MODERN Occultism

in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

J u l i a M a n n h e r z

niu P r e s s

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

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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

Bibliography 249

index 269

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.

1DWDVFKD�$VWULQD�ZDV�DOZD\V�KDSS\� WR�KHOS�ZLWK� WKH�GLI¿FXOW� IHDWXUHV�RI�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 hypnosis,

while Guzel’ ibneeva, lialia Khasanshina, and elena Vishlenkova helped me

¿QG�SULPDU\�WH[WV�LQ�.D]DQ��7HW\DQD�%RJGDQ��1LNRODL�%RJRPRORY��9HUD�'X-

bina, James von Geldern, Boris Kolonitskii, and Polly McMichael have also

helped me with sources or suggestions. irina Khmel’nitskaia has done more

x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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 the anonymous readers

of northern illinois university Press for their invaluable suggestions. 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

Introduction

in the early 1890s, the symbolist poet Valerii iakovlevich Briusov discov-

ered his enthusiasm for the occult, and by the early months of 1893, he was

regularly attending spiritualist séances. several times a week, he joined a

circle of acquaintances who gathered in darkened rooms to experience uncan-

ny, supernatural occurrences.1 These assemblies were so important to Briusov

that he noted them in his diary, recorded them in a black notebook with the

inscription “spiritualist séances,” and mentioned them in letters.2 Judging by

these accounts, séances not only provided Briusov with playful entertainment

and a chance to engage in mischievousness and in amorous adventures, but

they also engendered philosophical and artistic contemplation about reality

and were a source of creative inspiration. so deep was Briusov’s emotional,

artistic, and intellectual investment in spiritualism, that bed-ridden in 1895,

he longingly begged his friend aleksandr lang (Miropol’skii) to visit and to

entertain him: “bring the planchette with you; we’ll write and hold a séance.”3

eventually, Briusov’s séance experiences provided the basis for a novella and

LQÀXHQFHG�KLV�SRHWU\�DQG�KLV�VHOI�SHUFHSWLRQ�DV�DQ�DUWLVW�Briusov, of course, was an outstanding poet, but his enthusiasm for spiritu-

alism was far from exceptional. ideas about mystical and supernatural powers

played a prominent role in the cultural imagination of late nineteenth- and

early twentieth-century russian society. While Briusov was walking the night

streets of Moscow to join his fellow séance participants, many of his con-

temporaries were engaged in similar activities. no statistics are available that

could shed light on the absolute numbers of those who, alongside Briusov,

were drawn to occult rituals during the last decades of the nineteenth century

and the beginning of the twentieth.4 Those who recorded occult activities in

4 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

their letters, diaries, notebooks, or memoirs were predominantly highly-edu-

FDWHG�PHQ��EXW�D�VLJQL¿FDQW�FRUSXV�RI�VRXUFHV�LQGLFDWHV�WKDW�PDQ\�PRUH�FRQ-

temporaries shared these interests. The widespread fascination with the occult

was mirrored in, among others, the sphere of publishing. Between 1881 and

the end of the empire, over 30 periodicals devoted to the invisible world ap-

peared in russia, but the occult was also a prominent topic in mainstream pub-

lishing.5 Cheap pamphlets extolled occult techniques and standard newspapers

frequently reported supernatural occurrences. in February 1893, at the time

when Briusov was attending séances in Moscow, the popular st. Petersburg

daily Peterburgskaia gazeta (St. Petersburg Gazette) ran a series of articles

on spiritualists in the northern capital entitled “Peterburgskie spirity.”6 Over

the course of two weeks, the broadsheet informed its readers about some of

the capital’s most famous occultists, about ghostly apparitions, reincarnation,

VSLULW�JXLGDQFH�LQ�¿FWLRQ�ZULWLQJ��K\SQRVLV��VSLULW�SKRWRJUDSK\��WKH�LPSRUWDQFH�of religion for all these phenomena, and the close relation between occult phe-

nomena and the sciences. The series began with an interview of Viktor ivanov-

ich Pribytkov, and it is indicative of the allure of spiritualism that Pribytkov,

³WKH�µRI¿FLDO¶�6W��3HWHUVEXUJ�VSLULWXDOLVW��HGLWRU�DQG�SXEOLVKHU�RI�WKH�>VSLULWXDO-ist] journal Rebus,” needed little introduction. he and his journal were well

known to the newspaper’s readers.7

%\�WKH�EHJLQQLQJ�RI�WKH�QHZ�FHQWXU\��%ULXVRY�ZDV�PRYLQJ�FRQ¿GHQWO\�LQ�the circles Peterburgskaia gazeta described. he made the acquaintance of Pri-

bytkov in 1900, contributed articles to Rebus, and presented the journal’s edi-

tor with “a small book of my poetry that has just come out.” Briusov hoped

WKDW�3ULE\WNRY�PLJKW�¿QG�³LQ�WKH�ODVW�VHFWLRQ��ZKHUH�,�VSHDN�RSHQO\�DERXW�P\�FKHULVKHG�EHOLHIV�>�����@��SRHPV�>ZKRVH�WKHPHV@�DUH�QRW�HQWLUHO\�XQIDPLOLDU�WR�you.”8 Before entrusting his letters to Pribytkov to the post, Briusov carefully

composed draft versions, which underlines the importance he attributed to this

correspondence.9�7KUHH�\HDUV�ODWHU��DQG�PRUH�WKDQ�D�GHFDGH�DIWHU�KH�¿UVW�WRRN�an interest in séances, Briusov had gained such high regard among russia’s

leading spiritualists that he offered the gravesite obituary of aleksandr niko-

laevich aksakov, the man who had done more than anyone else to propagate

spiritualism in russia.10

Briusov’s interest in the occult and his friendship with authors, editors, and

protagonists of publications dealing with the supernatural illustrates several

WKHPHV�WKDW�DUH�DW�WKH�FHQWHU�RI�WKLV�VWXG\��7KH�VLJQL¿FDQFH�RI�WKH�RFFXOW�LQ�WKH�private lives of contemporaries and its role in mass culture are the subjects of

this book. The history of late imperial occult thought and practice are traced

INTRODUCTION 5

from their origins in private salons to the public debates of the 1870s and the

subsequent proliferation of the occult within turn-of-the-century mass culture.

