Lydia Alexandrovna de Pashkov

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Countess Lydia Pashkov

Portrait by Konstantin Egorovish Makovsky

Countess Lydia Alexandrovna de Pashkov (1845-19xx) was a Russian writer who was an early friend of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. She wrote in French under the name Lydie Paschkoff.

Boris de Zirkoff wrote of her:

Russian woman-writer and traveller of the middle 19th century. she was neé Glinsky and had been first married to Teleshov. She travelled extensively in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, and was at one time correspondent of the Paris Figaro. Most of her works were written in French. Among them may be mentioned: La pension Vera Glinsky. – Un divorce en Russie. – Moeurs Russes (St. Petersburg, 1876-77). – En Orient, Drames et Paysages (St. Petersburg, 1879).

Once when she was travelling between Baalbek and the river Orontes, probably around 1872, the Countess met H. P. B. and her caravan. They camped together near Deir Mar Maroon between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon. That night a Syrian ascetic who accompanied H.P.B. evoked the astral picture of an old priest who had been connected with the ancient temple, ruins of which were in the vicinity. They were also shown the place as it was when the temple stood there; a vast city spread then far and wide over the plains.

H.P.B. and Countess de Pashkov travelled together for a while, and various curious phenomena took place at the command of H.P.B.

See H. S. Olcott, Old Diary Leaves I, 334-35, for a quotation from the New York World of April 21, 1878, and the Theosophist, Vol. V, April, 1884, p. 168.

Theosophical historian John Patrick Deveney wrote:

Writings

Using the French name Lydie Paschkoff, she wrote novels, plays, and travelogues. These are some examples.

• Moeurs Russes. La princesse Vera Glinsky, la Nìanìa Marpha, Un divorce en Russie. Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1876.
• La pension Vera Glinsky – Un divorce en Russie. – Moeurs Russes St. Petersburg, 1876-77.
• En Orient, Drames et Paysages. St. Petersburg, 1879. Paris: Sandoz et Fischbacher, 1880. Available at data.bnf.fr
• La Princesse Vera Glinsky. Paris: C. Lévy, 1876. Available at data.bnf.fr
• La niania Marpha. Paris: C. Lévy, 1876.
• Un divorce en Russie.
• Moeurs Russes.
• Fleur de Jade. Paris: C. Lévy, 1890. Short stories set in China, Japan and the Far East.
• Cinderella. ca1892. Scenario for a ballet, commissioned by Lev Ianov.
• Le roman d'un grand-duc. Paris: Ed. Calmann-Levy, 1902.
• Revue Internationale
  • "Promenade à Hong Kong et à Canton." October, 1884, pg. 289.
  • "Chine et Russie." November, 1884, pg. 677.
• "Voyage a la Nouvell-Zemble." Tour du Monde. 1894. Pages 81-96. Written by N. Constantin Nossiloff and abstracted by Lydia Paschkoff.

Additional resources

• "Who Knew H.P.B. When?" by John Patrick Deveney. Published in Theosophical Encyclopedia, Theosophy Forward. March 4, 2020.
• The Esoteric World of H. P. Blavatsky Chapter 3 by Daniel H. Caldwell.
• Johnson, K. Paul. The Masters Revealed: Madam Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge. State University of New York Press, 1994.
• Hodgson, Barbara. "Middle East: Desert Queens" in No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2002. See this website.