Truly great is seen only from a distance. This is exactly what happened with the creative heritage of the Russian writer and philosopher Helena Ivanovna Roerich. Everything that she created in the first half of the twentieth century entered the spiritual and cultural life of Russia quite recently. The works of E. I. Roerich aroused genuine and deep interest among our compatriots, who tried to find answers to many questions of life. This article will describe a brief biography of this outstanding woman.
Childhood and studies
Roerich Elena Ivanovna was born in St. Petersburg in 1879. The girl's father was a famous architect - Ivan Ivanovich Shaposhnikov. On the maternal side, Elena was a distant relative of the greatest composer M. P. Mussorgsky and great-great-granddaughter of the commander M. I. Kutuzov.
From childhood, the girl showed extraordinary talents. Yes, toBy the age of seven, Elena was already writing and reading in three languages. And as a teenager, she became seriously interested in philosophy and literature. Shaposhnikova received her musical education at the Mariinsky Gymnasium. All teachers predicted her a career as a pianist, but fate decreed otherwise.
Marriage
In 1899, Elena Ivanovna met the young and talented artist Nicholas Roerich. He became a like-minded girl for the girl and shared all her beliefs. Thanks to high ideals and mutual love, this union was very strong. Their whole life was spent in joint work. In 1902, Nikolai and Elena had a son, Yuri (in the future he will become a famous orientalist), and in 1904, Svyatoslav, who followed in his father's footsteps.
Moving to the USA
After the revolution, the Roerich family was cut off from the Motherland. Since 1916, they lived in Finland, where Nikolai Konstantinovich improved his he alth. Then they were invited to London and Sweden, where the Roerichs took part in exhibitions and prepared scenery for the opera house. In 1920, Nikolai Konstantinovich and Elena Ivanovna arrived in the USA. The wife immediately actively engaged in cultural activities. Over time, she had students who helped the woman open several institutions in New York - the Crown Mundi Art Center, the Master Institute of Arts, and the Nicholas Roerich Museum. Soon, under the auspices of these organizations, many educational institutions, creative clubs and various societies rallied, striving to improve life and embody humanisticideals.
Arrival in India and expedition
The Roerichs have long wanted to visit this country, rich in its cultural and spiritual traditions. And in December 1923 they arrived there. A couple of years later, Elena Ivanovna took part in a unique three-year expedition to little-explored and hard-to-reach places in Central Asia. The event was organized by her husband.
The starting point of the expedition was India (Sikkim). From it, travelers went to Ladakh, Kashmir and Chinese Xinjiang. The Soviet border in the Tien Shan region - that's where three members of the expedition went from there - Nikolai Konstantinovich, Yuri Nikolayevich and Elena Ivanovna. Moscow became the next point of arrival for the Roerich family. In the capital, they held a number of important meetings, and then joined the main expedition heading to Mongolia through Buryatia and Altai. Then the travelers entered Tibet with the aim of visiting Lhasa. But right in front of this urban district, they were stopped by representatives of the local authorities. The expedition had to live for about five months in summer tents on the snowy and frosty Changthang Plateau. It was here that the caravan died, and all the guides died or fled. And only in the spring, the authorities allowed the expedition to move on. Travelers went to Sikkim through the Trans-Himalaya.
Writing books
In 1926 Elena Ivanovna lived in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia). There she published the book "Fundamentals of Buddhism". In this work, Roerich interpreted a number of fundamentalphilosophical concepts of the teachings of the Buddha: nirvana, the law of karma, reincarnation and the deepest moral side. Thus, she refuted the main Western stereotype of thinking that in this religion a person is considered an insignificant being, forgotten by God.
The picturesque valley of Kullu (Western Himalayas) is where Elena Ivanovna moved with her family in 1928. The activity of the writer at that time was entirely devoted to a series of books on agni yoga (philosophical and ethical Teaching of Living Ethics). The works were created in close collaboration with a number of anonymous philosophers who called themselves Masters, or Great Souls, or Mahatmas.
Books of Living Ethics
They have become desktop for many people. In these works, ethical problems are brought to the fore, addressed to the real, earthly conditions of life of each person.
The appearance of the Living Ethics books was directly related to the processes taking place in the spiritual life, culture and science of the first half of the twentieth century. But the main impetus was the “scientific explosion”, which laid the foundations for an innovative holistic approach to the study of reality. At that time, many prominent minds (philosophers N. A. Berdyaev, P. A. Florensky and I. A. Ilyin, as well as scientists A. L. Chizhevsky, K. E. Tsiolkovsky, V. I. Vernadsky) spoke about the inseparability fate of mankind from the life of the Cosmos. They also stated that in the new age, people will cooperate with other worlds.
Based on the modern achievements of Western science and the ancient teachings of the East, Living Ethics creates a system of knowledge andreveals the specifics of the cosmic evolution of humanity. Its key component is Laws. They determine the development of the Universe, human behavior, the birth of stars, the growth of natural structures and the movement of planets. Nothing exists in the Cosmos outside of these Laws. Also, these rules determine the social and historical life of mankind. And until people realize this, they will not be able to perfect their being.
Cryptograms of the East
This work by Helena Roerich was published in Paris in 1929. But on the cover it was not her last name that flaunted, but a pseudonym - J. Saint-Hilaire. "Cryptograms" described the historical and legendary events of the past, revealing to people the unknown aspects of the life of the four Great Teachers - Apollonius of Tyana, Christ, Buddha and Sergius of Radonezh. Elena Ivanovna devoted a separate work to the latter. In it, the deep love of the writer for the ascetic was combined with an excellent knowledge of theology and history.
Letters
In the heritage of Helena Roerich, they occupy a special place. If the teaching of the Living Ethics Elena Ivanovna, whose photo is in many philosophical encyclopedias, created in collaboration with teachers, then the "Letters" became the product of her individual creativity. Roerich had an amazing gift of enlightenment. Without trying to simplify the problem, she made it accessible even to unprepared people. In a simple language, Elena Ivanovna explained to her correspondents complex questions about the relationship between matter and spirit, about the influence of cosmic laws, about the place of man in the Universe. The content of these lettersimpresses not only with Roerich's deep knowledge of ancient philosophical systems, treatises of European and Eastern thinkers, but also with a clear, broad understanding of the foundations of being.
The heroine of this article answered people with different levels of consciousness, but always in the spirit of goodwill and tolerance. For many, her cordial, warm attitude has become a sure support in difficult life moments. In Riga in 1940, the two-volume "Letters of H. I. Roerich" was published. This work is only a small part of the great epistolary heritage of the writer.
Last Period
1948 is the year in which Elena Ivanovna left the Kullu valley. The philosopher, together with her son Yuri, went to Khandala and Delhi (the husband of the writer had already died). After staying there for a while, they decided to settle in the resort town of Kalimpong (India).
Elena Ivanovna made repeated attempts to return to Russia. She wrote many times to the Soviet embassy asking for a visa, but she was constantly refused. Until the very end of her life, Roerich hoped to return to Russia in order to bring all the collected treasures and work for several years for the good of her homeland. But this never happened. In October 1955, the heroine of this article died in India.
Conclusion
More than sixty years have passed since Elena Ivanovna passed away. The work of this outstanding woman can be called heroic without embellishment. The more you get to know him, the clearer and deeper you understand the meaning of her works. The legacy left by Roerich is truly inexhaustible. With theirphilosophical, scientific discoveries, it is directed to the New World, to the Future, in which heroic creativity will become the rule, not the exception.
