ABOUT US
A SHORT RECAP ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE MUSEUM CENTER OF H.P. BLAVATSKY AND HER FAMILY SINCE THE YEAR 1990[1]
Since 1990, a project for a Museum Centre dedicated to Helena Blavatsky and her family is developed under the umbrella of the national historical museum of Dnipropetrovsk[2].
Today, the Museum Centre is the only preserved building of an ancient manor of the XIX century in this part of the city.
The present address is Prince Yaroslav the Wise street n° 11, Dnipro.
During eighteen years, from 1816 till 1834, this manor belonged to Helena Blavatsky’s grandfather, Andrey Fadéev.
In this house she was born on Friday 12th August 1831.
The concept behind the Museum Centre is to create an international centre, which has a dual structure and is based on the principles of trinity, complexity, and universality.
The two-part structure of the project involves the separate formation of a Museum on the one hand and of an International Centre on the other. These two are to be united by a single concept and a coherent program of activities.
The project will include a national museum with scientific, cultural and social components. The Museum Centre will be located on the Fadéev Manor after it will have been restored to its original historic condition.
It will have a completely new infrastructure of two landscaped areas – parks and gardens – with a total surface of 2 hectares.
This implies that the right to use this land surface will have to be bought from the present owner of the entitlement to it, who currently is using some old storage buildings on the premises. This acquisition might require an amount of US $ running into seven digits.
The whole complex will have the name “Museum Centre of H.P. Blavatsky and her family”.
At the same time the Fadéev Manor will become a memorial site. The Museum Centre of H. P. Blavatsky and her family will become a place of expression by the modern world of its appreciation for the scientific and cultural heritage of its outstanding citizen.
The principle of trinity involves the development and organization of a composite structure of a new type of museum, a scientific and cultural centre, and a meeting place of like-minded people.
These three components are reflected in the following three objectives:
(1) the restoration and transformation into a museum of the Memorial House, the creation of a museum dedicated to Helena Blavatsky and three generations of her family, and the setting up of the museum’s exhibition divided again in three sections;
(2) The reconstruction of the historical manor of Fadéev, where Helena Blavatsky has spent her early childhood. This involves the establishment of a new pavilion on the territory of the manor with showroom features and an audience with 70 seats. There could also be created an outhouse, with the function of children’s museum and natural history centre. Further actions would be planting of trees and the erection of official outbuildings, arbours, etc.;
(3) The creation on the territory of the Centre of an International Research and Cultural Centre, where Blavatsky’s works can be studied, and where interaction will be possible with the public, interpreting her heritage. A conference hall with 150 seats, a scientific library, an exhibition hall, and a publishing centre could be included.
THE MUSEUM AND MANOR
The Museum of Helena Blavatsky and her family will include three main sections:
I. A double exhibition dedicated to Helena Blavatsky is the first of these three main sections. It will illustrate her life and the influence of her outstanding personality till after her death. It will tell about her heritage, about the influence of her ideas on many generations.
I. 1. The main topic in the section devoted to Helena Blavatsky is “fate and heritage”, symbolized by the ascent of mountain peaks.
There are seven subtopics to be distinguished:
– first ascent: Childhood on the Dnieper, in Ukraine;
– second ascent: Youth in the Caucasus;
– third ascent: Wanderings, spiritual strivings;
– fourth ascent: Education during her stay in Tibet;
– fifth ascent: The first stage of the mission: work in USA; the foundation of the Theosophical Society; “Isis Unveiled” and other works of this period;
– sixth ascent: Work in India. Work as a researcher, writer, publicist and public figure. Creation of the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society. Pursuits;
– seventh ascent: Work in Europe. The creation of “The Secret Doctrine”. Political essays, collected writings.
I. 2. The main topic in the section “Helena Blavatsky and modern times” is a picture by Nicholas Roerich called “The Messenger of Light”.
Another topic is the book “The Key to Theosophy”.
There are also seven subtopics:
– first key: The works of Helena Blavatsky in the world.
Publications, public response;
– second key: The works about Helena Blavatsky in the world.
Publications, public response;
– third key: The international and domestic theosophical movement;
– fourth key: Followers and opponents of Helena Blavatsky.
The Roerichs and Roerich movement.
– fifth key: Influence of Helena Blavatsky on the international science and culture in the XIX – XX – XXI centuries.
– sixth key: Return of Helena Blavatsky to the context of domestic science and culture from the end of the XIX to beginning of the XXI century.
– seventh key: The Museum Centre of Helena Blavatsky and her family.
The history of its creation and the progress of its development.
II. The portrait gallery devoted to family members of Helena Blavatsky will include following subtopics:
– A. M. Fadéev – statesman, essayist, writer and diarist;
– E. P. Fadéeva – naturalist, collector, educator;
– H. A. Han – writer;
– P. A. Han – Colonel of Horse Artillery, the postmaster. His ancestors and descendants;
– R. A. Fadéev – General, statesman and public figure, a military historian;
– E. A. Vitte – public figure. Her family;
– N. A. Fadéeva – public figure, writer, collector;
– V. P. Zhelihovskaya – novelist, essayist, biographer of Blavatsky. Her family.