Briusov himself knew of these different approaches to the supernatural world

¿UVWKDQG��+LV�DFTXDLQWDQFH�ZLWK�3ULE\WNRY�DQG�$NVDNRY�EURXJKW�KLP�LQWR�FRQ-

tact with representatives of an older generation of russian spiritualists, who

prominently propagated their beliefs in the growing sphere of publishing in

WKH�����V�DQG�����V��DQG�ZKR�FRQ¿GHQWO\�LQVLVWHG�WKDW�WKH�RFFXOW�ZDV�VFLHQ-

WL¿FDOO\�H[SOLFDEOH��%ULXVRY�KLPVHOI��KRZHYHU��PRYHG�DZD\�IURP�WKLV�UDWLRQDO�approach and cherished the irrational sensations that occult rituals offered. he

experimented with various techniques aside from spiritualist séances, and his

LQFUHDVLQJ�YHUVDWLOLW\�ZDV�UHSUHVHQWDWLYH�RI�D�GLYHUVL¿FDWLRQ�RI�RFFXOW�SUDFWLFHV�around the turn of the century.

Popular Occultism in the Russian Empire

in late imperial russia, occultism was made up of a cluster of theories,

EHOLHIV��DQG�SUDFWLFHV�WKDW�LQFOXGHG�VSLULWXDOLVW�VpDQFHV��TXDVL�VFLHQWL¿F�WKHR-

ries concerning mathematics, x-rays, and light waves; hypnosis; meditation

exercises; theosophical discussion groups; telepathy; clairvoyance; dietary re-

gimes; prayers; gymnastic programs; and investigations into supernatural oc-

currences such as haunted houses. in most contemporary texts, the occult was

used as a word with positive connotations whose meaning combined rational

understanding with the discovery of higher emotional truth. as one encyclope-

dia described it, the occult was part of “the double striving of the human soul

to believe and to apprehend.”11

although highly diverse and disparate, these practices formed a unity not

only because contemporaries labeled them as “occult,” but also because they

shared of a number of prime concerns. One of these was the common objec-

tive of all occultists to interact with and to study a hidden and greater dimen-

sion of reality.12 in the second half of the nineteenth century, this desire to

experience and explain a concealed aspect of the world that many considered

to be painfully unexplored was prominently engendered by the fashionable

practice of spiritualism. During séances, that is, gatherings of men and women

in darkened rooms that aimed to establish contact with the spirits of the de-

parted, spiritualists received enigmatic messages delivered through knocks or

in awkward handwriting; they observed sparks of light; they saw how invis-

ible forces moved furniture, played instruments, or left imprints of immaterial

6 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

hands and feet on soft surfaces. all of these phenomena raised challenging

questions about the ability of current knowledge to comprehend invisible forc-

es and about the relationship of the here and now to another world. as shown

LQ�WKH�¿UVW�FKDSWHU�RI�WKLV�ERRN��VSLULWXDOLVP�EHFDPH�D�SURPLQHQW�SUDFWLFH�LQ�post-reform russia that developed out of noble salon culture and combined

entertainment with science. it allowed contemporaries to explore their rela-

tionship to death at a time when religious convictions concerning immortality

ZHUH�EHLQJ�FKDOOHQJHG�E\�VFLHQWL¿F�QRWLRQV��DQG�LW�PRUHRYHU�HQDEOHG�SDUWLFL-pants to appreciate their own intense sense of being alive. spiritualist gather-

ings also provided practitioners with the opportunity to fashion themselves

as independently minded investigators of unexplored aspects of nature, or as

unconventional artists.

in the second chapter, two areas of knowledge are examined which, ac-

cording to occultists, shed light on the workings of a hidden reality: math-

ematics and physiological ideas regarding hypnosis. The analysis of a fero-

cious public debate that erupted in 1878 over the claim that non-euclidean

geometry and higher dimensional mathematics explained the workings of

séance phenomena begins the chapter. The chapter ends with a description

of how this intellectually relatively exclusive debate metamorphosed into

a mass discussion about occult science, which in the 1880s and 1890s cen-

tered around the practice of hypnosis.

historians and sociologists have frequently argued that occultism emerged

as a reaction to the rise of science and materialism, and that occultism and ra-

tionality represent binary opposites.13 in fact, occultists’ relationship with sci-

HQFH�ZDV�FRPSOH[�DQG�KLJKO\�DPELYDOHQW��2FFXOWLVWV�RSHUDWHG�ZLWK�VFLHQWL¿F�notions and hoped that their theories would be welcomed by representatives of

established academe. Thus, numerous occult texts stressed the rational quali-

ties of occultism by describing the study of the hidden realm as an innovative

VFLHQWL¿F�GLVFLSOLQH�LQ�LWV�RZQ�ULJKW��-RXUQDOV�VXFK�DV�Vestnik okku’ltnykh nauk

(Herald of Occult Sciences) and Mag: Zhurnal okkul’tnykh nauk (The Magi-

cian: Journal for Occult Sciences) equated the occult with the exact sciences

in their title. Other pamphlets advanced “professors of secret sciences” or re-

ferred to doctoral theses in the area, while Pribytkov asserted in Rebus that

occultism was devoted to “the teaching of nature’s mysteries.”14

Occultists were not entirely unsuccessful in their endeavors to claim sci-

HQWL¿FLW\� IRU� WKHLU�FRQYLFWLRQV��6SLULWXDOLVWV�FRXOG�SRLQW� WRZDUG�D�QXPEHU�RI�esteemed scientists who ardently defended the veracity of séance phenomena.

These included, among others, the chemist and fellow of the royal society sir

INTRODUCTION 7

William Crookes, the German astrophysicist Karl Friedrich zöllner, the chem-

ist aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, and the zoologist nikolai Petrovich Vag-

ner. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, physiologists became increas-

ingly interested in hypnosis, a technique in which occultists claimed expertise.

That established scientists would conduct research into such a “mysterious”

WRSLF�ZDV�KDLOHG�E\�RFFXOWLVWV�DV�D�VLJQ�WKDW�WKHLU�FRQFHUQV�ZHUH�¿QDOO\�HQWHULQJ�the academic mainstream.

While a lot of energy was spent in the attempt to situate the occult within

WKH�UHDOP�RI�VFLHQFH��RFFXOWLVWV�FRXOG�DOVR�EH�H[WUHPHO\�FULWLFDO�RI�VFLHQWL¿F�QRWLRQV��ZKLFK�WKH\�DUJXHG�IDLOHG�WR�DGGUHVV�WKH�PRVW�VLJQL¿FDQW�DUHDV�RI�KX-

man existence: the ultimate meaning of life and death. Despite their criticism,

however, occultists felt painfully offended by the majority of scientists who

rejected their conclusions. Because of occultists’ claims to explain nature fully,

the fervent support by some scientists, and the hostile reaction it received from

a majority of outspoken scholars, occult science became a hotly debated topic

LQ�WKH�FXOWXUDOO\�LQÀXHQWLDO�WKLFN�MRXUQDOV�DQG�LW�JHQHUDWHG�VLJQL¿FDQW�LQWHUHVW�within popular culture. Consequently, debates about occult science in the pub-

OLF�VSKHUH�WXUQHG�LQWR�EURDGHU�GLVFXVVLRQV�DERXW�WKH�YHUDFLW\�RI�VFLHQWL¿F�WUXWK�and its relationship to the relativity and ambiguity of modern life.

