisal as since that time Morya would often address her as Tara and Russian Tara. Surprisingly, when Nikolai received the lamas from the Moru-ling monastery in Darjeeling, they too identified him as a high incarnation, that of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the great reformer of Tibet, according to Roerich scholar and writer V.M. Sidorov. They made this identification by the moles on the right cheek of the artist which had the pattern of the constellation of the Great Bear.32 The statement, however, should be taken with a large pinch of salt, since we already know that it was Master Morya – and not the Tibetan lamas – who named the Fifth Dalai Lama among Roerich’s most remarkable incarnations, as early as 1921. (The fact of course was not mentioned in Roerich’s travel diary for reasons easy to understand.) What we find in Roerich’s famous travelogue are only his reflections on the role and unusual fate of the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was he who built the Potala, the fascinating 17-storeyed Red Palace Pho Brang Marpo (Tib. Pho brang dkar po) atop the red mountain Marpori in Lhasa and a number of monasteries, including Moru-ling and Labrang Garmakhiya. He also erected “on the rock” (Roerich does not say where) the colossal relief of Buddha and “the saints of Buddhism”. According to the Jesuit missionary Johannes Grüber who visited Lhasa in the 17th century, the Lama was “cautious in his methods, assiduous and devoted to art and knowledge” (precisely like Roerich!). The end of the Lama was unusual – some say that he died in the 1770s and his death was hidden for a few years33 “in order to give opportunity for various political matters to be adjusted”, and others believe that the Dalai Lama “voluntarily abandoned his rule and hid himself for several years in the very same seclusion in the Himalayas”. Roerich ended his account with an ancient prophecy: Every century the Arhats make an effort to enlighten the world. But until now not one of these efforts has been successful. Failure has followed failure. It is said that until the day when a lama will be born in a western body and appear as a spiritual conqueror for the destruction of the century-old ignorance, until then there will be little success in dissolving the snares of the West.34 32 33 34

V.M. Sidorov, “Sem’ dnei v Gimalaiakh”, in Sidorov 1988, 245. The hiding of the Lama’s death is historically attested, but the date is usually given as 1682. Roerich, N. 1966, 27.

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figure 20 Yuri Roerich, a Shambhala warrior, 1924. NRM archive

A lama born in a Western body? Could this be an allusion to Nikolai Roerich himself? Getting back to Elena’s narrative, the things which mostly saddened her were “the signs of great poverty and ignorance” she observed everywhere in the country. But she also had the feeling of “the remaining magnetism of the great souls, founders of these sacred places”35, that is, the mahatmas. Much of the Roerichs’ disappointment undoubtedly came from their frustrated expectations for a new encounter with their Master. He did not turn up, and neither did his trusted messenger Chunda (Chunda-khan) come to lead them up to the Himalayan snowy borderline where the sacred territory of Shambhala began. Disappointed they surely were, but not discouraged. Their faith in the Master and his wisdom remained adamant as before. The Roerichs were still expecting him to appear out of the shadows sooner or later. So day after day early in the morning Yuri would saddle a horse and take a long ride into the mountains… Strangely, they were given no explanations by Morya after their return to Darjeeling, as if he had not instructed the Roerichs, prior to their trip, of how to reach his Abode and not promised to meet them personally right behind the “snowline”. The Master only expressed his approval of their journey across 35

Letter to the Circle, 1 March 1924.

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S­ ikkim because it strengthened them spiritually and also gave them a good chance to acquaint themselves first-hand with Buddhist teaching and practices.

…

On 28 March, already in Darjeeling, Elena saw in a dream a Buddhist monk clad in white and heard him saying just one word “Tripitaka”, the title of the Buddhist canonical scriptures. She did not pay much attention to the vision at first but two days later the Master explained to her that this was an apparition of “Our disciple” who reminded them about the necessity of writing down everything about Maitreya. “You see him for the second time – it was he who greeted you (on the road to Darjeeling)”.36 The Roerichs, as we know, returned to Darjeeling from Sikkim on February 24, and Elena’s diary did not report any important meeting that occurred on that date. The event was related in Nikolai’s travel diary, but again not in the chapter describing the family’s stay in Darjeeling but as a later addition to his narrative, as his recollection en passant: We are talking with the lama about what happened to us near Darjeeling. It must be recorded: We were going in an automobile near the monastery Ghum. Approaching us there appeared a porte-chaise, carried by four servants in white garments, while the lama himself sat in a remarkably beautiful garment, with a crown upon his head. He had a bright, welcoming face, with a small black beard. The automobile had to slow down, and the lama smiled and joyously nodded his head. We thought that this was the important abbot of a large monastery. But afterwards we discovered that lamas are not carried in porte-chaises, nor do they wear crowns when travelling. Nor do lamas in Sikkim appear in such beautiful garments. No one ever heard of such a lama – and a face like his we found nowhere. The chauffeur slowed up the automobile while driving before the lama, which enabled us sharply to observe his face.37 The Russian version of the event added some more intriguing details: the portechaise (palanquine) was carried by four people in grey clothes while the lama was dressed in a brand new red and yellow garment and he had long black hair38, which seems to be something very odd for a Buddhist monk. The only 36 37 38

Rerikh, E. 2011, 38, entry for 30 March 1924. Roerich, N. 1996, 116; for the Russian version see: N.K. Rerikh, “Serdtse Azii”, in Rerikh, N. 1979, 158–159; Rerikh, N. 2009, 121–122. See Rerikh, N. 1979, 158.

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figure 21 Elena Roerich, relaxing, Darjeeling, 6 March 1924. O. Feshbach collection

explanation that can be given is that the lama was a Tantrist returning from a long reclusion. Yet to Elena and Nikolai the person looked exactly like a mahatma. But why did he come? What message did he bring to the Roerichs? None whatsoever! He only exchanged glances with the people in the car he met on the road and gave them a smile and they smiled back to him and that was all. No conversation took place between the lama and the Roerichs, so there was no reason to attach any particular importance to the encounter. It is no surprise then that Elena recounted the episode to the coworkers in New York only a long time after, in a letter written on the 1st of April. Her own account looks like a rehash of her husband’s belated recollection or was it rather Nikolai who retold Elena’s written statement in his travelogue? Anyway Elena’s version has some curious details not mentioned by Nikolai. For example, she says that they thought at first that they had met the abbot of the Ghum monastery, however, when they came to Ghum they found out that it was not him and that none of the monks had ever met the bearded and crowned lama. He was a complete stranger in the locality so he must be a mahatma!

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The Roerichs obviously could give no other interpretation to their meeting with a bizarre looking lama on the road to Ghum. The myth of the Masters needed some further elaboration and substantiation; it required more firsthand and solid evidence. And the person they ran into provided a brilliant occasion for myth-making. And indeed the encounter with the lama stirred up mightily Elena’s imagination and gave rise to a series of visions: all focused on the Himalayan Brothers, their Ashram and the work they were doing as evidenced by entries in her diary. There she would describe minutely some of her most thrilling experiences – her visit to the Ashram in her astral body where she was given access to the Masters’ underground museum, their secret records – an archive of their “frustrated plans” (those of Napoleon, Saint-Germain and Alexandre of Macedonia) – and their laboratory where she saw some of the Masters’ latest know-how, such as their magic mirror, the mental “wire” as well as an apparatus for producing the “new Ray of the Mother of the World”.39 The Masters told her about their Brotherhood, its activities, and they even gave her their number as 77 men or Brothers and 25 women or Sisters.40 Moreover, in April – May 1924, Elena would also channel Morya’s ideas relating to the construction of the City of Knowledge, Zvenigorod. This was stunning information which turned Elena’s and Nikolai’s heads as they realized they were the first – after Blavatsky – to whom were revealed the world’s greatest secrets by the world’s secret rulers. On the threshold of the Sacred Himalayas, the myth of the Masters was growing like a snowball.

…

There are two things, however, which make us question both Nikolai’s and ­Elena’s accounts of their meeting with a mahatma in India. It is the place of the remarkable event – on the road to the Ghum monastery, and the time – February 24, 1924. The Samten Chöling monastery (gompa) at Ghum (also spelled Ghoom), built in 1875, belonged to the monks of the Gelug or Yellow sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Their main object of worship there was a recently erected 15-foot statue of the Future Buddha Maitreya. Ghum had had a special attraction for theosophists since the days of Helena Blavatsky because of the monastery’s alleged close connection with the Masters’ Tibetan Ashram. (In fact Ghum had friendly links with the Tashilhunpo monastery, the residence of the Panchen Lama). 39 40

Rerikh, E. 2011, 66, 72–73, 78, 82, entries for 2, 8–10, 14–15, 19 May 1924. Ibid., 61, entry for 26 April 1924.

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From N. Roerich’s travelogue Altai – Himalaya one may also learn about a high rock standing near Ghum, on the summit of which a “significant prophecy” was hidden41. “A prophecy, hidden under the Stone of Ghum” would henceforth become an important cliché and symbol in the artist’s mystical philosophy, a metaphor for the world’s greatest mysteries unknown to people. During their time in Darjeeling the Roerichs would come to Ghum quite often, on various occasions, hoping secretly to meet there either their Master or his messenger. In one of her letters to the New Yorkers Elena described in great detail their visit to Ghum on February 1, on the eve of the Buddhist New Year. The monastery, according to Elena, was founded by a “Mongol from Russia” (apparently a Buryat), a specialist in astrology and almost a saintly person. After his death his name was venerated there by a group of his followers. The main temple of Ghum was dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha whose colossal statue, gilt and crowned “because He is the King of the World”, was put up in the middle of the prayer hall. The lamas told the Roerichs that the Maitreya cult had been originated only three years before by the Panchen Lama, the spiritual head of Tibet, upon whose special order a similar image was installed at Tashilhunpo. They did not say anything though about the Lama’s most recent flight from Tashilhumpo, because of his conflict with the Dalai Lama. The event had not only grave political implications but also a certain “cosmological aspect” which carried enormous weight in the Tibetan theocracy.42 “It is touching to see the fire glowing in the eyes of the lamas when they speak about the Buddha Maitreya”, wrote Elena. “How they await His coming, how they believe in His early appearance”.43 On that particular visit to Ghum, the Roerichs, through Yuri’s Tibetan teacher, ordered a special service for the “Coming Buddha” and they of course honored his image by placing a white ceremonial scarf (Tib. khatag) on Buddha’s neck, as prescribed by custom. (“You can imagine with what feeling we offered the best khatag to Buddha Maitreya”). Having found out that one very important lama from Tashilhumpo had arrived in Ghum on that day, the Roerichs immediately asked the abbot for permission to see him. They probably thought the visitor was sent by their Master, and the abbot was glad to oblige them since they had donated 100 Rupees to the monastery. Elena then recounted their meeting with the important lama. He was an old man, with a kind and clever face, dressed in a regular monastic crimson robe. In response to their greetings he put yellow silken ribbons on their necks and 41 42 43

Roerich, N. 1996, 26. The reasons for the Panchen Lama’s flight are discussed in Lamb 1989, 150–152. Letter to the Circle, 5 February 1924.

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figure 22 Panchen Lama, 6th, Chos-kyinyi-ma (1883–1937)

then gave them some presents. Nikolai received a “very sacred gift”, an amulet against any lethal weapon (Elena did not specify what it was) and she a package of incense and some curative pills made of musk. (Sviatoslav would later take these to America for chemical analysis.) The next day the Roerichs went to Ghum again to watch the Buddhist New Year religious dance of tsam performed by the monks. And two weeks later, as soon as they were back from Sikkim, they hired a motor car and rushed to Ghum again. It was then, halfway to Ghum, that they saw the strange looking lama whom they took for a mahatma. This occurred on 24th of February and, according to Elena, the number 24 was the mahatmas’ favorite. Ever since her first meeting with the mahatmas in London on 24 March 1920, the date would be annually celebrated in the Roerich family as the Masters Day. It was on the same day, February 24, that Elena channeled an important prophecy from Morya which read: The glory of Tibet and Mongolia is approaching. The Treasure is returning from the West. Fires of joy are lit on the mountain peaks. Look at the road – there are those who are carrying the Stone. On the casket are the signs of Maitreya. From the sacred kingdom was given the date for spreading out the carpet of expectation. The Gates will be open by the signs of

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the seven stars. I’ll manifest My messengers through fire. Collect the predictions of your happiness.44 The “predictions” referred to were apparently prophecies about Maitreya and Shambhala. The Roerichs were instructed by Morya in the same message to translate this latest prophecy into Tibetan and sent it to Chistiakov in Harbin who was to find means for resending it directly to the Grand Lama of Mongolia. And this was not all. Five months later Morya would further instruct Elena and Nikolai to bury “the manuscript of the legend, given to you this February” (i.e. the above prophecy), placed in a metallic casket, either by the old stupa at the roadside or somewhere at the Ghum monastery, “wherever it is easier”.45 So the Roerichs were apparently to establish another cache near Ghum. The interred manuscript was to play the role of a psycho-spatial magnet “to cement the space” around, the first one laid down in northern India since the time of Apollonius of Tyana46. (In early 1925, still in Darjeeling, Elena would elaborate a whole theory of the “laying of magnets” with the purpose of “turning spatial ideas into action”.47) Thus if the Roerichs were to meet the mahatma again, in India, there probably would not have been a better occasion than the one that presented itself on February 24, when they saw a bearded lama on the road to Ghum. But was he a mahatma indeed? The Roerich followers have no doubt about it. Moreover, they offer an intriguing continuation of the story, asserting, as does L. Shaposhnikova, that Nikolai and Elena met with the same lama again in a little roadside temple. There they had a secret conversation, discussing plans for their forthcoming Central Asian expedition, and the person also handed them a letter from the mahatmas which was to be delivered to the Soviet leaders.48 Shaposhnikova further describes the temple – which still exists at its site – as a shrine of “One religion” and also recounts a legend of how it was built. According to the legend, one Nepalese, a resident of Darjeeling, had once received a “message” from the mountains, from the side of Kanchenjunga, delivered to him by a mysterious horseman. And the 44 45 46

47 48

Rerikh, E. 2011, entry for 24 February. Ibid., 147, entry for 1 August 1924. Apollonius of Tyana (1 century ad), a Greek philosopher of the Neo-Pythagorean school, who travelled much in Asia Minor and India, “imbibing Oriental mysticism”. Elena Roerich spoke of him highly as a great oracle and wonder-worker and claimed that he had been admitted to the Great White Brotherhood. About his alleged “laying of magnets” in northern India see Rerikh, E. 2011, 229–230, entries for 25–27 December 1924. Ibid., 257, entry for 13 February 1925. Shaposhnikova 1998, 200.

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next day he started the construction.49 The same legend was also known to Nikolai Roerich and it even inspired him to paint his Speshashchii (The hurrying one). “A strange temple it is, standing close to the road leading from the Ghum monastery to Darjeeling”, remarks Shaposhnikova. “It looks as if all religions have come together here. It was topped by a Muslim dome, its pediment was decorated with the Gothic Chimeras, Krishna was standing opposite the Buddha, and a little shrine was put up above a streamlet flowing nearby”.50 Yet on the photograph of the temple accompanying the description one can see something different: a typical Hindu (Vishnuist) mandir, with facades decorated by images of Vishnu, Narasimha (man-lion), Parashurama (Rama holding an axe) and Buddha, the latter three being avatars of Vishnu. Thus there are no visible signs of the ‘synthesis of religion’ in the décor of the temple. Curiously, Elena herself seems to have shown little interest in that second fleeting encounter with a mahatma-looking lama near Ghum, as she would not question Morya about it, unlike her first memorable meeting with the Masters in London. She would ask her Master about it repeatedly in 1923 and 1924: Did he come to London because of her? What was the nature of his influence upon her? Why were all manifestations in London so painful? Where and how long did the Masters stay in London? To these she received some rather intriguing answers: the Masters had stayed in London for two months – in November and December (1919) and then they returned in March (1920); they put up at the “hostel for military officers at Gr. R. Sq.” (Great Russel Square?).51 Their purpose was strictly occult – to shape her aura and fill her nerves with the substance called “the Purusha attack”.52 The meaning of the latter she would later explain in one of her Agni Yoga books as the creation of a new consciousness pattern by making the usual brain centers droop.53 To this end the Masters applied to Elena their special psychic ray whereas now (in 1924) they were toughening her organism for further “occult experiences”. 49 50 51

52 53

Shaposhnikova 1993, 15–16; see also Shaposhnikova 2000, 381. Shaposhnikova 1998, 200. There is Great Russel Street in London and Russel Square nearby, so the mahatmas (or Elena) seem to have confused (or merged) the two placenames. No other meaningful interpretation of the address “Gr. R. Sq.” can be offered. Rerikh, E. 2009, 313, entry for 21 July 1923 and Rerikh, E. 2011, 213, entry for 18 November 1924. See New Era Community (1926), 53: www.agniyoga.org

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An Alliance with Bolsheviks Everything has changed – Lenin is with us. Communism is needed for the sake of evolution. E. Roerich, Diary, 1925

⸪ On September 22, 1924 somewhat unexpectedly Nikolai Konstantinovich left Darjeeling for America, accompanied by his younger son Sviatoslav. There were several reasons which made him interrupt his idyllic retreat in the Himalayas, all connected with his Russian Project and the Great Plan in general. On the day of his departure Master Morya addressed him through Elena: “Now it’s time to start preparations. Deepen My work” and “Help to build My Country”.1 The ­decision was actually made in June – and again with a little nudge from the Master who suggested that Fuyama should go to America to “put things on a firmer footing” there.2 Nikolai’s greatest concern at the moment was his newly founded Alatas publishing house and his recently conceived Beluha corporation through which he hoped to obtain a mining concession in the Altai from the Soviet government. The project was of paramount importance since ‘Beluha’ was perceived as a means to solve all financial problems for Roerich – it could secure the material well-being for his institutions, those already functioning, and the new ones he wanted to set up in the near future. But even more importantly, ‘Beluha’ was to help him lay the foundations of the City of Zvenigorod to become the center of New Russia, as was indicated by the Master. Contemplating his Beluha project Roerich might have heard about other foreign concession holders in the USSR – German, American and British, but he hardly realized the difficulties and risks faced by Western businessmen operating commercial enterprises in the land of the “triumphant proletariat”. He might have known of the British-owned Lena Goldfields Company – the largest one in the gold-mining industry in pre-revolutionary Russia; it was seized in 1920 by the Bolsheviks and then, in 1923, its former owners were granted the concession for the exploitation of the same placer gold deposits of the Lena River in Siberia 1 Rerikh, E. 2011, 192. 2 Ibid., 107, entry for 13 June 1924.

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which they had worked before. The agreement was finally signed in the latter half of 1925. Lena Goldfields obtained a 30-year concession for the Lena placer mines but the arrangement lasted only five years despite the fact that the company was prosperous, producing (in 1928) about a quarter of the total Russian gold output. The underlying reason for its liquidation by the Soviets seems to have been a political one, as the country’s new ruler, Stalin, by the beginning of the 1930s, put an end to the Bolshevik experimental “state capitalism” or NEP, launched earlier by Lenin. According to Boris Bazhanov (Stalin’s personal secretary in 1923–28), the Soviet concession policy was fraudulent from the very start. The Bolsheviks simply wanted to restore, with the help of Western money and know-how, Russia’s ruined economy. As soon as the goal was achieved all Western businesses were ousted from the country. By means of some “crafty trick” a foreign concessionaire was put in a position in which he failed to carry out his contract obligations; hence the agreement was annulled and the well-run enterprise together with its equipment went into the hands of the Soviet state, as happened in the case of the Lena Goldfields when the workers on the concession suddenly demanded a 20-fold increase of their salaries.3 But in the fall of 1924, when the Beluha project was still maturing, Roerich was full of optimism. And indeed nobody at that time, including his Masters, could foresee such a sinister turn of events in the not too distant future. So Roerich made plans – first he should make official contact with the Soviets through their diplomatic office in Berlin and then two American businessmen L. Horch and M. Lichtmann, directors of the Beluha corporation, would officially approach the Soviet Main Concession Committee (Glavkontseskom), through its European representative in Paris. On 3 August Elena channeled a message concerning Beluha which said that the corporation should be registered as an “American business”, its financing should begin at the end of 1926 and a proposal should be made to the “Russian government” for dividing all profits in two and exempting their American partners from taxation (!?). Furthermore, Morya suggested that Elena should tell her cousin in Leningrad, Stepan Mitusov (Kai), to join the ranks of the communist party as this would allow him to act as their “harmless representative” in Bolshevik Russia.4 As a result Kai became the family’s go-between with one of the Bolshevik grandees – head of the commissariat (ministry) for education, the playwright, literary critic and an ex-Mason Anatoly Vasilievich Lunacharskii. Just a few days before Roerich left for America, Elena had channeled Morya’s special appeal “to 3 See Bazhanov 1990, 276–278. 4 Rerikh, E. 2011, 149.

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New Russia” which Kai was to relay to Lunacharskii as a letter from the mahatmas. This was a rather pathetic declaration, as many of Roerich’s essays of the period were, bringing home to the Soviet leaders that there was a great deal of work going on in the East “for the sake of New Russia”. “Happy is the Russian land to belong to that part of the world. A new common house is being built now hastily. About two and half years will pass before new possibilities mature. Our messengers themselves will knock [on the door] and say just one word, Dorje, which means that a lightning has flashed and it is time to listen…”.5 (Seeking a close alliance with Lunacharskii, Roerich might have forgotten how some two year before when chatting with Sina Lichtmann he had quoted his friend Leonid Andreyev’s opinion of the man: “Lunacharskii is the worst of all in Russia today. Whereas Trotskii and Lenin want to buy people’s bodies, he is trying to buy their souls”6). On the way to Calcutta Nikolai and his son stopped shortly in Kurseong (a hill-station in Darjeeling district) to meet the famous French explorer and Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel who had just returned from Lhasa. She was accompanied on the journey by a Japanese bonze, Ekai Kawaguchi (who had already been to Tibet in 1901), both disguised as pilgrims. They entered the country from Western China, crossed the Chantang highlands and spent two months in Lhasa. The account of David-Néel’s most sensational journey was published in 1927 in French and English and the book quickly became a best-seller,7 given that Tibet still retained much of its mysterious aura for the Western public. No doubt Roerich was keen to hear the woman’s firsthand impressions of the Forbidden Land. Having failed to cross into Tibet from British India (i.e. from the south), he probably realized now that the country would be much more easily accessible from China’s territory (i.e. from the north), and this prompted a change in his plans. The French traveler related to the artist inter alia some of the current Tibetan prophecies of the Future Buddha Maitreya: “… [She] names the ruler of Shambhala, King Gesar of Link. Everyone in Tibet knows [the name]. He is expected to come from Siberia. According to some prophesies, all his co-workers have already been reincarnated…”.8 But the most remarkable 5 Ibid., 189, entry for 18 September 1924. 6 Fosdik 2002, entry for 10 August 1922. 7 David-Néel 1927. Interestingly, David-Néel’s Voyage à Lhassa was rendered for Soviet readers by E.K. Pimenova in a popular edition Tainy Tibeta (Mysteries of Tibet, Leningrad, 1929). The book immediately attracted the attention of the Soviet foreign ministry (Narkomindel), hence it was specially reviewed for the latter by one Vorobyov in the same 1929. The review maintained inter alia that A. David-Néel was “not a specialist in Buddhism and all her scholarly works were amateurish at best”, Russian State Archive (RGA), f. 7222, op.38, d. 9, l.58 (19 July 1929). 8 Rerikh, N. 2001a, letter to E. Roerich at Talai Phobrang, 24 September 1924.

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thing Roerich heard from David-Néel was that some time prior to the advent of the Savior the Tashi- Lama was prophesied to abandon his residence in order “to return as Gesar” (!). While in Calcutta, Nikolai Konstantinovich and Sviatoslav ran into their sympathetic compatriot, one Vladimirov who turned out to be the son of the “director” of the Institute of Mines in Leningrad. They had a very friendly chat with him – “We showed our affability to Vladimirov because the post of his father9 could be more than helpful to Beluha”, Nikolai reported back to Elena in Darjeeling. From Vladimirov they incidentally learned some of the latest news from Russia – about the appalling flood in Leningrad, “as bad as the one in 1824”, and about the Soviets having signed “an agreement with Manchuria”. (This was in fact a Soviet-Chinese agreement regarding their joint management of the Chinese-Eastern Railroad (KVZhD) running across Manchuria.) These seemed to be momentous events to Roerich pointing to some epoch-making changes taking place in the world. The time for starting his Russian Project was ripe: “Is it that all threads will easily get into needles? One thing is bad though – until New York we won’t be able to know what is Said and what is Visioned at your place”, he wrote to Elena.10 Lack of direct communication with the Master apparently annoyed Roerich, as is evidenced by his letters to Darjeeling. For example, he did not hear Morya’s prophetic words about his glorious future pronounced on October 1: “Anointment is awaiting you” followed by a promise not to abandon him during the trip: “I am now blowing success on Fuyama. I am going to America”.11 In the absence of the Master’s latest messages he would read and reread the old ones as they encouraged him to action. “When you read the records, [you see] how broad is the entire plan, there are so many details intended for human hands”.12 There was also another fascinating read – the New Testament, in which he found many striking parallels with the teaching of the Master and the recently published Mahatma Letters,13 the book that Elena would subsequently translate into Russian. Already out at sea, on the way to Marseille, Nikolai Konstantinovich and his son, while promenading on the deck of the ship in the evening, would eagerly 9

10 11 12 13

The person referred to is Prof. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Vladimirov, the dean of the mining-electromechanical faculty at the Institute of Mines in Leningrad, in 1919–1924, a mining engineer by profession. Rerikh, N. 2001a, letter, 28 September 1924. Rerikh, E. 2011, 194. Rerikh, N. 2001a, 30, letter of 30 September 1924. See Mahatma Letters 1923.

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search in the sky with their eyes for their guiding star, Orion. “The stars are bright, but we could not yet see Orion. Maybe, it comes out at a later hour?”; “Why can’t we find Orion? Or is it that the moon prevents us?”, Nikolai reported to his wife. Occasionally both Roerichs would sit down for a séance, yet the channeling did not go well without Elena. The messages from spirits arrived with much difficulty and clearly garbled because of the “unstable table”, as Nikolai explained to her.14 The issue which particularly bothered Roerich at that time was his many opponents (“enemies”) in America who could seriously harm his designs: “We are walking up and down the empty deck, thinking about you and how to get rid of the extra enemies in America. There are already new formations there …”.15 (Since their New York days Elena and Nikolai had lived with the permanent feeling of a hostile surrounding. Thus, in early 1923, while preparing for departure, they would compile together with their disciples lists of “friends and foes”.16) Back in Paris again a year after, Nikolai and Sviatoslav would be welcomed by their old friends there, the Shkliavers and Aleksei Remizov. And they would be heaped with the latest news from Russia. Roerich was especially eager to know about the changes in the Soviet government after Lenin’s death. From Shkliaver he learnt, for example, that the new Soviet ambassador (polpred) in France would be Khristian G. Rakovskii, who had formerly held the same post in Britain. But Shkliaver was wrong – the Soviets would send to Paris in the same year another able diplomat and admittedly one of the creators of the Lenin’s cult in Soviet Russia Leonid Borisovich Krasin (1870–1926). Krasin would also act as a representative of the Soviet Main Concession Committee in Europe, although it was not Krasin who made the key decisions with regard to the concession granting but Leo Trotskii, who after Lenin’s death had played for some time the first fiddle in the Soviet government, and members of the Politburo. Relishing the sea breeze on board the S.S. Aquitania taking him and his son to New York, Nikolai would carefully peruse a Soviet magazine he occasionally got hold of, but everything it said about New Russia utterly disappointed him. “Yes, everything needs to be rebuilt – it can’t be otherwise”, he wrote to Elena. “You come to understand again what wonderful people Poruma, Logvan and the Lichtmanns are. And you learn to value Remizov”.17

14 15 16 17

Rerkh, N. 2001a, 34, letter of 11 October 1924. Ibid., 30, letter of 1 October 1924. Fosdik 2002, entry for 22 January 1923. Rerkh, N. 2001a, 36, letter of 20 October 1924.

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Back in New York the Roerichs were given an enthusiastic welcome by their co-workers, whose ranks were joined by the sympathetic Grebenshchikov couple – Tarukhan and Naru. “What a great joy”, recorded Sina. – “N.K. looks wonderful; he grew young and thin and is emanating enormous light”.18 From the harbor all went straight to the Master-School and the Museum. Nikolai Konstantinovich carefully inspected their premises and praised some of the innovations such as the newly arranged tea-room which reminded him of “the atmosphere of Petrograd’s School of Drawing”. Over tea he handed out to the women – the future ‘Altaian Sisters’ (Sina, Esther, Frances, Poruma and Naru) – Elena’s special present: “Buddha’s footprints of marvelous work”, which was probably another paper or tissue token like that of the ‘Flaming Chalice”. In the evening they all got together again at the Alexandria hotel where Nikolai Konstantinovich and Sviatoslav put up. There the Guru showed to his disciples a collection of Tibetan tangkas (painted icons) he had brought for Corona Mundi, as well as bronzes of the Buddha Maitreya and some antiques from the Akbar times – an oil lamp, a copper bottle for keeping perfume and some little stones extracted by Elena from the wall enclosing Akbar’s palace in Fatehpur Sikri. Roerich also gave a long talk about India, his impressions of the country which, in his opinion, was on the brink of revolution, and his meetings with some remarkable Indians. In conclusion, he read out the Master’s latest “instructions” for the Circle, outlining everyone’s special role in the construction of Zvenigorod. These were expressed as usual in nebulous terms: Poruma should build the “Houses of Blessing” (Doma Blaga), Radna should ascend the hill, Naru should walk to a “healing spring”, etc.19 The next day Roerich had a meeting with Tarukhan for a discussion of his Altaian project. The most important thing at this initial stage, according to him, was to choose sites for the mining and agricultural development in the Altai since Tarukhan “knows them all”. “That’s where we need him”, Sina echoed Roerich’s words – “to locate the sites and obtain the concessions for these”. And in the evening everyone, including the “new ones” Tarukhan and Naru, sat round the table for a séance as before. Yet, in Elena’s absence, no important messages were received, though Madame Shafran, who acted as a medium, had “some visions”. After the séance Roerich addressed his disciples summoning them to compile the “Masters’ Reader” in different languages. They have already gotten various legends and parables and these must be augmented now with their own best ideas, dreams and visions turned into narratives. “Tomorrow at 10 o’clock

18 19

Fosdik 2002, 199, entry for 24 October 1924. Ibid., 200–201.

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191 figure 23 Top row, left to right: Maurich Lichtmann, Louis Horch. Bottom row, left to right: ­Frances Grant, Sina Lichtmann, S.M. Shafran, Nettie Horch, Esther Lichtmann, Sviatoslav Roerich; Copied from V. Rosov’s book

we’ll get together at the Museum and N.K. will give us the Teaching”, Sina concluded the day’s entry in her diary.20 A few days later Roerich had a confidential meeting with his most trusted disciples – the three Lichtmanns. (He certainly was much more at ease with them as his compatriots with whom he could discuss tête-à-tête, in his native Russian, most delicate subjects). To the Lichtmanns he confided some particular details of his Russian Project. In 1926 Yuri was to go to Berlin to “obtain the full powers and the concessions” and thence proceed to Mongolia through Russia in the guise of a Mongolian Colonel Narukhan. As for Maurice, he was given several commissions – to contact his parents in Kamenets-Podolsk (in the Ukraine) and tell his father to make contact with Bolsheviks as “things must be done in cooperation with them”. In general the work that Roerich assigned to the Lichtmanns’ parents was intended for the Jewish community as they were to “prepare the Jews for the New Country”. In 1928 Maurice and his sister Esther were to travel to Kamenets and Sina was to follow them a year after. There Maurice should publish a book of his essays together with Elena’s Legends of the Stone in Hebrew under the pen name Bolshem. One of the essays should be a “practical one” – by referring to Solomon’s Messenger, Amos-Roerich (!), Maurice was to call upon the Jewish people for practical work in the New Country. He should talk to them not so much about the coming of Messiah but about 20

Ibid., 203, entry for 25 October 1924.

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practical things, by praising the “good life” in the New Country under the cooperative system. He should particularly emphasize that Buddha was building “communist hostels”, and Christ preached communism, not forgetting about Lenin who was likewise a “great communist”.21

…

Nikolai Roerich was a very sociable person. He was quite good at making friends and at cultivating people who could be of use to him, commonly spoken of in Russian as nuzhnie liudi (useful people). (He and Elena had a theory that humans are attracted to each other only if they have the same color of aura.) During his six-week sojourn in New York in late 1924 Roerich made friends with two remarkable men. One of them was Howard Kellogg whom he had first met in 1921; he was the son of Spencer Kellogg, founder of a linseed oil business in Buffalo which became Spencer Kellogg and Son, Inc. Kellogg Sr. was also a manufacturer of brooms, brushes, paints, varnishes and other useful household items.22 After his father’s death in 1922 Kellogg Jr. inherited not only the family business, having become President and General Manager of the company, but also his father’s collection of paintings and objects of art from many different countries. He was an art lover, like his father, and a theosophist into the bargain which helped Maurice Lichtmann woo him easily into Roerich’s orbit. Occasionally visiting New York on business Kellogg would meet Roerich, already posing as Guru at that time, mainly at Lichtmann’s place. Among the things they discussed were Kellogg’s plans for starting a popular art magazine which would propagate the ideas of allying art and spirituality. Roerich proposed an astronomical title for it – Orion – but it was later changed by Kellogg into Aries, the brand name of his store in Buffalo. In one of Sina’s diary entries we read: “Kellogg has arrived, he chatted much with Nutsia [Maurice – A.A.]; he said that while riding in the car he heard a voice, saying: Prof. Roerich is a Representative of the White Brotherhood”.23 Roerich’s other new friend and a man of great use was a New Yorker, Dmitri Nikolaevich Borodin (1889 – ?). An entomologist by profession, he moved to the US soon after the Bolshevik revolution (1918) where he organized and headed, four years later, a Soviet-sponsored New York Bureau of the Department of Applied Botany at the State Institute for Experimental Agronomics in Moscow, 21 22 23

Fosdik 2002, 206, entry for 27 October 1924. On S. Kellogg see: http://files.usgwarchives.org/ny/erie/bios/lewis/kellogg-howard.txt Entry for 1 December 1924 in the original diary belonging to the Roerich Museum, New York. The passage was omitted from the diary’s Russian publication by D. Popov (Fosdik 2002).

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whose director was the renowned Soviet agronomist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. The bureau functioned until 1927 when it was closed down. Subsequently Borodin would be employed at the Department of Zoology in Columbia University. Well-educated and full of vigour, Borodin admired the American cooperative movement as well as the country’s “vital pragmatism” and he sought to transplant and cultivate the same kind of pragmatism on Soviet soil. As evidenced by Sina Lichtmann’s diary and some of Elena Roerich’s letters from 1925, Borodin, referred to cryptically as “Uncle Boris” (Diadia Borya) or simply ‘B’, was on friendly terms with Nikolai and he actually acted as his secret supporter and a go-between with Moscow at that time. It seems that Roerich got acquainted with Borodin through Avirakh (Maurice) who had been actively looking, in Roerich’s absence, for “new ones” in America. According to Sina, Guru’s first meeting with Borodin took place on 29 October, i.e. five days after Roerich’s arrival in New York. “In the afternoon N.K. [Nikolai Konstantinovich – A.A.] went to see Borodin, to talk to him about sites for the concession in the Altai. The man received him marvelously, and it seems that everything will be arranged; he indicated what letters should be written to useful people in Moscow. In this way was laid the first stone in the foundation of Beluha”.24 On November 9 Borodin visited the Roerich Museum where he had a long chat with the artist. They discussed the Beluha Project and other things, yet it seemed that Borodin cared less about Roerich’s projected industrial and agricultural activities in the Altai than about his “work” in “foreign Asia” (i.e. Asia outside the USSR), in India and Tibet, which vaguely suggests pro-Soviet propaganda. The artist’s forthcoming journey to Tibet he regarded as having paramount “historical importance”. “Borodin said that he felt that N.K. could do some important work in Asia”, Sina recorded in her diary.25 Gradually the Soviet-American agronomist was getting more and more involved in Roerich’s grand Asiatic project. “Today at 12 o’clock N.K. returned from Borodin who gave him many useful instructions, as to whom he should write letters and whom he should meet in Paris and Berlin. He said that Hoover showed interest in Altai”, reads one of Sina’s later entries. “We are all excited, feeling the beginning of some big events”.26 Borodin indeed was of much use to Roerich as he provided an important link to some very “useful” officials, including those in the Soviet higher echelons in Moscow. He also had connections with Henry C. Wallace (1866–1924), the US 24 25 26

Fosdik 2002, 209. Ibid., 221, entry for 9 November 1924. Ibid., 233–234, entry for 25 November 1924.

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Secretary of Agriculture under President Warren G. Harding, and with Herbert Hoover, the country’s future President. (Interestingly, in 1922–1923 Borodin had collaborated with Hoover’s American Relief Administration (ARA), an organiza­ tion formed by the U.S. Congress in 1919 to render aid to 23 war-torn European countries, including Soviet Russia. Through ARA Borodin had sent the seeds of cereal plants and some agricultural literature to the famine-stricken Russia.) Judging by the above quotations, Borodin was trying to help Roerich obtain the mining concession in the Altai, although not so much for the sake of business, but rather because Roerich’s “work” could contribute to the cause of “uniting Asia”, as this was the issue of highest priority for the Soviets. Thus he helped him establish contacts with the Paris-based representative of the Main Concession Committee L.B. Krasin – who was concurrently the Soviet polpred (Ambassador Plenipotentiary) in France – through one of his good acquaintances A.A. Yazikov, the Soviet torgpred (trade representative) in Montreal, Canada. “Borodin came and had a long talk with N.K.; [he] telephoned Montreal and arranged that N.K. won’t have to go there, because they will send a cable to Paris”, we read further in Sina’s diary. “B. told N.K. that that the main thing for them was the unification of Asia, and the thing they were discussing now was of less importance. N.K. then asked whether he knew that the unification of Asia could be carried out with the help of religion. He said yes, he did. And did he know that this could be achieved by the name of Buddha? To this he assented again. And would they agree in Paris? B. answered that the people there are not silly. And in this way they [Borodin and Roerich – A.A.] reached complete mutual understanding which made this day very important”.27 It is not too difficult to see why Borodin was trying to encourage Roerich to give support to the Bolsheviks’ plans for the “unification of Asia”. Such plans were of priority for only one organization at that time, the Communist International, or Comintern. But does it mean then that Borodin was a paid Comintern agent? It well could be. There was an unofficial Soviet trade agency operating in America in the 1920s, named Amtorg (American Trade). Based in New York, Amtorg served as a cover for various Bolshevik agents, including those of the OGPU Political police and Comintern.28 Borodin’s relations with Amtorg were rather uneasy at first as he strongly opposed the attempts by its chief P.Ya. Ziv to incorporate (“devour”) his little and formally independent agricultural unit. Somehow he managed to patch up the differences and both establishments seemed to have found a common ground. Still in one of his letters to N.I. Vavilov from early 1925 Borodin com27 28

Ibid., 242–243, entry for 7 December 1924. Agabekov 1992, 198–201.

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plained that Ziv “was surrounded by a whole swarm of speculators” whose words “were not worth a penny”.29 Being an agent of Narkomzem (Narkomat Zemledelia or Ministry of Agriculture), with a permanent residence in New York, Borodin had to deal with various organizations and all kinds of people and he travelled much in and outside America. This could not but attract the attention of Comintern’s operators and it was probably not too difficult to recruit Borodin for their American work, knowing that he was pragmatic and had a certain commercial propensity. (Vavilov once called him jokingly a “Mammon’s servant”). But if so, Roerich, through Borodin, too could have come under the spotlight of both Comintern and the OGPU. Borodin was apparently a “dark horse” who could have played a double game with regard to Roerich and his Circle. The Soviet geneticists F.G. Dobrzhanskii and Yu.A. Filipchenko who worked in the late 1920s in the US when Borodin was already employed by Columbia University portrayed him rather negatively, the former calling him “a villainous type in all respects” and a “fraud” who cared only for money, and the latter “a spoiler”.30 Roerich however perceived Borodin very differently finding him a very “useful man”. To foster his Master’s plans the artist was willing to collaborate with anybody, so it seems. He fully believed the wisdom of the old saying “The end justifies the means”, with a proviso “if it is for good”. This is, for example, how Elena Roerich admonished Sviatoslav who would remain in New York after his father’s return to India, in early 1925: Show restraint and a positive attitude towards Uncle Boris, since it is important to make a good impression on him. Don’t forget that all rich men try to watch their co-workers from all sides, and Uncle Boris is very good at it. If you blurt out a secret, try to muddle the sleuths.31 At the same time Elena instructed the Circle: “It is necessary to bring Uncle still nearer, showing him the second book [of the teaching]. Speak to him about [the] Mahatm[as] of the East, not connecting [them] with theosophy, this decayed organization”.32 The Roerichs were apparently trying to cultivate Borodin as he was very important to them at that crucial stage of their Russian Project. 29 30 31 32

Vavilov 1994, 352, Borodin’s letter to Vavilov, 14 February 1925. See the volume of Dobrzhanskii’s correspondence in Konashev (comp.) 2002, 188–189, 211, 212. Rerikh, E. 2001b, 48, letter of 23 April 1925. The online collection of Elena Roerich’s original letters to the Circle from the archive of the Roerich Museum in New York (1925), see: www.agniyoga.org

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As Master Morya made it clear to Elena, “the main task now is the psychic cultivation of useful people”.33 The short time Roerich spent in New York was exceedingly productive. He accomplished his major task, having given a start to his first fully commercial American project. The Beluha Corporation, officially registered on November 17, was a joint-stock company whose mission embraced a wide range of activities, such as prospecting and the exploitation of minerals, construction work, the purchase of realty and land etc. In the opinion of Daniel Entin (current director of the Roerich Museum), the company clearly intended to have the ability to take advantage of whatever business opportunities should present themselves while there – i.e. in the Altai. The Certificate of Incorporation was signed by L. Horch and M. Lichtmann, while Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s signatures as trustees were also added. The company was to be managed on behalf of its shareholders by a board of seven directors – the Roerichs, the Horchs, the Lichtmanns, and Frances Grant. Oddly, Grebentschikov, a big expert on Altai, was not included in the number of these lucky seven.34 Yet he, as head of the Alatas Publishers, was also to promote Beluha through his book publishing business and Roerich commissioned him personally to produce his own literary work about Altai under the title Zhemchuzhina Sibiri (The Pearl of Siberia). Beluha having come into being, the next step now was to approach the Soviets and start the formalities towards obtaining the much-coveted concession in one of the most beautiful corners of Asia. Business apart, the Elena Roerich Room was inaugurated on 23 November at the Roerich Museum to accommodate her own collection of her husband’s paintings. There the artist himself also exhibited some of his latest works (those from the Sikkim and His Country series) which he had brought from India. At the same time, in the latter half of November, Roerich together with Sviatoslav and the Horchs couple made a tour of the north-west part of the country, vising Boston, Buffalo, Rochester, Chicago and Detroit. During this trip he caught up with some of his old friends, such as Mrs Debay, H. Kellogg, and the group of his admirers in Chicago, and made some new ones. While in Boston the artist gave a talk before the members of the Arts Club and he also visited the Ford automobile factory in Detroit, the culmination of the tour. The things Roerich saw there delighted him – “a wonderful system, it’s clean all over the place, and what’s most striking – everyone is smiling”, he shared his impressions with his New York disciples. One of them Zavadskii (Morey) though did not 33 34

E. Roerich’s online diary, 1925–1926, a handwritten copy, p. 176, see: http://urusvati.agniage.net. Rosov 2002a, 120.

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believe him, claiming the Ford factory was a “rotten place”, and was reprimanded by Guru for his retrograde views. Both Grebentschikov and Zavadskii, though cooperating with the Circle, were not fully trusted by the Roerichs. The artist was careful enough not to initiate them into all his plans and secrets, including the Master’s teachings. Thus, while in Paris, Nikolai and Elena shared with their new friends the Legend of the Stone but they did not tell them anything about the Stone’s miraculous coming into their hands. Tarukhan and Morey were aware of Elena’s visions and her writings, though not of the mediumistic messages the Roerichs regularly received “through the table”. Nikolai told them briefly about the future One Religion and the Temple of this new creed to be built in the Altai, as well as a tiny bit about the Great White Lodge, while Elena once showed them the portrait of Master Morya automatically drawn by Nikolai.35

…

Nikolai Roerich left New York for Europe together with Avirah (Maurice Lichtmann) on the 10th of December. “His quiet figure, his kind and wise face and that peculiar two-prong beard of his still stand before my eyes”, Sina put down in her diary. “What a wonderful sage! He gave us so much during these six weeks! I wish everything would be fulfilled and we could carry the Chalice up to the New Country. I have felt so acutely during this time how infinitely I love him, and I am ready to give up my soul for His cause”.36 The cause of the Master, His Great Plan! Two weeks later, on December 24, Roerich was already in Berlin ringing the door-bell of the Soviet Embassy on the Unter den Linden Straße. There he was received amiably by the ambassador Nikolai Nikolaevich Krestinskii – “Aunt Ann” in Roerich’s code language. They had a long conversation then, a summary of which Krestinskii relayed to Moscow to the foreign minister (narkomindel) Georgyi Chicherin. This is what he wrote in his message: About ten days ago the painter Roerich turned up in my office. Since 1918 he has lived in America, and the whole of last year he stayed with his family in the India – Tibet frontier, where he was dispatched for painting pictures by a certain American artistic association. Presently, having spent some short time in America and Europe, Roerich is going back for another year to northern India, but to another place.

35 36

Extracts from N. Roerich’s letters to the Circle, late 1923, see Rerikh, N. 1998, 24–25. Fosdik 2002, 245, entry for 10 December 1924.

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He is completely pro-Soviet and has some Buddho-communistic leanings. He maintains very good relations with the Hindu, especially the Tibetans, with whom he associates with the help of his son, who speaks 28 Asian languages, so he says. He has agitated there (in India) very cautiously for Soviet Russia and promises to send us intelligence from there through his correspondents (Lichtmann and Borodin). Upon my request comrade Astakhov talked with him at greater length, since it was difficult for me of course to judge how valuable and trustworthy his Asian accounts were.37 G.A. Astakhov (code name Aunt Hanza) was Krestinskii’s deputy, an expert on Eastern countries. The transcript of his conversation with Roerich preserved in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of Russia remains classified to this date and it was only once, in the mid-1960s, that the document became accessible to two journalists, S. Zarnitskii and L. Trofimova, who were commissioned to write a patriotic article about Nikolai Roerich for Mezhdunarodnaia Zhizn’ (International Life) magazine.38 (In those days Nikolai Roerich was presented to the Soviet public exclusively as “an outstanding painter” and a great patriot, certainly not as a messenger of mahatmas and a herald of the new era as would happen some three decades later.) In their essay Zarnitskii and Trofimova partly retold and partly quoted Astakhov’s transcript, bringing to light some mostly amazing facts. Thus, according to these authors, Roerich reported to Krestinskii that he came to Berlin in transit on his way to India, that he was in a great hurry making preparations for a new artistic and archeological expedition along the Leh – Khotan route and that he was requesting now Soviet diplomatic protection in those regions of Central Asia. At the same time the artist expressed his willingness “to place all the materials he would collect during his journey at the disposal of the Soviet Union”.39 By “materials” Roerich meant, as it turned out, not his archeological or other finds but the intelligence relating to the activities of the British in the strategically sensitive areas of the Himalayas, the Pamirs, Tibet and Xinjiang. The statement calls for a brief commentary: Leh was the capital city of Ladakh, forming part of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. Across Ladakh and Kashmir went the major caravan paths leading from British India into 37

38 39

Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVP RF), f. 04, op.  13, p.  87, d. 50117, l. 13a. A copy of the document was obtained by the author from Krestinskii’s relative S.N. Iznairskii. The magazine is a publication of the Soviet Ministry for Foreign Affairs, since 1922. Zarnitskii, Trofimova 1965, 98.

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Sinkiang and Tibet, countries which once again were the playgrounds for the Great Game, the revived Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia. Roerich was quite outspoken telling Krestinskii and Astakhov the most important things – about “the national liberation movement” in Tibet targeted at the “the aliens” (i.e. the British) and the dissemination of “progressive ideas” in the East (i.e. messianic prophesies) in general. Zarnitskii and Trofimova then quoted Roerich as saying: The occupation of Tibet by the British goes on continuously and systematically. The English infiltrate (there) by small groups, separating themselves, under some pretext, from military units passing near the frontier or, for example from the Everest expedition parties. The entire process of occupation occurs with the maximum tactfulness, taking into account the feelings of the local populace. In Tibet the British conduct intensive anti-Soviet propaganda, by exploiting the crass ignorance [of the Tibetans] and grossly exaggerating absurd rumors about the anti-religious activity of the Bolsheviks and their alleged severe persecution of national minorities in [Russian] Turkestan, etc.40 Talking about British ‘occupation’ of Tibet, Roerich himself apparently exaggerated things. No British Indian troops or units “occupied” the Tibetan territory or penetrated into it at that time, though some members of the three British Mount Everest expeditions (1921–1923) might have been potentially gathering intelligence about Tibet. True, the 13th Dalai Lama was given assistance, military and other, in the 1920s, by the British but he was not their protégé, strictly speaking, and his country has never been a British protectorate. According to a Russian Tibetanist V.A. Bogoslovskii, Britain “exercised considerable influence on the government as well as on some representatives of the upper strata in Tibet, actively assisted in the modernization of the country, which included the formation of the regular Tibetan armed forces. However, there had never been any British concessions in Tibet, unlike other parts of China; the customs duties went exclusively to Tibet’s coffers… So one can hardly speak about Tibet as a colony in the strict sense of the word”.41 Still Moscow regarded Tibet, in the mid-1920s, largely in the light of her ideological warfare with the West, as nearly a British colony, and Roerich only added fuel to the fire with his testimony. His intelligence, however, if one gets to the bottom of it, was nothing but a collection of rumours and things he heard 40 41

Ibid., 98–99. Bogoslovskii, Moskalev 1984, 66.

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in Darjeeling from commuting Tibetan lamas, most of whom were Anglophobes, strongly opposing a British-engineered Westernization of Tibet. A question which needs to be asked at this point – why Roerich, a member of the Russo-British Fraternity and the Theosophical Society in London, who only recently called upon Britain to fight Bolshevism, fell out so suddenly with the British? The change came about in America, as soon as the artist, caught up in the Masters’ intricate game, made up his mind to ally himself with the Bolsheviks for whom Great Britain was the archenemy. So his Anglophobia was possibly the only way to win Moscow’s favor. But one will also have to remember that a vast majority of theosophists in India at that time, including their leaders, were strong opponents of the Raj and supporters of the “home rule” movement. Talking to the Bolshevik diplomats Krestinskii and Astakhov, Roerich partly let them in on his great secret – that he had intimate connections with the Himalayan mahatmas whom he portrayed as members of some unorthodox Buddhist communities who were working towards the same ends as Bolsheviks – the creation of the world federation of nations on a communist, or rather Buddho-communist, basis. These people, he further explained, had a rather peculiar notion of communism as a teaching about “a community of the Brothers of Buddha and Christ”. Roerich had hardly gone into details to expound the essence of the mahatmas’ lofty doctrine to his interlocutors, but he emphasized the most important point – that Indian and Tibetan Buddhists alike expected some revolutionary upheaval in the East in the near future. “Roerich said that Tibet is filled with prophesies about the events to take place very soon that would radically change the country”, Zarnitskii and Trofimova quoted the artist. “Salvation is expected to come from the north, and there are even dates given, the years 1928–1931. The Tibetan lamas and the Himalayan mahatmas preach the identity of the communist ideas with the Buddha’s teachings”.42 In general Roerich made a good impression on Krestinskii as the latter promised him assistance. The artist, from his side, assured the polpred that he would keep him informed about the progress of his expedition. They also agreed that Roerich would send his dispatches to Berlin addressed to Astakhov and signed by a code name Dorje, which means “Lightning” in Tibetan. Ten days later Krestinskii reported about Roerich’s visit to Moscow, and his dispatch immediately drew the attention of the Soviet foreign minister Georgii Chicherin (code-named Chambers). Tibet was high on Chicherin’s agenda, since the early 1920s, as narkomindel was trying to re-establish diplomatic ­relations with the Buddhist theocratic kingdom and win its ruler, the Dalai Lama, over to the Soviet side. And he nearly succeeded, having sent a secret 42

Zarnitskii, Trofimova 1965, 99.

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diplomatic mission to Lhasa in the latter half of 1923 under S.S. Borisov, a former Comintern’s representative in the Far East, who negotiated (in 1924) an informal agreement with the Dalai Lama.43 Having received Krestinskii’s message, Chicherin however was in no great haste to reply to him, probably because he was expecting Borisov back in Moscow at that time to report about the results of his mission. It was only on March 31 that he wrote back to Krestinskii asking him not to lose sight of that “half Buddhist, half Communist”. “Hitherto”, noticed Chicherin, “we have never had such a good connection to those important centers. So we should not lose the opportunity by any means. In what way we can use it requires a serious discussion and preparatory work”. At the end of his message Chicherin enquired about the “business man” who “had turned up in Astachov’s latest materials”: “Cannot he be perhaps a fraud or a provocateur?”44 The person referred to was either M. Lichtmann, one of the directors of the nascent Beluha, or Shibaev. The latter also came to Berlin looking for some German companies that might be interested in hiring him as their commercial representative in India. From Berlin Roerich together with Shibaev went to Marseille whence they set sail to India on December 28, while Maurice Lichtmann returned to New York. There Beluha’s main directors, L. Horch and M. Lichtmann, began to prepare documents for the Soviet Main Concession Committee, with Borodin acting as their chief advisor. The paperwork took them about three months. By the end of March everything was ready and the Beluha directors sailed to Paris to meet L.B. Krasin. “Nutsia (Maurice) and Logvan visited Uncle Boris and gave him an account [of their work] point by point. He said they would have to go [to Paris] and meet Bishop there personally”, reads Sina’s diary.45 Borodin himself wanted to join them but he cancelled his trip the day before the departure, saying that there was an “undesirable Bolshevik” among the passengers on the ship who might be a spy. Having arrived in Paris, Horch and Lichtmann did not find Krasin in his office, as he had gone to Moscow for diplomatic briefing. So they had to wait for his return also expecting Borodin to come down to the French capital as he was supposed to introduce them privately to Krasin. On May 30, the Beluha directors were received at the Soviet embassy by Krasin’s secretary, Leo Perlin, who suggested that they send their proposals to the polpred by mail, which they did. According to V. Rosov, Horch and Lichtmann eventually had a meeting with 43 44 45

On Borisov’s mission to Lhasa, see: Andreyev 2003, 162–238. Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVP RF), f. 04, op.  13, p.  87, d. 50117, l. 14. Quoted from Rosov 2002a, 128.

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some important official at the Concession Committee in Paris (though it is not clear if the man was Krasin). Hence the Beluha project went to Moscow to the Committee’s main office for expertise and concurrently the directors forwarded it to three more addresses in the Altai, on Borodin’s advice.46

…

In the meantime Roerich and Shibaev made it safely to India in early 1925, with a brief stopover in Egypt to see the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. On the way to Darjeeling they made a detour to visit the theosophical headquarters at Adyar. There the artist presented to the TS his painting Vestnik (A Messenger) which portrayed a woman inside a temple somewhere in the mountains opening the door at sunrise to let in someone who brought her a message, a clear allusion to Helena Blavatsky. The canvas was intended for the Blavatsky Mu­ seum to be started in Adyar so Roerich’s gift was accepted gratefully by theosophists. (The gesture seems to be at odds with the Master’s prediction of the Society’s imminent collapse in the near future.) At Adyar Roerich and Shibaev met Krishnamurti, already posing as the World Teacher incarnate. The man did not impress them much and Roerich would later recount his “audience” with Krishnamurti to the New Yorkers as a funny story which made everyone laugh. Obviously he did not take Krishnamurti seriously as theosophists’ new leader and much less as the World Teacher. Back in Darjeeling Roerich immersed himself in the familiar atmosphere of quietude and reverence – in the face of the Holy Himalayas. And there was also a heap of Morya’s latest messages waiting for him, some of which were amazing. For example, the Master revealed one of Roerich’s past incarnations – that of the famous Indian poet and philosopher Ashvaghosha, the author of Buddhacharita (Life of the Buddha) who lived in the 1 century ad As a result Elena immediately began to call her husband lovingly Goshik and wrote a letter to Sviatoslav saying that he should read all works by Ashvaghosha he might find in American libraries.47 From Elena Nikolai also learnt that their house was recently visited by the roaming Tibetan lama Geshe Rimpoche who “introduces everywhere the cult of Buddha Maitreya”. He was making a tour of Buddhist monasteries accompanied by a group of lama-painters and sculptors who put up statues of the Coming Buddha there. Geshe Rimpoche came to Talai Phobrang together with his three disciples and the abbot of Ghum. He had a long talk with Elena and Yuri through lama Mingyur, who belonged to the Roerichs’ household and assisted 46 47

Ibid., 129–130. Rerikh, E. 2001b, Elena’s letter to Sviatoslav, 5 January 1925.

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figure 24 V. Shibaev and N. Roerich on seated camels, in helmets, at Giza, Egypt, January 1925. NRM archive

figure 25 Yuri and Nikolai Roerich, in Tibetan chuba robes, Darjeeling, 1924. NRM archive

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them in the capacity of interpreter. Geshe asked Elena questions about America: “He wanted to know if there were many Buddhist monasteries and temples there. But we had to tell him there were none, though some Americans call themselves Buddhists”. Geshe gave Elena three round pieces of gold paint as a present to Nikolai required for painting Buddhist tangkas. “It was impossible to get these here – Elena explained to Sviatoslav – and he has some stock from Tibet he carries on him and gives to those who install images of the Buddha Maitreya. He says that the shortest way to achievements is through the R[ed] Sham[bhala]. Buddha Maitreya and Red Shambhala have the same essence”.48 Geshe Rimpoche’s account might have strengthened Roerich in his decision to enter Tibet from the north – through Russia and Mongolia as this allowed him to link his plan for a mahatma-sponsored “Western embassy” to the Dalai Lama with the current Buddhist prophesies of the Lord Maitreya coming to the world from the Northern “Red Shambhala”. For this reason he and Yuri had fine Tibetan long-sleeve chuba robes tailored for them in Darjeeling, in 1924. Their great mission apparently required that they adopt new appearances, put on new faces, as heralds of the approaching Shambhala. 48

Ibid.

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The Transhimalayan Journey The charms of Asia! Not the contagion – but the enchantment, and it was always with us. N. Roerich, Altai – Himalaya

⸪ Vladimir Shibaev had spent about a month with the Roerichs in Darjeeling and then returned to Riga to launch his new business exporting tea from India to the USSR via his World Service company. With him Elena dispatched a letter to Sviatoslav who now supervised all the work of the Circle in New York. In this he was given her latest instructions, one of which was to cultivate – “draw closer” – Tarukhan-Grebenshikov as he was “absolutely needed” for negotiating “our new project”. Sviatoslav was to impress upon him the pre-eminence of Nikolai Roerich. “Our sweet Pasik [Roerich – A.A.] is getting more and more amazing with each day, [showing] complete self-oblivion – everything is for the Plan alone, and he desires that none of the participants spill the Chalice entrusted to him”.1 As soon as Nikolai was back in Darjeeling, he started preparations for his Transhimalayan journey. This was conceived as a trek through India’s northernmost territories of Kashmir and Ladakh to be continued further into Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang), along the Srinagar – Leh – Khotan route, believed to be the ancient path once trodden by the Buddha and Jesus Christ. The journey would gradually evolve into Roerich’s great Central Asian Expedition which would last for three and a half years and would encircle a vast territory of Asia’s heartland. Having started from Darjeeling, the three Roerichs would move to northern Punjab by rail, thence to Kashmir and Ladakh, from Ladakh, by crossing the Karakoram mountains, they would enter Chinese Turkestan, visit the ancient Buddhist oases of Khotan and Kashgar and strike northward to Urumchi, cross into the USSR, make a trip to Moscow and thence travel eastward to Altai and Mongolia. There in Ulan Bator Khoto (Ulaanbaatar) they would mount a separate expedition to Tibet. On that last leg of the journey the party 1 Rerikh, E. 1999a, 38, letter to Sviatoslav Roerich, 2 March 1925.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_013

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figure 26 Main route of Nikolai Roerich’s Central Asian Expedition (1925-1928).

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would traverse the Central Gobi, Tsaidam and the Tibetan Highlands and ­finally arrive in May 1928 at Darjeeling, their starting point. To the outside world Nikolai Roerich would present his enterprise as an American “artistic and scientific expedition” sponsored by his New York oneman Museum. Its main artistic goal was “to create a pictorial record of lands and peoples of inner Asia”, its scientific objects being, first, “to survey the possibilities for new archaeological exploration”, and, second, “to secure an extensive collection of ethnographical and linguistic material, illustrating the culture of those regions”.2 Yet the expedition was also intimately linked from the very start, as we already know, with the Masters’ global mission, their Great Plan. It had some mystical, mythical and messianic aspects as the artist was searching for the “signs” of the Coming Messiah and was collecting all sorts of legends, folk tales and prophecies to that end. At the same time Nikolai and Elena eagerly expected to get a “call” from the Masters and be taken to their Ashram, hidden in some secret place, off the caravan tracks. All this made their travel into a most fascinating mystery tour, an absolutely unparalleled venture in the annals of Western exploration of Inner Asia. Quite naturally, the Roerichs did not want anybody else to join their party, as this might complicate their mission – not even their admirers, the people they knew well, such as Charles Crane and M-me Manziarly with her daughter who were also travelling in India at that time. In her letter to Sviatoslav Elena called them scornfully “Argonauts”: All forces, either seen or unseen, are trying to drive us out of Darjeeling. … The Argonauts are overtaking us. The first of them is Charles Crane. He turned up here the other day and wanted to join us, but we prevaricated, saying that we don’t yet have the time schedule [of our journey]. His daughter with her husband, the son of Masaryk,3 were also here. In a day or two more frightful Argonauts will arrive. Miss Manziarly is already in Calcutta and she intends to visit Darjeeling which she liked so much that she wants to stay here. If this happens before our departure, it may be that they [Miss Manziarly and her mother Irma Manziarly – A.A.] want to accompany us to Kashmir, because they are planning a tour of Kashmir arranged by the “Star”.4 We’ll set out on the 6th, in the morning, because we were told [by the Master – A.A.] that new Argonauts would come on the 7th. I’d like to believe that this refers to Miss Manziarly so in this way 2 Roerich, G. 1931, xi, xii (Author’s Note). 3 Masaryk, Thomash (1850–1937), President of Czechoslovakia in 1918–1935. 4 An allusion to Krishnamurti’s Order of the Star of the Orient.

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we will avoid their importunity. They are bombarding us with their letters and brochures which they ask us to return after reading. They want to know our itinerary so that they can show up.5 Finally, the Roerichs left Darjeeling on March 6, as “advised” by Master Morya, and their great journey began. Having descended by rail to Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, they continued further to Calcutta where they got on another train which took them to Rawalpindi in northern Punjab, on March 8. From there they crossed into the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir and made their way to its principal city, Srinagar. Shortly after they arrived there Nikolai Roerich applied to the British Resident in Kashmir for permission to proceed to Leh in Ladakh in September 1925 and spend a year there executing a series of paintings. (Ladakh, or Little Tibet, was part of the Kashmir state and bordered on Great Tibet). It took him nearly two months to obtain the permit but his plans seem to have changed by then. Having moved from Srinagar to Gulmarg in mid-April the family immediately started preparations for a further trek from Leh to Khotan. As Roerich explained to the British officials, he wanted to visit some historical sites in Chinese Turkestan and thence return to the United States via China and Japan. One of Roerich’s modern biographers Maxim Dubaev holds that Roerich was in fact looking for ways of penetrating into the Dalai Lama’s Forbidden Land, while in Kashmir.6 How serious his intention was, is hard to say. Yuri Roerich in his own travel diary, while describing the family’s time in Leh, devoted a special paragraph to the routes leading from Leh to Lhasa, one of which ran through Shigatse.7 No doubt all three Roerichs were dreaming of visiting both Lhasa and Shigatse and naturally much of their inspiration came from the myth of Shambhala. They had already heard that the Moru-ling monastery in Lhasa was connected with the Himalayan ashram of the mahatmas and that Tashilhumpo, outside Shigatse, was the main site of the Shambhala worship in Tibet.8 When granting Nikolai Roerich a permit to go to Ladakh from where he could potentially, though not easily, slip into Tibet, the British of course were unaware of his secret plans, still less those of his Masters. Judging by available (declassified) British intelligence documents, neither London nor Delhi regarded Roerich as yet – at least in 1924–1925 – as a suspicious traveller, as would happen 5 6 7 8

Elena’s letter to Sviatoslav, see fn.1. Dubaev 2003, 239–240. Roerich, G. 1931, 21; Rerikh, Iu. 1982, 40. Rerikh, N. 1979, 156.

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later. Otherwise they would have hardly issued him the requested travel document. Nonetheless, they appear to have notified the Tibetan authorities in Lhasa about Roerich’s intention to visit Ladakh and it seems that the latter raised some objection at first. As Roerich wrote to Shibaev on April 16, “We are trying hard to get a permit to enter Ladakh. Lhasa is putting obstacles [in our way]”. Curiously, in May 1925, when Roerich’s request was still under consideration, the India Office in London forwarded to the Government of India a report received from the Passport Control Department in New York, saying that while in America “Prof. Roerich had been suspected of being in sympathy with Communist activities”. Yet this communication did not alarm the British Resident in Kashmir and he granted Roerich the permit he was seeking so badly. In the words of a British intelligence officer, “as his [N. Roerich’s – A.A.] passport to India had been granted on the authority of the India Office, and he was believed to be a painter of some eminence and because no reports had been received to his discredit while in India, no importance was attached to the report of the Passport Control Department”. 9 So the Roerichs met with practically no impediments from the British during their journey in Kashmir and Ladakh. Both regions held much attraction for them and they had plenty of time at their disposal to visit the major historical and religious sites there. Kashmir was a land of much enchantment, filled with many thrilling memories of its past – of the epoch of the great migration of peoples, of the great conqueror Alexander of Macedonia and the great ascetic teachers of early Buddhism. “Did the ancient Goths not compare Kashmir with Tyrol? Or with the Rhine? Transparent, ephemeral, flitting is the beauty of Kashmir”, Roerich wrote admiringly in his travel diary.10 While in Srinagar, this “Indian Venice”, the Roerichs heard for the first time the legend of Christ’s sojourn in Kashmir – after his crucifixion! The Moslems of Srinagar told us that the crucified Christ, – or as they call Him, Issa – did not die on the cross, but only lost consciousness. The disciples took away his body, secreted it and cured Him. Later, Issa was taken to Srinagar, where He taught the people. And there He died. The tomb of the Teacher is in the basement of a private house. It is said that an inscription exists there stating that the son of Joseph was buried there. Near the 9 10

National Archive of India ( NAI), Foreign and Political Department, File # 331 (2)-X of 1926–1927, Note on Prof. N. Roerich, pp.16–17. Roerich, N. 1996, 102.

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tomb, miraculous cures are said to take place and fragrant aromas to fill the air. In this way, the people of other religions desire to have Christ among them.11 The Throne of Solomon mountain outside Srinagar served as a reminder of the bygone biblical times, as Roerich quoted the legend that the King of Israel had “transported himself upon a flying carpet to the mountain with his favorite wife”. The Roerichs also visited the ruins of Martand and Avantipur, associated with the name of the king Avantisvamin, yet they found almost no ancient Buddhist monuments in Kashmir despite the fact that here lived and preached such “pillars of old Buddhism” as Nagarjuna, Ashvaghosha and Rakshita. Roerich’s travelogue briefly mentions other popular sites in Kashmir, such as the famous Mughal Gardens – Nishad (Nishat), the pleasure garden of Akbar, and Shalimar (the Abode of Love), laid out by Emperor Jahangir. The artist was also fascinated by the traditional Kashmiri manner of weaving where the weaver “accompanied the making of each of his designs with a special chant”. This occasioned the artist’s comment: “Such a searching for rhythm reminds us of the great harmony of labour”. (Elena Roerich would subsequently develop a whole theory about the importance of rhythmical singing for manual workers.) Nikolai and Elena were likewise charmed by Kashmiri singing – accompanied by the music of sitars and saazes the singers sang songs of Persia and Arabia. “Koshur”, the Kashmiri song, says: “Though walkest upon the road but art not visible to me. Thou gavest me the wine of life and walkest away from me. Everything depends on God”. “If I see but one man or woman, I already behold the entire world”. “Kamach”, the Kashmiri son, runs: “They say their praises of Christ in all manners of words. Better was He than sun and moon”. – And thus, on a red carpet, eight Moslems, of their own accord, glorify Christ and creation until the hour of midnight.12 The Eastern tunes were then followed by Western ones as the Roerichs had a portable Victorola gramophone on which they played to the Kashmiris some of their favorite records, such as Rimskii-Korsakov’s Song of Lel sung by Shaliapin. “… The turbans of the Kashmiris nod understandingly”, noted Roerich. “There is one consciousness! The program finishes with the Song of Akbar. And the entire midnight has passed without the least friction. And what has been mutu11 12

Roerich, N. 1930a, 22–23. Roerich, N. 1996, 77–78.

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ally understood is accepted with a kindly smile”.13 This brings Nikolai to some philosophical musings on the nature of “spiritual understanding” and “intuition”: “As in Sikkim, so in Kashmir, one is amazed by the spiritual understanding. One has hardly enough time to crystallize one’s thoughts, when one’s companion has made his complimentary gesture. And how many fine thoughts one can sow by way of the intuition!”.14 Being in Srinagar, the Roerichs could not deny themselves the pleasure of taking a boat-ride on Lake Wular, the largest fresh water lake in Asia, with the snow-clad peaks of the Pir-Panjal glimmering above them. To do so they hired a Kashmiri shikara (house-boat), with a meaningful name “Monarch”, as if hinting at the artist’s future world mission. The family must have heard from the locals of the lake’s mysterious nature – it was reputed to hold within its waters islands and temples, lost palaces and legendary cities. But this reminded them of the similar Russian legend of the city of Kitezh submerged in the waters of Lake Svetloyar, which inspired Rimskii-Korsakov to compose his opera The Tale of the invisible City of Kitezh and the maiden Fevronia. On April 15 the family moved from Srinagar to the hill station Gulmarg where they would stay until the end of July mounting a caravan to go further to Leh. It was there that Elena channeled, on July 25, an important message – the text of a letter Nikolai was to send to Chicherin from Khotan, as soon as they get there. The letter opened with a rather unusual self-introductory statement: “You probably know that for a number of years, in accordance with Lenin’s commission, I have been engaged in the application of religion to communism. After my work in America, since 1923, I link all potentialities with the East. My life in India, Sikkim, Kashgar and Ladakh provided me with a material of paramount importance”. What followed was Roerich’s most unusual proposal – an offer of cooperation through his son Yuri whom he intended to send to Chicherin! The Mahatmas’ counseling and sympathy and the unusual agreement of prophecies point to an absolutely new solution to [the issue] of evolution of the East. I am happy that my status of a painter gave me an access from the Mahatmas to the Viceroy and this makes me to conclude that some action should be taken without delay. I am still at the focal point of observation in Khotan, staying in touch with Ladakh and the Mahatmas. I request you to receive my son, listen to the things entrusted to him and appoint him as an attaché to the T[ashi] L[ama]. You will see from my report that such an appointment and a Mong[olian] rank [to be given to 13 14

Ibid., 78. Ibid.

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him] are absolutely indispensable. If you find it necessary to attach to him someone who is versed in the questions of modern communism, let it be a person with a broad understanding, such as Ast[akhov], whom Krest[inskii] sent to me in Berlin. If you want to know more about my work, Krest[inskii] and Bor[odin] can supply you with the information. We should lose no time. All your instructions will be followed most carefully as your name is sincerely revered in our family. You will understand the essence of the proposed plan and [appreciate] the all-round Eastern education of my son who speaks Tibetan fluently, knows Sanskrit, Persian, Chinese and other languages of the United Asia. He could be a very helpful worker. The rest will be passed to you by word of mouth.15 So Yuri Roerich was to go to Moscow first, according to his parent’s and mahatmas newest scenario. From there, with Chicherin’s assent and detailed instructions, he was apparently to travel to China to catch up with the Panchen Lama and remain in his retinue in the capacity of a Soviet-Mongolian military advisor. (In this way Yuri could apply his knowledge of military science acquired in Paris in 1923.) Thus Yuri was to provide a very important link between the Soviet leaders and the exiled Panchen Lama, a potential unifier of Asian peoples under the banner of Shambhala. This was a rather intricate, if venturesome, plan – “the Eastern scheme”, as Elena cryptically referred to it in her diary, connecting two powerful movements in Asia – communism in the North (in the USSR) with Buddhism in the South, in the Tibet-Himalayan and Xinjiang regions. Chicherin, Lunacharskii and Stalin16 were Roerich’s favourites in the Soviet government at that time, the ones on whom he counted most and to whom he wanted to submit his utopian ‘United Asia’ project, judging by other entries in Elena’s diary from the same period (July – August 1925). “I think you can base yourself on Ch. and St.”, Morya advised Elena. And the Master also made it clear that Roerich could “become indispensable” for Lunacharskii, since the latter “is willing to accept the message of the East”.17 Another striking detail in the letter is Roerich’s declared allegiance to the communist ideology – he attempts to present himself as Lenin’s follower who 15

16 17

Rerikh, E. 2012, 22–23, entry for 25 July 1925; for the online Russian original of E. Roerich’s diaries for the years 1925–1926, see: http://urusvati.agni-age.net. N. Roerich’s letter to Chicherin was published in Rosov 2002a, 136–137. Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) in 1922–1953 held the post of the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party. Rerikh, E. 2012, 17, 28, entries for 15 July and 2 August 1925.

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is carrying out his “commission”, although he had never met Lenin. At the same time he wants the Soviet leaders to regard him and his son as important figures in the Buddhist world – as spokesmen of some powerful Himalayan Buddhist communities, the Maitreya-Sanghas, whose teachings are basically in line with communist doctrine. Having finally obtained a British permit, the Roerichs set out from Gulmarg in the direction of Leh on August 8. The passage took them 17 day’s march. One of the special reasons which mightily attracted Nikolai and especially his son Yuri to Ladakh was “The Unknown Life of Christ”, an Apocrypha allegedly located in 1887 in Hemis (Himis) monastery by Nikolai Notovitch. (Roerich obtained a copy of his book from Sina Lichtmann, while in New York in 1924.) On the way to Leh Roerich encountered many passing caravans consisting of various Asian ethnic groups – Dards, Baltis, Ladakis, Astoris, Yarkandis – which looked like “an exodus of nations”. In this land of the legendary Gesar Khan he also found many “signs of the future”, the Maitreya “signs”: Beyond Dras we encounter the first Buddhist message. Near the road are two stone stelae representing Maitreya. Nearby, a stone with the image of a rider. Is this rider not upon a white horse? Is this not a messenger of the new world? It is remarkable that the first Buddhist emblem happens to be just the image of Maitreya.18  In Dras is the first sign of Maitreya. But in ancient Maulbeck, a gigantic image of the Coming One powerfully stands beside the road. Every traveler must pass by this rock. Two hands reach toward the sky, like the summons of far-off worlds. Two hands reach downward like the benediction of earth. They know that Maitreya is coming.19  In Lamayuru, in this very stronghold not only of the Red sect but even Bon-po, among the row of images stands a great image of Maitreya. It was placed here about 200 years ago. Even here did this knowledge penetrate. Maitreya alone binds firmly the Mahayana and Hinayana including Ceylon. In this reverence are united Yellow and Red sects. There is magnificence in this reverence of the future.20  Saspul is an open, merry place. Around it are many monasteries. At the very road is a small monastery, and within it a gigantic image of the seated Maitreya. On the side also stand giants, Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara. In the front temple is an ancient stone stele with the same images, which 18 19 20

Roerich, N. 1996, 102. Ibid., 103. Ibid., 104.

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dates from the tenth century or earlier. The lama of the temple talks with knowledge about Maitreya21. Side by side with these symbols of the future, Roerich also noticed the signs of the past – the rock-carved images of deer, of mountain goats with twisted horns, of horses. These images were stylistically similar to those one could see on the stones of North America and upon Siberian rocks. “Through these images – concluded Roerich – America and Asia stretch hands to each other”.22 Also, he found scattered in Ladakh stones with images of a cross, of apparently Druid or Nestorian origin, he believed. “The most ancient and now forgotten country preserved the Druid signs and all possible later symbols”.23 Thinly populated and having meagre vegetation, the rocky kingdom of Ladakh could not but attract Roerich. The artist discovered here “the inexhaustibly rich rock formations” and a wealth of ornamentation on the rocks and he was impressed how well the symbolic imagery matched “the mountain atmosphere”. These images seemed to be animate and convincing, while those found in the West often looked artificial, “thought out”. Finally, the Roerichs reached their destination – Leh, the principal city of Ladakh. “Leh is a remarkable place. Here the legends connected the paths of Buddha and Christ. Buddha went through Leh northwards. Issa communed here with the people on his way from Tibet”, we read in Nikolai’s diary.24 The legends were secretly and cautiously guarded by local lamas and it was difficult to “sound them out”, because “lamas, above all people, know how to keep silent”. In Leh the family was hosted for a few days by Ladakh’s Maharaja (“King Lama”) in his palace. This fact, as in Darjeeling, quickly made them the focus of everyone’s attention: “The days are filled with our settling in the Ladaki palace. Crowds of people are coming: envoys from Lhasa, Tibetan merchants, Ak-sakal the Elder, Tehsildar from Kashmir (the district chief) and, again, the King of Ladakh”.25 21 22 23

24 25

Ibid., 104–105. Ibid., 105. Ibid., 118. Roerich’s statement about stones with images of a cross “scattered in Ladakh” is disputed by a contemporary historian John Bray who has travelled extensively in Ladakh: “There is a famous rock inscription with a Nestorian cross in Drangtse, but I don’t think there are any others. Later on, the Moravian missionary Walter Asboe had some modern Christian rock inscriptions made, but he had not started by 1925” (a letter to the author, 2012). Ibid., 120. Ibid., 121.

