SERVING THE PEOPLE

SERVING THE PEOPLE

(H. P. Blavatsky and the Fadeev-Gan family in the socio-cultural space of Ukraine)

Natalia Berezanska, TS Sciense Group member, National speaker of the Theosophical Society in Ukraine, Kyiv 

 The Fadeev family moved to Katerynoslav in 1815, settling on their estate from Rzhyshchiv. Helena Blavatsky’s grandfather, Andrey Mikhailovich Fadeev, was a collegiate councillor and a Knight. He was appointed a member of the Settlers' Trustee Committee and transferred for special assignments to the Novorossiysk Office of Foreign Settlements of the Southern Territory. Andrey Mikhailovich was a model of an honest, upright and dedicated man. His daughter, Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva, wrote of her father: “Throughout his long career, Andrey Mikhailovich Fadeev repeatedly held positions in which he could have enriched himself. ... But he never had anything beyond what his service provided; he led a modest life, strictly limiting his expenditure to the extent of his income...”.[3]

Helena Petrivna’s grandmother, Olena Pavlivna, born Princess Dovgoruka, belonged to one of the oldest families of Kievan Rus’, tracing her lineage from Rurik to Saint Prince Michael of Chernihiv, who was martyred in the Golden Horde for refusing to bow down to pagan idols.

 Olena Pavlivna Fadeeva spoke five languages, was an accomplished painter and musician, and from childhood showed a penchant for serious study of the natural sciences: geology, botany, zoology, archaeology and numismatics, amassing the most extensive collections. Her granddaughter, Vera Zhelikhovska, wrote of her: «... her practical approach, building rare and valuable collections, compiling volumes, engaging in the scholarly correspondence and active exchange of her research and drawings with renowned European naturalists: President Steven, Vernel, Ber, Abich, and Karelin”.[1] Homer de Guel repeatedly mentions her in his works as a wonderfully learned person who guided him in many ways during his research. Having visited O. P. Fadeeva in Katerynoslav, he was fascinated by her erudition, and named a giant shell in her honor (Venus Fadiefei).

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Odessa National Scientific Library (ONSL) holds documents from the Fadeevs’ archive. It contains an extensive list of Olena Pavlivna Fadeeva’s scientific works, including the aforementioned volume of Ukrainian songs collected by Olena Pavlivna in the Kyiv Governorate between 1803 and 1814, during the time she lived with her family in Rzhyshchiv.

The books are large-format, A4-sized, and thick.

On botany: 17 volumes describing plants which Olena Pavlivna collected herself, sketched from nature and identified by their botanical names.

On natural history: 10 volumes of drawings with specific names of butterflies, insects, birds, lizards, fish, shells and so on.

1 volume of illustrations of fossils, drawn from nature and from copies.

Smaller-format books.

On natural history and zoology: 3 volumes of illustrations of birds and fish.

On archaeology and history: 4 volumes of illustrations of ancient artefacts, weapons, armour, utensils, lamps, etc., drawn from nature and from copies.

6 volumes of drawings of ancient coins.

2 volumes of drawings of ancient historical costumes and headwear from times past.

Miscellany: 2 books with drawings of “Gazebos, garden ornaments, landscapes, etc.”.

8 volumes of ‘A Collection of Ancient Poems, Songs, Ballads, Charades, etc.’.

2 books on housekeeping.

28 volumes of large-format books, 29 volumes of smaller-format books, 57 volumes in total. All handwritten by Olena Pavlivna Fadeeva, born Princess Dovgoruka’ (ONSL, manuscript 17/6, p. 129).[3].