Occultism, then, combined the disparate: belief about life after death, and

science, entertainment and individual self-fashioning, as well as highly in-

WHOOHFWXDO�GHEDWHV�DQG�SRSXODU�FXOWXUH��,QGHHG��RQH�RI�WKH�GH¿QLQJ�IHDWXUHV�of occult theory and practice was its versatility and eclecticism.15 Occultists

were trying to understand séance phenomena with the help of geometry,

and they attempted to grasp the workings of hypnosis by evoking electricity

or neurology, but they simultaneously borrowed from renaissance alchemy,

Jewish Kabbalah, Buddhist mysticism, Christian theology, and Kantian phi-

losophy. This borrowing of diverse ideas, which frequently contradicted

each other, resulted in notions that on the one hand attempted to unify all

human knowledge, but that on the other hand often lacked intellectual rigor

and coherence. The nature of occult forces was a case in point. From the

spiritualist perspective, these resided mostly outside of those who observed

them, that is, occult phenomena were thought to be caused by the spirits

of the dead. Yet champions of spiritualism also suggested that séance phe-

nomena might be caused by powers that resided deep inside the psyche of

the living who attended séances.16 Toward the turn of the century, the bor-

der between external and internal forces became increasingly blurred and

notions about these powers ever more vague. sometimes, contemporaries

8 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

experienced the lack of precision in occult thinking as problematic. in 1892,

Rebus published an article entitled “The Meaning of Terms used in spiritu-

alism,” which was intended to introduce greater semantic rigor.17 The proj-

ect, however, was ill-fated from the start, for the text was based on a German

document that did not take russian usage into consideration.

Theoretical inconsistency and ideological overlap could be found across the

spectrum of occult theory and practice, and made a clear distinction between

schools of occult thought almost impossible. how-to manuals, for example,

combined instructions about spiritualist séances with fortune-telling, hypnosis

with clairvoyance, meditation with the interpretation of dreams, or folklore

with the fourth dimension, or they discussed the obstructive quality of corsets

before turning to indian fakirs.18 The eclecticism of occultism is discussed in

chapter three, as is the move of occult forces from the outside into the human

psyche, a development that facilitated a widening of the occult sphere to in-

clude ever more varied forms of practices and beliefs.

3RSXODU�RFFXOWLVP�ZDV�HFOHFWLF�DQG�GH¿HG�ULJRURXV�V\VWHPDWL]DWLRQ��:KLOH�this may be seen as an intellectual weakness, it was also one of its greatest

strengths, in that it assured that occultism could be experienced as all embrac-

ing. after all, the object of occult study was that which, although real, was

“impenetrable to the normal human senses,” including the rational mind.19 Oc-

cult thought, then, could not conform to standards of cold academic reasoning

were it to do justice to its object of investigation. around the turn of the cen-

WXU\��PRVW�RFFXOWLVWV�DEDQGRQHG�DWWHPSWV�WR�DSSURDFK�WKH�RFFXOW�ZLWK�VFLHQWL¿F�theories and instead relished supernatural experiences precisely because they

GH¿HG�UHDVRQ�EXW�VWUHVVHG�HPRWLRQ��2FFXOWLVWV�GHVFULEHG�KRZ�VXSHUQDWXUDO�H[-

perience led them from the mechanics of everyday life “into the realm of the

heart and of sentiment.”20 This journey conferred upon them highly personal

visions of sublime wisdom, majestic love, and supreme power. as one dis-

ciple put it: “these sensations allow us to feel revelatory meaning.”21 rather

than agreeing upon a set of abstract ideas and practices, diverse forms of oc-

cult penetration of higher wisdom shared an emotional, and sometimes also

a bodily, experience of awe and insight. Two techniques that stressed such

experience are the focus of chapter three: gaining hypnotic power over oth-

HUV��DQG�WKH�VR�FDOOHG�RFFXOW�PHQWDO�SUD\HU��7KH�¿UVW�DOORZHG�SUDFWLWLRQHUV�WR�JDLQ�LQÀXHQFH�RYHU�WKHPVHOYHV�DQG�RWKHUV��ZKLOH�WKH�VHFRQG�EURXJKW�DERXW�D�sense of belonging within a larger community of like-minded brethren. Both

exercises offered an entryway into hidden reality and a technique that enabled

practitioners to employ the mighty powers that lingered in this realm.

INTRODUCTION 9

One further trait that was shared by diverse occult ideas and practices was

“a common ideology of seekership,”22 that is, a painstaking search for a deeper

truth that would bestow meaning on all aspects of everyday experience and

transcend quotidian triviality by integrating all forms of knowledge. One of the

consequences of occult seekership was the ever-widening scope of occult con-

cerns, which in early twentieth-century russia were advertised very openly.23

Cheap pamphlets and journals taught readers “how to summon a ghost,” “how

to develop clairvoyance,” and how to obtain “spiritual prowess.”24

$W�¿UVW�VLJKW��PDVV�SXEOLFDWLRQV�GHDOLQJ�ZLWK�WKH�RFFXOW�DSSHDU�WR�EH�D�FRQ-

tradiction in terms. The occult, which translates from the latin as that which

is deliberately hidden, cannot, it would appear, be trumpeted by cheap instruc-

tion manuals. Yet the modern popular occultism that this study deals with was

highly visible. The vibrant print culture of the late tsarist empire meant that

the occult conception of the universe, allegedly revealed only to the initiate,

was proclaimed in journals and in the pages of cheap pamphlets, and adver-

tised in newspaper listings. The occult truth that these organs revealed was

not openly self-evident; it had to be searched for and found, but it was neither

concealed nor beyond reach. it was veiled, but accessible for each individual

who looked for it, and cheap instruction manuals promised to teach readers

how to go about this quest. The occult insights that these publications revealed,

then, were not mysteries in the sense of being inaccessible but, in the words

of Jacques Derrida, “in the sense that a secret provides a valuable insight.”25

seekership could be individual and directed toward emotional insight; it

could also manifest itself around attempts to study and to explain mysterious

phenomena. in late imperial russia, haunted houses provided opportunities

for such analysis; and their boisterous character brought together convinced

occultists and contemporaries who did not necessarily share beliefs in super-

natural interference. These unquiet homes, which were visited by curious on-

lookers and inspected by the police, the clergy, and journalists, are the sub-

ject of chapter four. reports about them featured prominently in newspapers,

pamphlets, and journals, thereby confronting ordinary readers with phenom-

ena that seemed to pertain to a different reality. The logic and narrative of

DFFRXQWV�DERXW�KDXQWHG�KRXVHV�UHVHPEOHG�GUHDPV��DQG�WKHLU�PHDQLQJ�GH¿HG�straightforward interpretation. By combining different notions and possible

explanations, none of which, however, was presented as preeminent, debates

about haunted houses continued the occult tradition of uniting the disparate in

WKH�SXEOLF�VSKHUH��7KH\�DOVR�VLJQL¿FDQWO\�H[SUHVVHG�DQ�DWWLWXGH�WKDW�DFFHSWHG�and even relished ambiguity, merging Orthodoxy with medicine, folklore with

10 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

social thought, and bringing together the rural village in which these events

took place with the urban mass culture that reported them.