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figure 27 Elena and Nikolai Roerich, Ladakh, 1925, NRM archive

The elderly Maharaja (who incidentally was a descendant of the “heroic” Gesar Khan) arrived accompanied by a group of lamas and relatives and Roerich used the occasion “to sound” them: “From the conversation it became apparent that the family of the king knows of the manuscript about Issa. They also informed us that many Mohammedans would like to possess this document. Then followed conversation about prophecies connected with Shambhala, about the dates and about that which fills reality with beauty”.26 The Roerichs then thoroughly explored the environs of Leh, visiting Ladakh’s major monasteries. Almost everywhere they found the image of Maitreya and heard some new prophecies. In one of the divisions of the Spitug monastery in Leh Roerich was struck by something unusual – the three great images assembled in the same place, those of Dukkar, Mother of the World, with numberless eyes of omniscience and with the arrow of justice in her hand, having the Buddha Maitreya – the Coming One and Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (whose incarnation included the Tibetan Dalai Lamas) standing at her left and right. 26

Ibid.

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Finally, the Roerichs visited Hemis (Himis) monastery, one of the oldest in Ladakh,27 where Notovich claimed to have discovered Christ’s Tibetan Gospel some forty years earlier. From the outside the place looked gloomy and unattractive: On approaching one already feels the strange atmosphere of darkness and dejection. The stupas have strange fearful images – ugly faces. Dark banners. Black ravens fly above and black dogs are gnawing at bones. And the canyon tightly encloses itself. Of course, the temple and the houses are heaped together in dark corners like pillaged loot. The lamas are halfliterate. Our guide laughs. “Hemis, a big name, but a little monastery”. The founder of Hemis, as Roerich found out, was a great lama, who wrote a book about Shambhala but his writing was not readily available to readers, being hidden in some dark corner – “lying down below, out of sight, probably feeding the mice”. As for the Tibetan Gospel, Roerich does not say clearly in the English version of his travelogue whether he saw it in Hemis. Yet he was much more outspoken in the original Russian edition of the same book which would appear several decades after his death only. “… We have learnt about the authenticity of the manuscript about Issa. In Hemis indeed lies an old Tibetan translation from the manuscript, written in Pali and preserved in a well-known monastery near Lhasa. … Tales about forgery are exploded”.28 This statement allowed some later Soviet authors, especially from the midst of Roerich’s enthusiastic admirers, to conclude that he had indeed held in his hands the unknown copy of the Tibetan Apocrypha, the one located by Notovich. Moreover, they believed that Roerich had also discovered in Hemis a completely new text which dealt with Christ’s sojourn and preaching in Ladakh. (This was in fact the legend Roerich quoted abundantly in the English version of his travel diary.29) Roerich’s frequent claims about the existence of Christ’s Tibetan Gospel he made after the completion of his journey seriously compromised him in the eyes of Western scholars when they were leaked to the press. So a decade and half later the artist deemed it necessary to strongly deny the discovery of “a manuscript from Christ’s times” attributed to him in an essay published in an 27 28

29

The construction of Hemis dates back to the 17th century. Rerikh, N. 2009, 129–130, entry for 19 September 1925. Compare with Roerich’s entry for the same date in the English version of his diary (Roerich, N. 1996, 125–126). To a Russian reader at least this sentence implies that Roerich had found some proof of the existence of the Tibetan Gospel, but he does not provide any supporting evidence. See Lazarev 1989, 59–60.

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obscure Indian periodical. This was apparently a face-saving gesture on his part. Interestingly, in the same piece Roerich remarked that “in the long run” we must be thankful to those telling stories about his discovery because by doing so the storytellers attract people’s attention to the “treasures of the spirit”.30

…

This part of Nikolai Roerich’s story of his travels in Ladakh is well known. Yet there were things he did not dare to confide to the pages of his published travelogue – his work conducted for the sake of the Masters and their Great Plan. Prudently enough, Roerich kept quiet about that “other” work of his so as to avoid discrediting himself as a bona fide traveller. His Western readers would be certainly very much surprised to know that, when travelling in Ladakh in Tibetan clothing, he called himself – Mahatma Ak-Dorje (White Lightning), while Yuri was a Mongolian Prince or Colonel Naruhan (Naru Khan), and Elena Roerich named herself Tara. It was in Ladakh that the three Roerichs began to play the roles assigned to them beforehand by their Master, those of preachers and heralds of the coming “Age of Maitreya”. Thus we know that while in Darjeeling and later on in Ladakh and in Chinese Turkerstan Roerich-Ak-Dorje would circulate through his attendant, a Ladakhi lama Ramzana, Tibetan lungdens,31 or leaflets, saying “Maitreya is coming”. In Spiti alone he distributed among the local inhabitants about a hundred such leaflets.32 By doing so, he apparently wanted to spread word of the Coming Messiah, by presenting himself, his wife and son as roaming messengers from Northern Shambhala. Along with these leaflets Roerich also circulated – in Ladakh and Chinese Turkestan – his own prophesies about an appearance in the near future, in the year 1928, of “the messengers of the warriors of Northern Shambhala”. The Asians were called upon to welcome these people and “accept the new glory of Tibet and Mongolia”. Moreover, Roerich told the lamas in the monasteries he visited – and possibly also the Maharaja of Ladakh – of the necessity of allying with the Soviet Russian Republic, because Russia alone could apprehend and respond to their aspirations. He also talked of the need to “purify”, i.e. reform the presentday Buddhist teachings in order to revive the ancient – “pure” – precepts of the Buddha Shakyamuni, believed to be perfectly in line with Communist doctrine. Here are some examples of Roerich’s self-styled prophecies: 30

31 32

Roerich’s article “The Legends of Asia” was published in the January 1941 issue of The Scholar (Palghat), an Indian magazine devoted to literature, science and art, of which both Roerich and Shibaev were frequent contributors. Lungden (Tib. luṅ bstan), an exhortation, precept or commandment. Rosov 2002a, 135.

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Thus the predictions of the ancestors and the writings of sages are being fulfilled. Be wise to meet the predestined, when in the fifth year [1928 – A.A.] messengers of the warriors of Northern Shambhala will appear. Be wise to receive them and accept the new glory of Tibet and Mongolia. I’ll give you My sign of the lightning.  Remember, that Tara’s blessing is the ray of Maitreya; the name of AkDorje is the wheel of justice; the name of Narukhan is the sword of the Buddha. Shambhala will manifest a horse who is coming out, will send arrows to all faithful sons of Buddhism. Remember and wait.33 These and such like pseudo-prophesies were sent by Roerich to the leading Buddhist monasteries, including Tashilhunpo in Tibet, where they were intended for the Panchen Lama (then already in China) and his followers. Their first publisher Vladimir Rosov offered an excuse for this rather extravagant activity of Roerich as a scholar by saying that the leaflets were actually meant to “enhance the status of the expedition and its leader”. Yet we already know that all members of the Roerich family were intimately involved in the realization of the Master’s Great Plan and followed His instructions as channelled by Elena without demur, day after day, and one of these was a “fiery message” calling them “to stir up” the peoples of Asia! “You, as trusted agents of Our Community, are the only people fit for stirring up Asia”, Morya would pronounce in early 1927.34 But this puts the Roerich Expedition in a new and very unusual perspective showing the elder Roerichs not only as enthusiastic, if amateurish, explorers of Central Asia but also as fervent religious agitators preaching the sacred War of Shambhala – the Great Buddhist revolution! So one should not be surprised when reading in Altai – Himalaya that the members of the Moravian mission whom Roerich approached in Leh, while looking for a dwellingplace, agreed to rent him one of their houses on condition that he would sign an agreement “to do no religious, semi-religious, etc. propaganda”.35 These and other intriguing details relating to Roerich’s Transhimalayan expedition came to light only recently, after the publication in Russia of Rosov’s well-documented monograph (Nikolai Roerich, the Herald of Zvenigorod) which unveiled many of the family’s secrets. In this work the author quoted a number of sensational documents from the 1925- 1935 period which portrayed the artist for the first time in a very unusual light as a preacher of the New Era and an occult geopolitician, seeking to create a Buddho-Communist federation of 33 34 35

Ibid. Both pseudo-prophesies were compiled in 1925. See Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 504, entry for 29 January 1927. Roerich, N. 1996, 125.

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I­ nner Asian peoples he named the Sacred Eastern Union, much under the inspiration of his Masters. One of these documents was Roerich’s dispatch to G.A. Astakhov in the Soviet embassy in Berlin, sent from Darjeeling in February 1925 and signed Dorje. The message reads as follows: The idea of United Asia is the guiding idea, and the purification of Buddhism makes it possible to carry out such unification in a most natural way. I’ll send photographs soon which I request [you] to pass to Narkom Chicherin, Polpred Krasin and [leave some of them] for yourself. It is important that the name of Buddha is not maligned in Soviet Russia.  Buddha, as a great leader of the genuine community, should be properly appreciated. Also the name of Maitreya should not be maligned. The image of Maitreya is an Eastern symbol of the approaching New Era. It should be carefully noted where this image is worshiped because there one will find the utmost readiness to learn about new things. Recently a great lama has arrived from Tibet with an order that images of Maitreya should be created at once in the monasteries. The notion of the New World unites the Hinayana [Buddhist teaching] of Ceylon with the Mahayana in Asia and is adopted by both the Yellow and Red Hat sects.  On 10 February a joyful rumour circulated around the bazaar that the Tashi Lama had arrived in Mongolia and would build a monastery similar to Tashilhumpo which has the largest image of Maitreya. Joyfully and judiciously people accept our argument that Buddhism is the most scientific doctrine; they easily agree that it was spoiled by later additions and by superstitions. The idea of the purification of the Teaching is very peculiar to people here. But the main thing now is that the names Buddha and Maitreya are not insulted, otherwise all work that is being done in the South will be ruined in the North. When we learn that certain ideas and aspirations towards Russia have strengthened in the South, we’ll connect these with the same threads in the North, of which I will inform you in due time. Thus far we have noticed that everything that matures in the minds of the lamas regarding Russia and the purification of the Buddhist teaching is taking root in the East quite well and yields excellent results. We give donations to monasteries and presents to lamas to produce a good impression of Russia. When, upon arrival, we told lamas that the Russians lend their ear with reverence to the basic Buddhist doctrine with its precepts of communal living, renunciation of property, [those] of labour, soberness and of strictly scientific approach to the teaching, and [especially] when we said that the name of Buddha would not be maligned in Russia, one could see their joy of [our] sincere allies. The

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lamas say: “Yes, only Russia can grasp the genuine Teaching”. It is known that large monasteries have sacred fighting squads which act rather resolutely.  By way of monasteries and passing lamas (being the best mailmen) the leaflets based on historical information, stressing the imminence of the forthcoming deliberate unification with Russia, will be spread around. These leaflets, written in Tibetan, make a very strong impression, as they fully correspond to the tradition of annals and chronicles and confirm the prophecies. It is very important that these Indications come from the South. This will make things easier when the time comes to respond to these from the North. To make the response effective, I will send someone in due time with instructions as to what needs to be done.  Recently the first English airplane tried to find a way to Tibet, via Jelapla. I am asking you to keep my name in secret by all means, as there is some considerable shadowing not only on the part of the English but also the Anglo-Tibetans (who are not many, but they do exist). The lamas are indignant that the Viceroy invites to the dinner the much hated Tibetan General (who is an English puppet), by ignoring the respected lamas; or that the English make a show of some lamas in the theatre. However there’s a Tibetan legend cited in the new English literature about ‘England preparing the way for another country in Tibet’.  I am sending you an interesting article about the Eastern scheme, thus the space is being cemented. Enclosed is a translation of the testimonial letter, issued to me at Ghum monastery. I request You to inform of the name Dorje the Polpred Karakhan [Chicherin’s assistant – A.A.], as well as the Pamirskii Post (if you have reliable people there36). I request You, in case You or Polpred N.N. Krestinskii will be transferred to another place, to notify new officials of the essence of the matter and of the name, and to inform Riga and America of all possible changes. Please send a copy to Narkom Chicherin and Polpred Krasin.  The work is going on. Will be glad to hear from You. Sincerely, Dorje37

36 37

Pamirskii Post (today’s Murgab in the Republic of Tadjikistan), a Russian settlement on the Pamirs set up in 1893. Rosov 2002a, 176–177. The document comes from N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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And here is the enclosed testimonial letter given to Roerich by lama friends who vouched for his bona fide intentions: Om Sati. The lamas and government officials in the land of snow mountains are requested to give assistance to the three [persons] who came to Tibet from the Mongol-Russian country, lying to the north of the snowy Tibet, to perform a pilgrimage, and who are devoted to the Teaching, the father, his wife and son and their companions. These people stayed in Darjeeling at the Palace (of the Dalai Lama) for about three years and gave assistance to the Buddha’s Teaching. They made an offering to the Precious Teacher from Chumbi, and they also made a tour, as pilgrims, of the monasteries in Sikkim, by contributing to the Teaching and making offerings everywhere they went. Therefore all lamas are requested to give them all possible assistance. Issued by the abbot of Ghum monastery. (Seal)38 (Strangely enough, the document did not give the names of the travellers whose services for the sake of the Buddhist Dharma were so highly appreciated by the Tibetan lamas. There is one more curious fact – the article with the “Eastern scheme” mentioned in the closing paragraph of Roerich’s letter. This was a newspaper column headlined “Mahatma Ak-Dorje” written by Roerich in October 1925 and published in a Chinese daily, possibly the English language Shanghai Times, as it was signed by an assumed name of a “Shanghai correspondent” Sang Chang-Lo. In that column Roerich spoke of a group of the mahatmas and other Teachers who had appeared lately in India, China and everywhere in Central Asia, such as Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Tsagan Khutuktu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi and ... himself, Mahatma Ak-Dorje. The latter was said to have been seen “in various places”, preaching “the ideas of common unity and of communism”.39 An excellent example of Roerich’s ingenuous mythmaking! Roerich’s secret dispatch to the Soviet officials in Berlin must have been received by them and then relayed to Moscow. There it most likely came into the hands of Georgii Chicherin, who was then at the peak of his diplomatic career and who is known to be the architect of the Bolsheviks’ active ‘Eastern policy’. 38 39

Ibid., 177. Ibid., 135–136, 184. The publication of the article was suggested by the Master, see Rerikh, E. 2012, 48, entry for 19 October 1925.

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The Soviet painter and Nikolai’s one time friend Igor Grabar’ recounted in his memoirs that one day in the winter of 1925/1926 Chicherin called him from his office and asked whether he knew of Roerich’s whereabouts. Grabar’ replied that the artist, according to his information, had gone in 1924 to Rabindranath Tagore in India and thence planned to “steal into Tibet”. “There is a painter named Roerich who was recently detained in Mongolia, together with his son and wife; could he be the same person?”, Chicherin then asked. (The Roerichs were actually detained in Chinese Turkestan, of which we will speak below, but this must be Grabar’s mistake rather than Chicherin’s.) “Surely, it’s him”, replied Grabar’. “Do you think his return to us is desirable?”, Chicherin continued. “A return of such an outstanding and well-known painter can only be welcomed”, said Grabar’. The conversation apparently testifies that by 1926 Roerich had become a persona grata for Bolshevik leaders and one of them even considered the possibility of his repatriation.

…

In the meantime the three Roerichs continued their unusual journey, being at once a scientific pilgrimage, a search for millenarian “signs” and objects of antiquity, Asia’s ‘buried treasures’. On September 19 the family set out from Leh and headed for Khotan, the largest oasis in Chinese Turkestan. What so mightily attracted them to the area were the many ancient monuments discovered earlier along the great Silk Road by Western explorers, such as Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. They had heard much about rock caves and tombs (mazars) and ruins of medieval cities buried in the sands of Taklamakan but, as in Ladakh, they were also keen on seeing more “signs of the future”, of the approaching New Era. Their passage to Khotan took them nearly a month and was extremely hard and perilous. The Roerichs had to cross seven high-altitude passes on their way – Kardong, Karaul-davan, Sasser, Depsang, Karakorum, Suget and Sanju. They suffered badly from cold, the rarefied air and headaches, but cold was the hardest to endure (“The cold approaches quickly and sharply. Suddenly you cease to feel your extremities”). Luckily they had a little medicine chest with them. Once Yuri’s horse slipped when ascending the cap of a glacier at Sasser and nearly fell into the precipice. The Roerichs had never been so high in the mountains. The panoramas that opened before them as they surmounted one pass after another were breathtaking and unearthly. Having passed Debsang on September 29th the artist wrote: “We went out upon the roof of the world. It is impossible to call it otherwise. All the peaks have disappeared. Before us there are seeming covers as of some

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powerful inner domes… Limitless spaces. To the left, far off, is Godwin’s White Peak. To the right on the horizon are the masses of Kuenlun. All is so variegated and glorious and sweeping. The blue sky merges on pure cobalt and the grassless cupolas are domes of golden hue. And the far-off peaks are silhouetted like pure white cones”.40 And the next day their caravan crossed Karakoram at 18 000 ft (6.2 km), the highest regular trading route in the world: Again everything is frozen. The morning begins with a stinging blizzard. Everything is covered with mist. One cannot sketch or photograph. Vaguely the black cap of Karakorum at times gleams through. Thus we proceed under the sharp wind from seven o’clock to two in this rarefied air. The pass itself is broad but not difficult except for those on foot. One has the strange sensation of feeling breathless even at the slightest movement. Upon the crest of the pass is a small pyramid of stones – those who pass, in spite of their breathlessness, do not forget to set a landmark to commemorate the conquest.41 They were finally in China! Yet there was still a long road ahead leading to Khotan. For several days the travellers proceeded along the river Karakash, passing little encampments of the mountain Kirghiz. The terrain gradually changed – the mountains were left behind and gave way to deserts. “Groves of poplars and apricot trees appear, and beyond them spreads the kingdom of the sand. It reminds us of Egypt and the Nile, or of Arabia”.42 On the border of the Sanju oasis, on the very last rock he could touch, Roe­rich observed the same design he had seen in the land of Dards, Dardistan, on the way to Ladakh: the same archers, the same mountain sheep with huge twisted horns and the same ritual dances, rounds and processions of people. After the sunset, when men from his and other caravans – “some sort of unknown woolly people” – gathered around the camp-fire, Roerich and his son would join them and listen to their leisured talk. Some of the things they said were so exciting that he put them down in his diary: “In Bhutan, they await the coming soon of Shambhala”; “First was India, then China, afterward Russia and now will be Shambhala”; “Burkhan Bulat (the Sword of the Buddha) appears at certain dates and then nothing will withstand it”; “The Blessed Buddha was in Khotan and from there decided to go northwards”; “Rinpoche says that now the 40 41 42

Roerich, N. 1996, 138–139. Ibid., 139–140. Ibid., 150.

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way is only through Shambhala – everybody knows that”; “Many prophesies are buried everywhere”.43 Reflecting on these “whispers” in the night of strangers the artist would conclude: “Much is related and the matters of everyday are interwoven with something great and already predestined”.44 Finally the Roerichs reached Khotan on October 14th. Their entrance into the city was somewhat grotesque – with loud songs their Ladakhi porters carried through the bazaar a dandy on which Tumbal, a huge and ferociously looking black Tibetan wolfhound, one of the expedition guards, was seated. “The black creature scowled and sat very important. The crowd rushed to the palanquin but immediately flew away from it along the entire bazaar howling: “A bear!”.45 Khotan utterly disappointed the Roerichs. The city, with its marked signs of decline, was not what they had expected to see. The once famous Khotan rug industry had deteriorated considerably, the Khotan designs degenerated and the jade for which the city was famed in China and Europe had also disappeared. And one could not hear the melodious singing of the Khotanese, which ancient visitors to the city had so admired – “singing has ceased, and has been replaced by fierce screams”. The antiques in Khotan were likewise “exhausted”, in Nikolai’s words. During their two months stay in the city only few worthless fragments and a dozen imitations were brought to him for sale.46 The Roerich’s party was given an amicable welcome by the Chinese authorities but trouble soon brewed up as Nikolai and Yuri were suspected of espionage by Khotan’s Taotai (senior official) Ma Darin and the Amban (representative of the Central Government) Chang Fu. The occasion was provided by Nikolai’s sketching and taking pictures which looked like a secret survey of the country. The situation was not new as decades earlier other Russian and Western explorers in China, such as N. Przhevalskii, P. Kozlov and Sven Hedin, had faced precisely the same problem, being suspected of spying by the mandarins because of their map-making. As a result, the expedition luggage was searched, including Elena’s wardrobe, and its weapons (two rifles and three revolvers) were confiscated. The Roerichs were actually detained in Khotan as they could not leave the city of their own accord. Having found himself stranded, the artist immediately appealed for aid to the American Minister in Peking and concurrently to the British Consul General in Kashgar, Major Gillan, and his Soviet

43 44 45 46

Ibid., 143, 145–146. Ibid., 149. Ibid., 158. Ibid., 167.

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counterpart M.F. Dumpis.47 Obviously he had little scruples about his contacts with the British official on a purely humanitarian issue. As a result of the triple diplomatic intercession on his behalf, Roerich’s American Expedition was released and allowed to proceed further to Kashgar. The question however still remains whose services were more effective in the Roerichs’ release – those of Dumpis or Gillan?48 The time the Roerichs spent in Khotan, however, was not in vain. It was in Khotan that they heard that the Mongols in Urga (Ulaanbaatar) intended to set up the Temple of Shambhala and that when the image of Shambhala’s ruler, Rigden Japo, would reach Urga, “then will flesh the first light of the New Era – truth” and “the true renaissance” of Mongolia begin.49 This immediately suggested to the artist that he should execute a painting of this figure and present it to Mongolia’s new (pro-Soviet) government. And he was also impressed by the celebrated Rawak Stupa near Khotan, “the place of one of the manifestations of the New Era”. The family left Khotan on 27 January 1926. Having passed through Kargalyk and Yarkand they reached Kashgar where they spent a fortnight (between 12 and 26 February). This was just enough time for sightseeing and meeting some important officials such as director of the Russo-Chinese bank Anokhin, the Soviet and British consuls, Dumpis and Gillan, to thank them for their assistance, as well as some Russian émigré families in Kashgar. (There was a large Russian colony in town.) It would probably not be just to accuse the artist of double-dealing as he simply tried to make the best of his situation, as he always did. Upon his caravan’s departure, Gillan recorded in the consular diary: 47

48

49

The Soviet Consulate General in Kashgar was opened in October 1925, when Roerich was on the way to Khotan. On Roerich’s contacts with M.F. Dumpis, see Rosov 2002a, 134–135. To get in touch with the Soviet Consulate, Roerich, according to a Russian researcher Oleg Shishkin, sent to Kashgar a Russian speaking lama who had joined his caravan in Ladakh, see Shishkin 1999, 175–176. S. Zarnitskii and L. Trofimova assert that Dumpis personally visited the Chinese “governor” (though it is not clear whether they meant the governor of Khotan or Kashgar) and pleaded with him to take prompt action to release Roerich’s expedition, although Roerich was not a Soviet citizen, see Zarnitskii, Trofimova 1965, 102–103. On the other hand, the materials of the Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, GOI, show that it was Gillan who helped Roerich out of his trouble. See, for example, the memorandum of the director of the Intelligence Bureau F. Isemonger, dated 7 June 1928, Oriental and India Office Collection and Records, C /P & J/12/291, p. 26. The Soviet Consul-General, Urumchi, A. ­Bystrov in his report of 24 November 1925 also highlighted Gillan’s role, stating that “Gillan had petitioned for the admittance of Roerich to Kashgar”, see Russian State Military Archive, f. 25895, op.1, d. 831, l. 77. Roerich, N. 1996, 168.

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Prof. Roerich and his wife and son reached Kashgar from Khotan on ­February 12, having experienced no further trouble after the issue of the Governor’s order regarding them. I found no difficulty in obtaining the Governor’s permission for the party to continue their journey to Urumchi and they left Kashgar accordingly on the 26th February. The Taotai of Kashgar has been most helpful throughout in dealing with the case.50 From Kashgar on the Southern Silk Road the party moved further on to Aksu, Kucha and Karashar, having thus circled the Taklamakan Desert along its ­northern edge flanked by the ‘Heavenly Mountains’ of Tien Shan. The Roerichs continued to retrace the ancient pilgrims’ and trade routes, though without much success: “Nowhere are objects of antiquity to be found. Apparently the accessible upper layer of discoveries has already been exported to Europe and as for the hidden layers, let them remain for Asia itself”.51 At the same time the artist collected a number of new prophecies (if we are to believe his account), legends and other pieces of folklore which he put into his diary. For example, near Karashar, while visiting the site of “Thousand Ruins” (Mingoi Saur) in the Kalmuck country of Dzungaria, he recorded a belief that here once stood “a large monastery containing the chalice of Buddha, which disappeared from Peshawar and which is mentioned by Fa-Hsien in Karashar”.52 And Roerich had already heard in Khotan that the new appearance of the Chalice would signal the beginning of the New Era. In the course of their long passage, before reaching Urumchi, Elena channelled some very important messages, namely the mahatmas’ “decree” (Ukase) addressed to the Soviet leaders (on March 10, in Aksu), an appeal to the Tashi Lama (on March 17, near Kucha), Roerich’s nine-point proposals to the Soviet government (on March 18, in Kucha), and the mahatmas’ missive to Chicherin (on April 5, on the way to Urumchi). It is evident from these texts that the family was already making careful preparations for their visit to Moscow and their talks with Lenin’s successors there. The mahatmas’ “decree” sounded more like an ultimatum: If the Soviets give no support to the Buddhist movement, then they will pass “all threads into other people’s hands”53. Their concrete proposals were actually a scheme of 50 51 52

53

OIOR, L/P & S/10/976. Kashgar Consular Diaries (1921–1930), 126 (February 1926). Roerich, N. 1996, 250, entry for 25 March 1926. Ibid., 252, entry for 26 March. Fa-Hsien (Faxian), a Chinese pilgrim who wandered extensively along the Silk Road between 399 and 413 ad and wrote an account of his travels, see Beal 1869. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 461, entry for 10 March 1926.

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the Buddhist revolution in the name of Maitreya, formulated neatly as a ninepoint program.54 “If the Soviet Union recognizes Buddhism as a doctrine of Communism”, read the mahatmas’ letter to Chicherin, “then our Communities will be able to proffer their active assistance and hundreds of millions of Buddhists scattered around the world will provide the necessary might most unexpectedly”.55 In their message to the Tashi Lama, the Masters called upon the Tibetan leader to take action by “pushing forward” the Kalmuck settlements (Uluses) in Xinjiang, since “The Sword of the Buddha is blazing and the time of Maitreya has come”.56 A question inevitably comes to mind at this point: why did the mahatmas not appeal to the Lama directly instead of sending him their instructions through the Roerichs, but no explanation can be offered.

…

The Roerichs reached Urumchi, the capital city of Xinjiang Province, on April 11. The next morning the artist together with his son made the round of the Chinese high officials who were all very amiable and assured them of personal immunity in Urumchi. At the same moment their belongings were thoroughly searched in their absence at the house where they put up. The Roerichs were infuriated. For the third time they were harassed in Xinjiang for no good reason – first in Khotan, then in Karashar where the local Taotai again accused ­Roerich of spying (read – making maps) and threatened to expel his party from the city and now in Urumchi. On the same day both Roerichs also called on the Soviet Consulate-General. There they met with the consul Alexander Efimovich Bystrov, to whom Roerich Sr. brought his grievances as a prelude to his more substantial narrative that followed. After the visit Bystrov recorded in the consular diary: Roerich came to me for a confidential talk; he said he had already been travelling with his wife and son for three years. They have travelled all over India, Little Tibet and a part of China and were willing now to traverse Soviet Russia. He has many materials collected during his journey, which he thinks, may be of use to the USSR. He also said that he was 54 55 56

Rerikh, E. 2012, 119, entry for 18 March 1926, see also: http://urusvati.agni-age.net. See also Rosov 2002a, 147. Rerikh, E. 2012, 124, entry for 5 April 1926; also published in Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 465 and Rosov 2002a, 180. Ibid., 119, entry for 17 March 1926; see also Rerikh, E. 2002, P. 1, 462.

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carrying a casket with the earth from the tombs of India’s great men for the tomb of V.I. Lenin – it’s a gift from the mahatmas (mahatmas are learned men, who have attained spiritual perfection and who dwell in the depths of the Himalaya Mountains).  Roerich’s son speaks Tibetan and Mongolian. With him came from Tibet a lama who speaks Russian and who claims that he is a disciple of Agvan Dorjiev, and another 18-year old Tibetan.  Still I could not ascertain Roerich’s citizenship. According to my information, he has adopted American citizenship. In the course of our conversation he severely criticized the British and especially praised the Americans. Roerich asked me to request permission from NKID [Narkomat for Foreign Affairs – A.A.] to allow him to transit the USSR on the way to America.57 (Soviet transit visas were requested for five persons: Nikolai, Elena, and Yuri and their two attendants – the youthful Ladakhi Ramzana and the Tibetan Gegenlama Tsering.) After this first talk with Bystrov Roerich became a regular visitor to the consulate. He personally liked the consul, especially when he heard him talking as an elevated mind on his favourite subjects, such as the evolution of humanity, the movement of nations, the role of knowledge and art, etc. A week later the artist turned up in the consulate again, accompanied by his wife and son, and they had another chat with Bystrov. It was then that the Roerichs revealed to the consul some of their secrets – that they were all students of Buddhism, were connected with the Himalayan mahatmas and often received their instructions as to what needed to be done and were presently carrying their missives intended for Chicherin and Stalin. Roerich further elucidated that the ultimate task of these enlightened beings was “to ally Buddhism and communism” with a view to creating “the Great Eastern Union of Republics”. Among the Tibetan and Indian Buddhists, he said, “there is a current belief that their liberation from the foreign yoke will come precisely from the Reds in Russia – the Northern Red Shambhala”. Therefore he wanted to deliver several prophecies of this kind to Moscow along with some Indian and Tibetan paintings, executed to that effect. But his most stunning revelation concerned his projected Tibet mission: he intended to get in touch with the Tashi Lama, who had earlier fled to China, “take him out” into Mongolia” and from there they together would

57

Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF), f. 0304, op. 1, pap. 4, d. 30 (Diary # 4, April 1926), l. 73, entry for 12 April 1926.

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figure 28 Sitting, left to right: Y. Roerich, unknown, A.E. Bystrov, N. Roerich; standing 4th from left, E. Roerich, Urumchi, 1926. NRM archive

proceed “in a spiritual procession for the liberation of Tibet from the British yoke”.58 “All this is rather obscure for the time being”, Bystrov recorded in his diary. “I still cannot grasp what kind of man Roerich is. I asked Dumpis [the Soviet consul in Kashgar – A.A.] about him, as early as March 31, but have not received any reply as yet”.59 The couple quite soon made friends with the vacillating consul, who appeared to be receptive to new things, a man of “broad thinking”,60 so it was not too difficult to cultivate him. Waiting impatiently for a feedback from Chicherin, the Roerichs would visit the consulate almost daily. There Nikolai and Elena would read to Bystrov extracts from the manuscript of their new Agni Yoga opus, ‘New Era Community’ (Obshchina), based largely on Morya’s latest messages. In this the Master openly lauded Lenin: “Lenin is action. He sensed the 58 59 60

Ibid., l. 76, entry for 1926. Ibid., l. 73, entry for 19 April 1926. Roerich devoted a paragraph to Bystrov in his Russian language travelogue which was omitted from the English edition. In this he portrayed the consul as “an exclusive type of a new man” – a peasant by origin, a brave warrior who took part in the Great War, and an intellectual by nature, without any superstitions, flexible and reasonably resolute; see Rerikh, N. 2009, 298, entry for 17 May 1926.

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figure 29 Yuri Roerich, Nikolai Roerich and Soviet ConsulGeneral A.E. Bystrov, Urumchi, 1926. NRM archive

necessity of new construction”; “The appearance of Lenin should be accepted as a sign of sensitivity of the Cosmos”; “Presently the Buddhist teaching is spreading in the north-western direction and Lenin’s teaching in the southeastern one”. Moreover, Morya claimed that some messengers of the mahatmas had visited Marx in London and then Lenin in Switzerland and that the both leaders had pronounced unanimously the same words: “Let Shambhala come soon!”61 It is no surprise then that Roerich offered Bystrov his assistance in the construction of the Lenin monument in front of the consulate to be unveiled on May 1st, the day of international workers’ solidarity. The bronze bust of the communist leader was brought from Moscow but the Chinese authorities in Urumchi did not allow the consul to mount it on the pedestal. The latter was designed by Roerich, at Bystrov’s request, as a truncated pyramid of red stone. It was to be decorated, according to the design, with the Bolshevik hammer and sickle and some Tibetan symbols, while its front was to have an inscription in seven languages reading: “Lenin, the great Teacher”.62 All this must have proved beyond doubt the family’s pro-Soviet feelings to Bystrov and other Bolshevik officials in Urumchi.

61

62

Rerikh, E. 1927. Quoted from Rerikh, E. 1991, 21, 66, 114. All references to Lenin, Marx and Engels were omitted from later Russia editions as well as the English one (New Era Community). Rosov 2002a, 141–142.

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Under the influence of Nikolai and Elena’s tales Bystrov got keen on the mahatmas’ teaching and acknowledged the couple as his spiritual gurus. They first tested him “occultly” (by consulting their Master) after which he was given a finger-ring with the symbol of Maitreya Sangha, i.e. initiated into Roerich’s New Era community. Bystrov also received an esoteric name Ravinchar and was allowed to ask the Master three questions as a sign of His special favour. The first thing the diplomat wanted to know was why the Teacher’s choice had fallen on him, to which he received the reply that in his former life he had been one of the guards of Akbar the Great and that he had actually saved the Emperor’s life when a black cobra bit him. Judging by what Roerich told Bystrov about his future plans, he wanted to expedite the War of Shambhala and even to take part in it, side by side with the Panchen Lama as his right-hand man, Mahatma Ak-Dorje. In Buddhist doctrine, the Panchen Lama, believed to be an incarnation of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, was superior to the Dalai Lama, an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, since Avalokiteshvara allegedly emanated from Amitabha. Therefore the relations of the Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama were often seen by Mahayana teachers as those of father and son. Much more importantly, according to some Buddhist prophecies, it was the Panchen Lama who, in the guise of the 25th King or the royal Holder of the Castes of Shambhala, Dr’ag po k’or-lo-chan, or Rigden Japo, was to throw his army against the “black La-lo forces”, that is, non-Buddhists or ‘barbarians’, who were associated by many Tibetan lamas with the British in India and their supporters in Tibet. The Great War with the La-los, that is, the War of Shambhala, was to take place on the banks of the Sita (Shri-ta) River in India, however not in 1936, but several centuries later, in the year 2425 ad63 (Nikolai Roerich in his diary quoted an alternative prophecy of the Russian Old Believers, saying that the “last war in the world” would occur on the Katun River in the Altai!64). Tibet, or rather its capital Lhasa, was also to become an important battleground, according to Elena. The already quoted mahatmas’ appeal to the Tashi Lama continued with the words: “When we send you a man with a ring, entrust him with the drilling of your warriors. 500 riders will come from you”.65 (“A man with a ring” seems to be an allusion to Yuri Roerich.) So Nikolai Roerich posing as the mahatmas’ trusted “messenger” apparently wanted to trigger off the final battle between the forces of the good and the evil predicted centuries earlier, in other words, to turn ancient Buddhist mythology into reality. 63 64 65

On the Tibetan notion of the War of Shambhala, see Gar-je K’am trul Rimpoche 1978, 3–11. Roerich, N. 1996, 289, entry for 24 April 1926. See Rerikh, E. 2002, P. 1, 462.

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As the Roerichs were sinking deeper in the abyss of their mystic visions, their ambitions grew and their self-perception as well. “Remember that you are already ruling the world, since no one else has the clue to events”, reads one of Morya’s exhortations to Elena from this period.66 After their protracted contacts with the Tibetan lamas in Darjeeling, Nikolai’s and Elena’s attitude to the ruling regime in Lhasa under the 13th Dalai Lama became markedly negative while concurrently, inspired by Buddhist prophecies, the couple began to cling to the Dalai’s exiled opponent, the Panchen Lama. This change can be sensed in some of Morya’s messages, such as these: “Mustiness is growing in Lhasa, and an old lama by the altar is about to saddle a horse to go northwards”; “The Teacher thinks that invasion of Tibet will do her good. The course of events will affect the religion… It’s important to know how many people do not accept the new order. The foreign uniform looks insulting on the steps of the sanctuary”.67 The problem with the Soviet entry visas was happily settled after Chicherin had wired his assent to Bystrov in early May. Yet the Roerichs had to wait until the Chinese issued them a travel document on which the consul put the visas, as their Russian passports were invalid and of no use. This occurred on May 14, two days before their departure from Urumchi. “They gave us a passport to Peking as long as my own height. Such stupidity – to write in a passport the number and description of all objects!”, Roerich recorded grumpily in his diary.68 This seems to be a confusing statement, given that the family was already packing things to go to Moscow, not Peking. A possible explanation is that the Roerichs were not quite sure they would get Soviet visas so they might have considered an alternative route to Peking. But why Peking? Because the Panchen Lama had finally settled there in early 1925, and Roerich wanted to meet him to finalize his Shambhala project. Shortly before leaving Urumchi (on May 8), the artist revised his will, which had been drawn up in Finland a decade earlier. He bequeathed all his valuables – his paintings, the copyrights to his literary works, the stocks of his American investments etc., in case of his death, to his wife Elena, and after her … to the All-Soviet Communist Party. The persons to take care of his will were given as G. Chicherin, J. Stalin and A. Bystrov. The purpose of the undertaking is not too difficult to see – Roerich’s will was intended primarily as “a proof of his political loyalty”, according to V. Rosov. As soon as his caravan left Urumchi, Bystrov

66 67 68

Rerikh, E. 2012, 17, entry for 15 July 1925. Rerikh, E. 2011, 119, 177, entries for 26 June and 5 September 1924. Roerich, N. 1996, 307, entry for 14 May 1926.

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i­ mmediately relayed a copy of the document to one of the executors of Roerich’s will, Stalin.69 Nikolai, Elena and Yuri Roerich, accompanied by their two attendants, the Ladakhi Ramzana and the Tibetan Gegen-lama Tsering, proceeded on carts loaded with miscellaneous objects – the expedition kit, paintings, books and personal belongings70 – to the Soviet Kazakhstan-Chinese border. They crossed it at Kuzeun border post on the 29th of May and moved on to Topolev Mys, the port on Lake Zaisan. The Roerichs left Xinjiang with bitter feelings, harbouring a grudge against the double-handed and “pillaging” Chinese officials – the Taotais, Ambans, Tut’us etc. who had obstructed their journey more than once. “The entire Sinkiang province, with the exception of three men, did not permit any avenue for favorable conclusions”, reads Nikolai’s diary. “We compare the joyous mood we experienced in Sikkim, in the Himalayas, in Ladakh, with the prison-like feelings in Sinkiang”.71 Having found himself on Russian soil, the artist rejoiced – he was back to his home land! From the moment he stepped into Soviet Russia, Roerich was elated: everything he saw mightily pleased his eye, even the customs inspection did not bother him, and the vigilant OGPU72 officers seemed extremely obliging. From Lake Zaisan the Roerichs sailed into the Black Irtysh River and continued up to Omsk where they caught an express train taking them straight to Moscow. “The train arrived at midnight. An OGPU agent passed by, giving me a wink that all goes well. We are traveling sub rosa…”.73 The first thing that struck Roerich in the Soviet Russia was its people. They had a great thirst for knowledge and courage for “new construction” and seemed 69 70

71 72

73

Ibid., 143–144. The things the family carried with them to the USSR made a long list which included: clothing (11 trunks), boots (3 trunks), sleeping bags (1 truck), fur blankets (1 trunk), kitchen utensils (3 trunks), tableware (1 trunk), Ladakhi dresses (1 trunk), paints (2 trunks), books, including Tibetan xylographs (6 trunks), Roerich’s paintings (1 trunk), hats (2 boxes), tents (6 packages), plus 1 package with saddles and many many more. The Roerichs also possessed 6200 golden rubles in the Tsarist coinage and the weapons they retrieved from the Chinese authorities (one Mauser rifle, one American Marlin carbine and 3 revolvers with a sufficient quantity of cartridges. See OIOR, L/P&S/10/1145, pp. 177–178 (Certificate issued to N. Roerich by A. Bystrov, 8 May 1926). Roerich, N. 1996, 295, entry for 29 April 1926. OGPU (Rus. Ob’edinennoe Gosudarstennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie – the United Political Directorate of the State) was the Soviet secret police until 1934, predecessor of the NKVD, later to become KGB (State Security Committee). Rerikh, N. 2009, 322.

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to be exactly the “new Russians” he had imagined. So he immediately started talking to them, asking questions and telling his own stories – about his life in America, his travels in India and China, the yogis and reincarnation, and, of course, the mahatmas and the “teachings of life”. Elena even read to her travel companions one of the Master’s letters and seems to have found a sympathetic response. These first impressions made the Roerichs fairly optimistic in anticipation of their epoch-making meeting with the Soviet leaders. As Morya would later explain, once every century the mahatmas, acting in accordance with the law of the Arhats, propose to the leaders of a chosen country to launch a new construction. So this was the real purpose of the Roerichs’ Moscow mission – to deliver the mahatmas’ proposal to the Bolsheviks.74 74

See Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 347, entry for 19 March 1933.

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The Moscow Mission and a Trip to Altai You pawned your soul for the New Country … E. Roerich, Diary, 1924

⸪ The Great Plan the way it was originally conceived and articulated by the Roerichs in 1922–1923 was nothing but their vision of the future, a blueprint of some cardinal events predicted by the Masters to take place within a decade and a half that would shake the world to its foundations. Yet plans made by visionaries, as often happens, come to a collision with life’s realities and break down. The political situation in post-war Europe and in Asia was changing so rapidly, so dramatically and unpredictably that Nikolai and Elena had to alter their plans all the time – with due approval of their Master of course – to keep up with the changes. Thus they were unable to enter Tibet from northern India which frustrated Morya’s initial scheme for their grand return to New Russia through India and Tibet; they did not dispatch Yuri to Chicherin from Xinjiang as they wanted to, nor could they get in touch with the Panchen Lama to let him in on the mahatmas’ version of the Shambhala War. By the time the Roerichs arrived in Moscow the Soviets had already availed themselves with some of the latest information on them and their movements in Asia received from their diplomatic agents in Kashgar and Urumchi, Dumpis and Bystrov, as well as their military intelligence service in Middle Asia, the former Russian Turkestan. Thus the Intelligence Department of the Headquarters of the Middle-Asian District in Tashkent reported that: In the month of May Urumchi was visited by the painter Roerich who calls himself an American and who had been to India and Little Tibet. He has some relation to the Buddhist world and is allegedly commissioned to establish connections between the Buddhists of Soviet Russia and India. His conversations constantly revolved about this, and he pointed out that some active work was going on among Buddhists towards a unification of Mongols from Transbaikalia to Khotan and Tibet into one Great Mongolia. He has taken carefully some steps to establish contacts

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_014

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with the Sinkiang Mongols, though the latter were rather wary, being scared of Chinese espionage.1 The Soviet leaders as those of Comintern were monitoring closely the political developments in the whole of Asia, especially in Central Asia, separating Soviet Russia from the frontiers of British India, “the stronghold of world imperialism”. For the time being (by 1926) it was only the situation in the neighboring Outer Mongolia that filled them with some considerable optimism from the perspective of the World Revolution. In 1924, after its theocratic ruler BogdoGegen’s death, the hitherto autonomous Outer Mongolia was proclaimed the Mongolian People’s Republic, with the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party at its head. The country was completely under Soviet control despite the fact that in the same year Moscow signed an agreement with Peking whereby it formally recognized China’s sovereignty in Outer Mongolia, being formerly one of the outer territories of the Manchus’ Middle Kingdom. A program of “sovietization” of Mongolia on the Russian model was recently launched, which deprived the Mongolian hereditary rulers or khans, and lamas of political power. However the lamas did not want to give up their privileges and were already looking for Bogdo’s new incarnation to take place in Mongolia, not in Tibet as before. At the same time the Chinese Republic which emerged in 1911 after the downfall of the Manchu dynasty was seized by civil strife and was actually broken up. Manchuria and other northern provinces were controlled by warlords, the most powerful of which were Generals Chang Tso-lin, Wu Pei-fu (both of pro-Japanese orientation) and Feng Yu-hsiang. The latter allied himself with the Soviets in 1925 and consequently received large quantities of arms and ammunition from the USSR. Having won some battles against his adversaries, he gained control in 1926 over several provinces in Central China and made plans for separating these from the rest of the country under his own rule. Yet the best hopes for a nationwide revolution in China the Soviets linked with the Cantonbased Nationalist government, being an alliance of the Kuomingtang (People’s) Party and Communists, to which Moscow also provided its military assistance. In May – July 1926 the Canton leaders were actively making preparations for launching a campaign, under Chiang Kai-shek, then a Soviet protégé, assisted by Soviet advisors, against the allied forces of northern warlords, the Northern Expedition, with the ultimate aim of uniting China. A vague reflection of the revolutionary ferment in the country can be found in Roerich’s travelogue: 1 Russian State Military Archive (RGVA), f. 25895, op. 1, d. 832, p. 454 (Situation in Sinkiang, 15 May 1926–1 August 1926, a dispatch by Goncharenko).

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It is curious for us, passers-by, to hear what the Chinese and Sarts say about the movements in Central China. They dream about the unseen Cantonese who must clear away the pillaging ambans; who must control the merchants and give the district freedom of industrial and cultural development. About Feng, or as he is sometimes called Fyn, one speaks with greater reserve. But Canton draws the people’s attention. To the armies of Canton are attributed qualities, existing and non-existing.2 Finally, in Tibet the confrontation of the Anglophile military and the clerical faction came to a head in the spring of 1925. The Dalai Lama who until then had openly supported the military, quite unexpectedly turned against them, when he learned that a group of officers, under his trusted favourite Tsarong, the Commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, had combined together in a plot to deprive him of his temporal power so as to leave only religious affairs in his hands. As a result a number of senior officers, the main proponents of Tibet’s modernization on the British model, were demoted one by one. As for Tsarong, he fell from favour and was replaced by Kusho Lungshar, believed to be decidedly pro-Chinese and anti-British in his views.3 The official Soviet reaction to the dramatic developments in Lhasa was one of blatant triumph as a lengthy article by Chicherin published in Izvestia on 12 August 1925 and headlined ‘The East’s New Success’ shows. Yet despite the political changes the Dalai Lama did not drift in the Soviet direction but remained poised between Soviet Russia, China and Britain. Anyway the situation in Tibet remained unstable and precarious, not really up to Soviet expectations. According to an analytical report by the Soviet Middle Asian intelligence service, “despite the crush of the Anglophiles, there are still three major factions in Tibet: an Anglophile, a Sinophile and a Nationalist one. The Sinophile faction consists of the highest Buddhist clergy which aspires to the state material support that the Tibetan monasteries used to get [from China] under the Manchu dynasty. Chang Tso-lin is trying to make use of this aspiration of the Tibetan lamahood, known for its exceptional political strength and activity. Having taken the Panchen Lama to Mukden [in late 1926 – A.A.], Chang Tso-lin promised him to restore the subsidizing of [Tibetan] monasteries. The most influential pro-Chinese Tibetan leaders are rallying around the Panchen Bogdo and they make his entourage”.4 2 Roerich 1996, 297–298, entry for 1 May 1926. 3 See Lamb 1989; Goldstein 1989. 4 RGVA, f. 25895, op. 1, d. 842, l. 219, Intelligence dispatches of the Mongolian People’s Red Army (Re: Tibet).

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This was the situation in the strategically most sensitive areas of Central Asia by the time the Roerichs had appeared in Moscow on June 10. The family put up at the Grand Hotel and three days later the artist, accompanied by his son, was welcomed by Narkom Georgii Chicherin in his diplomatic office on the Kuznetskii Most. Surprisingly, Roerich and Chicherin had many things in common. Both were intellectuals, having graduated from the same Alma Mater, St. Petersburg University, both were Nietzscheans as young men and Wagnerians, shared a deep sense of Russian history and culture and a keen interest in the East; both were Anglophobes and both dreamt of the revived New Russia. Yet there was an abyss separating them – while Chicherin was a hard-core Bolshevik and Marxist, a professional politician of moderate views, i.e. not a hardliner in the early Soviet government, Roerich was a theosophist and a mystic; he was averse to politics as such and claimed that all politicians are shackled by the parties they belong to and cannot see the real “humanitarian foundations” of life hidden from them by a “web of prejudices”. At the same time he subscribed to the Blavatskyan theory of human evolution and believed in the second coming of the Messiah and the apocalyptic war, ideas which were hard to reconcile with atheistic communist doctrine. Hence Roerich had little chance of coming to terms with Chicherin – their only common ground was the Eastern revolution as a means of emancipation multimillion Asian peoples from the foreign yoke. Of Roerich’s meeting with Chicherin very little is known thus far. It might have started with Roerich’s solemn presentation to the Narkom of the two messages of the mahatmas, one addressed to him personally and another one intended for the “Moscow Communists”,5 along with a casket with “Himalayan soil” for Lenin’s grave. Both letters, according to V. Rosov, were originally written in Tibetan (!?) but were presented in a Russian translation. The first letter was signed by Gulab Lal Singh, while the second carried the initials D.M. The missive to Chicherin contained the mahatmas’ proposal, already quoted: “If the Union of the Soviets recognizes Buddhism as a doctrine of Communism, then our Communities will be able to proffer their active assistance [to the country], and hundreds of millions of Buddhists, spread around the world, will most unexpectedly provide the necessary might”. This was followed by an additional phrase: “Our messenger Akdorje is entrusted to expound the details of our proposal: we can aver that measures should be urgently taken to introduce Communism worldwide as a step towards the desired evolution”.

5 For the texts of these messages see Rosov 2002a, 180.

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To Chicherin Roerich-Akdorje further disclosed his nine-point plan for the great unification of the Buddhist nations in Asia which was actually articulated by Elena and put down in her diary as a Mahatma message in Xinjiang: 1) The Buddha’s Doctrine presents a revolutionary movement; 2) Maitreya is the symbol of communism; 3) Millions of Asian Buddhists can be drawn in the world movement in support of the ideals of Community; 4) The basic law, or Gautama’s simple teachings, will easily penetrate into the popular masses; 5) Europe will be shattered by the union of Buddhism and Communism; 6) The Mongols, Tibetans and Kalmyks agree about the dates when the Maitreya prophecies will be fulfilled and are prepared to apply these to the present evolution; 7) The Tashi Lama’s departure from Tibet provides an unprecedented occasion for a [revolutionary] action in the East; 8) Buddhism explains the negation of God as a natural phenomenon; 9) Action should be urgently taken, jointly with the Soviet Government, taking fully into account the local conditions and the Asian prophecies.6 The message for the Moscow Communists was a eulogy of the Bolsheviks and their many accomplishments – they “abolished the Church as the hotbed of lies and superstitions, eradicated Philistinism and hypocrisy”, “burnt down the army of slaves, crushed the spiders of gain, shut the doors of night dens”, etc. At the same time the Bolsheviks acknowledged religion as a “teaching of all-embracing matter”, foresaw “the evolution of Community”, bowed down before Beauty and realized the importance of “building new homes of Common Weal”. The message ended with the Mahatmas’ offer of help: We stopped the uprising in India when we saw that it was untimely, we recognized the opportuneness of your movement and are sending you our aid by approving the Unification of Asia! We know that many new things will be accomplished in the years 28–31–36. Greetings to You, seekers of Common Weal! Both missives of the Mahatmas seem to be another hoax of the Roerichs, as one can hardly imagine Himalayan or other sages who would eulogize the new rulers of Russia in so flattering a manner in the language of agitprop. They styled Lenin their Brother, i.e. Mahatma, obviously unaware of Lenin’s militant 6 Ibid., 147; also see the online handwritten version of E. Roerich’s diary for the years 1925–1926, p. 113, entry for 19 October 1925: http://urusvati.agni-age.net.

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atheism and of the Bolsheviks’ severe persecution of thousands of Russian clerics, Orthodox Christian and others. The wording of these letters is reminiscent of Roerich’s early essays, such as we find in Adamant, with his pathetic invocations of Beauty, Evolution, Common Weal, Cosmos, and Elena’s books of Agni Yoga. As for the casket with “Himalayan soil”, this too was seemingly a hoax. All Roerich’s early biographers claimed that the soil was either taken “from the graves of India’s great sages” or was even “sacred Tibetan soil”,7 yet it was actually brought from a place named Burhan Bulat as reads a subscription to one of the mahatmas’ letters – “Given in Burhan Bulat”. But where is that? “Burhan Bulat is near Khotan”, Nikolai Roerich reported in Altai – Himalaya, however one will not find such a placename on geographical maps of Xinjiang as Burhan Bulat is another product of Roerich’s imagination. We already mentioned the legend about the Sword of the Buddha (Burhan Bulat) the artist had heard at a road-side camp-fire on the way to Khotan (see his diary entry for October 5). The magic weapon, according to the legend, appeared “at certain dates” and then nothing could withstand it. Two weeks later (on October 17) when the Roerichs were already in Khotan Elena channeled Morya’s directive to give that name to a place through which the Buddha had once travelled: “It’s a remarkable place because it was here that the Buddha made up his mind to go to the North. Its significance should be marked by giving it the name Burhan Bulat”.8 Here in the future a temple of Shambhala (“the House of Maitreya”) would be erected, according to Roerich.9 Hence “Himalayan soil” for Lenin’s grave came neither from the Himalayas nor from Tibet but from the vicinities of Khotan, on Morya’s advice: “Of course, a box with the soil from Burh[an] Bul[at] should be carried to him [Lenin – A.A.]. You have an ivory box from Akbar’s times. Take it to his grave. Say, it’s the soil on which Buddha stepped, thinking about the Community of Peace. Put down in Tibetan – From the Mahatmas for the grave of the Russian Mahatma”.10 So the Roerichs did as they were told by their Master. Apart from the letters and the casket, Roerich donated to the Soviet government seven of his paintings from the Maitreya series, executed in the course of his expedition. One of these portrayed a mahatma wearing a steel helmet, with his head turned to the East, a face strikingly resembling that of Lenin. The meaning of the canvas Roerich explained neatly as “The time has come for the 7 8 9 10

See, for example, Zarnitskii, Trofimova 1965, 103; Dubaev 2003, 265; Rosov 2002a, 138. Rerikh, E. 2012, 47–48, entry for 17 October 1925. Rerikh, N. 1974b, 132. Rerikh, E. 2012, 97, entry for January 1926.

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Eastern peoples to wake up from their age-long slumbers and throw off their fetters”. To the Narkom of Education, Anatoly Lunacharskii, Roerich presented his other canvas depicting the Buddha Maitreya on a red horse.11 The rest of the paintings were intended for the Tretyakov Gallery, which already possessed some of his early works. However, instead of the museum the Maitreya paintings would go to the dacha of the great proletarian writer and Roerich’s old friend Gorkii after his return in 1931 from his 10-year long voluntary exile in Europe. There they would decorate the walls of Gorkii’s dining room. During his meeting with Chicherin Roerich must have recounted the story of his Transhimalayan peregrinations and the trials he and his family had suffered in the hands of perfidious Chinese officials. Elena would later reveal to Esther Lichtmann that her husband “warned Chicherin against China” but Narkom “declared with self-confidence that they believed in China and its leaders and there was nothing to worry about”.12 Surprisingly, Chicherin fully trusted Roerich’s tale about the Himalayan “Maitreya communities” and the revolutionary mahatmas ready to walk out against those who impede Evolution. Right after his meeting with Roerich the Narkom scribbled a note to the secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee (TsK VKPb) V.M. Molotov: Dear Comrade, The painter Roerich, who arrived in Moscow and is a great expert in Buddhism, has just made a tour of a considerable part of Tibet and Chinese Turkestan. He also managed to penetrate into some areas of northern India. There are Buddhist communities there which reject the orthodox lamaism and adhere to the early teachings of Buddha with their primitive consumers’ communism. This makes them sympathize with [our] communist program and the USSR. This fact is related to their struggle against the official lamaist upper strata in the Buddhist countries. These Buddhist communities commissioned Roerich with the task of laying a little casket with soil from the Buddha’s birthplace on the grave of Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin]. Roerich brought the casket with him and is asking what he should do with it. He proposes to give it to the Lenin Institute. Besides, these Buddhist communities sent letters with greetings to the Soviet state. In these [letters] they put forward the idea of the world union between Buddhism and Communism. Roerich says he wants to 11 12

Zarnitskii, Trofimova 1965, 104–105. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, 159, entry for 17 June 1929, unpublished.

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hand the letters likewise to the Lenin Institute. The translation of these two letters is enclosed herewith. Should it be considered permissible from our point of view to publish these letters, we will still have to enquire of Roerich whether this will be good from a security perspective, given the extremely despotic methods of the British administration in these regions. With communist greetings, Chicherin.13 Copies of this note were forwarded by Chicherin “for information” to the ­Politburo members, the Narkomindel Board as well as to some high officials, such as I.S. Unshliht (Revvoensovet), M.A. Trilisser (OGPU), and K.B. Radek (Comintern). The mahatmas’ proposal of cooperation made to the Bolsheviks – their call for starting a new world movement “in support of the ideals of Community” by allying millions of Buddhists and communists – was absolutely impracticable and out of touch with Soviet realities. The Roerichs and their Masters apparently were unaware of the aborted attempts by Soviet reformers in the early 1920s to transform the Buddhist datsan (monastic) communities into labor (agricultural) communes in East Siberia (Buryatia). The person who strongly advocated the idea from the Buddhist side was the already mentioned Agvan Dorzhiev, formerly the 13th Dalai Lama’s favourite and an active proponent of political, economic and cultural rapprochement between Soviet Russia, Mongolia and Tibet.14 Dorzhiev was also known as the leader of the Buddhist revival movement (obnovlenchestvo) he had started in Soviet Russia in 1922 with a view to reconciling Buddhism and communism.15 However he utterly failed in his endeavours. The bulk of lamahood in both Buryatia and Kalmykia were the so-called “conservative” lamas who did not want to cooperate, that is, to completely renounce their private property and engage in socially useful manual labor, still less to “purify” the Buddhist teaching to keep it in line the with the original Buddha’s precepts written down in the Vinaya ethical code. The few datsan agricultural cooperatives Dorzhiev managed to organize in Buryatia collapsed after a short time which showed the futility of his undertaking. The So13 14 15

Quoted from Rosov 2002a, 149. For Dorzhiev’s short biography see Andreyev 2007, 130–131; Andreyev 2003. For the Buddhist revival movement in the USSR see: Gerasimova 1964, 87–90. for the theory of affinity of the Buddhist doctrine and communist ideology”, see: Sinitsyn 2013, 74–89.

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viet authorities, who had supported at first Dorzhiev’s Buddhist reformation, eventually grew hostile to it. Their attitude was expressed unambiguously in 1926 by the Chairman of the TsIK of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic M.N. Erbanov: “The consolidation of lamas in the datsans into labor artels and communes … is impermissible. Under the flag of production artels lamas will seek to restore datsans’ former splendour – the lands, the free exploitation of the masses through using them as workhands, etc. Lamas who live in the uluses and are engaged in agricultural work should join cooperative organizations without special preferences”.16 This meant the Soviets did not welcome the idea of Buddhist labor communities working on their own, outside of Party control. As for Roerich’s other project, that of helping the Panchen Lama return to Tibet jointly with his expedition, it reeked of political adventurism. And indeed, the Panchen Lama’s return at that time with a pro-Chinese military escort would not be a peaceful homecoming, considering the existent antagonism between the Sinophile and national factions in Lhasa, which was to a large extent antagonism between the Panchen’s and the Dalai Lama’s followers. This might easily spark off a new social explosion in Tibet, a kind of Buddhist revolution. But this was fraught with very serious consequences, such as a full-scale British invasion of Tibet and their annexation of the country. Besides, at the same time as he was talking with Roerich, Chicherin was busy mounting a new Soviet secret mission to Lhasa disguised as a Mongolian religious embassy to be led by a Buryat-Mongol Gomboidchin and a highly-placed Kalmyk Bolshevik Arashi Chapchaev. A program for negotiations with the Dalai Lama had already been elaborated and approved by the Politburo,17 which means Chicherin could not whole-heartedly support Roerich’s venturesome project at this juncture. The mission would be in fact the last Soviet attempt to win the Dalai Lama over. Interestingly, in one of Roerich’s most mystical writings, his book about Shambhala, one will find a phantasmagoric description of a spiritual march to Lhasa led by the Tashi Lama jointly with ... the Great Dalai Lama, the latter being clearly an allusion to Nikolai Roerich. The march was to end with the imminent overthrow of the present Dalai Lama should he choose to oppose the “liberation” of Tibet through the lofty name of the Buddha Maitreya:

16 17

Erbanov 1926, 29. On the Soviet-Mongolian mission see Andreyev 2003, 239–291.

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The Banner of Shambhala will pass round the Middle lands of the Blessed One [i.e. Maitreya Buddha – A.A.]; those who acknowledge Him will rejoice, those who reject Him will shudder. The Tashi Lama will ask the Great Dalai Lama what will be the destiny of the last Dalai Lama. [And he will reply:] The one who rejects will be judged and consigned to oblivion, and on will march the Host under the Banner of Maitreya, and the City of Lhasa will become dark and empty. Those who rise against Shambhala will be subverted. The Banner of Shambhala will flow like blood around the lands of the New World for the wicked, and [will shine] like the burning sun for the enlightened ones. The Tashi Lama will find the Great Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama will say: “I’ll send my best sign to you – the bolts of lightning; go and take Tibet. The Ring will protect [you].18 According to V. Rosov, Roerich seriously contemplated the possibility of a religious war in Tibet at an early stage of his mission planning. He even imagined the sequence of future events, or rather these were prompted by Morya: Chakhembula (i.e. Colonel Kordashevskii) would “raise the banner” in Mongolia and lead his troops to Tibet, Guru (N. Roerich) would appear en route to join him and finally – when the war was over – the Khutuktu (head of Mongolian Buddhists) would announce at the Buddhist Council the beginning of a new era or kalpa. Elena vaguely hinted at this plan in her 1924 diary: “Invasion of Tibet [can be] useful. The course of events will affect the religion... There’ll be a thunder over the desert. The right path will lead to a bloodless victory. We do not plan to fire guns. Just one shot at the Buddha [will] amount to a real battle”.19 The important thing was that the Maitreya shock troops were to be assembled in the country which in earlier days formed the nucleus or heartland of Chinggis Khan’s boundless empire of Great Mongolia; it was around Mongolia that the nomadic peoples of Inner Asia were to be united again, making what the Roerichs called the Sacred Union of the East. Roerich’s vision of the Shambhala War, alias the Buddhist revolution in Asia, inevitably makes one question his possible contacts with Indian revolutionaries, in America and India. We know that the faculty of the Master Institute for the year 1923 listed as a lecturer an Indian Dhan Gopal Mukerji, whom the British intelligence service described as “a very anti-British firebrand” and a member of the Ghadr Party in America, who was “associated with M.N. Roy and 18 19

Rerikh, N. 1979, 106. Rosov 2002a, 173.

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other undesirable persons”.20 The Ghard Party was founded in 1913 by the Panjabi immigrant workers in the USA. It had as its objective staging revolution in India and waging an armed fight against the British Raj following the methods of the 1905 first Russian revolution. Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890–1936) was a writer of children’s books who had started his literary career in America in 1917; he was married to Ethel Ray Dugan, an American artist and painter. They moved to New York from the West coast in the early 1920s and that was how Dhan Gopal came to know Roerich and was invited to lecture at the Corona Mundi Centre – most likely on Indian philosophy. He indeed had connections with the Indian revolutionaries in and outside the US. His brother Jadugopal Mukerji was jailed from 1923 to 1927 for his revolutionary activities in Bengal and Dhan Gopal indeed was associated with Manabendra Nath Roy, the founder of the Communist Party of India and a member of Comintern’s Presidium. Interestingly, M.N. Roy was received personally by Lenin in 1920 in Moscow, a few weeks before the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, and was commissioned by him to foment revolution in the East. Nikolai and Elena might have heard about it from Mukerji and the fact seems to have suggested to Elena the idea of Lenin’s meeting with the mahatmas’ representative in Moscow. (In her third Agni Yoga book Community one may read the following statement of the mahatmas: “We saw Lenin in Switzerland. Our coworker talked to him in Moscow”.21) When presenting his most unusual project to Chicherin, Roerich probably did not know that all issues of top priority for the state were discussed at the sessions of the Politburo of the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the resolutions passed by this organ were then implemented by the Soviet government. However Roerich’s project was never placed on the Politburo agenda although it might have been discussed privately by Chicherin with other Soviet leaders. This part of the story remains in the dark. The most pressing issues of Soviet foreign policy with regard to Asia in mid-1926, as Chicherin’s reports at the Politburo sessions show, were China, the Kuomintang’s Northern Expedition and negotiations with Chang Tso-lin, head of the Mukden clique. Roerich’s proposals were hardly a priority and must have been pigeonholed by Chicherin, as Roerich did not receive any reply from the Narkom during his time in Moscow. The Kremlin’s ideologues likewise turned a deaf ear to the mahatmas’ appeal to recognize Buddhism as a communist teaching, a sacrilegious idea in their eyes. 20 21

OIO & R, C/ P & J/12/291, p. 30, a memo from the Intelligence bureau, Home Department, Government of India, Simla, 7 June 1928. Rerikh, E. 1991. P. 3 (II, 22), 112.

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Still Roerich got some positive feedback from Bolsheviks. Surprisingly, his Shambhala project was regarded quite sympathetically by the head of the Foreign Department (INO) of the OGPU Meer Abramovich Trilisser, the right-hand man of Felix Dzerzhinskii. According to Sina Lichtmann, who also came to Moscow together with her husband Maurice on June 13, Roerich had “a most remarkable meeting at the GPU where the Names of Maitreya and Shambhala were pronounced. [His] offers of cooperation were received with enthusiasm”.22 And there was a good reason for such a warm welcome to the exiled artist. In the summer of 1925 the OGPU mounted a secret expedition to Tibet and Afghanistan to be led by Alexander Barchenko, a bio-physicist and occultist, a follower of the French mystic Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre.23 The purpose of the expedition was to establish contacts with the “secret fraternities” of Shambhala and their leaders, believed to possess some extremely valuable esoteric knowledge which could be of great practical use to the Soviet leaders. The man behind the scheme was head of the OGPU-affiliated Spetzotdel (Special Department)24 Gleb Bokii, one of the most bizarre personages of early Soviet history, – a Cheka/OGPU senior officer, a Trotskiiite and a believer in Shambhala. Bokii attached his special agent to the group in the capacity of politkomissar, Yakov Bliumkin, yet Barchenko objected to this. He argued that Bliumkin was a sinister character, an ex-terrorist, which made him morally unworthy of travelling to the Pure Land of Shambhala. As a result Barchenko’s mission was cancelled; however, the Foreign Department of the OGPU continued to take a special interest in Tibet and to monitor closely the situation there. Apart from Chicherin and Trilisser, Roerich also met Anatoly Lunacharskii (Narkom of Enlightenment), L.B. Kamenev (Vice-Chairman of the Soviet government, Sovnarkom), Nadezhda Krupskaia (Lenin’s widow and an important official in Lunacharskii’s department, Narkompros), and the Soviet cultural elite – K.S. Stanislavskii, A.V. Shchusev (the designer of Lenin’s Mausoleum), I.E. Grabar, and N.I. Vavilov, to name a few. Meeting Lunacharskii, the most enlightened of the early Soviet leaders, was particularly important for Roerich. His special favour for this Bolshevik enlightener of the masses is easy to understand. Lunacharskii was formerly a Mason who had belonged to the Lodge of the Grand Orient of France; shortly after the 1905 first Russian revolution he came up with a theory of “God-building”, which was an attempt to create a “socialist 22 23 24

Fosdik 2002, 265, entry for 8 August 1926. See Andreyev 2003, 245, 246, and in more detail in Andreev 2004, 220–223. The Spetzotdel was started by Bokii in 1921 as a cryptographic service but later on it was also engaged in counter-intelligence work and sponsored the parapsychological research conducted by Barchenko.

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religion” on the Marxist basis.25 This was exactly what Roerich would try to do a decade and half later, though from totally different premises, those of Blavatskian theosophy. Lunacharskii’s theory, however, had to be discarded after Lenin had branded it as “a perversion of scientific socialism”. Another thing which attracted Roerich to Narkom was his enthusiastic work toward building a new socialist culture, with its emphasis on education, theatre, cinema and literature, which largely corresponded to Roerich’s own vision of Russia’s new culture. Lunacharskii, as we already know, had been previously contacted by Elena’s cousin in Leningrad, Stepan Mitusov. Having somehow managed to get access to this Bolshevik grandee, Mitusov passed to him, on Roerich’s request, the first two books of the Masters’ teaching and Elena’s recently published Chasha Vostoka (Chalice of the East), her translation into Russian of one of the theosophical classics, the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett.26 The idea was to encourage the Narkom to publish and circulate these in Soviet Russia. Lunacharskii’s reaction to the books was fairly positive – he told Mitusov that the things he had found in them were very profound and would be of help to people, but … the time was not yet ripe for making them public.27 Subsequently Roerich would send more books to Lunacharskii through Mitusov. The details of their personal meeting with the Narkom in 1926, however, are unknown, though one can assume this must have been another attempt by the artist to cultivate such an important figure as Lunacharskii. While in Moscow, Roerich also attempted to meet Joseph Stalin (general secretary of the Communist Party), Felix Dzerzhinskii (chef of the OGPU), and Leo Trotskii (head of the Main Concession Committee and concurrently the leader of the anti-Stalin opposition), but they for different reasons turned out to be inaccessible. What the artist could arrange was an interview with Leo Trotskii’s wife, Natalia Sedova, the head of the department in charge of the museums and the protection of monuments of art and history at Lunacharskii’s Narkompros. In general Nikolai Roerich was welcomed by Soviet intelligentsia though the people who had known him before immediately noticed a profound change in him, caused by his strong mystical leanings, and Igor Grabar’ even called him a Russian Cagliostro. By the time Roerich arrived in Moscow his name had already become popular in the masonic and occultist circles still surviving under the Bolsheviks, and there were even those who looked upon him as a great ­spiritual 25 26 27

Lunacharskii 1911. The book was published in 1925 in G. Grebenshchikov’s Russian language publishing house Alatas (New York) under Elena’s pen-name Iskander Hanum. Mitusova 2004, 40.

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seer. There were still many occultists and Masons in Moscow and Leningrad in those days and some of them tried to get in touch with Roerich. One of them was Evgenyi Teger, the former consul general in Kashgar. Teger openly admired the artist for his profound comprehension of Eastern mysticism and maintained that a person like Roerich “deserved a monument during his lifetime”.28 Curiously, these people identified Roerich as a Mason owing to the symbol of Corona Mundi – the circle with the three orbs – printed on the back side of postcards reproducing some of Roerich’s paintings. “It became clear to me from these imprints that Roerich’s line is masonic”, another Mason, V.V. Beliustin, a son of the former senator, would confess to his interrogator after his arrest in 1940. We do not know who put Roerich in touch with these Masons but he apparently met them not out of sheer curiosity. One will remember that as early as 1923 Morya commissioned him and Elena to set up his Lodge in Russia for dissemination of the new teaching of “Spirit-understanding”. Thus by meeting Masons in Moscow Roerich was in fact collecting “new ones” on Russian soil and he must have passed to them the first Agni Yoga books. Subsequently, in 1930, i.e. after the completion of his Central Asian journey, Roerich would send to Moscow, c/o the Eastern Department of the Academy of Sciences, his major mystical opus Shambhala, the Resplendent, published in New York. The book would be partly translated into Russian by one of the Academy employees, Velikanova, and circulated secretly among Moscow’s Masons and occultists.29 Yet already in early 1926, prior to the Roerichs’ coming to Russia, Shibaev had sent from Riga to the Book Chamber in Moscow, on Roerich’s commission, 32 copies of Elena’s Chalice of the East. (The Book Chamber distributed newly published titles among the country’s major libraries and that was how the Roerichs intended to acquaint Soviet readers with the Agni Yoga teachings. They obviously did not know that certain books, especially religious ones, were kept in special spetzkhran repositories for unlicensed books and were not handed out to readers. And this exactly what happened to these early copies of Agni Yoga in the USSR.) Strange as it may seem, Roerich’s visit was not covered in the Soviet press during his time in Moscow. It was only when he left the USSR that Krasnaia Gazeta (Red Newspaper) in Leningrad carried an article about him by an art critic Erich Gollerbach headlined “The Destiny of Roerich”. This spoke of the artist quiet positively praising his talents and his artistic achievements, yet at the same time bewailing his destiny of a Russian émigré by comparing it to that 28 29

Nikitin 2005, 338 (interrogation transcript of V.V. Beliustin, 9 October 1940). Ibid., 490.

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of Cagliostro and Shaliapin, the famous opera singer who also left Russia after the revolution. “His roaming around the world, his moving from one country to another, his endless triumphs – is there not some tragic element concealed in these?”, exclaimed Gollerbach. And he concluded his piece reproachfully with the verdict: “Roerich is creating not for the sake of his country, but for American billionaires”.30

…

The Roerichs’ Moscow mission, despite the lack of immediate response from Chicherin and other Soviet leaders to the mahatmas’ proposals, was not a failure altogether. The artist’s resumed negotiations with the Main Concession Committee conducted though the Lichtmann couple – which was the primary purpose for their coming to Moscow – ended up quite successfully. On July 7 a draft agreement was concluded between the Beluha Corporation represented by its vice-president Maurice Lichtmann and the Glavkontseskom acting on behalf of the Soviet government. According to the document, the Americans (Maurice and Sina Lichtmann) were allowed to do a preliminary survey of the area of the proposed concession in the south-west Altai in the summer of 1926 and a year after a special prospecting party was to be sent to the place under a mining engineer T.N. Ponomariov.31 Only then could the formal concessive agreement be signed, on the sine qua non condition that the American Corporation would allocate sufficient funds for the exploitation of the deposits.32 Yet business, as we already know, was only one part of the Beluha project. Side by side with the new center of mining industry Roerich also envisaged creating a cultural oasis, his dream city Zvenigorod. While talking to the Soviet officials, Maurice emphasized that the purpose of the company was “not sheer exploitation of natural resources” but there was “a constructive task lying at the bottom of the project” – to build a cultural and industrial center as a single whole.33 Yet Zvenigorod, as we already know, was also to become the center of a new religion that was to spread around from the Altai, the “stronghold of Northern Shambhala”. The person to represent Beluha’s interests in the USSR was Boris Roerich, whose commission was confirmed by a special letter Maurice had forwarded to 30 31 32 33

E. Gollerbakh, “Sud’ba Rerikha (po povodu priezda Rerikha v SSSR)”, in Krasnaiia Zvezda, 9 September 1926, evening issue. These negotiations were described in detail by V.A. Rosov in: Rosov 2002a, 195–214; 230– 236. Ibid., 203. Ibid., 204.

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the Glavkontseskom. Boris was to be paid a full-time salary for his job, some 400 rubles a month; as a sign of her Master’s special favor to him Elena would later show her brother-in-law the casket with the Black Stone. This occurred at the end of August when Boris Konstantinovich came to Novonikolaevsk (today’s Novosibirsk) to catch up with his elder brother, returning from his trip to Altai. It was then that Nikolai would unexpectedly come up with yet another grand project of his, that for the Ur Corporation (alias Studio)34 to be set up with a view to obtaining a concession in Tuva,35 another people’s republic bordering on Outer Mongolia. The discussion of the new project between Nikolai and Boris, according to V. Rosov, took place “in the mystical atmosphere, typical for the Roerichs”. Master Morya did not like at first the drafted charter of the new organization, so they had to rewrite it. The Roerichs left Moscow together with the Lichtmanns and their two attendants, Ramzana and Tsering, on 22 July, the day of the funeral of Felix Dzerzhinskii who had died suddenly of a heart attack two days before after giving a speech at the party plenum. “Iron Felix” was buried by the Kremlin Wall and the Roerichs watched the mournful ceremony from the balcony in their hotel, waiting for the cars to take them to the railway station. “An important day, the funeral, crowds of people, music, cannon firing, outstanding figures marching in file”, Sina wrote in her diary.36 When walking out of the hotel, the Roerichs were hailed by people in the street. These “new Russians” seemed very friendly and some of them sent greeting to their distant friends in America. The day before quite accidentally Roerich bumped into his old friend Igor Grabar, in the vestibule of the hotel. He immediately took Grabar into his room where they had a heart-to-heart chat which the latter would partly reproduce in his memoirs. A large room was cramped with suitcases packed for the departure. – Tomorrow we are leaving. – Where to? – To Abyssinia. 34

35

36

The activities of the Ur Corporation, as those of Beluha, were to combine commercial and educational (enlightening) interests. In particular, Roerich envisaged the construction of radio-stations, laying new motor-roads and restoring old caravan tracks, mining, cattlebreeding, trade etc. See Roerich’s Address before the Board of Directors of the Ur Corporation, New York, 1929, N. Roerich Museum. Tuva, or Tannu-Tuva (formerly the Uriankhai Region) was another Buddhist borderland, formerly under Tsarist Russia’s protection, since 1921, the People’s republic of Tuva; in 1944 joined the USSR. Fosdik 2002, 255–256, entry for 22 July 1926.