Olena Pavlivna Fadeeva passed on her gifted nature to her children and grandchildren. Her eldest daughter, the later popular writer Olena Andreevna Gan, became the mother of Helena Petrivna Blavatsky (HPB) and Vera Petrivna Zhelikhovska, also a writer. The son of Katerina Andreevna – the second daughter of Olena Pavlivna – Sergey Yuleevich Witte, later became a great statesman. Her son Rostislav was a combat general, military writer and reformer. Nadiya Andreevna also published her work and became the first member of the Theosophical Society in Odessa and in the country. Olena Pavlivna’s kindness extended beyond her immediate family; she was involved in extensive charitable work, saving many poor families from starvation, and also founded an orphanage.

 Helena Petrivna’s mother, Olena Andreevna Gan, wrote novels and short stories. She wrote 11 novels about the plight of married women in the country. In the 19th century, O. A. Gan was known as a writer and a regular contributor to Osip Senkovsky’s magazine ‘Biblioteka dlya chteniya’ and the journal ‘Vitchyznyani zapiski’. Interestingly, the novels of the famous German writer Ida von Hahn, HPB’s paternal great-aunt, were also devoted to the sad fate of women who had not found domestic happiness. 

Near Katerynoslav lay the Gan family estate – Shandrivka, near the village of Vodyany, where the Gan family lived: Petro Olekseyovich’s mother, also a writer, and Olena, as well as his brother Oleksey, who, being an officer, emigrated to San Diego during the revolution. His family remained in Shandrivka: his wife and son – Petro Olekseyovich Gan, a cousin of HPB. He was a correspondent for D. I. Yavornitsky, the founder of the Dnipro Historical Museum. 

 The lives of the entire Fadeev family were closely linked to Odessa. The offices of foreign settlers in Katerynoslav were being abolished, so A. M. Fadeev had to move to Odessa, as he could not manage without a job. Life in Odessa was much more expensive than in Katerynoslav, so A. M. Fadeev bought an estate, the Poliakivka farmstead, which was  located near the village of Pavlynka, forty versts from Odessa.

Here, as in Odessa, lived Olena Pavlivna and Andrey Mikhailovich Fadeev, their children Olena Andreevna Gan with her daughters, Katerina Andreevna Witte, Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva and Rostislav Andreyovich Fadeev. The Fadeevs sent their ten-year-old son Rostislav to the best boarding school in Odessa, the Tritten School. Whilst serving in Odessa, Helena’s grandfather was awarded the Order of St Anne.

 In 1865, Katerina Andreevna and her husband, Yuley Fedorovich Witte, brought their sons Boris and Sergey to Odessa to enrol at Novorossiysk University. But misfortune awaited them. The brothers were therefore placed at the Richelieu Gymnasium, whilst Boris enrolled as an auditor at Novorossiysk University, where he completed a course in law in 1870.

In 1868, following her husband’s death, Katerina Andreevna, along with her children and her sister Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva, settled permanently in Odessa. Katerina Andreevna Witte and her son Sergey Yuleevich Witte are honorary citizens of Odessa. The family was never particularly well-off, yet each of them engaged in charity work to the best of their ability, and each made a significant contribution to the development of culture, science and the social welfare of the city.

In 1899, the ‘Odessa News’ published an article on the activities of Boris Yuleevich Witte: ‘… In 1872, B. Y. was appointed deputy prosecutor of the Odessa District Court, and by 1878 he had already been appointed prosecutor of the Simferopol District Court, … in 1884. In 1892, B. Y. was appointed President of the Chisinau District Court, and two years later he was appointed Prosecutor of the Odessa Judicial Chamber, a post he held for four years before being appointed, by supreme decree, to the post of Senior President of the Odessa Judicial Chamber. Boris Yuleevich was awarded the Orders of St Stanislaus, 1st and 2nd degree; St Anne, 2nd degree; and St Vladimir, 3rd and 4th degree, and in January of this year he was awarded the Order of St Anne, 1st degree’.[3]

