A Russian Letter from Mme. Blavastky’s Husband

The Russian text of this November 13, 1858, letter from Nikifor Blavatsky has not been readily available before. An English translation from the original in the Adyar T.S. archives was published in The Theosophist, August 1959, pp. 295-96. Written to HPB’s aunt N. A. Fadeeva, it confirms the news of HPB’s return to Russia that year after a long absence. He writes: I ardently wish that our marriage be annulled, and that she may marry again.…I did my best, but Exarch Isidor refused to do it, acknowledging the difficulty of obtaining this in nineteenth century Russia, where divorce was almost impossible at that time, an agreed separation between the two parties being the alternative. As a historical curiosity a facsimile of the letter and the Russian text with some background by Leonid Danilov and a fractured English translation can be seen here.