Discussions about haunted houses illustrate the location of occultism in the

cultural landscape of late imperial russia. Occult ideas and practices were

focused around specialized journals or instruction manuals devoted to the top-

ic. But the occult was also prominent in the mainstream press, where it was

GHEDWHG�E\�WKH�FRXQWU\¶V�PRVW�SURPLQHQW�FXOWXUDO��VFLHQWL¿F��DQG�DUWLVWLF�¿J-

ures. in mainstream publishing, however, supernatural occurrences remained

a contentious topic. some newspaper articles implied that spiritualist explana-

tions were plausible, but frequently, writers remained ambiguous or expressed

ridicule and skeptical or even scathing assessments. The occult was thus never

TXLWH�DFFHSWHG�DQG�UHWDLQHG�DQ�LOOLFLW�ÀDYRU�26

7KH�IRFXV�RI�FKDSWHU�¿YH�WXUQV�WRZDUG�WKRVH�ZKR�REVHUYHG�WKH�RFFXOW�IURP�the outside by analyzing the reactions of russian Orthodox theologians. it

shows that theologians, like occultists, were challenged by the ascent of science

as the most authoritative form to explain nature and man. Orthodox authors,

like their occultist compatriots, wrestled with individualism, immortality, and

the meaning of miracles. But despite these shared concerns, Orthodox thinkers

were restrained by Christian teaching and their responses to these questions

stayed within the boundaries of theological tradition. Orthodox writers in turn

criticized occultists for abandoning basic Christian tenets. For example, oc-

cultism allegedly did not lead believers to strive toward personal salvation and

PRUHRYHU� ODFNHG�WKH�UHGHHPLQJ�¿JXUH�RI�&KULVW��2FFXOWLVWV�ZHUH� LQGHHG�QRW�much concerned with a deity or a personal relationship with God. instead, as

discussed above, they freely incorporated various religious and philosophical

WUDGLWLRQV��1RWZLWKVWDQGLQJ�WKH�DI¿QLWLHV�WR�ERWK�VFLHQFH�DQG�EHOLHI��WKH�RFFXOW�ZDV�UHMHFWHG�E\�WKH�RI¿FLDO�FKXUFK�DV�KHUHWLFDO�DQG�ODPEDVWHG�E\�SURPLQHQW�VFLHQWLVWV� DV� LUUDWLRQDO��7KH�RFFXOW�� WKHQ��ZDV�DOVR�GH¿QHG�E\� LWV�SRVLWLRQ� LQ�society. in late imperial russia, it may have been at the cultural center, but it

DOVR�OD\�RQ�WKH�UHOLJLRXV��VFLHQWL¿F��DQG�VRFLDO�SHULSKHULHV�Theologians and occultists differed not only in their ideas, restrained in

WKH�FDVH�RI�WKH�¿UVW�DQG�UDWKHU�LPDJLQDWLYH�LQ�WKH�FDVH�RI�WKH�ODWWHU��EXW�LQ�WKHLU�ties to social institutions. While Orthodox writers were associated with and

bound by the traditions of the Church, the intellectual freedom of occultists

was not obstructed by any institutional organization. in contrast to established

churches, occultists did not create set organizations, a ministry, or even a com-

PXQLW\�RI�IHOORZ�RFFXOWLVWV�WKDW�ZDV�FOHDUO\�GH¿QHG��$V�D�FRQVHTXHQFH��RFFXOW�identities were hard to grasp. establishing who was a spiritualist, a hypnotist,

INTRODUCTION 11

or even an occultist was tricky. When it came to the occult community, the

driving stimulus of seekership acted as a centrifugal force. in their search for

an individual experience of hidden meaning, men and women in the late tsar-

ist empire shopped around; very few of them were faithfully wedded to only

one of the numerous teachings and practices available, but moved from one

to the next. Pribytkov and aksakov, for example, remained vocal advocates of

spiritualism over several decades, but they also dabbled in hypnosis. Briusov’s

interest in spiritualism likewise continued over many decades, but the poet

also tried yoga and followed meditation exercises.27 Others later reminisced

about interests that combined spiritualism with yoga, telepathy, and the train-

ing of hypnotic powers.28 Moreover, while engaging in such heterodox prac-

tices, occultists also commonly asserted their russian Orthodox identities.29

and while Pribytkov, aksakov, and Butlerov stayed faithful to occult convic-

WLRQV�EURDGO\�GH¿QHG�RYHU�GHFDGHV��RWKHU�FRQWHPSRUDULHV�PRYHG�LQ�DQG�RXW�RI�occult practice.

'HVSLWH�LWV�IDLOXUH�WR�FRQJHDO�LQWR�D�FOHDUO\�GH¿QHG�LQWHOOHFWXDO��UHOLJLRXV��RU�social movement, occultism in late imperial russia formed an entity, for it con-

formed to what sociologist Colin Campbell has described a “cultic milieu,” that

is a loose amalgamation of practitioners who are united by diverse, transient,

and loosely structured practices, and by the subscription to periodicals and

VKDUHG�UHDGLQJ��DOO�RI�ZKLFK�UHYROYH�DURXQG�ÀXFWXDWLQJ�EHOLHI�V\VWHPV��6XFK�D�FXOWLF�PLOLHX�KDV�XQGH¿QHG�ERXQGDULHV��RQO\�D�UXGLPHQWDU\�RUJDQL]DWLRQ��DQG�no sacraments. it is accessible, tolerant of various strands of thought within

the broader sphere of the occult (and beyond), and it makes few demands on

its members.30 Despite these characteristics, the cultic milieu is a single entity,

not only because individual practitioners take part in its various manifestations

and thus hold it together, but also because a common consciousness of devi-

ance, a need to justify their views, and a sense of mutual sympathy and support

unites followers.31

its loose links set popular occultism, which is the object of this study, apart

from other movements that are exclusive, emphasize hierarchies, and conduct

their meetings in secrecy. Whereas societies such as Freemasons, Martinists,

the Golden Dawn, sectarian groups and, to a lesser degree, theosophical group-

LQJV�ZHUH�WLJKWO\�VWUXFWXUHG��FOHDUO\�FLUFXPVFULEHG��H[SRXQGHG�¿[HG�EHOLHI�V\V-tems, and possessed stable institutions, the popular occult lacked this organiz-