 On 16 November 1898, the House of Labour was opened in Odessa for those who needed work. In just one year, 899 people found shelter and work there. The House of Labour included a school, a clinic, its own bakery, a carpentry workshop and a metalworking and blacksmith’s workshop. Among the members of the Board were B. Y. Witte and N. A. Fadeeva. The 1902 report of the Board of the Guardianship Society on the House of Labour in Odessa states: Boris Yuleevich Witte ‘…was the “soul” of the House; the entire organisation of the House, both in its internal affairs and financially, is the result of his initiative and tireless … activity …’.[3]

His wife, Katerina Ksavereevna Witte, was also involved in charitable work throughout her life; she was chair of the Society for the Care of Sick Children in Odessa, vice-chair of the Odessa branch of the Society for the Care of the Blind, and a member of the Odessa Women’s Committee, to which she donated a large sum of money. Thanks to K. K. Witte’s energy, a children’s hospital and a children’s home for the blind were built. She was also a member of the Odessa Society for the Fight against Tuberculosis, founded by Sofia Witte. Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva was also a member of this Society. K. K. Witte was a member of the committee of the Odessa Society for the Support of Ex-Convicts and the Homeless, and a member of the Central Committee for Aid to the Poor. In addition, she attended examinations at the school for the blind, organised musical evenings, arranged medical treatment for sick children, and raised funds for the establishment of new departments – for blind girls and the elderly.

 In 1872, Sergey Yuleevich Witte, second son of Кaterina Andreevna, held the post of candidate for assistant to the head of railway operations for technical traffic. ‘The cradle of Count S. Y. Witte’s career was Odessa,’ as O. E. Kaufman wrote in the pages of the ‘Historical Herald’.[3] ‘Witte loved the people of Odessa and Odessa itself, his “second homeland”, as he called it. During his tenure as Minister of Transport, he established tariff rates that were highly beneficial for Odessa’s trade and industry, and facilitated the construction of the port flyover and various improvements to the port’s facilities.’ 

S. Y. Witte facilitated the opening of a medical faculty in Odessa under Novorossiysk University. In recognition of this, he was made an honorary citizen of the city in 1894, and Dvoryanskaya Street, where the university was located, was named after him. Thanks to his efforts, many newspapers were established in Odessa.

Thanks to him, the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was established in 1898, along with many commercial colleges. He was a member of the Odessa Slavic Charitable Society named after Saints Cyril and Methodius; Sergey Yuleevich and his beloved sister Sofia Witte were life members of the Society for the Fight against Tuberculosis. Witte also made a significant contribution to the development and expansion of the Odessa City Public Library; today, the Odessa National Scientific Library is one of the six largest libraries in Ukraine.

 Her sisters, Olga and Sofia Witte, were very close and always lived together in Odessa. Olga suffered from severe tuberculosis, and so she died before reaching the age of 50. This event deeply affected Sofia Witte, who was already ill herself, and she devoted all her energy to fighting this terrible disease. Until 2022, the ‘White Flower’ children’s tuberculosis sanatorium still existed. The sanatorium building, designed to accommodate 60 people, was constructed in 1913. One of the founders of the Odessa Society for the Fight against Tuberculosis and the organiser of this sanatorium was Sofia Witte, who remained chair of the Society’s Board for many years. The list of the society’s life members included all surviving members of the Fadeev family: Sergey Yuleevich Witte, Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva, and Katerina Ksavereevna Witte. From 1911 onwards, ‘White Flower Day’ was held in Odessa; thanks to the funds raised on this day, a clinic for tuberculosis patients was opened as early as 1912. Over the course of a year, it was visited by 5,643 people.

Sofia Yuleevna was a writer and, from the 1880s, was regularly published in major monthly magazines. Three of her books were published in Odessa; these are held in the academic library of Odessa State University and in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the ONSL. All proceeds from the publication were, at the time, donated to the fight against tuberculosis. 

Sofia Yuleevna was a member of the Odessa Society for the Care of the Blind, the Odessa branch of the Society for the Protection of Women, and the Society for the Protection of Animals. Records show that she regularly donated substantial sums of money to these organisations.