In each subtopic a story about the fate of the family and the heritage of representatives thereof will be created, associated with the new manifestations of spiritual life, and their artistic, cultural and scientific achievements.
III. The reconstruction of the interiors of the manor, like the living room, the cabinet of E.P. Fadéeva, the inner porch, etc., will simulate a picture of the life at the Fadéev Manor in Yekaterinoslav.
The concept of the museum involves the full reconstruction of the interiors of three rooms: living room, cabinet and as a prelude to the entire exhibition – the inner porch (hallway).
The living room was the main front room in the Fadéev house, which offered a magnificent view of the Dnipro River. Domestic holidays, family readings, musical events and evening talks were held in this room under the portraits of the ancestors. A main event took place here on one of the first days of August in 1831, when the whole family gathered for the baptism of a new born granddaughter of Fadéev, the first-born of their eldest daughter. That day and that hour there was a fire in the living room. So there was water (according to Orthodox tradition) and fire. Actually there were three fires (fire of flames, fire of the sign of the zodiac and the fiery name) making the baptism of Helena Blavatsky very symbolic. The reconstruction of the interior of the living room will be done with exposition of authentic objects from the museum collections. The composition there will be centred round the symbolically reproduced christening scene.
The cabinet of E. P. Fadéeva was the intellectual centre of the house’s life. Its reconstruction will recreate the image of the quintessence of the scientific, spiritual and educational thoughts and missions of the hostess. It was the place for her work on natural sciences, her study and storage of her collections. The cabinet was described in the memoirs of her children and grandchildren, who grew up there, soaking up the scientific and spiritual knowledge of their mother and grandmother. There a significant part of Fadéev’s library of rare books was kept. Helena Blavatsky recalls some of the rarest of them to have read in childhood and adolescence. From a scientific point of view it is assumed that the cabinet will become of considerable importance as a natural history museum cabinet, which will be of particular interest to children.
In the concept of the Museum Centre the reconstruction of Fadéev Manor is seen as one of the main tasks. The completion of this task will help to restore the historical and cultural memory and to understand the moral and intellectual importance of the family. The Manor will become alive as sociocultural phenomenon. It will be a great monument to Helena Blavatsky and the Fadéev family. Recreated in the centre of the megalopolis, the manor complex will also become an important subject of family and children’s ecological and aesthetic education. The specified data indicate that the manor was situated on an area of 1.1 hectares. There was a small river on its territory. A magnificent garden of flowers and fruit trees was its chief ornament. According to the traditions of the time, house and gardens were one architectural ensemble, which included a main house, several outbuildings, utility structures, gardens, flower beds, a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, etc. When reconstructing the manor it is important to identify the original locations of the pavilion, outbuildings, arbours, children’s lawn, green office, greenhouse, herb garden, flower beds, trees and shrubs.
THE CENTRE
This is the second key component of the project, the most important, basic direction of activity of the Museum Centre. The main focus of the international scientific and cultural centre will be the study of Helena Blavatsky’s works, her scientific predictions, her influence on the development of science and culture of the world. The Centre will continue the tradition (which started in 1991) of annual scientific conferences and readings, seminars, round tables, thematic group meetings. The main annual events of the Centre will be: the conference in May (May 8, the day of commemoration of the death of Helena Blavatsky) and the readings in August (August 12, birthday of Helena Blavatsky). The centre of H. P. Blavatsky is a bridge from the past to the future, a place to pass her heritage to a public that is aspiring to scientific and spiritual search. Its “Logo” will be recreated from an early drawing by Helena Blavatsky (in another version this drawing was made by her mother) “Altar of Truth” – three pine trees on the rocks, Three Trees. And the image of the tree here is representing the Tree of Life, a symbol of immortality, the vertical dimension in space.
Returning to the principle of Trinity, we should note that the Centre will have a research centre, a research library and associations as its three pillars. Their task will be the creation and implementation of programs aimed at today’s understanding of the heritage of Helena Blavatsky’s works and their scientific and creative use. The Centre will organize cultural and educational activities, scientific tourism, and spiritual communion of contemporaries to understand the significance of the works of Helena Blavatsky. The special historical and cultural value of her place of birth opens up opportunities to create a Museum Centre of international significance. United by a common concept into a single, coherent system the Centre will accumulate a significant spiritual, educational and informational potential. Talking about the past, recreating history, the Museum Centre of HP Blavatsky and her family is looking to the future, to the creative fullness of each new day. Its intention is to become “the home of all sorts of Beauty, and not at all in the sense of preserving certain samples, but in the sense of their vital and creative application” (Nicholas Roerich).
[1] The content of this document is based on the text of the document “Scientific concept of the Museum Centre of H.P. Blavatsky and her family”, by H. Alivantseva, scientific curator of the project.
[2] The D. Yavornitsky Museum,