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– What for? – There’s a remarkable lake there worth seeing. And Roerich gave me the odd name of the lake. He indeed departed with his family the next day, though not to Abyssinia, as people said, but to Mongolia. I could not ascertain the fact, but if this was so, it is not clear why he assured me that he was going to Abyssinia.37 (Grabar’s memoirs came into Roerich’s hands many years after, when he was in India. The artist might have felt awkward, reading the above dialogue, as he then wrote a letter to Grabar to explain away his misleading answers. “When I saw you in Moscow, I indeed planned a trip to Ethiopia”, asserted Roerich, “but we went to Altai from Moscow instead because E[lena] I[vanovna] cannot stand the summer heat. When we were in Altai it became clear that we would be unable to go to Abyssinia, which made me sad as the folklore there is very old and versatile”.38 Yet this was clearly a lame excuse.) The Roerichs got to Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) by rail, thence sailed on the Ob’ River to Barnaul, capital of the Altai Region, and further down to Biisk which they reached on July 30. There the party hired four carts, carters and horses and moved across the country eastward to the Upper Uimon Valley, their final destination. That was quite a difficult, if a most spectacular, trek which took them seven days. Elena admired very much the Altaian landscape, especially the patch-like flower carpets, blue, purple, yellow, pink, and the refined contours of the mountains of her favourite violet-blue colour. On the way they stopped for a night at Kurlyk, a place where the faith of the White Burkhan had originated. “Here, verily, they expect the coming of the White Burkhan”, Nikolai recorded in the diary. “In the cliffs, towering over Kurlyk, the entrances of the caves loom dark. These caves penetrate deeply: their depth has not been ascertained. There are also secret passages – from Tibet, through Kuenlun, through Altyntag, through Turfan… How many people have saved themselves in these passages and caves! Reality has become a fairy tale”.39 The Upper Uimon village was reputed to be the most ancient settlement in the Altai. There the party put up in the house of Vakhramei Atamanov, a simple Altaian peasant who used to be occasionally employed as a guide by Russian travelers in the area. He was also an expert in local medicinal herbs, but what fascinated the Roerichs most was the story of Artamanov’s grandfather. Many 37 38 39

Grabar’ 1937, 297. Rerikh, N. 1974a, 407, letter to Grabar’, 1 august 1938. Roerich 1996, 336.

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years earlier the man, with a group of his comrades, left the place and went searching for the promised land of White Waters, Belovodye, yet they could not endure the hardships of the journey and returned home. This and other stories about Belovodye Roerich heard from the locals stirred up again his thirst for the miraculous, his yearning for the great future when the ancient prophesies of Asiatic peoples would come true. In 1923 Sokoliha with the people of Bukhtarma went to search for Belovodye. Not one of them returned. But recently there came letters from Sokoliha. She writes that she did not reach Belovodye but she lives well. Where she lives, she does not write. All know of Belovodye.  From the south and from the north, from the east and from the west, they are thinking of the same thing. And the same evolutionary process is being impressed upon the best images. A center between the four oceans exists. Consciousness of the new world exists. Will the subterranean Chud not return? Do not the Agharti, the subterranean people, saddle their horses? Does not the bell of Belovodye ring out? Does not horseman ride over Ergor? On the ridges – on the Dalnyi and on the Studenyi the peaks are aflame.40 Ergor mentioned by Roerich is the Russian “Highland”, another name for Tibet used by the Altaians. A special path, or passage, was believed to lead over Ergor to Belovodye (i.e. Shambhala) and the travelers who did not know the path were doomed to perish in the lakes or in the hungry steppe. “It has happened also that the people from Belovodye have come out on horseback through special passages over Ergor”. These special passages and secret paths were absolutely real for Roerich, a firm believer in the reality of the “other world” spoken of in old legends and myths. A few words should be said here about the historical background of the Russian legend of Belovodye. According to one of the researchers K.V. Chistov, Belovodye is “not a definite geographical placename, but a poetic image of a free land, a personification of a dream about such a land”.41 It was not accidental that this peasants’ dreamland was sought after by the Russian Old Believers throughout the whole of Asia – from Altai to Japan and the isles in the Pacific Ocean, and from Mongolia to India and Afghanistan. Originally (in the second half of the 18th century) Belovodye was associated mostly with the settlements 40 41

Ibid., 337. See Chistov 1967, 279.

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in the two fertile valleys in the south-eastern Altai – those of Bukhtarma and Uimon, inaccessible to tsarist authorities and priests, the persecutors of the Old Believers who did not accept the church reforms introduced by the Patriarch Nikon. This ‘neutral land’ separating the Russian and Chinese Empires was incorporated in the territory of Russia in 1791 and it was there and then, maintains Chistov, that the legend of Belovodye, the realm of justice and piety, originated. It was disseminated mainly by the Altaian sect of beguny (runners) also known as stranniki (wanderers), an extreme left branch of Old Believers. The first reports about searches for the Promised Land by these sectarians appeared in 1825–1826, and in the latter half of the 19th century their wanderings to Belovodye assumed a massive character. The Russian travelers in Central Asia also heard the legend and the stories of the Belovodye wanderers during their travels in Western China. Thus Nikolai Przhevalskii, while camping in 1877 near lake Lopnor, learnt from the local inhabitants about a group of Altaian Old Believers numbering over a hundred people who had arrived here in the late 1850s – early 1860s. Most of the newcomers were not satisfied with the primitive conditions of life at Lopnor and moved further on, beyond the Altyn-tag range, i.e. into the territory of Great Tibet, where they settled down for a while. Eventually all of these people, not having found Belovodye, returned to their homeland. The account of this “wandering” narrated by one of its participants A.E. Zyrianov was subsequently recorded and published along with the route map by a researcher A.N. Belosliudov in the Proceedings of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.42 The publication was apparently unknown to Roerich. But if someone had told him that Belovodye and Shambhala were only dreamlands and not real places, would he have believed it? Certainly not! Dreams as epitomized in legends, myths and fairy tales were just another form of reality to the artist, one of paramount importance for the future of humanity as it was shaping people’s collective consciousness and “cementing” the space.

…

The Roerichs, the Lichtmanns and the Tibetan Gegen-lama stayed in Upper Uimon for ten days. (With the words, “Either I live or die”, the Ladakhi Ramsana left the party for his homeland as he could not stand the atmosphere of the lowlands of the north.) They collected samples of native clothes which Elena admired so much, and Nikolai would go daily on horseback to the mountains to do sketches, together with Varfolomei, or Vakhramei as he used to call him.) 42

Belosliudov 1914, 32–35.

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There they would also gather samples of herbs and roots, under Varfolomei’s guidance, and would ascend the Terektinskii Ridge to get a glimpse of Beluha. On the seventeenth of August we beheld Beluha. It was so clear and reverberant. Verily, Zvenigorod! Beyond Beluha there appear the crests of Kuenlun so beloved to the heart, and beyond that ‘the mountains of the Divine Queen’ and ‘Five Treasure Troves of the Snows’. And [she] herself, ‘the Queen of the White Snows’, and all [that is] written and unwritten, spoken and unspoken.43 From Upper Uimon Nikolai is known to have sent letters to Chicherin in Moscow and to Alatyzov, an important party functionary at Gorno-Altaisk, with a proposal of cultural development of the area. As for Yuri, he was taking pictures and shooting on film everything that caught his eye. He would explain jokingly to the villagers who had never seen the film camera before: “We’ll make you run over the wall”.44 On August 19th the Roerich party left Upper Uimon and headed back to Novonikolaevsk, which they reached on the 27th. From there the Lichtmanns would go back to New York and the three Roerichs with the Gegen-lama proceed to Verhneudinsk (today’s Ulan Ude), the capital of Buryat-Mongolia, and hence to Ulan Bator in the Mongolian People’s Republic. The Roerichs’ Altaian journey was over. There is still one thing which calls for a brief commentary to conclude our narrative. In 1999 a Russian journalist and writer Oleg Shishkin revealed what he called Roerich’s “greatest secret” – his trip to Peking made from Altai between August 17 and 24. On 17th August, right after his trek to Beluha, claimed the author, Nikolai, together with Yuri, Ramsana and a local guide proceeded on horses to the Chuiskii Trakt (high road), where several OGPU officers were already waiting for them, with three rented Dodge motor-cars. In these they then drove, as fast as they could, all across Mongolia and Northern China straight to Peking! There Nikolai and Yuri held secret talks with the Panchen Lama and his confident lama Konchok Yungas, a representative of the revolutionary warlords Chiang Kai-shek and Marshal Feng, discussing the plan for the Shambhala War in Tibet. The person who acted as a translator was Boris Pankratov, an employee of the Soviet Embassy. According to Shishkin, the War was to be launched at the appointed time (September – October 1926) by the Tibetan volunteer corps concentrated on the border of Northern Tibet, in Kansu Province, with 43 44

Roerich 1996, 350. The Roerichs’ time in the Upper Uimon was described in Tsesiulevich 1992, 21–27.

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Kuomingtang backing. The force was to penetrate into Tibet under the Shambhala Banner and that of the Tashi Lama along the Mongolian pilgrims’ road, while concurrently the Roerich expedition caravan and a Mongolian cavalry unit were to set out from Mongolia, carrying weapons and artillery. However the decisive role in the War was assigned to the monks of the three largest monasteries outside Lhasa, those of Drepung, Sera and Galdan; acting as the “fifth column”, they were to start an uprising at the moment when the Tibetan volunteer corps was approaching the city from the north. At some critical point of the battle, when the insurgents knew they were winning, a “delegation of the Tashi Lama” was to set forth in Dodges from Peking. The appearance of the saintly leader of the opposition in Central Tibet at the head of the automobile column would be hailed most enthusiastically by his many partisans, and this would be the end of the operation, named the Shambhala War. Right after their negotiations with the Tashi Lama (on 20 August) the Roerichs, according to Shishkin, rushed back in Dodges to Biisk where they caught up with the rest of the party (the Lichtmann couple and Elena) which had arrived there from Upper Uimon.45 The story of Nikolai’s secret automobile ride to Peking and then back to Altai as told by Shishkin seems highly incredible. The arguments the author puts forth to support his theory, such as the names of places in Mongolia on the Peking-bound highway given in Roerich’s travelogue Altai – Himalaya and a “suspicious” gap in Sina Lichtmann’s diary precisely between August 17 and 24, look fairly unconvincing. His strongest one is testimony of Boris Pankratov quoted years after in an essay by one of his students at the Oriental Institute in Leningrad Yu. L. Krol’. “They (Roerich and Pankratov) met in 1927/1928. Nikolai Konstantinovich arrived in Peking from the frontiers of Tibet where he had come, having crossed Mongolia via Urga”. However, Pankratov was apparently talking about his meeting with Roerich in Peking after the latter had returned from Tibet! And we know that the artist indeed visited Peking after his Tibet Expedition (and not prior to it), which was in 1934. (An error in the dating seems excusable for someone recalling the events which had taken place three decades before.) And there is one thing more which makes us refute Shishkin’s theory – the distance between Soviet Altai and Peking, as no traveler at that time could make 2000 km by car on a macadam road in just four days. 45

Shishkin 1999, 221–225.

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In New Mongolia Even in new Mongolia they know the reality of Shambhala. N. Roerich, Altai – Himalaya.

⸪ The Roerichs arrived in the capital of Mongolia in two Dodges on September 12. The city known to Russians and other foreigners as Urga arose in the 17th century as the Khan’s Camp or Residence (Örgöö), although Mongolians called it invariably Ih-Kure (Great Monastery), until the name was changed, in November 1924, to Ulan Bator Khoto – the City of the Red Warrior. Ulan Bator Khoto (Mong. Ulaanbaatar), situated in the valley of the Tola River (Tuul Gol), was surrounded by a rather scenic mountain chain called Bogdo Khan Uul (the Holy King Mountain), or Bogdo Ula, in Russian. The mountains were known for their forest reserves, a sacred site and a totally restricted area in those days as it is today, accessible only to practitioners of Buddhism. (Bogdo Uul is actually one of the peaks or spurs of the Khentei mountain range stretching from NE to SW along the left bank of Tola.) This mountain used to excite an awesome admiration in Western travelers, one of whom, Petr Kozlov, called it “the precious gem” of Mongolia. Roerich too would come under the spell of Bogdo Ula, depicting it in six of his paintings executed in 1927. In his scholarly travelogue Trails to Inmost Asia (1931) Yuri (George) Roerich gave a detailed description of Ulan-Bator, a city of “deep contrasts”, typical of a country going through “a period of fundamental changes”. As a Western visitor and a scholar he immediately noticed its peculiar semi-settled, semi-nomadic character. There were actually two cities. The old Urga had its temples, monasteries (xürees), Bogdo Gegen’s palaces, a market place (around which clustered “innumerable houses and hovels”, harbouring most of its population), and packs of hungry stray dogs – “the scavengers of the city” – roaming in the streets. Yet side by side with the old city a new one was quickly emerging and its contours were already visible. One of the signs of new Urga and new Mongolia as well was the Mongolian Central Cooperative Society (Montsecoop), numbering 26 major branches and 102 minor ones across the country plus four foreign agencies in Moscow, Tientsin, Kalgan and Khailar. It came into being as a result of the cooperative movement which was started in 1922 and was financially © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_015

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assisted by the Mongolian government. Other signs of recent changes were a Mongolian daily newspaper, manuals for secondary schools printed by the Mongolian Scientific Committee (“Uchkom”), electricity in the yurtas of educated Mongols and new stone buildings. One of these was the building of the Mongolian national theatre and the People’s Club, still under construction. It was an odd structure – a huge dome supported by low walls, outwardly reminiscent of a gigantic Mongol felt yurta. Yuri also described minutely Ulan Bator’s major Buddhist shrines by making a point that some of the mystical teachings taught in the monastic schools there, such as the Kalachakra doctrine and the knowledge of kar-tsi (Buddhist astronomy), originated in Shambhala, a kingdom to the north of Tibet proper, and were later disseminated in Tibet, India and Mongolia. “The doctrine of Shambhala is the hidden doctrine of Tibet and Mongolia, and His Holiness the Tashi Lama is regarded as the chief expounder of the doctrine in the world”, he asserted laconically while showing his profound reverence for the Buddhist hierarch. Since the departure of the present Tashi Lama in 1923, the doctrine has received a powerful new impulse, and numerous Kalachakra colleges have been established by His Holiness himself in inner Mongolia and Buddhist China. Even in distant Buryatia is to be observed the same movement. Shambhala is not only considered to be the abode of hidden Buddhist learning, it is the guiding principle of the coming kalpa or cosmic age. Learned abbots and meditating lamas are said to be in constant communication with this mystic fraternity that guides the destinies of the Buddhist world. The name of Shambhala, according to Yuri, possessed “a terrific force” among the masses of Buddhists of High Asia – “in the course of history it has not only inspired religious movements, but even moved armies, whose war cry was the name of Shambhala”. This was the case with the Mongol soldiers of Sukhe Bator, Mongolia’s national hero, who banished from the country (in 1919) the troops of the Chinese warlord General Hsü. It was these soldiers who composed a marching song of their own, still sung by Mongol cavalry. The song began with the words “Jang Shambal-in dayin” or ‘The War of northern Shambhala’ which called upon the warriors of Mongolia to rise up for the Holy War of liberating the country from oppressing enemies. “Let us all die in this war and be reborn as warriors of Shambal-in Khan” went the song.1 1 Roerich, G. 1931, 156–157.

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Nikolai Roerich in his Altai – Himalaya also highlighted the importance of Shambhala and of the mahatmas, as the great Guardians of humanity, in the coming New Era: Even in new Mongolia they know the reality of Shambhala. In Ulan Bator Khoto, the site for the future Dukhang of Shambhala is already fenced around. The Mongols know about the arrival of the Ruler of Shambhala to Erdeni Dzo and Narabanchi. They know about the great ‘Guardians’. They know of the great times. They know of the Chalice of Buddha which, after it left Peshawar, was preserved in Karashar and disappeared for a time. They know of the coming of the Blessed Ones to Altai. They know the significance of Altai. Through all the silent spaces of Asia is heard the voice of the spirit of the future. They know that the time of Maitreya is come.2 Upon their arrival in Ulan Bator, the Roerichs were hosted for a short time by P.V. Vsesviatskii, a Soviet advisor to the Mongolian government,3 whose house was located on the outskirts of the city,4 and then they moved to another place nearby. This was a small house of four rooms and two spacious courtyards with stables, turned into the headquarters of the Roerich expedition. Each of the three Roerichs had his/her own room there of a very small size. Nikolai used his as a studio; Yuri’s room was a study, crammed with books and manuscripts, while Elena’s room, 2 by 3 ¾ meters large, combined a study, a bedroom and the family’s little sanctuary, with bright-colored Tibetan tangkas on the walls and an altar table standing by the window covered with a velvet cloth of her favorite lilac color. Placed on it were a big Buddha bronze and several smaller Buddhas, veiled by thin ceremonial scarfs (hatags) each, numerous sandal and crystal beads, some copper cups for burning oil and other little curios. Elena would labor in her room or “cell” as she called it, round the clock the whole winter of 1926/27 writing her two new books – Obshchina (New Era Community) and Osnovy Buddizma (Foundations of Buddhism) to be published in 2 Roerich, N. 1996, 353–354. 3 Petr Vasilievich Vsesviatskii (1884–1938) was the author of the first Mongolian Constitution (1924); he was married to Elena Petrovna Gorbunova, whose brother Nikolai Petrovich Gorbunov was Lenin’s personal secretary and since 1922 functioned as secretary (upravdelami) of the Soviet Government, Sovnarkom USSR; this individual, incidentally, acted as the government’s patron for Kozlov’s Mongolo-Tibetan expedition of 1923–1926 of which Elena Gorbunova was one of the participants. He was arrested in 1938, accused of a criminal liaison with the “American spy” Roerich and shot in the same year. See Gorbunov 2005, 93–96. 4 At present Vsesviatskii’s house accommodates the “Nicholas Roerich Shambhala Museum and Art Institute”.

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figure 30 The Roerich house in Ulan-Bator, Mongolia, before renovation, 1990s.

figure 31 The same house, after renovation, end of 2010s.

­ ussian in Ulan Bator. The living conditions in this house were perfectly Spartan R – no running water, no water closet and no electricity! When it got dark the Roerichs had to light candles and work by their flickering light. And they badly froze in winter when temperature fell below – 30° C as there was only one stove to warm up their anchoretic abode. In the courtyards by the house two yurtas were mounted – one of them accommodated a toilet bowl and a rubber bath tub, and another hosted their Buryat and Tibetan attendants, nine men altogether. The meals for the family were cooked by Liudmila (Mila) Bogdanova and her teenage sister Raisa (Raia) picked up in Ulan Bator. Both were orphans, so Elena took them under her mothering care. Henceforth the Bogdanov sisters would stay with the Roerichs

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figure 32

Sitting, left to right: Elizaveta Kozlova (wife of P. Kozlov), B.B. Polynov (geochemist), N. Roerich, Ts. Zhamtsarano, Petr Kozlov; standing: lama Gomboidchin and Yuri Roerich (5th and 6th from left)

permanently as members of their household.5 Another servant was an elderly Tibetan employed as a sweeper and a stoker and nick-named Dedka (Granddad) or ‘Half-man’ by Nikolai. Surprisingly, on the day of their arrival the Roerichs met with the noted explorer of Central Asia Petr Kozlov who had just returned to Ulan Bator from his three year exploration of Mongolia. They had a friendly chat with him and even posed for a group photograph in the premises of the Mongolian Scientific Committee. Judging by that photo, Roerich had also a chance to meet with the leader of the secret Soviet-Mongolian mission to Lhasa, Gomboidchin, about to depart for Tibet. Kozlov in his travel diary spoke of the Roerichs as “very interesting people”, though his wife had a different opinion: “I did not like either of them. Madame Roerich showed [us] her tropical costumes. Their final destination was India, so she was getting prepared. What kind of expedition this was, having such a great amount of luggage, I could not understand. And Roerich himself was teaching everyone as a prophet”.6 The Roerichs would spend about seven months in Ulan Bator making preparations for their journey to Tibet. This was to be the third and last stage of their 5 Liudmila Bogdanova (1903–1961) and Iraida (1914–2004) were daughters of a Siberian Cossack who perished during the civil war. They were living in the fir firm in Ulan Bator where the Roerichs picked them up.  6 Quoted in Lomakina 2006, 157.

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Central Asian Expedition, styled grandiloquently by Nikolai as the “Western Buddhist Embassy” to the Dalai Lama, the first one in Tibet’s history. The necessary funds for mounting the mission were provided by Louis Horch who had transferred to Roerich 7500 silver Mexican dollars, in three lumps, through the Tradesman’s National Bank, Philadelphia, via Moscow, by the end of 1926. Yet the biggest problem was to obtain the Tibetan travel permit that would allow the mission to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa. It took the artist a great amount of time and effort to acquire the document. Having applied for it to the Tibetan government through their official representative (Donyer) in Mongolia, Cholden Lobzang, he received no reply and had to apply again, in February 1927, this time through another Tibetan official posted in Peking. Finally, after long bureaucratic procrastinations the authorities in Lhasa wired their assent to Peking which was then relayed to Ulan Bator to the Donyer who issued Roerich the necessary document. However, to be on the safe side, the mission leader also requested the official to give him a recommendation letter to Tibet’s frontier guard stating in it that he and his party were American travelers and were all genuine Buddhists.7 Another thorny issue was arranging things with the Panchen Lama, the key actor in Roerich’s Buddhist revolution scheme. Luckily, Roerich found an ally, who enthusiastically supported his Shambhala Project, Tsyben Zhamtsarano.8 A recent Buryat refugee and a well-educated person, Zhamtsarano was an influential figure on the Mongolian political scene, acting as an advisor to the Mongolian government and a de facto head of the Mongolian Scientific Committee. More importantly, he was a Pan-Mangolist, an advocate of the revival of Great Mongolia. But so were many other Buryats who moved to Mongolia in the early 1920s as soon as the country was cleared of the Chinese and White Russian invaders by the Mongolian revolutionary units led by Sukhe-Bator jointly with the Soviet Red Army cavalry. So it was not too difficult for Roerich to find a common ground with Zhamtsarano. Largely under Roerich’s influence, Zhamtsarano began to press the Mongolian leaders to invite the Panchen Lama to Mongolia. At the same time Roerich himself tried hard to persuade the Soviet ambassador (polpred) in Mongolia, 7 Dubaev 2003, 286–287. 8 Tsyben Zhamtsarano (1880–1942), a Russian, Mongolian and Soviet Orientalist, a folklorist, ethnographer and historian specializing in Mongol studies. A lecturer at Irkutsk University (1918–1921), he emigrated, in 1921, to Mongolia where he worked as scientific secretary at the Mongolian Scientific Committee (1921–1931). Having fled to the USSR in 1932, as a result of a “party purge” in Mongolia, Zhamtsarano settled in Leningrad where he got a job of a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies. He was arrested in 1937, accused of Pan-Mongolism and died in jail in 1942. On him see Reshetov 1998, 5–55; Vasil’kov, Sorokina 2003, 161–163.

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Petr Mikhailovich Nikiforov, of the necessity of lending a helping hand to the Panchen to assist him to return to Tibet. This is, for example, what Nikiforov reported to Chicherin on 6 December 1926: I dare say that Bogdo’s further sojourn in China can have some detrimental consequences for our policy in Inner and even Outer Mongolia: by providing the Panchen Bogdo with the funds for his pious subsistence, Japan, by way of compensation, can easily use him to its own ends. This issue has been of great concern to me for a long time, but I did not raise it until it assumed a rather threatening aspect, as I have mentioned above. I believe the time has come for us to adopt an active posture toward the Bogdo. I think he should be completely withdrawn from use by both Japanese and British politics. According to some information, it is high time for the Panchen Bogdo to return to Tibet, and the Dalai Lama wants it very much. It must be admitted that Bogdo’s forced isolation from Tibet has become a source of political anxiety for the Dalai Lama. The latter’s unofficial representative in Ulan Bator confided to me that it would be very bad if the Panchen Bogdo were unable to return to Tibet soon enough, that he lived a very hard life in China, and that he himself was willing to return, but was prevented by the Chinese. I believe that we should interfere in the situation and assist the Panchen Bogdo to return to Tibet, and, if need be, also help him to flee from China. In addition to the things mentioned above which make me raise these questions, there’s still one more circumstance to be considered. There is a well-known painter and traveler, Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich, who has recently appeared in Mongolia and is presently residing in Ulan Bator. He plans to go to Tibet next August and is persistently soliciting assistance for the Panchen Bogdo’s return to Tibet. When I asked him, why he thought that the Panchen Bogdo should return to Tibet, he cited some theological concoctions necessitating his return. I believe that Roerich is working for someone – who the person is I am trying to find out now – or it may be that he just wants to ascertain our attitude regarding this issue. One thing is clear however – there is someone, who is also interested in Panchen Bogdo’s return to Tibet. In my thinking, this is a very serious matter, so I would like to have Narkomindel’s opinion on it.9 9

Quoted in Rosov 2002a, 62.

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There is another curious piece of evidence – a short entry in Nikiforov’s work diary, presumably from early 1927, when the dissident Lama already settled in Mukden (where he had moved at the invitation of Chang Tsolin), which reveals the Soviet diplomat’s tentative scheme for the solution of the Panchen’s vexing issue: The Panchen Bogdo who fled from Tibet is now strongly under the influence of Japan which is seeking to obtain from him a mandate to extend its influence via Chang Tsolin over Inner and Outer Mongolia. Such a mandate, if Japan obtains it, may serve as a tool for her intrigues in both Mongolias. The only way to frustrate the Japanese designs is to invite the Panchen Bogdo to the USSR via the Buryat and Kalmyk lamas. By snatching him from the hands of Japan and Chang Tsolin we can assist him in returning to Tibet where he apparently wants to go and where he is expected.10 No doubt Chicherin fully realized the importance of removing the Panchen Lama from the Japanese sphere of influence in the Far East. Yet there were also some alarming notes in Nikiforov’s letter which could not but sustain his former suspicions about the personality of the Russian émigré painter, who was so eager to help the Lama return to his homeland. The Panchen Lama (Panchen Bogdo) became a source of much anxiety for Moscow and Ulan Bator in early spring 1927. It was then that the Soviets learnt about Panchen’s plans for a visit to Inner Mongolia, at the invitation of the “reactionary” princes and lamas there, and possibly to Outer Mongolia (the MPR) after that as well. The Panchen Lama reportedly also articulated his desire to return to Tibet as soon as possible. According to a report by the Soviet military intelligence unit at the Mongolian People’s Red Army of 1 March 1927, the population of the Bandid-gegen area in Inner Mongolia was informed by the lamas well in advance about the Panchen Bogdo’s forthcoming visit and also that he would proceed thence via Yugodzir (Yeguuzer) to Ulan Bator. “Judging by the above”, the report continued, “it can be inferred that Chang Tsolin is planning an armed intervention of the MPR, with the Panchen Lama’s participation. For the time being, however, all the local Chahars and Udzumchins show much more sympathy for Feng and his National Armies in general than Chang Tsolin”.11 Thus, by removing the Panchen Lama from the politically sensitive area 10 11

RGASPI, f. 144, op. 1, d. 40, ll. 45–46. Nikiforov’s notebook “Gos. Voprosy” (State priority issues). Nikiforov resigned from office at the end of May 1927. See Andreyev 2003, 307.

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in north-eastern China, the Soviets could considerably weaken Chang Tsolin’s position, especially in Inner Mongolia, which was one of the targets for their ally, Marshal Feng. Eventually, in the late 1920s, the Soviet intelligence service through their local base in Ulan Bator insinuated their secret agent into the Panchen’s entourage in Mukden. This was a Mongolian lama, who had been previously collecting intelligence for Sukhe Bator. Having wormed himself into the Panchen Lama’s confidence, the lama-agent began to communicate regularly first-hand intelligence on his master to the OGPU which helped the Soviets to conduct a series of operations designed to undermine and liquidate the Japanese-nurtured organization of the Panchen Bogdo.12 News of the Panchen Lama’s plans to come to the MPR awakened great enthusiasm among the general population of the country and it was particularly welcomed by the Mongolian nobles and lamas. The right-wing of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party also tended to regard the visit of the exiled Tibetan leader to Red Mongolia rather sympathetically at first. In the opinion of Zhamtsarano, “the honourary captivity” of the Panchen Bogdo in Mukden made him an instrument of Chang Tsolin’s political intrigues. Therefore the party, he believed, should do its utmost to snatch the Panchen from the hands of the Chinese warlord. In particular Zhamtsarano proposed that the Panchen Bogdo should be invited to Ulan Bator and placed “in special conditions” there with a view to encouraging him to issue several religious “edicts” recognizing the Mongolian People’s rule, the separation of the Buddhist Church from State, and other reforms in the country. In case the Bogdo would not agree to cooperate, the Mongolian authorities could rid themselves of him by sending him “to the North”, i.e. to neighbouring Soviet Russia. (After his arrest in 1937, Zhamtsarano would tell the OGPU/NKVD investigators that in 1926–1927 he established contacts with the Panchen Bogdo by sending a Mongolian lama to him. In reply the Panchen sent him twice through special couriers his “counterrevolutionary proclamations” to be distributed among the Mongolian monks13). However, Zhamtsarano’s opponents in the party argued that the Panchen Bogdo’s visit to the MPR would most likely revive the popular campaign for the search of the deceased Bogdo-Gegen’s ninth incarnation. Also, his stay in Ulan Bator would, they said, be extremely burdensome for the Mongolian finances, whereas his “edicts” would hardly work miracles to sustain the People’s rule in the country. More important, such a visit could further complicate the Dalai – Panchen Lamas’ uneasy relations. This last argument was especially empha­ 12 13

Kolbenev 1996, 266. Решетов 1998, 34.

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sized by them, since friendly relations with the Dalai Lama who held the reins of power in Tibet was politically more beneficial for People’s Mongolia than friendship with the exiled Panchen, who had no real power at all.14 The result of the discussion was that Zhamtsarano agreed with the above arguments, and the MPR party finally decided not to invite the Panchen Bogdo to Mongolia. (This decision, however, strongly displeased many a Mongol and even provoked a series of anti-government risings). Having failed to remove the Panchen Lama to Ulan Bator, Roerich had to considerably curtail his far-reaching designs, by restricting them solely to his Buddhist mission project focused on the Dalai Lama. The Great Plan was apparently not working out the way it was originally intended. While in Ulan Bator, the elder Roerich and his son spent much time visiting the major Mongolian monasteries – Gandan, Erdeni-Dzu, Ikh-Kure and others. As in Sikkim and Ladakh, Nikolai Konstantinovich was looking for Shambhala prophecies. He found some and he himself created new ones speaking of the appearance in Mongolia “in the fifth year” (i.e. 1926) of “the messengers of Northern Shambhala” (i.e. the Roerichs) bringing the people a message of the “new glory of Tibet and Mongolia”.15 Furthermore, Roerich made up a legend, or a kind of parable, about Batur-Baksha (Great Hero-Teacher) Lenin for publication in the Mongolian press. According to the legend, Lenin came into this world to tell the peoples “all the words of Truth”. However he failed to do so as the black snake, having turned into an arrow, hit him right in the middle of his breast. Yet Batur-Bakhsa Lenin did not die, but having left his weapon in the coffin, walked out into the fields, searching for comrades who “are not afraid to hear the full word of Truth”.16 So the artist was not sitting idly, waiting for the tide to turn. We know that he was intensely corresponding with Chicherin and his assistant B.N. Mel’nikov (head of Narkomindel’s Far Eastern Department), perhaps finalizing the scenario of his mission. The fact that the top Soviet diplomats maintained close contacts with Roerich throughout his sojourn in Ulan Bator and even rendered him assistance in mounting his expedition suggests some kind of understanding between them. Moscow apparently expected to derive some political benefit from Roerich’s Buddhist mission to the Dalai Lama. At the same time the artist liaised closely with Nikiforov and Efim Berlin (1st secretary of the Soviet Embassy), and he was especially courted by one of OGPU’s most sinister agents, their new resident in Ulan Bator, Yakov Bliumkin. (In 1927 Bliumkin was 14 15 16

Andreyev, op. cit., 308. Quoted in Riabinin 1996, 154, entry for 3 July 1927. Rosov 2002a, 181.

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appointed the OGPU chief representative in MPR and the chief advisor to the Mongolian State Interior Security, GVO. He concurrently functioned as advisor on intelligence and counter-intelligence work in Feng’s Kuominchun Army.17) Finally, both Narkomindel and OGPU, despite all their reservations, gave Roerich their go-ahead. On 11 March – one month before his departure for Tibet – Nikolai Konstantinovich donated to the Mongolian Government one of his latest paintings executed in Ulan Bator, The Great Rider. This was a very important token, an element of his New Era mythology. (One will remember at this point the words the artist heard in Khotan from a Buddhist pilgrim: “In Urga will be set a place for the Temple of Shambhala. When the image of Rigden-japo will reach Urga, then will flash the first light of the New Era – truth”.18) “The Great Rider” was a messenger of the Masters, the Rulers of Shambhala. The idea of the painting was borrowed by Roerich from a Tibetan tangka The Red Rider he purchased in Ladakh – a rider on a red horse galloping in the glaring blue skies, enveloped in fiery clouds, with the red banner flying in his right hand. This was the Ruler of Shambhala, Rigden Japo, heralding the approach of the New Era. The artist reinterpreted the motive to make it more palatable to the Mongol leaders. Thus in the lower part of the canvass Roerich depicted the typical Mongolian landscape – the green fields of pasture-lands with yurtas and horses in the vicinity of monasteries and suburgans against the violet-blue silhouettes of the sacred Bogdo-Uul mountains. In the center one could see a circle of people seated on a blue carpet – the new leaders of Mongolia, laying the foundations of new life in the country. In the latter half of 1926, Roerich produced two more paintings on the same subject, titled Shambhala is coming and The Red Rider. The latter one resembled The Great Rider, the major differences being the white color of the horse and the rider itself looking very much like a Soviet cavalry man with his peak-shaped budionovka head-gear decorated with a red star; he was holding another fivepointed star, a white one, in his left hand.19 The Mongolian leaders received the painting most thankfully as a great treasure and Zhamtsarano immediately proposed building a special temple-library of porphyry and jasper to house it there together with “sacred books” and requested Roerich to sketch a design for it. Until then The Great Rider was hung in the office of the Mongolian Premier Tserendorj right above his desk. The donation of the painting was reported in the local press, including the Russian 17 18 19

See Leonov, B. 1993. Roerich, N. 1996, 168. On the symbolism of these paintings see Rosov 2002e, 39–47.

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language Izvestiia (News) of Ulan Bator Khoto weekly (18 March), published by the Soviet Embassy. The newspaper also cited Roerich’s address to the Government worded as another New Era prophecy: “The Mongolian people are building their radiant future under the banner of the new age. The Great Rider of emancipation is flying above the expanses of Mongolia. He has the entire armour and banners of the prophesied dates. The time has come and the dates are near”. The momentous event likewise received some coverage in the magazine Zhizn’ Buryatii (Life in Buryatia) in the neighboring Buryat-Mongolian Republic.20 In the meantime Elena Roerich’s two newest writings – Obshchina (Community) and Osnovy Buddizma (Foundations of Buddhism) were published in Ulan Bator.21 (Both titles were printed in the Uchkom’s printing shop under the supervision of Zhamtsarano.) The books were clearly intended for Russian readers – and copies of them would be subsequently forwarded to Moscow as gifts to Lunacharskii – as well as Buddhist lamas, Buryat and Mongolian alike. The latter title Zhamtsarano wanted to be translated into Mongolian to make it accessible to Mongolian Buddhists, as he told Roerich. The Obshchina focused largely on social reconstruction through cooperation by setting up labour communes on the Roerichs’ and the mahatmas’ model. The book lavishly praised Lenin and Marx as ideologues of cooperation – like the Buddha some 2000 years earlier they came to realize the need for the introduction of the communist or community principle worldwide as a step in the evolution of humanity. The second title was an attempt to “purify” the Buddhist teaching by reviving its original spirit of creativity, so Elena posited, which made Buddhism a precursor of Marxist-Leninist communist doctrine. Gombozhab Tsybikov, the noted Russian traveler to Tibet, who was staying at Zhamtsarano’s place at that time in his Uchkom’s apartment, wrote in his diary: “I have read the Foundations of Buddhism. The book is written in an apologetic tone and collates the Buddha’s teaching with the new [communist] ideology. The painter N. Roerich published and brought out here several books in this spirit”. In Tsybikov’s opinion, a new tendency was currently taking shape – “to found socialism on ancient Buddhist principles”.22 By publishing these two ground-breaking works Nikolai and Elena presented themselves as social reformers and new age thinkers, although their formulas 20

21 22

See Novosti Ulan Bator Khoto (Новости Улан Батор Хото), 18 марта 1927; Zhizn’ Buriatii (Жизнь Бурятии), Верхнеудинск, 1927 (1–3), 93: “Peredacha Rerikhom kartiny Velikii Vsadnik” («Передача Рерихом картины Великий Всадник»). Curiously, the latter work had the date 1926 on the front cover. Tsybikov 1981, 126–127, entry for 23 April 1927.

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for the hitherto unknown Buddho-Leninism were too far-fetched for either Soviet ideologues or traditional Buddhists, especially their extravagant idea of Buddhist labour communes (“working communities”), with the help of which they wanted to reconcile the popular communist dogmas and the “original” socially-oriented Buddhism of their own fanciful interpretation. As for Lenin’s theory of human emancipation, it was absolutely incongruous with the Buddhist notions of enlightenment and nirvana. Yet Elena thought differently when she asserted in the Foundations of Buddhism that nirvana was a complete realization of a human’s inherent potentialities.

…

How important was Mongolia in Roerichs’ visioning of a new polity in Central Asia? Very important indeed, judging by how positively both Yuri and Nikolai spoke about it in their travelogues. As a Buddhist country, Mongolia seems to have perfectly fitted Nikolai’s notion of Northern Shambhala, as the sacred name was venerated by Mongols and its teaching, Kalachakra, was studied in Mongolian monasteries. And there was a special occult reason which attracted the Roerichs to Mongolia – the alleged Mongolian roots of Elena and Yuri. Surprisingly, the artist’s secret designs were not something entirely out-ofthe-way for Mongols as well as their Buryat neighbors and ethnic relatives in Transbaikalia. It is worth recalling at this point that in the early post-revolutionary period (1918–1921) the Buddhist – Buryat-Mongolian – frontier was in a strong social and political ferment that gave rise to two separate movements, a theocratic one and a pan-Mongolian one. We will now briefly overview these alternative political schemes, such as were put forward by prominent BuryatMongolian lamas and intellectuals (Samdan Tsydenov, Agvan Dorjiev, Elbegdorj Rinchino, Tsyben Zhamtsarano) and the White Russian Ataman Ungern von Sternberg. Lubsan Samdan Tsydenov (1850–1922) was a lama from the Kizhinga (Kudun) Datsan in southern Transbaikalia.23 He was known among his countrymen as a Buddhist scholar, writer and poet but, more importantly, as a great ascetic for his two-decade long practice of austerities in a secluded spot in the Kudun Valley. As a result he acquired great spiritual authority among Buryats who saw him as a saintly Buddha-like creature. His religious name was Sugada, one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s nicknames, which means in Sanskrit “The happily gone (to nirvana)”. Samdan Tsydenov formulated his theocratic doctrine in the early 20th century, under the influence of his Tibetan teachers, the incarnate lamas 23

On S. Tsydenov see: Montlevich 1993; Gerasimova 2003; Dandaron 2006, 255–276; Tsyrempilov 2007, 69–75.

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figure 33 Samdan Tsydenov (left) as Dharmaraja, 1919. V. Montlevich Collection

Jayag (Jayagsy)-gegen and Agpa-gegen. This doctrine had two principal objects – to establish a lay Buddhist sangha in Buryatia, outside and independent of the traditional monastic community, and to revive with its help some of the old Tantric practices. Such a lay sangha, in Tsydenov’s thinking, would be more efficient in the preservation and further dissemination of the Buddhist teachings in times of trouble. In February 1919 Tsydenov-Sugada established a Buddhist theocratic state, actually an enclave within the Buryat territory, then under the rule of the white Ataman Semionov, by proclaiming himself Dharmaraja, “the King of the Dharma in the Three Worlds”. This was when the Buryat People’s Duma (Burnatsduma), an organ of self-rule in Buryatia, announced the mobilization of the Buryats and Tungus into the people’s tsagda (army). It was an extremely unpopular measure and a large number of Buryats tried to avoid conscription by turning to the lama-ascetic. The latter is said to have addressed his countrymen with the words: “He who does not want to fight, becausee fighting is against the Buddha’s teachings, let him come unto me and be subject of my rule”. This was the beginning of the Balagat theocratic movement which united mainly the Kizhinga Buryats who broke off with the official Buddhist church

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figure 34 Samdan Tsydenov as Dharmaraja, 1919. Andrei Terentiev Collection

and were commonly referred to as Balagats.24 The superior dharmic state, Erheje Balgahan ulas (Righfully Detached State), founded by Tsydenov, however, lasted for only one week before its ruler was arrested by Semionov, together with his nine ministers. The Dharmaraja was soon released though, having formally agreed to collaborate with the white ataman. In this way the theocratic movement continued for a while with the strong backing of the Buryat believers. It was finally crushed by the Red Army in the early 1920s when Soviet rule was established in Transbaikalia. Tsydenov was arrested by the Cheka in Irkutsk Province in 1922, put in jail and deported to Novonikolaevsk where he died in a hospital on 16 May 1922.25 Tsydenov’s project was certainly a bold undertaking, but practically it had no chance of survival under the tough and uncompromising Soviet regime. His was an idealistic attempt to create a non-violent form of government on lofty 24

25

Balagat is an obscure term used by Tsydenov and other participants in the movement. According to N.V. Tsyrempolov, it could mean “a person who detached himself” from the traditional community, a “schismatic”. Archive of the Ministery of Security, Republic of Buryatia, D. 5565 (S. Tsydenov’s file), l. 21 (quoted in Dandaron 2006, 271–274).

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Dharma principles, such as never existed before, a kind of a mystical Buddhist “Pure Land” that would have no military force, or army, so that its subjects would not engage in killing. Politics was seen by him as inseparable from religion and religious ethics, yet Tsydenov’s theocracy was something very different from the traditional Mongolian and Tibetan types of theocracy. Tsydenov adopted a constitution which established the Great Suglan, an assembly of people’s deputies who were to elect, by secret ballot, the president, vice-president and ministers of his theocratic government. Still, the supreme political and religious authority was vested in Dharmaraja. As Buryat researcher N.V. Tsyrempilov points out, by making this provision Tsydenov clearly followed European democratic standards. Thus his project was ultimately a “kind of fusion of the Buddhist theocratic model with Europeans models of state”.26 In the same year, 1919, another self-proclaimed government of a very exotic nature came into being in Buryatia, a pan-Mongolian one. On 25 February a conference of representatives of the Mongolian speaking peoples in China and Russia (Buryatia, Inner Mongolia and Barga) held in Chita, under the auspices of Ataman Semionov and a Japanese emissary Major Suzuki, resolved to create a federated Mongolian state, Great Mongolia. This was to include Inner and Outer Mongolia (the latter already being a theocratic state, under the Grand Lama of Urga), Barga and Buryat-Mongolia. These four regions or aimaks were to be led by their autonomous rulers under one centralized government which was to include four ministers – of war, interior, finance and foreign affairs (headed consequently by Norompil, E. Rinchino, B. Vampilon and Ts. Zhamtsarano). The head of the Great Mongolian state elected at the same conference was Nichi Toin Mendebair from Inner Mongolia, better known as Neise-gegen27. He was to have his residence in Khailar; however, since Khailar was then occupied by the troops of a Chinese warlord, Chang Tsolin, Neise-gegen together with his government had to reside temporarily at Dauria, a Transbaikal railway station (near Chita). Hence the entity came to be known as the Dauria government. What Pan-Mongolists wanted primarily was to recreate the Great Mongolian state which had once existed under Chinggis Khan, an idea prompted by Woodrow Wilson’s 14-point declaration of national self-determination. As to the form of the state, the opinions split: the Barga and Inner Mongolians who actually launched the movement opted for a monarchy, in particular for the restoration of the Manchu Qing dynasty. On the other hand, the Buryats claimed that Mongolia must become “an independent federative-democratic republic”. Mongolia, they argued, had nothing to do with the Manchu dynasty and the Mongols 26 27

Tsyrempilov 2007. See: Bazarov 2002, 34–35.

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should not spill their blood for a cause which was alien to them.28 The latter view prevailed at the Chita conference; still, the monarchy-oriented Pan-Mongolists held fast to their scheme. This eventually led to a military confrontation between these two factions which resulted in the crush of the Mongolian monarchists in October 1919. Oddly enough, the already existent theocratic government of Autonomous Outer Mongolia under the Bogdo-Gegen (Jebtzundamba Khutuktu) hesitated to openly give their support to the pan-Mongolian movement so as not to interfere in the interior politics of their neighbours, Russia and China. The Dauria government made several attempts to win the Bogdo-Gegen over to their side. The Pan-Mongolist leaders even offered him to take up the throne of the All Mongolian Ruler, but he did not accept the offer. Meanwhile Outer Mongolia was occupied by Chinese republican troops, the so-called gamins, as Peking wanted to reestablish its control over its former “vassal” territory. Hence the autonomy of Outer Mongolia was liquidated, though the Bogdo-Gegen and the Mongolian princes were allowed to retain their feudal rights and privileges. It was at this crucial point that a new powerful figure emerged on the Mongolian political scene – a White Russian General, Baron Roman Feodorovich Ungern von Sternberg (1886–1921). The “White Baron”, as Ungern was commonly referred to by the Bolsheviks, came to the rescue of the Mongolian theocratic ruler, having driven, in early 1921, the Chinese military units out of the territory of Outer Mongolia. The autonomy of the country was thus restored and Ungern instantly turned into a popular hero, the liberator of the BogdoKhan and the savior of Mongols. The Mongolian lamas proclaimed him a saintly incarnation of the wrathful Mahakala, a Buddhist “Protector of Faith”, and treated him accordingly. In recognition of his great feat, the Bogdo awarded Ungern with the princely title of Darhan-hoshoi-chin-van. Owing to his troops, the Asiatic Cavalry division stationed in Urga (Hüree), the Baron became a de facto ruler of Mongolia, although only for a short time, before he was defeated by the joint Soviet – Red Mongolian force in July of the same year. As soon as Ungern seized the Mongolian capital (which occurred on 4 February 1921), he articulated his grand Pan-Asiatic program for the creation of a Middle Mongolian Empire (Sredinnoe Mongol’skoe Tsarstvo) on Chinggis Khan’s model, one that would unite within its borders all the Mongolian tribes inhabiting Outer, Inner and Barga Mongolia.29 This was to be a voluntary union under the auspices of the Bogdo Khan. Ungern also planned to bring back to power the deposed Manchu rulers of China, with a view to reviving the Chinese Em28 29

See: Tsybikov 2000, 348. On Ungern’s political program see: Yuzefovitch 1993, 134–137; Kuz’min 2004, 28–30.

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figure 35 Baron R.F. Ungern von Sternberg, 1921

pire, and he himself even wanted to become the emperor of China, for which purpose he had married a Manchu princess. The revived Great Mongolia and China, according to Ungern, were to become the dominant powers in Asia and they were to form a kind of bulwark against the “degraded and immoral” Western civilization, “bearer of the ideas of world revolution and socialism”. Moreover, the Asiatic “horsemen peoples” (narodykonniki), such as the Kazakhs, Buryats, Tatars, Kirghiz and Kalmucks, were to assault the European nations and destroy their present culture which “went the wrong way”. By doing so, maintained Ungern, they would improve European moral and cultural standards and bring about the “revival of Europe”. Ungern’s primary target however was Bolshevik Red Russia. He assigned himself a truly messianic role of a great warlord, who would rescue mankind from communist danger. His ideal of social order was medieval Europe, with its guild system, knighthood and feudal lords, which was so reminiscent of theocratic Mongolia, a country of monasteries and primitive pastoral economy. Ungern’s long-cherished dream of a Great Mongolian Empire was not to come true. His attempts to place his social project in Realpolitik were

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figure 36 Agvan Dorjiev (1853/54-1938), mid-1925. Andrei Terentiev Collection

ultimately doomed to failure. The Mongols en masse hated the Chinese and were not willing to subordinate themselves to the revived Manchu rule in China. After Ungern’s crushing defeat by the Bolsheviks and his execution (he was shot in Novonikolaevsk on 15 September 1921) another pan-Mongolian project popped up. This was put forward by a pro-Soviet Buryat lama, the unofficial representative of Lhasa in Soviet Russia, Agvan Dorjiev (1854–1938). A staunch Russophil and a religious reformist, Dorjiev was known until then mainly for his diplomatic work on behalf of the 13th Dalai Lama with a view to bringing theocratic Tibet and Mongolia under the protectorate of the tsars. After the Bolshevik coup he agreed, under duress, to collaborate with the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Narkomindel, and he helped the Bolsheviks to dispatch several secret missions to Lhasa, the earliest taking place in September of 1921. Shortly after that, on 28 October, Dorjiev, posing as the “representative of the Tibetan Government in the RSFSR”, forwarded a petition to the Soviet diplomatic office. In this he proposed that the Soviet leaders “broaden the territory of the People’s Revolutionary Government of Mongolia” by adding to it the regions inhabited by Torguts and other Oirat tribes, namely the Altai, Ili and Tarbagatai regions.

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Such a unification of the West Mongolian tribes, extending up to Kukunor, Tsaidam and the Tibetan Highlands, with their eastern kinsmen, the Khalka Mongols, he argued, would lead to the creation of an “expanded Mongolian State, friendly to Russia”, one that would safeguard Russia’s frontier between the Tien Shan Mountains and Manchuria.30 Dorjiev actually voiced a proposal for constructing a Mongolian federated state, a geopolitical buffer that would facilitate Moscow’s penetration deep into Central Asia, towards Tibet. In his earlier memorandum to Narkomindel of July 1921 he emphasized the fact that the Mongolian tribes, along with those of Tibet, made “a huge Central Asian buffer”, insulating Russia from China, Japan “as well as Britain”, and this buffer “has become presently one of the central axes of world politics”.31 Dorjiev’s project, basically pan-Mongolian rather than PanBuddhist, however, was shelved by Soviet leaders who feared that the annexation of the Oirat territory (Dzungaria) would surely antagonize the Chinese government, which regarded Outer Mongolia and other Mongol-inhabited areas as inseparable parts of China. The schemes for a new Russian-Buryat-Mongolian polity in Central Asia as discussed above grew out of the chaos of the revolution and civil war in Russia. Ideologically, they were very different as their proponents represented various strains of political, social and religious thinking. Only two of these schemes turned out to be workable, albeit for a short time, – the one put forward by Tsydenov whose ideal was a theocratic “dharmic state” and that of the PanMongolists who dreamt of the reunited Great Mongolia. What made these projects so attractive in the eyes of the Buryats and Mongols, both rank-and-file and tribal aristocracy (noyons), was that they reflected some of their deep-seated aspirations – a desire to preserve their ethnic identity and religion, Buddhism, and to acquire a genuine national autonomy, which the Buryats had never enjoyed before and the Mongols only briefly (in 1911–1919). As regards Ungern’s plans for a revival of the medieval nomadic empire to stamp out communism and other “evils” of modern Western civilization, these were utterly idealistic and retrograde, and therefore impracticable. Thus, N. Roerich’s project was largely in line with the geopolitical thinking of his predecessors. His New Country or the Union of Eastern Peoples seems to have been conceived as a theocratic or monarchic “dharmic state”, a neo-Buddhist pan-Mongolian confederacy, and concurrently a “cooperative state” or a state of Buddho-communist labor communes, as suggested by Elena Roerich’s

30 31

National Archive of the Buryat Republic (NARB), f. 643, d. 5, ll. 5–6. Ibid., l. 1.

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Mongolian writings.32 Yet what makes Roerich’s scheme truly unique is its mystical dimension, as the New Country was to be run by an earthly ruler, be it Tsar, Khan or Dharmaraja, under the supreme aegis of the Masters.

…

Nikolai Roerich was very careful when choosing the staff for his Tibetan expedition. Unlike his Transhimalayan journey, this one, he knew, would be a much more strenuous and risky venture. Given the great distance between Ulan Bator and Lhasa which normally took the pilgrims about half a year or more to cover, the rigors of climate and of the high attitude atmosphere at the ‘Roof of the World’, the risks of possible armed clashes with the bellicose nomadic tribes in northern Tibet and Elena’s condition as she could barely endure the summer heat, Roerich needed some extra hands. First of all, a good physician, then a man to command his armed escort and a cook. On 8 March he submitted the list of personnel of his “artistic and archeological expedition” to E. Berlin at the Soviet embassy which included Nikolai and Elena as expedition leaders, Yuri as their assistant – these three actually constituted the Roerichs’ “Western Buddhist Embassy”; Konstantin Riabinin, as a physician (the same person would also be assigned the task of keeping official record of the entire journey as its chronicler); Pavel Portniagin, as head of expedition transport (a 24-year mechanic, Portniagin was known for his interest in theosophy, yoga and Eastern philosophy, which made him a welcome companion33) and Liudmila Bogdanova, as “provisions manager” (her teenage sister was not mentioned although she would also join the party). Apart from these seven there was also the expedition escort, whose members were unnamed, and some extra hands – lama Konchog and a Buryat Dava Tsyrempilov. Berlin resent the list to the Mongolian Foreign Ministry requesting them to issue a safe conduct to “Academician ­Roerich and his party to enable them to cross freely the Mongolian border at

32

33

As Elena asserted in the latter work, “The Teaching of Buddha may be called the experiment of a working community”, see: www.en.agnivesti.ru/library/agni-yoga-/Foundations of Buddhism, 49. Portnyagin, Pavel Konstantinovich (1903–1977, born in Vladivostok, son of a Cossack of Ussuri. His father was a merchant in Japan; after the revolution in 1922 he left for Harbin where he worked in a motor shop as a mechanic. In 1926 he arrived at Ulan Bator from Kalgan in a Chinese vehicle and was detained there as the Mongolian Government had issued an order not allowing him and other mechanics to leave Mongolia. He was out of work and that was how N. Roerich picked him up and he got permission from the Mongolian authorities to join the Roerich expedition. On him see NAI, Foreign & Political department, file 331 (2) X (1926–1927), Appendices to Notes, 37.

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Yum-Beise and transport the expedition belongings, including foreign currency and hand weapons”.34 Two more persons would subsequently join the Roerich caravan in China – Nikolai Kordashevskii and Alexandre Golubin.35 Their names were not put on the list as both were ex-White Guard officers and thus might have compromised Roerich. The preparations for the expedition reached the final stage after the arrival in Ulan Bator from Moscow, on 29 April, of the Roerichs’ closest associates Sina and Maurice Lichtmann accompanied by Nikolai’s brother, the architect Boris Roerich, and their old friend from St Petersburg days, Konstantin Riabinin. The Roerich’s greeted the Lichtmanns most cordially, with many hugs and kisses. They offered Sina and Maurice a room in the same house, while Riabinin and Boris Roerich were hosted by Vsesviatskii. The Lichtmanns who spent about a fortnight in Moscow on the way to Mongolia heaped their dear gurus with some latest news. While in Moscow, they first called on Trilisser at the OGPU but he was away from his office so they went to Narkomindel, Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, where they were received by Chicherin’s deputy B.N. Mel’nikov. The official was “a shortish man, full of self-respect, with a piercing look, a very smart person”. They immediately started talking to him about Roerich, his high international renown and popularity among young Americans, to which Mel’nikov replied that Roerich “made a very peculiar impression”, although he himself was not a mystic. The word “mystic” piqued Sina and she immediately retorted that Roerich was a “great realist and a practical man”, not a mystic at all. Then the Lichtmanns portrayed in bright colors Roerich’s many activities – his institutions in New York, particularly his Museum which attracted so many young men and women, and the artist’s advanced ideas of uniting people universally through art. All this seemed to have pleased Mel’nikov who until then, as he said, had known nothing about Roerich’s work in America. The conversation turned then to the Tashi Lama: “Do you know where he is now?” asked Mel’nikov. “No, we don’t”. “He is in Mukden. Did you hear about him before?” 34 35

Rosov 2002a, 153. Golubin, Alexandre Alekseevich (1893–?), he took part in the world war and was a prisoner in Germany after the revolution. Having returned to Russia, he fought under Admiral Kolchak (in the body guard of General Bakich), retreated from Chuguchak to Urumchi and thence went to north-east China where he was employed in buying furs by Liddle and Co., a British firm in Tientsin. On him see NAI, ibid., 37.

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“Yes, we did”. “What do you think of him?” “At present he is a necessary figure”, curtly replied Sina. To elucidate the idea Maurice began talking about Buddhism – not as a religion but as a teaching comparable with Leninism in the USSR. Yet his and his wife’s arguments did not convince Mel’nikov. He spoke rather condescendingly, as a typical Marxist, of the activities of the Society of Friends of the Roerich Museum: “A bunch of good folks who get together, what is the use of them? Nothing to compare with the working masses!”36 On 14 March the Lichtmanns were finally received by Trilisser whom Sina called “our friend”. He too spoke critically of Roerich’s idealism which “does not work in practical life” and the occult ideas of “fate” and of “the astral world”. Still at the end he expressed hope “for possible cooperation”. And indeed the OGPU and its Foreign Department acting under cover through its many agents around the world showed a manifest interest in Roerich and his worldwide activities, unlike the diplomatic office, although both ultimately worked to promote the cause of the world revolution. Before leaving Ulan Bator, Roerich instructed Sina and Maurice that they should get in touch with Trilisser and inform him about the Panchen Lama’s strong desire to come to Outer Mongolia where he was to “fulfill the prophecy by blessing the New Era”. Having failed to remove the Lama to Ulan Bator with the help of the Mongolian government, Roerich was apparently trying now to enlist Moscow’s assistance for his scheme.37 On their way back to New York the Lichtmanns would spent more than a month in Moscow (from April 22 to June 11), carrying out their Guru’s latest commissions. They would frequent the notorious OGPU headquarters on the Lubianka Square to meet Trilisser and one of his assistants, Gleb Bokii. Outwardly he, as Trilisser, made a very good impression on the Lichtmanns, yet overall they did not achieve much during their second visit to Moscow. For example, they failed to obtain Trilisser’s permission for the sale of Elena ­Roerich’s books in the USSR. Having looked over the Mahatma Letters, Trilisser found them uninspiring and he certainly did not welcome the idea of merging Buddhism and Leninism.38 The Beluha concession agreement was also still

36

37 38

Rosov 2002a, 188, 190. The meeting with Mel’nikov took place on March 11, 1927, according to Sina Lichtmann’s Mongolian diary (Note on the trip to Russia, 1927), N. Roerich Museum, New York. Ibid., 190–191. Ibid., 192–193.

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pending but the Roerichs whose ambitions knew no limits were already talking about their next concession project – in Tannu-Tuva.

…

The purpose of the Lichtmann couple’s coming to Mongolia was to deliver to the Roerichs some of the kit for their expedition, the things they had ordered for them in advance. These included American warm clothing (overcoats, sweaters, hats, stockings etc.), some instruments and kitchen utensils they could not procure in Ulan Bator, such as the field-glasses and unbreakable thermos jugs. Also, Elena had asked Sina to bring her a wide-brimmed summer hat made of light felt of either beige or gray-brown color with a special top like that of derby caps (according to her drawing). Apart from the expedition kit the Lichtmanns delivered gifts for the Dalai Lama – a large carpet made of bison’s skin, a Mexican saddle, some antique silver goblets, several bales of brocade and finally the ‘Order of the All-Conquering Buddha’. This was a very special token to be presented to the Dalai Lama manufactured on Roerich’s design by the famous Tiffany jewelers in New York – a sterling silver Star of David overlapped with a gilt image of the Buddha, or rather of Bodhisattva Manjushri, a personification of wisdom, seated on a lotus-shaped throne, with a fiery sword in his hand. Right below the throne was carved a five-pointed star, which made the Order into a symbol of the unity of Buddhism and Leninism, with some underlying Judaic and masonic motives also present. Three copies of the same token were made – one for the Dalai Lama, one for the Panchen Lama and one for someone of no lesser spiritual rank than the above two, most likely the Western Dalai Lama to be elected soon (i.e. Roerich).39 (One should recall at this point that Nikolai believed himself to have been the Old Testament prophet Amos and the Great Fifth Dalai Lama in his former lives which explains the intricate Buddho-Judaic-Communist symbolism of the Order which he, as the leader of the Western Buddhist Sangha or Community, wanted to award his Eastern colleague and counterpart.) Interestingly, Roerich had drawn several alternative sketches of the Order and Elena sent her detailed instructions to the Circle as to what the thing should look like, by making a special point that the token should feel heavy and “have the appearance of being very precious”.) Speaking about Roerich’s projected Western Buddhist embassy, one cannot avoid posing a rather awkward question concerning the artist’s undisguised claims to the role of a Buddhist leader. Did he have the credentials or commission from any Buddhist organization(s) in either America or Europe to conduct 39

Ibid., 161–162.

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talks with the Dalai Lama? None whatever; so strictly speaking Roerich was a self-styled ambassador. Yet, on the other hand, having published jointly with Elena The Foundations of Buddhism, Nikolai instantly emerged as a co-founder of the neo-Buddhist school of thinking. Moreover, he and Elena had already started making plans to create a ramified Buddhist network in the West, affiliated with their American institutions. In the same year 1927 – at some point of their long journey to Tibet – they would forward a letter to the Circle with the commission “to gather information about all Western Buddhists, to enter into contact with them and establish new centers of Buddhism in America”.40 They also requested their co-workers to start collecting all sort of publications on Buddhism and translations of Buddhist texts into European languages. Judging by the same letter, in late 1926 – early 1927, on Nikolai’s and Elena’s instructions, a Buddhist shrine was established in the premises of either the Roerich Museum or the Master-Institute spoken of as the “Buddhist chapel”. This must have been no more than a simple altar-table with some Buddha bronzes and other Buddhist paraphernalia that Nikolai had brought to New York in 1924 and which were used then for venerating Buddha as one of the “Teachers of humanity”. The “Buddhist chapel” was a much needed addition to the already existent institutions as it made the claims of both Nikolai and Elena to be bona fide Buddhists and even more to be Western Buddhist leaders fully legitimate. With time the shrine was to “grow into a center of international importance”, in Elena’s words, that is, the center of the Roerichs’ “purified” Buddhism. As Elena explained to the New Yorkers, Buddhism was not a religion but primarily a philosophical “teaching of life”. To become a Buddhist no initiation rite was needed. “You can sincerely call yourself Buddhists because the principles with which you serve are true foundations of Buddhism”. No Buddhist practices were required either, apart from strictly following the Buddha’s precepts in life. Many groups or cells of Buddhists were scattered around the world so they should be organized under the aegis of the International American Buddhist Centre, Elena further maintained, to be run by Nettie Horch as President and Esther Lichtmann as secretary. At the same time as Elena indulged in these musings, Louis Horch (Logvan) started the family’s new and most grand construction project in America, that of a 24-storey skyscraper to be erected on 310 Riverside Drive – the “House of the Teacher” or the Master-Building as Elena already named it. The project was 40

It is an English-language typewritten copy, undated, starting with the words “And so now we are departing still further …” which suggests that the letter was written probably when the Roerich expedition was half-way to Tibet, Archive of the N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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apparently a challenge to the 17-storey Potala Palace of the Dalai Lamas, built in the 17th century by the Fifth Dalai Lama (read: Roerich in his former incarnation!) on the Marpori Hill in Lhasa. The Master-Building was to house all ­Roerich’s enterprises, including the newly conceived Buddhist Centre – the ­future Headquarters of Western Buddhist, and the Lichtmanns were all too happy to report this joyous news to their gurus in Ulan Bator. The construction of the “House of the Teacher” would henceforth become a priority for the ­Roerichs. As Elena exhorted the New Yorkers, “One will have to apply a great deal of energy and resourcefulness, so that the structure will be worthy of its name”. The last days of the Roerichs in Ulan Bator were particularly hectic. While Elena and Sina were packing things at home, Nikolai, Yuri and Maurice were running around the city visiting various offices. The Soviet Torgpredstvo (Trade agency) agreed to sell to the American expedition some of the equipment left in Mongolia by Kozlov, including fire-arms (rifles, revolvers and even a Lewis machine gun). Nikiforov also agreed to loan Roerich five Dodge trucks, all in working condition (as he assured him), which were to take his party across Mongolia to the edge of the Black Gobi Desert. While talking to Nikolai, the diplomat advised him to hurry up because some sections of the motor-road were expected to be obstructed soon by drifting sands which would make the journey impossible. The advice was more than timely as only the day before one of the OGPU men tried to persuade Roerich to linger for a while in town until his chef Bliumkin returned from his business trip. The expedition caravan was to proceed under two flags – the American “Stars and Stripes” and the Banner of Shambhala (to be raised in Tibet only) – a Maitreya tangka painted by a Mongolian artist and put on a cloth backdrop attached to a wooden pole with Akdorje, a Buddhist emblem of the thunderbolt, on top. The escort of the mission consisted of a group of attendants recruited by Roerich. They were Buryat and Mongolian lamas who used to travel to Lhasa before as pilgrims; all of them had the same little signs of Akdorje attached to their caps. Yuri had to spend some time giving them a firing drill and teaching them some combat action, though without much success. “Coincident with our maneuvers, a Mongolian detachment was practicing storming the stronghold. And on the other side our convoy went through the same maneuvers. You can imagine how completely confounded both parties were when they confronted each other!”, Nikolai wrote ironically in his diary. Two days before the departure (April 10), Roerich had drawn up his will, already for the third time. What seems most curious about this document is that it was legalized at the Consular section of the Soviet Embassy, in the presence of a witness, P.V. Vsesviatskii, upon Roerich’s producing his new ID – “a passport

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figure 37 N. Roerich with the ‘Sham­bhala Banner’, Urga, April-May 1927. NRM archive

issued by the Plenipotentiary Representation of the USSR in Mongolia # 2716 dated 20 September 1926”.41 So Roerich was a holder of a Soviet passport, which implies his naturalization as a Soviet citizen in 1926! Another proof of the fact is the testimony of Dr. Riabinin saying that “upon our departure, Prof. [Roerich] told me that he had finally obtained in Moscow, thanks to the good services of our government, a Soviet passport…”.42 The latter must have been a foreign passport of limited validity, as suggested by an entry in Elena’s diary: “Why not provide oneself with a foreign passport from Russia?”.43 Similar passports were apparently issued to Elena and Yuri Roerich as well as Dr. Riabinin, the only Soviet national in the party. (The unified national passport system was introduced within the USSR in 1932; until then Soviet citizens had ID cards instead of passports.) According to Riabinin, Roerich also had a certificate issued by the Mongolian GVO (equivalent to the Soviet OGPU) and some recommendation letters to

41 42 43

Roerich’s will with the appended typewritten visa of the Soviet Embassy was reproduced in Rosov 2002a, 145–146. See Topchiev, Rosov 1997, 174, transcript of interrogation of Dr. Riabinin, 23–24 July 1930. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 492, entry for 29 September 1926.

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Marshal Feng and other Chinese authorities he must have received from the Narkomindel as well. There is a puzzling statement in Roerich’s will which reads: “In view of the possible emergence of false rumours about my demise during my long journey, the above will must be executed after the year 1936”. But why should such rumours emerge? Most likely because the Roerichs planned to stay in Tibet for a long time, maybe years, – in either Lhasa, as Nikolai once told Riabinin, or at the Tibetan Ashram of the Masters at Shigatse, imbibing their ageless wisdom after the example of Helena Blavatsky. But in that case they would have disappeared indeed from the civilized world. The same Riabinin upon his return from the journey would claim that the real purpose of the Roerich Expedition was to visit “the residence of the Brotherhood of Light in Tibet”,44 a place inaccessible to ordinary mortals. 44

Topchiev, Rosov 1997, 168–169.

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Leading the ‘Western Buddhist Embassy’ to Tibet Tibet, Tibet, the axe is already at thy roots. N. Kordashevskii, Expedition diary.1

⸪ The Roerich expedition consisting of 18 persons2 departed from Ulan Bator on 13 April 1927 in five highly packed Dodge trucks which looked like towers from outside. These were to take the party across Mongolia to Yum-Beise monastery on its southern border at the edge of Black Gobi. According to Dr. Riabinin, “when we set out from Urga and later on the journey I had the impression that Professor [Roerich] was entrusted with some important commissions in regard to Tibet – on one hand, by Moscow, and on the other hand, by the Roerich Museum in New York, or the Society of the Friends of the latter… We were told that we’ll have to pose as Buddhists in Buddhist countries, in Tibet we’ll march under the banner of Shambhala, and in other countries under the American flag, and that I was not to show my Soviet passport to anybody”.3 Quite unexpectedly, the motorized vehicles provided to the expedition by the Soviet Torgpredstvo (Trade Representation) turned out to be run down and completely unserviceable. As Roerich complained in his diary, “In the vehicles, crossing the small rivers in the spring and because of the lacking roads, we have ten breakdowns a day. If one can traverse seventy miles it is indeed a lucky day. Ordinarily, one does not make even twelve miles. … If only we can reach the border, the monastery Yum-Beise”.4 1 The words make an epigraph to N. Kordashevskii’s travel diary, see Dekroa 1999, 5. They rephrase a predicament by John the Baptist addressed to Pharisees and Sadducees: “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”, Math. 3:10. 2 These included 7 Europeans: Nikolai, Elena, Yuri Roerich, Dr. Riabinin, Portniagin and Liudmila and Raisa Bogdanova; and 11 Asians: 4 lamas – Dansan Malonov (chief lama), Kaidub, Bukhaev, Lamajap Tserempilov, all Buryats except Kaidum who was a Torgout (Kalmuck), 7 attendants and members of the convoy: a Tibetan Konchok, three Buryats Dava Tserempilov, Dansan Tserempilov and Ardna Dorzhiev, and three Mongols – Ayur, Tsultim and an aged guide Tamcha. 3 See Topchiev, Rosov 1997a, 174. 4 Roerich, N. 1996, 354. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_016

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With much difficulty, the party reached Yum-Beise on the 12th day (24 April), having covered more than 500 miles altogether. There the travelers set up a camp at some distance from the monastery, about the same place where Chapchaev’s mission camped out a year earlier. In general Roerich followed the same route as Chapchaev. As arranged in advance, he at once contacted a Soviet trade agent posted at Yum-Beise and the person sent the travelers some fresh water and firewood (saxaul) for making a camp-fire. The monastery was known to Mongolians as Amarbuyant Khiid, though Western travelers of those days used to call it Yum-Beise, the latter being a combination of the name of a local nobleman (Yum) on whose territory it was located and his Manchu civic title (Beise). Yum-Beise monastery was quite a special and time-honored place. Founded in the 1690s, it was once known for the beautiful chanting of its monks5 and here in 1904 had stopped the 13th Dalai Lama during his flight from Lhasa to Urga when Tibet was invaded by the British expedition under Fr. Younghusband. However, visiting Yum-Beise two decades later Nikolai Roerich found it “an unpleasant, windy place” and the monastery itself “not an inviting one” with its “ungracious” lamas. He was particularly shocked to see on the hill above the monastery a huge phallus put atop a wooden pole. (As the monks explained to him, this was to scare away from their saintly abode the evil female spirits – those of “flying witches”.) Yuri Roe­ rich was likewise unimpressed by Yum-Beise: “We noticed only a few painted banners. A big one hanging on one of the columns displayed a black and white drawing of the mandala or mystic sphere of influence of Shambhala, said to have been presented to the monastery by order of the late Bogdo Gegen. The rest of the banners were painted in bright colors, but of very inferior design. We searched in vain for the finely executed banners from eastern Tibet and Derge”.6 At Yum-Beise the expedition changed from trucks to camels since the lamas told Roerich he would not be able to cross Gobi in automobiles, as he wanted. Even camels were not good transport during the hot season as they started shedding and therefore were not strong enough for travelling. Still Roerich mounted a caravan of 41 camels and this took his expedition across the Western or Black Gobi in the southward direction, to the Shibochen (Shih-pao-ch’eng) oasis beyond the city of Anxsi. This was a fairly dangerous route where passing caravans were often attacked by brigands. The most ruthless of these were members of the roaming bands of the notorious “warrior-priest” Dambijantsan, com5 See Don Croner, “Following the Route of the Roerich Expedition and the 13th Dalai Lama Through Bayankhongor Aimag, Mongolia”, http://www.doncroner.com/RoerichExpedition/ roerich.html 6 Roerich, G. 1931, 195.

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monly known as Ja-Lama, which infested the area. Although Ja-Lama was no more, being liquidated in 1923 by the Mongolian GVO,7 his men were still active in the area. However, an old lama-guide Sambu assured Roerich he would take his party safely to Shibochen by a short road, lying to the east of the regular Yum-Beise – Anxi caravan route. So Nikolai hired him as a guide. As he would learn later, Sambu was the same guide who had taken the Tibet-bound SovietMongolian mission across the Gobi Desert a year earlier. The expedition left Yum-Beise on 31 April. The trek through Gobi, in the broiling sun, lasted for three weeks and was most exhausting for both men and animals. The extreme conditions of the passage to Shibochen were vividly ­described by Yuri Roerich: We start about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. A hardly visible trail goes southward. On all sides stretches the same black kingdom of stone. We march the whole of the afternoon and evening. About midnight we halt to give rest to the tired animals. No tents are put up and all spend the night under open sky. At sunrise we load our camels once more and move ahead. Some of the camels become weak and have to be watered from our flask. Towards noon the heat becomes unbearable and everyone in the caravan counts the hours that bring us nearer to the rocky ridge, which stretches far to the burning south in the misty atmosphere of the burning desert.8 There at the ridge was a well, a most treasured source of life for travelers. As an artist, Roerich was fascinated by the boundless expanses of Gobi, its varying colors and often sandstorms. “Limitless seems the Central Gobi. White – pink – blue – and slaty black. The gales bury the flat slopes with a layer of stones”.9 The party arrived in Shibochen on 21 May and spent almost a whole month there, taking a rest and mounting a new caravan to continue the journey. On 18 June, the expedition, on 55 hired pack camels, moved further southward to Sharagolji on the bank of the Shara-gol (Yellow River) at the foot of the snowclad Humboldt Range, known to the Mongols as Ulan-Daban or Hungu Ula, an off-shoot of the Nan-Shan Mountains. There the travelers would stay for nearly two months (from 26 June to 19 August) before they crossed the Ulan-Daban and entered Tsaidam – a vast country of salty marches, lakes and deserts, lying at the very threshold of Great Tibet. The long stay at Sharagolji was caused by 7 8 9

On Ja-Lama see Roerich, G. 1931, 223–234; Lomakina 1993. Roerich, G. 1931, 209. Roerich, N. 1996, 355.

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several things. First, Roerich needed to change camels and mount a new, bigger caravan to take his party into Tibet. The fresh camels, making a herd of 42 animals were purchased by Portniagin in Mahai and when they arrived in Sharagolji they were left to graze for a month in the mountains. Second, the expedition was waiting for the end of the monsoon season. And finally, the Roerichs were eagerly expecting Kordashevskii, one of the key actors of their Shambhala project. Nikolai had arranged with his trusted Chakhembula long in advance that he would come down to China via Peking and would join his caravan somewhere on the road to Tibet, for which purpose he was given instructions sent to the American mission in Peking and later to the Suchow oasis in Kansu Province. The departure for Tibet was scheduled for August 19 and the Roerichs did not want to delay it. This first half of their journey between Urga and Sharagolji was generally uneventful. The most memorable occasion was passing by the abandoned residence of Ja-Lama on the northern slopes of the Baga Matsu Shan Mountains, some 250 miles south of Yum-Beise, in the very heart of the Mongolian Gobi. The residence was a real citadel, with a fortified castle, surrounded by walls and watch towers crowning the neighbouring hills. Yuri was thrilled by the most unusual fate of Ja-Lama. A Kalmuck by birth, Ja-Lama was believed to be a reincarnation of Amursana, the great West Mongolian leader of the 18th century; he was educated in Lhasa but later settled in Western Mongolia (Kobdo) where in the 1910s he took part in the struggle for the country’s independence from China. However, the “lama-avenger” Ja-Lama eventually turned into “a great brigand chief”. He organized a strong body of well-armed men from “all sorts of outlaws” who put under their control the main caravan route running through south-western Gobi. Oddly enough, Ja-Lama like Roerich dreamt of reconstructing “a mighty state in Inner Asia” that would incorporate Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan and Tibet.10 The travelers reached Sharagolji safely, despite all their apprehensions. Yet in this tranquil oasis on the bank of Sharagol a serious trial lay in wait for them. One night during the monsoon season a devastating torrent streamed down the canyon and washed away three tents in the camp (Yuri’s personal one, the dining and the kitchen tents). “We all rushed to the rescue of our tents and spent about two hours waist deep in the water, fighting the rushing stream”, Yuri recorded in the diary. “Thanks to the untiring zeal of the expedition personnel, most of the luggage and all three tents were saved. Many minor objects were carried down the stream and buried deep in sand”.11 10 11

Roerich, G. 1931, 231. Ibid., 244.

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The flood occurred quite unexpectedly at the end of the same day (July 28) when Kordashevskii finally arrived at the camp. He had a whole story to tell Roerich about his adventures, or rather misadventures, in China. Having arrived in Peking, Chakhembula was unable to obtain a Chinese travel passport. So he had to take a job with the Anglo-Chinese fur company Liddle and Bros. Ltd in Tientsin, the same one in which Alexander Golubin – unknown to the Roerichs as yet – was employed. Chakhembula then mounted a trade caravan in Paotou, with the help of Golubin, and they travelled together at the head of it through a large tract of Gobi in the direction of Suchow in Kansu Province. There Chakhembula picked up Roerich’s message at the post office and that was how he learned about the expedition whereabouts. He came to Sharagolji alone on horseback and the next day his fellow-traveler Golubin arrived at the spot with their luggage. The latter then offered his services to Roerich and was taken on the expedition staff as an orderly and a Chinese interpreter. Golubin who spoke fluent Chinese and had a good knowledge of life in China proved very helpful to the Roerichs at this stage of their journey. Their time in Shibochen and Sharagolji near the Nan-Shan Mountains seems to have been the most pleasing spell of the entire journey. While camping in Shibochen, lama Malonov, who had formerly served in the Buddhist temple at St Petersburg, assisted by other lamas arranged a Buddhist shrine in one of the tents, an American one! (The Roerichs themselves camped in the English-made tents purchased in Paris.) The interior of this improvised shrine was decorated with the tangkas, depicting the Buddha, Dukkar (Mother of the World) and the sacred land of Shamblala – the latter one was hung above the altar with the bronze Buddha images (burkhans) and some typical objects required for Buddhist rituals, such as conches, vessels with water etc. The tent was crowned with a special Buddhist symbol – the big bronze Akdorje (Thunderbolt), made of several smaller Buddhist dorjes forming a Byzantine cross. In this Shambhala shrine Buddhist services would be regularly performed on various occasions.12 The shrine was moved from Shibochen to Sharagolji and henceforth it would travel with the Roerichs throughout Tibet. Before leaving Shibochen, lama Malonov, upon Nikolai and Elena’s request, laid out from small white stones at the site of the removed shrine two Tibetan letters – “Ka” and “Sha”, standing for Kalachakra and Shambhala.13 12 13

See Riabinin 1996, 99, 104, 120, 148–150. Ibid., 120. Strictly speaking, Kalachakra is a Sanskrit word which means the “Wheel of Time”, the appellation of the sacred Buddhist teaching believed to have originated in Shambhala. Its Tibetan equivalent is Dus ‘khor, so Malonov must have depicted the Tibetan letters “Du” (not Ka) and “Sha”.

