Table Of ContentModern occultisM in late iMperial russia
This page intentionally left blank
Modern
occultism
in
late iMperial russia
J u l i a M a n n h e r z
niu
Press
DeKalb, IL
© 2012 by northern illinois university Press
Published by the northern illinois university Press, DeKalb, illinois 60115
Manufactured in the united states using acid-free paper.
all rights reserved
Design by shaun allshouse
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mannherz, Julia.
Modern occultism in late imperial russia / Julia Mannherz.
pages ; cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-87580-462-0 (clothbound) — isBn (invalid) 978-1-60909-064-7 (e-book)
1. Occultism—russia—history—19th century. 2. Occultism—russia—history—20th
century. 3. spiritualism—russia—history—19th century. 4. spiritualism—
russia—history—20th century. i. Title.
BF1434.r8M36 2012
130.947’09034--dc23
2012010094
contents
acknowledgments vii
introduction 3
1—The laboratory in the salon
Spiritualism Comes to Russia 21
2—Occult science and the russian Public 48
3—The Occult Metropolis
Putting the Hidden to Practical Use 79
4—servants, Priests, and haunted houses 111
5—Popular Occultism and the Orthodox Church 140
6—The Occult at Court
Mariia Puare and the Fate of Occultism
during the Great War 163
Conclusion 189
notes 195
selected Bibliography 249
index 269
This page intentionally left blank
acknowledgments
Many people and institutions have helped me write this book. Financial
support was provided by the Cambridge european Trust, the Deutscher akade-
mischer austauschdienst, the studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the uni-
versity of Göttingen, and in Oxford by the history Faculty, Oriel College, and
the Fell Fund. i am grateful to all of them. i also wish to thank the staffs of the
libraries and archives where i conducted my research: the university libraries
of Cambridge, Göttingen, Münster, and Oxford, the rossiiskaia natsional’naia
biblioteka, the rossiiskaia gosudarstvennaia biblioteka, the Biblioteka aka-
demii nauk, the Gosudarstvennaia publichnaia istoricheskaia biblioteka, the
sanktpeterburgskaia gosudarstvennaia teatral’naia biblioteka, the Bayerische
staatsbibliothek, the British library, the library of the school of slavonic and
east european studies (university College london), the rossiiskii gosudarst-
vennyi istoricheskii arkhiv, the Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv rossiiskoi Federatsii,
the natsional’nyi arkhiv respubliki Tatarstana, the Muzei tsirkovogo iskusst-
va, the Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv sankt-Peterburga, the
Tsentral’nyi istoricheskii arkhiv Moskvy, the Muzei Bakhrushina, and the in-
stitut russkoi literatury.
i am most grateful to friends and colleagues without whose help i would
never have written this book. hubertus Jahn and susan Morrissey helped me
formulate the project at the very beginning, and hubertus saw it through the
stages of a doctoral thesis.
Natascha Astrina was always happy to help with the difficult features of
the russian language, and without her, Tatjana Balzer, and elizaveta liphardt,
research trips to Moscow, st. Petersburg, and Kazan would not have worked
out so well. aleksandr and Ol’ga astriny always had an open door for me in
Moscow, zoia Balandina was my host in st. Petersburg, and together with
Kiril Bitner and elizaveta liphardt, zoia tracked down texts about hypno-
sis, while Guzel’ ibneeva, lialia Khasanshina, and elena Vishlenkova helped
me find primary texts in Kazan. Tetyana Bogdan, Nikolai Bogomolov, Sandra
Dahlke, Vera Dubina, James von Geldern, Boris Kolonitskii, Polly McMi-
chael, and Karen Petrone have also helped me with sources or suggestions.
x acknowledgMents
irina Khmel’nitskaia has done more for me than could ever be expected of a
friend, providing me with a place to stay in Moscow, helping with archives,
libraries, red tape, and together with Dmitrii Provodin, enabling me to conduct
“on-site research.”
in Göttingen, Manfred hildermeier was always ready to help, and in Ox-
ford my colleagues at the history Faculty and Oriel College have made me feel
most welcome and have supported me in every possible way.
numerous friends and colleagues have commented on drafts of chapters or
the whole manuscript at various stages of its development, and i would like
to thank Clare ashdowne, Dominik Collet, Bruno Currie, simon Dixon, Mur-
ray Frame, ian Forrest, Michael hagemeister, Jana howlett, hubertus Jahn,
emese lafferton, Carlos Martins, David Moon, alex Oberländer, Will Pooley,
Bernice rosenthal, steve smith, nick stargardt, and Christine Worobec for
their invaluable suggestions. at northern illinois university Press, amy Far-
ranto and susan Bean have been extremely helpful editors in every possible
way, and i am also grateful to Marlyn Miller for her thorough copy editing.
Tilman Bauer has supported me in every possible way throughout the many
years i have been working on the occult in russia; for his love and companion-
ship i am more than thankful. This book is dedicated to him.
Modern occultisM in late iMperial russia
This page intentionally left blank