ing principle. The teachings and writings of such exclusive occult groups may

become part of the sphere of popular occultism when they transcend the restric-

tions of their institutional boundaries through publications or open lectures,

12 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

but their secret meetings and well-guarded hierarchies keep them from full

engagement in popular culture. The public visibility of spiritualism in turn ex-

plains why it plays such a prominent role in this study: its central practice, the

séance, was straightforward enough to be conducted by everyone who wanted

to give it a try, and the ideas that stood behind it were easily comprehensible

intellectually and accessible practically through the popular press. spiritual-

ism moreover lacked a central organizing institution; instead it was anarchic,

ZLWK� SUDFWLWLRQHUV�PHHWLQJ� DW� SULYDWHO\� DUUDQJHG� JDWKHULQJV��7KH\� LGHQWL¿HG�with each other through shared interests and readings, and common convic-

tions. Popular occultism more generally, then, was an unorganized “frame of

mind” with seekership at its center.32

Occultism in the Modern World

in the eyes of many commentators the success of occultism in post-reform

russia was shocking because belief in a different, hidden reality that was inac-

cessible to the rational mind was at odds with enlightenment ideals about mod-

ern man, his independence from supernatural forces, and the powerful knowl-

edge he used with increasing success to subjugate nature. The modern rational

persona of the nineteenth century, as embodied by ivan sergeevich Turgenev’s

¿FWLRQDO�FKDUDFWHU�(YJHQLL�%D]DURY��EHOLHYHG�LQ�QHLWKHU�VXSHUQDWXUDO�SRZHUV�nor in the value of emotion.33�%D]DURY�DQG�UHDO�OLIH�PHQ�OLNH�KLP�FRQ¿UPHG�0D[�:HEHU¶V�LQÀXHQWLDO�DVVHVVPHQW�WKDW�PRGHUQLW\�ZDV�D�ZRUOG�IUHH�RI�P\V-terious powers, a world that was thoroughly “disenchanted.”34 What made oc-

FXOWLVP�D�VHQVLWLYH�WRSLF�DQG�DVVXUHG�LWV�QRWRULHW\��WKHQ��ZDV�LWV�ÀRXULVKLQJ�LQ�a period when, in the minds of many, it should not have been around. indeed,

VRPH� VRFLRORJLVWV� GH¿QH�RFFXOWLVP� DV� D� QLQHWHHQWK�FHQWXU\� SKHQRPHQD� WKDW�was in various ways closely implicated with secularization, either as a reaction

against it,35 or as the revival of an older esoteric tradition in a period of spiritual

disenchantment.36 Whereas these approaches stress the difference between oc-

cultism and the modern—a difference that in the latter understanding is based

on dependence—in this work, their similarity is emphasized.

until relatively recently, most historians have followed Weber’s assessment

and equated modernity with rationalism and a rejection of mysterious pow-

ers.37 in the last two decades, however, historians of religion have shown that

faith and individual experiences of the supernatural remained highly important

throughout the nineteenth century; indeed they have argued for a religious re-

INTRODUCTION 13

vival in the period.38 scholars of heterodox beliefs in turn have equally noted

the relevance of such convictions in the modern age and the way in which they

engaged with and were motivated by contemporary concerns.39

such observations necessitate a reassessment of the modern. Whereas tra-

GLWLRQDO�GH¿QLWLRQV�RI�PRGHUQLW\�KDYH�SDLQWHG�D�VWDWLF�SLFWXUH�RI�LQGXVWULDOL]HG�economies, administrative rationalization, political participation, cognitive

realism, and belief in progress, recent studies have emphasized cultural mod-

HUQLVP��IRFXVLQJ�RQ�VHOI�UHÀH[LYLW\��WKH�ÀHHWLQJ��WKH�FRQWLQJHQW��WKH�LUUDWLRQDO��and the contradictory, which pervaded both popular and high culture as moder-

QLW\¶V�GH¿QLQJ�IHDWXUHV�40 like some nineteenth-century poets, these scholars

KDYH�GH¿QHG�WKH�H[SHULHQFH�RI�WKH�PRGHUQ�DV�WLHG�XS�ZLWK�DQ�DFXWH�VHQVH�WKDW�seemingly stable certainties—social structures, economic customs, religious

traditions, moral values, political establishments—were changing or even dis-

integrating, that life had become transient and unpredictable. The experience

RI�ÀX[�ZDV�ULIH� LQ� ODWH� LPSHULDO�5XVVLD��VWXGHQWV�RI� WKH�SHULRG�KDYH�SDLQWHG�the picture of a society in which developments of change, disintegration, and

realignment were all-pervasive. They have pointed to political reform, indus-

trialization, and urbanization, and to the upheavals that followed in their wake:

mass migration; unstable social and cultural boundaries between classes, eth-

nicities, and genders; the broadening of the public sphere; the emergence of a

PDVV�FXOWXUH�WKDW�DPSOL¿HG�FRPSHWLQJ�LGHRORJLHV�RI�DXWRFUDF\�YHUVXV�UHYROX-

tion, enthusiasm for technological progress versus religious faith, fears about

science gone bad and nostalgia for a preindustrial past; traditional patriarchy

versus feminism; russian chauvinism versus tolerance and calls for national

autonomy.41 as these examples show, the experience of modernity was not

RQO\�RQH�RI�ÀX[��EXW�DOVR�FKDUDFWHUL]HG�E\�WKH�VHQVDWLRQ�WKDW�RSSRVLWHV�FRH[LVW�and contemporaries have to encounter the “simultaneity of the un-simultane-

ous.”42 The modern experience thus describes the sensation of encountering

the end of the old and the promise of new empowering times, while the linger-

ing and nostalgic endurance of the past within this modernity also warns of a

future that could be threatening.43

nothing epitomized the ambiguity of the present—the simultaneity of tran-

sience, disappearance, and tenacity, and the coexistence of opposites—and the

elusive promise of an unrealized future better than the occult and visions of

ethereal spirits. in occultism, the past, present, and future collapsed. Occult

thinking combined intellectual traditions harking back to pre-enlightenment

WKRXJKW�ZLWK�VWDWH�RI�WKH�DUW� VFLHQWL¿F� WKHRULHV�DQG�SURPLVHG� IXWXUH� LQVLJKWV�that would revolutionize human understanding of the world and of the human

14 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

self.44 Jacques Derrida has read spirit appearances themselves as moments of

heightened temporal ambivalence, since the presence of a person who is no

more but whose eternal self points toward the future, fuses the chronologically

disparate.45 Moreover, supernatural phenomena are—as is modern life—tran-

VLHQW�DQG�HYHU�FKDQJLQJ��DQG�WKHLU�GHYHORSPHQW�GH¿HV�SUHGLFWLRQ�DQG�FRQWURO��spirits appear and disappear, or sometimes even fail to appear despite great

efforts of the living to summon them. Yet while the living have an image of

the character of ghosts in their minds, these beings are ultimately ungraspable,

they lack corporality. That makes the supernatural a particularly suitable illus-

tration of the modern, which, in the words of the decadent French poet Charles

%DXGHODLUH��ZDV�GH¿QHG�E\�³WKH�HSKHPHUDO�� WKH�IXJLWLYH�� WKH�FRQWLQJHQW�� WKH�half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.”46 in this book,

then, the occult is analyzed as a way of thinking, feeling, and describing the

world that was enmeshed with and representative of the experience of euro-

pean modernity.