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figure 38 The Buddhist Stupa erected by N. Roerich at Sharagol, 1927

In Sharagolji the Roerichs also erected a Buddhist stupa or suburgan, made of stones, clay bricks and whitewashed and decorated on the outside. The construction was begun on July 2, the eve of the Festival of Maitreya. “The day ended with the prayers of our five lamas before the image of Maitreya which lasted for two hours”, Riabinin wrote in his diary. “The visiting Mongols with their wives were present; zealously and many times everyone circumambulated the tent with the sacred images”.14 At the foundation of the stupa the lamas laid, on Roerich’s suggestion, the image of the All-Conquering Buddha, a Tibetan prophecy about Shambhala, a silver ring with a Sanskrit inscription Maitreya Sangha and a blue scarf (hatag), all put in a tin box.15 On July 7, the expedition camp was visited by a senior lama (Nyerva) from Kumbum monastery, accompanied by a group of local Tibetan notables collecting donations. Roerich gave the lama one hundred yanchans – quite a substantial sum – and the latter presented to the Roerichs in return a tangka with the image of Avalokiteshvara. Yuri Roerich also copied from the lama some Sham­ bhala prophecies as well as the Panchen Lama’s newest invocation of Sham­ bhala, produced in Peking in 1926. The invocation called upon Buddhists for worship of “the source of perfection, the Great Teacher”, and particularly of “the powerful name of Rigden, full of wonderful manifestations and terrifying the

14 15

Riabinin 1996, 153–154, entry for 3 July 1927. Ibid., 170, entry for 16 July 1927.

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impious”.16 This name Rigden,17 making the first half of Rigden Japo, the name of the legendary 25th Ruler of Shambhala, would later be adopted by Roerich as his special Tibetan alias and it was precisely under this name that he planned to come to Lhasa to meet the Dalai Lama. It goes without saying that the Roerichs, throughout their journey were keeping in touch with their Master whose messages Elena channeled daily. Some of them were quite important. For example, on 14 July she learned from the Master that his Friend once – some 40 years earlier (i.e. in 1886!) – had stopped at the same place where the Roerichs were now erecting a stupa. The mahatma was taken by the locals for a lama from Eastern Tibet (Kham) whereas he was in fact “a messenger from the Dalai Lama”.18 The fact immediately added a special import to the construction of the stupa as a manifest landmark of the mahatmas’ secret history. Here are some more messages shedding light on the hidden – or highly ­secreted – aspects of the Roerich Tibetan mission: You should walk across Tibet without hurry by spreading rumours of the Buddhist embassy. The appearance of the embassy under the banner of Buddha is the first in human history. By this you will open all locks. For the sake of the Maitreya community you should overthrow the false Teachings (24 April, Yum-Beise). I advise you to talk about Shambhala every night. The sign of Akdorje is the sign of Shambhala. The Shambhala is preparing the advent of Maitreya. If your mission to M[oscow] had a world significance, the creation of the Himalayan community would be of cosmic importance” (29 April, Yum-Beise) Russian influence is weak, therefore you can raise the American flag (23 May, Shibochen). The Temple that you sketched in Urga [will have] clay flat-roofed houses around and fragrant herbs on the roof. There are mats inside and desks for scholarly studies along the walls. The Akdorje sign [is] by the fence. The walls of the Temple [are] decorated by the images of Shambhala, 16 17 18

Ibid., 165, entry for 11 July 1927. Rigden (Tib. rigs ldan) – “Holder of the Castes”, the title of the mythical kings of Sham­ bhala. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 526, entry for July 1927.

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Maitreya, the Buddha and White Tara. In this way is being created an outpost of the Brotherhood of the New Era (1 June, Shibochen). The legend is growing. See what trace you have left in Urga. In Urga the legend began to take shape after your departure (18 June, Shibochen). You can press on the [necessity] of the Western Dalai Lama. Thus far you are adherents of the Eastern Dalai Lama, yet the wealthy and powerful West can elect its own Dalai Lama (23 June, on the way to Sharagolji). Today the Tashi-Lama understood the peculiar character of time. Tomorrow I’ll tell [you] to write to the Dalai Lama about your approaching (27 June, Sharagolji). The ground has been prepared for Fuyama near the Dalai Lama. I’ll be in time to shape the new manifestations. You must assert that the possibility of the Western Dalai Lama looks real (29 June, Sharagolji). The construction of the suburgan affirms the legend and therefore it is of use. The Teacher is happy (24 July, Sharagolji).19 The above quotations shed some light on Roerich’s projected Buddhist mission to Lhasa. Its ultimate purpose was apparently to acquaint the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s highest clergy with the “purified” Western version of the Buddhist teaching so as to obtain their formal approval of it, which would legitimize Roerich’s claim for the role of Western Buddhist leader and reformer. However, Roerich knew too well that he had little chance to get such an approval from the patron of the “degenerated” form of Buddhism (i.e. Lamaism) prevailing in Mongolia and Tibet, so he was prepared, with Morya’s encouragement, to start his Buddhist revival movement by proclaiming himself the ‘Western Dalai Lama’. Another reason which strongly necessitated Nikolai’s and Elena’s visit to Lhasa was their rapidly expanding neo-mythology with themselves at its center posing as messengers of the Northern Shambhala. And indeed their appearance in the holy city with Nikolai clad in his fine Oriental robe, preaching “purified” Buddhism, accompanied by his beautiful wife calling herself Tara, which means Saviouress, might create a furor and become an event of apocalyptic magnitude, linked with the fulfillment of ancient Buddhist prophecies, and that was probably what the couple was really after. 19

Ibid., 512, 513, 515, 518, 522–524, 528.

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But what about the Panchen Lama? We know that Roerich wrote to him once, with Yuri’s help of course, having attached several presents to his letter: some photos showing his expedition and the stupa he built, a silver ring carved in jade (probably the one with the inscription Maitreya Sangha) and the image of “a powerful being” (Tib. Rnam-gnon) which seems to have been a pencil or photograph portrait of Mahatma Morya! The person who served as a go-between was a fourth-rank official of the Panchen Lama’s administration, named Serkhang, whom Roerich must have approached through the above-mentioned Nyerva-lama in Kumbum who visited his camp at Sharagolji. Roerich’s letter with enclosures reached the Panchen safely, though with much delay, as the Panchen Lama wrote back to Roerich and his son (“American Buddhist Abbott and translator”) on “15th of the eighth month of the Earth Dragon year of the Tibetan calendar”, i.e. in the fall of 1928 (!). “I am delighted to be receiving all the gifts, which made me feel that I am seeing you in person”, reads the message. “In order to promote the teaching of the Buddha, I hope you will continue to make your efforts and please discuss concerned matters with our representative Serkhang and let us know through him what can be done from our side”. Surprisingly, the reply, with the enclosed photograph of the Panchen Lama reached Roerich only in 1935, when he was in China.20 The Panchen Lama’s coming back to Tibet was obviously being delayed though not rescinded. Not at all! While moving on with his caravan, Roerich occasionally received some desultory information about the Panchen and his doings – through Elena’s channeling and from more reliable sources, such as passing caravans from north-eastern China. In this way he learned, for example, that the Panchen Lama still desired to return to his homeland and he even sent his belongings in advance to Kumbum monastery in Amdo (north-eastern Tibet). This was true – the Panchen Lama, according to Soviet intelligence, sent a caravan of 300 camels “with his valuables” to Kumbum in the spring of the same year, but it was detained by the Mongolian military who found it suspicious that several camels were carrying tanks with petrol. The caravan was eventually released at Marshal Feng’s demand. In the following years (1928–29) the 20

The letter was received by Roerich in October 1935, when he was in Shanghai after the completion of his Manchurian expedition. It was then that Yuri Roerich resent the missive by registered mail to Sina Lichtmann at the Roerich Museum in New York. The envelope has the Panchen Lama’s emblem on the reverse side (the Garuda bird, with wide-spread wings, the Ten of Power symbol of the Kalachakra and two Chinese hieroglyphs above: Pan-Chen). There is a pencil inscription on the front side of Yuri’s envelope probably made by Sina: “A very important letter”. A copy of the Panchen Lama’s letter and envelope was obtained by me from the Roerich Museum and translated from Tibetan into English by Prof. Tsering Shakya.

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figure 39 A letter from the Panchen Lama to Roerich, 1935. NRM archive

Panchen Lama would raise his own troops of 10, 000 men, planning to invade Tibet, as Soviet political analysts asserted.21 Still, even without the Panchen Lama, Roerich’s expedition looked very much like a spiritual mission. Its leader’s tent was decorated with the sacred Shambhala banner, the Buryats and Mongols would sing the Shambhala song on the road and by the camp-fire, and Nikolai and Elena (Guru and Tara) themselves 21

Trofimov 1937, 65.

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would be preaching to their companions their New Era gospel. As soon as Kordashevskii joined his caravan, Roerich immediately started talking to him about his favourite subjects – the Sixth race, the single law of human evolution, the world community, built on the principles of spirituality and cooperation, etc. Here is, for example, one of Roerich’s revelations recorded by Chakhembula in his travel diary: After dinner we went for a walk with N.K.R. and he was speaking about the ‘Temple of [Spirit]-Understanding” – from it should issue a spiritual movement purifying all teachings and uniting them into one indivisible whole. He further pointed out that there should be only one conception of humanity: neither nations nor races but the creative spirits embodied in all the worlds and active within matter; that’s the genuine understanding of humanity to which one should aspire.22 At sunset the Roerichs and their disciples (Riabinin, Kordashevskii and Portniagin) would often get together in Elena’s tent where Russian Tara gave her own edifying talks accompanied by readings from the spiritual literature of her choice and her diaries. She told “the new ones” the captivating story of the Black Stone of Orion, the home of the Masters, and Nikolai then showed them the “Chalice of Orion” in the sky. Orion and Venus were the two guiding stars of the Roerichs leading them to the glorious future. The local Mongols who often visited the expedition camp looked at Roerich as someone very important, a great Ameri Khan, as they understood the word “American”. They admired the pictures of New York and America he showed them. “For them America is the Promised Land. They whisper: ‘It is the attainment of Shambhala!’ Not a day passes without conversations about miraculous America”,23 Roerich wrote in his diary. He did not mind, of course, his expedition becoming a source of fabulous rumours, making him, Elena and Yuri into some powerful Western magicians. Such rumours worked well for them and their mission in the long run. One unusual story deserves to be recounted here in this connection. Once in the morning some of the caravaneers noticed a big black eagle flying above the camp. While the party was watching the bird something else appeared far above it. “We all saw,” recalled Roerich, “in a direction from north to south, something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp this thing changed its direction from south to southwest. And we saw 22 23

Dekroa 1999, 81, entry for 5 August 1927. Roerich, N. 1996, 359.

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how it disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval form with a shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun”.24 There were many guesses made as to what the object really was and a modern viewer would probably have taken it for a blimp or even a UFO, yet it was only Elena who was able to identify the mysterious object, though she personally did not see it (!). This was a “flying machine of the Brotherhood” operated by Brother Djual Kul, one of the mahatmas, she said after consulting with the Master.25 And Nikolai immediately made the fact known to his companions by adding some more intriguing details – in this wonderful machine one of the Brothers was returning to Tibet after his meeting with the Tashi Lama in Mukden!26 On 19 August the expedition left Sharagolji and headed towards the barren land of Tsaidam. Following the Chapchaev mission’s route they crossed it in the meridional direction, unlike other travelers who usually bypassed the marshland along its eastern or western borders where wells of drinking water could be found. “We were the first Europeans who were bold enough to traverse the Tsaidam’s muddy and saline country”, Riabinin put down proudly in his diary, obviously quoting Roerich’s words. But Roerich might have forgotten that his Kalmuck predecessor, Chapchaev, was also a European. In Tsaidam Roerich’s party was joined by a small caravan led by a Tibetan Chimpa (Jimpa), carrying a “special load” for the Dalai Lama. This included arms and ammunition purchased in Ulan Bator from the Soviet Torgpredstvo in the fall of 1926 by the Donyer Lobzang Cholden. By selling arms to the Tibetans the Soviets most likely expected to make a good impression on the Dalai Lama. Chimpa’s caravan, however, got bogged down at Yum-Beise for many months after its leader caught pneumonia; he was left behind there by his Buryat companions – 14 Buddhist novices (khuvaraks), sent by Agvan Dorjiev to Lhasa to obtain higher religious education. They continued the journey on their own, having taken with them the greater part of Chimpa’s cargo which consisted originally of a hundred Russian-made infantry rifles with 10,000 cartridges.27 With the arrival of Chimpa, the Roerich expedition caravan would march further under two flags – the US ‘Stars and Stripes’ and the Dalai Lama’s yellow flag, inscribed in Tibetan: “Hail to the Unshakable Vajra Holder, the 13th Dalai Lama”, carried by the caravan leader. The flag, Nikolai believed, would guarantee a safe passage of his party through Tibet and his 24 25 26 27

Ibid., 361–362. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 532, entry for 5 August 1927. Portniagin 1998, 27. For the story of Chimpa’s caravan see Riabinin 1996, 231–232, entry for 29 August 1927.

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unimpeded entrance into Lhasa, since no Tibetan official would dare to stop the Dalai’s caravan. (Chimpa, despite all the treatment given to him by Dr. Ria­ binin, passed away a month and half later, and the mission leader, willy-nilly, had to take upon himself the delivery of the military equipment – the remaining 29 rifles with ammunition – to the Master of the Potala.) While passing through the solitary and arid Tsaidam plains which looked like the end of the habitable world, or a purgatory at the threshold of sacred ‘Morya’s Country’, the Roerichs would occasionally raise their spirits with Wagner’s energizing music, by playing their favorite records, the Flight of Valkyries and Parsifal, on the American gramophone as they had done earlier in Ladakh. Having crossed through Tsaidam, the party finally ascended, in early September, the Tibetan highlands, Changtang. The first news that reached them on the plateau was about the sorry fate of Chapchaev’s mission. His party was rumoured to have been detained at Nagchu, the major frontier post on the road to Lhasa, for a whole month before the Tibetan government allowed them to enter the Forbidden City. Roerich also learned that the Lhasa-bound expedition of the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner had been likewise recently stopped at Nagchu, another bad omen for him. Roerich’s caravan consisted now of 27 men and 95 pack animals (camels, mules and horses).28 Surprisingly, one of the camels carried on its back a crate with a rooster and two hens who laid eggs the entire way until the severe Tibetan frosts killed them. The party moved with much caution and vigilance, apprehending they could be attacked at any time by the militant Golok and other nomads inhabiting north-eastern Tibet, as had happened to many other travelers. Apart from the armed convoy, they had two more guards – Tibetan black mastiffs Tumbal and Ambal. Oddly enough, the members of the Buddhist mission – Yuri Roerich, Kordashevskii and Portniagin – would occasionally hunt animals and catch fish en route, an absolute taboo for pious Buddhists, and earlier at Sharagolji, according to Dr. Riabinin, Yuri had killed three tarantulas who crept into the tent of the Bogdanov sisters, while the Mongol lamas, when they found the poisonous creatures in their own tent, carefully took them out. However, being Western Buddhists, the Roerichs had their own understanding of the Buddha’s precepts. While approaching the mountains of Dumbure (Tib.: “Call of the Conch”), Roerich would tell his companions that there started the “protected area” (zapretnaia zona) of the Himalayan Brotherhood or Shambhala. The territory, he 28

Ibid., 240, entry for 2 September 1927. The expedition staff included 9 Europeans, 2 Tibetans (Konchok and Chimpa), 5 Torguts, 3 Khalha-Mongols, 3 Buryat lamas, 3 Tsaidam Mongols and 2 Mongol guides.

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said, was carefully guarded against any trespassers by the Brothers and its hallowed borders were marked by special “signs” such as geysers spewing “poisonous gases”. One of these signs was a white hill of evaporated salt visible from afar at Dumbure: “Something glows white in the distance … Snow – but there is no snow around here. Is it a tent? But this is something truly superb. It is a gigantic geyser of Glauber’s salt. A snowy mass glistening in the sun – verily, a sacred boundary”.29 On 24 September the caravan reached the first Tibetan outpost at Olun-nor Lakes in the country of the Hors, a tribe of Tibetan herdsmen. The Hors turned out to be friendly and cooperative. They were of short size and wore peculiar clothing which made them look like fairytale berendeys and nibelungs, according to Nikolai. Through their local militia chief he dispatched at once information about his expedition to the authorities at Nagchu – the list of men and animals in his caravan. The next morning, at parting, a delegation of Hors presented the mission leader with a hatag ceremonial scarf, a large bowl of Tibetan dry curd and some crude butter sewn in the ram’s stomach skin. In return Roerich donated to them a ram and one Mexican dollar (a currency which then widely circulated in China). This was a good start and the Roerichs, being constantly encouraged by their Master, were certain that they would make it safely to Lhasa. In a message channeled by Elena on 27 September Morya welcomed the impending “complete change of life in Lhasa – otherwise you are not Americans” and called them to “solidify the world union of Western Buddhist”. Three weeks later – by which time the party had reached the second frontier post at Shingdi – Morya confided to the Roerichs that the Dalai Lama was already aware of their coming and that a “fighting” was going on in Lhasa (allegedly between the advocates and opponents of the Roerichs). And then on 24 October Morya would “solemnly” declare Roerich “the Western Dalai Lama”, thus fulfilling “an old prophecy”. “Now the Possessor of the Treasure [Chintamani Stone – A.A.] himself can ascertain his attitude to the Lama of Tibet – either to recognize him temporarily, or to begin the purification of religion on his own. I also commission A.-M. [Allal-Ming, here an alias of N. Roerich – A.A.] to proclaim the peaceful S[tates] of A[sia]. Let the wish of the Fifth Dalai Lama come true! The appointment of the Dalai Lama took place in Tibet, not farther than the third zone of the Brotherhood”.30

29 30

Roerich, N. 1996, 365. The same episode is recounted by Riabinin, see Riabinin 1996, 286, entry for 21 September 1927. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 545, 549, 550.

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figure 40 Nikolai Roerich, “the Dalai Lama of the West”, 1929, NRM archive

In these messages one could also discern some angry notes showing Morya’s discontent with the Soviets and his “censure” of Moscow for her “improper action”, which signaled the beginning of the Roerichs’ new drifting away from the Bolsheviks. (“I reckon, the Russians have lost you for Russia”.) The trouble for the Roerich expedition began after it reached the second frontier post at Shingdi on 6 October, some 40 miles north of Nagchu (Nagchuka). Everything went well at first when Nikolai and his son approached a Tibetan official of high rank who controlled the territory, General Kusho Kapshopa, High Commissioner of Hors (Hor-chyi-chyab) and concurrently the Commander-in-Chief of the Tibetan troops stationed in East Tibet (Kham). He was a young man, formerly one of the Dalai Lama’s guardsmen, and he immediately took a liking to Roerich, especially when given a lavish present – a big gold watch strewn with diamonds. Trying to make a good impression on the General, Roerich talked about Shambhala, as he was convinced that the sacred name opened all doors in the East, and showed the Tibetan one of his family relics, the alleged mahatma’s letter written on a piece of bark that had miraculously dropped into Elena’s hands in Darjeeling.31 The trick worked well as 31

The letter, according to E. Roerich, dropped from thin air between her and Shibaev during one of her telepathic communications with the Master; see Rerikh, E. 2011, 262, entry for 20 February 1925.

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­ apshopa at once dictated a letter to the Joint-governors (jongpens) of Nagchu K – one spiritual (khan-po) and one civil (nang-so) – requesting permission for the passage of the Roerich expedition to Nagchu and further to Lhasa. To his missive he enclosed Roerich’s Tibetan passport and the letter of recommendation he had obtained in Ulan Bator. He also proposed that the American traveler move his camp to Chorten-Karpo, a place on the bank of the river Chunargen (Chu-na-khe), closer to his quarters, which Roerich readily did. A reply from the Nagchu governors forwarded to Kapshopa was rather evasive – the Tibetan officials wrote that they could not comply with Roerich’s request due to the Dalai Lama’s strict order banning entry to Lhasa to all foreign travelers. (Such an order was indeed issued by the Dalai Lama soon after the arrival of Chapchaev’s bogus Buddhist mission.) So the governors suggested that Kapshopa, who held a higher rank than they did, issue the requested permit himself. The reply seemingly displeased Kapshopa as he wrote a new letter to Nagchu summoning the governors to his place and stating that the ‘Great Ambassador of Western Buddhists Reta Rigden’ kindly agreed to wait for another day. Yet the governors of course were in no haste to come to Chunargen and quite soon Kapshopa himself left for his army units in Kham leaving behind his subordinate, Major Tsonam Tsodub, with a handful of soldiers to take care of Roerich and his party. Apparently neither he, nor the Tibetan officials at Nagchu were willing to take upon themselves the responsibility for permitting a foreign expedition to proceed to Lhasa. They knew too well that non-observance of the Dalai Lama’s orders might cost them their lives. The situation clearly became a stalemate. What made it even worse was Chantang’s rigorous climate and extreme altitude – 15,000 ft above the sea level – affecting practically all expedition members. They suffered badly from oxygen deprivation which caused shortness of breath, high pulse rate and headaches, the clear symptoms of the mountain sickness. Yuri swooned several times and Nikolai had a temporary eye damage caused by snow reflecting UV light (photokeratitis), but worst of all was the condition of Elena and Chakhembula. Luckily, the party had abundant medications and the professional physician to look after them. On October 18, the day of Kapshopa’s departure, Roerich pleaded with him again for permission to proceed to Nagchu, but the General refused again saying that he should wait for a reply from Lhasa as his case was already under consideration by the Dalai Lama’s administration. Yet Roerich was not the kind of man who would sit and wait for the tide to turn. On the same day Yuri wrote a letter in Tibetan to the Nagchu governors. In this he underscored the importance of his father’s mission: “If the Embassy is not permitted to move to Nagchu before long, this will irreparably harm the entire purpose of the mission and the Teaching of the Blessed One. The Ambassador is a citizen of the Great Country, and

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if his Embassy is compelled to stay longer on the cold uplands, the Government of the United States of America, as well as members of the Buddhist Council will be strongly insulted”. Yuri then described the pitiful condition of the mission staff – his ailing mother (the Ambassador’s spouse), the Embassy’s Secretary (himself), and the head of the Convoy (Colonel Kordashevskii). “If any of the nine members of the Embassy dies or falls seriously ill, this will entail many complications, and the frontier authorities will be fully responsible for these”. The letter ended with a statement that looked like an ultimatum – Nikolai Roe­ rich’s talks with the Dalai Lama must take place not later than November 24, the date allegedly scheduled for a meeting of the Buddhist Council in America. So it would be an insult to its participants (i.e. Western Buddhists), if they did not get a reassuring message from their Ambassador in Lhasa by that time!32 (The “Buddhist Council” in America was clearly another bluff by Roerich, same as his “Western Buddhist Embassy”.) Three days later (on October 21) Nikolai Roerich penned his own “Declaration” to the governors, which he asked the Major, as someone who substituted for General Kapshopa, to post immediately to Nagchu. It started with a grandiloquent statement: “I, Reta Rigden, am the Head of the World Union of Western Buddhists, the foundation of which was laid in America. For the sake of a lofty task of reuniting Western and Eastern Buddhists under the Dalai Lama’s high hand, I, my spouse, my son and other members of the Embassy agreed to undertake a wearying and perilous journey from America, across the ocean, deserts and mountains, through the heat, severe cold and many deprivations, into Tibet, having traversed more than 16,000 English miles”. Despite the Tibetan passport issued to the Embassy in Urga by the Donyer-Consul acting on behalf of the Lhasa Government and “the notification of the sacred objectives of the Embassy” it was forcefully detained “in the most barren regions of Chang Tang commonly known for its rigorous and harmful climate”. “We are suffocating, our cardiac activity weakened and any day or night we are threatened with the certain catastrophe. It is a question of life and death …”. The demise of the first Western Buddhist Embassy, Nikolai continued, would split the Buddhist world into two unconnected parts which would have the gravest consequences for Buddhism. He then referred to his major argument – the Buddhist Council in America entrusted him to meet his Holiness the Dalai Lama and present him with their Address (Gramota) and the Order of the All-Conquering Buddha and he was to report back to the Council about the successful fulfillment of this commission. If such a communique was not received, “the Council will have to 32

The letter was quoted in Riabinin’s diary; see Riabinin 1996, 343–344, entry for 18 October 1927.

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make a decision about the election of the independent Dalai Lama of Western Buddhists”. All members of our Embassy strongly support the idea of unification [of Western and Eastern Buddhists] under the Dalai Lama of Tibet. And we understand that the split of the Buddhist might would be baneful for Tibet, considering the great potentialities of the powerful state of America and the high erudition and might of the persons who have newly adopted Buddhism. Roerich also informed the Tibetan officials that he took part in the construction of “a large Buddhist temple” (an allusion to the St Petersburg Datsan) and several chortens (stupas) and that upon his instructions in America “the first Buddhist temple consecrated to Shambhala” was being built. And he did not forget to mention as well his lavish donations to Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and Sikkim and his other acts of service rendered to the Buddha’s Teaching.33 Finally, on 28 October, as the governors’ reply was not forthcoming, Nikolai wrote a letter to the Dalai Lama in English. (The day before Elena channeled a message from Morya saying: “I advise you to write letters; through them space is being filled up. Write to the Dalai Lama: ‘Someone is damaging wrongfully the first Buddhist embassy’. Even if the messenger arrives in three days, your letter will be appropriate”.34) In this missive to the Buddhist Pontiff Roerich repeated his major complaints to which he added the above quotation about his secret wrecker and requested that the Dalai Lama “give orders” allowing the embassy to come to Lhasa “to make personal presentations to You”.35 On 8 November he forwarded another epistle to the Dalai Lama and this one already sounded the alarm, telling the Master of the Potala of the desperate condition of his mission – that many of its members were ailing severely and that half of the caravan animals had already perished.36 (The first letter, as it turned out, was actually dropped on the road by his Tibetan courier, and the second one was returned to Roerich by the Nagchu governors). Roerich also wrote letters to the Tibetan ministers, including the premier (Lonchen Yabshi Kung), to the friendly Kusho Doring and Tsarong Shape, whom he had met in Darjeeling, to the American minister in Peking as well as to the PO in Sikkim, F.M. Bailey, stationed in Gangtok, but all to no avail. 33 34 35 36

Ibid., 349–352, entry for 21 October 1927. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 551. Riabinin 1996, 367–368, entry for 28 October 1927. Ibid., 389–390.

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Roerich and his party found themselves in total isolation from the civilized world and practically in captivity in the sacred Land of Snows. In his published diary the artist would complain bitterly of his deliberate detention on Changtang which lasted for five long months – in summer tents, in a severe frost of – 60° C, “under whirlwinds and gales”, unable either to go on or go back without permission of Tibetan authorities, and deprived by the same officials of the basic means of livelihood. Yuri Roerich on his part wrote to Bailey on 10 November and his message luckily went through. The British diplomat and intelligence officer must have been bewildered to learn the shocking details of the detainment of the Roerich “Mission” by the “Tibetan Government” as Yuri identified his father’s party and its offenders. This forcible stay bears very hard on the health of all the members of the Mission. Madame Roerich has been unwell during the whole trip, and the doctor of the Mission is fearing for her heart. Her pulse reaches 125. I myself nearly died of an acute attack of mountain sickness on the top of the pass just north of Chu-nargen. Only the quick help of the doctor saved me, although even now I cannot get rid of my fever. The doctor of the Mission himself is suffering from miocardite. Lieutenant-Colonel N. Kordashevskii, Professor Roerich’s Private Secretary, feels himself so worn out that he does not leave his tent. The presence of women and a child in the caravan makes the situation very critical.37 The Roerichs apparently expected Bailey to intervene in their behalf as he had turned out to be helpful during their journey in Sikkim in 1924, but they also wanted to obtain through him permission to cross into India via Sikkim after the completion of their journey, as Yuri made clear in his letter.

…

Having not received by November 24 any reply from the Dalai Lama (whom he sent one more letter, on 14 November),38 Roerich had to give up on his mission and look for ways to escape from his captivity. The Master as always approved of his decision and praised his and Elena’s perseverance and devotion. Father welcomes your repudiation of Lhasa. Yet for the sake of purification of the Teaching you should commit an unforgettable podvig. All worldly things must be endured when you come to understand the 37 38

NAI, Foreign & Political Department, file 331 (2), 1926–1927, letter from G. Roerich to Col. F.M. Bailey, 10 November 1927, p. 37. See: Rosov 2005, 261.

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Genuine Teaching. No one before walked like you with your appeals to the Dalai Lama, so no one will destroy [like you] the lies and darkness.39 The Roerichs, in the Master’s words, actually fulfilled the things predestined to them – they walked through Tibet and established the great Western Dalai Lama; furthermore, they effected the much needed separation of genuine Buddhism (the Buddha’s teaching) from its corrupted form, Lamaism. Now the Master gave them their new task – they were to “establish the capital of Urusvati on the Himalayas”. There – and not on the Altai Mountains – he and Elena were to proclaim the United States of Asia,40 alias the Sacred Union of the East or New Russia – the worldly Russian Shambhala. (The latter was to include, as Elena would articulate a few years later, a vast territory between the Altai and India, the whole of China, Japan and subsequently Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey, as well – all to come under a ‘hegemony of Russia’.41) On 17 December, after their three-and-a-half month stay at Chunargen, Roerich moved his camp to Sharugon monastery of the Bön-po sect situated nearby. There he was visited unexpectedly in early January 1928 by the twin-governors of Nagchu who came to discuss with him the return route of his expedition, from Tibet to Sikkim. Shortly after that Roerich’s party moved to Nagchu, the closest they could get to Lhasa. Nagchu-dzong, referred to in Tibetan official papers as the “Lofty snow-palace of Nag-chu”, was the first big settlement on the great northern road and the main frontier and customs post. The town consisted of about a hundred primitive wattle and daub houses and a lamasery in its center. Its streets were the most repulsive sight the Roerichs had ever seen: “One sees everywhere carcasses of dead horses and yaks. Heaps of refuge and hundreds of vagabond dogs are among the adornments of the town”.42 The party stayed in Nagchu for over a month, until early March, waiting for the final reply from Lhasa and the food supplies which were to be delivered to them by a caravan, again from Lhasa. It remains entirely unknown what happened to the batch of rifles Roerich had taken over from Chimpa and wanted to deliver personally to the Dalai Lama. While in Nagchu, Roerich had an opportunity to visit Lhasa to patch up his conflict with the Tibetan authorities, as the governors suggested, but he did not go.43 Lhasa ceased to be a spiritual focus 39 40 41 42 43

Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 557, entry for 25 November 1927. Ibid., 552, entry for 8 November 1927. Ibid., P. 2, 355, 610, 611, entries for 30 April 1933, 4 April 1936. Roerich, G. 1931, 387. See Riabinin 1996, 585–586, entry for 28 February 1928.

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figure 41 Marbori Hill with the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, view from the south-east. Photo by Ovshe Norzunov, ca. 1900

figure 42 The Potala Palace, copied from P. Millington’s ‘To Lhasa at Last’

for him anymore and Tibet itself lost much of its former attraction, having become a symbol of decay and utter ignorance. Nonetheless, as his farewell gesture, Roerich sent to the Dalai Lama a present – his latest American publication, the superbly illustrated monograph Himalaya, devoted to his Transhimalayan journey.44 44

Roerich, Himalaya, A Monograph, Articles by F. Grant, G.D. Grebenstchikoff, I. Narodny, M. Siegrist and “Banners of the East” by N. Roerich, with 24 colorplates and 78 halftones, New York: Brentano, 1926. Roerich’s contribution consisted of a series of essays (pp. 75–181) making the largest part of the book and included as chapters 2–5 in the edition Altai – Himalaya, see Roerich, N. 1996.

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Roerich’s failure to enter Lhasa and the humiliation he suffered at the hands of arrogant Tibetan officials eventually made him one of the most severe critics of Tibet under the 13th Dalai Lama, whom he nicknamed “Yellow Pope”. His travel diary, as well as those of his companions (Riabinin, Kordashevskii and Portniagin), are filled with many harsh words and invectives against the Tibetan Ruler, blaming him not only for the wrecking of his “historical” Buddhist mission, but also for the ultimate degradation of Tibetan Buddhism, labeled as primitive “shamanistic Lamaism”. The Lama was also made responsible for the dramatic “schism” of Buddhism into separate Western and Eastern traditions. At the same time Roerich praised the Panchen Lama, placing him high above his “unpious” incarnation colleague. “The spiritual leader of Tibet is not the Dalai Lama, but Tashi Lama, of whom only good things are known”, he would maintain. “They (the Tibetans) condemn the current situation in Tibet more than we do. They are anticipating the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy about the return of the Tashi Lama, who will become the one Ruler of Tibet and under whom the Precious Teaching will flourish again”.45 In his other work The Heart of Asia Roerich also quoted a wide-spread prophecy coming from Tengyeling monastery that the present 13th Dalai Lama would be the last one.46 Henceforward Roerich would speak of two Tibets. One is “the Tibet of officialdom” consisting of people whose “hearts are blacker than coal and harder than stone”, as Tibetan themselves call them. Yet there is another Tibet – the country “of the few educated lamas and of an even smaller number of enlightened laymen. This is the Tibet which guards the essence of the Teaching and aspires towards enlightenment. It is the Tibet of its spiritual leaders”.47 By saying so Roerich undoubtedly included in the number of Tibet’s spiritual leaders the mahatmas. “In the darkest places of Tibet they know something about the ­Mahatmas, they have some recollections and legends”. The Roerich expedition left Nagchu on 4 March. Their caravan this time was unusually big – 140 yaks, 10 horses and 5 camels, though camels are not used normally by travelers in the Tibetan highlands. The return route which was charted by the Nagchu governors and approved by Lhasa went through southwestern Tibet, the sparsely populated region of the Great Lakes, up to the ­Saga-dzong (fortress), across the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river and further upstream along the Nepalese northern border and into Sikkim. This was a fairly roundabout route, bypassing Lhasa and two other major Tibetan cities, Gyantse and Shigatse, one untrodden by Western travelers, which provided Nikolai and Yuri with a brilliant opportunity for field exploration. And indeed they found 45 46 47

Rerikh, N. 2009, 375; see also Roerich, N. 1996, 389–390. N. Rerikh, “Serdtse Azii” («Сердце Азии») in Rerikh, N. 1979, 142. Ibid., 390.

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something of great interest to them on this new route – the ancient megalithic monuments of the Tibetan nomadic past (menhirs, cromlechs, alinements) as well as stone graves and barrows. These and other finds they made en route in this remote corner of Tibet rewarded them for all the mishaps and privations they had suffered and undoubtedly were the best scientific accomplishments of the expedition, along with Yuri’s linguistic and ethnographic researches in Tsaidam and in Tibet proper and his valuable book and tankga collections. At the same time Nikolai Roerich as an artist produced in the course of the ­five-year journey about 500 paintings, depicting the unique landscapes of ­Central Asia – its great mountainous kingdoms of the Himalayas and Tibet, enough to account for the declared purposes of his “artistic and scientific” ­expedition. Yet the Roerichs, as we already know, also cherished a secret hope for an encounter somewhere in Tibet with their Master Morya in his physical body and perhaps other Masters as well. They could not abandon the sacred “Morya’s Country” without making some new additions to their rhapsodic Shambhala tale. While marching across Changtang Roerich talked most enthusiastically to his companions about Shambhala’s “protected zones” marked by geysers, which made the sacred abodes of the Masters inaccessible to uninvited visitors. Yet the Roerichs did not find the mahatmas or their messengers on Changtang. To explain their absence Nikolai would later have to think up a story of the mahatmas having all abandoned their ashrams in Tibet and moved into Sikkim and other Buddhist countries where the Buddha’s teaching was flourishing, unlike in Tibet. He and Elena must have sincerely believed this was so. On 25 April, having crossed the Ja-la pass, the expedition descended the valley of Brahmaputra from which opened a most spectacular view of the entire Himalayan range stretching along the horizon. There travelers camped at a place called Kya-kya, two days march from Saga-dzong. On that very day Kordashevskii put down in his diary: “Some people appeared in the camp, who look different from local indigenes. They are the ones who will lead the caravan of the leader in a direction unknown to me”.48 Dr. Riabinin for his part suggested that the strangers were perhaps “heralds from Shambhala”.49 But were they indeed? The mystery was explained by Portniagin: “We met along the road two caravans: one on yaks, loaded with tea and barley. At the head of it was a group of riders in bright robes and red turbans, with carbines behind their backs. They are monks from Tashilhunpo. Another one is a caravan of rams carrying salt

48 49

Dekroa 1999, 315. Riabinin 1996, 672.

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from Changtang”.50 So the strange looking persons in the expedition camp were lamas from Tashilhumpo who came to Brahmaputra with their trade caravan. However if we look into Nikolai Roerich’s own diary, we will find a very curious statement there: “It is wondrous and strange to pass through the same places where the mahatmas passed. Here was the school founded by Them. Two day’s travel from Saga-tsong there was one of the Ashrams – not far from Brahmaputra. Here the mahatma stopped, hastening on an undeferrable mission. And here stood the modest blue tent”.51 But what about the sacred Black Stone which the Roerichs carried through Tibet and were to return to the mahatmas in their Ashram, according to Morya’s instruction? The stone, as is known beyond any doubt, remained with the family after the Tibetan journey, a fact which speaks for itself. Oddly, the passage of the expedition from Brahmaputra to Sikkim which lasted nearly a month was not chronicled by either Riabinin or Kordashevskii or Portniagin. As for Nikolai’s own diary, it ends with a fervent eulogy of Shambhala, Maitreya and mahatmas, a quintessence of his mystical mood: “The Mongols await the appearance of the Ruler of the World and prepare the Dukhang of Shambhala. On Chang-tang they extol Gesar Khan and whisper about the hallowed borders of Shambhala. On Brahmaputra they know about the Ashrams of mahatmas …”.52 At the same time the journey to Sikkim was described minutely, day after day, by Yuri Roerich, yet his sober-minded and strictly scholarly account makes no mention of anything unusual like secret ashrams of the mahatmas in the vicinity of Brahmaputra. A mystic and a scholar obviously saw things differently. Upon arrival in Gangtok on 24 May, Roerich’s party was welcomed in a most friendly way by F.M. Bailey and his wife, though the couple was slightly shocked to see a group of bearded men with pistols in their belts, with Elena on horseback at their head. To the Baileys Roerich would narrate the long saga of his most fascinating journey across Central Asia, unparalleled in many ways, which had started in Darjeeling five years before. He thanked Bailey heartily for all the assistance he rendered to the American expedition, including the resending of his SOS telegrams to New York, without realizing – despite his great perspicacity and that of his Masters – that he was under suspicion by the British for a long time and that it was his amiable host, the PO in Sikkim, who was respon-

50 51 52

Portniagin 1998, 100. Roerich, N. 1996, 384. Ibid., 393.

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figure 43 Left to right, sitting, Mrs. F.M. Bailey, Nikolai and Elena Roerich; standing: Nikolai Kordashevsky, Yuri Roerich, unknown, Konstantin Riabinin, Frederick M. Bailey. Gangtok, Sikkim, 1928. NRM archive

sible for the detainment of his party on Changtang, having informed Lhasa that its leader was “a Red Russian”. The problems for Roerich with the British authorities started in 1926 when he mysteriously vanished from Urumchi and reappeared in Moscow where he was given a warm welcome by the Soviet leaders. Then in April 1927 the Peking and Tientsin Times carried an article which stated that Roerich was leading an expedition into Tibet, assisted by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The fact immediately aroused suspicion in the minds of British officials in Delhi and London. And there were other equally suspicious facts, such as Roerich’s many conflicting statements. For example, in Tibet Roerich would claim that he and his party were all Americans, while the British knew they were Russians, and moreover that his expedition was dispatched by the American government, which was not true either, as the British enquiry would later show. Finally, when Roerich was crossing the Tang-la Pass on the way to Shingdi, in early October 1927, Bailey learnt from one of his informants that the traveler whom he had met before was a Bolshevik agent! The fact was communicated by the Donyer in Urga to the Tibetan trade agent in Gyantse, Kusho Khenchung, and the latter reported it to Bailey, which immediately put the PO in Sikkim on the alert. As a result Bailey wrote a letter to Lhasa warning the Tibetan government of

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Roe­­rich’s intention to visit Tibet and that the person was a Bolshevik – a “Red Russian”.53 This news reached the Dalai Lama while Chapchaev was still in Lhasa and coupled with some other bad rumours about “Red Russians” flying around only deepened his suspicions of Bolshevik intrigue regarding Tibet. The Lama apparently did not know about the real purpose of the Roerich Buddhist mission, but even if he did, he would have hardly welcomed the idea of taking Western Buddhists under his wing, which actually meant opening up Lhasa to the West. On 10 December Bailey informed the Tibetan Ministers by telegram about Roerich’s reaching Nagchuka – though his party was then at Chunargen – and two weeks later (on 23 December) the Tibetans wired him back to say that they “are preventing admission” to Lhasa of the foreign party led by Rikden, which must be the same name as Roerich.54 And so they did. In the meantime, Bailey was receiving more information about Roerich’s mission from various sources that he would relay to his superiors in New Delhi as well as to the Government of Bengal in Calcutta. An experienced Great Gamer, he was just doing his job, trying to keep out of Lhasa his country’s adversaries, Bolshevik Russians. As soon as Bailey learned that Roerich’s party had left Nagchu and was moving towards the Indo-Sikkimese border, he intervened again, pressing Kashag (Tibet’s State Council) to send urgent messengers to prevent the travelers from coming to Sikkim and India. Yet he failed this time. The Government of India, having considered all the pros and cons, decided to permit Roerich to reenter India, via Sikkim. In the opinion of the head of the Foreign and Political Department, “as the party have got so far it would be better to allow them to enter India on the specific conditions that they will proceed forthwith to their destination by sea” (i.e. to the United States, and where else could they go?). “If they infringed this condition they would be deported. They would on the whole be less likely to prove mischievous this way than if they were given a further period of sojourn in Tibet, while interest of the American Government in the party and the inevitable publicity attaching to the affairs of a man of Roerich’s artistic reputation make it desirable to avoid any action which might be construed as inhumane”.55 While chatting with Roerich at Gangtok, Bailey discovered much to his surprise that the artist and his companions were not what he thought them to be: “The party gave me the impression of being anti-Bolshevik. The whole conver53 54 55

NAI, doc. 76, Letter from F.M. Bailey, Camp Yatung, 6 October 1927, p. 22; also doc. 137, letter from Bailey, Camp Gyantse, 10 July 1928, p. 41. Ibid., doc. 83, telegram P, from Bailey, Gangtok, 23 December 1927, p. 24. Ibid., doc. 93, telegram P. to Secretary of State for India, 19 April 1928, p. 26.

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sation of the Roerich family was to the effect that they had done with Russia. One of Professor Roerich’s sons is already an American citizen, and the rest of the family were only waiting for formalities before they also adopted American citizenship. They could not understand why the Tibetans thought they were Russians”. Nikolai and Elena spoke of Bolsheviks rather negatively again. Moreover, they gave away to Bailey everything they knew about Chapchaev’s secret mission to Lhasa which was a subject of much concern for the British at that time, especially in the light of the diplomatic rupture with the Soviets in 1927. (“They knew about Tsepag Dorji whose real Russian name is Shipshaeff or Chipshaeff. He is, they said, a very dangerous communist and a member of Comintern”.56) And, of course, they talked much about the Panchen Lama and his plans to return to Tibet: “Wherever they went, both in Mongolia and Tibet, they found the people very anxious for news of the Tashi Lama. There were rumours that he was coming to Tibet with a Chinese army”. (While staying in Tengri Dzong, on the way to Gangtok, the Roerichs learned that a war had broken out in Eastern Tibet (Kham) – the local tribes revolted against the Lhasa rulers and the latter had to move their troops into the region, as Yuri recorded in his diary.57 On 26 May, having obtained the necessary permission from Bailey, the Roerichs, together with six other Russians, left Gangtok by car for Darjeeling. There a few days later (on 31 May) they parted with their companions – Riabinin, Kordashevskii, Portniagin and Golubin – for good, as it turned out. Dr. Riabinin would return to Leningrad, Kordashevskii to Riga, Portniagin to Harbin,58 and Golubin to Tientsin.

…

Upon his arrival in Darjeeling Roerich, on 13 June, wrote again to the Dalai Lama – the Most Incomparable Protector of all Living Creatures – and the State Council of Tibet. His wounded pride urged him to vent his grievances against his offenders, yet Roerich no doubt also wanted to produce a historical record to account for the failure of his Buddhist mission. In this missive he demanded an explanation of the humiliating treatment to which he, as someone whose “name is honoured in 25 great countries”, was subjected by the Tibetan officials. 56

57 58

Ibid., doc. 125, letter from F.M. Bailey, 26 May 1928, p. 36. According to Bailey, Roerich also wrote to Lhasa to warn the Dalai Lama against Chapchaev’s Bolshevik mission, see doc. 137, p. 41. Roerich, G. 1931, 470, entry for 4 May 1928. Of the later lives of Riabinin, Kordashevskii and Portniagin, see Topchiev, Rosov 1997, 165–179; Peshkova 1998, 107–114; Rosov 1999, 317–342.

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In particular the artist wished to know why his expedition was detained for five months in the Changtang and why the local inhabitants were forbidden to sell foodstuffs to him, which resulted in the casualty of many men and animals.59 The Tibetan ministers were obviously baffled by Roerich’s letter and probably also slightly scared as Roerich stated he would report the incident to the “Most Lofty Government of the USA”, so it was only natural that they turned to F.M. Bailey for advice. In their letter to the PO in Sikkim of 19 October 1928 the Tibetans offered their own interpretation of the dramatic happenings, which, incidentally, evidenced their hostile attitude to Soviet Russia: You know that foreigners are not allowed to come to Tibet casually and in case of Roerich, particularly after the fact of his being a Red Russian had been brought to our notice, we could not allow him to come to Tibet. Accordingly we had him stopped at Nagchuka and persuaded him to go back from there. Meanwhile there had been an unusually heavy snow fall in the northern region and many ponies and camels belonging to the party died of the intense cold. They also ran short of foodstuffs. They fell sick owing to the rigours of the climate. In other words, they were put to great hardship and it was simply impossible for them to go back. They therefore, of their own accord, went to India through Sikkim, following the Changtang route. We sent you a detailed report about this on the 1st day of the 4th month (20th May) 1928.60 Bailey obviously found himself in a rather awkward situation as the Tibetan authorities had acted under British instructions in refusing Roerich entry into Tibet. So he recommended them that in their reply to Roerich they refer to the “stringent orders” against the entry of any foreigners into Tibet by the Northern route issued by their Government “after the outbreak of revolution in Russia”.61 He was relieved to know that Roerich’s mission was in fact a private one and was not sent by the American government, as Roerich claimed. But if so, his demand for an explanation from the Tibetan Government was obviously “a piece of impertinence” from his side and Britain’s reputation was not damaged in any way.

59 60 61

OIOR, L/P & S/10/1145, pp. 309–311. Roerich’s list of casualties included five men and 90 caravan animals (out of 107) that “perished from want of food and fodder”. Ibid., 306–307. Ibid., p.  303, Bailey’s letter to the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, New Delhi, 3 November 1928.

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Back in the USSR from Tibet, Chapchaev too had a story to tell about Roerich to his superiors. Thus in his interview at the Oriental Department of OGPU on 27 July 1928 he claimed that he had heard of the Roerich expedition in Tibet for the first time at Nagchu on his return journey to Mongolia (which must have been in mid-December 1927). Roerich was rumoured to be camping with his caravan at Chunargen, but when Chapchaev arrived at the place he did not find Roerich there. “On the way to Lhasa”, Chapchaev stated further, “Roerich conducted some anti-Soviet agitation, saying, at the time when he was detained by the local authorities and not admitted to Lhasa, that “You let pass the real Red (Russians) but are halting me who is a pure Buddhist”.62 In the same year, sometime after Chapchaev, another visitor turned up at the OGPU headquarters – Dr. Riabinin to report about the results of the Roerich expedition personally to Trilisser. To the chief of the Foreign Department he spoke inter alia of his travel notes, a most detailed expedition record, and his plans to publish it in the USSR. And indeed in 1929 Riabinin would offer the manuscript of his chronicle, entitled Razvenchannyi Tibet (Tibet Demystified), to the State Publishing House, Gosizdat, in Moscow, yet the editors there found it unsuitable for publication. They did not say why, but Riabinin guessed it was perhaps because his travelogue was too bulky. (When published in Russia in 1996, it made quite an impressive volume of over 700 pages.) Yet the genuine reason was most likely the content of the book, the story of Roerich’s obscure Buddhist mission and a too negative portrayal of modern Tibet and Tibetans. In early 1930, by which time the political climate within the USSR radically changed and the notorious OGPU spy-hunting had already begun, Konstantin Riabinin was arrested in Leningrad. He was accused of belonging to a counterrevolutionary organization “working under the flag of the study of Buddhism and masonry, but actually having espionage aims” and sentenced to five years hard labor.63 The organization, according to OGPU records, was headed and sponsored by “Academician N. Roerich” while one of its active members, all of whom were living in Leningrad, was Boris Roerich. The latter would also find himself in the Gulag, in 1931, serving a tree-year term, though luckily not in the taiga labor camp, but in the OGPU-run soft-regime sharashka – a special “construction bureau” set up within the prison. There, along with other convicted architects and engineers, Boris Roerich would take part in the designing of the OGPU’s new headquarters in Leningrad, commonly known as the “Big House”. Despite the cases fabricated against Dr. Riabinin and Boris Roerich, but really targeted at Nikolai Roerich, the artist was not stigmatized as a spy in the 62 63

See Andreyev 2003, 316. See Topchiev, Rosov 1997, 166–167.

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Soviet press of the late 1920s – early 1930s. Moreover, his Central-Asian expedition received some positive coverage in several popular Soviet journals mainly owing to E. Gollerbach,64 whom Roerich – unjustly – had entered into the list of his ill-wishers. Gollerbah’s piece, “The Journey of the artist Roerich”, published in 1931 quoted some excerpts from the Altai-Himalaya in Russian translation and praised Roerich’s expedition as one that yielded “the most valuable results in artistic and ethnographic relations”. We do not know if Roerich was aware of these Soviet publications. Yet, judging by Bailey’s first hand reports on their meeting at Gangtok and Riabinin’s confessions to the OGPU interrogator, he turned strongly anti-Soviet again in 1927–1928. And the following year Roerich’s rupture with the Soviets became imminent when the Main Concession Committee by its decree of 30 May 1929 deprived the Beluha Corporation of its right to conduct further prospecting in the Altai area. The formal reason for such a decision was given as L. Horch’s clearly dragging out the business, not having started prospecting in 1928, as was agreed before, which signaled to Moscow that the American concession holder was not really interested in the region. And indeed in his letter to Glavcontseskom of 24 September 1928 Horch requested permission to postpone the exploration work to a later period as he was too busy then with other projects on his hands, such as the construction of a skyscraper in New York.65 Yet there seems to have been a more substantial argument for Moscow to break up with the Americans – Roerich’s anti-Soviet utterances made in Tibet and India which became known to the Soviet leaders. 64 65

See Viktorov 1929, 15; Gollerbakh 1930, 19–20, and Gollerbakh 1931, 75–78. Rosov 2002a, 213–214.

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Between the Himalayas and New York City Great is the magnetism of the Himalayas. Nowhere one will find such a mountain realm. N. Roerich, 1940

…

We live by the ideals of the great Teachers. E. Roerich

⸪ Back in Darjeeling the Roerichs reinstalled themselves in their old home, Tolai Phobrang. Their five-year-long journey over, it was time for them now to go back to America, yet they did not want to return. The Roerichs had already received a new commission from their Master – to set up a scientific station on the Himalayas under the name of Urusvati – the “Morning star” in Sanskrit, being Elena’s esoteric name. This was to develop eventually into their longed-for City of Knowledge and even more, into a new center of Buddhism in Asia to disseminate Elena’s neo-Buddhist doctrine. The idea of “Zvenigorod on the Altai” was not abandoned altogether, but it certainly receded to the background for some time, until the apocalyptic year of the second coming of the Messiah in 1936. On 7 September 1927, after Roerich’s party had ascended Changang, Morya proposed an “elevation” of the old plan: “the height of the Altai should be exceeded by that of the Himalaya”. Hence the City of Urusvati was to become “the Centre of the Spirit” and Zvenigorod “the Seat of Government” of a new multinational polity, the “United States of Asia”.1 Before crossing from Tibet into Sikkim, Elena channeled another message from the Master, reminding her of His new commission assigned to the family, now that they had fulfilled successfully their “Tibetan task”: “the City of Knowledge for Europe and America, Vidya Nagar for India, will be the new Lhasa for Tibet and Mongolia. Purification of

1 Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 1, 540, entry for 7 September 1927; see also Rosov 2005, 256.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_017

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Buddhism should be your task. The Foundations of Buddhism are already doing their work”.2 The scientific station named Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute would not emerge until 1929 when the Roerichs finally settled in the Kulu Valley, at the foot of the Himalayas. However its foundation date was given in official records as July 12 or 24, 1928, when the Roerichs were still in Darjeeling.3 This alternative antedating needs some explanation. We know that Elena and Nikolai were keen on occult numerology and had their favourite or auspicious numbers: 17 and 24. The latter one was particularly important to them, as on March 24, 1920, Elena had allegedly met her Masters in London. Since that time the 24th of any month became a special Masters-favored day for the Roerichs. Thus it should not be a surprise that 24 July 1928 was adopted by them as Urusvati’s official foundation date. As for July 12, the date was given by Yuri Roerich as director of the institute in his 1931 Annual Report, but was then “corrected” by his father, Urusvati’s President-Founder. The year 1928 was apparently chosen to keep up with the occult chronological triad given by the Master in the early 1920s: 1928–1931–1936, when some global events of paramount importance were destined to take place. Looking into Elena’s diary, we find there surprisingly no mention of the Urusvati station in the entry for July 24. Yet the day before she channeled an important message from her Master: “I sanction the construction of the City, west of [Lake] Manasarovar”.4 So that was how the Urusvati foundation date seems to have appeared, with a little change of July 23rd into 24th. The same message carried an indication of the place where the station was to be started. Yet the spot “west of Lake Manasarovar”, is in southern Tibet, not in India proper (!), half-way between Leh and Shigatse, in the area traversed by the major caravan route. This means that he station was originally conceived by the Roerichs so as to facilitate their access to both Tashilhunpo monastery of the Panchen Lama and to the Tibetan Ashram of their Masters believed to be located somewhere outside Shigatse ! On 12 August, the Roerichs welcomed in Darjeeling their co-workers Sina Lichtmann and Frances Grant. They traveled to India to hear some of the latest news from their gurus, but also to investigate, on behalf of the Roerich Museum, the sponsor of the Central Asian expedition, the causes of its “forceful 2 Rerikh, E. 2006, entry for 17 May 1928. 3 The former date (12 July 1928) was given in the Annual report of Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute signed by its Director, George Roerich (see Roerich, G. 1931b, 67); the latter one (24 July 1928) can be found in the Address of the President-Founder of the Institute on the occasion of its third anniversary, i.e. N. Roerich, 1931, included in Rerikh, N. 1932, 299. 4 See: http://lebendige-ethik.net/fremd/tetrad26_28.06.1928-10.11.1928.html

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detainment” in Tibet. Shortly after (on 20 August) they were joined by Sviatoslav (Svetik), head of Corona Mundi. During the years when his parents and elder brother were travelling in Central Asia, he made a successful carrier as a portrait-painter, having won in 1926 the Grand Prix at the exhibition in Philadelphia commemorating the 150th anniversary of independence of the United States. Like his father, Sviatoslav was a versatile personality – an art collector who amassed a large collection of old Tibetan tangkas and a student of herbal medicine. He was also taking interest in the curative effect of ultra-violet and other rays, and alchemy, the study of which was particularly encouraged by his mother. Sviatoslav enjoyed his life in New York and wanted to be naturalized in America. His parents and the Master did not object. On the contrary, Elena welcomed the idea: “We are all thankful to America for its hospitality and we’ll be happy to have you as an American [national]”.5 The meeting of Sina and Frances with the Roerichs was very emotional, like a reunion of children with their beloved parents after long separation. Nikolai, in Sina’s words, “looked splendid as before”, he was full of youthful energy and vivacity, though his beard was touched with grey. Elena too was in good looks, despite all the suffering she went through. Dressed in white and still beautiful, she resembled an ethereal creature when she stepped out of the house; a divinelooking Urusvati, or Tara, or simply Mother as everyone in the Circle addressed her. “She is brimming with love; she kissed us and gave us her warm embraces”, Sina wrote in her diary. “We are so happy to be with them. It’s a great happiness for me to see them every year – it’s like in a dream. I could give away everything for their sake, and I feel so strongly their love for me”.6 Elena recounted to her dear guests the sad story of the expedition, how they all were dying of cold and hunger on the Tibetan upland, and still “what a real wonder it was to be there”! She also outlined briefly their plans for the future – they would spend the following year, on their Master’s advice, in Darjeeling to lay the foundations of “the scientific station” and then they would “go into the mountains”, that is, to their Master’s Himalayan Ashram. The distance to it from the station, she said, could be covered in three and half weeks. Elena also recalled the miraculous incident on Changtang when all of them saw the “eggshaped flying machine” of the Brothers. Inside the machine were Brother Djual Kul and another mahatma in their densified astral bodies flying to the Tashi Lama to inform him of the Roerichs’ whereabouts (!).7 (As the reader will re-

5 6 7

Letter from Elena to Sviatoslav, dated 12 January [1927], N. Roerich Museum, New York. Fosdik 2002, 283, entry for 12 August 1928. Ibid., 286 and 301, entries for 13 and 23 August 1928.

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member, Nikolai interpreted the event quite differently: the Brothers were returning to Tibet after their meeting with the Tashi Lama in Mukden.8) Despite all their trials, the failure of the Beluha project and of their Buddhist mission, Nikolai’s and Elena’s faith in the Masters remained unshaken. This only proves that they were true believers and real zealots – podvizhniki, as Russians say. Only Yuri sometimes expressed heretical ideas – for example, he could not accept Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine as a scholarly work and asked for proofs, which made his mother angry. Chatting with Sina, Elena admitted that Yuri was “difficult” and an “alarmist”, having many fears and doubts. This, she explained, was because Yuri was “a very old spirit, a stubborn one, who does not want to take up a new path”. (“Living with them and seeing daily the miracle of their lives, he still does not fully believe”, Sina commented in her diary.9) But so was Sviatoslav, who did not take his mother’s Agni-Yoga seriously at first, probably because he knew too well how the new teaching was growing out of fairly primitive and obscure spiritualistic messages. Sviatoslav too caused much trouble to Elena: living in New York, out of their control, he indulged in various amusements typical for a freelance artist of his age – flirted with women, kept a “bad company”, and earned money through stockjobbing. This made Elena very unhappy and in her letters to Svetik, her pet boy, she tried to put him on the right track by constantly quoting her Master’s admonitions. Eventually she had to think of some kind of excuse for Svetik: “If he is engaged in [financial] speculations, let him do it; it’s alright for the time being as long as he spends the money on his studies of art. Logvan too earned his capital by speculation”. Having known of Svetik’s latest passion, Miss Catherine Campbell-Stibbe, a newcomer in the New York Circle – a beautiful woman, who was six years older than he was, she had to reconcile with the fact. “Let him do as he wants”, she told Sina. “It’s his karma… So let him walk his way”.10 As for Yuri’s relations with Mara, Elena did not take them seriously from the beginning. In her words, Yuri could either “flirt with mademoiselle Manziarly, or enter the circle of the Russian aristocratic jeunesse dorée, into which his [Parisian friends] tried to draw him. The former was the lesser evil of the two, so the Master let it happen”.11 On 17 August Frances wrote a formal letter to the Tibetan trade agent at Gyantse. In this she accused the Tibetan authorities of the “unprecedented and cruel treatment accorded to the American Expedition under the leadership of 8 9 10 11

Portniagin 1998, 27. Fosdik 2002, 356–357, entry for 26 September 1928; 368–369, entry for 2 October 1928. Ibid., 350, entry for 22 October 1928. Ibid., 368–369, entry for 2 October 1928.

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the world renowned artist, Professor Nicholas Roerich”, and asked that she be informed about the reply to Roerich’s earlier letter to the Dalai Lama and the State Council of Tibet he must have received from Lhasa. The document was to be included in the Report to be allegedly submitted by the Roerich Museum investigators to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Senate.12 The Roerichs apparently expected some formal apologies from the Tibetans, yet they received none and we already know why. The next day Nikolai, Yuri and their guests went to Ghum monastery where they found a sympathetic atmosphere and were welcomed by its abbot, the family’s old friend, whom they now spoke of as “the second spiritual figure in Tibet after the Tashi Lama”. The party attended a Buddhist service and Nikolai, before leaving, hung the Order of the All-Conquering Buddha, the one intended for the Dalai-Lama, on the neck of the Buddha Maitreya.13 (The precious token would be subsequently removed from the statue and appropriated by the head of the Darjeeling police, Laden La, as Roerich learned later.14 Pretending to be a friend of Roerich, Laden La kept a close watch on him and passed whatever information he could gather to the British.) Roerich’s rift with Moscow made him turn willy-nilly in the opposite direction as he was now trying to pose as a good friend of the British. After all, the Roerichs wanted to stay in India to launch their Urusvati project, so they had to turn their foes into friends. On 9 September Nikolai and Yuri accompanied by Sina and Frances travelled to Simla to meet the Viceroy of India Lord Irwin. The audience was arranged through the medium of one of the British top officials Sir Denys Bray (the Foreign Secretary to the Foreign & Political Department at the Government of India) and was followed by a luncheon given by the Viceroy in the Roerichs’ honor. This was a rather formal occasion “for men only”, much to Sina’s and Frances’s disappointment. Reporting about the event to Bailey on his return from Simla, Nikolai would write: “His Excellency the Viceroy is a most charming personality and his gracious reception of me shall serve as a memorable recollection”.15 12 13 14

15

NAI, Foreign and Political Department, file 331(2), X (1926–1927), doc. 151, pp. 45–46. Roerich did so following the advice of the Master, channeled by Elena on 5 May 1928. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, p. 9, entry for 16 April 1929. In the words of a theosophist Laura Finch, a resident of Darjeeling, Laden La “is really the greatest detective in the world and, if the truth were known, he holds in his hands the fate of thousands” (letter from Laura Finch to E. Lichtmann, Dehra Dun, 12 October 1930, E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 6). NAI, Foreign and Political Department, file 331(2)-X of 1925: Notes, doc. 153, p. 18, semiofficial letter from Prof. N. Roerich to Col. F.M. Bailey, 21 September 1928.

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While talking to the artist, the Viceroy questioned him about his expedition and his impressions of Tibet, and he also showed interest in Roerich’s plans for establishing a scientific station in the Himalayas of which he had heard recently. So Roerich handed to the Viceroy the two-page prospectus of the future station specially compiled for the occasion, the earliest blueprint of his enterprise known to us. The opening paragraph of the document explained what the artist was after and how actually his project started. “On August 5th a letter reached me from Mr. Louis L. Horch, President of the Roerich Museum, …informing me that a group of Americans is anxious to establish a Scientific Station on the foot-hills of the Himalayas. There it is hoped to cultivate those healing plants for which these places are so famed as well as to conduct scientific observations”. 16 What “group of Americans” was Roerich talking about when the idea of the station belonged entirely to him and Elena? The artist was apparently trying to back up his initiative and give more weight to it in the eyes of British Indian authorities. Therefore he added another paragraph to say that “further details of the splendid and humane project”, were “brought to him” by Mrs. Sina Lichtmann and Miss Frances R. Grant – a clever subterfuge as the women could always corroborate his statement. “The American group”, continued the prospectus, asked Roerich for his “assistance and cooperation in organizing [the station] and in acquiring land for this purpose”. The program of research was outlined by Roerich very briefly at this initial stage. The immediate objects of the station were two: cultivation of “a scientifically conducted plantation” of medical herbs, and staging some physical experiments, as the altitude of the Himalayas furnished “unique opportunity” for these. What kind of physical phenomena Roerich planned to study remains unclear from the prospectus, but when meeting Denys Bray shortly before his trip to Simla he told him that the station would “register magnetic currents”. Two years later in a letter to the New Yorkers Elena would further clear up this point: “The discoveries of new cosmic rays, which bring to humanity new precious energies, is possible only on the mountain summits because all the finest and most valuable energies are found only in the pure layers of mountain atmosphere. Fiery atmospheric manifestations also could be observed here and the so-called ‘Himalayan lights’ can often be seen”.17 Thus, getting to the bottom of Roerich’s project, the Himalayan scientific station was to become a testing ground for Elena’s advanced Agni-Yoga theories to prove the reality of the “visibly invisible” world and ultimately a platform for creating new syn16 17

See Urusvati Himalayan American Scientific Station, Darjeeling, September 8, 1928, N. Roerich Museum, New York, typewritten copy. See: www.roerichtrust.org/urusvati.htm.

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thetic science, one that would combine the old (Newtonian-Cartesian) scientific tradition with the occult knowledge of the spirit and “subtle energies” as expounded in Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine and evidenced personally by Elena through her “fiery experience”. Towards this end the Roerichs somewhat later would make plans for building a special biochemical laboratory – to be run by Yuri’s Harvard buddy, chemist Vladimir Pertsov – and a meteorological observatory. These new facilities (the laboratory and the hill-side observatory) were to promote some pioneer experimental research, including the study of Himalayan and Tibetan pharmacopoeia, under Sviatoslav’s guidance, with a view to its practical application in medicine, and that of “subtle” rays or “energies”, both physical and psychic. The laboratory, the construction of which would be completed only in 1933, was the “sancta sanctorum” of the Urusvati Institute. According to V. Rosov, it was basically to focus on the study of the “primordial energy”, lying at the basis of biochemical processes in nature – in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. That energy was called “mental” (Rus. ментал), a mysterious and all-pervading invisible substance like ether, believed to be the source of “psychic energy”.18 The Urusvati Institute, the hard core of the future City of Knowledge, was apparently another mammoth project of the Roerichs; brilliantly conceived thanks to the couple’s fertile imagination, it was hard to be realized. Therefore right from the start Roerich thought of cooperating with the world’s leading scientists and businessmen whose names were given in the prospectus, such as the Indian biologist Jagadish Bose, physicists Albert Einstein and Robert A.­ ­Millikan from Caltech (both Nobel laureates), orientalists Dennison Ross, Aurel Stein, Charles Lanman and Jacques Bacot (the latter two were Yuri’s teachers at Harvard and Sorbonne), financiers and businessmen F. Trabold, C.N. Rosenthal, L. Horch, and some of his American and Indian friends and sympathizers – Charles R. Crane, James C. Bennett (Vice-President of the Westinghouse Electric Company), Rabindranath Tagore, and Robert Frazer (the U.S. Consul-General in India). The list of these potential collaborators and patrons of the Urusvati looked quite impressive, though none of these people would actually participate in the project. At the incipient stage the investigations were to be conducted in the three areas – collecting samples of Himalayan flora and fauna, archeological survey and linguistic research (study of local dialects and folklore, being entirely Yuri’s prerogative). These tasks, though laborious and time-consuming, were certainly fully realistic and practicable. Sina and Frances stayed with the Roerichs in Darjeeling for two and half months. They spent this time helping Elena translate into English her latest 18

See Rosov 1998, 172, 185.

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writings and Nikolai his expedition diary and some of his essays, including the famous Shambhala, the Resplendent. And in the evening they would all sit together at the table for Agni Yoga readings and a “talk” with the Master through Elena as became a daily practice for the family. After the Roerichs had moved to Talai Phobrang the Master suggested to Elena a new “method of communication”: “One day I will dictate, as usual, and the next [day] you all will sit by the table, having placed your hands on it, and we’ll talk about various things. By the table movement, I’ll affirm or warn”.19 There was a special place reserved for the Master in the house – His Chair, covered with a piece of blue brocade, kept in Elena’s study, on which no one was allowed to sit. Looking at it intently, one was supposed to visualize mentally the invisible Teacher as someone real and Elena was always there to channel and interpret His messages. While in Simla, Sina became Elena’s pet pupil and a most trusted co-worker to whom she would reveal some of the secrets she learned from the Masters. The most stunning one was about the impending global catastrophe to take place in the year 1977, although the Brothers were working hard to prevent it. If it happened, all Teachers along with their “earthly co-workers” would go to either Venus or the “new planet” which was being formed behind Venus. The rest of mankind would go to Saturn.20 “We will carry our best achievements to Venus where we’ll continue the evolution right from that very moment”, she confided to Sina and Frances. “The conditions thereon will be much more favorable for the best part of humanity going there than on the earth, which belongs to Lucifer who, aspiring after the material weal, deprived our planet from communication with the distant worlds”.21 (Sina was asked not to divulge this great secret to anybody in the Circle, especially the date of the catastrophe, as this might damp their ardour and they would not work as intensely as they should.) As for Elena, she believed she had a special mission assigned to her by the Masters – to serve as “a spacious link” to prove, in her physical body, the possibility of direct communication with distant worlds. Curiously, a da-yig arrowletter the Roerichs received from an aksakal at Tengri-dzong was in fact “a magnetic arrow sent from the Venus”, according to Elena.22 The senders were, of course, the Brothers! Elena also claimed that the Brothers were conducting a very important experiment on her, using the advanced methods of Agni Yoga, the most powerful 19 20 21 22

Rerikh, E. 2006, entry for 31 May 1928. Fosdik 2002, 287, entry for 14 August 1928. Ibid., 344, entry for 24 September 1928. The episode is recounted in Roerich, G. 1931, 470 and ff., entry for 5 May 1928. The letter was actually delivered to the aksakal by a messenger from Lhasa and then passed on to Roerich.

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yoga needed for human evolution. Although it was a very painful process, she was determined to carry on to the end. She apparently imagined herself to be someone like Prometheus, performing a heroic act, podvig, for the sake of all humanity! She told Sina she was suffering badly from the pain in her back and therefore could sleep only on her belly, and her ears were likewise aching because of some strange noises she was hearing in her head – the “music of the spheres”. The new moral precepts articulated by Elena may appear very strange and even immoral from the standpoint of conventional morality, yet they were ­alright within the frame-work of Agni Yoga. “If someone’s consciousness has elevated to the highest point of acquiring the knowledge of the spirit”, she ­asserted, “the person can kill and do many other strange things, yet he will be right. And let him, who has attained this level, do the same”.23 And Elena also pronounced the new formula for everyone in the Circle to follow in his/her day-to-day life: “expedience and commensuration” which was to replace the old one, “the end justifies the means, if it is for good”. But who could tell what was expedient and commensurable and what was not? Apparently, Agni-yogis themselves, the Roerichs.

…

On November 1 Sina and Frances parted with the Roerichs and went back to New York. With them Elena and Nikolai sent to the Circle their latest instructions, their new writings ready to go to press, as well as an old Rajput casket to be placed in the aperture of the corner-stone to be laid at the foundation of the new Master-Building. (The ceremony of the laying of the corner-stone would take place on 24 March 1929 in the presence of a host of specially invited guests of high standing.) The casket was purchased by Nikolai in an antique shop in Calcutta, where he proceeded from Simla in the company of Yuri, Sina and Frances.24 The next day when the party returned to Darjeeling (on 20 September), Elena learned from the Master that it was he who had sent the casket (!). Morya also told her what items were to be inserted into it – his portrait, the letter written on a piece of bark and some Tibetan coins. The key to the casket was to be buried by the old stupa (the one near Ghum). 25 23 24 25

Ibid., 355, entry for 25 September 1928. Ibid., 342, entry for 19 September 1928. See: http://lebendige-ethik.net/fremd/tetrad26_28.06.1928–10.11.1928.html. According to V. Rosov, N. Roerich also put into the casket some photos from his Central Asian expedition and “a letter about the New Country”, being a personal message of the Master, see Rosov 2004a, 273.

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Towards the end of the year the Roerichs abandoned Darjeeling and headed for Simla in the Western Himalayas – to look for a new home in India and a place to start the Urusvati station. They were accompanied on the trip by the Bogdanov sisters, Raisa and Liudmila, and Vladimir Shibaev. The latter joined the Roerichs in Darjeeling on October 1 and he would stay with the family until the late 1930s acting as Nikolai’s secretary. His business in Riga did not go well and had to be liquidated, the more so that since Roerich’s breach with Moscow, due to the “apostasy of the Russians”, in the Master’s words, there was no more need of the World Service corporation originally started by Nikolai as “a window” on Soviet Russia. The Roerichs had already decided that they should settle down in the Kulu Valley! The ancient valley of Kulu or Kuluta lay to the north of Simla, along the riverbed of Beas, and was covered with the glory of India’s great past. Here on the banks of Beas lived the rishis, the legendary authors of the sacred books of Vedas and other Indian sages. This was the same Beas or Hypathos of the ancient Greeks which was “the boundary of Alexander the Great’s aspirations” as his army stopped here and did not go further. The same river Hypathos was also connected with the name of Apollonius of Tyana so greatly venerated by the Roerichs. Through Kulu passed the Buddha and the great teacher Padma Sambhava and here in the old days prospered dozens of Buddhist monasteries and dwelt many other personages of India’s legendary history. The valley was also known for its beauty and a most spectacular mountainscape, with the mountains, on either side of the valley, soaring into the sky and vanishing in the low-hanging clouds. Their slopes were covered with forests of pine and giant deodars, grassy meadows, bright flower carpets and sprawling fruit orchards. In short, it was almost a heavenly place, a dreamland which fully deserved its name of the Valley of the Gods. While in Simla Nikolai met the Maharaja of Mandi, a tiny princely state in northern Punjab, from whom he learned about his estate in Naggar, in the Kulu Valley, which stood empty at the moment as the raja and his rani preferred to live abroad. So the Roerichs went to Naggar and they liked the villa and its scenic environs and decided to buy the estate from the raja.26 To this end Nikolai immediately started negotiations with the raja’s agent (his steward) Donald, residing in Naggar. 26

There is a slightly different version of how Roerich purchased the estate in Kulu, which comes from V. Shibaev. According to him, the Raja suggested that Roerich contact “a planter” in Kulu, one Donald, who owned several houses, so the artist wrote him a letter at once to which Donald replied saying that that he had an empty villa in Naggar and that he was ready to lease it; see P.F. Belikov, “V Gimalaiakh”, in Rerikh, N. 1978, 207.

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The villa the Roeichs moved into was named “Manor” or “Hall Estate”. It was a stone, square (15 by 15 m), two-storey building atop a hill, seen from a distance. Its unusually thick walls made it look like a fortress but such was the fancy of the person who built it, Colonel Henry Rennick, a participant in the 1885 Burma campaign. This house which provided a most spectacular view of the Himalayas became a haven for the Roerichs who would spend here the next 20 years. It was here that Elena would finally complete the long series of her Agni Yoga books. The Roerichs themselves would speak of the place as their Himalayan Ashram and Esther Lichtmann would call it the House of Fulfillment. The interior space of the house was segmented by two parallel walls into 18 rooms (9 on each floor) – the corner ones (4 by 4 m), the intermediate rooms (7 by 4 m) and two spacious interior halls (7 by 7 m). The ground floor accommodated Shibaev’s room and his office, Nikolai Roerich’s studio, Yuri’s study and the servants’ room; the first floor – Elena’s study, Elena’s and Nikolai’s room, Sviatoslav’s studio and his and Yuri’s bedrooms. Above the main entrance to the house there was a roofed balcony from which opened a most breath-taking view of the entire Kulu Valley. There was also a greenhouse laid out in front of the building, much to Elena’s delight. The kitchen was located in a separate annex, as was the custom in India; there was no running water in the house – the water for the kitchen and the bathrooms (there were two of them on each floor) was brought on mules by a local water-carrier who drew it from a mountain spring in the nearby forest.

figure 44 The Roerichs’ house at Naggar, 2008, photo by Ernst von Waldenfels

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figure 45 View of the Himalayas from the Roerichs’ house at Naggar, 2008, photo by Ernst von Waldenfels

In general the “Hall Estate” was quite a secluded place – very few visitors came to see Nikolai, Elena and Yuri, its permanent residents, and in winter the family became totally isolated as the path to the house got snow-bound. It was actually a steep four-mile long mountain road starting at Katrain, a village south of Naggar, and leading upwards straight to the Roerichs’ villa. One could get by motor-car only as far as the Katrain Bridge over the Beas River, so the family had their garage down there. The artist would usually send someone to the bridge to meet his rare guests and bring them to his residence.27 The three Roerichs with their household, including Shibaev and their two attendants, Raisa and Liudmila, lived like genuine hermits, at the “end of the habitable world”, as was the meaning of the word Kulu. A few hundred meters away from the villa upon a mountain slope there were some outhouses later to be used to accommodate the Urusvati Institute and its personnel. One of them was called Arcadia, the name reminiscent of the idyllic Greek paradise and perfectly befitting the place where the future magnificent City of Knowledge was to arise. The news of the Roerichs’ settling in Naggar and their plans to acquire some landed property there seriously alarmed the British, having revived their old suspicions concerning the artist. His projected “scientific station” in the Himalayas looked very much like a cover for some “ulterior designs”, given his earlier 27

Ibid., 209–210. Belikov’s account of the Hall Estate is largely based on Shibaev’s recollections.