 From 1868, Helena Petrivna’s uncle, the renowned military writer and publicist General Rostislav Andriyovich Fadeev, was a frequent and long-staying guest of the sisters in Odessa, where he wrote many pages of his works devoted to the politics and military operations of the time. He was the founder of the Danube Steamship Company. In July, the Odessa Slavic Charitable Society named after Sts. Cyril and Methodius elected him as its honorary member. Rostislav Andreyovich, like his niece Helena Petrivna, was utterly selfless. During the starvation in the country, he sent all the money he had to help the starving. He bequeathed his entire share of the inheritance to his sisters.

 Nadiya Andreevna Fadeeva – Helena Petrivna’s beloved aunt – lived to the age of 90, spending her life in Odessa from 1868 until her death. Nadiya Andreevna, like everyone in the Fadeev family, possessed remarkable literary talent. Her letters and articles were published in the most prestigious journals. Nadiya Andreevna was the first Theosophist in Odessa and the country. In August 1883, with her involvement, a branch of the Theosophical Society was established in Odessa, and she became its president. Thanks to the influence of Theosophical ideas, a Theosophical Society was founded in Kyiv in 1913, and later in Yalta, Kharkiv and Zhytomyr. As of 1 September 1915, the Theosophical Society in Kyiv had 60 members, and the one in Yalta had 12. The Kyiv Theosophical Society was headed by Yelizaveta Vilhelmivna Radzevych. The Kharkiv Theosophical Society was led by Vera Oleksandrivna Molokina. In Zhytomyr, the founder was V. V. Gintse.

N. A. Fadeeva took an active part in the city’s public life. She was a full member of many charitable societies in Odessa: the House of Labour, the Society for the Fight against Tuberculosis, and the Society for the Protection of Animals. She donated many rare books to the Odessa City Public Library (around 200 volumes). Helena Petrivna wrote of Nadiya Andreevna: ‘A delicate, wonderful person. She is ready to give her life, her money, everything she possesses to others’.[3]

 In 1881, HPB’s sister, Vera Petrivna Zhelikhovska, a well-known writer, moved to Odessa with her children. She was the author of many children’s books, which were devoured by young people, and her books published for the general public enjoyed great popularity. For her children, she wrote the memoirs ‘When I Was Little’ and ‘My Adolescence’, as well as a biography of Helena Petrivna, which were translated into other languages. Like all members of the Fadeev family, she was fascinated by the mysterious phenomena of the human psyche; her book ‘The Inexplicable or Unexplained’ describes the miracles that occurred in the Fadeev family.

In 1884, Vera Petrivna’s play ‘If You Call Yourself a Grape, Climb into the Cart’ was awarded the Ivan Georgievich Vuchin Prize, and in 1885 her novel ‘What Was, What Is Gone, and What Has Grown from the Past’ was published in Odessa. She donated a large collection of her books to the Odessa City Public Library: ‘The Inexplicable or Unexplained’, ‘The Caucasus and Transcaucasia’, ‘A Life Lived’, and ‘By the Eternal Fires’.

When, in 1892, following the death of Helena Petrivna Blavatsky, Vs. Solovyov’s libellous book about her, “The Modern Priestess of Isis”, was published, Vera Petrivna immediately joined the fight to defend her sister’s honour. She published the book “H. P. Blavatsky and the Modern Priest of Truth”. After Vera Petrivna’s death, R. Nikolaev wrote of her: ‘She never lost heart; this was her distinguishing feature, as was her sympathy for the misfortunes and sorrows of others. Despite her very limited means, many people remember Vera Petrivna for her material assistance, not to mention her moral support.’[3]

From 1909 to 1915, Nadiya (married name Brusilova) and Olena Zhelikhovska, Vera Petrivna’s daughters, lived in Odessa. Like the entire Fadeev family, they were deeply involved in charitable work, donated generously to the needs of soldiers, and were members of the ‘Brotherly Aid’ Society and the Society for the Relief of the Sick in the Limans. 

