Helena Andreevna Hahn

Helena Andreevna Fadeev (January 11, 1814 - June 24, 1842) was the mother of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and considered the leading female writer of prose fiction in Russia, making a major contribution to the awareness of women rights in Russia.

Bio-data

Helena Andreevna Fadeev was born on January 11 (or January 23?), 1814, at Rzhisshchev, near Kiev. She was the eldest of four children. She was home-schooled under the guidance of her erudite mother, Helena Fadeev (1789-1860). She attained a high level of proficiency in European languages and knowledge of music and literature that was uncommon for her place of birth and time.

In 1830, at the age of 16, she married Captain Peter Hahn, who almost doubled her age, and entered into a military environment where cultural pursuits were not prominent. Her marriage was not very happy. They lived in a remote Ukrainian town and she lacked financial comfort, as well as emotional and spiritual fulfillment.

With only 17 years of age she gave birth to a daughter, Helena Petrovna Hahn, later known as Helena Blavatsky. She later bore a boy, who was soon to die, another daughter, Vera Petrovna de Zhelihovsky, and a fourth one, Leonid, in 1839.

In 1836 they moved to the capital, St. Petesburg, where she meets Osip Senkovskii and under his encouragement begins to publish her works in his journal Biblioteka dlia chteniia. The first of her tales to appear in print was "Ideal" (1837), under the name of Zeneida R-va.

Helena was probably the most radical writer in a group of women who entered the male bastion of the Russian literary world in 1830's and not only explored "the woman question" but also played an important role in what lead to the Great Tradition of the realist novel.

In 1837 Helena left St. Petersburg. Her last five years were spent in southern Russia, travelling frequently, either in more drab battery towns or with her family. At this time she showed an increasingly poor health, until she succumbed to what seems to have been heart disease, on June 24, 1842.

Further reading

• Reference Guide to Russian Literature by Neil Cornwell and Nicole Christian
• Dictionary of Russian Women Writers edited by Marina Ledkovski et al.
• Helena Andreevna Hahn at The Theosophical Forum