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figure 46 N. Roerich outside the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, 1930s

figure 47 Urusvati Institute, 2008, photo by Ernst von Waldenfels

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secret trip to Moscow. And the source of the trouble was the artist himself who made vague and conflicting statements to various persons whom he tried to interest in his project. To the Viceroy he said that the station was intended for botanical and philological studies, to Sir Denys Bray – for registering magnetic currents, and to Sir John H. Marshall, director of the Indian Archeological Survey, he conveyed that the station would be engaged in the study of archeology. All this was true, yet the British authorities could not believe the artist was capable of conducting scientific research of such a vast and variegated scope. In the words of Col. Bailey, Roerich was “not straight and had things to conceal”, and we know today that this was so. As a result the Home Department refused Roerich’s request “on behalf of an American group” for permission to acquire land in Kulu, and he was made aware of the department’s decision by letter of the 14th of January 1929. Still Roerich was not discouraged – he proceeded stubbornly with his project and on 24 February (mind the lucky date!) concluded a deal with the Maharaja about the purchase of the ‘Hall Estate’. He even deposited Rs. 40,000 as advance payment out of Rs. 93,000, the negotiated cost of the property.28 This was a well-calculated step on Roerich’s part as now the British found it difficult to cancel the deal. (Instigated by the British, the Maharaja would try to return the deposit to Roerich yet he failed to do so). There was yet another cumbersome issue – Roerich’s travel documents. The family entered India in 1923 carrying the identity certificates issued to them by the Préfecture de police in Paris and they reentered the country in 1928 with the same documents though the elder Roerich, as we already know, possessed a Soviet passport, a fact he thoroughly concealed from the British. After talking to the Roerichs in Gangtok, Bailey came to think that they were in the process of being naturalized as American subjects while Sviatoslav was already an American citizen. However, the latter arrived in India in 1928 with the same French identity certificate, and his visa expired in January 1929. The British were most certain that the Roerichs would go back to the States of the own accord after their seven-month period of respite in India and therefore they did not bother the family. They only kept it under their “unobtrusive watch”. What the British did not know, however, was that the Roerichs were “under control”, for many years, of forces they believed to be much more powerful than the raj, the mahatmas. Be that as it may, Nikolai Roerich with his two sons left for America on the 22nd of May, having left behind his wife, Shibaev, the Bogdanov sisters and Esther Lichtmann. The latter arrived in Kulu, on Nikolai’s request, on 8 April to 28

NAI, Foreign and Political Department, file 331(2)-X of 1925: Notes: Doc. 178–179, pp. 20–21, Note in the Home Department.

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look after Elena in his absence. The diary Esther kept throughout her stay in Naggar, which would last, quite unexpectedly, for over two years, is a unique and most fascinating source of information on the Roerichs, their everyday doings, conversations and contacts and the peculiar mystic atmosphere of their Himalayan hermitage. Here is one of the first entries Esther made in the Hall Estate describing the family’s typical Agni Yoga séance: N.K. puts his hand on my shoulder to develop magnetism in me. When they [he, Yuri and Sviatoslav – A.A.] leave, I will sit daily with E.I. and M.M. will give us the books of the Hymns of the Mother of the World and the Mysteries of Hermes. The table is coming along much better. We sat all together afterwards, and once in three days Yuri will sit with us. Today we had an amazing séance. The table brought us to the next room, where the Teacher’s chair stands, and we all, standing on our knees, because the table was turned over, stayed by the Teacher’s chair. We were told about the Hymns of the Mother of the World. E.I. has read me from her records that already in 1927 they were told to lay the foundation of a city in the Himalayas. Also, that the Teacher will be [in the body of] densified Astral in 1936 and that E.I. will go with him to Venus.29 And of course the Roerichs believed all these predictions would come true, because the Master said so!

…

The purpose of N. Roerich’s coming to America was to reorganize his institutions there and give a new impetus to their development. He was overoptimistic as usual and brimful with ideas and plans, without sensing, of course, the impending economic catastrophe in the United States, the Great Depression, as the Masters gave no warning to Elena. Ironically, the Wall Street Crash – the Great Crash – which put an end to the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, occurred on “Black Thursday”, October 24 (mind the date again!), just a few days after the pompous inauguration of the new Roerich Museum. Yet nothing portended the disaster when Nikolas and Yuri (Sviatoslav remaining in Europe for a while) anchored, on the 18th of June, in New York harbor on the White Star liner Majestic. There both Roerichs were welcomed by the Mayor’s committee under their old friend Charles Crane on behalf of New York’s seven million inhabitants and their devotees and conducted through 29

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, p. 3, entry for 12 April 1929.

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the city by a special escort, straight to the newly-constructed Master Building sitting on Riverside Drive. The 29-story Skyscraper Master – named so after the Roerichs’ Invisible Teacher, Master Morya, – was designed and developed by Harvey Wiley Corbett30 of the firm of Helmle, Corbett & Harrison in association with Sugarman & Berger. Built in the Art Deco style like many other skyscrapers in New York of the period, the Master was an imposing structure towering above the neighboring apartment buildings. The design had some innovative features, such as panoramic corner windows, the first ones in New York, the stepped form of the building and the polychromic coloring of the façade, as the color of the brick veneer changed from a deep purple at the base to light gray at the top.31 The skyscraper terminated in an octagonal pinnacle which replaced the originally designed Buddhist stupa, with which both Nikolai and Elena wanted so much to crown the “House of the Master”. Yet Corbett rejected the idea as the steel skeleton of the stupa seemed to him to be out of proportion with the rest of the structure. (Corbett’s opinion was cabled to Nikolai when he was still in Kulu and it upset both him and Elena.32) The Master-Building was conceived by the Roerichs as a museum and an apartment hotel making one whole. The museum with its affiliated institutions (Master Institute of United Arts, Corona Mundi Art Center, Urusvati Institute etc.) were to occupy the three lower floors, while the hotel was to be accommodated in the 24 stories above. The underlying idea of the structure was to create a new type of urban dwelling by uniting arts with daily life. In general Roerich liked the outstanding exterior of the building with its steep vertical and the changing color which created “the effect of a growing thing” (in Corbett’s words) and he was particularly pleased to see the stepped black Corner-stone at its foundation with the Master’s logo on it, holding the casket with all its treasures. Yet he was disappointed with the design and furnishings of the interior, having found it “awful” and “ugly”, not up to his artistic 30

31

32

It was as early as 1925, as some researchers claim, that Nikolai Roerich contacted the architect and forwarded to him his own design of the building of 24 stories, intended to house his Museum, the Master-school, an art gallery, and 300-seat theatre, see Belikov, Kniazeva 1973, 197. On the architect, the style and the history of construction see: Report of Landmarks Preservation Committee, Dec. 5, 1989: http://masterapts.com/temp/building-history/histori cal-archive. Also, H.W. Corbett, “Architecture of the Master Building”, in Message, 1929. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, p. 41, entry for 4 May 1929 (“N.K. said that any ordinary lama could build a stupa. E.I. and N.K. wanted so much the House of the Teacher to be beautiful”).

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figure 48 The Master Building, designed by H.W. Corbett, 1929

figure 49 The Master Building ( façade). Photo by Mark Yoffe

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figure 50 The Master Building ( façade 2). Photo by Mark Yoffe

figure 51 Master Building (entrance). Photo by Mark Yoffe

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taste, and consequently all the defects had to be eliminated by the Roerichites themselves under his guidance. The next day (19 June) a grand reception was held in the Hall of the East of the Master which attracted about 500 people – Roerich’s admirers and followers as well as specially invited guests. The American press hailed Roerich almost as a national hero who returned home after his most perilous journey in Central Asia. According to New York Times, Professor Roerich spent four years in Tibet, China, Mongolia and “other distant countries” where he was “chased over mountain and desert by their unfriendly natives”. Now he was back to New York accompanied by his wife (?) and son. Among the twenty pieces of baggage that he brought back was “a leather box containing two shiny silk hats, which impressed the bandits in Tibet when worn with spats”. Yet the most amazing news for the American public was the expedition’s results: “Prof. Roerich said that they had found plentiful evidence in their extensive explorations in Tibet and Mongolia to support the theory that Central America was the cradle of humanity. In Mongolia the party found inhabitants who closely resembled the Latin races and others who are practically identical with the American Indians. In fact, he added, the Mongolians consider the Indians to be their ‘lost relatives’”.33 Mayor James Walker personally congratulated Roerich for his “contribution to science and history” at a reception given in his honor at City Hall the day after. While talking informally to the Mayor Nikolai remarked inter alia that the earliest known skyscraper was built in Tibet and it was seventeen stories high. (He did not tell the Mayor though that its builder was the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, i.e. himself in one of his former incarnations.)34 Three days later Nikolai and Yuri, accompanied by Louis Horch and Congressman Saul Bloom, traveled to Washington to meet President Herbert Hoover. (It was owing to S. Bloom that the Roerichs obtained American visas and it was he who had arranged the meeting at the White House.) The conversation with the president focused mainly on Central Asia and the artist underscored the great potentialities of northern Xinjiang for American trade. Roerich also spoke of his and his sons’ desire to be naturalized in the United States and he asked Hoover to accept from him as a gift one of his Himalayan paintings (this was not presented personally by the artist but sent to the White House by post). Upon his return to New York Nikolai cabled triumphantly to his wife in Kulu: “America is a fortunate country to have such a great man as Herbert Hoover as President. Greatly impressed by

33 34

New York Times, 19 June 1929, p. 22 (“Roerich returns; tells of his perils”). New York Times, 21 June 1929, p. 12 (“Mayor welcomes Roerich”).

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reception. President accepted painting and welcomes [the] idea for me to become American citizen”.35 Now that Roerich grew hostile to the Soviets again he quite naturally turned his gaze to America, “the country of future evolution”. Already in 1928 he told Sina: “If Hoover is elected [President] and Borah [chairman of the Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs – A.A.] keeps friendly to Moscow, we can start Ur ­[Corporation], of course with American engineers and without B[oris] K[onstantinovitch]”.36 When meeting Hoover in 1929 he passed him a letter in which he shared with the president some of his impressions of Central Asia and its peoples. In this he emphasized the racial affinity of Mongols and American Indians (those from Arizona and New Mexico). The Mongols, in his words, regarded the latter as their “brothers” and they called America, when they saw a picture of New York’s skyscrapers, “the Land of Shambhala” and “the Land of the Future”. Moreover, Roerich claimed that he saw Hoover’s photographic portrait cut from a magazine in a Mongolian temple and that the name of the American president was venerated by Mongols as it was etymologically related to the name of Kubera, the lord of wealth and a protector of the world (Lokapala) in Hindu mythology.37 Roerich’s admiration for Hoover had a simple explanation given by Morya – Nikolai, Elena and Esther used to know him “in the past”, i.e. in their former lives; moreover, Elena had enlightened him with the knowledge of the “psychic energy”.38 The artist and his son stayed in New York for about a year, until 4 April 1930. In Sina’s words, this was “an amazing time” filled with enthusiastic construction work. Largely through Yuri’s arduous efforts the Urusvati Project was finally put on a firm footing. The experimental “scientific station”, named Himalayan Research Institute, under his directorship, was to consist of two separate units – the department of archeology and that of natural sciences and applied arts – plus a research library and a museum.39 Yuri succeeded in finding the first partners desirous to cooperate with Urusvati – the Carnegie and the Rockefeller Foundations. At the initial stage both entities agreed to send their publications to Urus35 36 37

38 39

Quoted from E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 2, pp. 30–31, entry for 27 June 1929. Fosdik 2002, 315, entry for 30 August 1928. Roerich’s letter to Hoover, 24 June 1929, Rutgers University Special Collections (New Jersey) , Frances Grant’s Papers, Box 14, folder 82; quoted in the Russian translation in Rosov 2004a, 227–230. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 2, p. 23, entry for 25 June 1929. See the prospectus of the Urusvati HRI compiled by Yuri in June 1929, Oriental and India Office Records, L/P & S/10/1145, 92–94.

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vati’s library. Yuri also hired a botanist, Dr. Walter Koelz40 from the University of Michigan to do a survey of the West Himalayan flora and fauna in the Upper Kulu valley and in the neighboring valleys of the Chandra and Bhaga rivers. The Roerichs’ intention was to start collecting specimens of medicinal herbs and to cultivate these on plantations at Naggar under Sviatoslav’s supervision. Also, while in New York, Nikolai presented to his co-workers – directors of the Board of the Roerich Museum, his other Asian megaproject, the Ur Corporation. He began his presentation by saying that the word ur meant “morning” or “dawn” in Sanskrit and was the symbol of the future evolution in Asia. The main idea behind the project was to promote mutually beneficial America – Asia cooperation. The U.S. could offer the Asian peoples the best products of Western (American) technical progress and scientific achievements, such as airplanes (“iron birds”), trains, motor vehicles, radio, cinema etc. At the beginning Roerich proposed to dispatch a reconnoitering expedition to Central Asia that would include a group of experts: a mining engineer, an experienced salesman, a cameraman to shoot a film, an archeologist and a linguist. This, he believed, would pave the way to wide-scale construction on the continent – the building of new roads and radio-stations, the mining of minerals and coal, the electrification of populated areas etc., etc.41 Despite his inexhaustible enthusiasm, Roerich was facing some serious problems. The biggest one was the lack of funds needed for the successful functioning of his institutions. Another source of constant trouble was the “inner discord” in the Circle that was slowly eroding the Roerich new era community from within. In the absence of their gurus, the Roerichites often quarreled with each other on various matters, especially Sina and Frances. After her return from India, Sina was apparently trying to play the leading role in the Circle, as the right hand of Fuyama and Tara, much to the dislike of the rest. It was with her that Nikolai would discuss intimately, tête-à-tête, all the key issues, draw up budgets of his institutions and recruit new personal. Also, it was during this period that the first signs of the future rift between Roerich and L. Horch began to show. Logvan, having invested over 1 million dollars in the construction of the Master Building, of which $ 500,000 he donated and $ 600,000 more loaned to the Roerich Museum, expected to get some 40

41

Dr. Koelz was a member of the Byrd – MacMillan Arctic Expedition and of the Greenland Expedition of the National Geographic Society in Washington (under the same Richard Byrd), both in 1925. He was appointed as head of the Department of Natural Science at Urusvati under a one-year contract. Ur Corporation, An Address by Nicholas Roerich before the Board of Directors, New York, 1929, N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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figure 52 Nettie Horch, Sina Lichtmann and Frances Grant: friends and rivaling coworkers, 1920s, New York. O. ­Feshbach Collection

of the money back from his debtors, the Roerichs and Lichtmanns, as he clearly hinted to Sina. Roerich was shocked when he knew it, as he regarded Logvan’s entire investment as a donation, the more so that he was one of the Museum co-founders. In the same way the two buildings on 310–312 Riverside Drive that Horch purchased for $ 195,000 and $110, 000 were presented by him to the Master Institute. Yet this time things were different. Logvan who had managed the Roerich Institutions in America for six years and who financed the artist’s various projects (including the newly-born Urusvati) was now looking for compensation – some $900, 000. Horch the financier was apparently at odds with Logvan the Roerich devotee, who used to sign his letters to Nikolai reverentially as “your very devoted son”. So Nikolai, already in 1929, had to think of a fund-raising campaign to pay off his and the Lichtmanns’ debts to Horch.42 The 42

See Fosdik 2002, 440–442, entries for 4 and 5 July 1929. The entire cost of the Master Building was $ 2,900,000, equivalent to present-day 12–13 million dollars.

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Master-Building was solemnly inaugurated on 17 October 1929. The event provided an occasion for a celebration of the forty-year anniversary of Roerich’s artistic career, which turned into his real apotheosis. The ambitious artist and guru did not object at all to a nearly cultish adoration of his and his wife’s persons, as evidenced by Sina Lichtmann’s diaries, and he was certainly pleased to have a memorial medal struck in his honour, with his profile and the Roman numeral XL on the obverse and the symbolic image of the Master-Building, the logo and the name of the Roerich Museum with the words “Honor to the Creator and Builder – New York – MCMXXIX”, on the reverse. (One of these medals would be send to president H. Hoover and several more to the King of Britain George V, the Prince of Wales and some other high dignitaries.) Among those present at the ceremony was Nikolai’s old admirer, an Italian military officer and writer, Major Carmello Rappicavoli, his main link with Italy, now a Fascist state. To him he handed several books (apparently his and Elena’s writings), a Tibetan tangka and a letter to be delivered personally to Benito Mussolini.43 This suggests that the artist probably hoped to win the Duce over and make him a Shambala believer and warrior, as he had already contacted him once before, in the early 1920s, through the same Rappicavoli. As soon as the ceremony was over Nikolai Roerich cabled to his wife in Kulu: “Brilliant celebration. Over 5000 people paid tribute at opening of Roerich Museum tonight. Messages from Presidents of France, Mexico, Czechoslovakia and thousands of world leaders. Entire audience simultaneously arose to greet Roerich at presentation of medal and remained standing during entire speech. Greetings on this epoch-making ceremony. Roerich Museum”.44 Anyone who visited the “Skyscraper-Museum” on that memorable day was immediately immersed in the special atmosphere of the dreamlike world of Master Roerich. The entrance to the building was flanked by the Hall of the East with the Tibetan Library, holding the complete 333 volumes of the sacred Buddhist scriptures, Kangyur and Tangyur, and the galleries of the Corona Mundi Art Center, and while ascending the main staircase the visitor faced one of Roerich’s masterpieces, The Treasure of the Angels, decorating the wall. The Master-Building also accommodated a 300-seated theatre, a spacious lecturehall, a restaurant and a tea-room. By the beginning of 1930s the Roerich organizations in New York which now all lodged in the same building included the Roerich Museum and its branches – the Master Institute, the International Art Center, Roerich Museum Press, Urusvati Research Institute and the Roerich Society. (The latter was organized 43 44

Ibid., 515, 529, entries for 14 October and 8 November 1929. Quoted from E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 3, p. 173, entry for 19 October 1929.

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figure 53 N. Roerich standing in front of the complete collection of the Nartang Kangyur and Tangyur, obtained by the Central Asian Expedition, accommodated at the Hall of the East in the Master Building, 1929. NRM archive

with a view to spreading Roerich’s ideals of a universal “Brotherhood through Beauty”.) In the same year, 1929, Roerich came up with a new global project aimed at the protection of cultural values (museums, scientific centers, historical sites, etc.) in war times through conclusion of an international agreement. Towards this end his Parisian friend George Shkliaver drafted a treaty entitled “International Pact for the protection of artistic and scientific institutions, historic monuments, missions and collections” later to be known as Roerich Pact.45 The protected objects were to be identified by a special Roerich sign – a white flag marked with three red orbs within a red circle, symbol of eternity and unity, which came to be known as the Banner of Peace. The idea of concluding such an accord was suggested to the artist by the Kellogg-Briand Pact for the renunciation of war signed in Paris by Germany, France, the United States and some other European and Asian countries on 45

For the Draft of the Roerich Pact (1929), see: http://roerich.org/pact/1929_draft.html

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27 August 1928. Curiously, in early 1929 – long before his initiative became known to a wider public on both shores of the Atlantic Ocean – Roerich was officially nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. His candidature was put forward by George Shkliaver through the Department of International Law (Institut de hautes études internationales) of the University of Paris where he was one of the lecturers. The nomination was actually organized by Roerich himself – in the same way as in 1923. His instructions were relayed to Shkliaver by Sina and Frances in November 1928 when they both stopped in Paris on the way to America. To publicize his art and his ideals of a peacemaker Roerich wanted at first to dispatch his PR agent, Frances Grant, on a lecture tour to Scandinavia, but he then had a better idea of sending her to South America instead on a cultural exchange mission. This was to be the first of Fr. Grant’s many trips to Latin America in the course of which she visited, in the spring and summer 1929, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.46 At the same time Roerich’s chief nominator, Shlkiaver, did a lot of propaganda work for him in Europe. The presentation committee which he set up in Paris comprised officials and members of the universities of various countries, all of whom were either Roerich admirers or personal friends, such as Baron Michail Taube of whom we will speak later. By informing the American public of Roerich’s nomination for the Nobel Prize in March 1929 the New York Times quoted the committee’s laudatory opinion of the artist which must have been carefully worded by Shkliaver: Since 1890, Nicholas Roerich, through his writings, through his lectures, researches, paintings and through his many fields into which his broad personality has led him, has forcefully expounded the teaching of international brotherhood. His propaganda for peace has penetrated into more than twenty-one countries and the recognition of the influence has been testified by the widely different activities which have invited his assistance.47 Among other nominees for the Peace Prize in 1929 were the U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, Senator Juvelel of France, former British Premier Ramsay MacDonald and former French Premier Edouard Herriot. George Shkliaver, Roerich’s chief promoter in France, stayed in close touch with both Roerichs who coordinated his work from New York. Here is an excerpt 46 47

On Fr. Grant’s publicity work for N. Roerich see Fernanda Perrone, Biographical Sketch of Frances Grant, 2002, http:www2.rutgers.edu/ead/manuscripts/grantf.html). New York Times, 3 March 1929 (“Roerich nominated for Peace award”).

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from Shkliaver’s confidential letter to his old buddy George, shedding light on his undercover activities in the Parisian “high spheres”: Following your instructions, I have carefully tested the ground in French official circles, in order to ascertain their views concerning the Treaty for the protection of artistic and scientific Institutions. Up to now, I have communicated to no one the text of the Draft. In my discretion, I was prompted by the desire to avoid any possibility of a similar proposal being put forward by others than ourselves, in which case, we would be deprived of the initiative and of the credit attached thereto. In the second place, while I communicated to my interlocutors only the basic principles of the proposed agreement, I escaped any eventual discussions or objections concerning their minor points and details. My general impression is that the French Government would favourably view our proposal. The idea has been declared by the officials to be an absolutely novel one and was most sympathetic to all. One of the Diplomats remarked that the necessity for such an agreement may not be patent now, the Briand-Kellogg Pact having abolished war. To this, I objected that, firstly, a violation of the Pact still remains a possibility and that, secondly, the Briand-Kellogg Pact itself admits recourse to arms in certain cases, viz., in self-defense and in compliance with decisions of the League of Nations. In his letter Shkliaver also suggested several arguments to convince “the United States’ Cabinet” of the desirability of taking “speedy action” in support of the Roerich Pact. These arguments were three: 1) the public negotiation of the treaty could considerably “raise the popularity” of the new U.S. Ambassador in Paris; 2) if the proposal, being of purely altruistic character, is advanced by the United States, “the least exposed to invasion of all the Great Powers”, this would “enhance the universal prestige of American practical idealism”; 3) No Power in Europe would “refuse to adhere to the proposal, because a refusal would manifest, in the face of the world, hidden intentions of aggression and destruction”. 48 The Roerich Pact was formally submitted by the artist on behalf of the Roe­ rich Museum, in the early 1930, to the State Department and concurrently the Committee on Foreign Relations. At the same time the project was presented to the American public, as New York Times featured Roerich’s declaration ex48

Shkliaver’s letter dated 3 December, 1929, see: http://roerich.org/pact/1929-12-03_chklaver. html

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pounding the great humanitarian value of his initiative. The purpose of the proposed Pact, according to the artist, was to prevent wartime vandalism, “the repetition of the atrocities of the last war on cathedrals, museums, libraries and other lasting memorials of creation of the past”. Roerich earnestly believed that his flag (the ‘Banner of Peace’), like that of the Red Cross, if raised above artistic and cultural monuments, would be respected “as international and neutral territory” by belligerents and this would safeguard them from destruction. His declaration also underscored the fact that the idea of the Banner of Peace originated in the United States, which was apparently to please the officials in the Hoover administration and the President himself. “By its geographical position the United States is least personally affected by such measures of protection. Hence this proposition comes from a country whose own art treasures are in no particular danger, illustrating the better that this flag is a symbol of peace, not of one country, but of civilization as a whole”.49 The State Department, however, did not share Roerich’s optimism and therefore gave no support to the initiative of a “private institution”, as was the Roerich Museum. The officials at the Department found the Pact “futile, weak and unenforceable”. In fact Roerich had little chance to win the Nobel Prize for peace in 1929, and indeed the prestigious award for the year went to Frank Billings Kellogg instead of him. This, however, did not discourage the ambitious artist and his supporters as they would continue in subsequent years (until 1935) their persistent propaganda of the Roerich Pact both in North and South Americas and Europe. In 1929–1933 the Museum created a whole network of support groups called “Societies of Friends of N. Roerich Museum”. Roerich himself claimed that 45 such societies were set up in 1929–1930 in twenty countries, and their number grew supposedly to 52 (in early 1932) and to 63 (in 1933).50 One of the most important of these groups was the “French Association of the Friends of the Roerich Museum” (Association francaise des Amis du Roerich Museum), set up in Paris on 5 June 1929, also known as the European Center affiliated with the said Museum. (It would be renamed Association française Nicolas de Roerich in 1931). The Society was run by a French admirer of Nikolai Roerich, Marie de Vaux Phalipau, assisted by George Shkliaver – as secretary (who would replace M-m Phalipau in 1935), and another Russian émigré Baron Michail Taube, a lawyer

49 50

New York Times, 16 March 1930 (“Special flag is suggested to protect art treasures”). The declaration was signed by N. Roerich and dated 11 March 1930. The figures are given by Dany Savelli in her article: Savelli 2011, 155, n. 2.

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by profession51. The Society was at first accommodated at Shkliaver’s apartment at 397 rue de Vaugirard and a year later moved to a hotel at 12 rue de Poitiers. The main object of the French Society, though not recorded in its regulations, was to seek the official adoption of the Roerich Pact as well as the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the artist. There was yet another task of great importance assigned to the Parisian group, also unwritten, that of winning the support of the Catholic world and of the Vatican in particular, since both Phalipau and Taube were staunch Catholics. Through them Roerich would establish contacts with the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Verdier, and with Monsignor Emmanuel Chaptal de Chanteloup already in 1930, on the way to India.52 These contacts could certainly be helpful to promote the Roerich cause not only in Catholic Europe but also in the government circles of America, as Taube intimated to Roerich in 1932 after he had found “access” to the Cardinal and Archbishop of New York.53 The Society of the French Roerichites was a very respectable one right from the start, as it showed special attention to European old aristocratic and monarchic families. Thus it presented several of Roerich’s paintings to the kings of Belgium and Yugoslavia, the Shah of Persia, as well as to Pope Pius X. By doing so the French Society apparently sought to win the favor of these world leaders and to publicize their own activities when these facts received coverage in the local press.54

…

Some idea of Roerich as the Master and of his artistic school, the renovated Master Institute, at that period can be found in the memoirs of a Russian ballet dancer, Lydia Nelidova-Fiveiskii, the wife of the composer and conductor M.M. Fiveiskii. Living in New York, she attended for some time the class of sculpture, which was presumably in early 1930, when Roerich was still in NewYork. 51

52 53 54

Taube, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1869–1961, Paris) belonged to an old aristocratic family of von Taube of Swedish-German extraction. Like Nikolai Roerich, he graduated the Department of Law, and took keen interest in history and genealogy, being one of the foundermembers of the Russian Genealogical Society in St Petersburg (1897). In 1911–1915 Taube officiated as the fellow-minister of public education, he was elected a senator in 1915 and later (1917) became a member of the State Council. After the Bolshevik revolution he fled to Finland where he temporarily posed as foreign minister in the Russian government in exile under A.F. Trepov (1918). Taube settled down in France in 1928. See Savelli 2011, 173. Ibid. Ibid., 161.

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The Roerich Museum was the name of a skyscraper built for the artist by his American admirers on the bank of Hudson on Riverside Drive and at the corner of 103rd Street. The halls of the first three storeys were covered with his paintings of mystical subject with the prevailing blue and violet colors. Already the ground floor made an impression of something incomprehensible, not of this world, on the visitors. The severe Old Russian icons hanging on the walls of the vestibule looked gloomy, and the mournful and delicate faces of martyrs were telling silently the painful history of the past… The works of Roerich produced a thrilling impression. Each of his paintings created a special mood, the profound meaning of which immediately struck the spectator, transporting him mentally to some other worlds… There, behind the oceans, in far-off unknown quarters, lay ­hidden the wonderful lands, as I imagined, standing silently before his canvases. And these lands were my Russia that I missed so much! Meeting Nikolai Konstantinovich in his Museum and at the literary soirées of the writer Grebenshchikov, whom he patronized strongly, I often heard his obscure religious and mystical musings of some Doomed City,55 Belovodie and such like things incomprehensible to me then. – Rejoice and make merry! – he prophesied. – Because the great ­Belovodie is approaching! Trying to grasp the meaning of his words – why I should rejoice when I was not joyful at all, being isolated from my native land, I looked deep into his blue eyes, but they were cold and remote, as the winter skies above the summits of Tibet which he knew so well and loved dearly. Normally, he was sitting in a chair in one of the halls of his skyscraper, surrounded by his associates, he spoke in a quiet and pensive voice of something elusive as a dream. I don’t know if other people understood him, but they listened to him holding their breath, with their eyes fixed on him. And he looked always somewhere above the heads of his listeners, as if he was seeing in the distance something invisible to others…56 What was it – the artist’s sincere longing for the Otherworldly, a daydreaming of the mysterious Shambhala-Belovodie and the Abode of the Masters, or a skillful showing off, an act of “magnetizing” his devotees? Probably both! Niko55 56

The name of N. Roerich’s symbolic painting (1914) devoted to the horrors of war. Nelidova-Fiveiskaia 2002, 211–215.

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lai Roerich, thanks to his wife’s continuous channeling, must have fully adapted himself to the role of guru and prophet, and much more than that, of the one chosen by the heavenly “Hierarchs of Light”. “Our wise Fuyama is satiating space with fluidic currents”, pronounced ­Morya at the end of 1929. 57 57

Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 115, entry for 30 November 1929.

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Suspected of Red Sympathies Our activities have always been strictly circumscribed to the fields of Art and scientific research N. Roerich, Letter to the Foreign Office, 1930

⸪ Despite his Master’s backing, Nikolai Roerich got into trouble he expected least of all in the early spring 1930, when he and his son were refused visas to return to India. No formal explanations were given to them, so they sailed, on the 4th of April, to London determined to sort out matters with British diplomats at the Foreign Office. (The latter of course did not object to their coming to the United Kingdom.) In London they immediately hired a lawyer, who pursued their “visa case” in the official quarters and at the same time booked passages for India from Geneva on May 2nd. The Roerichs did not know yet that they both were personas-no-grata for the British as their names had been put on the suspect list. Two months earlier (on March 1) the Indian Government forwarded to the India Office in London a lengthy memorandum on N. Roerich which contained the principal facts connected with his movements and activities since 1923, i.e. his first coming to India. The document opened with a rather ominous paragraph: While it is true that when [N. Roerich] arrived in India with the ostensible object of executing certain paintings, he was in possession of unexceptionable references, a succession of reports received since 1925 have aroused doubts as to his real motives and left the uncomfortable feeling that his activities as an explorer, archeologist, artist and theosophist might cloak ulterior designs and that in fact he might be a Communist emissary. His own statements as regards his visit to Russia do not appear to be correct and his anxiety to acquire a permanent habitation in India against the wishes of the Government, and on pleas that it is difficult to regard as genuine, has increased suspicions against him. The anonymous author of the memorandum then discussed at length all the suspicious instances relating to Roerich’s conduct in the course of his great

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_018

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Central Asian Expedition, such as his staying in Calcutta (in 1924) with Soumendra Tagore, “an active revolutionary and Communist”, and especially his subsequent visit to Moscow which showed him to be “on good terms with the Soviet”. The memo ended with a conclusion: “While there is no definite evidence to show what Roerich’s real intentions are, the facts stated above appear to the Government of India to justify the view that his presence in India is undesirable”.1 When applying for visas in New York, Roerich stated the purpose of his visit as scientific exploration at his newly established Urusvati Institute. While in London he added to this an additional and seemingly weightier motive – the ill-health of his wife. By doing so Nikolai earnestly believed that the British officials would not dare to refuse him and his son visas for purely humanitarian reasons. But they did. While the Roerichs were still in London, the Punjab government initiated an enquiry into Elena Roerich’s condition by sending to the Hall Estate a Sub-Divisional officer (SDO) in the Kangra District (Kulu), one Mr. Phailbus. The official called on the woman twice – first on 19 April, but she could not receive him then allegedly on account of her illness, although, surprisingly for the British, she did not summon a doctor. Two days later the officer came again and saw Madame Roerich in a fairly good condition.2 Hence the Punjab government concluded that “the lady is not so ill as to necessitate the urgent attendance of her husband” and relayed their opinion to the Home Department in Delhi, which in its turn recommended that the Foreign Office not grant visas to the Roerichs. Thus, having spent two months in London, the Roerichs achieved nothing. According to Esther Lichtman’s diary, Elena often complained of having pains here and there and she suffered mostly from “anguish in her heart” because of the separation with her husband and son. However her condition was not critical as in mid-July she made a trip to Kyelang, a village in Lahoul, lying at a higher level than Naggar. In the course of the journey Elena and her party, which included Esther, Nettie Horch (who arrived from New York in March), Shibaev and Liudmila, crossed the Rothang Pass (13500 ft high) and several other high-altitude passes3, which amazed the British officials when they learned about it. 1 NAI, Foreign and Political Department, file 331(2), X (1926–1927), doc. 193, pp. 66–70. The memo was forwarded to the Political Department at the India Office in London. 2 NAI, file 331(2)-X of 1925: Notes, pp. 49 (doc. 196), 51–52 (doc. 201, demi-official letter from D. Boyd, Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab, to H.W. Emerson, Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department; also a report of F.V. Wylie, 9 May 1930. 3 The journey to Kyelang and the time there (between 15 July and 27 September) were described by E. Lichtmann, in her diary, Notebook 6, 46–152.

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figure 54 Left to right: Esther Lichtmann, Elena Roerich, and Nettie Horch at the Rothang Pass, Kulu, 1930. NRM archive

Feeling desperate and putting all the blame on the Foreign Office, Nikolai and Yuri left London for Paris. There, with the help of Shkliaver Jr., Baron Taube and their other devoted Russian and French supporters, they started a visa campaign to induce the stubborn British to reverse their decision. As a result the British Embassy in Paris and the Foreign Office were soon heaped with representations on behalf of Roerich by a host of his sympathizers in Europe and America – state leaders, diplomats, politicians, artists and even religious hierarchs. The list of these intercessors included inter alia the presidents of France (Gaston Doumergue) and Czechoslovakia (Thomas Masaryk), the U.S. Ambassadors in London and Paris, architect Alfred Bossom, ex-diplomat Charles Crane, Metropolitan Platon (head of the Russian Church of America and Canada) and his colleague Metropolitan Eulogius (head of the Orthodox Church in Western Europe), and Archbishop of Westminster. The Roerich Museum for its part – largely through Louis Horch – also appealed to the British Embassy in Washington and concurrently the State Department where Horch enlisted the support of the influential William Richards Castle, the Acting Secretary of State. Yet, despite all this pressure, the British officials, both in Delhi and London, remained firm. The reason for barring the Roerichs from India was their “associations with Soviet Russia”, according to the communique of the Foreign Office cabled to New York and published by The New York Times on 18 July. “It was felt by the India Government”, spelled out the communique, “that the present situation in India was too delicate to permit an archeological expedition to visit that country, especially in the case of Prof. Roerich, whose Soviet sympathies and

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associations were said to be not unknown to the British authorities”. The newspaper continued further by quoting a declaration made by the president of the Roerich Museum, Louis Horch, who strongly denied the fact that Roerich had any “interest in the politics or other affairs of any nation”: “The statement made by the Foreign Office, London, is erroneous, unfounded and absurd. Professor Roerich is in no way connected with the Soviet Government. For forty years, Professor Roerich has devoted his life to the field of art and science. The complete result of Professor Roerich’s work, for the last ten years, has been entirely devoted to the United States of America”. (The intriguing details of Roerich’s visit to Moscow and his secret talks with the Soviet leaders were probably unknown to L. Horch as well as to the British authorities, especially his project for a Buddhist revolution in Asia. But the New York Roerichites had to defend their leader and guru anyway, which they did the best they could.) Encouraged by L. Horch, W.R. Castle also chose to stand up for Roerich when talking in private with the British Ambassador, Ronald Lindsay, on 30 July. When told by the latter that Roerich’s behavior had been “disingenuous” as regards his purchase of land in Kulu, he admitted that Mr. Roerich “was a very curious person”, nonetheless he believed that the artist “was entirely free from any taint of bolshevism” and he also pointed out that Roerich was “backed in a remarkable manner by the whole Jewish community of New York, entirely on aesthetic grounds”.4 (The American diplomat was apparently unaware of Elena Roerich’s opus ‘Community’, extolling the Communist mahatmas Lenin and Marx, and of Nikolai Roerich’s revolutionary program.) Here is an entry from W.R. Castle’s diary made after his meeting with Horch which clearly reveals his – and probably his colleagues’ at the State Department as well – wary and hesitant attitude toward the artist: Mr. Horch, President of the Roerich Museum, came in to ask that we urge the British to give Professor Roerich a visa so that he can go to India to be with his wife. I found that we had just received a dispatch from India that if we could say that Museum was a purely American corporation, that its purposes in India are scientific, as they purport to be, he could go there immediately. The first is easy enough, the second more difficult. The British evidently suspect communist leanings and possible political machinations. I do not think this at all. Roerich is a queer duck, mentally as well as physically, but I am inclined to believe him entirely sincere. I wrote Bannerman to look into the matter, also Professor Lanman of Harvard, 4 Ibid., p. 91, doc. 221, letter from the British Embassy, Washington, to Foreign Office, London, 1 August 1930.

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who is one of the advisers. The British may be perfectly sincere in their fears and under present conditions in India extra precautions are surely justified, but if they are keeping Roerich out because they don’t like his looks, it is up to us to get busy. I do not much care to look at him either and feel that he would be more appropriate in a Himalayan setting.5 Two weeks later (on August 1) the acting secretary of State discussed the rather delicate “Roerich case” with the newly appointed British Ambassador to the United States (and formerly the head of the Foreign Office) Sir Ronald C. ­Lindsay and this is what he recorded in his diary after the meeting: When the Ambassador was here this morning I took up at some length with him the question of the work of the Roerich Museum in India. I told him that, of course, I knew that Roerich was queer beyond words, that he probably was interested in all sorts of curious eastern philosophies, but that I did not think he was in any way tainted with communism. I told Sir Ronald that the Indian Government had said that, if the Roerich Museum was an American institution and if its purposes were exactly what they purported to be, there would be no question of letting Roerich into India. I said that, of course, we could guarantee that the corporation was American owned and financed. I told him that it was much harder to guarantee the purposes of the Institute although we had been unable to discover anything to suggest that they were not what they purported to be. I told him that we had had a very thorough examination made and that we had not been able to connect Roerich in any way with communist movements. Sir Ronald said that he really did not think it was a good time to be starting a new art show in India. I said I entirely agreed with this and if the Indian Government had consistently made this point I should have nothing to say about it, but, as a matter of fact, they have allowed professors who are to work in the Roerich enterprise in India to go there and then held up Professor Roerich himself, who is the center of the whole thing. The Ambassador said that Professor Roerich had been in little ways, which were probably unimportant, to say the least, ingenious in his dealings with the authorities. For example, Roerich asked the Indian Government whether he would be permitted to purchase the land in the Kulu Valley and was told that he could not. He then went to the local authori­­­5 W.R. Castle, Diaries, Vol. 17 (1930), 279–280, entry for 16 July 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge.

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ties and put through the purchase. When the Indian Government heard about it they had to jump on the local authorities for having done something which they had no right to do. Roerich’s story to us is different in that he says he first asked the Indian Government and had assurances from them that everything was all right and then went ahead and bought the land. I told the Ambassador that, of course, I could not make any very strong representations for Professor Roerich personally, since he is not an American citizen, but that I did feel that the action of the authorities in India was holding up a work, presumably scientific and artistic in character, supported by American capital, that also the action of the authorities was preventing Professor Roerich from joining his wife, who is apparently really ill and that I hoped, in the light of all I had said, the decision might be reconsidered. Sir Ronald said he would communicate with London, but I have no feeling that he will make any very strong recommendation.6 In the meantime the Viceroy of India Lord Irwin was likewise approached several times by Roerich himself (from London and Paris), his wife, and Ether and Nettie (from Kulu). In their joint missive to the Viceroy, Elena’s guests acting as her attendants pointed out that they needed to return to New York “owing to pressing matters of our institutions” there, but could not do so because of Mrs. Roerich’s “precarious condition of health”, making it impossible for them to leave her alone. “Therefore our return to America, which has been already delayed, is now awaiting Professor Roerich’s arrival. The gravity of the situation is evident, inasmuch as Professor Roerich’s presence here is most urgent”.7 This was certainly a clever subterfuge on their part, yet the Indian Government was unwavering. The answers given to Esther and Nettie, as well as to Esther’s earlier cable, by the private secretary of the Viceroy G. Cunningham were identical and laconic: “The Government of India are not prepared to agree to a visa being given to Prof. Roerich at present”.8 The British suspicions with regard to Roerich’s political bona fides, it should be admitted, were not entirely unfounded in the political context of the epoch. Apart from his visit to Moscow, which Roerich motivated rather lamely to Bailey by his need to meet with the directors of his New York institutions to update 6 Ibid., pp. 300–301. 7 NAI, file 331(2)-X of 1925: Notes, p. 58, demi-official letter from Mrs. Nettie S. Horch and Miss Esther J. Lichtmann, to the Viceroy, Simla, 28 May 1930. 8 Ibid., p. 59, demi-official letter from G. Cunningham, dated 30 June 1930.

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them on events, there were also his many conflicting statements made to various British officials during his Transhimalayan journey and later in Sikkim and India. All testimonies against Roerich since the time he arrived in the United States were incorporated in a comprehensive memorandum compiled on August 18 by the Foreign Office official S. Gaselee, 9 much in the same vein as the earlier similar record of the British Indian authorities. The document incidentally cited some curious facts, such as the Tangmarg incident which occurred during Roerich’s Transhimalayan Expedition and was omitted from his Altai – Himalaya (and hence unknown to his biographers). The gist of what happened was as follows. On the 8th of August, 1925, when the Roerich party was about to set out of Gulmarg in the direction of Leh, the Indian Government received an SOS cable from him: “Today we have been attacked by organized mob at Tangmarg. Protecting us several our servants injured. In name of American institutions which organized expedition ask your Excellency to give orders for adequate protection for Europeans”. The Government of India was alarmed and immediately asked the Resident in Kashmir for a telegraphic report of the facts, and this was what he replied on the 10th of August: Roerich and party left Gulmarg on the 8th August en route for Leh, and while at Tangmarg a dispute arose between their servants and lorry drivers, who objected to overloading their lorry. Roerich, who was never in slightest danger of assault or molestation, completely lost his head, produced firearms and dispatched series of ridiculous telegrams demanding armed police protection from organized mob. Magistrate, Residency surgeon and police hurried to the spot and found that very ordinary fracas as described above had occurred. Roerich then came to his senses, and wired to me that he had no complaint to make; that it was simple quarrel and he wished matter dropped; he gave as excuse for his behavior his defective knowledge of English. I have not stopped him from proceeding to Leh but I regard his conduct as extremely foolish, and it is questionable whether so unbalanced an individual should be given facilities for visiting frontier districts.10 The most worrisome fact relating to Roerich’s sojourn in India in 1928–1929 was by far his acquisition of a plot of land with a house and a bungalow on it in Kulu, right “on the northern frontier of India”. Despite the fact that the purchase was 9 10

NAI, file 331(2), X (1926–1927), pp. 91–102 (doc. 222). Ibid., 92.

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cancelled by the Punjab Government, Roerich refused to take back the deposit money. On the contrary, while in America, he exerted every effort, through various political and diplomatic channels, to obtain a formal sanction for his purchase from the Punjab authorities. This persistence on the part of the artist seemed very suspicious to the British who surmised that his “scientific station” might be a skillfully camouflaged center for pro-Soviet and Comintern propaganda in India. And they were right in their own way as India, in 1930–1931, was seized by a wave of civil disobedience. The protest movement even reached the remote Northern Punjab and the Kulu Valley, where an anti-British uprising was anticipated, in the early half of 1930, on account of the arrest of Gandhi, according to Esther Lichtmann. “However we feel safe under M.’s care”, she put recorded in her diary.11 In mid-August, after two-and-a-half-months of waiting for the British Indian authorities to modify their stance, Roerich wrote a letter to the Viceroy. In this he emphasized that his delay “imposed a cruel ordeal” on his sick wife and on the whole of his family and drastically harmed the plans of his American Institutions “for scientific and artistic research” in the Himalayas. He also commented on the “reassuring accounts” of Elena’s health in connection with her journey to Kyelang given by the Indian Government: “To this, I must emphatically reply that Madame Roerich has left Naggar, but not at all on a journey in the Himalayas: she has been transported on a ledger to a hill station, because of her heart disease which requires a sojourn in dryer climate in the months of monsoon. This urgent and dangerous transportation to a dryer climate was due to the critical state of my wife’s health”.12 But what seems most interesting about this petition was the way Roerich portrayed himself and his global activities for the sake of humanity in the special attachment to his letter – a list of institutions he personally established or headed as Honorary President or joined as a member or fellow. This opened with the enumeration of his titles: “His Excellency Baron Nicholas de Roerich, Chamberlain of the Imperial Court of Russia, Actual Councillor of State of the Russian Empire, Commander of the Imperial Russian Orders” and was followed by names of 60 positions Roerich had occupied in the past or was still occupying, in Russia, the U.S., England, France and other countries.13 The Viceroy and the British officials at the Home Department must have been impressed by Roerich’s titles and dignities, yet, as their subsequent en11 12 13

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 5, p. 114, entry for 4 May 1930. NAI, Foreign and Political Department, file 331(2), X (1926–1927), pp. 82–83, doc. 216, letter from Mr. Nicholas de Roerich to the Viceroy, Paris, 12 August 1930. Ibid., Appendix III to Notes, pp. 1–2.

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quiry into his CV showed, he had no claim whatever to the title of “Baron”, never was a Chamberlain of the Imperial Court of Russia, and his real name was “Roerich”, not “de Roerich”. The adding of the French aristocratic “de” to his last name calls for a commentary. Unable to be naturalized in America, as it became evident to him in spring 1930, before he left for Europe, Roerich, while in Paris, tried the only other option open to him, namely to obtain a passport of the French Republic. This was a document of a special kind, issued generally to privileged “apatrides” (stateless persons), permitting them to travel abroad (i.e., outside France), though not providing them the legal status of French citizens.14 And he did obtain such a passport together with Yuri, according to British records. (Until then, they had possessed the French certificates of identity they obtained as Russian émigrés from the Préfecture de Police in Paris, in 1923 and 1924 accordingly, which were their only travel documents.) The French passports (## 26867 and 26868) were issued to Nikolai Konstantinovich and Yuri on 3 July 1930, presumably at the Quai d’Orsay (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs). This happened shortly after Roerich was received by the French President (on 13 June) at the Palais de l’Elysée. Hence Nikolai Roerich turned into Nicholas de Roerich and his son into Georges de Roerich. It was certainly a good idea to obtain French passports which improved the civil status of the Roerichs, and they probably believed that the new documents would help them eventually re-enter India via one of the French Indian colonies on the East coast of the sub-continent, Pondicherry. Nikolai Roerich, who was an inventive genius and had a particular talent for making all sorts of schemes, must have reckoned that once in Pondicherry, it would be much easier for him and Yuri, now holding French passports, to cross into British India, with a little bit of luck.15 And the scheme worked out fine for the Roerichs! As soon as Elena had returned to Naggar after her summer retreat in Kyelang on 27 September, Nikolai and Yuri booked tickets for Pondicherry. They also found a companion – Dr. Konstantin K. Lozina-Lozinskii, a physician whom Nikolai hired in Paris to take care of his wife as well as to conduct medi­cal 14

15

The fact was brought to my notice by French researcher Dany Savelli who discusses the alleged “French citizenship” of Nikolai and Yuri Roerich in a separate paper: “Un home d’origine russe, à la nationalité douteuse et avec un passeport français”: Nicolas Roerich entre jeux et enjeux de l’apatridie”, Slavica Occitania, Toulouse, 37, 2013, 223–258. This clever stratagem was articulated in 1932 by Dr. Walter Koelz in his interview with a British official in London. According to Koelz, Mr. Roerich, having found that the British objected to giving him permission to go to India, went to Paris where he obtained a French passport and then proceeded to Pondicherry”, see: OIOC & R, L/P&I/12/291, p. 57 (Memorandum of conversation, 7 April 1932).

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e­ xperiments at Urusvati. Lozina was known as an expert on nervous and cardiac disorders and was also keen on occult sciences, which furnished him the best recommendation. A Russian émigré, he was naturalized in Italy and joined there the ranks of Mussolini’s Fascist party.16 In the meantime the clouds were gathering over Elena in Kulu as the Government of India insisted on her undergoing a medical examination by the civil surgeon of Kangra. However Elena strongly opposed to such a humiliating act. (The only physician whose opinion she fully trusted was Dr. Lapeyre from Paris who had once diagnosed her illness as hysteria magna, and she regularly took the medicine prescribed by Lapeyre she received from Paris – strophanthin, a cardiotonic drug, and Adonis vernalis, a homoeopathic remedy.) By planning to send a physician to Elena the British authorities contemplated two possibilities – if her case were found mild they would request her to return to America on her own, if not, they would have to admit Roerich to India for a short time in order to take his wife out of the country. Yet Roerich was smart enough to think of a method to make Elena stay at Naggar – he arranged that a cable was sent to her, in early October, by Dr. Lapeyre which certified “absolute impossibility of her transportation by sea” as such a travel “threatened fatal consequences”.17 Elena, on her part, also took some measures to retain the Hall Estate in their hands. On 7 October she sent Esther together with Koelz to the Maharaja of Mandi with the checks for the remaining Rs 53 000 they still owed to him for the purchase of the estate18, no matter if the sale deed was formally cancelled by the Punjab government. While stopping in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab States, Esther paid a visit to one of the top officials, the chief secretary to the government of Punjab, D.J. Boyd. From him she learned the bad news – the Government of India resolved not to let Prof. Roerich enter the country because he, besides scientific aims, “has something else on his mind”.19 Yet every cloud has its silver lining. The Roerichs, accompanied by their new friend Dr. Lozina, sailed off meanwhile from Marseille to Pondicherry and arrived there safely on 4 November. There they were hosted for some time by the sympathetic Governor of French India Marquis de Guid. It was probably he who advised Baron de Roerich to

16 17 18 19

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 7, p. 13, entry for 25 November 1930. This information was provided to Esther by Yuri Roerich in a letter from Pondicherry, 18 November. Quoted in E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 6, p. 165, entry for 8 October 1930. The cable was sent on the eve of Roerich’s departure from Paris, on October 7th. E. Lichtmann’s Diary, Notebook 6, p. 162, entry for 7 October 1930. E. Lichtmann’s Diary, Notebook 6, p. 166, entry for 8 October 1930.

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appeal to the Viceroy once again. As a result Roerich wrote a rather emotional letter to Lord Irwin which deserves to be quoted here in full: Recalling our interview at Simla in September 1928, I take the liberty to write to you on a matter of great importance to myself and to all my coworkers in the United States and Europe. You are probably fully conversant with our case and the refusal of His Majesty’s Government to grant us visas. It is a long-drawn case in which more than a hundred distinguished personalities and high Church dignitaries intervened in order to obtain a favourable solution in a situation which may soon become a tragic one. Since last February we did every effort to obtain a permission to rejoin my sick wife, now residing at Naggar, Kulu, District Kangra, Punjab. As you probably know, her health suffered a heavy blow during our detention on the Tibetan upland during the severe winter of 1927–1928. Since that time her condition has been steadily declining and it was our hope to rejoin her as soon as possible. It is absolutely out of question to take her down into the hot plains. Doctors, who know her condition, certify that she can go on a sea voyage only at the peril of her life. Low altitudes and heat are equally killing for her. The last six months of continuous worry and of justifiable indignation at all the slanderous rumours and newspaper reports, have brought about a serious aggravation in her condition. Miss E.J. Lichtmann, an American friend and co-worker, as well as a trained nurse, who stays with my wife in our absence, informs us of the grave condition of my wife’s health and of the frequent heart attacks and nervous breakdowns. Recalling the fact that most of her family have died at her present age (52 years), you will readily understand our great anxiety and sorrow. It is our earnest desire to relieve her from suffering and to give her the comfort of our presence. We fail to see in what way our presence in the remote Kulu Valley would endanger the situation in India. Neither myself, nor any of my co-workers have any connection with political creeds and parties, and during our stay in India we have always maintained a loyal attitude towards the existing authorities. We believe that correct information is all that is needed to persuade His Majesty’s Government to grant visas to myself, my son Mr. Georges de Roerich and Dr. C. Lozina. We are ready to discuss in good faith the situation in which a solution is of great importance. As a matter of fact the state of health of my wife is such, that we felt it necessary to invite Dr. C. Lozina, M.D., of the University of Toronto, Canada, and of the University of Florence, who

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is a heart specialist and to whom Mme. De Roerich was entrusted by her physician Dr. Lapeyre, of Paris. I and my son Georges have French Passports and Dr. Lozina is an Italian. In October we received an intimation from London that our question is under a favourable consideration. We decided, therefore, to come to Pondicherry in order to gain time and to be nearer to my sick wife. We informed accordingly on the 6th of October the Secretary of State for India and received his acknowledgment. I feel sure, that you will consider this really tragic situation of our family and will grant us the permission to visit Kulu, which is the only aim of our journey. P.S. We would be glad to come to Delhi, if a personal interview could be arranged.20 It would be hard, of course, for Lord Irwin, who was an English gentleman after all, to turn down this most touching plea of the Russian artist, now a citizen of the French Republic. Hence on December 5 Nikolai Roerich, his son and Dr. Lozina were granted visas and finally entered British India. This was their big victory! The travelers however were admitted to the country for a period of three months only, subject to an understanding that they might be requested to leave India at any time, if necessary. At the same time the Intelligence Bureau at the Home Department forwarded the following instruction to the British Resident in Kashmir: The Government of India desire, however, that, in view of Roerich’s past activities, these three months, should be utilized to collect all possible information about him and his party. It is requested, therefore, that you will keep this Bureau informed of Roerich’s movements, activities, and associates, wherever he may be, at the same time, taking all possible care not to arouse Roerich’s suspicions, or to give him cause for complaint that he is being subject to police supervision.21 Accordingly, the Punjab Government was given a special instruction concerning the Hall Estate – that it should not in any circumstances be “transferred to 20 21

NAI, file 331(2), X of 1925: Notes, pp. 63–64 (doc. 224), demi-official letter from Mr. Nicholas de Roerich, 11 November 1930. Ibid., 65, circular memorandum from the Government of India, Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, to the First assistant to the Resident, Kashmir, 9 December 1930.

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Professor Roerich or to any individual or association with whom he may be connected”.22 The whole month that the Roerichs spent in Pondicherry however was not an idle waiting for a reply from Delhi. Nikolai and Yuri made acquaintance there with two French scholars, Prof. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, an expert on the history and archeology of Southern India, and a noted archeologist Rev. Faucheux. Both scholars agreed to join the Urusvati Institute in the capacity of corresponding members and then, assisted by the Roerichs, they excavated several prehistoric burial grounds and urn-fields in the environs of Pondicherry.23 This work signified the start of the Department of Archeology at Urusvati. Concurrently (since June 1930) Dr. W. Koelz was exploring Western Himalayan flora and fauna in the Kulu Valley, being Urusvati’s other major field of research. The Roerichs and Dr. Lozina finally made it to Naggar on December 11. Elena’s reunion with her husband and elder son was a most emotional one as evidenced by Esther: The morning seemed an eternity until we saw our beloved N.K. and George. George galloped the first on his speedy Ola, then Prof. Roerich on his white horse. Mother was extremely moved seeing her own ones after such a long separation. George looks so much thinner and bears very much the traces of this long fight against malevolence. [I] find him very changed. He looks also so spiritual. And our dear White Guru! What light and strength he emanates! And still [he] had to suffer from such an unheard of slander and cruelty of the British! Mother was so agitated seeing his white head again – her voice trembled when she called N.K….24 The same day Lozina, “a nice man and a very competent and subtle physician”, in Esther’s words, thoroughly examined Elena and diagnosed her disease as “neurosis of heart”. He said that people like her needed “high altitude”. So the next year Elena would retreat again for the summer to the mountains, to ­Kyelang, just to stay closer to the Masters. 22 23 24

Ibid., 65, demi-official letter to J.A.O. Fitzpatrick, Agent to the Governor-General, Punjab States, 9 December 1930. The excavation was discussed in George Roerich’s Annual Report of the HRI, see Roerich, G. 1931b, 72–73. E. Lichtmann’ary, Notebook 6, p. 49, entry for 11 December 1930.

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The Manchurian Expedition and the Kansas Project There is a prophecy: men from the West will come under the White Banner to hoist the Yellow Banner. E. Roerich, Diary, 1933

…

… The great future has arrived. N. Roerich, 1934

⸪ The next three years the Roerichs would spend together on their estate in Naggar. The British authorities waived, in March 1931, the three-month limit originally fixed for their stay in India, having found nothing blameworthy in their conduct or doings, though they continued subsequently to keep the family under their “unobtrusive watch”. Thus in 1931–32 the officials in Delhi started an inquiry to ascertain how Nikolai and Yuri had obtained their French passports. At the same time they left Elena in peace and stopped demanding that she should undergo a medical examination, since she had a home physician now. There was yet the vexing question of the unsanctioned purchase of the Hall Estate by Nikolai Roerich but it was resolved eventually as the artist refused flatly to accept the money back from the Raja. And in 1932 the officials in Delhi became anxious about the precarious situation in Tibet caused particularly by the revival of old Buddhist prophesies that the 13th Dalai Lama would be the last one and by the messianic expectations of the Buddha Maitreya by Tibetans en masse. This immediately sparked their apprehensions concerning Nikolai Roerich. As one of the officials, E.B. Howell, reported to the Home Government, “… everything is ready for the appearance of a meteoric figure who may be Roerich himself or his son who will at a step place himself in the position of the Dalai Lama and establish Bolshevik control right down to the borders of India”(!).1 1 NAI, Foreign & Political Department, file 331 (2) X of 1925, p. 82 (Note by E.D. Howell sent to Home Government, 9 March, 1932).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_019

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Yet Roerich felt safe and was optimistic as ever. Back in Naggar, he resumed his artistic work. The new paintings he executed in the early 1930s reflected his on-going spiritual searching and intricate mystical imagery; he painted enthusiastically the Himalayas, the Kulu Valley, Tibet, the mountain passes and sacred caves and especially images of the great teachers and heroes of the past – Zoroaster, Ilya the Prophet, Jeanne d’Arc, Gesar Khan, Chinggis Khan, St Francis of Assisi, Norbu Rinpoche, Sophia the Holy Wisdom (Sofia-premudrost’) etc. He designed the settings for the ballet ‘Rite of Spring’ to be staged in New York (1930) and made a design of a chapel of St. Sergius for the Russian village Churaevka started by George Grebenshchikov in late 1920s in Connecticut, at the confluence of Pomperaug and Housatonic rivers.2 His most remarkable works from this period were the triptych Fiat Rex (Let the King be, 1931) and Madonna Oriflamma (The Lady of scarlet flame, 1932), both temperas on canvas. Fiat Rex was undoubtedly the culmination of Roerich’s mystical thinking – it depicted on all three panels the Roerichs’ Teacher, Master Morya, standing upright. On the biggest central panel (122 by 91.4 cm) Morya held the casket with the precious Black Stone, Chintamani, in his hands, his figure being enveloped in a cocoon of luminous aura. Interestingly, since late 1929, Elena in her visions and messages channeled from her Master would call him Maitreya, not Morya anymore, which implied that the theosophical mahatma had completely merged with the glorious Buddha Maitreya. She would also elevate her husband to a higher rank in the cosmic spiritual hierarchy of teachers: Roerich-Fuyama would become the “leader” and “saviour” of the peoples, wise and luminous, the “builder of life”, the “Ruler” (Vladyka), and even the “disguised Lenin”. As for herself, Morya-Maitreya would call Elena his “Witness”, “Confidant”, and White Tara. Their youngest son Svetik-Liumou would be spoken of as mahatma. The Roerichs were eagerly expecting the epoch-breaking dramatic events which were to shake the world down to its foundations in the not too distant future as predicted by their Master – the fall of the Bolshevik regime in Soviet 2 Churaevka was the name of a Siberian hermitage, described in Grebentshchikov’s unfinished novel ‘The Churaevs’ (Churaevy). One of its first settlers was Ilya Tolstoy, son of the writer Leo Tolstoy. Later on some other outstanding Russian emigres settled here, such as Sergei Rakhmaninov, Mikhail Chekhov, or in the close vicinity as did Igor Sikorskii, the aircraft ­designer. See Росов 2004b. L. Horch visited Taruchan’s place in late 1930 together with the Lichtmann couple. After the visit he recorded in his diary: “A beautiful spot. The Temple in honor of St Sergius was ready and really Taruchan deserves much credit for the accomplished work. The Shrine looks like the House of Prof. Roerich’s picture of St. Sergius. It is beautiful in its simplicity”, L. Horch’s diary, 1930 (a copy in the possession of O. Feshbach), p. 21, entry for 14 September 1930.

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figure 55 N. Roerich, sitting by the triptych Fiat Rex, Naggar, 1933-1934. NRM archive

Russia, the coming of the Messiah, Christ-Buddha-Maitreya, and the final Battle of Armageddon or Shambhala. It was these expectations probably that urged Roerich and his supporters in both Americas and Europe, whose numbers were steadily growing, to campaign vigorously in the early 1930s for the adoption of the Roerich Peace Pact and Peace Banner by the world’s leading powers. As the Great Year 1936 was approaching, Roerich had to hurry to safeguard the treasures of art and science, the best fruits of humanity, from perishing in the apocalyptic Shambhala War. At the same time much of the family’s enthusiasm and effort was given to the Urusvati Project. In 1931 the construction of the biochemical laboratory was started near the Hall Estate, with the money collected for the purpose in New York. Nikolai personally donated for the project a tract of land, his valuable $ 2,500 painting “St. Pantaleon the Healer” as well as the royalties for the publication of his new collection of essays titled the Realm of Light (Derzhava Sveta). The staff of the Urusvati Institute included Yuri Roerich (its director), his brother Sviatoslav, a Tibetan lama Lozang Mingyur Dorje, K.K. Lozina-­ Lozinskii, V. Shibaev, and W. Koelz.3 All practical work at that early stage was 3 On the biochemical laboratory at Urusvati see Rosov 1998, 171–195.

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figure 56 Elena Roerich, with the triptych Fiat Rex and Banner of Peace by N. Roerich in background, Naggar, 1933-34, NRM archive

concentrated mainly in the Botanical, or rather Medico-Botanical, Department: Dr. W. Koelz was collecting medicinal plants, Lozina-Lozinskii and Shibaev were making medicinal preparations, while Yuri, assisted by lama Mingyur, was engaged in the study of Tibetan texts on ancient pharmacopeia. The construction work was completed by August 1933. The laboratory was to be run by Yuri’s Cambridge mate and a participant in his séances, V. Pertsov, a biochemist, who published in the meantime several articles in the Urusvati Journal (1931–33), the mouthpiece of the Institute. Pertsov was to come to India, together with his family as early as 1931, yet he did not. The reason was the catastrophic lack of funds at the Roerich Museum which considerably curtailed the research program at the Urusvati. As a result Pertsov went to Montpelier in France where he was offered a job at the pharmacological department of the local university. And that is all that we know about him. As for the Biochemical

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figure 57 Dr. Walter Koelz, with antlers collected for the pharmaceutical research conducted by Sviatoslav Roerich at the Urusvati Insitute, 1930-1931, Kulu. O. Feshbach collection

laboratory, it failed to start its work in 1933 and had to be closed down until better days. Thus the only tangible result of scientific research at Urusvati at its initial stage was Koelz’s large botanical and zoological collections, which he brought, in 1930–1931, from his excursions into the Western Himalayas. These included 1,500 plants representing over 300 species, 1,100 big game skins and 6 small mammal skins.4 Some of these collections were shipped to New York, the University of Michigan and other schools. The botanist himself then left for America somewhat unexpectedly, long before his three-year contract expired. As the British found out, Koelz had a serious row with the Roerichs allegedly over his intended purchase of a piece of land at Naggar to conduct his own re4 Quoted from Muslim Outlook, 6 July 1931 (Medical and other scientific possibilities).

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search, which the Roerichs, strongly opposed. They apparently did not want anybody around who would compete with their pioneering work. Interviewed in early 1932 by a British official in London, Koelz made some startling revelations about the Roerichs. He said, for example, that Mrs. Roerich was “the strong member of the family and that the other three were absolutely dominated by her”. Also that the source of the money which supported the Roerich Museum in New York and the work in India was “a complete mystery” to him, and that he knew very little about the Roerich Museum and its “backers”. Speaking of his work in India Koelz claimed that “it was not a serious undertaking”. He said that some of the scientific projects suggested to him by Mr. Roerich “would have been mere duplications of the work of others, and that it was absurd to pretend that what he had accomplished along the original lines was at a stage where its value would warrant sending him back to New York”. He also reported that the Roerichs were anxious to get him out of India and “keep him out”, as he had not proved to be as “pliable” as expected.5 Overall, the interview with Koelz made the British conclude that the artistic, scientific, humanitarian and religious ­projects conducted by the Roerichs were really “blinds to cover the moneycollecting activities of the Roerich Museum”. The Roerichs, however, had their own story to tell about Koelz. They complained of his professional faults and misconduct, such as his sending out collections under his own name, omitting the Institute’s name, and even worse, sending plants to “other universities”, being “a criminal act in itself”. (Koelz indeed sent, in early 1931, a large herbarium of Himalayan flora representing his first season’s collection to Dr. F.D. Merrill, director of the Botanical Garden of New York, for identification. But there was nothing “criminal” about it since Roerich himself had declared from the very start his desire to cooperate with other institutions such as the botanical departments of Harvard University and the University of Michigan, the Parisian Jardins des Plantes, and many more.) Judging by Esther Lichtmann’s diary, Koelz got along with both Elena and Nikolai quite well at first, and Elena even tried to cultivate the botanist by telling him about the Masters and their Abode in the Himalayas, saying, for example, that the Masters “inspire each great discovery of a scientist and guide humanity toward evolution”, and that there was a way to expand one’s consciousness by affecting the pineal and pituitary glands. And she told him also an absolutely fabulous story about the lamas in Tibet who search for the pituitary gland of their most notable clerics after their cremation. “The gland looks

5 See: OIOC & R, L/P&A/12/291, pp. 51–52, letter to Intelligence Bureau, Government of India, presumably by E.B. Howell, dated 24 March 1932; also Memorandum of Conversation, 57–61, dated 7 April 1932.

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like an amber and the larger it is, the greater was the spirit and illumination of the lama” (!).6 Yet Koelz apparently did not acknowledge Elena as a great guru, and he acted too willfully, which eventually led to his “excommunication” by the Mother of the Agni Yoga. Upon his arrival in New York in early 1932, he was discharged by the trustees of the Roerich Museum. In the meantime the Roerichs befriended another very useful person, Col. A.E. Mahon, who lived nearby, in Manali. A retired British officer, Col. Mahon had a strong liking for both Nikolai and Elena and he joined, in December 1930, the staff of the nascent Urusvati Institute. (He was actually hired in the capacity of Urusvati’s PR agent for dealing with the officials in Delhi, lawyers and publishers.) Eventually Mahon became a strong supporter of the Roerich Peace Pact and Banner which he would welcome in public, by emphasizing especially the role of their initiator: “If the flag is accepted … the name of Roerich will go down in history as the name of the man who has done more for the preservation and advancement of art and culture and the attainment of everlasting peace than any other man, either now or in the past”.7 Col. Mahon and his wife D.E. Mahon were often visitors to the Hall Estate. After one of their visits, Esther Lichtmann put down in her diary: “We had Col. and Mrs Mahon for lunch. They are fine souls and we feel friends in them. Col. Mahon said very cleverly that if Prof. Roerich were an obnoxious person, Naggar would be the best place to send him to. Yes, the God-forsaken Naggar could be a wonderful place of exile indeed, an [Isle of] Saint Helena of its kind”.8 Esther’s two-year long stay side by side with Elena at her Himalayan asylum, in 1929–1931, put them eventually into very intimate and confidential relations. Oyana fully submitted herself to her female guru, Russian Tara, – she followed readily all her Agni Yoga instructions and precepts and fulfilled her various commissions and fancies. She looked after her spiritual “Mother” whenever Elena suffered badly from her fiery fits, assisted her, in Nikolai’s and Yuri’s absence, in running the Urusvati, and busied herself with translating the newest Agni Yoga texts into English. She even did some exploring in the vicinity of Naggar and penned a little essay discussing the popular religious beliefs and customs of the inhabitants of the Kulu Valley, “the kingdom of gods”.9 Esther’s 6 E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 6, 10, entry for 19 June 1930. 7 See, for example, his article ‘The Roerich Banner of Peace, what it is’, published in the Assam Review, June, 1934. 8 E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 6, 183, entry for 20 October 1930. 9 Esther-J. Lichtmann, Au Royaume des Dieux: Moers et Coutumes de la vallée de Kulu (In the kingdom of gods: The mores and customs of the Kulu Valley), Ethnographie, Nouvelle séries, 1930, 32–34.

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figure 58 Sitting, left to right, N. Roerich, Mrs D.E. Mahon, Esther Lichtmann, Col. A.E. Mahon; standing: Sviatoslav (left) and Yuri. September 1931. NRM archive

diaries are imbued with her absolute admiration for Elena Roerich and the latter, on her side, would treat Esther as her closest associate, her right hand, and would call her lovingly “my little daughter”. To Esther she would recount many stirring tales of her childhood and adolescence, of her romance with Nikolai Roerich and their life in St Petersburg, of her early Agni Yoga experiences, and would confide to her some of her family secrets. Upon her return to New York in 1931, Esther would write and publish a short biography of Roerich under a pen-name, Jean Duvernois, in which she would praise Elena Ivanovna as his “fellow-heroine and inspirer”. The publication coincided with the artist’s repeat nomination for the Nobel Prize and was actually intended to publicize his philosophical views and public work. The book eulogized Roerich in every possible way and ended with a rather pompous declaration: We proceed victoriously and nobody will impede us from adorning many paths of the world with the white milestones to the indescribably beautiful future.  Glory to Nicholas Roerich, the Teacher from the White Summits!10

10

Duvernois 1933, 61.

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Curiously, Esther reports in her diary that by 1930 both Roerichs had already grown into “legendary” figures for the Kulu dwellers. Many people flocked to the Hall Estate to get Elena’s blessing as they regarded her as a divine incarnation. And Elena behaved herself accordingly, as someone of a higher order. She would lavishly give bakshish to anybody who approached her and she spent no less than 600 rupees for alms-giving at Christmastime in 1929.11 What is particularly interesting about this information is that the Indians who came to venerate Elena knew nothing about Agni Yoga. They were attracted to the woman mainly as a spiritual personality and hence “pilgrimaged” to the Roerichs’ “Himalayan Ashram”.

…

After Nikolai’s and Yuri’s departure from America in early 1930, hard times befell the Roerich Museum and its affiliate institutions as a direct outcome of the Great Depression. Their financial situation was unstable and only deteriorated with time. Logvan (Louis Horch), president of the Roerich Museum, did his utmost to avoid the collapse of the institutions, and they stayed alive for a few years more largely owing to his strenuous efforts and great optimism, continuously instilled into him by the “fiery letters” from the Roerichs, his spiritual Parents. Here is an excerpt from one of the entries in his diary for the year 1931: The stock market does not reflect better conditions in the U.S.A. Salaries are being cut by many firms. This will spread all through the industries within a short time. People speak in a depressed way. Many people are out of work. Yet I feel most optimistic about the Institutions. It appears as if the depression is our possibility to lead the world to a higher spiritual path. And I feel in everything around our institutions the highest guidance and any amount of [unlimited] opportunities for tremendous growth. I feel so joyous and confident of the future. The new teachings received are so beautiful. [Also] letters from Tara and Guru. It is hard to find adequate words to express my thanks to the Great Leaders and Great Gurus.12 Staying in Kulu, the Roerichs of course had no immediate sense of the deepening crisis in America. Living in their beautiful visionary world ruled by the Masters, they were totally isolated from life’s harsh realities. They did not have to 11 12

Ibid., Notebook 4, 125–126, entry for 25 December 1929. L. Horch’s diary, p. 65, entry for 24 May 1931. The originals of Horch’s diaries spanning the years 1930–1934 are in the possession of the State Museum of the East, Moscow.

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earn their daily bread, as Logvan regularly sent them adequate allowances, wishing to relieve his gurus of all financial worries. They got used to their roles of world spiritual teachers and took the admiration and adoration of their devotees for granted. They sent them in return their admonishments, instructions and encouragements, as well as the Master’s latest “Indications” (Ukazy) which served as their mighty source of inspiration. It is enough to look into the diaries of Sina, Esther and Louis Horch to see to what extent Nikolai and Elena were worshiped by the Circle. There, at the feet of the Himalayas and close to the imaginary abode of the Masters, Fuyama and Tara were working hard for the sake of “the Great Future ahead”, trying to “speed up” the evolution of the human race. But so did their co-workers in New York. “Constantly I think of the future” – Logvan recorded in 1931 in his diary – “and this future will be greater than we can imagine, if we strive with all spirit to carry out promptly the wise indications of Tara and Guru”.13 The Roerichs were already contemplating some new global projects – that of the League of Culture to replace the impotent League of Nations, and the Pan-American Institute under the auspices of the Roerich Museum to forge closer cultural links between North and South Americas. Elena dreamt of the time to come soon when all nations would unite into a single planetary state, the United States of the World, under one ruler, so as to eradicate forever all enmity and hatred in the world. In the meanwhile, despite all financial difficulties, the Roerich Institutions were active and doing fairly well, for the time being. The musical school run by Sina gathered some 230 pupils in 1931, and the Michael Mordken dance class was a tremendous success, though it was too noisy, as complained many residents of the Master Building. The ethnic art exhibitions (Australian, German, Canadian, American Indian, Japanese etc.) attracted thousands of people to the Roe­rich Museum, and the lectures given therein by some outstanding men of the day also enjoyed great popularity. Among the lecturers were Manly Hall, the mystic and author of the Sacred Teachings of All Ages, the famous artists Dudley Craft Watson, Eliot Clark, Leon Dabo, the aircraft designer Igor Sikorskii, the explorer of Mongolia and China Roy Chapman Andrews and the conqueror of the Everest Captain J.B. Noel. In early 1932 the wife of the New York governor, Evelyn Roosevelt, also gave a talk at the museum, speaking of the great part to be played by women in the coming evolution.14 The museum also was a place where the first public service of the one universal religion was conducted in 1931, apparently with Nikolai and Elena’s ap13 14

L. Horch’s diary, 1931, p. 52, entry for April 27. L. Horch’s diary, 1932, p. 107, entry for 8 March.

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proval and encouragement. As Louis Horch reported about it, “Today [we] had a Universal Religious service in the Tibetan Library. The audience seemed to like it. For each great religion was burnt a candle and a short passage was read from the Bible, Koran, Buddhist scriptures etc. It was presented by Mrs Giffin and S. Lewis”.15 A remarkable and absolutely unheard of thing – the service was conducted by a woman acting as a priestess, which was to signal the beginning of the New Era of the Mother of the World! The Buddha’s birthday was likewise celebrated regularly in the Hall of the East. Here is how Horch described the event in 1934: A Japanese Buddhist priest opened the commemoration with an appropriate address followed by addresses by Das Gupta, Kettner, Lal, Nikaramander, Dr. Shankar, Stokes and Fleishner. Poruma [Horch’s wife – A.A.] acted as Chairman. The Hall was crowded. The candle lights and the beautiful setting of the room added in providing an excellent atmosphere. Refreshments were served after the addresses in Corona Mundi…16 There were several shrines in the Master Building accommodated in separate rooms: that of St Sergius,17 of St Francis of Assisi, and the main one in the Tower (on the top 29th floor) devoted to the Master. There the members of the Circle assembled on certain days for Agni Yoga practices, spoken of as “meetings” by Horch. These consisted presumably of meditation, or visual concentration, on the portrait of the Master Morya that was put on the table, some automatic writing, and readings from the latest Agni Yoga texts. As Horch has it in his diary, “The meetings every Sunday night in the Tower are wonderful. – After the meeting Poruma reads from ‘Infinity’”.18 The New York Rosicrucian Center and the California-based AMORK – American Mystical Order of the Rose and Cross – also rented rooms in the Master Building. The mystics and Masons regarded the Russian artist as their own and 15 16 17

18

L. Horch’s diary, 1931, p. 19, entry for 9 February. L. Horch’s diary, 1934, p. 144, entry for 25 May. Formally created in 1929 on the third floor, the St. Sergius Room was turned into a real shrine during Roerich’s visit to New York in 1934. According to L. Horch, it had three rows of icons, including the magnificent icon decorating the central wall donated by Princess Tenisheva. The two wooden pillars from an old house stood on both sides. Together with other paintings and fine tables the room made “a glorious spiritual shrine”. On Roerich’s suggestion it was renamed into the Chapel of St. Sergius. See L. Horch’s diary, 1931, pp. 109–110, entry for 8 April. See also Fosdik 2002, 640–641, entries for 4–5 April 1934. L. Horch’s diary, 1931, p. 59, entry for 17 May.