Occultism and Historiography

The importance of occultism in the lives of individuals and in late nine-

teenth-century russian publishing notwithstanding, the fascination with the

supernatural evident among contemporaries has either been ignored or active-

ly written out of history. Briusov provides a particularly striking example in

this regard.47 in his diary, as in his letters to his friend lang, thoughts about art,

philosophy, and literature were inextricably entangled with spiritualist experi-

HQFHV�DQG�VH[XDO�DGYHQWXUHV��,QGHHG��WKH�¿UVW�HQWU\�VHW�WKH�WRQH�E\�GHVFULELQJ�a séance meeting.48�7KURXJKRXW�WKH�¿UVW�QRWHERRN��%ULXVRY�GHVFULEHG�LQ�JUHDW�detail his spiritualist activities and his infatuation with elena Maslova, during

both social functions and spiritualist gatherings, and he made clear that deca-

dence, spiritualism, and passion were the important components of his artistic

SURJUDP��2QH�GLDU\�HQWU\�UHDGV��³>,�PXVW@�)LQG�D�ORGHVWDU�LQ�WKH�PLVW��$QG�,�see them: decadence and spiritualism. Yes! Whatever one may say, whether

they are false, or ridiculous, they are moving ahead, developing and the future

ZLOO�EH�WKHLUV��>�����@�$QG�LI�(OHQD�$QGUHHYQD�ZLOO�EH�P\�DLGH��ZH¶OO�FRQTXHU�WKH�world.”49 The published soviet versions of his diaries erased spiritualism from

this plan of action. “Decadence and spiritualism” became simply “decadence,”

DQG�%ULXVRY¶V�DIIDLU�ZLWK�(OHQD�ZDV�WXUQHG�LQWR�D�ÀHHWLQJ�ÀLUWDWLRQ�DW�KLV�QDPH�day party.50 it was not only later soviet portrayals of the poet’s life that re-

INTRODUCTION 15

moved spiritualism; the english edition of his diaries was even more severe in

cutting any reference to the invisible world.51 Biographies of other well-known

and respected contemporaries who shared Briusov’s spiritualist views were

treated in a similar manner. For example, General aleksei Brusilov, a rus-

sian First World War hero and a prominent commander in the red army after

the revolution, believed in the reality of communications with the beyond.

$OWKRXJK�WKLV�EHOLHI�LV�UHÀHFWHG�LQ�WKH�RULJLQDO������YHUVLRQ�RI�KLV�PHPRLUV��LW�disappeared from later soviet editions and had earlier been removed from the

english and French translations.52

:KHQ�WKH�VSLULWXDOLVW�FRQYLFWLRQV�RI�HVWHHPHG�FXOWXUDO�RU�KLVWRULFDO�¿JXUHV�were not denied outright, they nevertheless remained awkward for later writ-

ers. in the case of the chemist Butlerov, for example, biographies and ency-

clopedia entries laconically mentioned his interest in spiritualism, but insisted

incorrectly that “luckily, Butlerov drew a strict dividing line between his ad-

herence to mediumism and his academic, pedagogical, and social activities.”53

This embarrassment on the part of scholars for their subjects’ beliefs remains

widespread to this day. When the topic could no longer be avoided, the biogra-

phers of the actress and singer Mariia Puare asserted in a recent study that their

heroine never really believed in occult manifestations, regarded them as sinful,

and only engaged in them in order to please her husband—a man who inciden-

tally turns out to be a villain shortly thereafter.54 The tendency to ignore occult

convictions has not been restricted to studies of russian culture. Biographers,

historians, and literary critics have also downplayed the role of the occult in

WKH� OLYHV� DQG� LQWHOOHFWXDO� GHYHORSPHQWV� RI� LQÀXHQWLDO�¿JXUHV�ZLWKLQ�%ULWLVK��French, and German culture.55

:KLOH�WKH�RFFXOW�LQWHUHVWV�RI�KLVWRULFDO�¿JXUHV��ZKRVH�DFKLHYHPHQWV�FRQWULE-

XWHG�WR�WKH�RUGHU�DQG�YDOXHV�RI�WKH�SUHVHQW��SURYHG�GLI¿FXOW�WR�DFNQRZOHGJH��the otherworldly infatuation of those whose projects failed or were condemned

by prosperity have been more easily recognized. in the russian case, disap-

pointed monarchists and liberals blamed the political blunders of the hapless

nicholas ii on his penchant for the occult. Bolsheviks pointed out the mystical

interests of unworldly aristocrats and decadent bourgeois.56 simultaneously,

critics of the revolution explained its tumultuous events as the product of mys-

tical infatuation and Masonic conspiracies, or they found the causes of the

stalinist terror in esoteric fatalism.57 The description of the occult as a pastime

of the bad guys has been an international phenomenon, just like its marginal-

ization in relation to history’s heroes. in the case of France and Germany, for

example, occult mind-sets have readily been associated with the enemies of

16 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

WKH�UHSXEOLF�RU�GLDJQRVHG�DV�VLJQL¿FDQW�LQÀXHQFHV�LQ�WKH�IRUPDWLRQ�RI�QDWLRQDO�socialist ideas.58�7KLV�DSSURDFK�WR�WKH�RFFXOW�PLJKW�KDYH�WR�GR�ZLWK�WKH�¿HUFH�condemnation that it has received since the enlightenment for epistemological

reasons. in many texts since then, occult thinking has been ridiculed. Friedrich

engels penned an acerbic critique in the 1880s, and in the twentieth century

Theodor adorno wrote that “the penchant for the occult is a symptom of the

degeneration of consciousness.”59 The occultist, according to this argument, is

someone who has willfully rejected the insights of reason and turned his back

RQ�WKH�DGYDQFH�RI�NQRZOHGJH��7KLV�LQWHOOHFWXDO�WUDGLWLRQ�KDV�EHHQ�LQÀXHQWLDO�among historians, many of whom have ridiculed occultists.60 Occultism, then,

has largely been reserved for inept rulers, idle capitalists, sinister machinators,

or simply the deluded.

