Quotes:Zhelihovsky, Vera Petrovna de

Zirkoff, Boris

Zhelihovsky, Vera Petrovna de, younger sister of H. P. Blavatsky, b. at Odessa, Southern Russia, April 17/29, 1835; d. May 5/18, 1896. She was first married to Nikolay Nikolayevich de Yahontov (1827-58) which accounts for the fact that some of her writings are signed with the letter “Y”; some years after the death of her husband, she married Vladimir Ivanovich de Zhelihovsky. She had two sons by her first marriage, and one son (who died in infancy) and three daughters by the second. (For details consult the Genealogical Table in the present Volume.)

As the years went by, she became widely known in Russia and some European countries as a writer of children’s stories, and as an unusually clever contributor to various Russian periodicals. At certain periods in her life, her financial circumstances were strained, and she was able to supplement her slim income by writing, which in her day was not an easy thing for a woman in Russia to do. She was a person of great courage and tireless energy.

Among her many stories, some of which appeared serially in Russian magazines and others were later published in book-form, the following may be mentioned: Prince Iliko: Young Caucasian Prisoner; In a Tatar Hangout; Caucasian Legends (St. Petersburg, 1901); Adventures (1898); Stars: Christmas Stories for Children; 535 The Czar and the Cossack (Moscow, 1904); Spring Dawn (St. Petersburg, 1904); Yermolov in the Caucasus (St. Petersburg, 1889).

Those especially interested in H.P.B.’s family background, are grateful to her sister for having written a most valuable and authentic biographical sketch of their mother, under the title of “Helena Andreyevna von Hahn: Romantic Writer.” It was published in the well-known Journal Russkaya Starina (Russian Old Days), Vol. 53, March, 1887, pp. 733-66, and should sometime be published in English.

Madame de Zhelihovsky published several essays concerned with H.P.B.’s life; these should be considered an important source material, as she kept a diary and was very careful about her statements and their chronological sequence. The most valuable of these writings is her serial article entitled “The Truth about H. P. Blavatsky” (Pravda o Yelene Petrovne Blavatskoy) which appeared in the journal called Rebus (Vol. II, 1883: Nos. 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48) and was later circulated in pamphlet form. It deals with H.P.B.’s early years and recounts a number of interesting psychic experiences. It is from this account that A. P. Sinnett quotes at considerable length in his Incidents in the Life of H. P. Blavatsky (London and New York, 1886). He is in error, however, with regard to his source of information, and this error should be corrected.

When Sinnett was writing his account of H.P.B.’s life, a project with which H.P.B. herself was by no means in sympathy, he pressed her for various information and data. H.P.B. therefore translated into English most of her sister’s story above referred to, in order to provide Sinnett with the facts which he sought. As stated by Sinnett himself (p. 6 of the Introductory to his book), H.P.B.’s sister had recently revised and corrected her story specifically for the purpose in view. It appears that “the Rebus . . . was committed deeply to certain rigid views concerning the origin and cause of such phenomena as those with which it dealt. This led to some mutilation of the narrative at the time of its publication, but the authoress has now endeavoured to restore it as far as possible to its proper shape, with the help of the original manuscript, which she had preserved, and from which portions missing from the periodical have now been translated.”

H.P.B.’s translation is quite lengthy; it is in her own handwriting and is preserved in the Archives of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, India. It may be said to be an almost exact 536 translation of the printed Series to which have been added those passages which, apparently, the Editor of Rebus thought fit to eliminate. In addition, H.P.B. has added here and there some sentences of her own and a few footnotes, a fact which is quite obvious from their context and style, one or two of them being even signed “Translator.” Some of the sheets on which H.P.B. wrote have various notes scribbled and crossed out on their reverse side; however, after close scrutiny, these have been proved to be duplications, draft-translations, and occur in a far better form in the main text.

When some short excerpts from this translation were published in The Theosophist (Vol. XLVII, March and May, 1926), C. Jinarájadása stated in a prefatory note that he had received it from Miss Francesca Arundale; it may well be that the latter got it from Sinnett while in London, and if so, that would account for the fact that this translation of Vera Petrovna’s text is not complete in the Archives; the beginning of the story is missing, and the MS starts from that part which tells about H.P.B.’s father and his “Voltairian” tendencies. Writing to Sinnett, H.P.B. refers to this translation and incidentally identifies the source of the material (See The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett. pp. 149, 155).