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were attracted to the Museum as a very special place which some wisecrackers dubbed the “Museum of Natural Mystery”. Thus it would probably not be an exaggeration to say that the Roerich Museum, in the early 1930s, was one of the best educational and cultural institutions in New York, as well as an incubator of some very advanced ideas, such as Roerich’s much acclaimed “Peace through Art” conception. Its activities were praised in many American periodicals and were spoken of very highly by the visitors of the museum or those who had a chance to learn about its activities. Thus Albert Einstein paid high tribute to Roerich’s art and, having acquainted himself with the Museum pamphlet specially sent to him, said: “Roerich is a genius”.19 And Leon Dabo, being invited to one of the Museum’s special events, a “Friendship Dinner”, exclaimed: “This institution is a real Miracle. Look what they have accomplished in 10 years!”.20 However, in early 1932, the financial situation of the Museum became desperate. Louis Horch could no longer afford some of the outgoing payments; the printing expenses of the Museum Press were very high, yet the biggest problem was the upkeep of the Urusvati Institute. And there was also the European Center (the Society of Friends of the Museum in Paris) which required support. At the same time the residents of the Master Building pressed for reduction of their rents, while the bondholders felt worried that the money was taken from the Building and spent in foreign countries. (The issuance and selling of bonds was one of the sources of income for the Roerich Museum.) The only way out was to curtail considerably the Museum’s activities, but this was out of question, as the educational and cultural work had an absolute priority for the Roerichs. As a result, a lawsuit was brought against the Museum, in early April 1932, by the Bondholders’ Committee, and the New York Supreme Court appointed a receiver to the Master Building. However, thanks largely to Horch’s efforts, half a year later the Court of Appeals in Albany vacated the “illegal receivership”. Yet this was only a short respite as two years later, in June 1934, the Supreme Court approved the reorganization plan for the Master Building. This was implemented in two stages. As a first step, the museum-building was sold to the bondholders at auction in the foreclosure proceedings at the very end of December. Then, as the next step, a corporation of bondholders, having obtained the first mortgage to cover tax payments, the expenses of the sale and similar disbursements, conveyed the property (the Master Building) to “an educational corporation”

19 20

Ibid., diary, 1931, p. 15, entry for 30 January. Ibid., diary 1932, p. 132, entry for 24 March.

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(the Roerich Museum).21 In this way the Roerichs retained the Museum in their hands, though not for a long time.

…

Nikolai returned to America, together with his elder son, in mid-March 1934. Curiously, while in Paris they both renewed their French passports,22 which suggests that the documents issued to them in 1930 were valid for a period of five years only. Their visit to the United States lasted for five weeks, the time needed to mount their newly projected botanical expedition to Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. This was organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, largely through the efforts of its head and Nikolai’s new friend, Henry Agard Wallace, with the object of searching for drought-resisting grasses on the edges of the Gobi Desert which might be of use to American agriculture suffering badly from droughts.23 The idea of leading another American research expedition to Asia belonged to Roerich and was actually articulated by him as early as 1929, when he formulated the scientific program for his newly founded Urusvati Institute. However it was only in 1934 that Wallace was able to secure funds for the Manchurian project, with the support of Roosevelt’s administration.24 Wallace first met Roerich in the summer of 1929. He was greatly impressed by the artist’s striking personality and broad views and immediately fell under his magnetic charms. In fact the secretary of agriculture had many things in common with Roerich, such as his interest in theosophy and Eastern mystical teachings as well as in the cooperative movement which he believed had great potentialities for entire mankind. Like Roerich, Wallace was a practical idealist who sought to put his ideals, his dreams of a new world order, into practice. As Robert Williams neatly put it, for him the New Deal was “a harbinger of impending spiritual revolution, a kingdom of social justice”.25 As regards Roerich, he did not like some of Roosevelt’s early initiatives, such as America’s recognition in 1933 of the Soviet Union. So he gravitated at first more to Wallace than to FDR, seeing in him a potential candidate for the next U.S. presidency. He succeeded 21 22

23 24 25

See New York Times, 27 December 1934 (“Museum Building Sold at Auction”), 28 December 1934 (“Roerich Museum saved for 15 years”). According to the travel permit (laissez-passer) obtained from the Consulate of France in Harbin on 10 July 1934, Monsieur Nicolas de Roerich was the holder of the French passport # 04621 issued to him in Paris on March 6, 1934. Yuri (Georges de Roerich) held a similar passport # 04622 issued on the same date. See Dubaev 2001, 88–89. On H. Wallace as organizer of Roerich’s botanical expedition to Central Asia see White, Maze 1995. On the organization of the Manchurian expedition, see Rosov 2004a, 143 ff. Williams 1980, 136.

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in fully cultivating the man, making him one of his devotees, an Agni-Yoga believer, nicknamed esoterically Friend or Galahad by Elena. (Galahad was the most virtuous Knight of King Arthur’s legendary Round Table. Wallace’s private letters to Nikolai Roerich, written in 1933–1934, started with a reverential “Dear Guru” and were often signed by the initial G., standing for Galahad.) The Guru presented Wallace with a double dorje as the symbol of the coming New Era and a portrait of Master Morya on whom he should meditate in the morning. Their contacts were maintained largely through Modra (Frances Grant), who started a lively correspondence with Wallace and often visited him in Washington, which started rumours of their intimate relations.26 She would deliver to Galahad the Agni Yoga books and some of N. Roerich’s writings, including his collection of essays Abode of Light (1931). On 16 March 1934, while in Washington, Roerich prophesied to Wallace that he would become the U.S. President, presented him with the Maitreya ring, a portrait of the Master and a special “powder for yogis” as a stress-relieving medication. A prophesy of a great future accompanied by some sacred tokens looked like a well-tested ‘ritual’, with the help of which Roerich initiated the persons whose services and devotion he needed into his New Era community, the Maitreya Sangha. As a result, on the very same day, Wallace wrote an official letter to Roerich inviting him, on behalf of his Department, “to lead and protect the botanical research group” into Central Asia. The fact that Guru was not a botanist did not bother Wallace at all. By appointing him the leader of “botanical research group” he counted mainly on Roerich’s previous experience which gave him “unusual understanding of central Asia”.27 All practical field work was ­assigned to two professional botanists – Howard G. MacMillan and James L. Stephens from the Bureau of Plant Industry, a division of the Department of Agriculture, headed by another botanist, Knowles Ryerson. This implied the expedition was to be supervised from Washington jointly by Wallace and his subordinate Ryerson. Manchuria attracted Roerich, however, not only because of its unique flora. The scientific pursuits apart, his expedition had some other goals carefully concealed from the rest of the world, and the American authorities in particular, though not from Henry Wallace, as these were connected with his Great Plan 26

27

For their correspondence see Rutgers University Special Collection (New Jersey): Frances Grant Papers, Box 15, folders 32–34. Seven letters from H. Wallace to Frances Grant were published in Russian translation in Rosov 2004a, 141–146 (28 February 1933 – 12 December 1933). H. Wallace’s letter to N. Roerich, dated 16 March 1934, University of Iowa libraries, Iowa City: H.A. Wallace Papers, MSC 177, 10025 M.

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which now approached its crucial stage. (“The Great Plan is coming to finitio. – The Great Time is at hand”, Horch put down in his diary in 1934.) In Manchuria and in adjacent Inner Mongolia as well Roerich wanted to start a network of agricultural cooperatives and cooperative banks, under the brand name Alatyr, the magic “White Stone” of Russian folklore. These were to form the economic and financial basis for his New Country – new Asiatic Russia. Already in 1933, on Nikolai’s request, his younger brother Vladimir, who resided in Harbin where he managed an agricultural unit at the thriving trade company of one I.Ya. Churin, drew up a project for a “Manchurian agricultural cooperative”.28 Nikolai also had some whimsical ideas about reviving the Gobi Desert, with the help of irrigation, and turning it into a land of blooming vegetation as it was believed to have been thousands of years ago. These ideas he expounded in his inspiring essay Da protzvetut pustyni (The deserts shall bloom again)29 which he would send, along with the English translation, to Wallace in Washington at the end of 1934, already from Manchuria. And Wallace-Galahad would immediately relay it to the “Chief”, Roosevelt. About the reaction of the president he recounted in his letter to Guru: “He (Roosevelt) was very much interested and asked me to ask you if you could discover, in your contacts with the monasteries or other places where records are kept, whether the country which is now desert was at once covered with trees, crops and more luxuriant vegetation than at the present time. He asked the specific question, “Was it in the 1500’s that this happened?”. He also asked further if you could find out from the records as to any suggestions concerning why this country became dry”. The letter ended on a friendly note which prompted Elena Roerich to start a correspondence with Roosevelt, of which we will speak below (“… the President was much interested in receiving your letter and he enquired regarding Madame Roerich of whom he had apparently had reports which interested him greatly”.30) While making plans for his New Russia to emerge in the Manchurian steppes bordering on Soviet Russia, Roerich was well aware of the precarious political situation in the Far East. In 1931 Manchuria was overrun by Japan – the Empire of Nippon – and turned into a puppet-state Manchukuo. Formally it was ruled by Prince Pu-Yi, China’s last Manchu emperor of the Tsing dynasty, though legally the country was a part of the Republic of China under its president Chiang Kai-shek. Having learned about some new construction started in Manchukuo, 28 29 30

In more detail on this see Rosov 2004a, 157–160. Written in 1933, the essay was first published in Рерих 1934; see also Belikov, Kniazeva 1973, 221. Letter from Wallace to N. Roerich, 7 December, 1934, University of Iowa’s libraries, Iowa City (H.A. Wallace Papers, MSC 177).

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under the auspices of Buddhist Japan, Roerich rejoiced, seeing in this a sign of the approaching New Era. He apparently expected an armed conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union which might precipitate the collapse of the Bolshevik regime in Russia. Moreover, he and Yuri seem to have made up their minds to take part in the hostilities, on the side of militarist Japan. On the day of their arrival in New York Sina entered into her diary: “The plan is as follows – a journey to Kyoto for an exhibition of paintings, thence to the country of Achair;31 from there Yuri will go deep into Mongolia to drill and organize – N.K. is at the head of everything. Surely, Japan is on the friendly side, since the Japanese are the only opponents of Bolsheviks”.32 The quotation suggests vaguely that Yuri – incarnate Tamerlane – planned to organize and drill some Mongol cavalry units, most likely in Inner Mongolia, also a Japan-controlled territory. But this was not all. While in Paris, on the way to China, Nikolai, in spring 1934, made contacts with some Russian émigré generals, who had formerly taken part in the anti-Bolshevik While movement in Russia. Sina’s diary entry continued with a more astounding revelation: America could hold the top place [among nations], if not for its recognition [of the Soviets]. In France everyone believes that Roosevelt is a madman. N.K. does not intend to see him. Neither Yuri, nor N.K. will return to India soon. The date has been given – the year 36, when E.I., probably (as was Indicated to her in a dream), will go to meet them in Afghanistan by motor via India. Wonderful opportunities! – N.K. met us with the words: “And so we have reached the future! The Past must be forgotten”. He was literally glowing with light. The Great Plan was gradually turning into a big and rather risky venture. The stakes in this occult race for Asia and eventually for the entire world were high, but the Roerichs knew they would win it! It could not be otherwise as they were guided by the Master, one of the Hierarchs of Light and the Messiah Himself! The military plans nurtured by the Roerichs in early 1934 in connection with their trip to Manchuria make the most intriguing aspect of their expedition to the region. What Nikolai and Yuri were really up to we do not know as their plans were carefully concealed and referred to only vaguely in their correspondence with co-workers. What we do know is that Nikolai was actively liaising 31 32

“The country of Achair” is an allusion to Manchuria. Achair is a pseudonym of Russian émigré poet A.A. Gryzov, a member of the Roerich Pact Committee in Harbin. Fosdik 2002, 608–609, entry for 14 March 1934.

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with some prominent White Army generals, in Paris and then in Harbin, in 1934. One of them was General N.N. Golovin who was running the military courses for Russian officers in the French capital.33 Golovin was one of the leading strategists before the revolution and in 1919 he served as head of staff under Admiral Kolchak, whose armies fought with the Bolsheviks in the Urals, Siberia and in the Far East. Being defeated in the Civil War, the leaders of the White movement went into exile, in Western Europe and in Asia, where they resumed their bitter struggle against Bolshevism. This was largely an ideological warfare although it could easily be turned into a real war again, as soon as an opportunity presented itself. The White Russian officers, in both Europe and Asia, were united into a powerful organization, the Russian All-Military Union (Russkii Obshche-Voinskii Soiuz, ROVS), established in Paris in 1924 by General P.N. Wrangel. They cherished revanchist feelings and were preparing for a campaign to liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks. The occupation of Manchuria mightily raised their hopes since the country where thousands of Russian white officers had settled and where ROVS had its branch office in Harbin could serve a convenient springboard for attacking the USSR jointly with the Japanese troops. The ROVS was prepared to fight on Japan’s side, if only to topple the hateful Bolshevik regime in their homeland. Japan spelled out her militarist aspirations, as early as 1927, in the notorious memorial of its prime-minister Tanaka, being a plan for the conquest of Asia. This was to begin with Japan’s take-over of Manchuria and Mongolia, then the whole of China and, at a later stage, India, Central Asia and Asia Minor. The document, believed to be a forgery, was first published in 1929 and its English translation was in circulation long before 1934. We do not know whether Nikolai Roerich was familiar with the Tanaka Memorial and approved of Japan’s expansionist strategy, yet he definitely showed much sympathy for Imperial Japan during this period. The Roerich institutions in New York and Paris established contacts, in 1930, with Japanese officials in the U.S. and France along cultural lines, seeking primarily to secure Japan’s support for the Roerich Peace Pact. Then in 1931 the Roerich Society was founded in Tokyo and Nikolai Roerich wrote an essay on that occasion entitled Slava samuraev (Glory of the samurai). In this he praised the spirit of the Japanese samurai as “a symbol of heroism, genuine patriotism and courage”. His perception of Japan was purely esthetic as he admired the country’s peculiar manner of painting and its “advanced culture”, which had helped Japan “to occupy an outstanding place in the world”. 33

On Golovin and his contacts with N. Roerich see Rosov 2004a, 16–22.

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At the same time he spoke of his Peace Banner as a safeguard of all cultural treasures from “vandalism and violence” in time of war and peace. Trying to forge a closer link with Japan, the Roerich Museum hosted, in 1932, a Japanese art exhibition which was then taken to other American cities and was quite a success. Two years later Horch arranged for an exhibition of Roe­ rich’s own works in Kyoto and shipped there 17 of the artist’s selected paintings. These were displayed in the Kyoto Municipal Museum together with 50 works by Japanese artists in early 1935. Roerich had openly manifested his fascination for the Land of the Rising Sun, at least until mid-1934. The situation in Manchuria and the revival of Japanese militarism did not seem to have worried him seriously. He perceived Japan as the only power which could arrest the Bolshevik ideological expansion in the Far East and in Asia in general and believed naively that Japan would welcome his projected Mongol-Siberian confederation to emerge after the collapse of the Soviets. It is enough to read some of the messages channeled by Elena in the early half of 1934 to get an idea of the Roerichs’ rapturous attitude towards Japan: “Japan is important for the [Great] Plan”; “It is Fuyama who is able to bring about rapprochement between Japan and America”; “We are happy with the Japanese formulas. I praise those who worked for the success of the samurai”.34 Hence the Asian continent and the entire world were to be dominated in the near future by three superpowers – America, Japan and New Russia, according to Roerich’s occult geopolitical scheme. Yet very soon the artist would alter his views and speak of a two-pole world ruled by America and New Russia (“Russian Asia”), with Japan being incorporated within the borders of the latter.35 General Golovin, surprisingly, adhered precisely to the same opinion when he claimed that Japan, America and Russia would establish a friendly and solid cooperation on the shores of the Pacific Ocean after the collapse of the Bolsheviks. Like Roerich, he earnestly believed that the Bolshevik Russia presented a great menace to Asiatic peoples by trying to kindle the fire of communism in Asia, and that Japan’s seizure of Manchuria was not an aggressive act but an attempt to protect the continent from Bolshevism. These ideas the white Russian general expressed in his lengthy introduction to the collection of articles

34 35

Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 439, 457, 466, entries for 17 April, 3 and 26 June 1934. “The Japanese Islands will be called Russian Asia”, reads Elena’s message channeled on 30 April 1933; see Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 355.

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entitled “Siberia and its Future”, which Roerich wanted to publish in New York at the end of 1934 but failed to do it for some reason.36 After his breach with Moscow the artist was apparently looking for new allies. He was ready to cooperate with anybody who could be of help to his Great Plan, be it the white Russian generals or the Japanese military. Even fascists could be helpful to his cause – not with their doctrine, of course, but their “rattle”. Therefore one should not “reproach” fascists, but regard them as “beaters”, employed to rouse game (!?). Besides, there were “good men” among them and the Master named some of these good fascists, all being Russian émigrés in Manchuria.37 One of the most fascinating messages was channeled by Elena at the end of September 1932, one revealing the family’s secret plans and their mystical expectations of some crucial events to take place in the world between the years 1934 and 1936: The Dates are drawing near, the prophecies and behests of Shambhala are being fulfilled. As was said, the Northern Man [read Roerich – A.A.] together with the P[anchen] R[impoche] will build the stronghold. Only the Shambhala Teaching will save the world. You know the meaning of the great year 36. Now you know about a meeting of the P[anchen] R[impoche] with the Northern Man in the 34th year. You know that the warriors of the Rising Sun will fulfill the Orders of Shambhala. The P[anchen] R[impoche] will recognize the Northern Man, when the latter will take off his breast the image of the Blessed One and hand it over to him. Also [he] will show him the Banner and the ring. Thus through these triple tokens the P[anchen] R[impoche] will be notified. So far let him keep to the dates, given by the Stars. Let him wait and assemble the Shambhala warriors. Let him remember that they will come from all quarters of the Earth. Shambhala is approaching!38 So Roerich had longed to meet the Panchen Lama in China some two years prior to his Manchurian expedition. And their meeting was to become the high point of his life as well as of the entire Great Plan. The meeting of the world’s two greatest spiritual leaders, whose work was most needed at that particular stage of human history – the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama of the West! It was probably in anticipation of that momentous event that Nikolai Roerich, sometime in 1932–1933, had his most unusual and provocative photographs 36 37 38

See Rosov 2004a, 20–21. Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 410, entry for 5 December 1933. Ibid., 305–306, entry for 22 September 1932.

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figure 59a-b Nikolai Roerich in Oriental robe, Naggar, 1932-33, NRM archive

taken by Shibaev showing him clad in a beautifully tailored Oriental robe, and his son, Sviatoslav, portrayed him as the “Western Dalai Lama”, against the magnificent Potala Palace. In these photos and in the painting Roerich looks very much like a saint or a mahatma, a person ready to commit his podvig for the sake of humanity, although someone less spiritually-minded may discern in these images an act of blatant masquerading by a megalomaniac artist. As for the Panchen Lama, he was now residing at the Kumbum monastery in Amdo (north-eastern Tibet), controlled by Chiang Kai-shek, still planning to return to his Tashilhumpo residence. His situation was most dramatic. In the words of the Indian historian Parshotam Mehra: “Chiang Kai-Shek courted him, heavily bribed his escort and made all kinds of vague promises to send him back to Tibet accompanied by an armed escort. The Lama was naïve enough to fall into the trap and for a decade and half (1924–37) lived on these false promises”.39 But so did the Roerichs who lived on the promises of their Master.

…

The organization of the Manchurian Expedition started by Wallace in early 1934 presented him with a number of problems. The biggest one was political: 39

P. Mehra’s letter to the author, 2012.

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American – Japanese relations were rather tense and continued to deteriorate. The United States did not recognize the Japanese-constructed state of Manchukuo and did not have their diplomatic representative there; in the League of Nations, the Americans, together with other world leading powers, strongly protested against the country’s occupation by Japan. In this context sending an American government expedition to the troubled region was untimely and politically unwise. Therefore Wallace kept the State Department out of his and Roerich’s plans and he also requested Guru not to mention his expedition when meeting with the Japanese consul general in New York. Yet Roerich let out carelessly his “secrets” to the consul – he told him about the expedition, the “Siberian Center” set up recently at the Roerich Museum40 and about Wallace becoming the next U.S. president, under whom America would be a good friend of Japan (as was predicted by the Master).41 Another serious problem was botanists. Both Macmillan and Stephens were unwilling to take part in the expedition under Roerich’s leadership because he was not a botanist and had a bad academic reputation after his publicized ‘discovery’ of Christ’s Tibetan Gospel. Their boss, Ryerson, had little sympathy for Roerich either and wanted Macmillan to lead the party. To avoid a conflict within his Department, Wallace had to arrange with Ryerson that the botanists would proceed to Manchuria independently and join the Roerichs in Harbin. On April 22, as soon as all discussions were over, Nikolai and Yuri left for Seattle, where they were to take a steamship to Japan. A tiny group of their New York co-workers came to see them off at the Penn Station. “We talked about an hour in the lounge then kissed our dear ones good-bye and off they went on their great mission for the salvation of Russia”, Sina put down in her notebook.42 The boat anchored at Yokohama on the 10th of May and the same evening the Roerichs took a train to Tokyo. There they were hailed enthusiastically by Japan’s first Roerichites and a group of Russian émigrés. Here is how a Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun described a dinner given in their honor in one of the city’s best restaurants: Nicholas Roerich, the director of the Roerich Museum in New York, who has been trying to introduce Japanese art worldwide for many years, came to his much admired Japan for sightseeing. A welcome dinner party to honor his services was held by the Ministry of Education and Culture 40

41 42

The center was established within the framework of the Society of Friends of the Roerich Museum, under G. Grebenshchikov. It united a group of Siberia-born Russian emigrants to America. Fosdik 2002, 620, entry for 19 March 1934. Ibid., 667, entry for 22 April 1934.

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at Shiba Kôyôkan at 6 p.m. on the 17th of May. The main guests were Mr. Roerich and his son, George, both having excellent beards, while the hosts were the Parliamentary Secretary Ishizaka and some Japanese painters, including Yokoyama Taikan, Kawai Gyokudô, Araki Jippo, Yûki Somei, and Matsuoka Eikyû. The party enjoyed purely Japanese dishes prepared warm-heartedly in a Japanese room which was fragrant with the smell of fresh leaves; [they] talked mainly about Japanese art and finished at 9 p.m.43 Surprisingly, the purpose of the Roerichs’ visit to Japan was given in the newspaper as “sightseeing”. The Japanese apparently knew nothing about their forthcoming expedition to Manchuria. According to a police report, “… Roerich came to Japan to study the culture of the East, especially of Japan and Manchuria. In Tokyo, Roerich gave a lecture for Russian émigrés about the harmony of Russian spirit and culture in earlier times, and he also distributed brochures entitled Hail to Japan to some interested persons”.44 The brochure was actually a Japanese translation of Roerich’s slightly revised essay “Glory of the samurai” (Nihon Raisan). In this he expressed gratitude to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Katsui Debushi, who had organized the Japanese art exhibition at the Roerich Museum in 1932, to a Buddhist monk “of the highest rank”, Noguchi, who once visited the museum and to the Japanese officials who attended the Third International Convention in support of the Roerich Pact held in Washington in November 1933.45 The Roerichs spent about two weeks in Tokyo meeting various Japanese high officials. They also called on the Manchukuo Legation seeking visas and permission to conduct scientific exploration on the territory of the Empire of Manchukuo, and of course did some sightseeing, which included visiting the Botanical Gardens, the Meiji Jingu (shrine) as well as the Hashimangu Shrine in Kamakura, Japan’s first Samurai capital. On May 24 they were received by the war minister General Senjuro Hayashi. This was the same Hayashi, commander of the Imperial Japanese Army in Korea, who in 1931 invaded Manchuria and quickly overran the country, acting without authorization of the Emperor or the central government. As Roerich reported to Wallace in Washington, the visit was necessitated by a wish “to obtain the cooperation of Japanese military 43 44

45

Translated from Yukiko Kitamura’s article “Japanese publications on Nicholas Roerich”, Kitamura 2011, 203. Ibid., 202–203. The report entitled “Arrival of a famous ex-Russian” was published in the edition: Gaiji Keisatsuhô [Reports from the Police of Foreign Affairs], v.38, n.143, June 1934, p. 173 (repr. Tokyo: Fuji Shuppan, 1988). Ibid., 203, fn. 12.

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figure 60 N. and Y. Roerich meeting Japan’s war minister Hayashi, 24 May 1934. A cutting from a Japanese newspaper. Amherst ­Centre for Russian Culture, Amherst, Mass., USA.

authorities”.46 In an interview with Japanese newsmen, Roerich commended highly General Hayashi as “a personality of noble character whose perspicacity and understanding of cultural work and related ideals show him to be a leader of great opportunities”.47 Obviously, Roerich wanted to make a good impression on the Japanese public and therefore did not stint his praise of the country’s warlord, though Hayashi’s blitzkrieg in Manchuria was a blatant act of aggression. It is worthy of mention here that Roerich at that time was known in Japan mainly as an artist and a new age thinker, the author of a collection of articles, Adamant, translated into Japanese in 1926 under the title “Life of Beauty and Wisdom” (Bi to eichi no seikatsu). According to its translator Itsu Takeutchi, the book, by advertising the activities of the Master Institute and Corona Mundi, offered the modern world a cure from its sores through “the power of beauty and wisdom”.48 However, what made him a particularly attractive figure in the eyes of Japan’s belligerent political and military leaders were his openly declared Japanophilia and the strongly anti-Bolshevik rhetoric. To facilitate his task as head of a research group, the Foreign Office of Japan attached its official, S. Kitagawa, to the Roerich party. This person was to act as interpreter and intermediary between Roerich and the Manchukuo authorities. No doubt Kita­ gawa was also to keep an eye on Roerich and his activities in Manchukuo, as the 46 47 48

Letter to H. Wallace, Harbin, 24 October 1934, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa city, Henry A. Wallace Papers, MSC 17, 10259 M, p. 3. Cited in Rosov 2004a, 28. Kitamura 2011, 198.

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country was politically a very sensitive area. While visiting the ministry, the Roerichs also made contacts with a very important official there, the head of the Culture Work Bureau, Teiji Tsubokami, who, as Roerich would assert, was “in charge of all scientific work proceeding on Japanese territory, Korea and the Kuantung Peninsula”. To this official Roerich showed Wallace’s letter of March 16 which identified him as the American expedition leader and Tsubokami communicated this information at once to the authorities in Manchukuo.49 While in Tokyo the Roerichs also met the U.S. Ambassador J.C. Grew, to whom they revealed their expedition plans. By producing the same letter as their credentials, they requested the diplomat to extend his assistance to their mission. However, the Ambassador evaded cooperation and advised Nikolai Roerich to use his “personal connections in negotiations with local authorities”. Apparently he did not want to get mixed up in the undertaking of the “suspicious” Roerichs, who were not American citizens and were not properly accredited for their job by the U.S. government. But this gave the Roerichs a carte-blanch to approach anybody they wished while in Manchuria. At the same time, the U.S. consul general Arthur Garrels reported about ­Nikolai Roerich’s meeting with Tsubokami to the State Department, and that was how the latter learnt about the unauthorized Manchurian expedition – that it was initiated by the Department of Agriculture and led by a Russian émigré artist. The secretary of state Cordell Hull was deeply annoyed and cabled the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, on June 11, that they “should neither trust nor give any unusual assistance to the Roerichs”.50 But the Roerichs were already in Manchuria by that time. Nikolai Roerich and his son arrived in Harbin (Heilongjiang) by rail, via ­Korea, at 6:40 a.m. on 31 May. Despite the early hour and the drizzling rain they were given a most hearty welcome at the station platform by a large group of Russian Harbinites representing the various strata of society – academics, directors of gymnasia, artists, journalists, students, the YMCA activists and many others. There was also Nikolai’s brother in the crowd, Vladimir Roerich, a former fellow-fighter of “White Baron” Ungern, who was now an agriculturalist and was assigned the task of paramount importance by Nikolai, that of starting a model agricultural co-op at Harbin. Both Roerichs then proceeded to his house on Sadovaya Street 15, which would become henceforth their home and the expedition headquarters.51

49 50 51

Letter to H. Wallace, Harbin, 24 October 1934, p.2. See White, Maze 1995, 88. On Roerich’s time in Harbin in 1934 see Dubaev 2001.

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Harbin, in the 1920s – 1930s, was a major center of Russian Diaspora in China, a considerable part of which consisted of Soviet citizens employed at the ­Chinese-Eastern Railway (KVZhD) and its many establishments, such as the KVZhD-owned concessions, schools, hospitals, telegraph etc. Harbin was also known as the center of contraband and espionage activities in the Far East. Suffice it to say that it was the seat of the main Soviet legal rezidentura (spy network) operated by the INO (Foreign Department) OGPU. (The Soviets had four more in Manchuria out of the total number of thirteen rezidenturas then functioning in China.52) Hence all movements and activities of the Roerichs would be closely watched from several sides – by the Manchurian authorities, the Japanese officials as well as Soviet secret agents. A Soviet diplomatic courier V.I. Chuikov (later to become a marshal) spoke of Harbin in his memoirs as a huge “black market” where people openly traded in foreign currencies, drugs, weapons and humans. The news of Roerich’s arrival in Harbin came as a bombshell to Harbinites, as recalled one of them, a Latvia-born writer and theosophist, Alfred Heidok. According to Heidok, all of the city dwellers were agitated while the apartment where the artist and his son put up turned into “a site of endless pilgrimage”. The visitors were so many that Roerich had to hire a special hall porter who stood by the door of his study and let people in one by one, provided they made a preliminary appointment.53 The artist’s magnetic personality made him instantly a focus of everyone’s attention and nearly a cultic figure. Recalling his first meeting with Roerich, who was soon to become his spiritual teacher, Heidok noted that his appearance had “something of a biblical prophet who walked out to proclaim a new truth or to expose injustice”. Having read his famous Heart of Asia, which gave him some notion of the mahatmas and Shambhala, Heidok could not but ask him candidly at their first encounter: “Nikolai Konstantino­ vich, I have read your books, so can you tell me if the Himalayan Mahatmas really exist”, to which Roerich replied, without a slightest hesitation, “Yes, they do. I visited with them”. In the conversation that followed Roerich told Heidok that one of the mahatmas had given a new life teaching, Agni Yoga, and promised to present the Russian seeker after truth a copy of Elena’s book of the same title as soon as his luggage arrived. 54 The Roerichs spent two months in Harbin making preparations for their research trip and waiting for American botanists to join them. This gave Nikolai Roerich an opportunity to organize an Agni Yoga group in town. He did not give 52 53 54

See Usov 2002, chapter: Rezidentura v Harbine (Резидентура в Харбине). Quoted fromDubaev 2001, 80–81. Kheidok 1993, 79, 81.

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any lectures though, but simply talked to his devotees – about the approaching New Era, the new mankind which would replace the present one which was “suffocating in its rage of predatory instincts and walking blindly towards selfdestruction”. And he called upon his audience to take part in the building of the “New World”, one of “cooperation and brotherhood of nations”. To Heidok and other young Harbinites Roerich looked like a genuine prophet, “life’s Teacher” and “the envoy of Shambhala”. In the meantime Macmillan and Stephens, having arrived to Tokyo on June 2, were trying without success to hire a Japanese botanical assistant and arrange for Russian visas (?) to go to Manchuria. They had already decided not to join the Roerich party and were even scared to go to Harbin. As Macmillan reported to Ryerson, “there are over 70,000 white Russians in the town, and a considerable group of reds. The whole section is in the nebulous area where trouble begins to concentrate…”.55 And indeed Russian Harbin was a very turbulent place in north-east China since the proclamation in 1932 of the Manchukuo Empire. A major junction city on the Chinese Eastern Railway operated jointly by China and the USSR (until 1935), it featured a multi-ethnic community consisting of Russians and Russianspeaking Ukrainians, Georgians, Tatars and Jews and a broad spectrum of political and cultural activities. The majority of Harbinites were anti-Soviet white emigrants who fled to Manchuria after the Civil War and who held monarchist views. Yet there was also a large number of Soviet residents (36,000 in 1934), who were mainly the KVZhD employees. There were several Russian Orthodox churches and Moslem mosques in the city. (A vast majority of Russian Harbinites would repatriate to their homeland after the USSR had sold its rights in the KVZhD, in early 1935, to the government of Manchukuo, with Japan acting as the guarantor of the transaction. One of these was the former leader of smenovekhovtsy N.V. Ustrialov, employed at the KVZhD as a legal advisor. He would be arrested two years later, charged with espionage and shot, like many other repatriates.) The most popular Russian émigré organizations in Harbin in those days were the Far-Eastern Department of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), headed by General G.A. Verzhbitskii, and the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), run by G. Heig and Roerich’s friend, the poet Achair-Gryzov. The Russian Fascist Party was also very active, and towards the end of 1934 (by which time the Roe­ richs had already left Harbin) the Japanese formed the “Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria” (BREM) in Harbin, formally under the control of the Russian fascists, with the view of uniting the Russian Diaspora under the banner of fighting for the liberation of Russia from Bolshevism. 55

White, Maze 1995, 88.

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Having settled in Harbin, the Roerichs immediately found themselves in the epicenter of the vehement political strife between various rival émigré groups, which quite naturally sought to attract to their ranks the world renowned artist whose name was on everyone’s lips. The Roerichs chose to cooperate primarily with the ROVS and the YMCA, thus combining their strong fighting spirit, urging them to combat Bolshevism, with their elevated cultural aspirations directed towards a universal brotherhood. Having learned of the ROVS financial difficulties, Nikolai Roerich offered them assistance and purchased for $1000 a newspaper Russkoye Slovo (Russian Word) which was to become the mouthpiece of the Military Union. In an interview carried in one of the first issues of the revived newspaper he formulated the principal and most urgent tasks of the Russian emigration as “struggle with Communists and unity of their ranks”.56 At the same time both Roerichs took active parts in various cultural events organized by the YMCA. The artist often gave lectures on their premises, talking about Russian culture, its greatness, destination etc. They also made a trip to Hsinking, the capital of Manchukuo, where they met the Manchu puppet emperor Pu-Yi, to whom the elder Roerich presented the Banner of Peace and a certain “Order of Merit”. In the meantime the botanists left Tokyo late in June and were moving slowly to Harbin. Macmillan kept in touch with A. Garrels, to whom he relayed whatever news he could collect about Prof. Roerich and his “unscientific” activities in Manchuria. Thus having reached Hsinking, he wrote sarcastically to the consul: “On arrival in Hsinking the Professor distributed handbills to all comers giving in some detail the more commonplace contributions to culture which he had made, with some inconspicuous details of his life”. Macmillans attached to his letter a copy of the handbill which extoled Roerich’s great accomplishments in archeology, art and science and referred to his “latest creation”, the plan for the Roerich Pact and the Banner of Peace. According to Macmillan, it was the emblem of this banner that Roerich presented to the emperor for his “resplendent merits” in the field of culture. The handbill also mentioned the fact that Roerich had “constantly expressed his admiration for Japanese art and culture, … [and] voiced his conviction of the splendid destiny of Japan in its advance towards cultural ascendency”.57 Macmillan and Stephens finally arrived at Harbin in the company of two Japanese – an interpreter Takada and Sato Djunpei from Port Arthur’s Museum – at the end of July, one month later than was expected by Roerich. But even then they did not contact the expedition leader as they wanted to work entirely on their own and do exactly what they planned to do. They objected to 56 57

Dubaev 2001, 43–44. Quoted from White, Maze 1995, 89.

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Roerich’s proposed scheme of botanical exploration and the itinerary charted by him, which implied moving from place to place, collecting grasses and seeds here and there on the way. Macmillan had his own plan which made it necessary to stay in one place (the vicinity of Hailar) in order to observe the growth of various grasses, the time when they drop their seeds and when roots could be ­taken, etc.58 However, botanical work was not the only item on Roerich’s­ agenda; we know already that the artist also had “something else” on his mind, and this urged him to travel about and visit places, stopping at monasteries and meeting all sorts of people which could be of use to him and the Great Plan. As a result of Macmillan’s and Stephen’s refusal to cooperate, Roerich had to hire two Russian botanists in Harbin – Taras Feodorovich Gordeev and Anatolii Andreyevich Kostin. On 1 August his party finally left for Hailar by train. It consisted of the three Roerichs, Gordeev and Kostin, the Japanese secretary Kitagawa and several Russian Cossacks hired as expedition guards under Col. V.I. Gribanovskii. The American botanists boarded the same train, yet they still avoided meeting Nikolai Roerich or anybody from his party. Having arrived at Hailar the next day, both groups proceeded, independently, to the Japanese Military Mission to obtain permission for exploratory work in the area. Its head, Col. Saito, was absolutely embarrassed to see two separate American research groups dispatched by the same Department of Agriculture who were apparently at odds with each other since Macmillan refused to recognize Roerich as the Expedition leader. Eventually, after two day’s enquiry into the matter, both parties got a clearance from Saito and each went its own way. The Hailar (Hulunbuir) area, in the north-eastern corner of Inner Mongolia (Barga), was known as “Pearl of the Grasslands” and as a “gateway” between China and Russia. It was here that Roerich’s Expedition started its field work. On 4 August his party left Hailar and proceeded in two motor cars to Ganjur monastery, situated in a typical desert and steppe country some 175 km SW of Hailar. They spent several days there collecting grasses in sand-dunes while Yuri Roerich was busy copying some Tibetan medical manuscripts he had discovered in the monastic library. From Ganjur the party moved further SW to Arshan Yamen, then past Dzangin sume towards Khandagai where they spent three days. The next stop was at Tsagan-nur and from there the party returned to Hailar. The next leg of journey was a trip to the Khingan Mountains where the Roerichs established a base at a place called Barim, another KVZhD railroad station. They spent two more weeks there and finally returned to Harbin via Hailar. The movement of the Roerich party was closely watched by the Japanese, as evidenced by the few available documents from Japan’s Foreign Office. 58

Ibid., 90–91.

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figure 61 The Manchurian Expedition: N. Roerich, Viktor ­Gribanovskii, Y. Roerich, K. Gordeev, August 1934. NRM archive

­ ccording to the report of Hailar’s head of police, Nikolai Roerich was “a WashA ington-based White Russian, citizen of France, director of the Roerich Museum and a philosopher (artist)”; he arrived at Hailar “for the study of archeology and medicinal herbs”. Gordeev was spoken of as a “botanist, a vice-director of the Harbin museum and a white Russian” and Shikazo Kitagawa was described as “interpreter and guide, a member of the board of directors of the Tsuran Society, Tokyo”.59 The officer did not report any disagreement between the Roerich and Macmillan parties and stated only that they were “engaged in scientific work, each according to their speciality”, adding that “nothing suspicious was observed”.60 59

60

The Tsuran Society was probably the Pan-Turanian Association established in Tokyo to rally Japanese support for the unification of the Turks of Central Asia and their liberation from Russian rule; see Saaler, Szpilman 2011, Introduction, 7. The documents referred to were received by me, upon my enquiry, from the Archive of the Foreign Ministry of Japan (Document collection: K.2.1.0.11), through the mediation of Hiroko Wako Kuwajima. One of these was a report from Yonaiyama, consul at Hailar, to

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Of the results of his Barga – Khingan journey Roerich reported briefly to Wallace from Harbin on 1 October. In his letter he could not be silent, of course, about the Hailar incident – the “strange action by Dr. Macmillan and his associate” – which he qualified as “a deliberate attempt to disorganize the Expedition and sow distrust in the minds of the local officials”. Wallace’s reaction was swift and fully predictable – he recalled Macmillan and Stephens by a telegram on 20 September for their “insubordination”.61 Macmillan, however, had his own story to tell about the Roerichs to his chief K. Ryerson. He described their departure from Hailar sarcastically: “They had a big automobile for the principal members of the party, and a truck for the equipment and musical comedy army. All were in Cossack uniforms, which seems as bad taste as anything under the circumstances”.62 And indeed Roerich’s party might have been easily taken for a military unit as shown in expedition photographs, although solders’ blouses and service caps were typical Russian men’s wear in those days. After his return to Harbin, Roerich resumed his activities as a cultural leader. On 5 September he established the Russian Committee of the Peace Pact & Banner in the city, under “the celestial patronage” of St. Sergius of Radonezh. He was apparently seeking to institute the religious veneration of the saint among his countrymen in Manchuria, for which purpose he designed a сhurch in Barim and a chapel with a separate belfry in Harbin, both dedicated to St. Sergius. (The latter design immediately brings to mind Roerich’s dream-city of Tolling Bells on Beluha, Zvenigorod.) St. Sergius was known as a miracle-maker and the great savior of Russia. He had already saved the country twice – first in 1380 when he personally blessed the Russian Prince Dmitry Donskoi before his decisive victory on the Kulikovo Field over the Tatar-Mongolian Mamai Khan, and again in 1611 when he thrice appeared in a dream to Kozma Minin encouraging him to assemble a volunteer people’s corps to liberate Moscovy from Polish and Lithuanian invaders. So it was around the figure of this saintly person that Roerich wanted all Russian emigrants, in Manchuria and elsewhere, to rally now to liberate their motherland from godless communists. And indeed the idea struck a sympathetic chord in the hearts of many Russians – hence in

61

62

the Japanese Ambassador in Manchuria Takasi Hisikari, 9 August 1934, headlined: “On the activities of Prof. Roerich and his companions”. The two-page report (doc. 192) was based on the communication of the head of police at Hailar and included the list of participants in N. Roerich’s expedition. University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa city, Henry A. Wallace Papers, N. Roerich’s letter to Wallace, 1 October (MCS 177, 10241 M) and Wallace’s telegram to Roerich, 20 September 1934 (10213 M). White, Maze 1995, 90.

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Manchuria, China and elsewhere St. Sergius communities began to emerge and eventually Roerich succeeded in launching a whole spiritual movement bearing the name of the medieval Russian ascetic.63 However, Roerich found himself in trouble all too soon, when his opponents in Harbin attacked him violently in local press. The attackers, who were mainly members of the Russian Fascist Party, accused the artist of a secret liaison with “world masonry”, a serious crime for someone aspiring to the role of the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Russians. The accusations were occasioned by publication in 1934 of the book Pravoslavnyi mir i masonstvo (The Orthodox World and Masonry) written by V.F. Ivanov as well as by the fact of Roerich’s friendly contacts with Harbin’s YMCA, believed to be a masonic organization due to its American affiliations.64 And Roerich indeed had some brief, if obscure, contacts with the AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) in San-Jose, California – in the early 1930s he sent them, on the request of their head (“Emperor”), Louis Spencer, some of his articles and several Tibetan artifacts, and was even formally admitted into that organization as its member as early as 1929, without giving his consent.65 Roerich’s portrait in Tibetan ceremonial robe holding a casket against the backdrop of masonic symbols was published by the Rusicrucian Digest66 and then reprinted by Harbinskoe Vremia on 17 November 1934 under a catchy headline, “N.K. Roerich, a Legate of the Great White Brotherhood AMORC”.67 Further piece of evidence of Roerich’s masonic links was his secret visit to Moscow, allegedly “in the capacity of the envoy plenipotentiary of Rosicrucians – for establishing direct contacts between the AMORC and the Soviet regime”, as claimed by Nash Put on 21 November in a column discussing Roe­ rich’s Central Asian expedition.68 The Japanese-owned and strictly censored Harbinskoe Vremia, incidentally, disclosed Roerich’s (and AMORK’s) secret aspirations – “to create a masonic state in Siberia” by quoting abundantly from his letters written to his Harbinbased brother Vladimir in early 1925, on board the Japanese SS Katori Maru. 63 64 65

66 67

68

See Rosov 2004a, 58–59, 66–69. On this in more detail see Dubaev 2001, 263–267, 44. There is a document which certifies Roerich’s membership in the AMORC, dated 18 November 1929. The certificate and the token of the order along with other documents belonging to N. Roerich were put up for sale at the Sotheby auction in 2009. Rusicrucian Digest is a publication of AMORC; Roerich’s portrait copied from a painting by Sviatoslav Roerich was printed in the July 1933 issue of the magazine. See Rosov 2004a, 171–173. The story of N. Roerich’s connections with the AMORC and his accusation of being a mason by Harbin press was discussed by Elena Roerich in her letter to G. Shkliaver of 2 January 1934; see Rerikh, E. 1996b, v. 1, 114–116. Dubaev 2001, 330 ff.

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Some of his statements, such as the vague references to Beluha and New Russia to emerge in Siberia in not too distant future, looked exactly like vestiges of some secret plotting by Roerich.69 The aggressive newspaper campaign aimed at discrediting the artist seriously damaged his reputation and caused him many a bitter feeling. Infuriated, Roerich strongly protested to Japan’s Foreign Office, but the apologetic and evasive reply he would receive from Tokyo in early 1935 could hardly compensate for the moral losses he had suffered. The Japanese authorities were obviously behind the campaign, as they were unhappy with Roerich’s too willful conduct and his nationalistic (pro-Russian) propaganda, which was at odds with their own vision of the future of Manchuria and the rest of Asia. On 24 November both Roerichs left Harbin and headed for Peking, or Peiping, “Northern Peace”, as the city was renamed by Chiang Kai-shek in 1928, when China’s capital was moved to Nanking. There they were to make preparations for the second and last stage of their expedition, to take place in Inner Mongolia (Mengjiang). The country politically was even a more troublesome area than Manchuria. It was here that the leader of the local Mongols, the Chahar Prince Teh Wang (De Wang, Demchigdonrov), was then making strenuous efforts to create an autonomous Mongolian government – in Chahar and Suiyuan Provinces of the country. Being a pan-Mongolist, Teh Wang wanted ultimately to unite the three Mongol ethnic groups, those inhabiting Outer, Inner and Upper Mongolias,70 into one Great Mongolia. He was given military support by Tokyo as Japan sought to extend its influence in the region and establish a Mengjiang – Manchukuo alliance, under its control. Before leaving Harbin, Roerich issued a set of instructions to the Board of the Alatyr agricultural cooperative71 headed by his brother Vladimir. The cooperative was set up in Harbin on 11 June 1934, with Nikolai acting as its Patron. The entity seems to have been another Roerich’s abortive project, as there is practically no information about its functioning as a “multi-profile model farm” and “center of all Russian agricultural communities in Manchuria”, as was originally conceived by Roerich. On the way to Peking the Roerichs stopped briefly in Tientsin. There they visited the American military barracks where the ordnance officer provided them with some fire-arms – six rifles, four pistols and ammunition, with the authorization of the War Department obtained by N. Roerich through Wallace 69 70 71

See Rosov 2004a, 168–170. “Upper Mongols” were those inhabiting the Kuku Nor and Tsaidam areas. The document was drawn up on 10 November 1934 and signed by Nikolai Roerich as the Patron of the Alatyr cooperative, Rosov 2004a, 177–178.

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well in advance. The arms were needed apparently for self-defence as Nikolai and Yuri planned a trip to the dangerous Kukunor area in Eastern Tibet, infested with brigands, in their search for medical texts in Tibetan monasteries.72 The Roerichs spent the winter in Peking and headed for Inner Mongolia at the end of March, 1935. Judging by the published fragments of N. Roerich’s travel diary73, two thoughts were uppermost on his mind at that time – his Peace Pact, which was scheduled to be signed on 15 April at Washington by H. Wallace, acting on behalf of FDR, and by leaders of South American nations, and the New Russia finally to emerge in the Heart of Asia. “New Country is the Country of Fuyama”, Elena spelled out in May 1935. The Roerichs had no doubt their long-time dream would finally turn into reality – in Inner Mongolia! The project was given a code name “Kansas” (variants: “School-Kansas”, “Co-op School”, “Kansas City”) which Nikolai Roerich used in his correspondence with H. Wallace. In his Manchurian diary, a chronologically arranged collection of his communications to the New York co-workers, Roerich speaks rather vaguely of his designs generally referred to as an economic and cultural reconstruction in Inner Mongolia with the help of American capital. One thing is clear though from his notes – the cooperative in Manchuria has collapsed and needs to be revived in Inner Mongolia: Regarding the Cooperative, let’s keep in mind that if it proved to be unfeasible in one place, this does not mean that the same idea cannot be applied in another place (2 December 1934). In this way on the edges of Gobi a very useful work will be done. We don’t stop thinking about cooperation, which has excellent prospects here. Thus, large-scale work for the sake of humanity can make both Wallace and the President happy (6 December 1934). There is no need to remind you that Kansas has coal and other minerals. You also know much better than me about the cattle breeding in those places. What is needed is a guaranteed sum, relatively not very large, no more than two million American dollars. Friend could tell his Chief not to lose the chance of [starting] the good and enlightening schooling

72 73

See White, Maze 1995, 93; Williams 1980, 140. These were published by V. Rosov, see: Rerikh, N. 1999b, 56–119 (2 December 1934 – 2 September 1935), N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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work… (8 December 1934). (“Friend” here refers to Wallace and “Chief” to Roosevelt). I talked about School-Kansas in yesterday’s entry. I do not only hope but am convinced that the proposed Alatyr’ can emerge in a more appropriate place, and we rejoice at this opportunity. Many things can be accomplished at the public, state and private levels (9 December 1934).74 Roerich advocated any type of economic and business activity in Inner Mongolia – be it an agricultural “model farm”, a cooperative bank, or an industrial enterprise. His biggest problem at this initial stage was to find investors – some wealthy Americans who would be willing to give financial support to his farreaching designs. But there was Logvan (Horch) and Galahad (Wallace) assisting him and eventually they found one – president and chairman of the board of the Chase National Bank, Winthrop Aldrich, who agreed to loan money for a cooperative “in Kansas”.75 While in Peking, the Roerichs procured the expedition equipment (trucks, cars, tents, etc.) and they also hired two Chinese botanists to conduct the field work – Dr. Y.L. Keng of the National University in Nanking and Walter Yang. They socialized a great deal in China’s old capital, mixing with all kinds of people and striking useful contacts “for the future”. Nikolai Konstantinovich had encounters with the White Russian Generals D.L. Khorvat (head of the ROVS) and M.V. Tomashevskii, some well-known Oriental scholars and travelers, such as Owen Lattimore and Sven Hedin (the latter had been exploring China, since 1927, at the head of the Sino-Swedish expedition). He also had an audience with China’s nationalist leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, to whom he presented his white Banner of Peace. This was more than a symbolic gesture – General Chiang was fighting with the “red” Chinese troops and needed to be reminded of the importance of preserving his nation’s great cultural treasures in wartime. And he was also a cultural leader, having launched in 1934, together with his wife, the “New Life” movement, intended to encourage Confucian moral values in an effort to unify Chinese society as well as to counter Communist ideology. All these made Chiang Kai-shek a potential ally for Roerich.

74 75

Ibid., 56, 60–62. N. Roerich refers to the person vaguely in his diary, without giving his name and expressing doubts regarding his intentions (see the entry for 22 June 1935, pp. 97–98).

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It was in Peking that Roerich met someone he knew from his St.-Petersburg days – Baron Aleksandre von Staël-Holstein.76 A prominent Orientalist (a Sinologist, Sanskritist, and a student of Buddhism), he held the post of director of Sino-Indian Institute at Yenching University.77 It must have been at his home that Roerich made acquaintance, sometime in late 1934 – early 1935, with another remarkable Russian, also an Orientalist, Boris Ivanovich Pankratov. A Sinologist and a Buddhist scholar, Pankratov was deputy director at the same Sino-Indian Institute and was concurrently employed as a translator at the Soviet Embassy in Peking. Moreover, he was collaborating with the OGPU, as he once confessed nonchalantly over a luncheon at Staël-Holstein’s place.78 What attracted Roerich to Pankratov in the first place must have been his connections with the Panchen Lama. (There is a highly intriguing story Pankratov recounted to his Orientalist friends in Leningrad in the 1970s – after his repatriation in 1935 to the USSR – of how he had once visited the Kumbum monastery, disguised as a Buddhist monk with a revolver hidden in his clothing, calling himself P’ank’o-fu, “a disciple of Panchen”, being actually a Chinese transliteration of his last name.79 Pankratov also recalled his meeting with Roerich in Peking, after his Tibetan journey, saying that the artist “wanted to enter Tibet as the 25th King of Shambhala, of whom people said that he would come from the North to bring salvation to mankind and would become the world ruler”.80) If Pankratov indeed met Roerich in Peking in 1934/35, he could have provided him with some current news of the Panchen Lama and his whereabouts, and he could even have helped him to establish contacts with the Lama. The story of Nikolai Roerich’s own liaison with Tibet’s exiled leader, however, remains shrouded in mystery to this date.81

…

76 77 78

79 80 81

N. Roerich mentions in his diary a luncheon at Baron Staël Holstein’s place, entry for 18 February 1935, see Rerikh, N. 1999b, 69. On him see Elisséeff 1938, 1–8. The fact was revealed by Pankratov to the eminent Soviet Sinologist V.M. Alekseev who visited Peking in 1926. It is mentioned in Alekseev’s unpublished diary of his trip to China (entry for 25 July 1926), which is in the possession of his daughter M.V. Ban’kovskaia. I heard this story in the mid-1990s from Pankratov’s disciple, Yu. Krol’. The words were quoted by Yu.L. Krol’ in his essay devoted to B.I. Pankratov, see Krol’ 1989, 90. All we know is that N. Roerich received some letters from the Panchen Lama’s officials. Esther Lichtmann, reported, for example, in her diary entry for 20 May 1929, about the arrival of a letter from “the Tashi Lama’s representative” requesting a “letter of recommendation” for him on behalf of Roerich’s organizations and the Buddhist Center in particular.

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figure 62 Staff of the Manchurian Expedition: sitting, left to right: A. Ya. Moiseev, M.N. Chuvstvin, Walter Yang, N.V. Grammatchikov; standing, left to right: N. Roerich, Dr. Y.L. Keng, V.I. Gribanovskii, unknown, 1935. International Center of the Roerichs (MTsR)

On 20 March the Roerichs left Peking in the direction of Inner Mongolia in two cars. The party, apart from Nikolai and Yuri – the expedition leader and his assistant, included four more people: A.Ya. Moiseev (a botanical collector), Colonel V.I. Gribanovskii (in charge of provisions), N.V. Grammatchikov and M.N. Chustvin (car drivers). The Chinese botanists were to join the group later on, in Mongolia, as well as five Mongols hired as workhands. The next day the expedition arrived at Kalgan where the Roerichs called on the Foreign Office of the Inner Mongolian autonomous government, apparently to obtain permission for scientific exploration in the country. On 27 March the party camped out at Tsagan Kure (Sume), near the Swedish mission outpost, where they met the friendly F. Larsen, the most respected foreigner in Mongolia. (A former missionary, Larsen abandoned his religious work and engaged in breeding and selling horses). A few days later Nikolai and Yuri took a ride to Bailingmiao (Bat Khalga), the residence of Prince Tö (Teh Wang), to introduce themselves to the Mongolian leader. The event was mentioned briefly by Roerich senior in his diary: “We had a good conversation with the Prince. Will stay for a night [at his place]”. On the same day (30 March) the Roerichs were shown around the Prince’s camp, which reminded them the

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camp of the Tain Lama at Karashar. Nearby they saw “a new palace” recently built by the Prince for the Tashi Lama, who “had not yet stayed there”.82 The next day the Roerichs had another interview with Teh Wang at which it was arranged that the expedition would camp near Puntsog Dedeling monastery, some 20 miles away from Bat Khalga. They made a good impression on Prince Teh and would subsequently maintain regular contacts with him. During one of their meetings, on April 10, Nikolai presented to the would-be leader of all Mongols the Banner of Peace and the “Token (Znak) of the first degree” (the latter was probably the double vajra-thunderbolt,83 the foremost Buddhist token Roerich had earlier presented to Wallace, and which could be seen on his desk in some photos). He is also known to have sent the same Banner to the Panchen Lama and received a letter of thanks from him.84 Roerich must have been eagerly expecting the Panchen Lama to come to Bat Khalga. His coming was crucial to the Great Plan as it would allow the three great Asian leaders – Prince Teh Wan, the Panchen Lama and Nikolai Roerich – to get together and make some epoch-making decisions, such as, perhaps, the declaration of Shambhala Dain, the Great War of Shambhala. Roerich, however, was completely unknown to Mongols (in Inner Mongolia at least) and needed publicity. It was mainly for this reason that he decided to have his biography published in Mongolian on the model of traditional Mongolian and Tibetan namtars, glorifying popular heroes and religious teachers. He must have penned it himself and the text was then translated into the Mongolian language by his old friend Zhamtsarano and printed in August 1935, in 300 copies, in a monastic printing house at Bat Khalga under the title, “A Short Account of the Great Teacher Roerich, the All-Conquering One”. Written in a highly panegyric style, the narrative highlighted Roerich’s great accomplishments, some of which were purely fictional, such as his serving as “a great minister” to Tsar Nikolas II, whom he had allegedly consulted for several years on various state issues, or his construction of several religious buildings, including the Buddhist temple at St Petersburg. The booklet claimed that since 1923 Roe­ rich had been traveling for six years in Asia with a scientific expedition organized “by the American State” and that upon its completion he came up with the idea of preserving cultural values world-wide, as these could be damaged during “unexpected upheavals”. As a result, the Roerich Pact was signed in Washington by 36 (!) independent states. The treaty was also recognized by the 82 83 84

Rerikh, N. 1999b, 76, entry for 30 March 1935. Vajra is believed to represent firmness of spirit and spiritual power. The fact is mentioned in Roerich’s Mongolian biography published by Zhamtsarano in 1935, see Rosov 2002a, 60.

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head of the Middle State (read: China) Chiang Kai-shek and the saintly Panchen-Erdeni both of whom notified him (Roerich) of their approval of the Pact by special letters. Roerich’s biography (or rather autobiography) ended with a most grandiloquent laudation of his activities by the world’s leading politicians, public figures, scientists and artists, including H. Wallace, George Gordon Bounten,85 Maeterlinck, Tagor, the Japanese writer Tanakauchi, Zhamtsarano and others. Thus, Zhamtsarano was quoted as saying: “The path of celebrated wise men, such as the Great Teacher Roerich, is like that of a Boddhisattva. He illuminates the world like an icon-lamp. In our troubled times the deeds of such wise men produce boundless happiness”. An American publisher Barker Trevor (misspelled as Van Tuvern), on his part, also noted that Roerich promoted educational institutions, as well as “methods of replenishing the state coffers”.86 The ultimate purpose of the booklet was apparently to create an appealing image of Roerich among the Mongols en masse so as to attract them to his lofty cause of Mongolia’s sweeping reconstruction, with American help, and to his neo-Buddhist teachings. Copies were most probably sent by Roerich to the leading Mongolian princes (and he must have presented it personally to Prince Teh Wang) and, of course, to the Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama, however, did not come to Bat Khalga. At the end of June some shocking rumours reached Roerich about his Tibet-bound caravan, carrying some 14,000 rifles, which had been pillaged somewhere near Sining, in Kukunor, by either local brigands or the Dungan troops of General Ma.87 Whatever political – or rather occult geopolitical – plans the Roerichs had, these were carefully concealed from the rest of the world lest the satanic “dark forces” might frustrate them. The Roerichs were perfect plotters. The botanical expedition served an excellent screen for their activities under the Kansas Project, which was their major task, after all, assigned to them by the Master! Some light on these was shed by the published fragments of Nikolai Roerich’s expedition diary. Thus we learn that on 11 July he made a speech before a group of Mongols at a meeting organized by Prince Teh Wang and one Dr. Kiang (presumably one of the prince’s advisors). In that speech he praised “any kind of beneficial construction” and welcomed in particular the “construction of the new Mongolian capital” going on in Inner Mongolia. He also mentioned briefly

85 86 87

This must be George Gordon Buttle, an American lawyer and honorary member of the International Association for the Roerich Pact. Roerich’s biography was published in Russian translation in Rosov 2004a, 59–61. Rerikh, N. 1999b, 99, entry for 29 June 1935.

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Chiang Kai-shek’s “New Life” movement and his and the Panchen Lama’s letters speaking positively of the Banner of Peace. The Mongols applauded Roerich. As for the botanical work, it was considerably delayed by the Chinese botanists. One of them, Dr. Keng, appeared in the expedition camp only at the end of July, having left behind his assistant, Walter Yang, who came down with a throat disease en route. In their absence the Roerichs began to make their plantcollecting forays into Gobi as soon as the snow melted and the early vegetation cropped up in the desert. Concurrently they did some archeological survey of the area, having found some old tombstones in the sand dunes as well as ruins of Chinggis Khan’s nomad camp at a place called Naran Obo. Despite all of the progress that was made, clouds were already gathering over their heads. On the same day that Nikolai Roerich addressed the Mongols he received quite unexpectedly a telegram from Wallace, dated 3 July, requesting him to move his camp from Chahar to a safer place in Suiyuan Province. The telegram did not state the reason why he should do so, but Wallace did it in a letter to Horch: I do not know whether there is any foundation whatsoever for the insinuations of political activity on the part of Prof. Roerich in Mongolia. I am exceedingly anxious, however, that he be engaged in exactly what he is supposed to be doing as an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture engaged in searching for seeds valuable to the United States. I would appreciate your cooperation in seeing that this is brought tactfully to Prof. Roerich’s attention. In saying this, I realize, of course, that most and probably all of those insinuations of the press in late June may be quite without foundation; nevertheless, with times as troubled in the East as they now are, it would seem to me wise to take no chances and, therefore, the Department has asked Professor Roerich, with due consideration for safety, to travel to the safer area of the Province of Suiyuan which is reputedly rich in drought resistant grasses.88 The political “insinuations” Wallace vaguely referred to were some scandalous publications about the Roerich expedition which appeared in the American

88

Letter from H. Wallace to L. Horch, 3 July 1935. University of Iowa Libraries, H. Wallace Papers, Correspondence, MSC 177. Wallace’s telegram to Roerich was sent through Rev. Carl O. Soederbom, head of the Swedish Mission in Kalgan and it read: “Department asks you at the earliest possible safe moment to transfer your expedition to a safer region rich in drought resistant grasses in Suiyuan” (Ibid.).

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and Chinese press – all on the same date, June 24.89 Thus a column in the Chicago Daily Tribune headlined “Japanese expel explorers sent by Sec. Wallace”, signed by its Peiping correspondent, John Powel, stated that the party was compelled to leave Manchuria “due to the opposition of the Japanese military, who charged that the expedition was concerned with White Russian politics”. The facts the author cited, such as Roerich’s “row” with two American botanists and his purchase of arms, were not unknown to Wallace, yet the journalist misinterpreted them deliberately, having touched upon a rather delicate subject that Wallace certainly did not wish to be brought to public notice, namely that the Roerichs were “interested in other things than grass seeds”. Their chief trouble, according to Powel, developed when they applied to the 15th U.S. infantry at Tientsin for a dozen army rifles and revolvers and “a considerable stock of ammunition” – the army officer in charge declined to hand over these at first but finally complied “upon receipt of instructions from the U.S. war department”. The Roerichs then employed “a force of White Russian Cossacks, formally on the staff of Ataman Semenoff, once a leader of White Russian forces”, and travelled from Kalgan, Chahar Province, “to a point about 200 miles north, adjacent to the border of Outer Mongolia, where they now are supposed to be making a search for grass seeds”. The same article also said some good words about both Roerichs and even quoted the opinion of Maurice Lichtmann, Vice-President of the Roerich Museum, who vehemently denied all accusations against Roerich. Professor Roe­ rich, he said, “is absorbed in art and science” and “has no interest in politics”. Wallace was apparently annoyed and alarmed as well. On 15 August he sent another cable to Roerich asking for assurance “that you are far enough south in Sui-Yuan and that your travels will be such that there will be no troubles for you from people interested in controversial problems”. Yet there was something much worse lying ahead for him. Ten days later (on 24 August) he received a letter from the Department of State with some very alarming news – the American ambassador in Moscow reported that his military attaché was furnished information about the Roerich expedition by an “important” Soviet citizen. The latter was quoted as saying that George Roerich, “formerly a Czarist officer”, recruited an escort for the expedition “from among followers of the bandit ­Semenoff”, that his father then obtained armament from the commanding 89

These were the Chicago Daily Tribune (“Japanese expel explorers sent by Sec. Wallace: Suspect activities of Russian leaders”), The New York Times (“Roerich’s activities ‘embarrass’ U.S.”) and Peking & Tientsin Times (“Roerich expedition to Inner Mongolia: Party of White Russians make extensive tour”). The articles in the American newspapers were written by the same author, as evidences the collation of the published texts.

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officer of the 15th infantry in Tientsin and that “this armed party” was now “making its way towards the Soviet Union, ostensibly as a scientific expedition, but actually to rally former White elements and discontented Mongols”.90 The information startled Wallace into taking urgently some strong action, if only to save his and his department’s reputation. Hence he wired Roerich, telling him to transfer his party farther south, to Sining in Kukunor Province, as soon as he could. However Roerich was unable to do so for several reasons, he explained to Wallace in his own cable, such as the bad condition of roads, a need to obtain an extra truck for gasoline, and, more importantly, because he had to deliver first his extensive collections of grasses and seeds to Peiping for their subsequent shipment to the United States. Yet there seems to have been a weightier reason why Roerich decided not to go to Sining. On the same day that he wired his reply to Washington he read in a newspaper that the Panchen Lama had postponed his return to Tibet, via Sining, due to the floods which washed away the roads in the country.91 The Roerichs stayed in China for a few weeks longer before their expedition was finally terminated by Wallace. On 21 September they arrived in Shanghai where three days later they boarded the Bombay-bound SS “President Monroe”. The Manchurian expedition over, they were now hurrying back home to Kulu. The scientific results of their sixteen-month-long explorations were impressive at first glance. The Roerichs sent to Washington – mainly through diplomatic pouch – some huge herbariums of draught-resisting and forage grasses and of medicinal herbs, 485 packages of seeds – those collected in Barga, Khingan Mountains, Inner Mongolia and Spiti92 and subsequently identified by Dr. Keng93, a collection of Tibetan medical manuscripts and atlases, as well as two big maps drawn up by Yuri – one of Inner Mongolian vegetation, the first of its kind, and a full four-sheet map of the region.94 However, the specialists at the Department of Agriculture found the collected botanical materials of little or

90

91 92 93 94

Letter from R. Walton Moore, Assistant Secretary, to H. Wallace, 24 August 1935. University of Iowa Libraries, Wallace Papers. Partly quoted in Drayer 2005, 301; see also Walker 1989, 7. Rerikh, N. 1999b, 110, entry for 25 August 1935. The plants and grasses from Spiti were collected in the south-western Himalayas by Urusvati botanists and added to the Manchurian and Inner Mongolian collections. See Keng 1938, 298–308. Apart from the final report submitted by the Roerichs to the Department of Agriculture in early 1936, the scientific results of their Manchurian expedition were briefly discussed in Y. Roerich’s letters to F.D. Richi, the new head of the Bureau of Plant Industry, of 27 January, and to F. Grant of 26 February 1936; see Rerikh, Iu. 2002, documents 409 and 422.

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no value at all. 95 Hence, they have not been used for agricultural purposes in America, up to the present time. As for the medicinal herbs and texts on Tibetan pharmacopoeia, they likewise remained unclaimed. The Manchurian expedition, like the Tibetan one, ended in a fiasco, undeserved and least of all expected by its leaders, Nikolai and Yuri Roerich. 95

J. Samuel Walker in his article “The New Deal and the Guru” claims that the Roerich expedition “failed to find plants to help the American Dust Bowl”, see Walker 1989, 7; http:// www.americanheritage.com.

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The “Chalice of Poison” And so we drink the chalice of poison tendered by the hands of our former co-workers. E. Roerich, A letter to co-workers, September 1935

⸪ While Nikolai Konstantinovich and Yuri were absent from Kulu, some very important events were taking place in their Himalayan Ashram. The first of these was the “miraculous” apparition of the Buddha Chalice predicted some ten years earlier. This occurred during Esther’s second visit to Kulu on the 3rd of March, 1934, and was briefly recounted in her diary: “At 1:30 p.m. Mother found the promised Chalice of the Buddha in the little carved wooden box from Lahoul beneath the paining Fiat Rex – at the feet of the Lord. Indescribable was Mother’s and our joy. The fingerprints were seen so vividly on the Chalice”. This second miracle, like the first Parisian one, seems also to have been Roerich-made. Oyana, who by that time had become Elena’s favorite disciple and her spiritual sister, reported in the same diary entry that the Chalice “must have been there for some time” because Raya saw it on the 6th of January, that is when Nikolai and Yuri were still in Naggar, and she then told George (Yuri) about her discovery. The next day (4 March) Elena revealed the secret to Oyana: “Mother told me more of the miracle of the bringing of the Chalice of Buddha … it was brought on the 3rd of January, and Mother just read to me from her diary of the night of the 3rd to the 4th of January that she saw a figure clad in cyclamen color; it was hidden in a mist and the hand stretched out upon which were the Chalice and other objects. Mother witnessed the Miracle. She feels, however, that George hid from her that Raya saw the Chalice’s wooden box”.1 Another surprise comes from Elena’s own diary where she recorded on the day of the miracle her “conversation” with the Master: Master: The important thing is that the magnet is in the Ashram. The Chalice is the gift of the father to his daughter, let everyone know this. 1 E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 9, p. 8, entry for 4 March 1934.

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figure 63 Esther Lichtmann and Nikolai Roerich, Naggar, January, 1934. O. Feshbach collection

Elena: Lord, I feel hurt so much because Raya found it! Master: We’ll learn next time how to keep better in secret the things we send. I’m asking you, my dear Svati, not to worry. There are so many beautiful things ahead. There is no need to bury the chalice – I’ll tell you later. And the next day Elena heard more from her Master: “Of course, Urusvati knew when the Chalice was brought”.2 Thus, as in the case of the miraculous “apparition of the Black Stone”, the Roerichs seem to have been involved again in the making of this second miracle, “a great sign” of the New Era. The Chalice appeared on the very eve of Nikolai’s and Yuri’s departure for their Manchurian Expedition, which, as we know, was to start the model agricultural cooperatives, thereby laying the foundation of the New Country. Like the Black Stone, the 2 Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. 2, 427, 428, entries for 3 and 4 March 1934.

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Chalice was intended for the Temple of the Knowing Spirit in the future City of Knowledge, yet the people who knew this were only the Roerichs themselves and their co-workers in New York. The mysterious Chalice was pictured by Sviatoslav Roerich (who was then staying with his mother in Naggar) as a crude mendicant’s alms-bowl. Curiously, Esther heard of it for the first time from Yuri when she was visiting Naggar in 1929. As for Yuri, his source of information was the travel records of the medieval Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Fa-Hian (Fa-Hsien) and Hiuen-Tsiang (Xuanzang), which briefly referred to the Buddha’s pâtra or alms-bowl.3 The chalice was believed to be wandering from place to place across Buddhist countries and it remained at Purushapatra, the capital of the kingdom of Gandhara, when Fa-Hsien visited the place. It was prophesied by Indian Buddhists that the great relic would disappear at the time of decline of the Buddhist teachings and would reappear again shortly before the coming of the Buddha Maitreya. According to these Chinese pilgrims, the Buddha travelled in the Kulu (Kuluta) Valley and Lahoul with his followers and there existed numerous Buddhist sites in the area. “The Teacher confirmed this”, Esther put down in her diary. “There are traces of Buddha, Christ and Maitreya in this locality. It was said that the Chalice of Buddha is in the golden casket with old Indian inscriptions”.4 The New York Roerichites learned about the miracle in Kulu from Elena’s letter, which Nikolai – then in New York – solemnly read out to them. Their feelings were neatly summed up by Horch: “We rejoiced beyond description about the finding of the chalice. A great prophesy come true”.5 Looking closer at the momentous event, one can easily notice some odd flaws in Elena’s own account. Surely, no stranger dressed in clothing of Elena’s favorite cyclamen color carrying a wooden casket could appear in a remote Himalayan hamlet, such as Naggar, unnoticed by anybody, including local police, sneak into the house of the great sahibs, Roerichs, climb the stairs to the first floor only to place Morya’s gift by the portrait of the Master, rather than to hand it to Elena in person, and then vanish into thin air – in a cloud of mist! A much simpler, if rational, explanation of the miracle can be offered to readers. Both the chalice and the casket for it could have been obtained by Yuri – in July 1931 the three Roerichs accompanied by Esther made a trip to Lahoul, where they visited some ancient Buddhist sites. One of these was a cavern where, according to local dwellers, some relics and old manuscripts had been found recently and then came into the hands of the local ruler (vasir). So it was 3 Beal 1869, Beal, 1911. 4 E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, p. 52, entry for 13 May 1929. 5 L. Horch’s diary, entry for 31 March 1934 (fond 44, l. 95).

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figure 64 ‘The Chalice of the Buddha’, painted by Sviatoslav Roerich, The Mysore Palace, Mysore, India

from him that Yuri might have purchased an old bowl, which three years later Elena identified as the legendary Buddha’s Chalice.6

…

As time went on, drawing closer to the apocalyptical Great Year 1936, Elena’s self-perception radically changed as she began to perceive herself now not simply as a disciple of Morya, but as his equal, an elevated being belonging to the same hierarchy of the world teachers. In the messages she was channeling from Morya the Master spoke of her invariably as his “right-hand” and his “secret wife”, and even more, as the womanly “principle of Cosmos”. On 8 September 1934 she heard him saying: “I’ll tell you – [you are] not the mother of the family, but the mother of the world, that’s what I call you! So, dear Svati, you should better not mention the name of the Lord, because you fulfill the Supreme Task and the Supreme Will abides in you. Your fiery spirit impregnates the history of the future”.7 Soon after the completion of the early stage of the Manchurian expedition, Elena channeled several messages impelling her to get in touch with the Amer6 7

For a more detailed discussion of the miracle see Andreev 2011b, 141–144. Roerich, E. 2002a, P. 2, 508.

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ican President to endow him with a “fiery aspect”. Hence she asked Logvan to write to him on her behalf and also considered the possibility of contacting the President through his mother, who had once, in 1934, visited the Roerich Museum.8 But then she made up her mind to write to FDR personally. Elena wrote nine letters, or “fiery messages”, to Roosevelt between 10 October 1934 and 11 January 1936.9 He responded to the first three at least, as was acknowledged in her letters.10 “You can teach the leaders of the greatest states”, pronounced Morya on 10 October when Elena penned her first letter to the President, which started with a prophetic statement: At the austere hour when the entire world stands at the threshold of reconstruction and the fate of many countries is being weighed on the Cosmic Scales, I am writing to you from the Himalayan Heights, to offer the Highest Help. The Help of that Source, which since time immemorial stands on constant Vigil, observing and directing the march of the world’s events into the saving channels. The history of all times and all peoples bears witness to this Help, which concealed from public notoriety, is usually extended at the turning point in the history of the countries. The acceptance or rejection of this Help was inevitably accompanied by a corresponding flourishing or decadence of the country. This Help is made manifest in most unexpected and manifold aspects, through forewarnings and counsels. Elena then quoted the historical examples of those rulers who were sent such “forewarnings” from the “Highest Source” (read: mahatmas) – the first Habsburg, the Norwegian King Knut, the king of Sweden Charles XII, Napoleon, Queen Victoria (around 1850) and the government of Russia. (Elena did not say Soviet Russia, but she clearly meant it: “To the Government of Russia were likewise timely given austere warnings and we are bearing witness to the grave results of rejection”.) 8 9

10

Ibid., P. 2, 522, entry for 2 October 1934. The originals of Elena Roerich’s letters to F.D. Roosevelt are kept in the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, F. 723. Copies of them are in the possession of the N. Roerich Museum in New York. The letters were published in Russian translation in: Rerikh, E. 2000 (doc. 105, 119, 138); 2001c, (doc. 21, 236, 243); Rosov, 2004a, 230–236 (4 letters). Elena’s second letter to FDR (15 November 1934) begins with the words: “Your message was transmitted to me”, the third one (27 December 1934): “With great joy in my heart I hasten to send the reply”, and the fourth (4 February 1935): “Your question, Mr. President, reached our heights…”.

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She then turned to the history of America and cited the example of George Washington who “had a counsel from a mysterious Professor and hence all his success”. “Likewise at the Declaration of Independence of America, during this Historical Assembly, the fact was registered as to how at the crucial moment of hesitation and indecisiveness, from amidst the audience rose a tall stranger and finished his flaming speech with the call: “America shall be free!”. The enthusiasm of the assembly was kindled and the [charter of] the Independence of America signed”. The stranger who helped the Americans make their historical choice however then disappeared and was not to be found anywhere. The first letter was an introductory one, yet it carried a warning message from the Master (the mysterious “One Source”): “The Counsel is ready for America and it is useful for her to accept it, or else, many are the examples of grave consequences of rejection. Hence from the same One Source the Mighty Hand is outstretching to Your Help and the Fiery Messages can once again reach the White House. The map of the World is already outlined and it is offered to you to occupy the worthiest place in the forming New Epoch. And upon You depends to accept or to reject it. The destiny of the Country is in your hands”. Having received a positive reply from FDR (though we do not know what it was), Elena sent, on 15 November, the second of her fiery messages to the President intended to unfold before him gradually “the entire Plan of the New Construction”, in which he and his country were “destined to play such a great part”. The letter included five “Indications” channeled by Elena five days before (as evidenced by her diary). The “Indications” warned the President of the secret intentions by the two world leading powers – “the land in the East” (Japan) and “the land beyond the ocean” (Great Britain) – to involve the United States in war. The counsel of the mahatma was simple and far-sighted: “Should even the opinion of the nation be in favour of war, one must not yield, for the Country faces reconstruction, which will place it on a height”. At the same time America should not disarm herself, “for no one will dare to attack a mighty Ruler”. The other two “indications” were the Master’s (or rather Elena’s) opinions of Japan and Great Britain. (One should bear in mind here that after the journalistic ­assaults on Roerich in Harbin both Nikolai and Elena became harsh critics of Japan and its militarism, which they had hardly noticed before): The power beyond the ocean is an illusory power. This departing power does not nurture feelings other than hatred and jealousy towards Your Country.  Many are the evil omens above the country of the East. The manifestation of Cosmic perturbations will shake its power.

