Influence of the Dolgoruki family..

[Arthur E Gregory]

I've been really interested lately in the Dolgoruki family and it's influence ..


Children of Helene Dolgoruki and Andrei Fadeyev:

Helena Fadeyev, (1814-42), noted author of 12 books, (writing as Zenaida R.) and wife (in 1830) of Peter Hahn, parents of Blavatsky. Her books included: The Ideal, Utballa, Jelalu'd-din, Theophania Abbiadjio, Medallion, Lubonka, A Box at the Odessa Opera, The World's Judgment, and a Fruitless Gift. She is the subject of a biographical sketch by Catherine Nekrasova in the magazine Russian Days of Yore, and also one by Bobritsky. Both of her surviving children also became authors, Helena Blavatsky most famously as the founder of the Theosophical Society in 1875, and her sister Vera Zelihovsky as a writer of children's stories.

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Dolgoruki

Also there was some influence and contact with the American author Washington Irving by a Prince Dolgoruki and influence in the early history of the Baha'i Faith as well.. I'll add that later..

[Arthur E Gregory]

Also this is a fascinating site on the family:

http://www.theosophycanada.com/bios/HPB_Bio.htm

[Konstantin Zaitzev]

Yuri Dolgoruky, who lived in 12th cencury, is regarded the founder of Moscow (1147). Probably he is the most famous mamber of the family.

[Arthur E Gregory]

Konstantin you are correct!

I'll add some more about this later:

Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov (1797 —1867) (also known as Dolgorouki or Dolgoruki) was born in one of the most prominent families in Russia, and was a career diplomat.[1]

He held several diplomatic posts, first in Istanbul, Turkey, and then in the Russian Embassy in Madrid, Spain, in the late 1820's travelling with American diplomat and writer Washington Irving from Seville to Granada and staying at the Alhambra together between May and June 1827. He also held diplomatic posts from 1832-7 in the Hague, from 1832-1837 in Naples and in 1842-5 again in Istanbul.
He was also the Russian Minister in Iran from 1845-54.[1] Dolgorukov retired from the diplomatic service in 1854 and died in 1867.[1]

From the Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitri_Ivanovich_Dolgorukov

This was the same Prince Dolgoruki that intervened on behalf of Baha'u'llah with the Shah when He was imprisoned in the Siyyah Chal prison in Teheran in 1852

[Arthur E Gregory]

In reading the wiki article I also noted the Dolgoruki family claimed descent from ancient Persia. I hadn't heard this before..

Dolgoroukov (Russian: Долгоруков) is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy .

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolgoruki

Claiming to go all thea way back to Artaxerxes I through a Georgian family the Pahlavuni...

[Arthur E Gregory]

More on the Pahlavuni:

Pahlavuni (Armenian: Պահլավունի) was an Armenian noble family that rose to prominence in the late 10th century during the last years of the Bagratuni monarchy.

The Pahlavunis were an offshoot of the Kamsarakan noble house that was nearly annihilated following the Arab conquest of Armenia in the 7th century. In 774 the nature of the Arab rule had provoked the Armenian nakharars into a major rebellion which included the Kamsarakans. The defeat of the rebels at the Battle of Bagrevand in April of 775 was followed by ruthless suppression of opposition in the years that followed. ...

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavuni

So Madam Blavatsky's family background goes back through the Dolgorukis to the Pahlavuni who were Armenian..

[Arthur E Gregory]

Here is a summary of the Karen-Pahlevi family:

The House of Karen (also Karen-Pahlevi, -Karan, -Kiran, -Qaran and -Qaren) were an aristocratic feudal family of Hyrcania (Gorgan). The seat of the house lay at Nahavand, about 65 km south of Ecbatana (present-day Hamadan, Iran).

The Karenas, Karan-Vands, or Karen-Pahlevi as they are also called, claimed descent from Karen, a figure of folklore and son of the equally mythical Kava the blacksmith. The Karenas are first attested in the Arsacid era, specifically as one of the feudal houses affiliated with the Parthian court. In this they were similar to the House of Suren, the only other attested feudal house of the Parthian period. Following the conquest of the Parthians, the Karenas allied themselves with the Sassanids, at whose court they were identified as one of the so-called "Parthian clans."

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen-Pahlav_Clan

Madam Blavatsky was descended from a Parthian clan...

[Arthur E Gregory]

See a good sketch of Washington Irving at

http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images1/irving_w1.jpg


Washington Irving to me was a significant figure in early American literature and today he is still well known as the author of the Alhambra, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, etc.

Some may not be aware of this but he also wrote Muhammad and His Successors which was at the time a good summary of early Islamic history in English. It was one of the few books at the time that seemed impartial and fair in it's treatment.

Anyway he travelled with Dimitri Ivanovich for some months around 1827.

[Arthur E Gregory]

For Baha'is the intervention of Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov (or Dolgoruki) with the Shah of Persia Nasiri din to spare the life of Baha'u'llah (Husayn Ali Nuri) was crucial...

After the execution and martyrdom of the Bab (Siyyid Ali Muhammad) in 1850 and the martyrdom of most of His early followers (some twenty thousand it is estimated) a few Babi students made a foolish attempt on the life of the Shah and the government of the Shah responded by rounding up all the followers of the Bab. Even though Baha'u'llah Himself protested He had nothing to do with the plot and turned Himself in, He was interred in the infamous Siyyah Chal prison in Teheran awaiting His execution.

A cousin of Baha'u'llah working for the Russian consul appealed to the Prince to intervene with the Shah and spare the life of Baha'u'llah..

"After four months in the Síyáh-Chál, owing to the insistent demands of the ambassador of Russia, and after the person who tried to kill the Shah confessed and exonerated the Bábí leaders, the authorities released him from prison, but the government exiled him from Iran. Bahá'u'lláh, instead of accepting the offer of refuge from Russia, chose to go to Iraq in the Ottoman Empire; in 1853 Bahá'u'lláh and his family through the cold of winter travelled from Persia and arrived in Baghdad in early April 1853.[9][18]"

- Wikipedia article