in recent years, this equation of the occult with negative qualities has been

challenged as cultural historians and literary critics have begun to analyze its

prominence and its creative impulse in turn-of-the-century culture.61 a number

of specialists of russian culture have focused on the artistic inspiration that

the occult offered poets, writers, painters, theater directors, and philosophers.62

%HFDXVH�WKLV�OLWHUDWXUH�KDV�IRFXVHG�RQ�ZHOO�NQRZQ�FXOWXUDO�¿JXUHV��LW�KDV�GH-scribed occultism as the exclusive interest of an artistic minority that stood

apart from the rest of society. another strand in historical research has focused

on the peasantry, on its belief in nature spirits, the role of magic in rural healing

practices, and on traditional divination.63 Taken together, these studies have

LPSOLHG�WKDW�WKH�LQWHUHVW�LQ�D�VXSHUQDWXUDO�ZRUOG�WKDW�GLIIHUHG�IURP�RI¿FLDO�2U-thodoxy was an interest that was determined by class, as being restricted either

to the social and intellectual elite or, in its folkloric version, to uneducated

villagers (narod).

in its analysis of the role of the occult at a meeting point between elite

and mass culture, this book is a departure from previous research. Through an

investigation of the occult and its role in mainstream culture, where it com-

bined rural experience and urban notions with capitalist market mechanisms,

this book moves beyond previous research, which has insisted on a deep “rift

between charlatanism, cheap vogues, ‘bazaar occultism’ and serious occult-

ism” on the one hand, and folkloric magic on the other.64 The view that se-

ULRXV�RFFXOWLVP�ZDV�D�SDVWLPH�RI� WKH�HGXFDWHG�HOLWHV�ZDV�¿UVW�YRLFHG� LQ� WKH�nineteenth century by its detractors.65 While i do not wish to deny the occult

LQWHUHVWV�RI�H[SRVHG�FXOWXUDO�¿JXUHV�RU�PHPEHUV�RI�WKH�DULVWRFUDF\��WKH�DLP�RI�the present study is to focus on the wider cultural context in which their activi-

ties operated. Therefore an analysis of the appeal of the supernatural among

INTRODUCTION 17

contemporaries who were not members of educated and eloquent circles is

presented. The views of those who did not reach for pen and paper to record

WKHLU�HQFRXQWHUV�ZLWK�WKH�VXSHUQDWXUDO�ZRUOG�DUH��KRZHYHU��GLI¿FXOW�WR�HVWDEOLVK�and can often only be gauged implicitly.

in order to access this tangled sphere of the occult, which reached into both

high and popular culture, both published and archival sources are used. The

former consist of instruction manuals as well as newspaper reports, journal

DUWLFOHV��DQG�¿FWLRQDO�OLWHUDWXUH�GHDOLQJ�ZLWK�VXSHUQDWXUDO�SKHQRPHQD��7KLV�PD-WHULDO��ZKLFK�ZDV�DLPHG�DW�D�PDVV�PDUNHW��DOVR�LQFOXGHV�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV��¿OPV��photographs, and illustrations that show the supernatural in action. The liter-

ary qualities of these texts are often unimpressive or worse, yet their market

VXFFHVV�XQGHUOLQHV�WKHLU�FXOWXUDO�VLJQL¿FDQFH��7KH�FRQWUDGLFWRU\�PHVVDJHV�RI�instruction manuals, newspaper accounts, and séance reports were, i argue,

LQ¿QLWHO\�PRUH� LQÀXHQWLDO� WKDQ� WKH�PRUH�H[FOXVLYH�FLUFOHV� WKDW�KDYH� WKXV�IDU�been studied. insights gained from these documents are dovetailed with un-

published sources which illustrate individual and more intimate motives. The

second category of documents includes police and church reports as well as

private letters, diaries, and unpublished séance protocols. Because occult ac-

tivities were part of participants’ private lives and contemporaries arranged

such gatherings informally with their acquaintances, providing a comprehen-

sive analysis of who engaged in occult activities and where they did so is im-

possible. Where they survived, notes about séance arrangements are dispersed

around numerous archival holdings, but the occult is not indexed in archival

¿QGLQJ�DLGV��$W�WKH�VDPH�WLPH��WKH�SODQV�WKDW�FRQWHPSRUDULHV�VKDUHG�RUDOO\�RI�course left no traces in the archives whatsoever. enough material exists, how-

ever, to combine an analysis of mass-produced texts with personal material,

which allows us to probe the popular appeal of occultism and the relationship

between the more general allure of the supernatural and its subjective mean-

ings at an individual level.

The prominence of spirit apparitions in the late nineteenth and early twen-

tieth century raises questions about their elusive identity. historians, sociolo-

gists, and literary critics—echoing the debate of occultists about the exterior

versus interior existence of such beings—have claimed that during the refor-

mation, the “real” phantoms of medieval culture ceased to haunt europeans

physically and instead became internalized. The gradual relocation of these

ephemeral beings into the mind, so the argument goes, was accelerated during

the enlightenment and was complete by the late eighteenth century. By the

HDUO\�QLQHWHHQWK�FHQWXU\��WKHQ��JKRVWV�KDG�DOOHJHGO\�WXUQHG�LQWR�¿JPHQWV�RI�WKH�

18 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

imagination or had become metaphors in literature; in either case, they ceased

to have a reality outside of the mind.66

The idea that supernatural phenomena only occurred within the minds of

those who experienced them was closely linked to the emergence of psychol-

RJ\�DV�DQ�DFDGHPLF�GLVFLSOLQH��WKDW�LV��WR�DWWHPSWV�DW�GLVHQWDQJOLQJ�DQG�GH¿QLQJ�the rational and irrational workings of the mind.67 in the views of early psycho-

analysts, many of whom were deeply interested in the occult, supernatural ex-

periences were outward manifestations of innermost desires.68 C. G. Jung, for

example, who studied séance occurrences for his doctoral thesis, argued that

spirit manifestations during spiritualist gatherings were independently acting

subconscious personalities of one participant being projected onto everyday

UHDOLW\��7KHVH�H[SHULHQFHV��-XQJ�LQVLVWHG��KDG�VLJQL¿FDQFH�WKDW�ZHQW�EH\RQG�WKH�individual mind because communal attempts to get into contact with the super-

natural world created occasions in which “we have a spontaneous attempt of

the unconscious to become conscious in a collective form.”69

On the other side of the explanatory spectrum, some folklorists and his-

torians have claimed that interactions with ghosts, demons, or vampires are

GHVFULSWLRQV�RI�QDWXUDO�SKHQRPHQD�WKDW�KDYH�EHHQ�¿OWHUHG�WKURXJK�FXOWXUDO�DV-sumptions, which in turn added supernatural powers to the narrative. among

scholars who subscribe to this view, those who have proposed the most natural-

ist explanations have argued that interactions with invisible creatures are either