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At the same time knowing of Roosevelt’s strong censure of Japan for her seizure of Manchuria, Elena and the mahatma tried to somewhat soften his stance: “It is necessary that those who surround the President should not spread rumors about his unfriendliness to the land in the East, for they often give out their own opinion for the President’s words”. One more piece of advice was strictly personal, as Elena, on behalf of the mahatmas, recommended that Roosevelt take musk against fatigue. The remedy was to be delivered to him through her “messenger” (apparently Esther Lichtmann, then in Kulu): “My entrusted one will transmit to You all indications about the properties of this wondrous remedy, which lends strength and balance of the nervous system as being a preventive against many ailments. In case You appreciate its effects, I shall be glad to send You more”. (The story had a continuation. The President apparently appreciated the remedy, as three months later Nikolai received a letter from Wallace who asked him to ascertain whether it would be possible to bring musk deer into the United States.11) The most important letters were written on 27 December 1934 and 4 February 1935 (those were # 3 and #4). In these, as in previous ones, Elena quoted her Master’s messages addressed to Roosevelt and dealing specifically with the Great Plan. According to them, the President was assigned a special task of uniting the North and South American nations into a confederacy under U.S. leadership. “We see a Union with Pr[esident] R[oosevelt] at its Head, consisting directly of the heads of each Country. Its heart will be Pr[esident] R[oosevelt]”. The already existent Pan-American Union, in the opinion of the mahatmas, was absolutely ineffective, just “a skeleton without a soul”. “Thus will the Pr[esident] be the Great Unifier of this mighty Country, which is destined to play a great role upon the Cosmic Scales. This vital question will be solved and Help will be Given to the Pr[esident]”. Yet this was only a beginning of the great global reconstruction envisaged by the mahatmas. Concurrently, with the creation of the most powerful One America in the Western hemisphere, another confederation was to immerge in the East – the Sacred Union of Asia, or New Russia, under Nikolai Roerich. So-called Russia is the equibalance of America and only with such a construction will the World Peace become a solved problem. The alliance of the nations of Asia is decided, the union of the tribes and peoples will take place gradually, there will be a kind of a Federation of countries. Mongolia, China and the Kalmuks will constitute the counterbalance of 11

Letter from H. A Wallace to Roerich, 20 February 1935.

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Japan and in this alliance of peoples, Your Good Will is needed, Mr. President. As concerns Soviet Russia (”so-called Russia”), the Master restricted himself to making only a brief and rather obscure reference to her future: “Speaking of the East, We have in mind also Russia. And in this direction the President should keep thus far a reserved attitude, since changes will take place”. By saying this Elena apparently hinted at the downfall of the Bolshevik regime, predicted by the Masters a decade earlier, and the new construction started by her husband in the Far East, in Manchuria and Mongolia, which she sought to connect with America’s vital geopolitical interests: America was since long linked with Asia. The ancient bonds were strengthened under propitious configurations of the Luminaries. That which is indicated by the Cosmic Laws ought to be created. One should not delay and impede the course of the Luminaries. Thus one must accept that the peoples occupying the larger part of Asia are destined to respond to the friendship of America. We are sending the Message that it might strain the will of the President and correlate it with the rays of the Luminaries. The peoples of America must enter a New Epoch. This most important letter (of 4 February 1935) Elena could not entrust, of course, to the ordinary post service, especially that of British India, and therefore she sent it with her special “messenger”, Esther Lichtmann. (“This message will be transmitted to You through my faithful Messenger. You can trust her just as much as my first Messenger”.12) Esther was to deliver to the President, along with Elena’s letter, her gift – “an ancient symbolic Image of the Lord of Shambhala”. “I beg You, Mr. President”, she wrote in the letter, “to accept this dear and sacred to me Image and to remember that the Ray of the Great Lord will accompany You in all Your actions for the Good of Your Country and the establishing of the equilibrium of the World”. The next letter was written on 15 April 1935, the day of “great victory” when the Roerich Pact was finally signed in Washington by the United States and twenty Latin American countries.13 The ceremony took place in the Oval Office at the White House and was attended by Louis Horch as well as by Esther and 12 13

Who was Elena’s “first Messenger” is unknown, but the person must have been someone who had visited Naggar in October 1934 and whom she fully trusted. The Roerich Pact was ratified by U.S. Senate on July 2 and by U.S.A. President on July 10. It was promulgated by the President on October 25, 1935.

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Sina Lichtmann. The event was a high point in Roerich’s career and his personal triumph, which he and Elena naturally ascribed to the wonderful workings of their Master. “We see success and complete victory”, Elena quoted one of Morya’s messages. – “It is destined to President Roosevelt to be the Unifier. The peoples of the Americas will recall this Day which will become a symbol of the great destiny of One United America”. Morya, through Elena, also gave FDR a very important recommendation concerning the country’s “silver policy”. After the adoption of the Silver Purchase Act (1934), the United States started to buy through their Treasury Secretary large amounts of cheap silver abroad, which caused a financial disaster in China, a country on the silver standard. Therefore the Master advised that a silverfor-food barter be established in China, emphasizing that “thus will America be the great balance and President Roosevelt the savior of needy China”. Elena attached particular importance to that occult counsel, because of its great humanitarian value. Yet her initiative this time did not achieve its end through Esther’s and Louis Horch’s fault. While meeting Roosevelt the same month, they gave him their own advice concerning the purchase of silver in China, allegedly channeled by Oyana in New York from the same Master Morya! This was a real shock to Elena when she found out about it, as until then she was conveniently using the Horch – Esther tandem for relaying her and her Master’s messages to the White House. Now her authority as the sole spokesman for the “Cosmic Hierarchy” was scandalously challenged by her fellow-workers and closest devotees whom she used to call affectionately “my fiery warriors”. Elena was badly hurt by Oyana’s unsanctioned action, as she fully trusted the woman and regarded her as the most advanced disciple. To her Elena confided many of her personal and family secrets and she even encouraged Oyana’s own communication with the Master, using the Agni-Yoga technique. Oyana, when staying in Kulu, occasionally had visions and channeled messages from the same Master Morya, and Elena welcomed these efforts by saying that she “started her own workshop”. Having returned to New York in February 1935, Esther resumed the practice together with Louis and Nettie. Elena knew about it and did not mind until the moment when Esther did something outrageous, having relayed one of her own messages to Roosevelt without Elena knowing it and without her proper sanction! Elena was indignant and immediately prohibited her co-workers in New York from transmitting henceforth any occult “Indications” to her “Friends”, i.e. Roosevelt and Wallace. The conflict seems to have been patched up as in May Esther and Louis sailed off to Europe on an important mission assigned to them by the Roerichs. They were to do some publicity in the Old World for the Roerich Pact and its

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ori­­ginator, but more importantly to visit the Nobel Committee at Oslo to acquaint its members in more detail with the peace-making activities of Nikolai Roerich, in connection with his nomination for the Nobel Prize – already for the third time.14 Their mission ultimately was of little, if any, success. Having visited during their trip several U.S. embassies in European capitals, Roerich’s “fiery messengers” discovered that the American diplomats there were unaware of either the Roerich Pact or Roerich himself. But neither were many leading politicians in Europe. Elena and Nikolai were utterly disappointed and put a part of the blame on their envoys, Oyana and Logvan. Judging by Elena’s correspondence from this period, the atmosphere within the New York Circle was quite tense, showing signs of a deepening rift after Esther and Louis Horch had returned from Europe in June 1935. The rift grew larger with time, leading to a formation of two opposing factions – that of the pro-Roerich Lichtmann couple (Sina and Maurice), Mrs Shaffran and Frances Grant, and the anti-Roerich “Trio” of Louis and Nettie Horch and Esther Lichtmann. The question what made Logvan, Poruma and Oyana turn against their gurus is not easy to answer. Elena spelled out her main grievance against the “Trio” in her letter to them of 24 June15 – they (Logvan and Oyana) transmitted to “Mrs. Murray” (Roosevelt) their own advice concerning “financial operations” as a lofty “council” coming from the “Highest Source”, thereby disregarding the ­“Hierarchic Line”. Yet the final breach took place in late September when Horch, acting as President of the Roerich Museum, declared at the meeting of the Board of Trustees that he had severed all connections with its Founders (Nikolai and Elena Roerich), that he did not wish to have their advice anymore and had informed them so by letter, and that henceforth the institution would be run by him on ‘American Law’, with high principles, and that he alone would determine its policy.16 Horch, for his part, had reasons to say these harsh words since the Museum and its many affiliate organizations were hardly surviving in the atmosphere of severe financial crisis in America. Here is an extract from his diary: 14

15 16

After the first nomination in 1929 by G. Shkliaver, Roerich was nominated for the second time in 1933 by Baron M. Taube; having failed to get the award, Roerich’s candidacy was put forward again in 1935 by the U.S. Congressman, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Saul Bloom. Published in Rerikh, E. 2001c, (doc. 114, 123). Letter from F. Grant to Elena Roerich, 27 September. Horch’s last letter to the Roerichs of 27 September 1935 was published in Russian translation in Rerikh, E. 2002b, Appendix: Zaiavlenie L. Khorsha (Declaration of L. Horch), 17 August 1935.

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A cable was received from Chklar [Ckliaver – A.A.] and Mad[am] de Vaux Phalipau requesting funds. We cabled $ 200 to him. The financial situation is serious, as funds are also needed for electricity, telegraph and telephone etc., etc. – The income from the Departments of the Museum is not sufficient to meet these expenditures. Naturally funds are also needed for Urusvati and for the Directors.17 According to the 1934 reorganization plan, Horch could not sponsor the Roerich institutions outside the U.S., which actually brought to a temporary halt, the next year, the activities of the European Center in Paris and the Urusvati Institute, to which the Roerichs attached paramount importance. Some drastic measures had to be taken and Horch did what he thought was best in the situation. The crisis also hit badly Horch’s own fortune so that in mid-1934 he decided to “return to Wall Street” by taking up his old business as a foreign exchange broker. “Ernst Rosenthal [Horch’s former partner – A.A.] gave me some money to start with and has offered me the privilege of joining as a full partner later”, Horch recorded in his diary. “I will do my utmost to develop again this business”.18 Getting to the bottom of the conflict, Horch seems to have been extremely annoyed by the constant interference in his work of both Nikolai and Elena, as well as his other co-workers, especially Sina, who relayed to him the messages channeled by Elena from the Master, the so-called “Indications”. This occult guidance proved to be ineffective or misleading in most cases and was creating serious problems for Horch as the Museum’s chief manager and administrator. It was at this point that Esther started her own channeling and the messages she received Logvan found more appropriate and practicable, as was the case with the Master’s advice on the purchase of silver he had transmitted to Roosevelt. Horch, his wife and Esther apparently became disillusioned with the Roerichs’ guruship – though not with the Master, which must have been the real reason for their breaking with their gurus. What actually brought the situation to the boiling point were the scandalous reports about the Roerich expedition in the American press. “The moment we heard these reports”, wrote Horch in his unpublished memoirs, “Nettie and I made up our minds to break with the Roerichs and associates”.19 Horch paid a visit to Wallace who, as we know, instantly cabled Roerich requesting him to move his party to a safer region. And he also visited another highly placed

17 18 19

L. Horch’s diary, entry for 19 October 1934. L. Horch diary, p. 155, entry for 23–27 June 1934. L. Horch, History of Institution and Roerichs.

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figure 65 The logos of the Roerich institutions in New York, information leaflet. N. Roerich Museum, 1935

o­ fficial, Stanly Hornbeck, chief of Far Eastern Affairs at the State Department, to present him “the facts” about Roerich. In the telegram that Horch subsequently sent to Elena, he “emphatically” refused to accept any blame “for failures of others”: “[I] consider that full responsibility for the created situation rests upon you and those whom you

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entrusted with expedition matters. Have informed trustees – policies of undermining will no longer be tolerated by me”.20 On 30 July Horch wrote a reply letter to Elena, on behalf of himself, his wife and Esther, stating, in a very straightforward manner, all his claims against the Roerichs. “During the 14 years of our devoted service we have encountered many disillusionments, disappointments and severe blows inflicted upon us by yourself, Prof. Roerich and our coworkers”, the letter started, “but that which you have written in your letter of June 24th, 193521 has inflicted the severest blow upon us and the foundations upon which we have built and lived in these years. In this letter you have definitely denied the Commands and Indications Given to us by the L[ord]. In this way you have attempted to shatter these foundations and have trampled the most sacred to us. However despite your attitude and attempts to make us doubt the Indications we receive from the L[ord], we wish to state herewith that above all we maintain our implicit faith in the Indications which we receive here and that we continue to accept these indications and Commands as coming from the Highest Source and as most Holy and Sacred”. Horch then turned to the delicate subject of authenticity of the Master’s “Indications”, coming from various sources and regarded unquestionably as spiritual guidelines. Why is it that you were never interested to verify, control and sanction the “Indications” received through Mrs. Shafran, Sina, Maurice, Frances, Sviatoslav, George and Shibaev – where there was often evidence of contradictions, inconsistencies and lack of that essence which we associated with the Glorious Image of the L[ord]. Nevertheless these “Indications” were imposed upon us by you for years even to the detriment and harm of L[ord]’s work. Now regarding your statement that “Direct advice concerning financial operations never can issue from the Highest Source” – how do you explain the Indications given through you that I should start the silver business; the exact time when Stokes22 securities given for Urusvati should be sold in order that a greater profit should be secured; also recall your saying that Sviatoslav’s money would have been saved if he would 20 21 22

Quoted in Elena’s confidential letter to S. and M. Lichtmann, 20 July 1935 in Rerikh, E. 2001c, (doc. 139). Elena’s letter was published in Russian in Rerikh, E. 2001c, doc. 114. Stokes, James Graham Phelps (1872–1960), an American millionaire socialist writer, political activist and philanthropist. He was one of the vice-presidents of the Roerich Society and in 1931–1936 sponsored the activities of the Urusvati Institute.

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have listened to the Indications given to you. Hence how do you expect us to respect the Indications given through you since you have so definitely rejected the Indications given to us? This was an open challenge to Elena’s supreme authority. Horch vehemently denied that he had transmitted his “personal opinions as coming from the L[ord]” to Washington. At the same time he stated that he had witnessed “how others in our circle have used the Name of the Lord very lightmindedly in order to justify their personal opinions, their egotistic purposes and desire for self-aggrandizement”. There never was any unity in the Circle, even at the time when Nikolai and Elena Roerich were in New York. “Did you ever realize, continued Horch, how painful and hard it was to work for 14 years in a milieu of hatred, undermining, jealousy and injustice? However despite these conditions we not only reverenced you but served you completely and most devotedly, closing our eyes to evidences which were unjust and disheartening”. Logvan also refuted Elena’s other accusations – that he neglected the “Hierarchic Line”, ruined the unity of the Circle and was the cause of the failures of the Museum and the Institutions in the recent years. In your letter you also state “precisely failures have been due to the disregard of the Hierarchic Line” and that “the understanding of the foundations of the Hierarchy was apparently also lacking”. To this I wish to reply that all we have done for over 13 years was to serve you and Prof. Roerich and to honor the name in our deeds and actions. We not only gave our entire energies and devotion to the service along the Hierarchic Line but also gave my entire personal fortune of $1,250,000 to the works bearing your name. I did not stop there, went heavily into debt and have ruined my financial situation for the same purpose of upholding the name Roerich and serving the Hierarchic Line. With great readiness I purchased the paintings and made the Museum and Building possible thus honouring the Hierarchic Line. For many years I have generously provided you with funds, thus removing the financial worries from you and your family. I have provided the financial means for you to undertake the five year Expedition, which gave great prestige to your family. We have generously provided funds for all your plans and ventures unconditioned and on faith. What more can be expected than to give one’s thoughts, devotion, energies, abilities and possessions to the glorifying of the name of the Hierarchic Line. And you have responded to this loyalty and service of over 13 years by calling it “disregard and lack of understanding of

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Hierarchy”. Where is the understanding, where is the justice, where are the foundations of heart and spirit that is expected from the earthly spiritual teachers and Hierarchic links which you have assumed? If you wish to sincerely search for the real failures which you have referred to, then in all justice you should also evaluate the actions of yourself and Prof. Roerich as leaders for the past 13 years. Under your exclusive leadership and direction the following undertakings proved to be failures: Pancosmos Corporation, Beluha and Ur corporations, Alatas, New Syndicate and International Information Agency. The Roerich Museum Press has been reduced at almost naught. And the Master Institute has been greatly reduced in income and the prestige fallen to mediocrity. The cost of the Building has been greatly increased by the pompous demands and the constant interferences of coworkers who demanded despite my repeated warnings and protests against this. I consider it a crime that the hard earnings of poor Bondholders were used for lavish expenditures and expansions of activities for which we had no moral right to use these funds. I recall that I was regarded by you and Prof. Roerich and some of our coworkers as “a destroyer of culture” because I wanted to protect the rights of the Bondholders and see that the Institutions live within their budget and expand in a justifiable way. In all these undertakings large sums were placed at your disposal and these undertakings were under your direction as leaders. We have noted however the policy of yours was to exempt yourselves always of responsibility for the failures of the above mentioned undertakings and find someone else to blame. During all these years we have accepted your advices and directions as law even though your directions were against our own rational thinking and judgment. As President of the Roerich Institutions Horch was particularly embittered by constant and persistent meddling in his work of co-workers (Vice-Presidents), those siding now with the Roerichs: All the powers of the office of the Presidency were usurped by others with your awareness but nevertheless I am carrying all the burdens and threats of law caused by the failures and mistakes of others. In no other Organization can Vice-Presidents write against the President and still hold their position. Therefore I have inserted in my cable to you that I shall no longer take the blame for the failure of others nor permit and tolerate the undermining of my position.

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If you say you were solely responsible for our coming close to the L[ord ], then upon you rests the greatest responsibility and duty of manifesting the highest principles of justice and righteousness to your spiritual disciples who have done everything for you during the 13 years of devoted Service and it is expected from a spiritual teacher that bloodrelationship and family ties should not prevail over the spiritual relationships.23 Elena did not reply Horch, even if much of his criticism was fully justified. As a guru she could not take the blame upon herself. However, her own diaries and letters to co-workers, written after 1928, testify that there was indeed no real unity or harmony in the Circle where Sina domineered over other members and was constantly bickering with Modra (Frances Grant). Yet the Roerich devotees were a bunch of ordinary people after all – hooked on the lofty ideas of Agni Yoga, they were trying hard to remake themselves into “new beings” fit for the radiant New Era, but did not succeed in that very much. Horch’s next step in his “revolt” against the Roerichs was ousting Nikolai and Elena along with their supporters from the Board of Trustees of the Roerich Museum. At the above mentioned meeting of the Board (on 26 September) he demanded point-blank that the Lichtmanns and Grant decide which side they would take, and their choice was naturally the Roerichs, which made the split of the Circle final. Reporting the details of the meeting to Elena, Frances wrote indignantly: The vituperations and recriminations that poured out of them [the Trio – A.A.], like slime, was terrible. They said that Father and You “besmirched their name”. When he (Horch) said he “severed all connections with you”, we asked whether he also severed the connections with the L[ord], to which Net[tie] replied “thank god, we know how to interpret the Teachings of the L[ord]”. They repeated constantly that they no longer needed or wanted your guidance, that your leadership had been a failure.24 Another hard blow for the Roerichs was the breach with their high patron Henry Wallace. He too decided to dissociate himself from the family in an attempt to save his reputation. (Galahad was obviously unaffected by Elena’s psychic sendings in 1934–35 as, standing at her desk, she concentrated her thoughts continuously on his portrait.) Wallace, now nicknamed Nikodim (after one of 23 24

Horch’s letter to Elena Roerich, 30 July 1935, Amherst Center. F. Grant’s letter to E. Roerich, 27 September 1935, N. Roerich Museum, New York.

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Christ’s disciples, being originally a Pharisee), first informed Elena that he would not employ any more the services of “Ramo” (Frances Grant), who until then was a main link between him and Nikolai Roerich. “Nikodim’s mind is confused and poisoned by doubts”, Elena complained to her husband. “He cannot and does not want to work with Ramo, because his (Ramo’s) judgments are poor and he is unable to transmit accurately the Indications, therefore Nikodim accepts only those coming through Oyana, Poruma and Logvan”.25 And then – two days after the scandalous meeting of the Board – Wallace sent a letter to Elena which finally put an end to their carefully nurtured occult relations. In this he stated that “precisely and definitely … I desire that there be no communication, direct or indirect, by letter or otherwise between the Roerichs (father, mother and son) on the one side and myself on the other. Official business will be transacted with Frederick D. Richey, Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry”.26 The declaration coupled with Horch’s museum coup was a real catastrophe for the Roerichs. Trying to analyze the situation, Elena quite naturally put all the blame on the Trio of “traitors”. Most of all she was hurt by the “treacherous” conduct of Esther, who until then was the “Heart” of the Circle: “I believe that the purpose of Oyana and her accomplices was to isolated Friend (= Wallace) from me and Modra (= Frances), in order to capture him entirely in their hands”. So she declared Esther a “possessed one”, owing to her excessive ambition and avidity, and would henceforth refer to her in letters not by name but contemptuously as “that fair-haired lady”. Elena was especially upset that some of her notebooks with the Agni Yoga writings remained in the hands of Poruma (Nettie) and Oyana and she feared they might publish them under their own names. But they never dared to do so. Henceforward the Museum – which was no more the Roerich Museum – and the Master-Institute would be run by Louis and Nettie Horch assisted by Esther Lichtmann and Sidney Newberger (Horch’s relative). Surprisingly, Nettie would volunteer to teach the class of Agni-Yoga herself, a fact which Elena commented on with poignant sarcasm when she learned about it. Yet the greatest paradox of all was undoubtedly that both conflicting groups remained loyal to the same Master and received encouraging messages from him! And indeed, Elena’s Master – if he were a real being, someone separate from her personality – looked very much like a double-dealer. From Elena’s diaries we know that he was constantly praising the Horchs and Esther as her best assistants. Thus, in September 1934, he strongly “vouched” for Logvan, Poruma and Oyana and he repeated his warranty half a year later, when Oyana was 25 26

Elena’s letter to N. Roerich and Yuri, see Rerikh, E. 2001c, 1 August 1935 (doc. 150). Wallace to Nicholas Roerich, 24 September 1935, quoted in White, Maze, 1995, 100.

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about to leave Naggar.27 The dramatic events in New York seem to have been a complete surprise for the Master too and made him instantly change his mind. Thus in October 1935 Morya assured Elena that the Masters would “disgrace the enemies” and that Oyana “needs to have her claws cut off”.28 The drama eventually turned into a farce – on the occult plane. In general the Master chose not to interfere in the conflict but only branded the Trio as traitors with Elena’s own words. His detached attitude seemed incomprehensible and required some explanation to be given to the Roerichites. So Elena had to think of a theory explaining why the Master “let it all happen”. In her letter to her still faithful trio of Sina, Maurice and Frances she wrote: “The Masters have their special tactics – They see things that we are unable to either foresee or consider”. And she cited the example of the infamous Coulomb couple who had betrayed Blavatsky. “You remember that in the case of the Coulombs, as M.K.H. [Mahatma Koot Hoomi – A.A.] wrote, the hostile acts were not stopped by the Gr[eat] T[eachers], but on the contrary were “rather fanned from Shigatse”. This was the tactic of bringing things to their absurd extremity. “All the acts of the Trio are explained by the Master mainly by their avidity. Therefore let us adopt his formula as an explanation to be given to those who are wondering how such a disgrace could have occurred”.29 The loss of Horch and Wallace, the chief banker and the chief protector of the Roerichs, was irreplaceable, yet it was only the beginning of the unfolding drama. Having transferred, in February 1935, the shares in the Roerich Museum from the five of the seven trustees (Nikolai and Elena, the Lichtmann couple and F. Grant) to his wife Nettie – allegedly for safekeeping, which seemed reasonable in the atmosphere of the Depression, Horch thus took legal control of the museum operations and finances. He also sued Roerich to recover the money advanced to him in the 1920s, which totaled about $ 200,000. In return Roe­ rich, through Maurice Lichtmann, director of the Museum, would sue Horch to retrieve the shares of stocks entrusted to his wife. At the same time the Internal Revenue Service, allegedly at Horch’s instigation, came down on Roerich for not filing a tax return for the years 1926 and 1927, when he was leading an “American expedition” to Tibet, and for not reporting his income in 1934, when he was employed by the Agriculture Department. The IRS also claimed $ 48,758.50 in back taxes owed on the sale of Russian art in America (these were mainly the Himalayan paintings Roerich sold in 1928 to Horch for the Roerich Museum).30 27 28 29 30

Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. II, 512, 579, entries for 16 September 1934 and 3 February 1935. Ibid., 580, entry for 21 October 1935. Elena to Sina, Modra and Avirah, confidentially, 4 October 1935, in Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. I, 425. Williams 1980, 142, 143.

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Despite all their troubles, the Roerichs were not broken down and remained as strong as ever. They knew that the Masters were behind their backs and believed that the Great Plan was progressing all the same, as no dark forces could frustrate it. Of course, they never blamed their Master for their mishaps. “And so we drink the chalice of poison tendered by the hand of our former co-workers”, Elena wrote in a letter to one of her followers in Latvia, Rihard Rudzitis.31 “But in spite of this, strength and courage live in our hearts. For what is podvig [an act of heroism – A.A.] without betrayal? The symbol of Judas is eternal and inevitably forestalls a podvig. But after Golgotha come the resurrection and the great exaltation of the spirit. This occurred in every Mystery therefore my heart is filled with joy”.32 The Roerichs last resort and hope remained President Roosevelt, the “Flaming one”. On 12 December Elena sent him a new letter to forewarn of the “traitors”: Already for several months I am seeking to find a possibility to warn you that the two persons, who had conveyed my messages proved to be traitors on the fourteenth year of collaboration and I had to deprive them of my trust. Having succumbed to covetousness and ambition they have broken the sacred trust and had transmitted to you in April their personal advice regarding certain financial matters (silver), pretending that it came from the Original Source through me. This Source warned me about the committed treason and I was ordered to question them and they both confessed to me in writing that they have conveyed to you their message… I was shocked and indignant at such treason and immediately cabled [them] prohibiting to convey any message without my full knowledge and previous sanction. When these persons saw my indignation at their action and realized the grave consequence of the latter, they, moved by fear and revenge, turned to the path of open treason and decided not only to break all relations with us, but started an odious campaign to discredit our name in order to destroy us as witnesses of their deceitful action. I am especially grieved that I could not warn you before and was unable to communicate with you, whereas my heart was longing to convey the Great Words at the threshold of the coming significant Year. 31

32

Rihard Yakovlevich Rudzitis (Rihards Rudzītis,1898–1960), a Lettish poet and writer, head of the Latvian Roerich Society (since 1937) and editor of the Agni Yoga books published in Latvia. His main work is The Brotherhood of Holy Grail (1935–1958). Elena to R.Ya. Rudzitis, 1 October 1935, see Rerikh, E. 2001c, doc. 192.

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Elena wrote two more letters to Roosevelt (on 27 December 1935 and 11 January 1936). They contained some of the Master’s latest advice dealing with America’s economy, foreign relations and finances (“silver policy”), meant for the president: Agriculture is a powerful factor in the moulding of the course which will lead America to her great ultimate goal. With the welfare of the farmers the challenge of the enemies will be reduced to naught. The foreign relationships demand constant watchfulness. The forces of disruption remain active as before – England, Germany and Japan. The map of the world will be subject to many a battle. Although aloof from war America must stand as a powerfully equipped country. Russia will represent the restraining force against Japan. Elena received no reply from the White House. At the same time Nikolai Roerich also addressed FDR in early 1936. He appealed to the President’s heart and his “broad justice” in the hope of retrieving, with Roosevelt’s help, his vast collection of paintings, being his sole property in America, placed under a lien by the IRS. Yet his “fiery” call also remained unheard and unanswered. Like Wallace, Roosevelt disowned Roerich and did not wish to have anything to do with him again. Three years later the British ambassador in Washington R. Lindsay reported to the undersecretary of state, Sumner Welles, that the Roerichs in Kulu were telling the British authorities that they were “intimate friends” of Roosevelt, who “sponsored” their projects. Welles replied to the ambassador that the “President had only seen Professor Roerich once in his life, and that some ten years ago, and that he had not the slightest interest in any project in which Professor Roerich was involved”. Having heard this, Lindsay said that he would inform at once the appropriate authorities of the British Government accordingly and he ended by saying that he considered Professor Roerich “one of the most consummate charlatans that had ever existed”. 33 As for Henry Wallace, he would pay a high price for his too close relations with his Russian Guru. Some of his correspondence with Roerich (the so called “Guru letters”) was produced by Modra in the court hearings and photostat copies of these subsequently came into the hands of Republican leaders. The Republicans wanted to use them during the 1940 presidential campaign, as a weapon against Wallace, who was then running for the office of Vice-President, 33

Quoted in Williams 1980, 143.

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yet they did not do it, for some reason. However, eight years later, in early 1948 (already after Roerich’s death), when Wallace was campaigning for President, these documents finally came into the public spotlight, after Westbrook Pegler, a popular New York columnist and critic of the New Deal, published them with a view to compromising Wallace, “a messianic fumbler aspiring toward an idealistic brotherhood of men”.34 In March 1948 Newsweek magazine revealed for the first time the complete details of the history of the “Guru letters”, obtained from persons closely associated with them. All weight of criticism and ridicule fell naturally on Wallace as some bizarre excerpts from his letters quoted in the magazine portrayed him as a complete mystic and follower of the “Roerich cultists”. Elena’s reaction to Pegler’s revelatory journalism was rather composed: “We do not plan to engage in polemics with Pegler … His coverage of some actions by Horch and Wallace is helpful and should be taken notice of”.35 The statement, as one can see, reflects well the Roerichs’ wisdom – anything is good if only it serves the Master’s end. 34 35

See Anon. 1948, 27–28; also White, Maze 1995, 142–145. See Elena’s letter to co-workers in New York of 8 April 1948, in Rerikh, E. 1996b, v. III, 32.

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chapter 20

The Final Years in Kulu A dream of the future – that’s what we live for. Elena Roerich, 1945

⸪ Despite Elena’s prophesying, the long-awaited ‘Great Year’ 1936 did not witness the glorious coming of the Messiah – Buddha-Christ-Maireya. Still the Roerichs were not disappointed or discouraged – they already knew He would not come! In a letter to one Miron Tarasov, a Parisian follow of the Agni-Yoga, who had earlier proclaimed himself “the son of Master Morya”, Elena explained, long in advance, that the Saviour could not turn up in his physical body: “The Greatest Individual cannot appear now amidst the chaotic thinking and vibrations of unbridled crowds”. She made it clear that His appearance in physical form was “absolutely impossible” as it would be ruinous to the entire evolution plan. I can only confirm all the predictions given in the book “Shambhala” [by Roerich]. Truly, the era of Shambhala has started and His associates and Leaders have already been incarnated. Of course, the year 36 was indicated as the year of the laying of great foundations and changes. Yet the rule of the Lord of Shambhala does not imply that He Himself will appear and take part in the great battle, as believe some of the most ignorant Buddhists. The Lord of Shambhala, according to the old precepts, is fighting with the Enemy of Humanity, and the battle is mainly taking place in the Subtle Spheres; here [in the material world] the Lord of Shambhala is acting through his worldly warriors, but can be seen in the rarest possible cases. Of course, he will never appear in a crowd or among those who are seized with idle curiosity. His appearance in the Fiery Body would have been destructive to many people and many things, because His Aura consists of energies of unusual strength.1 This was an absolutely new theory of the Messiah’s “invisible” Second Coming, which was to spare Elena of any reproaches in case He did not come in his “vis1 E. Roerich’s letter to M.E. Tarasov, 12 April 1935; see Rerikh, E. 2001c, doc. 67, 152–153.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_021

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ible” body in 1936 as predicted. Moreover, the apocalyptic Shambhala Battle was conveniently “transferred” by her from the earthly plane to the “subtle spheres”, to which she alone had access. So right from the beginning of the year, while Roerich’s claims to Louis Horch were examined at the New York municipal court, Elena would talk to her co-workers about the invisible “fierce Battle” going on in that parallel world, and would say that the victory would surely be won by their dear Guru. “…The Victory over the Traitors is in the Plan, therefore we have joined this Battle cheerfully, with fortitude and solemn joy”, she wrote to Rihard Rudzitis in Riga.2 However, despite all the moral support given to the Roerichs by the Masters, the things went the wrong way. In April 1938 Horch took out from the Museum secretly, under the cover of the night, the entire Roerich collection (1006 paintings), together with other valuable objects, books and the archive.3 This was done in absolute disregard of the fact that the Roerich Museum, with all its artistic collections, was declared, in 1929, by its founders, including Horch himself, to be their gift to the American nation.4 And then, in 1940, the court, after a protracted examination of the lawsuit,5 pronounced at last a judgment in Horch’s favor, “unprecedented in its cynicism”, in Sina’s words. This occurred again contrary to the Master’s strong assurances of the Roerichs’ inevitable victory over their “enemy”, the apostatical Trio. Yet this was not all. The esoteric Circle of the early Roerichites finally collapsed in the late 1930s. First, Sina fell out with Frances in the course of the litigation, and the latter went her own way, concentrating on her cultural work at the head of the Pan-American Women’s Association in New York. The entity, originally known as the Pan-American Women’s Society of the Roerich Museum (PAWA), was founded by Grant in 1930 as a non-political, educational and cultural organization of volunteers “for the purpose of uniting the women of the Americas in a common effort for the advancement and understanding of the peoples of this hemisphere”.6 Modra did not break with the Roerichs completely, though; she merely alienated herself from them and stopped corresponding with Elena. Hence Mother of the Agni Yoga advised Sina “to leave her alone”. (In Elena’s letters of the period Grant would occasionally be referred to as 2 E. Roerich’s letter to R. Ya, Rudzitis, 24 February 1936, see Rerikh, E. 2002b, doc. 30, 62. 3 See Z. Fosdik, “Muzei N.K. Rerikha v N’iu Iorke” («Музей Н.К. Рериха в Нью-Йорке»), in Fosdik 2002, 681. 4 Such a Declaration was signed, according to Sina Lichtmann, on 24 July 1929, see Fosdik 2002, 460. 5 Acting on the instructions of Nikolai and Elena, the Roerichytes were deliberately protracting the court proceedings. 6 Perrone 2000, http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/manuscripts/grant.html

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Trudnyi chelovechek – “Difficult little person”). And then, in 1939, Sina divorced her husband Maurice and married Dudley Fosdick, also a musician, who chaired the Roerich Pact Committee in New York. As for Maurice, he had moved earlier to Santa-Fe, together with his two best pupils, Clyde Gartner and Doris Kerber. There he started with them the Arsuna gallery and a school of fine arts of the same name meaning “art is one”.7 He eventually fell in love with and married Clyde Gartner, formerly a pupil of Nikolai Roerich, who became president of Arsuna and also a lecturer upon art and music. In the meantime a new Roerich Circle gradually emerged in New York, rallying around Sina. This included Sina’s second husband Dudley, his elder brother Eugene (Gene for short), head of the newly established Flamma corporation which published, in 1938–1940, under Sina’s and Shibaev’s editorship, a literary journal of the Roerich movement with the same name; Jeanette Fosdick, wife of Eugene, Sina’s elderly mother Sofia Mikhailovna, Catherine Campbell and Ingeborg Frichie (Inge). The latter acted as secretary to the first president of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masarik, then went to study in the U.S. and stayed there for good. At the end of the same year 1939 Nikolai Roerich’s long-time secretary and the family’s best photographer Vladimir Shibaev (Yaruya) left Kulu. Quite unexpectedly, he, like Logvan, rose against his gurus. Being fully dependent on the Roerichs for many years, Yaruya finally chose to become his own master and live his own life by marrying a woman he fell in love with through correspondence. He returned to Elena all the Agni Yoga and theosophical books, which made her conclude that he had renounced the Teaching. But he did not. Elena complained bitterly to Sina of Yaruya’s shocking behavior and described the nature of the conflict in the following effusion: He (Shibaev) has changed so much after Levi’s seizure of affairs in New York and began to express the same feelings as the Dif[ficult] Little Pers[on], namely that he did his work hoping that things would develop and he would be able to rise in the social scale and secure himself financially, but instead, having spent his best years, he sees that he can hardly expect any betterment of his situation etc. Knowing our financial difficulties, he accused us, saying that we wanted everyone to work for us for nothing and many other things, including his most absurd statement that he built up N.K.’s reputation in India. He also said that he had never received answers to his queries from the Gr[eat] L[ord]. But why 7

The school started in 1937 was apparently modeled on Roerich’s Master School. It offered courses in painting, drawing, modeling and crafts, music, short story and feature writing.

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didn’t he look for the reason inside himself? Could I tell him the words of the Gr[eat] L[ord]: “Shibaev abuses me, the expectations were not realized”?8 Shibaev, however, did not return to Europe, as he originally planned. He remained in India, having married an English woman – though not the one he had corresponded with, settled down in Delhi where he got a job as a Russian language instructor at the local University, and later moved to England, to Cardiff, together with his English wife.9 Shibaev tried to restore his contacts with Elena Roerich later – he wrote her a pathetic letter in which he expressed his profound apologies for his reckless behavior and declared his full allegiance to Master Allal-Ming.10 Yet she did not respond. She regarded Yaruya as another “traitor” and someone who “went mad”, an opinion she would share with the New Yorkers.11 While Shibaev was still with the Roerichs, a new person appeared in their ashram in October 1936, Dr. Anton Yalovenko. He replaced Lozina-Lozinskii and stayed with the couple for over a decade. The Roerichs met him first, in 1925, in Kashgar, where he worked as a medical assistant at the Soviet consulate.12

…

In late 1937 Elena and Nikolai learned accidently from the Soviet daily Pravda – and one can only wonder how they got the newspaper in Naggar – about the inauguration in Leningrad, in the building annexed to the Russian museum, of the three new exhibition halls devoted to the Mir Iskusstva artwork. One of these accommodated Roerich’s paintings, along with those of other miriskussniki, Dmitry Stelletzky and Konstantin Bogaevskii.13 The article must have given a strong impetus to the artist – it was time for him to return to Russia!

8 9 10 11

12 13

Elena’s letter to Sina, K. Campbell and Dudley Fosdick, 15 November 1939, Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. II, 292–293. Shibaev’s conflict with the Roerichs and his marital mishaps are briefly discussed in S. Fosdick’s Indian diary, see Fosdik 2004, 105, entry for 11 April 1961. Elena’s letter to Sina, 28 February 1950 from Kalimpong; see Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. III, 139. Ibid., Elena’s letter to Sina and Dudley Fosdick of 21 April 1950, 148–149. On Shibaev and his relations with the Roerichs, see A.N. Annenko, “Vladimir Shibaev, sekretar’ Nikolaia Rerikha” («Владимир Шибаев, секретарь Николая Рериха»), in Annenko 2012, 140–153. On A.F. Yalovenko see Krylov 1999, 132–135; Rosov 2008b, http:aryavest.com The newspaper article was headlined “Russkii Muzei” (Russian Museum), see: Pravda (Правда), № 261 (7227), 21 September 1937. See also Elena’s letter to co-workers of 8 October 1937, Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. II, 108.

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The news coincided with the publication in Riga of Roerich’s biography by a Harbin-based writer and philosopher Vsevolod Ivanov,14 whom Nikolai knew well and whom he believed to have repatriated (although he would not do so until 1945). Another of his colleagues from Mir Iskusstva, Ivan Bilibin, a brilliant illustrator of Russian fairytales and bylinas (traditional heroic poems), had reemigrated in 1936 and was doing well, teaching a class of painting at the Russian Academy of Arts. Also, his and Elena’s old American friend Charles Crane, known for his strongly anti-communist views,15 visited the USSR in 1937 and was astounded by the Soviet achievements under Stalin that he personally witnessed. Roerich immediately wrote him a letter asking “to tell us the truth as it is”,16 for he wanted to make sure that the changes were real. In his reply, Crane spoke about the things which impressed him most – the Pushkin centennial, Chkalov’s ultra-long flights, the Soviet polar exploits and also the celebration of traditional folk dance allowed by the Stalin regime. Crane had a general impression of pride and renewal in Stalin’s Russia that he shared with the artist. The Roerichs found themselves at the cross-roads again. After the dramatic developments in New York, they were strongly bitter against America, knowing they could not return there safely, especially at the time when the New York court was investigating the case of Nikolai Roerich’s “tax fraud”. “It’s hard to realize that America in whom we believed with all our hearts, showed so much injustice and so much cruelty to us”, Elena wrote in a letter to Sina in May 1938. “Yes, it’s hard to know that no indignant voices are being raised against the closure of the Museum and its destruction. Isn’t it a mockery of public opinion?”.17 To return to Russia seemed to be the best and the only option now, the more so that the Great Plan remained unconsummated. This was Roerich’s and his wife’s “second leftward shift” when they radically changed their political orientation, a fact not unnoticed by their biographers. Thus John McCannon speaks of the “remarkable inconstancy” of their dealings with Soviet Russia: “The couple started on the right, swung to the left in the mid-to-late 1920s, then doubled back to the right for much of the 1930s. The final oscillation in this pendulumlike relationship began around 1937, as homesickness, fear of dying 14 15

16 17

Ivanov 1937. On May 24, 1933, the New York Times carried Crane’s letter to the Editor, headlined “Persecution elsewhere: Russia’s attack on religion viewed as worst in history”. In this he asserted that the Christian and Moslem communities in the USSR were ruthlessly persecuted by the Bolshevik government and that “the whole country has been held in line by dire terror for fifteen years”. See McCannon 2011, 216. Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. II, 232.

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in obscurity, and a growing conviction that, as the threat of war loomed, his allegiance belonged to Russia, whatever its form of government, combined to orient Roerich’s thinking once more in a pro-Soviet direction …”.18 There was yet another reason making the couple change their minds – and political colors: their mysticism. Already on the eve of the year 1936 the Master told Elena that “they” (the Masters) would be “cautiously approaching Russia, as she still remains the greatest power” and that even the “distant worlds are sending her their mighty rays”.19 Then, at the very beginning of that fateful year, Elena channeled another reassuring message – that “a big movement” (apparently, a cultural one) had started in Russia, that “public consciousness” had improved and that the Roerichs’ names were often recalled amidst students and by people of the young generation, at the same time that America was being seized by Satanists” (“Black forces assembled there and are trying to upset the unity”).20 More Russia-related messages arrived in the course of the year, if only to show the Roerichs that the Master’s predictions of years ago all came true – that Stalin was dead and the New Era had begun on September 16, 1936!21 Then came a message which forestalled intriguingly the dramatic events to take place in the USSR in the year 1937, the peak of Stalin’s purges: “Stalin, without knowing it, helps the construction [of Russia]; as a huge gin, he is trying to sweep all dust, so let the dead man do his work”.22 And slightly later, in the wake of the purges, the Master explained to Elena that a process of “cleansing of harmful people” was going on in Russia as well as a “massive psychologizing” of the country, and that implied the coming of the “New World”!23 The couple’s incredible political naivety looks really shocking when one reads these revelations of the Master that were channeled and meticulously recorded by Elena in 1935–1938. The Roerichs talked optimistically about Russia’s on-going “reconstruction”, with the assistance of the cosmic “Hierarchs of Light”, at the same time when hundreds and thousands of their compatriots were disappearing daily in the vortex of the Gulag, including a vast army of Orthodox Christian and Muslim clerics as well as Buddhists monks in Bur­yatia and Kalmykia. One of them was the family’s old friend, Tsyben Zhamtsarano. Having fled to the USSR in 1932, in the wake of the “cultural revolution” in Peo18 19 20 21 22 23

Quoted in Makkennon 2011, 212. See Rerikh, E. 2002a, P. II, 590, entries for 29 and 31 December 1935. Ibid., 595, entry for 19 January 1936. Ibid., 634, 635, entries for 13 and 27 September 1936. Ibid., 644, entry for 16 December 1936. Ibid., 657, entry for 29 March 1937.

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ple’s Mongolia, he had taken a job at the Oriental Institute in Leningrad. However, in August 1937, Zhamtsarano was arrested at his apartment in the Buddhist hostel, adjoining the Temple of the Buddha in Staraia Derevnia, on trumped-up charges as the leader of the “pro-Japanese Pan-Mongolist counter-revolutionary center”, which allegedly planned to set up a “pan-Mongolian state under Japan’s protectorate”.24 The Roerichs did not know about Zhamtsarano’s arrest. Nikolai and Yuri would enquire about him frequently in the 1940s in letters to their European friends, yet they fully trusted their Master when he announced, in the spring of 1937, that “Bolshevism ended in Russia” and that “many remarkable things” are taking place there. It should not be a surprise then that in 1938 Nikolai Konstantinovich – together with his wife, sons, and the family servants Raisa and Liudmila Bogdanov – applied for Soviet passports to the USSR consulate in Delhi. Their applications were resent then to the Narkomindel (Ministry for Foreign Affairs) in Moscow which, predictably enough, turned them down.25 The Roe­ richs were not welcome in the USSR any more. Moscow’s attitude to Roerich as an artist – that alone, apart from his other activities – was clearly negative, as evidenced the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia in 1941. It characterized Roerich as a “Russian painter and archeologist” who, since 1920, had been living in New York. “Borrowing themes for his paintings from legends and oral tradition”, claimed the author of the entry, “Roerich treats them in the religio-mystical and reactionary spirit”.26 Still, undiscouraged, Nikolai would continue, in subsequent years, his efforts towards obtaining – or recovering? – Soviet citizenship. He tried his chances now with the backing of the Roerich Society in Riga which approached on his behalf the Soviet Embassy in Latvia. All negotiations with the Soviet officials were mediated secretly by the Society’s head, Garold Lukin, and Janis Blumenthal, a member of the Latvian communist party who had some good connections in the Embassy. The Soviet diplomats promised to assist the Roerichs to repatriate, on the condition that the Roerich Society proved its loyalty to the USSR. As a result Lukin and Blumenthal resolved upon publishing a pro-Soviet collection of essays, the third secretary of the Embassy, Mikhail Vetrov, pressing hard that the publication should necessarily praise Stalin and the invincible Red Army. The volume came out in 1940, yet in the same year Latvia was annexed by the USSR and became a ‘Soviet Socialist Republic’. The new Latvian 24 25 26

On Ts. Zhamtsarano see Reshetov 1998, 5–55. The fact is mentioned in Maksim Dubaev’s biography of Roerich, see Dubaev 2003, 372. Bol’shaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia (Большая Советская Энциклопедия), ed. O. Yu. Shmidt, vol. 38, Moscow: OGIZ RSFSR, 1941, 657.

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figure 66 Nikolai Roerich with sons, Sviatoslav (left) and Yuri (right), Kulu, 1930s. NRM archive

authorities demanded the closure of the Roerich Society, which totally ruined the expectations of the family. 27 Despite the setback, the four Roerichs were determined to return to the USSR, and they would cling to that cherished hope of theirs throughout the rest of their time in India. In 1939, right after the outbreak of World War II, Nikolai would spell out his famous call (zavet) to all Russian people – to love their Mother Russia dearly and through that feeling to learn to love the entire human race. As mystics, he and Elena viewed the War as the worldly Armageddon, the long-before-prophesied epochal clash between the Forces of Light and Darkness, from which no one could escape –– a terrible ordeal which humanity was destined to pass through to be able to make its upward move in spiritual evolution. WW II was basically a “challenge to Culture” which Nikolai regarded piously as a “veneration of Light” (the cult of Ur). Therefore the Roerichs, as the “fiery warriors”, could not abstain from taking part in the Final Battle for the radiant Future they dreamed of and lived for. (“A dream of the future – that’s what we live for”, Elena would say in 1945.) Some ten years before she had already preached that the fifth race would be replaced soon by a more advanced sixth one, that there would be a great social cataclysm as “Europe is condemned” and that prior to that upheaval those laying the foundations of the new race would withdraw to a safe place, a vague allusion to the Roerichs and their ­Himalayan ashram.28 27 28

Dubaev 2003, 373–374. E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 3, entry for 12 September 1229, p. 48.

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figure 67 N. Roerich by the altar at his house in Naggar, 1930s. NRM archive

The artist and both of his sons tried to lend a helping hand to their endan­g­ered beloved Motherland: he by raising funds for the Soviet Red Cross and its Indian counterpart through selling some of his paintings at auctions in India, Yuri by volunteering for Red Army service – though his offer was predictably declined, and Sviatoslav by auctioning off his own paintings and by giving patriotic talks on Indian radio. The Roerichs were convinced that the “world axis rests upon Russian might” and therefore the final victory would surely be won by Russian epic warrior-heroes – bogatyrs – as they alone held the “scales of history” in their hands. Shortly after Germany invaded the USSR, Elena pronounced an “ancient prophesy”: “he, who stands by Russia in the time of the world war, will win”.29

…

29

Letter to co-workers in New York, 3 July 1941, in Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. II, 357.

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The family spent the years 1939–1945 in an atmosphere of great tension and anxiety caused by the dramatic events of WW II taking place in Europe and in the “Best Country”, as they now code-named the USSR. Their mode of life was simple and ascetic – the four Roerichs labored, from early dawn till sunset, occupied with the work of their vocation or “mission”, as they perceived it. They woke up at 7 a.m. and immediately gathered around their radio-set to hear the latest news on Radio Moscow from the battlefields in Russia where the fate of humanity was at stake. Their postal communication was largely disrupted, but they occasionally received by post popular Soviet newspapers and magazines, and various propaganda publications of the Moscow-based VOKS (Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries) distributed by the TASS agency in Delhi. Their only and everlasting source of joy was the majestic Himalayan panorama reminding them of the Masters and their secret Ashram, and the stars shining brightly at night with their favorite Venus and the constellation of Orion.30 While the Soviet Red Army was fiercely fighting with the German Nazi hordes, the American-Russian Cultural Association (ARCA) was established in 1942 by the New York Roerichites, under Joseph J. Weed, one of the leading American Rosicrucians,31 with Sina Fosdick as the executive director. The object of the entity was to promote U.S. – Soviet cultural links and better mutual understanding between the American and Russian peoples. The honorary board of the ARCA included Elena Roerich as Honorary President, and a number of American and Russian celebrities, such as Ernest Hemingway, Charley Chaplin, Rockwell Kent, Erskine Caldwell, Emil Cooper, Prof. Roman Jakobson, Dr. Serge Koussevitzky,32 Dudley Crafts Watson etc. The members of the association organized lectures on Russian culture, some of which were broadcast, arts exhibitions in museums, schools and public institutions, concerts, and they also distributed various printed materials about Russian art. At the same time Nikolai and Sviatoslav were widely exhibiting their paintings throughout India, donating and selling their works to public and private museums in the country. Their ultimate purpose was to span a “cultural bridge” between Russia and India, as Nikolai was keen on setting up the Indian-Russian Cultural Association (IRCA), on the lines of the one created in America. In May 30 31 32

For a description of the family’s life in Kulu during the world war see: N. Rerikh, “Zhivëm” («Живём»), in Rerikh, N. 1996, 194–196. Joseph Weed is known nowadays mainly as the author of the Wisdom of the Mystic Masters: A Rosicrucian Handbook of Practicl Visualization (1st edition, 1968). Koussevitzky, Sergei Aleksandrovich (1874–1951), conductor and composer, director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1951.

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figure 68 Jawaharlal Nehru, Sviatoslav Roerich, Indira Gandhi, Nikolai Roerich, Elena Roerich (with umbrella), Naggar, 1942. NRM archive

of the same year 1942 the Roerichs hosted in their ashram a leader of the Indian independence movement and staunch theosophist, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and his daughter Indira Gandhi. Nehru, who had recently been released from jail where he had been put by the British, in 1940, together with Mahatma Gandhi, for having launched a civil disobedience campaign, came to meet the famous Russian artist whose artwork he strongly admired. He and his daughter spent two weeks in Kulu – they did some sightseeing and in the evening engaged in heated discussions with their hosts about the most vital topics of the day, such as the world war, the political situation in India and, of course, they discussed Nikolai’s newest project for the Indian-Russian Association. The visit also provided an occasion for Sviatoslav to paint a full portrait of Nehru, standing upright, dressed in traditional white shervani dress, with a red rose in a button-hole, and wearing the Gandhi cap. The painting was presented to Nehru and would later decorate the Central Hall at the Indian Parliament in Delhi. Unexpectedly, Nikolai Roerich got involved in the Gandhian Revolution when in early June he received a telegram from the Maharaja of Indore, Yashvantrao Holkar, then in Kulu. In this the ruler of the princely state of Indore asked Roerich to support his proposal made to President Roosevelt for mediating, together with two Russian and two Chinese representatives, Indian

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– British negotiations concerning India’s independence. The artist, however, demurred as he believed that India alone must decide her future, without any foreign interference or mediation.33 Russia, America, and India, as we know, were parts of the Roerichs’ Great Plan, but so was Tibet, the “Land of the Masters”. After the 13th Dalai Lama’s death in 1933 and the 9th Panchen Lama’s passing away in 1937, Tibet remained the forbidden land for unauthorized visitors. Nonetheless, the country and its capital were occasionally visited by Western diplomats and explorers, such as the British mission of Sir Basil Gould (1936–37), an American student of Tantric Yoga Theos Bernard (1937), the German expedition of Dr. Ernst Schäfer (1939) and finally the American ‘CIA mission’ of Ilya Tolstoy and Brooke Dolan (1942– 43).34 The latter party arrived in Lhasa in December 1942, with a letter and gifts from President Roosevelt. The mission leaders called on the young 14th Dalai Lama and met all the important Tibetan officials.35 The Roerichs were well aware of the visit as Yuri had many good friends in Tibet, who were mainly learned lamas helping him in his laborious Tibetan studies. (One of them was the dissident ex-lama and fighter for ‘new Tibet’ Gendun Choephel.) This immediately suggested the idea to Nikolai and Yuri of making a journey to Lhasa the next year. And if not to Lhasa, then at least to the Tashi­lhumpo monastery and Shigatse.36 The British, however, denied to issue travel permits for them by hinting transparently that once they left Kulu they might not be allowed to return to India. The artist’s pride was hurt as he complained in the diary notes: The American major carried presents from the Dalai Lama to Roosevelt. The Americans are in Lhasa. The Germans were in Lhasa. The British are in Lhasa and the Hindus too. The Italians can go to Tibet, but not Russians. Recently Yuri inquired in Delhi about a trip to Tibet and again – a “long nose” in reply. And it is not the Tibetan government which is against it. We have had enough assurances from the Tibetans and Chinese. The obstruction comes from the British. – Why so? They won’t tell you the reason. Even now, when Moscow is so much courted [by Allied powers], the Russian scholars are admitted into India only if accompanied by an 33 34 35 36

On the telegram and Roerich’s reaction to it see Dubaev, 2003, 364, 366. See also Rerikh, N. 1996, 39. The mission was actually dispatched by J. Donovan, Director of the Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA. On the mission see Lamb 1989, 314–316. The idea was expressed in some of Yuri’s letters written in Tibetan to his friends in Tibet (copies of these were obtained by this author in the mid-1990s from V. Rosov).

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importunate ‘escort’. The representative of the TASS agency cannot change his apartment because his [British] overseer should stay nearby.37 The Roerichs hailed triumphantly the end of the world war, yet this was not the end of the Armageddon. The fighting between the forces of Light and Darkness continued for a few years more, until 1949 when, on October 17, according to Elena, the new happy Age of the Satya Yuga set in, after the Satanic hoards had been finally expelled from the Solar system, believe it or not! The victorious year 1945 was particularly auspicious for the Roerichs’ junior son, Sviatoslav, then 41, who finally married, with his parents’ consent, his beloved Devika Rani Chaudhuri, the Indian movie star, being the great-grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore. (For Devika Rani, aged 37, this was a second marriage as her first husband, Indian producer and actor, Himanshu Rai, had died in 1940). The elder Roerichs were apparently happy, as through this marriage of their son they became related to their long-time idol, Rabindranath Tagore. In 1948 the couple acquired the sprawling ‘Tataguni’ estate near Bangalore in the state of Karnataka, where they settled for the rest of their lives. There Sviatoslav would cultivate a plantation of volatile-oil-bearing (lanaloe) plants and build a factory for producing aromatic oils that he would sell to perfumeries in France and Switzerland, which eventually made him a very rich man. He also launched a propaganda campaign for the adoption of the Roerich Pact by the government of India and his efforts were crowned with success in 1948, when the Pact was officially adopted by the country which became his and his parents’ second motherland.38 As soon as the world war was over, the three Roerichs (Nikolai, Elena and Yuri) immediately resumed their efforts to obtain Soviet citizenship. Even though they might have had some doubts about the regime, they waved them off, as their return to Russia, albeit Stalinist Russia, was needed for the Great Plan and approved by the Master. On the eve of the new year 1946, Nikolai Roe­ rich received a letter from the head of the department of arts and crafts at the Amtorg in New York, A.V. Gusev, telling him that the Soviet Arts Committee was interested in purchasing his collection of paintings, which was now in the possession of Louis Horch. The artist was excited and pleased with the news that signaled to him that he was now a persona-grata with the Soviets. In his reply, Roerich stated that “we have never severed relations with our Motherland and 37 38

See Dubaev 2003, 368, and N.K. Rerikh, “Pochemu?” («Почему?») in Rerikh, N. 1996, 125. On Sviatoslav Roerich’s life and activities, see the introduction to his selected correspondence: N.G. Mikhailova, “Radost’ podlinnogo tvorchestva” («Радость подлинного творчества»), Rerich, S. 2004, vol. I, 5–34.

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the people there could know about my artistic activities. I have always dreamt of bringing to my native country the fruits of my work, including the series of paintings of the Himalayas, Mongolia and Tibet, as well as my paintings devoted to the Russian people – ‘Alexander Nevskii’, ‘Sviatogor’, ‘Nastasia Miku­ lichna’ . In my thoughts I regarded these as Russia’s property”. As for his collection possessed now by L. Horch, Roerich suggested that the Soviet official contact Zinaida Fosdick, who “knows about the situation with these paintings”. The letter ended with a statement of Roerich’s allegiance to the Soviets: “Me and my family are always ready to labor for the national construction and to give service to our Motherland”.39 Roerich’s contacts with the Amtorg official were conveniently mediated by Sina Fosdick, whom the artist instructed carefully how she should deal with Gusev so as to make a good impression on him – what things she should say and what not. Having met Gusev, Sina told him, of course, about Horch’s “seizure” of the Roerich Museum with all its collections and about the shameful court proceedings. At the same time Gusev also contacted Horch to see the Roerich paintings and he apparently heard from him quite a different version of the museum drama. He decided ultimately not to buy the collection, or rather a part of it consisting of over 200 paintings offered by Horch, not to get mixed up in the Horch – Roerich controversy.40 In the meantime, having reapplied for Soviet visas in 1946, the Roerichs were eagerly awaiting a reply from Moscow. There Nikolai’s old friend, Igor Grabar, now an academician at the Academy of Arts and a well-connected official, a popular figure in the artistic circles of post-war Russia, was trying to help them repatriate. The artist reestablished correspondence with him in 1944, having obviously forgiven Grabar’s caustic mockery of his mysticism. His letters to Grabar were filled with nostalgic recollections of the artistic life in Saint Petersburg, praises of Soviet cultural achievements and his longing for Russia where he and his sons could “serve the Motherland”.41 The Roerichs, however, received no permission to re-enter the USSR. The decision not to admit them into the “Best Country” could well have been made at a very high level, probably by Stalin himself. Nikolai Roerichs’s final years in Kulu, from the late 1930s, were spent in dedicated work split between painting and writing short essays, spoken of as “diary leaves”. The latter discussed a great variety of topics, from recollections of his 39 40 41

Quoted in Dubaev 2003, 376. The story is discussed in Dubaev 2003, 379–383. N. Roerich’s letters to I.E. Grabar’ from 1938 to 1947 were published in Rerikh, N. 1974a, 407–438.

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figure 69 N. Roerich, 1945-1947, Naggar. NRM archive

past and meetings with remarkable people to philosophical musings. His most significant canvasses from the period reflected the artist’s deepest anxiety over the fate of the world and especially of his homeland in the disastrous “Armageddon time”. They were filled with the imagery borrowed from old Russian history and folklore glorifying the Russian epic heroes, the “Great Builders and Educators of Spirit”, the men of Russia’s glorious past, – princes (kniazi), saintly persons and legendary bogatyrs, such as Alexander Nevskii, Boris and Gleb, Yaroslav the Wise (a model of a sagacious statesman, possibly an allusion to Stalin whom Roerich praised in his letters to Grabar’), etc. One of his best known works was the second version of his prophetic Armageddon (1940–1941)42 showing a citadel atop a mountain engulfed in flames. This painting he sold to the State Museum of Shri Chitralayam at Travancore in south India. And there was a very special one, Elena’s favourite, “Tang-la. The Song about Sham­bhala” (1943), which depicted a solitary “singer”, a seeker for truth (apparently the artist himself), sitting on a narrow rocky ledge and gazing intently at the far-off snow-clad mountain summits rising against the glowing red horizon – there, behind the peaks, lies hidden the land of his dreams, Shambhala, the place where he longs to be… 42

The first version of the painting with the same title was produced by Roerich in 1935–1936.

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Roerich’s last painting, executed in 1947, was The Master’s Command (Prikaz Uchitelia). In its composition it resembled The Song about Shambhala – a man sitting on a rocky ledge looking at a white bird hovering over the mountain gorge. The canvas remained unfinished and was still standing on the easel when the artist passed away quietly on 13 December, the Lord Shiva’s favourite day. He had not been feeling well for quite a while, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer, yet hoped to recover. According to Elena, a week before his death Roerich saw St. Sergius in a dream. The saint addressed him and Elena with the words: “My dear ones, why should you languish here? Come to me, to my place, at once!”. In a letter to Sina Elena spelled out “the real reason” for her husband’s death which was to be communicated to other co-workers and the artist’s admirers: “His heart could not endure the amount of poison, produced by insane humanity”.43 Nikolai Roerich’s body was cremated two days later44 in front of his home. A slab of a mountain rock brought by local dwellers from the Valley was then installed on the spot of cremation and inscribed in Hindi: 15th December 1947 Samvat 30 Magh 2004 Vikram Era The great Friend of India Maharshi Nicholas Roerich The Last Rites were performed here OM RAM A month later (on 17 January 1948) Elena and Yuri left Kulu. The northern Punjab became an unsafe place to stay due to the severe Hindu-Muslim ethnic and religious conflict, triggered by the partition of British India, following the declaration of its independence in 1947. One of the victims of the civil strife was Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated on January 30, 1948. From Naggar Elena and Yuri moved first to Khandala, a hill station in the Western Ghats (the state of Maharashtra), a short distance from Bombay. Elena Roerich and her son were expecting to receive Soviet visas soon and were already making preparations for a sea voyage from Bombay to Odessa. Khandala had a special attraction for Elena, since nearby were located the famous rock-cut Karla Caves and it was there that Helena Blavatsky met Master Morya – some 60 odd years previously! Elena was

43 44

Elena’s letter to Sina and Dudley Fosdick, 13 January 1948, Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. III, 6. The cremation was described in Elena’s letter to co-workers of 24 February 1947 in Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. III, 17.

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figure 70 N. Roerich’s Samadhi monument, photo by Ernst von Waldenfels

probably expecting that Morya would turn up in Khandala again, if only to ­instruct her on her mission in the “Best Country”. And again the things went the wrong way – the Roerichs obtained no visas and therefore had to look for a new home in India. They finally settled down in Kalimpong, a hill town in the district of Darjeeling, a scenic spot in the Mahabharat Range (Lesser Himalaya). There Elena would live out her last seven years before she died of a heart attack, in her sleep, as had Nikolai, on October 5, 1955.45 Her body was likewise cremated on a hilltop facing her beloved Himalayas. Elena’s time in Kalimpong was divided between writing long instructive letters to her friends and devotees, editing the English translations of Agni Yoga books to be published by the still active Agni Yoga Press, and communicating with the invisible Master, channeling his new messages. She asserted that she was trying to complete her “fiery experiment” and was now “assimilating the new and difficult rays of the unseen planets affecting the earthly atmosphere”.46 She was carrying out her “mission”, bringing to the world the “Spirit-understanding” and the “Testimony about the Forces of Light”. As late as 1954 Elena was

45 46

Her death was described by Yuri Roerich in his letter to Sina Fosdick of 24 October 1955, see Rerikh, Iu. 2002, doc. 775. Elena’s letter to co-workers, 15 February 1952, Rerikh, E. 1996b, vol. III, 295.

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planning to write a whole new book in Russian describing her experiences in the “Fiery World of the spirit”. Her physical condition was gradually deteriorating, so that she once called herself “a cripple”. She described her ailments straightforwardly to her most trusted co-workers. At nighttime she would often perceive the blazing of a many-colored fire – red, pink and violet – all around her, cut through by dazzling lightnings, which continued for hours. This caused her much pain, particularly at the back of her head, made her body tense and doubled her pulse-rate.47 Her best remedy was the same cardiac stimulant (strophanthin), and she recommended it to the New Yorkers in case they had similar problems. She would say that her pains resulted from the inflammation of her chakras in the process of “assimilation of spatial fire” and she recalled that she had experienced the same things in the Tibetan highlands. Occasionally Elena would make predictions, speaking of herself ironically as a modern Cassandra, yet the things she predicted, such as the collapse of England or the dissolution of the UNESCO, never came true. She was most happy to learn, in the latter half of 1949, of the revival of the Roerich Museum in New York, owing to the ardent efforts of the Roerichites, mostly those of Sina Fosdick, Catherine Campbell-Stibbs and Inge Frichie. Housed in an old brownstone at 319 West 107th Str. (Upper West Side), the museum included over a hundred of Roerich’s works and a collection of archival materials. Elena and her devotees still hoped to retrieve somehow the paintings which Louis Horch appropriated illegally in 1938. They could not get over the incident and were still tormented by painful recollections of Logvan’s “treachery”. Even a decade after Elena’s death Sina Fosdich would bitterly complain about Horch and the ghastly things he did, never blaming the Master, of course. Luckily, the Roerichites found a new sponsor to replace Horch. This was a Michigan-based industrialist, Balthazar Bolling (1890–1969), who had been properly cultivated by Elena through personal correspondence.

…

In November 1955 – already after Elena’s decease – Yuri Roerich had a chance to meet in Delhi the new Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev during his official visit to India, the first one after the declaration of India’s independence. It was then that the issue of his return to the USSR, in the company of the Bogdanov sisters, was finally decided. Krushchev, imbued with great sympathy for the entire Roerich family, gave orders to the Soviet Foreign Ministry that Yuri 47

See, for example. Elena’s letter to co-workers of 3 January 1947, in Rerikh, E. 1999a, vol. IV, 278–279.

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Roerich and the Bogdanovs be admitted into Soviet citizenship, which allowed them to return to the USSR in October 1957. Arrangements were also made for Yuri to bring to Moscow his most valuable scientific library and a collection of his father’s paintings, which were temporarily housed in the Tretiakov Gallery. An exhibition of fifty-nine Roerich paintings was then put up in Moscow, in the spring of 1958, and was a big success with the Soviet public, although the hardcore Soviet ideologues disclaimed the artistic value of the paintings, saying that many of them were impressed with the artist’s “mysticism”. Having settled in Moscow, Yuri got a job as head of the India and Pakistan department at the Oriental Institute. A brilliant Orientalist, a linguist, a Buddhist scholar and generally a man of profound erudition, he was a real marvel in the Soviet academic circles of the period. One of his best achievements in the field of Orientalia was restarting the Bibliotheca Buddhica series, a publication of translations of Buddhist classics cut short before World War II. Thus, in 1960, a new text in the series was published, a collection of Buddha’s sayings, Dhammapada, translated from Pali by V.N. Toporov, with Yuri Roerich’s long introduction. This caused a big scandal – the copies of the edition were confiscated while they were still at the press and Yuri had to “give explanations” to the vice-director of the Institute, R.A. Ulyanovskii. The latter reprimanded Yuri rather harshly – he even asked him angrily: “Why on earth have you come to Russia?”. And a few days later, on May 21, 1960, Yuri died of a heart attack.48 Sviatoslav remained the only Roerich alive. (Nikolai Roerich’s brothers were dead by that time: Boris died in Moscow, in 1945, of some obscure brain disease, and Vladimir passed away in Harbin in 1951. His sister Lydia Ozerova died sometime after 1931.) The artist’s younger son lived a long and happy life with his wife, Devika Rani, on his Tataguni Estate at Bangalore. He occasionally visited the USSR and in 1974, when N. Roerich’s centenary was celebrated, he brought to Moscow 288 paintings – his father’s and his own works. These were exhibited around the country by travelling exhibitions and later were handed over to the State Museum of the Orient. In 1989, with the backing of Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachov, Sviatoslav set up the Soviet Roerich Foundation, later to become the International Roerich Center (MTsR). To that foundation he donated a part of his family’s heritage, including the documentary archive. A talented portrait-painter, Sviatoslav produced about 30 portraits of his father, one of which can be seen today in the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, and several excellent portraits of his mother. 48

The story was recounted by one of Yuri’s pupils, the Indologist Tatiana Ya. Elizarenkova in Elizarenkova 1992, 74.

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Sviatoslav Roerich died in Bangalore on January 30, 1993, and his wife a year later. They had no children, so his death put an end to the Roerich lineage in Russia. One last thing needs to be said here. Both Yuri and Sviatoslav were Agni Yoga believers, and it certainly could not be otherwise as the Masters and their Agni Yoga were the real hallmark of the family. Although, as we know from Elena’s and Sina Fosdick’s diaries, Yuri and Sviatoslav did not take at first the Master’s teachings seriously, but eventually they were drawn into the family cult. Yuri’s return to Russia was in fact a part of his family mission, the Great Plan, – to bring the Fiery Yoga to Russian soil. While in Moscow, he was occasionally ­approached by “old” Roerichytes from Latvia and the new seekers of occult wisdom among the Soviet intelligentsia, with whom he readily shared the Agni Yoga literature he had brought from India. Once, when meeting Yuri, one of these seekers, V.A. Verakso, asked him, whether he saw the Master himself, to which Yuri answered: “How could we, me and my brother, stay away from the discipleship?”.49 That is, he evaded a direct reply, since being a “disciple” of the Master does not necessarily imply seeing him in his physical body. At his friendly meetings with Soviet Agni Yogis in Moscow – kept secret, of course, from his academic colleagues – Yuri would talk about his travels in Central Asia and Tibet in much the same vein as did Helena Blavatsky and his ­parents. For example, he spoke about “secret caves” located in some Central Asian oases, containing “book depositaries belonging to the Great White Brotherhood”, where manuscripts of the Teachings, “given by the Great Adepts to various nations in various epochs”, were stored. He also talked about his mother’s participation in the “spatial work of her Teacher”, her visitation, in her subtle body, of the “laboratory of the Brothers” engaged in “condensation of cosmic energies”, according to Verakso.50 Yuri truly believed in Shambhala and in the coming of Lord Maitreya, as well as in the existence of the unseen ‘subtle world’. This fascination of his with the occult and his parents’ Agni Yoga can hardly be traced in his scholarly publication, save, probably, for one article, Paralokasiddhi, a translation from Sanskrit of a short treatise by the famous ancient Indian yogachara philosopher Dharmottara, in which the author attempted “to prove the continuity of the flow of consciousness and thus establish the existence of the World Beyond”.51 An English Buddhist, Dennis Lingwood (Sangharakshita), the founder of the Western Buddhist Order and the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA) in 49 50 51

See Verakso 1998, 65. Ibid. Roerich, G. 1948–1949, 223–228.

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Kalimpong, for which Yuri worked as advisor in the 1950s, mentioned him briefly in his memoirs. Sangharakshita was puzzled by two things – first, the way Yuri dressed as he was always wearing riding boots and breeches, and, second, by the mystical atmosphere of his home. Whenever he visited him at his “Crookety” mansion in Kalimpong, he was conscious of “a tremendous downward pressure coming from the room overhead”, which was apparently Elena Roe­ rich’s room. Yuri’s strange manner of dressing Sangharakshita explained by his belief in the Shambhala prophesy, i.e. that the King of Shambhala would appear sometime before Maitreya’s advent. “This mysterious personage would come riding forth from his hidden kingdom in the heart of Central Asia accompanied by a host of warriors on horseback and would conquer the whole earth. Those who wanted to help prepare the way for the coming of Maitreya must be ready to ride with the King of Shambhala and his men. He might appear at any minute. They must be prepared – prepared to mount and ride. They must be always booted and spurred”. Despite his semi-military outfit, Yuri, in Sangharakshita’s observation, “passed his time quietly, working on his translation of The Blue Annals and acting as advisor to the YMBA”.52 In 1961, shortly after Yuri’s death, Sina Fosdick made a trip to India to meet Sviatoslav and his wife. From Bangalore they travelled together to Kulu, to the Roerich’s Hall Estate, where, not far from the artist’s tombstone, were buried the ashes of Sina’s second husband, Dudley Fosdick, who died in 1954 and was cremated, like a true Agni Yogi. They stayed for a short time in the abandoned house of the Roerichs, haunted by memories. Sina would often gaze at the mysterious Himalayan skyline where one particular mountain attracted her most, the four-peaked Chandar Khani, the Moon Princess. She looked at it every day, trying hard to discern a little sign or some feeble movement on its surface, since Sviatoslav had told her that the Masters’ Ashram was located right behind the mountain.53 They believed that Elena Roerich was now there, having finally joined the community of perfect humans, the mahatmas. 52 53

Sangarakshita 1991, 52–53. See Fosdik 2004, 108, 112, 116, entries for 13, 17 and 21 April 1961.

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Epilogue: Inquiring into the Phenomenon of the Roerichs’ Masters The consciousness of man is the meeting place of all the worlds.

…

… If no Subtle World exists, then there is no need to worry about the earthly one. Elena Roerich, Brotherhood (1937)

…

The burden of proof rests on who asserts, not on who denies From the Roman law

⸪ In 1994 American historian K. Paul Johnson published a fundamental study in which he attempted to identify the mysterious Masters of Helena Blavatsky – the “adept sponsors” of the Theosophical Society, by naming their possible historical prototypes.1 As was noted by Johnson, HPB in her memoirs From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan described a personage, under the name of Gulab-Singh (Gulab-Lal-Singh), who “corresponds in most details to her descriptions elsewhere of Mahatma Morya”. This Gulab-Singh was “a tall Rajput, an independent Thakur from the province of Rajasthan, who belonged to the sect of raja-yogins, initiated into the mysteries of magic, alchemy, and various other occult sciences of India”.2 Yet the real – historical – Gulab Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, had in fact little resemblance to the theosophical Mahatma Morya, or to “anyone’s ideal of a mahatma”. Gulab Singh died in 1857, a year after leaving the throne to his son Ranbir Singh, and it was this Indian maharaja, according to Johnson, who served as “the apparent model for all the virtues” of Master Morya. Ranbir Singh was an enlightened and sagacious ruler of his land, a “philosopher-king”, “a patron of learning and a model of religious toleration”, as maintains his modern biographer, Dr. S.S. Charak. “His modest way of life, his sense 1 Johnson 1994. 2 Ibid., 121.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_022

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of justice shown in daily durbar, his energetic labors for his people, and his happy family life, made of him a popular ruler, as did his piety, scholarship, and hospitality”. All this justifies the use of the term mahatma (“great soul”) in reference to Ranbir Singh. Last but not least, it must have been Ranbir Singh who helped Blavatsky make a pilgrimage into Tibet. “Opportunities for contact with Tibetan Buddhists were abundant within Ranbir’s realm, but if HPB did indeed penetrate Tibet proper it most likely was with his assistance”, concludes Johnson.3 Yet the person was definitely not the real Master of HPB in a sense recognized by religious tradition, “nor did he give telepathic orders or exert strange powers, according to the historical record”. In other words, Ranbir Singh can be regarded only as “a model” or “prototype” of the theosophical Mahatma Morya, but not as the mahatma himself. As for Mahatma Koot Hoomi, the second best-known Master of Blavatsky and other theosophists, Johnson believes he was modeled on Thakar Singh Sandhanwalia, one of the leaders of the Singh Sabha, a political organization established in Amritsar in 1873. In a letter to one of her Indian friends, Moolji Thackersey, written in 1878 in New York, Blavatsky underscored the importance of getting in touch with and befriending some Sikhs who could be of help to the newly-emerged Theosophical Society: “You will understand, without any explanation from me, how important it is for us, to establish relations with some Sikhs, whose ancestors before them have been for centuries teaching the great “Brotherhood of Humanity” – precisely the doctrine we teach”.4 Thakar Singh was President of the Singh Sabha, whose object was “to restore and purify the Sikh religion, publish and distribute Sikh literature, open Sikh colleges and schools…, and work toward religious brotherhood”, in other words, Sikh resurgence.5 Moreover, Thakar Singh was intimately involved in the plot to restore his cousin Maharaja Dalip Singh to the throne – with the help of Russian arms, as shows Johnson, which made him very important in the eyes of Blavatsky. Now, turning to the Roerichs’ principal Masters of the same names, Morya and Koot Hoomi, we see that they have little resemblance to the Masters of HPB, hypothetically identified as Maharaja Ranbir Singh and Thakar Singh by Johnson. (Both Ranbir Singh and Thakar Singh were dead long before Elena’s alleged encounter with the Masters in London in 1920.) During their early time in India and their later extensive travels across Central Asia, in 1925–1928, the Roerich couple occasionally came in touch with many spiritual and religious figures of distinction, such as Geshe Rimpoche from Chumbi, the abbot of the Ghum monastery at Darjeeling, and the new theosophical star, Jidda Krishnamurti. Yet 3 Ibid., 135. 4 Ibid., 150. 5 Ibid., 153.

