H. P. Blavatsky House-Museum

August 2013

From museum website

The H. P. Blavatsky House-Museum is a building in Dnepropetrovsk, southeastern Ukraine, that was the Fadeyev family mansion in which Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born. The city was formerly known as Ekaterinoslav. The building is now being preserved as a museum, and the organization has an Internet presence on Facebook.

History

Olena Alivantseva has described how in 1990 a public initiative was formed to study the heritage of H. P. Blavatsky and to create museum dedicated to her.

The project was named “H.P. Blavatsky and her Family Museum Center” and began to develop due to the joined efforts of the international community. The core of the initiative group was the Scientific and Cultural Association “Universum of Helena Blavatsky”, which included scientists, museums, cultural scientists, theosophists, local historians.

Since 1991 and up to now scientific conferences under the general name “H.P. Blavatsky and Modernity” are held annually in Dnipro with relevant topics for each year by the initiative group supported by the international community. The conferences are held on May 8 and are dedicated to the H.P. Blavatsky day, generally known as White Lotus Day. On August 12, H.P. Blavatsky birthday, scientific readings dedicated to her are held in Dnipro; at the late March – “H. P. Blavatsky Studios”, during the year - summer and winter series of scientific and educational lectures and club meetings.

In 2004, ownership of four-fifths of the house was transferred to the new museum, and in 2018 the remaining one-fifth was donated. The house, which had belonged to Blavatsky's grandfather, A. M. Fadeyev (1789–1867), was greatly in need of renovation. During August 3-11, 2013, a group of 62 Ukrainian and Russian Theosophists conducted extensive repairs of the building, working without electricity or hot water. Their volunteer efforts accomplished much in the cleaning, repair, and painting of the exterior, the ground floor, and the cellar. The renovated exhibition hall was used on August 12 to celebrate "Messenger of Light Day", Madame Blavatsky’s 182nd birthday. On August 15, local Theosophists of Dnepropetrovsk used the building to begin a lecture series on “Ethics is the Soul of Ancient Wisdom.”

Here are some photographs of the renovation process:

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Features of the museum

Helena Blavatsky and her mother

One of the special treasures of this museum is an oil painting of H. P. Blavatsky as a young women with her mother, Helena Andreyevna Hahn, who died when her daughter was 11 years old.

The portrait was presumably painted in 1844-45, and since then it stayed with the Hahn`s family in their family estate near Shandrovka village in Pridneprovie [Pridnestrovie] region. In the 1910s the portrait was transferred by their owners to Crimea, and in the late fifties – to Kirghizia. In 1991, the portrait returned to H.P. Blavatsky`s native land.

The painter is unknown, but may actually have been Helena Blavatsky herself, as she was quite a talented artist.

Additional resources

• White Lotus Day celebration, 2021 - video in two languages.
• House-Museum of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in Dnepropetrovsk Posted March 27, 2012 on the Ivan Berezina YouTube channel. Ukrainian.
• The “H. P. Blavatsky and Her Family Museum Center" Creation Project based on the Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum Named after D. I. Yavornytsky by Olena Alivantseva.
• The Two Helenas: an Unknown Duo Portrait by Elena Alivansteva, posted in the website of the Theosophical Society in Ukraine.