caused by hallucinations brought about by illness or accidental intoxication, or

that ghost stories are explanations advanced by sober minds for natural phe-

nomena, whose precise physical workings these witnesses do not understand

and can thus not describe accurately.70 a more complex argument proposed

E\�'DYLG�+XIIRUG�VXJJHVWV�WKDW�D�VSHFL¿F�NLQG�RI�QLJKWWLPH�YLVLRQ�LV�³HPSLUL-cally grounded” in the somatic experience of sleep paralysis, but whose later

description is melded with cultural explanations. For hufford, this experience

is common to sleepers all over the globe, it is not a sign of illness, and the de-

scription of it is not based on a misunderstanding of physiological processes.71

While i personally have never seen or otherwise experienced the presence

of a spirit, my aim here is to take those who claimed they did seriously. i am

not interested in what actually happened when men and women interacted with

the invisible world: in late imperial russia, contemporaries failed to agree on

whether what was going on during séances, meditation exercises, or in haunted

houses was caused by spirits of the departed, by barely understood laws of

nature, by the nervous system, or by fraud, and it would be both presumptu-

ous and dishonest for a historian writing a century later to claim that she could

INTRODUCTION 19

settle the question. What is more, i do not think that it would be interesting if

i were to establish the unshakeable physical, psychological, or supernatural

causes of these phenomena. Thus, i am not interested in the events as such, but

in the people who experienced them. This focus of this analysis, therefore, is

how contemporaries approached such sensations and how they explained what

was going on. as i analyze their examination of occult phenomena, i propose

historical interpretations of my own. in doing so, i do at times draw on the

ideas of psychoanalysts and psychologists. in particular, i have found Freud’s

ideas about the construction of multilayered and ambiguous meaning through

occult experiences inspiring.72

Private Occultism and the Autocratic State

7KH�LPSHULDO�FULPLQDO�FRGH�GH¿QHG�UHOLJLRXV�GLVVHQW�DV�D�SROLWLFDO�DFW�DQG�historians have largely followed the tsarist government in this assessment by

investigating heterodox forms of belief and practice from a perspective that

pitted secular or religious authority against ordinary people.73 analyses of

unorthodox forms of religiosity have focused on distinct sectarian groups or

intelligentsia circles whose organization as exclusive communities and whose

VHOI�SHUFHSWLRQ�IXUWKHUHG�WKH�LPSUHVVLRQ�RI�D�FRQÀLFWXDO�UHODWLRQVKLS�ZLWK�WKH�state.74 Together with other historical research, this literature has underlined

VRFLDO� FRQÀLFW� DQG� IUDJPHQWDWLRQ�� DQG� KDV� DI¿UPHG� WKH� SUHHPLQHQFH� RI� WKH�political.75�0RUH� UHFHQWO\��FLYLO� VRFLHW\�KDV� UHFHLYHG�VLJQL¿FDQW�VFKRODUO\�DW-tention.76 historians have discovered spheres of autonomous private initiative,

but they have again analyzed these activities in relation to the autocratic gov-

ernment, interpreting them as either adversarial or collaborative. While in this

work it is assumed that an independent public sphere existed, it is focused on

the ways in which contemporaries animated and experienced “private russia.”

The essentially political reading of individual enterprise, both religious and

RWKHUZLVH��KDV�LQÀXHQFHG�WKH�ZD\V�LQ�ZKLFK�KLVWRULDQV�KDYH�DSSURDFKHG�VSLUL-tual search within russia’s past. relatively few studies have been devoted to

the private and non-adversarial meaning of belief.77 This study is built upon

the small amount of work that has been done on this topic, but also on research

that has analyzed the quotidian sphere of consumption and its symbolic mean-

ing.78 The occult is uniquely suited to offer an entryway into the private, non-

political concerns of contemporaries, which for the majority, we must assume,

far outweighed their interest in governance. Magical texts rarely mention

20 MODERN OCCULTISM in LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

politics, and the authorities on their part only rarely took an interest in mystical

gatherings. For the historian, this is a mixed blessing: on the one hand, these

FLUFXPVWDQFHV�VLJQL¿FDQWO\�UHVWULFW�WKH�TXDQWLW\�RI�VRXUFHV�DYDLODEOH�IRU�D�VWXG\�of the occult, since only a small number of records on mainstream occultism

FDQ�EH�IRXQG�LQ�SROLFH�¿OHV��2Q�WKH�RWKHU�KDQG��KRZHYHU��WKLV�VLWXDWLRQ�IRUFHV�us to think about a concern that was very close to the hearts of numerous con-

WHPSRUDULHV�LQ�ZD\V�WKDW�PRYH�EH\RQG�WKH�WUDGLWLRQDO�IRFXV�RQ�LQWHUQDO�FRQÀLFW�and the adversarial relationship between society and state.

7KH� WUDGLWLRQDO� IRFXV� LQ� WKH� KLVWRULRJUDSK\� LV� XOWLPDWHO\� LQÀXHQFHG� E\� D�teleological approach to late imperial russian history that views the period in

the light of the revolution. While no historian can be oblivious to the events

of 1917, this study, by shifting the focus back to the tsarist period itself, none-

theless is an attempt to restore subjective and cultural complexity to a society

which, despite its fascination with clairvoyance, did not live purely in relation

to a future date. in that lost, late imperial present, multifarious developments

were initiated and almost anything was possible.

The largely positive attitude toward the occult and its apolitical character

changed with the experience of the First World War. The focus of the last

FKDSWHU�LV�D�GHVFULSWLRQ�RI�KRZ�WKH�VXSHUQDWXUDO�¿UVW�EHFDPH�SDWULRWLF��EHIRUH�everything occult came to be seen as an expression of elite irresponsibility and

decadence. in the summer of 1914, spirits retreated from the public sphere to

give way to patriotic saints of the Orthodox church. One and a half years into

WKH�FRQÀLFW�DQG�DIWHU�SDLQIXO�5XVVLDQ�ORVVHV��KRZHYHU��WKHVH�QDWLRQDOLVW�H[SUHV-sions lost their appeal. in a scandalous court case from 1916, Count aleksei

Orlov-Davydov, one of the wealthiest aristocrats of the empire, a member of

the Duma and close friend of prominent politicians, claimed that he had been

duped by his second wife, the actress Mariia Puare, and her dabbling in oc-

cultism. his case illustrates how, on the eve of the revolution, occult activities

had become associated with the rich and famous, the aristocracy, and tsarist

politicians, and with shameful decadence and elite corruption. This new war-

WLPH�DVVHVVPHQW�KDV�KDG�D�ORQJ�DQG�LQÀXHQWLDO�OHJDF\��DV�WKH�WZHQWLHWK�FHQWXU\�editors who felt the need to eradicate the occult from the diaries and lives of

Valerii Briusov and others illustrate.