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none of them became their teacher or spiritual guide, because they already had one! This was the “Guide of the spirits of the third plane”, which manifested itself in the course of the spiritualistic séances at the Roerichs’ apartment in New York, in early 1921, under a bizarre name Allal-Ming, strikingly resembling the name of HPB’s remarkable Rajput, Gulab-Lal-Singh. And it was this spirit, identified by Elena as Mahatma Morya, who would take control of the entire Roerich family and would carefully shepherd all of them for the rest of their lives. In fact the Roerichs never had any Oriental – Indian or Tibetan – gurus and were not connected with any particular religious, reformist, or mystical tradition of the East. From the very start Elena was intent not on self-improvement, but on the actualization of her “fiery experience”, which she claimed was absolutely unique, in the form of a new spiritual teaching intended for the coming “sixth race” of humanity she ascribed to the Masters and called Agni Yoga. Elena was absolutely fascinated with “fire” and “fiery” things, to the point of obsession, as “fire” became the key element of her esoteric system and her everyday life – her recurrent “fiery” dreams, hallucinations and visions of the “Beyond”, and this fascination or obsession led her eventually to the moulding of her ground-breaking teaching of the subtle “Fiery World”. The thirteen books of Agni Yoga she wrote in Russian, with some assistance from Nikolai, abound in her newly-coined Agni terminology, such as fiery consciousness, fiery perception, fiery ego, fiery body, fiery breath, fiery forces, fiery space, etc., – terms which make little sense outside the framework of her cumbersome “Fiery Yoga”. By “fire” she understood an all-pervading subtle cosmic “psycho-fiery energy”; this was a “vital substance” and also the “best remedy”, as Elena elaborated to that end a special curative practice, the “fiery Pranayama”. It is no surprise then that her favourite character in Greek mythology was Prometheus, a Titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods for human use. And now – ages later – the occult aspects of fire were to be revealed by Elena through her uncanny fiery experience – for the benefit of mankind. “We behold by Fire, and we ascend by Flame. There are no other propellants, and therefore blessed be the Fire-conscious”, proclaimed the Master in the Agni Yoga.6 The Masters themselves have a fiery nature, which accounts for their invisibility and inaccessibility by ordinary earthly humans: Why do the Fiery Beings seldom appear to Earth dwellers? To the earthly senses the Fiery World is like a powerful dynamo. The earthly body is consumed by contact with a Fiery Being; proximity alone is 6 Fiery World, I, 335, see: www.en.agnivesti.ru/library/agni-yoga-/

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enough to stop the heart of the incarnate one. A lighted torch should not be brought into an inflammable dwelling.7 And the seekers after the esoteric knowledge of the kind possessed by the Masters are also endowed with that peculiar fiery or luminous quality: “Those who seek Brotherhood belong to the fiery element. From Fire is born exaltation and inspiration. The luminous element may be revealed in each sigh about Brotherhood”.8 It is this fiery quality (“psycho-fiery energy”), according to Elena, that provides one easy access to the invisible Cosmos with its inherent hierarchy of superior spiritual Masters: Urusvati embodies fieriness. Of what then does this precious quality consist? Some fieriness exists in everyone, but there are particularly fiery natures that can communicate easily with the far-off worlds. True fieriness is demonstrated in communion with the Invisible World and in participation in Our Missions.9 Elena’s ideal is an elevated “fiery being” of the New Race she calls “Agni Yogi” or “Man-God” (Rus. bogochelovek), someone like herself and Nikolai, the first ever Agni Yogis on this planet: We, Brothers of Humanity, seek and proclaim Man-God on Earth. … Renouncing his destiny, he strains his fiery being …. Man-God is a fiery creator. Man-God is the carrier of the fiery sign of the New Race. ManGod is aflame with all fires. Thus, inscribe in the records about Man-God: Arhat, Agni Yogi, Tara – so shall we inscribe.10 (As Helena Blavatsky explains in her Theosophical Glossary, Tara “personifies mystic knowledge as opposed to ritualistic faith. She is the mother of Buddha, “Wisdom”. And it is also an esoteric name of Elena Roerich, ‘Russian Tara’ and ‘Buddha’s daughter’.) Although Agni Yoga was largely rooted in Blavatskian theosophy, especially the Sacred Doctrine, Elena Roerich, as the above research showed, used many other sources of occult “wisdom-knowledge” to substantiate her theories. These were the world’s “most ancient teachings” she recom7 8 9 10

Ibid., 337. Brotherhood, 497. Supermundane, I, 44. Hierarchy, 14.

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mended to young students – the Puranas of India, the fragments of the teachings of Egypt, Chaldea, China, Persia and absolutely all teachings of classical philosophy, plus the Bible, the Kabbalah and the teachings of Christ,11 not those recorded in the New Testament, but found in the texts of the Apocrypha, making the basis of “esoteric Christianity”. Elena’s practice of occultism, as the reader will remember, started with the rather primitive “communication with spirits” at the spiritualistic séances, in which she played the role of a medium. Yet, by the mid-1920s, when her fiery experience reached a high point, as she claimed to have fully acquired the powers of clairvoyance and clairaudience, the mediumship was abandoned in favor of her new mode of instant communication with the Master, although table rapping and other spiritualistic manipulations still remained in the woman’s occult arsenal. Elena’s new method was hearing voices and seeing visions she would interpret as a manifestation of the “subtle world” and would claim she was “communicating”, through a fiery “spacious” channel (provod), with her teachers secluded in their “Himalayan Abode”, the earthly Shambhala. Concurrently Elena and her followers also used a special Tantric Buddhist practice of visualizing idams (Buddhist deities) for quick contact with the Master by concentrating mentally on his portrait. Having ceased to be a medium, Elena Roerich proclaimed herself a “mediator” between this and “other” worlds. By doing so, she actually followed the example of Helena Blavatsky, who also strongly refuted spiritualism for the sake of her advanced theosophical teaching allegedly “dictated” to her by the Masters. Yet now, with the onset of the 20th century, the Masters, according to Elena, had a much more sophisticated teaching, Agni Yoga, to offer to mankind in order to help people take the next step in their spiritual evolution. What was the nature of Elena’s “fiery experience”? Her phenomenon at first glance does not seem to be uncommon as there were (and still are) many people who channel messages from “otherworldly entities”, see visions, hear voices, and make all kinds of predictions. Yet what makes Elena’s case truly unique is her meticulous recording, in the course of 35 years (!), of the things she experienced, the psychic sendings from the Master, visions and other manifestations of the “subtle world”; and of course the enormous amount of her literary production which includes the voluminous Agni Yoga, a two-volume translation of Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, as well as abundant correspondence with her husband, sons, friends, associates etc. And all this she accomplished while suffering badly from her many ailments as she herself openly admitted. 11

Fiery World, I, 311.

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An answer to this query was given by Dr. A.F. Yalovenko, the family’s longtime physician in Kulu, in the late 1940s. Before quoting it here, I would like to point to the similarity – though not identity – of Helena Blavatsky’s and Elena Roerich’s occult cases. Both women spoke straightforwardly of a certain split in consciousness, or personality, which they experienced at the time of their “direct” contacts with the Masters. Thus Blavatsky asserted in 1877 – shortly before she moved to India – that her Master, or Sahib, as she called him then, manifested himself spontaneously inside her body and took control of her mind. “… And now, during his presence in me, it merely seems as if I were living a double life”.12 Elena Roerich likewise referred vaguely to her “double life” in the following passage from the Signs of Agni Yoga (1929): “It is necessary to study attentively the cases of so-called split personality. At its worst, it is a form of possession, at its best, it is a reliving of a former incarnation. Sometimes the spirit is so close to a former incarnation that he relives it”.13 Yet who decides whether the phenomenon in question is “at its worst” or “at its best” – a form of “possession” or a karmic “reliving” of former incarnations? Apparently, not a physician, but the person who experiences the split personality, in our case Elena Roerich herself. The “astral spirit” Allal-Ming, alias Master Morya, was a “voice” Elena heard inside herself. A voice of a mental intruder she identified as her Teacher, whose messages with admonitions, instructions, and counsels she would be channeling daily and nightly, and who placed the entire Roerich family under his rather obtrusive control, closely watching their conduct, the things they did or said. His voice rang out in her persistently and was not infrequently accompanied by visioning of fiery phenomena, an important element of her “fiery fits” (ogni), such as rotating fire circles, splashes of fire, silvery stars, falling comets, colored rays, flowers of bright colors, predominantly blue and violet, etc. This voice “from the Beyond” seems to have been Elena’s subconscious “double”, her alter ego, as “the entity inside her” usually said things she already knew, wanted to hear, read in the books, or reflected upon, i.e. her own thoughts. Not infrequently his psychic “messages” came strongly garbled, or even as a meaningless abracadabra, as often happened at séances, as evidence Elena’s records. The process of occult communication looked very much like a “mental radio”, as the operator “at this end” was trying hard to make sense of the messages he received from his “other” self, his own subconscious. S. Fosdick in her diaries described Elena’s method of communion with the Masters as “hearing of silent voices”: “When she puts a question, she imme­· 12 13

Helena Blavatsky to N.A. Fadeeva, 29 October 1877, in Blavatsky 2003, 354. The Russian original of the letter was published in: Blavatskaia 1995, 248. Agni Yoga (Signs of Agni Yoga), §230, see: www.en.agnivesti.ru/library/agni-yoga-/

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diate­­ly hears an answer. She often hears a silent voice, but she does not like it, as she enjoys the timbre and the vibrations of the voice of her Teacher”.14 I will cite now the testimony of Dr. Yalovenko which offers an explanation of Elena’s “fiery experience”: As for Madame Roerich, I must say that she is a sick person. She suffers from a nervous disorder called epileptic aura. The people who have it often hear some unseen voice and have a vision of various objects. Because of his deep affection, his love for his wife, and his soft-heartedness, he (Nikolai Konstantinovich) often fell under her influence, and occasionally even believed in her supernatural powers. I often talked to him about the ailing condition of Elena Ivanovna but he reacted rather coldly to my expertise in this field. When I gave him a book [on psychiatry], he asked me to make some extracts from it and at the same time he pleaded with me not to tell anybody about his wife’s ailment.15 So Elena Roerich had a neurological disorder, the epileptic aura, according to Dr. Yalovenko. This is normally characterized by blurred vision, the appearances of bright and flickering lights before the eyes, as well as by the numbness or feebleness of the upper and lower extremities, preceding an epileptic attack. Curiously, Elena herself spoke quite positively of epilepsy in the Agni Yoga books: More than once you have heard about moments of ecstasy before an attack of epilepsy or certain other ailments. But this is only transference of consciousness into a fiery manifestation. Hence, some monks and sadhus at times could not exchange this fiery feeling for any treasure.16  The precise moment of transition into the Subtle World is accompanied by a sensation of dizziness, as during fainting or at the beginning of a fit of epilepsy.17 And here is an excerpt from Esther Lichtmann’s diary quoting Elena’s deliberations on the subject: 14 15

16 17

Fosdik 2002, 310, entry for 26 August 1928. The text was extracted from Yalovenko’s Autobiography, submitted to the Soviet Embassy in Delhi, along with his visa application, on 22 March 1952, Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation: АВПРФ, Фонд консульского управления, оп. 9, пор. 17, пап. 860, л. 7 (a typescript copy, undated). Fiery World, I, §204. Ibid., §335.

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Elena Ivanovna told me that epilepsy excels mediumism. Epilepsy implies the lack of correspondence between the chalice [of the heart] and the organism. Prior to the fits, epileptics feel the ecstasy of spirit. Dostoevskii related to Sofia Kovalevskii about his ecstasies, which he would not change for anything in the world. Elena Ivanovna’s aunt had similar fits during her gestation, and she also spoke about these ecstasies of spirit. Epilepsy is connected with the uplift of Kundalini.18 The contemporary Russian biographers of Elena Roerich are well aware of Dr. Yalovenko’s diagnosis but they either disregard it completely or try to play down, by saying that Yalovenko was an amateur doctor and apothecary, who did not have sufficient medical qualification and practice for making his statement, as does V. Rosov.19 Elena herself spoke of her fiery fits as “sacred pains”, a metaphor she borrowed from the writings of medieval authors who believed that epilepsy gave access to the “divine spheres”. Sometimes an ailment could be a “source of elevated consciousness”, Elena asserted in Agni Yoga, remembering that her Parisian doctor, Lapeyre, diagnosed her as having hysteria magna, a nervous disorder from which St. Theresa, St. Catherine and other “higher beings” had suffered. It may come as a surprise for readers of Agni Yoga to find there a rather detailed discussion of various psychosomatic disorders (neuroses, rheumatic pains, bleedings and inflammation of various organs and parts of body, etc.) – apparently Elena’s own, the nature of which she tried to explain by resorting to her Agni Yoga theory. She recommended as the most effective therapy for these and practically any other ailments a self-treatment by “psycho-fiery energy”, although the latter apparently proved ineffective in her own case as she had to order conventional medicine from France proscribed by Lapeyre. Suffice it to say, that after his mother’s death, Yuri found a large stock of the cardiac stimulant strophanthus in her room, and it is well-known that an overdose of the drug can cause hallucinations. But if Elena Roerich was indeed a psychotic, rather than a psychic, what was the cause of her many severe bodily and mental disorders? She herself revealed, on several occasions, her great “family secret” to her devotees, Esther Lichtmann and Sina: all her ailments were the result of an abortion attempted by her mother during the time of gestation, which means Elena was born with a perinatal trauma. 18 19

E. Lichtmann’s Diary, Notebook 3, 190, entry for 25 October 1929. Rosov 2008b, www.aryavest.com

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As Esther recorded Elena’s confession, “the body of Elena Ivanovna was badly damaged when her mother was trying to exterminate her in the womb”. Hence the Teacher said: “I am rebuilding your body”.20 On another occasion Elena vividly described the following scene – her mother was lying on the coach looking at the painting of Jesus praying before the Chalice hanging on the wall, while the doctors were trying to talk her out of having the abortion. “Shortly before her death, when she was already insane, the mother of E.I. said a few times: “Just think, Lyolia, they accuse me of having killed my child!”.21 Sina Fosdick in her diary also quoted Elena as saying that “her mother committed an irreparable crime against her”.22 Surprisingly, an intricate allusion to that dramatic episode can be found in the second book of Agni Yoga in a passage reflecting on “mother’s wisdom” at childbirth: Mothers in their wisdom foresee the occult conditions at the birth of a child. The mother’s spirit knows how the enemy tries to harm the new wayfarer. During the transitory time of gestation it is easier to stir the mother’s anger and to fill the home with the dust of discontent. Mothers try wisely to direct their eyes towards the image of saints or to be comforted through the beauty of nature.23 The perinatal trauma, such as an attempted abortion, according to Stanislav Grof, one of the leading psychical researchers of our time, can seriously affect the postnatal life of a newborn child and can become a source of psychotic distortions of spirituality and world perception in his later life. As an adult the individual may have both physical and mental illnesses, such as neuroses of various kind, cardiac distress and palpitation, sweating, chills and flushes, trembling of muscles, etc., precisely the things Elena complained of. The experienced perinatal trauma can also lead to different manifestations of schizophrenia; some schizophrenic patients, for example, can have “episodes of relatively pure ecstatic feelings of communication with God” and other divine beings.24 But if so, this may explain the entire phenomenon of Elena’s invisible “spiritual mentors” who were none other than psychic or mental phantoms. 20 21 22 23 24

E. Lichtmann’s diary, Notebook 1, 140, entry for 10 June 1929. See also entries for 20 May 1929 (Notebook 1, 67) and 21 September 1929 (Notebook 3, 81). E. Lichtmann’s Diary, Notebook 5, entry for 7 April 1930, 71–72. Fosdik 2002, 346, entry for 21 September 1928. Leaves of Morya’s Garden, I: Illumination, I, VI, 8 Grof 1985 (see especially the chapter ‘The Architecture of Emotional Disorder: The Psychotic Experience: Disease or Transpersonal Crisis”, 294–315); see also by the same author:

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The fact that Elena talked about her mother’s attempted abortion several times (!) to Esther suggests that she was haunted by bad memories of her birth trauma and was apparently trying to get rid of them. At the same time she made the best use of her ailing condition she could to elaborate a new-age “synthetic” esoteric doctrine, a bizarre amalgam of various mystical, occult and religious teachings of the past, the newest scientific and para-scientific theories and her own unique “fiery experience”. Elena’s paroxysms triggered a very strange – phantasmic – reality of the “other world” in which she drowned herself completely and ecstatically and which she described allegorically, as an eye-witness, in her special parlance. In this way, through her “fiery pains”, Elena’s best “child” – Agni Yoga – was born. As for Nikolai Roerich, he had lived much of his life under a strong double spell – that of his wife and the Master as one being. To Elena, his Muse and spiritual guide, he owes much of what he accomplished as an artist and public figure. As Shibaev once recalled, Roerich, when working on his new painting, would often pause before the easel, then go upstairs to bring Elena to his studio, and there they would discuss his work together. “Nikolai Konstantinovich profoundly valued and took heed of the slightest counsel Elena Ivanovna gave him. It often happened that she suggested to him a new theme which he would always take up most enthusiastically”.25 Roerich’s paintings, especially from the 1920s – 1940s, properly speaking, are his and his wife’s joint production and some art critics even say that they are essentially illustrations of Elena’s dreams and visions. The biographers speak of Nikolai’s and Elena’s marital union as most harmonious and happy, and it was probably so, although Elena was undoubtedly the leader of the family. The artist submitted himself and his existence wholeheartedly to her superior authority and condition, her feminine genius, and did not find it burdensome. Together they embarked upon their spiritual quest which ultimately led them to the masters of their dreams and their mission as enlighteners of humanity – he, through his artwork, and she, through her Fiery Yoga. And they jointly fashioned their new version of the myth of the Masters, having announced the existence of two Shambhalas – the earthly and the heavenly (cosmic) ones, both inaccessible to ordinary mortals. The myth eventually became their idée fixe, their obsession, and their religion, and the Masters the objects of zealous adoration and veneration, especially Master Morya, the one who “called” and “chose” them.

25

“Birth trauma and its relation to mental illness, suicide and ecstasy”, www.primal-page. com/Grof.htm See: P.F. Belikov’s essay “V Gimalaiakh” in Rerikh, N. 1978, 216.

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Yet the Roerichs not only expanded the framework of the theosophical myth, but also tried hard to put life into it to turn their dreams into reality. Hence they made themselves its principle characters, heralds and forerunners of the coming New Era, whom the Masters entrusted with a special mission of global and even cosmic dimension. To consolidate their occult authority they staged two miracles, in the way Blavatsky had performed her notorious “phénomènes”, – those of a mysterious apparition of the Chintamani magic stone and of the Buddha’s Chalice, as special tokens sent to them by their Masters. The couple apparently wanted to recreate the blissful land of Shambhala upon earth as a Buddho-communist confederation in Central Asia, under the supervision of cosmic hierarchs. Yet their grand project suffered predictably a fiasco, which shows the futility of any attempts to remake our world according to any esoteric or mystical schemes, and ultimately, the non-existence of their Masters. According to Andrei Ignatiev, a Russian researcher in esotericism, it is “the myth of Shambhala, the socio-political utopianism, and the rich artistic legacy (of Nikolai Roerich)” that distinguish Roerichism from other theosophy-derived teachings and make it “the most remarkable and interesting of them all”.26 This myth, also known as the “myth of the mahatmas”, has nothing to do with either India or Tibet and is basically “a fantasy of Western occultists transplanted to Eastern soil. Being closely related to the theosophical concept of evolution, the myth is a direct product of the Age of Modernity with its cult of progress and reason”.27 Curiously, Russian theosophists of the Soviet era earnestly believed that Stalin was an incarnation of Manu, the “progenitor of mankind” (in ­Blavatsky’s definition). Another contemporary Russian scholar, E.V. Shakhmatova, speaks of a “peculiar renaissance of utopian thinking in Russia at the turn of the third millennium”, leading to the revival of the Shambhala myth. This myth is “very dear to Russian consciousness” because it contains “the archetypal elements so popular in the national folklore”. Shambhala symbolizes the traditional (Russian) values, such as spirituality and wisdom, and the emerging of the “saintly protectors” from the catacombs at the end of times, as related in some old myths, embodies the idea of “salvation of the entire humanity”. “Truly, the ‘India of the spirit’ is in the blood of a Russian man”, concludes Shakhmatova.28 Research into Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s biographies reveals, however, a striking ambivalence of their personalities. One certainly cannot but admire Nikolai’s creative energy, resourcefulness and undying optimism, his imagina26 27 28

Ignatiev 2013, 4–5. Ignatiev 2012, 57. Shakhmatova 2013, 142.

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tive power and artistic achievements, his cultural and public work, especially his peace-making initiatives and endeavours to unite nations through Art into a universal brotherhood, as well as the couple’s deep concern about declining culture and the future of civilization. Yet at the same time one cannot fail to notice their less admirable qualities, largely stemming from their mahatmainspired guruism, such as their self-aggrandizement and strongly affected air of mystery and ‘otherworldlyness’; their political naivety and at times questionable scrupulosity as they were ready to collaborate with any political leader who would welcome their globalist schemes, be it Stalin, Mussolini, Roosevelt or Chiang Kai-shek; and, of course, their amazing credulity as they never questioned a single word coming from their Master Morya, even though his many promises and prophecies turned out to be no more than idle dreams. Nikolai Roerich’s “practical idealism” worked fine up to a certain critical point in 1935 when everything he had created hitherto, his nascent wonderful realm of Art and Culture, began to collapse all too quickly. The only thing which remained unshakable was his and Elena’s faith in their ethereal Masters, no matter if they failed to make our world a better place to live in. But what about the great relics received by the Roerichs from the Masters – the Black Stone and the Chalice of the Buddha? In the early 1990s, Sviatoslav Roerich, when meeting with Liudmila Shaposhnikova, the head of the International Roerich Center in Moscow, showed her the Stone which she described as “a little fragment of a meteorite, of dark color with a metallic sheen”.29 Does it mean then that one of the sacred items was passed by Sviatoslav, their last possessor, to the Roerichs’ spiritual heir, not long before his death? It could well be, though no one, not even the Roerichites whom I asked this question, knows for certain. It is a mystery and may remain as such for years to come, sustaining the myth of the Masters and of the Roerichs, their “messengers” and “co-workers”. As for the Chalice of the Buddha, it unexpectedly came into the hands of the Bangalore police together with many other valuables of Sviatoslav and Devika Rani in the summer of 1994 in the course of the police investigation of the ­alleged fraud of Mary J. Punacha, the couple’s long-time housekeeper and ­Sviatoslav’s secretary.30 Its present whereabouts are unknown though one can presume it still remains in India, the country where it belongs.

…

29

30

L.V. Shaposhnikova, “Istoricheskii protsess kak kosmicheskoe iavlenie”, in Shaposhnikova 1996, 331. The Casket and the box in which it was enclosed, though not the Stone, were reproduced by Shaposhnikova in her other book; see Shaposhnikova 1995, 90. The fact was reported by Moskovskii Komsomolets, 10 August 1994, in a piece by Natalia Dardykina “Afferistka Mary i dragotsennosti Rerikhiov”.

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In conclusion, it may do well to ask now – how valuable is Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s legacy? Or to put it in other words, how lasting contribution have they made to the Russian and world culture? Why are they still important to us today? After reading about their unusual lives and activities in this book, the reader may begin to discern some answers to these questions. The elder Roerichs – as well as their talented sons, the scholar Yuri and the artist and planter Sviatoslav – left their mark in several areas of modern art and culture. Nikolai Roerich is best remembered today for his paintings and stage decorations, lavish in color and imbued with epic history, folklore, his emotions, thoughts and mystic symbols alluding to his Shambhala prophesy31; as well as for his public work which culminated in his Peace Pact and his essays highlighting the importance of “the culture of the spirit”. Less well known to the public are his strenuous efforts toward creating a new social order, his great Utopia conceived on the model of the mythical Shambhala. In the opinion of V. Rosov, Roerich has surpassed in this respect the famed Italian philosopher Tommaso Campanella – while Campanella cherished his bold dream of the ‘City of the Sun’ (La Città del Sole), the Russian artist dreamt of “something bigger and greater – the Country of the Sun” to appear within the vast expanses of Asia.32 As for Elena Roerich, her main contribution was undoubtedly her Agni Yoga, an attempt to create a universal religion and prove the existence of “other worlds” as well as her revelations of the Masters and their cosmic hierarchy. The Roerichs, ambitious, provocative and enigmatic, survived well into the 21st century with their unusual ideas, visions and symbols. Although the famous Roerich institutions are no more at their original sites, there is the Center for Peace through Culture (CPC), a non-profit organization to promote global peace based on the philosophy of N. Roerich, active in New York, with branches in other American cities and Toronto (Canada); there are also several museums named after N. Roerich, the two best known being the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York and its Russian counterpart in Moscow, a Roerich research center in St Petersburg (‘Museum-Institute of the family of Roerichs’), a great number of Roerichite societies, as well as groups of Agni Yoga practitioners – in Russia and throughout the world. Finally, there are some Roerich-related sites, such as the Roerich Garden (Le Jardin Roerich) at Mile-End, St-Viateur, Montreal (Canada) with its special “red clover and bee balm in the shape of a 20-foot 31

32

N. Roerich produced over 7000 paintings during his lifetime. These are preserved in the Tretiakov Gallery, the State Museum of the East, the N.K. Roerich Museum (Moscow), the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the State Art Museum (Nizhnii Novgorod), the N. Roerich Museum, New York, and in various private collections. Rosov 2002a, 220.

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wide Roerich symbol” (the Symbol of Unity), designed by a landscape artist, Emily Rose Michaud; and the Kambanite Bells (“Banner of Peace” Monument) in Sofia (Bulgaria) which contains bells from all over the world. The monument is dedicated to the well-being and happiness of children. All this can be seen as a manifestation of the one spiritual ‘Realm of Roerich’ (Derzhava Rerikha), which extends across the globe – and even rises into heavens. Thus there are mountain peaks bearing the names of Nikolai, Elena, Yuri and Sviatoslav in the northern spur of the Katun Range in the Altai; two glaciers named for Nikolai and Sviatoslav and two passes named for Nikolai and Elena in the Kirghiz Range in the Tien Shan. And the artist stepped farther into the cosmos as his Peace Banner was flown into space by the shuttle Columbia and displayed aboard the Mir International Space Station, and, on top of that, his name was also given to asteroid 160 (planetoid # 4426) discovered by the Crimean Observatory in 1969. At the same time, on the earthly plane, the ideas of the Roerich couple stirred up a popular movement in the USSR in the perestroika epoch, in the late 1980s, commonly known as the Roerich movement. It gained momentum in the following decade, having become quite a peculiar phenomenon in the variegated cultural atmosphere of post-Soviet Russia, with the International Roerich Center (Mezhdunarodnii Tsentr Rerikhov – MTsR) in Moscow acting as its intellectual headquarters. The main objective of the movement, tacitly acknowledged by its leaders and ideologues, has been to make the Roerichs’ teaching with its underlying neo-mythology an ideological substitute for the collapsed communist doctrine in the revived new Russia, something Nikolai and Elena Roerich dreamt about in the 1920s. For this purpose and to keep up with the times, the overtly religious elements of Agni Yoga have been strongly denied or played down, while emphasis was placed on the teaching’s cosmic, philosophical and ethical aspects. The adherents of the movement, the so-called Rerikhovtsy (Roe­ richites), therefore refer now to their gospel not as Agni Yoga, but as the “Living Ethics” (Zhivaia Etika), in contrast to the Christian “Dead Ethics”, to emphasize its purely ethical – non-religious – character. (And this despite the fact that Agni Yoga was originally conceived by the Roerichs as a universal religion and named “the religion of Spirit-understanding”.) Roerich groups and societies can be also found today in neighboring Ukraine, Belorussia, Armenia, Kirghizia, and the Baltic republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. These entities are engaged mainly in the active dissemination of Nikolai and Elena Roerich’s ideas, although they do not constitute a centralized network and are working largely independently of each other. Moreover, some of them have their own conception of Agni Yoga. The movement as such remains scattered and spontaneous, with the Roerich Center trying to play the leading

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role as its driving force and public mouthpiece. It produces a huge amount of Roerichiana: books by Nikolai and Elena Roerich; Elena’s correspondence with coworkers; the Agni Yoga texts; albums and postcards representing Nikolai’s painting; and, of course, the abundant exegetic literature produced by Roerich scholars (Rerichovedi) who are in most cases Roerich admirers and believers. Also the IRC (MTsR) puts up artistic exhibitions and regularly stages conferences devoted to the Roerichs, with a view to popularizing the new ideology worldwide. Outwardly activists of the Roerich movement look very much like religious zealots or militant early Bolshevik propagandists who are intent on “enlightening” their countrymen and the whole world with the noble truths of Agni Yoga. Therefore no criticism of either the Roerichs or their teachings is tolerated, and the critics are usually accused of defamation and their names put on the IRC’s ‘black list’,33 something which does not go well with the Center’s enthusiastic preaching of new “cosmic mentality”. It is no secret to anybody in Russia today that these extraordinary activities of the Roerich Centre became possible only due to the lavish sponsorship of one of the new Russia’s financial tycoons, Boris Ilyich Bulochnik, president of the Master-Bank in Moscow, the name of which and logo – the triangular shaped three orbs with the letters “M” and “b” in the middle – indicate its adherence to the Roerich movement. Very few people who see the logo for the first time realize that the capital M stands for Master Morya, Mme Blavatsky’s and the Roerichs’ teacher from the Neverland. (When the book was finished, a most sensational news item rocked the mass media in Russia: On the 20th of November, 2013, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation ordered the head office of the Master Bank to be shut down, revoking its license for its many financial transgressions, such as money laundering and serving the shadow sector of Russia’s economy!) In the opinion of contemporary researchers R.N. Lunkin and S.B. Filatov, the Roerich movement is a “unique Russian religious phenomenon” which combines keen interest in the Orient, Soviet ideals, the para-religious elements of the New Age, stereotypes of mass consciousness, as well as religious veneration of culture and of the movement’s most outstanding figures, Nikolai and Elena Roerich themselves. Being “a powerful all-Russian movement”, it constitutes “a new form of mass spirituality”. It is closely akin to the New Age movement in the West, yet the “world of the Roerichs is much more distinctive and original, being inculcated in the national soil”.34 33 34

See the IRC’s electronic library: www.lib.icr.su/node/444 Mifi i Fakty 2011, 235–236.

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The prospects of the Roerich movement seem to be good enough as long as the post-Soviet occult revival in Russia continues and ezoterika retains its grip on the minds of people. There is still a high demand for Agni Yoga with seekers of esoteric knowledge largely thanks to the IRC (MTsR) activities. The Center is also trying hard to popularize the newest theory of “cosmic evolution” (the “philosophy of cosmic reality”) elaborated by its first Vice-President, now director of the Roerich Museum, L.V. Shaposhnikova. One of the fundamental tenets of the theory is that the physical cosmos as we know it makes only one part of the Universe, the Big Cosmos, while there remain the unseen and unexplored “other” worlds testified by Agni Yoga. Elena Roerich’s doctrine expanded the framework of traditional rationalistic science by including elements of a new knowledge of “subtle realities” unknown to modern – too materialisticallyminded – scientists. This new system of knowledge as epitomized in Agni Yoga Shaposhnikova called super-science or meta-science, being a fusion of science and the occult. Moreover, Elena Roerich, claims Shaposhnikova, took part in an unprecedented “cosmic experiment” staged by the Masters to prepare humans for the forthcoming transition to a higher level of evolution with its new “cosmic consciousness”.35 All this sounds highly intriguing, yet a serious problem remains – that unknown part of the universe (the so-called “Subtle World”) described by Elena Roerich looks too fantastic, too dreamlike, and too good to be true. If that “other” cosmos does really exist, it can hardly be the grotesque picture depicted by Elena Roerich and other esoteric writers of the twentieth century. At the bottom of Shaposhnikova’s new theory, as is easy to see, lies the same myth of the Masters which she, posing as the Roerichs’ true heir, rehashed by coloring it with more details of her own making and some philosophic reflections, as evidenced by her interpretation of Elena’ fateful meetings with the Masters. “The Teachers of humanity” (Uchitelia chelovechestva) are “subjects of real history”, asserts categorically Shaposhnikova; they have always existed and guided, up to the present time, the human evolution. So the myth of the Masters is likely to retain its popularity in the near future along with other popular myths as there are always people ready to believe anything, the more incredible the better! Yet Agni Yoga is not a scripture – it is open to public discourse and interpretation which seriously affects the Roerich movement and erodes the authority of the MTsR. As American researcher John McCannon justly remarks, “various and sometimes radically different strains of Agni Yoga exist throughout Russia and the regions neighbouring it, some outright hostile to the MTsR and many 35

See Shaposhnikova 2008.

Inquiring Into The Phenomenon Of The Roerichs’ Masters

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feeling no need to pay allegiance to it. Especially now, in an era so enormously shaped by information and social-networking technology, diversity and individualized syncretism appear to be the wave of the future for Roerichism, as for most New Age systems of belief”. So it is not clear “which conception of Agni Yoga will prove dominant in the end. Will Russophilia win out over universalism, or vice versa? Or will the coexistence of both continue?”. One thing seems certain, however: “Unfortunately for [Roerich], the probability that a true and single church of Agni Yoga will ever materialize in Russia remains just as remote now as it did in his and Helena’s lifetimes”.36 Most of all, contemporary Russians are attracted to the couple’s idealistic aspirations – the beautiful visionary world depicted in Nikolai’s panoramic paintings and Elena’s cosmic musings and especially her intriguing tale of the Masters. The Roerichs’ appeal is all the greater because of the sharp contrast presented by today’s capitalist Russia, seized by the spirit of profiteering, consumerism and violence, and the Roerichs’ dreamland, their Buddho-communist social Utopia. It is easy to understand then the cultish veneration of the Roerichs as “spiritual beacons” in the epoch of decline of culture and spirituality such as ours. The visions of these dreamers of a better world, of the “fiery” new race of humanity and the earthly Shambhala may seem fanciful, extravagant, and naïve, yet they stay alive and vibrant in the minds of people today; they are “cementing the space” for the future, as the Roerichs used to say. And this seems to be the main outcome of Elena’s and Nikolai’s exquisite occult work of many years which their invisible Master once praised with the following words: “If you affirm the World’s greatest dream, your heroic deed (podvig) will shine above My Land”. 36

McCannon 2012, 369.

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Epilogue

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color plates

plate 1

N. Roerich: The Treasure of the Angels, 1905, Private collection, London

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_024

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plate 2

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N. Roerich: Burning of Darkness ( from ‘His Country’ series), 1924, fragment, NRM archive

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plate 3

N. Roerich: The Chintamani Stone, 1924, fragment, NRM archive

482

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plate 4

“The Order of the All-Conquering Buddha” (1926), designed by N. Roerich. NRM archive

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plate 5

N. Roerich: The Great Rider, 1927. Museum of Fine Arts, Ulan-Bator, Mongolia.

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N. Roerich: Tibet, 1920s – 1930s, NRM archive

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plate 7

N. Roerich. Zvenigorod, 1920 – 1930s, NRM archive

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plate 8

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N. Roerich: Star of the Morning, 1932, NRM archive

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plate 9

N. Roerich: The Order of Rigden Japo, 1933, NRM archive

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plate 10

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N. Roerich: Tangla. The Song about Shambhala, 1943, The State Museum of THE EAST, Moscow

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plate 11

Sv. Roerich. Portrait of Nikolai Roerich, 1933, NRM archive

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Index

Index

491

Index Abhedananda, Swami  50 Abyssinia, see Ethiopia Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg  4, 5, 32, 424, 433 Achair-Gryzov, see Gryzov, A.A. Adyar  66, 70, 71, 104-108, 110, 116, 160, 202 Afghanistan  246, 252, 303, 372 Agharti  174 Akbar (the Great), Mogul Emperor  87, 127, 136, 164, 190, 210, 231, 240 Alatas  157, 185, 196, 413 Alatyr’  157, 371, 388, 390 Alexander of Macedonia (the Great)  127, 180, 209, 323 Aldrich, Winthrop  390 Allal-Ming  85-91, 93-95, 98, 101, 297, 423, 443, 446 Altai  9, 129, 134, 137, 147, 153, 157, 160-162, 185, 193, 194, 196, 197, 202, 205, 231, 235, 249, 251, 253-255, 258, 303, 313, 314, 350, 454 Altaian Sisters (cooperative)  157, 190 America, see USA American Relief Administration (ARA)  194 American-Russian Cultural Association (ARCA)  429 AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis)  367, 387 Amtorg  194, 433 Amursana  287 Andreyev, Leonid  58, 59, 62, 64, 187 Andrews, Roy Chapman  366 Annenkov, B.V., Ataman  163 Antokolskii, Leon  6 Apollonius of Tyana  183 Argentina  338 Armageddon, see Shambhala War Arsuna Gallery  422 Ashram (of the mahatmas), see Himalayan Brotherhood Astakhov, G.A.  198-201, 212, 219 Atlantis  98, 101 Aurobindo Ghosh  103, 104, 111, 166, 221 Avinov, Andrey  84

Bacot, Jacques  320 Bailey, F.M.  169, 172, 301, 302, 307-311, 313, 327, 349 Balagat theocratic movement  269 Bangalore  432, 438, 439 Bankers Trust, Paris  134-136, 142 Barchenko, A.V.  246 Barga  271, 384-386, 397 Belgium  341 Bellows, George  81 Belovodie (Land of White Waters)  147, 252, 253, 342 Beluha Corporation  157, 185, 186, 188, 196, 201, 202, 249, 313, 413 Beluha Mount  160, 254, 386, 388 Benares  109, 164, 165 Bennett, James C.  320 Benois, Alexander  4, 17, 32, 42-44, 50 Berberova, Nina  48 Berlin, Efim  276, 431 Bernard, Theos  431 Besant, Annie  72, 74, 104-108 Bhutan  223 Bilibin, Ivan  32, 424 Black Stone, see Chintamani Stone Blavatsky, Helena (Elena, H.P.B.)  xix-xxix, 42, 53, 55, 65, 68, 89, 98, 101, 103, 106, 167, 180, 202, 416, 441-446, 451 writings Isis Unveiled, The Secret Doctrine, xix, xxii, xxiii, xxviii, 49, 118, 317, 320, 446 The Caves and Jungles of Hindustan, 85 Bliumkin, Yakov  246, 265, 281 Bloom, Saul  332 Blumenthal, Janis  426 Bogdanova, Liudmila (Mila)  259, 276, 323, 324, 327, 345, 426, 437, 438 Bogdanova, Raisa (Raia)  259, 323, 324, 327, 399, 400, 426, 437, 438 Bogdo-Gegen, see Jebzun Damba Khutuktu Bokii, Gleb  246, 278 Böklin, Arnold  38 Bolling, Balthazar  437 Bolm, Adolf  79 Borah, William  333

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/9789004270435_025

492 Borisov, S.S.  201 Borodin, A.P.  7, 63 Borodin, Dmitry Nikolaevich (Uncle Boris)  98, 144, 192-195, 198, 201, 202, 212 Bose, Jagadish Chandra  165, 320 Bose Sen  166 Bossom, Alfred  346 Bray, Denys, Sir  318, 319, 327 Brazil  338 Brinton, Christian  77, 78 Britain, see England Buchanan, George  64 Buchanan, Georgina  64 Buddhist chapel (at the Roerich Museum)  280 Buddhist temple at St. Petersburg  29, 53, 288, 301, 393, 426 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward  169 Burhan Bulat  223, 240 Buryat-Mongolia (Buryatia)  242, 254, 257, 267, 269, 271, 425 Bystrov, Alexandre Efimovich  227-232, 235 Byzantium  53 Cagliostro, Count  xxix, 247, 249 Caldwell, Erskine  429 Campbell-Stibbe, Catherine  317, 422, 437 Canada  194, 354 Canton  236, 237 Carlyle, Thomas  8 Carnegie Foundation  333 Castle, William Richards  346, 347 Catherine the Great  53 Cervantes  8 Ceylon  xxii, 66, 213, 219 Chahar Province  388, 395, 396 Chalice of the Buddha  88, 226, 258, 399401, 451, 452 Chiang Kai-shek  236, 254, 371, 376, 388, 390, 394, 395, 452 Changtang  187, 296, 299, 300, 302, 306, 307, 309, 311, 314, 316 Chang Tso-lin  236, 237, 245, 263, 264 Chapchaev, Arashi  243, 285, 295, 299, 308, 310, 312 Chaplin, Charley  429

Index Chaptal de Chanteloup, Emmanuel  341 Chatterji, Suniti Kumar  65, 73 Chicherin, Georgii  197, 200, 201, 211, 212, 219-222, 226-229, 232, 235, 237-239, 241246, 249, 254, 262, 263, 265, 277 Chile  338 Chimpa (Jimpa)  295, 296, 303 Chinggis Khan  11, 87, 244, 272, 358, 395 China  24, 87, 102, 160, 187, 212, 221, 223, 236, 237, 241, 246, passim Chinese Eastern Railroad (KVZhD)  102, 188, 381, 382 Chinese Turkestan, see Xinjiang Chintamani (Stone of Orion)  28, 88, 126143, 169, 197, 290, 297, 307, 358, 400, 451, 452 Chistiakov, P.A.  102, 121, 183 Cholden, Lobzang  261, 295 Chunargen  299, 302, 303, 309, 312 Churaevka village  358 Chustvin, M.N.  392 Clark, Eliot  366 Cocteau, Jean  137, 138 Comintern  194, 195, 201, 235, 310, 351 Confucius  173 Constantine the Great  133, 134 Cooper, Emil  429 Cor Ardens  80, 88, 98, 104 Corbett, Harvey Wiley  329 Cormon, Fernand  5, 20 Corona Mundi Art Center, New York  81, 92, 97, 100, 101, 110, 120, 121, 157, 190, 245, 248, 316, 329, 336, 367, 379 Courland  1, 3 Crane, Charles R.  102, 207, 320, 328, 346, 424, 429 Czechoslovakia  346, 422 Dabo, Leon  366, 368 Dalai Lama the 5th (the Fifth Great Dalai Lama)  87, 176, 243, 279, 281, 297, 332 the 13th  29, 104, 163, 168, 199-201, 208, 221, 232, 237, 242-244, 261, 262, 265, 274, 279, 280, 290, 291, 295-299, 301, 303-305, 309, 310, 318, 357, 431 the 14th  431 Dambijantsan, see Ja-Lama

Index Das, Sarat Chandra  xxviii, 127, 172 David, Néel, Alexandra  171, 87, 188 Da Vinci, Leonardo  7, 101 Debey  91, 121, 123, 143, 146, 196 Debussy, Claude  62 Deriuzhinskii, Gleb (G.V.)  77, 84, 86 Devika Rani Chaudhuri  432, 438, 439, 452 Diagilev, Sergei  17, 29, 32, 63, 79, 137 Dickson, Vladimir  93, 94 Djual Kul  xxv, 295, 316 Dolan, Brooke  431 Don Quixote  7, 8 Dorzhiev, Agvan  29, 228, 242, 243, 268, 274, 275, 295 Doumergue, Gaston  346 Ducaud-Bourget, Fr.  138 Dukelsky, Vladimir (Vernon Duke)  109 Dumpis, M.F  225, 229, 235 Dutov, A.I., Ataman  58, 140 Dzerzhinskii, Felix  246, 250 Egypt  xxi, xxiii, 51, 143, 202, 223 Einstein, Albert  320, 368 England (Great Britain)  xxix, 59, 63, 64, 66, 90, 101, 106, 111, 118, 199, 200, 237, 275, 351, 404, 418, 423 Erbanov, M.N.  243 Eschenbach, Wolfram, von  27 Estonia  35, 158 Ethiopia (Abyssinia)  250, 251 Everest Expedition  199 Evraziistvo (Eurasian movement)  152 Fa-Hsien (Fa-Hian)  226, 401 Fatehpur Sikri  164, 190 Feng Yu-hsiang  236, 237, 254, 263, 264, 283, 292 Filchner, Wilhelm  296 Finland  26, 56-61, 64, 77, 78, 93 Fiveisky, M.M.  341 Flamma  422 Flammarion, Camille  50, 51 Fokin, Mikhail  62, 81 Ford, Henry  153, 157, 196 Ford Motor Company  197 Foreign Office, London  344-348 Foreign Office, Tokyo  379, 384, 388 Fosdick, Dudley  422, 440

493 Fosdick, Eugene  422 Fosdick, Jeanette  422 Fosdick, Z.G. (Sina), see Lichtmann, Sina France  1, 5, 59, 101, 110, 113, 122, 124, 125, 156, 194, 337, 338, 346, 351, 352, 355, 360, 372, 373, 432, 448 Frazer, Robert  320, 351 French Society of N. Roerich  340, 341, 368 Frichie, Ingeborg (Inge)  422, 437 Gabet, Joseph  xxiv Gandhi, Indira  430 Gandhi, Mohandas K., Mahatma  107, 221, 351, 430, 435 Gangtok  301, 307, 309, 310, 313, 327 Garrels, Arthur  380 Gartner, Clyde  422 Gauguin, Paul  30 George V, King of Britain  336 Germany  37, 81, 111, 133, 162, 337, 418, 428 Gernet, Nina  48 Gesar Khan (Gesar of Link)  187, 188, 213, 215, 307, 358 Geshe Rimpoche  169, 202, 204, 442 Gessen, J.V.  66 Ghadr Parti (in the U.S.A.)  244, 245 Ghum monastery  xxvii, 178-184, 202, 220, 318, 322 Gillan, Major  224, 225 Glavcontseskom, see Main Concession Committee Glinka  7 Gobi  207, 284-288, 369, 371, 389, 395 Golenistchev-Kutuzov, Pr., see Kutuzov, M.I. Gollerbach, Erich  248, 249, 313 Golovin, A.Y.  34 Golovin, N.N.  373, 374 Golubev, V.V.  53, 54 Golubin, Alexandre  277, 288, 310 Gordeev, Taras Feodorovich  384, 385 Gorkii, Maxim  38, 76, 241 Gould, Basil  431 Grabar’, Igor  9, 25, 33, 42, 43, 222, 246, 247, 250, 251, 433 Grammatchikov, N.V.  392 Grand Duke Mikhail  163 Grand Lodge of France, see Lodge of the Grand Orient of France

494 Grant, Frances Ruth  78, 79, 81-83, 85, 95, 96, 120, 127, 196, 315-322, 334, 338, 370, 408, 411, 414-416, 418, 421 Great Mongolia  235, 244, 271, 273, 275, 388 Great White Lodge (Brotherhood), see Himalayan Brotherhood Grebenshchikov, Georgii Dmitrievich  137, 147, 149, 157, 190, 196, 197, 205, 342, 358 Grebenshchikova, Tatiana Denisovna  147, 190 Grew, J.C.  380 Gribanovskii, V.I.  384, 392 Grof, Stanislav  449 Grüber, Johannes  176 Gryzov, A.A. (Achair)  372, 382 Guid de, Marquis  353 Gulab-Singh (Gulab-Lal-Singh)  85, 238, 441, 442 Gupta, Kedarnath Das  74 Gurjiev, G.I.  118, 148 Gusev, A.V.  432, 433 Gyantse  305, 308, 317 Hall Estate  324, 325, 327, 328, 345, 355, 359, 363, 365 Hall, Manly Palmer  366 Hailar (Hulunbuir)  384, 385 Harbin  102, 103, 121, 310, 371, 373, 377, 380388, 404, 424, 438 Harding, Warren G.  194 Harshe, Robert  75-77 Hayashi, Senjuro, Gen.  378, 379 Hedin, Sven  222, 224, 390 Heidok, Alfred  381, 382 Hemis (Himis) monastery  213, 215 Helsingfors (Helsinki)  62, 63 Hemingway, Ernest  429 Herriot, Edouard  338 Hille, Hermann, Dr  90, 91, 137 Himalayan Brotherhood (Great White Brotherhood, Ashram, Abode of Light) xxiv, xxv, 12, 46, 53, 66, 69, 70, 72, 83, 86, 97, 101, 127, 128, 142, 143, 160, 161, 167, 171, 180, 192, 197, 200, 207, 208, 283, 295-297, 303, 307, 315, 316, 362, 439, 440, 444, 445 Hiuen-Tsiang (Xuanzang)  401 Hodgson, B.N.  xxii, 53 Holdich, Thomas  171

Index Holkar, Yashvantrao  430 Holy Grail  27, 121, 128 Hoover, Herbert  193, 194, 332, 333, 336 Horch (Levi), Louis L.  78, 79, 81-83, 85, 88, 95, 101, 109, 118, 125, 127, 129, 134, 143, 147, 158, 186, 189, 196, 201, 261, 280, 313, 314, 319, 320, 332, 334, 335, 346, 347, 365-368, 370, 374, 390, 395, 401, 403, 406-416, 419, 421, 422, 432, 433, 437 Horch, Nettie  78, 81-83, 85, 95, 96, 118, 121, 125, 127, 129, 143, 189, 190, 196, 280, 345, 349, 367, 407-409, 414-416 Hornbeck, Stanly  40 Howell, E.B.  357 Hsinking  383 Huc, Evarist  xxiv Hull, Cordell  380 Ibsen, Henrik  62 Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Art, St. Petersburg  9, 19, 23, 26, 31, 33, 57 Indian-Russian Cultural Association (IRCA)  429 Inner Mongolia  257, 262-264, 271, 369, 384, 388-390, 392-395, 397 International Roerich Center (IRC, MTsR), Moscow  438, 452, 454, 455 Irwin, Lord, Viceroy of India  318, 319, 327, 349, 351, 354, 355 Italy  xxix, 101, 125, 126 Ivanov, V.F.  387, 424 Ivanovskii, L.K.  5 Izvara estate  52, 53 Jagadish Chandra Bose  166 Jahangir, Emperor  210 Jakobson, Roman, Prof.  429 Ja-Lama  285-287 Japan  xxi, 105, 208, 252, 262, 263, 275, 303, 371-374, 377, 378, 404, 405, 418, 426 Jeanne d’Arc  358 Jebzun Damba Khutuktu, Grand Lama of Mongolia  149, 183, 236, 244, 256, 271, 272, 285 Jinarajadasa, C.  65, 105, 107 Johnson, Paul K.  xxviii, xxix, 441, 442 Jouveau-Dubreuil, G.  356

Index Kalachakra  29, 257, 268, 288 Kamenev, L.B.  246 Kamenskaia, Anna  40, 48, 60 Kanchenjunga  53, 167, 174, 183 Kansas Project  389, 390 Karakhan, L.M.  220 Karashar  226, 227, 258, 393 Karelia  38, 56, 77 Karsavin, L.P.  152 Kashag  309, 423 Kashgar  205, 225, 226, 229, 235, 248 Kashmir  126, 198, 205, 207, 208-211, 214, 350, 355 Kawaguchi, Ekai  187 Kazakhstan  157, 233 Kellogg, Frank Billings  338, 340 Kellogg, Howard  192, 196 Kellogg, Spencer  192 Kellogg-Briand Pact  337, 339 Keng, Y.L., Dr.  390, 397 Kent, Rockwell  81, 429 Kerber, Doris  422 Khorvat, D.L.  390 Khotan  198, 205, 208, 211, 222-227, 235, 240, 266 Kirill (Cyril) Vladimirovich, Grand Duke  152 Kitagawa, Shikazo  379, 384, 385 Koelz, Walter, Dr.  334, 353, 356, 359-363 Kolchak, A.V., Admiral  90, 373 Koot Hoomi Lal Singh  xxv, xxvii, xxix, 68-70, 85, 95, 101, 416, 442 Kordashevsky, Nikolai Viktorovich  147, 148, 160, 244, 277, 287, 288, 294, 296, 299, 300, 302, 305-307, 310 Korea  205, 378, 379 Kostin, Anatolii Andreyevich  384 Koussevitzky, Serge, Dr.  429 Kozlov, Petr Kuz’mich  224, 256, 260, 281 Krasin, Leonid Borisovich  189, 194, 201, 202, 219 Krasnov, Petr  162, 163 Krestinskii, Nikolai Nikolaevich  197-201, 212 Krishnamurti (Krishna), Jiddu  103, 105109, 112, 113, 115, 120, 202, 442 Kryzhanovsky-Rochester, Vera  84 Kuindzhi, Arkhip Ivanovich  5, 37 Kukunor  275, 389, 394, 397 Kulu (Kuluta), Valley of  315, 323-325, 334, 347, 350, 351, passim

495 Kumbum monastery  289, 292, 376, 391 Kuomingtang  236, 245 Kusho Kapshopa  298-300 Kusho Khenchung  308 Kusho Kungshar  237 Kusho (of) Doring  168, 301 Kutuzov, Mikhail Illarionovich  11, 40 Kyelang Pass  345, 351, 352, 356 Kyoto  372, 374 Ladakh  xxiii, xxvii, 103, 198, 205, 208, 209, 211, 213, 214, 216, 217, 222, 223, 233, 235, 263, 266, 296 Laden La  318 Lanman, Charles  109, 320, 347 Lapeyre, Dr  125, 353, 355, 448 Larsen, F.  392 Lattimore, Owen  390 Latvia  1, 2, 39, 65, 110, 158, 417, 426, 439 Leadbeater, Charles  xxv, 89, 105, 107 League of Nations  339, 366, 377 Leh  198, 208, 211, 213-215, 222, 315, 350 Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich  94, 103, 151, 154, 159, 162, 185-187, 189, 192, 211-213, 226, 227, 229, 230, 239-241, 245-247, 265, 267, 269, 347, 358 Lhasa  xxiv, 104, 163, 168, 176, 187, 201, 208, 209, 216, 232, 237, 243, 244, 255, 261, 276, 281, 283, 285, 287, 290, 291, 296, 297, 299, 301-303, 305, 309, 310, 312, 314, 318, 334, 431 Lichtmann Esther (Jenta)  12, 23, 40-42, 56, 57, 81, 85, 95, 96, 102, 126, 143, 144, 171, 189-191, 241, 280, 324, 327, 328, 345, 349, 351, 354, 356, 362-366, 399, 401, 405-409, 411, 415, 416, 447, 448, 450 Maurice (Nutsia) Moiseevich  78, 80, 81, 85, 95, 96, 108, 162, 186, 189, 191-193, 196198, 201, 246, 249, 253, 255, 277-279, 281, 296, 408, 411, 414, 416, 422 Zinaida (Zina, Sina) Grigorievna  12, 36, 68, 73, 78-81, 85, 92, 95-97, 106, 108, 121, 123, 134, 143, 187, 189-194, 196, 201, 213, 246, 249, 250, 253, 255, 260, 277-279, 281, 315-322, 334-336, 338, 366, 407-409, 411, 414, 416, 422, 424, 429, 433, 437, 439, 440, 446, 448

496 Lincoln  101 Lindsay, Ronald C.  347, 348, 418 Lloyd-George, David  64, 90 Lodge of the Grand Orient of France  156, 246 Lodge of Morya, Riga  110, 146 Lonchen Yabshi Kung  301 London  xxii, xxvi, xxvii, 32, 63-65, 68-70, 72, 73, 91, 99, 107, 184, 230, 308, 344-346, passim Longfellow  101 Lossky, M-me  20, 44, 45 Lossky, Nikolai  40, 45 Lozina-Lozinsky, Konstantin, Konstantino­ vich  352-356, 359, 360, 423 Lukin, Garold  426 Lunacharskii Anatoly  151, 186, 187, 212, 241, 246, 247 MacDonald, Ramsay  338 MacMillan, Howard G.  370, 377, 382-386 Maeterlinck, Maurice  62, 88, 101, 394 Maharaja of Mandi  323, 324, 357 Mahatma Letters  28, 188, 278 mahatmas  xxi, xxiii-xxix, 17, 40, 66, 68-71, 85, 95, 97, 173, 182, 200, passim identification of  441-443 see also Morya, Koot Hoomi, Himalayan Brotherhood, Chintamani Mahon, A.E., Col.  363, 364 Maikov, Apollon  20 Main Concession Committee (Glavcontseskom), Moscow  186, 189, 194, 201, 247, 249, 313 Maitreya Sangha  213, 231, 289, 292, 370 Makovsky, S.K.  30, 31, 140 Manchuria, Manchukuo  58, 102, 188, 175, 369-375, 377-383, 386-389, 396, 405, 406 Manziarly, Iolanta (Io)  11, 113 Manziarly, Irma (Irene) Vladimirovna  60, 105, 110-112, 114, 116, 207 Manziarly, Marcelle (Mara)  11-114, 124126, 139, 207, 317 Manziarly, Marie (Mima)  111 Marchal Feng, see Feng Yu-hsian Marshall, John H., Sir  327 Marx, Karl  154, 230, 267, 347 Masaryk, Thomas  207, 346, 422

Index Master Building, New York  280, 281, 322, 329, 334, 336, 366-368, 413 Master Institute (School) of United Arts, New York  80, 83, 97, 101, 108, 1144, 120, 134, 157, 190, 329-332, 335, 341, 379, 413, 415 Master School, see Master Institute of United Arts McCannon, John  424, 456 McGovern, William  171, 172 Mehra, Parshotam  376 Meister Eckhart  94 Mel’nikov, B.N.  265, 277, 278 Merrill, F.D., Dr.  362 Metal’nikov, Sergei  40 Metropolitan Museum  92, 137 Michelangelo  101 Millikan, Robert A.  320 Minaev, Ivan Pavlovich  52 Mingyur, lama (Lozang Mingyur Dorje)  202, 359, 360 Mir Iskusstva  17, 32, 34, 100, 423, 424 Mitusov, Stepan  58, 121, 160, 186, 187, 247 Moiseev, A.Ya.  392 Molotov, V.M.  241 Mongolia (Mongolian People’s Republic, MPR, Outer Mongolia, New Mongolia)  xix, 58, 110, 144, 148, 149, 152, 191, 204, 205, passim Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party 264, 265 Mongolian Scientific Committee (Uchkom)  260, 261 Moravian mission  218 Morgan, J.P.  53 Mordken, Mikhail  81, 366 Moru-ling monastery  169, 176, 208 Morya (Mahatma / Master)  xxv-xxvii, xxix, 12, 68, 71, 85, 87, 88, 92, 95, 97, 98, 101-104, 108, 109, passim identification of  441-443 Moses  40, 95, 161, 173 Mukden  237, 245, 263, 264, 277, 295, 317 Mukerji, Dhan Gopal  245 Muromtsev, Semion E.  84, 89, 102 Muromtseva, Ksenia (Sana)  84, 89, 102 Mussolini, Benito  336, 353, 452

Index Nagarjuna  173, 210 Nagchu (Nagchuka), Nagchu-dzong  296299, 301-303, 305, 309, 311, 312 Naggar  323, 325, 328, 333, 345, 351, 353, 354, 356-358, 361, 363, 399, 401, 416, 423, 435 Nansen, Fridtjof  61, 158 Napoleon Bonaparte  11, 128, 136, 137, 180, 403 Narkomindel  228, 262, 265, 274, 277, 283, 426 Narkompros  247 Nehru, Jawaharlal  430 Nelidova-Fiveisky, Lydia  341 Newberger, Sidney  415 New Country (New Russia)  150, 153, 156, 158, 162, 191, 192, 197, 275, 276, 303, 374, 389, 400 New Economic Policy, NEP  90, 150, 151, 186 New Mexico  79, 333 New Syndicate  157, 413 New York  xxi-xxiii, xxvi, xxvii, 76, 77, 80, 83-85, 90, 93-95, 98, 100, 111, 113, 114, passim Nicholas II  28, 36, 152, 162, 393 Nietzche, Fr.  17 Nizhinsky, Vaslav  29 Nikiforov, Petr Mikhailovich  262, 263, 265, 281 Nikolai Aleksandrovich (Romanov), see Ni­ cho­las II Nikolai Nikolaevich (Romanov), Gr. Pr.  48 Nikon, Patriarch  253 Nobel, Ludwig  88, 144 Nobel Prize  88, 338, 340, 341, 364, 408 Nodier, Charles  138 Noel, J.B.  169, 366 Norway  1 Notovich, Nikolai  103, 213, 215 Novgorod  2, 24, 25, 149, 165 Novonikolaevsk  250, 251, 254, 270, 274 OGPU (GPU)  195, 233, 246, 247, 254, 264, 266, 281, 282, 312, 313, 381, 391 Olcott, Henry C.  xix, xxviii, xxix, 70 Order of the All-Conquering Buddha  279, 300, 318

497 Order of the Priorate of Zion  128, 137, 138 Order of the Star of the Orient  105, 106, 207 Origen  87, 95 Ossendowski, Ferdinand  174 Ouspensky, P.D.  118 Padma Sambhava  173, 174 Padre Pio  126 Panchen Lama (Panchen Bogdo / Erdeni / Rimpoche, Tashi Lama), the 6th  103, 155, 170, 172, 181, 182, 211, 212, 219, 226228, 231, 235, 237, 239, 243, 244, 254-256, 261-265, 277-279, 289, 291-293, 295, 305, 310, 316-318, 375, 376, 391, 393, 394, 397, 431 Pan-American Institute  366 Pan-American Women’s Association (PAWA)  421 Pan-Cosmos, see World Service Pankratov, Boris Ivanovich  255, 391 Pan-Mongolian movement  268 Papus (Encausse, Gérard)  48 Pegler, Westbrook  419 Peking (Peiping)  148, 224, 232, 254, 255, 261, 272, 287-289, 301, 388-392 Pemayangtse  172 Persia  148, 162, 210, 303 Pertsov, Vladimir  93, 94, 320, 360 Peru  338 Peter the Great  12 Petr Nikolaevich (Romanov), Gr. Pr.  48 Philippe, Dr.  47, 48 Plantard, Pierre  137, 138 Platon, Metropolitan  346 Poland  93 Polenov, V. 35 Politburo  189, 242, 245 Pondicherry  134, 167, 252, 352, 353, 356 Pope Pius X  341 Portniagin, Pavel  276, 287, 294, 296, 305307, 310 Poruma, see Horch, Nettie Potala Palace  168, 176, 281, 376 Powel, John  396 Pratt, Herbert L.  142 Prokofiev, S.  77 Przhevalskii, N.M.  51, 224, 253 Pushkina, V.P.  105

498 Pu-Yi, Prince  371, 383 Putiatin, P.A., Pr.  10 Rachmaninov, S.  77 Radek, K.B.  242 Ragozina, Zinaida  50, 52 Ramakrishna  49, 50, 88, 89, 103, 152, 167, 221 Ramzana  228, 233, 250, 253, 254 Rapicavoli, Carmello  336 Remizov, Aleksei Mikhailovich  149, 159, 189 Rennick, Henry, Colonel  324 Reta Rigden (alias Nikolai Roerich)  299, 309, Riabinin, Nikolai Konstantinovich  45, 46, 48, 276, 277, 282-284, 294, 295, 305-307, 310, 312 Richey, Frederick D.  415 Riga  3, 11, 12, 39, 65, 110, 135, 144, 146, 158160, 205, 220, 340, 421, 424 Rigden Japo (Rigden-japo)  225, 231, 266, 289, 290 Rimsky-Korsakov  7, 63, 210, 211 Rinchino, Elbegdorj  268, 271 Rockefeller Foundation  333 Rockefeller, John D.  153 Roerich, Boris  1, 4, 23, 57, 58, 160, 250, 277, 312, 438 Roerich, Elena Ivanovna, see also, Morya alleged encounters with the mahatmas 68, 69 ailments and death  46, 436, 437, 446449 attitude to Christianity  40-42 attitude to theosophy  49 childhood and adolescence  10-12 channelings by  80, 107, 124, 125, 129, 130, 142, 180, 182, 183, 186, 187, 212, 218, 226, 229, 230, 232, 290, 301, 315, 400, 402, 416, 425 concept of the ‘Mother of the World’, 52, 154, 160, 161, 180, 367 fascination with spiritualism  42-45, 65-67, 73, 83-85, 121, passim fiery experience of  443-447, 450 past incarnations of  87 personality of  12, 13, 24

Index pre-marital relations with Nikolai and marriage  13-16, 18 visions by  54, 72, 73, 119 writings Agni Yoga books  42, 43, 49, 69, 86, 93, 118, 125, 151, 184, 229, 240, 245, 248, 324, 363-365, 367, 370, 415, 436, 439, 443, 444, 446, 448, 449 Legenda. Prorochestva Vostoka (Legend of the Stone), Kriptogrammy Vostoka  127, 128, 140, 158, 197 Osnovy Buddizma  155, 258, 267 Obshchina  229, 258, 267 Sny i videniia, Ognennyi opyt  54 letters to F.D. Roosevelt  403-407, 417, 418 Roerich, Feodor Ivanovich (Friedrich Johann)  39 Roerich, Friedrich (Feodor) Alexander  2 Roerich, Johann Friedrich  2 Roerich, Johann Heinrich  2 Roerich, Konstantin Friedrich (Feodoro­ vich)  1-4, 16 Roerich, Lydia  1, 23 Roerich, Nikolai Konstantinovich, see also Roerich Museum, Roerich Peace Pact and Banner, New Country, Corona Mundi, Cor Ardens, Beluha Corporation, World Service, Nobel Prize, Chintamani 9-point program for Buddhist revolution of  239 ancestry of  1, 2 as founder of institutions in New York  80, 81, 83 attitude to Bolsheviks of  57-59, 61 attitude to Christianity of  39 attitude to theosophy of  45, 46, 49, 104 education  4, 5 expeditions to Manchuria and Inner Mongolia  376-386, 392-398 Guru Letters  418, 419 India and  52, 53, 60, 61, 66, 71, 74, 75. 97, 101, 103, 104, 108, 122, 137, 164-167, 173, 190, 196, 201, 211, passim in recollections of contemporaries  9, 10, 30, 32, 62 journey to Altai  251-254 leading the ‘Western Buddhist Mission’ to Tibet  228, 276, 277-302

Index Masons and  39, 40, 90-92, 93, 248 negotiations with Soviet leaders  238242, 245-247 new religion of Spirit-understanding  89, 95, 98, 99, 128, 249 paintings by  26, 27, 29-31, 52, 109, 150, 169, 173, 240, 266, 358, 399, 434, 435, 450 participation in séances of  42-45, 65, 83-86, 88, 89 past incarnations  87 personality of  6-9, 15-23, 37 project for a new polity in Central Asia  153-155, 268, 275, 276 staying in Paris (1900-1901)  19, 20 theory of Art and Knowledge  98-100, 105 Transhimalayan journey of  170, 172-175, 205-227, 304 ‘Unification of Asia’ project (Sacred Eastern Union)  194, 195, 219, 244, 275, 303 world mission of  118 writings Adamant  98, 99, 144, 240 Altai-Himalaya  138, 170, 172, 181, 240, 255, 258, 313 Himalaya  304 Shambhala, the Resplendent  248, 321 India Indiiskii put’, 51, 53 Edinstvo  57 Tsvety Morii  61, 65 Instructions for a Hunter  95 Vekhi  135, 136 Struny Zemli  170, 172 Legends of Asia  216, 217 Heart of Asia  305 Derzhava Sveta  359 Roerich, Sviatoslav  4, 24, 67, 77, 95, 101, 122-124, 133, 142, 181, 185, 190, 195, 196, 204, 205, 316, 317, 320, 324, 327, 334, 376, 401, 402, 411, 428, 429, 430, 432, 438-440, 452-454 Roerich, Vladimir  1, 58, 371, 380, 387, 388 Roerich, Yuri (George)  24, 37, 62, 65, 73, 84, 89, 121, 124, 146, 171, 177, 191, 202-204, 235, 254, 315, 318, 322, 324, 325, 332, 333, 346, 352, 354, 355, 357, 359, 360, 372, 400-402, 428, 431, 432, 454 education  4, 64, 76, 77, 83, 101, 109, 110

499 final years in Moscow  437-439 in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia  377, 378, 389, 392, 396, 397, 398 in Mongolia  256-258, 381, 382 miracle of Chintamani Stone and  125, 127, 129, 133-136, 139, 142 romance with Mara Manziarly  112-117, 125, 126 spiritualism and  87, 93-95, 110 Tibet mission and  286, 287, 294, 296, 299, 300, 302, 305, 307 Transhimalayan journey and  208, 211213, 217, 222, 224, 231 Urusvati Institute and  315, 320, 333, 334, 459, 460 writings Trails to Inmost Asia  256-257 Blue Annals  440 Roerich Museum, New York  81, 120, 121, 190, 193, 196, 207, 277, 278, 280, 318, 319, 328, 334-336, 339, 342, 346-348, 360, 362, 365, 366, 368, 369, 377, 385, 408, 409, 411, 412, 414-416, 421, 424, 433, 435, 437 Roerich Museum Press  336, 368, 413 Roerich (Peace) Pact (& Peace Banner)  337, 339-341, 359, 363, 373, 374, 378, 383, 389, 393-395, 406-408, 422, 453, 454 Roerich Pact Committee, New York  422 Roerich Society, New York  336 Roerich Society, Riga  426, 427 Roosevelt, Evelyn  366 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (FDR)  369, 371, 372, 389, 390, 403-408, 417, 418, 430, 431, 452 Ropp, Eduard, von der  2, 3 Rosenthal, C.N.  320 Rosicrucian Center, New York  367 Rosov, Vladimir Andreevich  159, 201, 218, 232, 238, 244, 250, 320, 448, 453 Ross, Edward Denison, Sir  64, 75, 320 Roy, Manabendra Nath  244, 245 Rudzitis, Rihard  417, 421 Rumanov, A.V.  21, 56 Rurik, Prince  2, 24, 34, 36, 92, 149, 150 Ruskin, John  7-9 Russia (Soviet Russia, New Russia), see USSR Russian Academy of Arts, see Academy of Arts Russian All-Military Union (ROVS)  373

500 Russian Orthodox Mission, Peking  148 Russian Theosophical Society  47, 48 Russo-British Fraternity, London  64, 200 Ryerson, Knowles  370, 377, 386 Rykov, A.I.  144, 151 Saint-Germain, Comte de  95, 180 Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, A.  94, 246 Saito, Col.  384 Sakhnovskii  84 Sangharakshita (Lingwood, Dennis)  439, 440 Santa-Fe  96, 146 Savitskii, P.N.  152 Scandinavia  58, 67, 338 Schäfer, Ernst  431 Schmiechen, Hermann  70 School of Drawing, St. Petersburg  31, 34-36, 38, 57, 59, 85, 190 School of Oriental Languages, Paris,109, 147 School of Oriental Studies (S.O.S), London  64, 65, 73 Semionov (Semenoff), G.M., Ataman  148, 269-271, 396 Serov, V.A.  33, 35 Shafran, Sofia Mikhailovna  79, 85, 95, 96, 121, 143, 190, 408, 411, 422 Shah of Persia  341 Shaliapin, F.  210, 249 Shambhala  29, 86, 147, 169, 170, passim Shambhala War (Armageddon)  xxv, 110, 148, 218, 231, 235, 244, 254, 255, 257, 259, 393, 421 Shaposhnikov, Ivan Ivanovich  11, 42 Shaposhnikova, Ekaterina Vasilievna  11, 22 Shaposhnikova, L.V.  69, 183, 184, 452, 456 Sharagolji  286, 287, 291, 295, 296 Shibaev, Vladimir Anatolievich  65, 66, 68, 73, 75, 76, 94, 95, 104, 106, 110, 135, 144, 146, 148, 158-160, 162, 164, 201, 202, 205, 209, 248, 323-325, 327, 342, 345, 359, 360, 376, 411, 422, 423, 450 Shibochen  285, 286, 288, 290, 291 Shigatse  xxiv, xxv, xxvii, 103, 104, 171, 172, 208, 283, 305, 315, 416, 431 Shishkin, Oleg  39, 254, 255 Shkliaver (Chkliaver), George  66, 94, 111, 116, 189, 337-340, 346, 409

Index Shkliaver (Chkliaver), M-me  124 Shkliaver (Chkliaver), Sr.  66, 114 Sidorov, V.M.  176 Sikkim  170-175, 178, 211, 221, 233, 265, 302, 303, 305-307, 309, 311, 350 Sikorsky, Igor  366 Silars, Ivars  2, 3, 11, 39 Simla  xxvii, 318-320, 322, 323, 354 Sinevitch, T.V.  147 Sinnett, A.P., xxvi, xxviii Skriabin, A.N.  112 Smith, Cecil Harcourt, Sir  75 Sobko, N.P.  19, 23 Solomon, King Solomon  40, 87, 95, 111, 127, 130, 136, 161, 210 Soloviev, Vladimir  9 Soloviev, V.S.  xx, 20 Sortavala (Serdobol’)  38, 56, 57, 63 Spenser, Louis C.  387 Srinagar  205, 208-211 Stalin, Joseph  144, 186, 228, 232, 247, 424, 425, 433, 451, 452 Stanislavskii, K.S.  246 Stasov, V.V.  37, 52 Staël-Holstein, von, Aleksandre  391 Stcherbatov, S.A., Pr.  33, 34 Stcherbatskoi (Stcherbatsky), Feodor (Theodor) Ippolitovich  53, 105 Stein, Aurel  222, 320 Steiner, Rudolph  47, 94 Stephens, James L.  370, 377, 382, 383 Stravinsky, Igor (I.F.)  29, 137 St. Catherine  125, 126, 448 St. Francis of Assisi  358, 367 St. Gertrude  126 St. Petersburg Datsan, see Buddhist temple at St Petersburg St. Sergius of Radonezh  55, 95, 104, 161, 168, 173, 358, 367, 386, 387, 435 St. Theresa  448 Stokes, J.G.  411 Stravinsky, Igor (I.F.)  29, 137 Sukhe Bator  257, 261, 264 Sweden  1, 64 Switzerland  81, 125, 126, 230, 245, 432 Tagore, Abindranath  166 Tagore, Gaganendranath  166

501

Index Tagore, Rabindranath  53, 60, 63, 67, 73, 74, 84, 88, 101, 111, 165, 212, 320, 394, 432 Tagore, Rathindranath  73 Tagore, Soumendra  345 Talai Phobrang  168, 202, 314, 321 Talashkino estate  28, 55 Tamerlane (Timur)  87, 110, 112, 124, 127, 13, 136, 139 Tashi-ding  172, 174, 175 Tashi Lama, see Panchen Lama Tashilhumpo  xxiv, xxvii, xxviii, 172, 180, 181, 208, 218, 219, 306, 307, 315, 376, 431 Taube, Mikhail, Baron  338, 340, 341, 346 Taylor, Deems  81 Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Vasilievich  156, 157 Teger, Evgenyi  248 Teh Wang (De Wang, Tö), Prince  388, 392-394 Temple of One Religion (Temple of Orion, Temple of the Knowing Spirit)  129, 137, 147, 160, 197, 294, 401 Tengri Dzong  310, 321 Tenisheva, Maria Klavdievna, Princess  27, 28, 32, 35 Theosophical Lodge, New York  107 Theosophical Society, Adyar  xxv, 66, 70, 72, 104, 105, 107, 202 Theosophical Society, London  65, 70, 71, 200 Theosophical Society, Paris  116 Theosophical Society (TS), New York  xix, xxiii, xxvi-xxix, 441, 442 Tibet (geographical), see Changtang Tientsin  256, 310, 388, 396, 397 Tibetan mission (of N. Roerich), see N. Roe­ rich: Western Buddhist mission to Tibet Tolstoy, Ilya  431 Tolstoy, Leo  7, 8, 63 Tomashevskii, M.V.  390 Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow  32, 241, 438 Trilisser, Meer Abramovich  242, 246, 277, 278, 312 Trotskii, Leo  151, 187, 189, 247 Trubetskoi, N.S.  152 Tsarong Shape  237, 301 Tserendorj  266 Tsering, Gegen-lama  228, 233, 253, 254 Tsydenov, Lubsan Sandan  268-271 Tumarkina  121

Turgenev, I.S.  20 Turkey  111, 303 Tuva (Tannu-Tuva), see Urianhai Ukhtomskii, Esper Esperovich, Pr.  28 Ukraine  93 Ulan Bator Khoto (Ulaanbaator)  205, 225, 254-267, 272, 276, 278, 279, 281, 284, 285, 291, 295, 299, 300, 308 Ungern von Sternberg, R. F., Baron  58, 268, 272-274, 380 Urianhai (Tuva)  144, 250, 279 Upper Uimon Valley  251, 253-255 Ur Corporation  250, 334, 413 Urga, Örgöö, see Ulan Bator Khoto, Uruguay  338 Urumchi  226, 227, 230, 232, 235, 308 Urusvati (projected City of)  314, 320, 325, 328 Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute  314, 315, 318-320, 323, 325, 329, 333, 335, 336, 345, 356, 359, 360, 361, 363, 368, 369, 409 USA (America)  50, 59, 61, 75-78, 80, 81, 91, 97, 98, 157, 158, 185, 189, 195, 197, 200, passim USSR (Russia, Soviet Russia, New Russia)  1, 2, 26, 38, 42, 46, 48, 57-59, 64, 66, 78, 89, 90, 93, 97, 98, 101-103, 146, 150-156, passim Ustrialov, N.V.  151, 382 Vasnetsov, V.  7, 59 Vatican  341 Vaux Phalipau de, Marie  340, 341, 409 Vavilov, N.I.  193, 194, 246 Verasko, V.  439 Verdier, Cardinal  341 Verzhbitskii, G.A., Gen.  382 Vetrov, Mikhail  426 Victoria, Queen of England  175, 403 Vishva-Bharat University  74, 114 Vivekananda, Swami  50, 51, 89, 94, 103, 152, 165 Vrubel, Mikhail  30 Vsesviatskii, P.V.  258, 277, 281 Waddell, L.A.  172 Wadia, B.P.  65, 66, 75, 107 Wagner  7, 62, 296

502 Walker, James  332 Wallace, Henry Agard (Galahad, Friend)  193, 369-371, 376-378, 388390, 393-397, 405, 407, 4414-416, 418, 419 Washington, D.C. 346, 370, 371, 378, 389, 397, 406, 412, 418 Washington, George  101 Watson, Dudley Craft  366, 429 Weed, Joseph J.  429 Whitman, Walt  101 Williams, Robert C.  82, 102, 369 Witte, Sergei, Count, xix ‘World Service’ (WS), Riga  157, 159, 205, 323, 413 Worth, Patience  83 Wrangel, P.N.  373 Wu Pei-fu  236 Xinjiang (Sinkiang, Chinese Turkestan)  163, 198, 199, 205, 208, 212, 217, 222, 227, 233, 235, 238, 240, 241, 287, 332

Index Yalovenko, Anton, Dr.  423, 446-448 Yang, Walter  390 Yazikov, A.A.  194 YMBA (Young Men’s Buddhist Association)  439, 440 YMCA  380, 382, 383, 387 Yudenich, N.N.  61 Yum-Beise  277, 284-287, 290 Zavadsky, Vasilii Vasilievich  147, 149, 196, 197 Zhamtsarano, Tsyben  261, 264-268, 271, 393, 394, 425, 426 Zhelikhovskaya, Nadezhda  xix, 48, 49 Zoroaster  358 Zvenigorod  94, 134, 150, 157, 160, 161, 167, 180, 185, 190, 249, 254, 314, 386