While Sinnett does mention the Rebus essay by its actual title, he also refers to certain “Personal and Family Reminiscences” put together by Madame de Zhelihovsky and from which he intends to quote, but actually did not. Vera Petrovna de Zhelihovsky wrote in 1884 an entirely different series of articles entitled “The Inexplicable or the Unexplained: From Personal and Family Reminiscences.” These were also published in the Rebus (Vol. Ill, Nos. 43-48; Vol. IV, Nos. 4-7, 9-11, 13-14) and consist of an outline of various mediumistic and psycho-mental phenomena which took place in the life of the author in Russia. Some of them are quite remarkable, and to some extent similar to those which took place in H.P.B.’s early youth. The Series gives some interesting sidelights about various members of the family, among them Peter A. von Hahn, H.P.B.’s and Vera’s father. But there are very few references to H.P.B., and the Series does not contain any of the material wrongly ascribed to it by Sinnett. H.P.B. herself makes a passing reference to this Series in her Letters to Sinnett, pp. 155-56, and briefly quotes from it. Beyond that one quoted passage, this later Series is not included in Sinnett’s book.

Another outline of H.P.B.’s life and character was written by 537 her sister for the Russian Review (Russkoye Obozreniye) under the title of “H. P. Blavatsky: A Biographical Sketch,” and appeared in November and December, 1891 (Vol. VI, pp. 242-94, 567-621). It has considerable historical value. It appeared in French in the pages of the Nouvelle Revue of 1892, and was almost completely translated into English and published in Lucifer (Vols. XV and XVI, Nov., 1894—April, 1895).

Another biographical sketch in Russian was appended to the Russian edition of H.P.B.’s Mysterious Tribes of the Blue Hills and The Durbar in Lahore (St. Petersburg: V. I. Gubinsky, 1893). It was translated into English by Kirk and Lieven and published in The London Forum (incorp. The Occult Review), Vols. LX, LX1, LXII, Dec., 1934-July, 1935.

We have two other accounts from the pen of Vera Petrovna which are of great interest; they deal with her own early years in Russia, and provide fascinating glimpses into the family background and the customs of the day. One of them is entitled When I was Small (Kak ya bila malen’koy) and is an account of her childhood up to her seventh year (2nd rev. and enl. ed., St. Petersburg: A. F. Devrient, 1894, 269 pp., fig.), and another is My Adolescence (Moyo otrochestvo), a continuation of the subject into later years (St. Petersburg: Ed. Off. of “Readings for Children,” 1893, 295 pp.; 3rd ed., ca. 1900; 4th ed., 1902). Many of H.P.B.’s own rather vague dates and facts pertaining to her early years can be verified or corrected by these two books.

Valuable accounts concerning some of H.P.B.’s startling occult phenomena are provided by Vera Petrovna in her articles in Rebus, July 15 and 22, 1884; also No. 50 of 1884; Novosti i Birzhevaya Gazeta, June 13 and 20, 1889; and her outspoken reply to V. S. Solovyov’s hostile book, her own title being H. P. Blavatsky and a Modern Priest of Truth (St. Petersburg, 1893).

A most cordial affection existed throughout the years between H.P.B. and her sister Vera. If Madame de Zhelihovsky did not always understand the real “H.P.B.,” she nevertheless always trusted her and defended her to the very last. It has been said that the mental suffering which she experienced when Solovyov attacked H.P.B. broke down her health and hastened her death. She felt very keenly the injustices under which W. Q. Judge suffered and defended him whenever she could do so. She travelled several times to Western Europe to visit H.P.B. and their reunions meant always a great deal to both of them.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 534-537

Zhelihovsky, Vera Petrovna de, née von Hahn (1835-1896). H. P. B.’s sister. *“The Truth about H. P. Blavatsky” (Pravda o Yelene Petrovne Blavatskoy), in Rebus (Puzzle), Vol. II, Nos. 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 1883. Also issued as a pamphlet.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 6, p. 449

'Zhelihovsky, Mme. Vera Petrovna de, née von Hahn (1835-1896). H. P. B.’s sister. *H. P. Blavatsky and a Modern Priest of Truth. Russian text. St. Petersburg, 1893. 177 pp.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 7, p. 402