 Nadiya Brusilova was particularly active during her visit to Odessa in 1916 – this includes charity, the supply of gifts and medicines to the troops, and the organization of sanitary trains, baths, infirmaries, hospitals, and shelters for children and refugees. Thanks to her, an institution of ‘godmothers’ was established in Odessa to provide direct assistance to soldiers maimed in the war. In October 1916, Nadiya Volodymyrivna saved the future revolutionary hero G. I. Kotovsky, who had been sentenced to death in Odessa.

During her final visit to Odessa in 1872, Helena Petrivna tried with all her might to remain in her homeland. She opened an ink factory and shop. She then opened a flower shop. Colonel Olcott mentions piano concerts given by H. P. Blavatsky in 1872–1873 under the name Laura. But, evidently, none of these activities brought her satisfaction or the necessary funds. On 26 December 1872, she wrote a letter to the higher authorities, in which she offered her services: ‘…I have enough talent to be of use to my homeland.’[3] But the request went unanswered. Her homeland did not require her services.

The field of journalism only became accessible to her when the press of the Old and New Worlds began to talk about her, when, five years later, her first publication from New York, ‘Across the Sea, Across the Blue Ocean’, appeared in the Odessa newspaper Pravda, with the note: ‘Under this title, one of America’s well-known writers will be publishing her columns on American life in Pravda’.[3] Subsequently, her essays describing the inhabitants of the United States and their political views would be published as ‘Letters from America’. All of them appear under the heading ‘From Pravda’s New York correspondent’, signed by Helena Blavatsky. Before her departure for India on 18 December 1878, HPB had published seven articles in “Pravda”. In issue 35 of Pravda for February 1880, a very favourable article about Helena Petrivna was printed in the ‘Kaleidoscope’ section. Articles about her were also published in ‘Odeskiy Listok’ on 15 and 25 September 1883.

Throughout her years living abroad, despite having taken American citizenship, she loved her homeland selflessly, was a true patriot, and continued for a long time, just as she had during the war, to send money to the wounded. Even the first proceeds received from ‘Isis’ went towards that very cause. All the money she received at that time for articles in Odessa newspapers, she transferred to the Red Cross.

All of Helena Petrivna Blavatska’s relatives, like herself, were highly gifted, honest and selfless people. Throughout their lives, they helped others. Through their work and philanthropy, they brought considerable benefit to the country and made a significant contribution to Ukraine’s socio-cultural space.

 The establishment of the museum dedicated to H. P. Blavatsky and her family is of great significance. It marked a significant event for Ukraine’s socio-cultural space. The premises host exhibitions, conferences, seminars and guided tours. 

The house has become a place of pilgrimage for many theosophists from around the world. Helena Petrivna’s ideas about brotherhood, the unity of all that exists, and the interdependence of humanity and nature resonate in its halls and fill the space of the whole of Ukraine. They are relevant both for the present and for the future, both for Ukraine and for the whole world.

References.

1.    Howard Murphet. When Daylight Comes. https://theosophy.world/resource/ebooks/when-daylight-comes-howard-murphet

2. Sylvia Cranston. H.P.B.: The Extraordinary Life & Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement. https://theoarchive.com/u/Cranston-Sylvia-Carey-Williams-The-Extraordinary-and-Influence-of-Life-H.-P.-Blavatsky-3rd-ed.-1994.pdf

3. O. Bogdanovich, ‘Blavatsky and Odessa’, Odessa: Shlyakh Poznannya, 1999

4. Mary K. Neff, ‘Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky’, https://theosophy.world/resource/ebooks/personal-memoirs-h-p-blavatsky-mary-k-neff

5. V. P. Zhelikhovska, ‘Radda-Bay’, Interbook Joint Venture, 1992

6. https://theosophy.in.ua/publikatsiji/statti/156-elenapetrovnablavatskayaiejosemyavukraine