George Gurdjieff (1866–1949) and his students’ stay in Constantinople in 1920–1921 remains a blank spot in the movement’s history. Very few records relating to this period survive. In Constantinople, Gurdjieff succeeded in founding the first branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, after his attempts in Tbilisi in 1919 had failed. In this article, two important documents related to this period are published in English translation. The first is a booklet that contains information about the branch of the Institute in Constantinople, its program, theories, and working methods. It was published in Constantinople in 1920, in Russian. The second is a translation of fragments from the memoirs of Vasily Shulgin (1878–1976), a prominent Russian politician, writer, and journalist who witnessed and interacted with the Gurdjieff group in Constantinople. These materials significantly expand our knowledge of this early stage of the Gurdjieff movement and its cultural-historical context.
Abstract
George Gurdjieff (1866–1949) and his students’ stay in Constantinople in 1920–1921 remains a blank spot in the movement’s history. Very few records relating to this period survive. In Constantinople, Gurdjieff succeeded in founding the first branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, after his attempts in Tbilisi in 1919 had failed. In this article, two important documents related to this period are published in English translation. The first is a booklet that contains information about the branch of the Institute in Constantinople, its program, theories, and working methods. It was published in Constantinople in 1920, in Russian. The second is a translation of fragments from the memoirs of Vasily Shulgin (1878–1976), a prominent Russian politician, writer, and journalist who witnessed and interacted with the Gurdjieff group in Constantinople. These materials significantly expand our knowledge of this early stage of the Gurdjieff movement and its cultural-historical context.
1 Introducing New Evidence on Gurdjieff’s Constantinople Period
After the October 1917 coup in Russia and during the ensuing Civil War (1917–1920 / 22), Constantinople became the main transshipment point for Russian refugees fleeing communist rule. In 1918–1923, this huge city on the banks of the Bosphorus Strait was occupied by Entente troops. As a result of several waves of evacuation from the Black Sea ports (from Odessa in April 1919, Novorossiysk in January–March 1920, Crimea in November 1920 and Batum in April 1921), more than 200,000 Russian refugees were found in and around Constantinople, not less than 70,000 of them lived in the city itself.1 Among them were representatives of all ranks in Russian society—army officers, civilian officials, representatives of the intelligentsia and creative professions, workers, and peasants. Back in Russia, some of them had been engaged in the study of occultism, notably Theosophy and Anthroposophy, and been members of Masonic lodges. In exile, they continued these studies.2 Among the teachers known in this environment in Constantinople were the spiritual teacher, writer, composer, and traveler, George (Georgij Ivanovich) Gurdjieff (1866/1877–1949) and his acquaintance and associate, Russian mathematician, writer, occultist, and tarot specialist, Peter (Pyotr Dem’janovich) Ouspensky (1878–1947).
Figure 1
Portrait of George Gurdjieff by Alexander de Salzman, Tiflis, 1919 (on the cover of the brochure published in Constantinople, 1920). Signed in Russian: “Г.И. Гюрджіевъ”. The earliest portrait of Gurdjieff available
Information about the stay of G.I. Gurdjieff and his followers in Constantinople in 1920–1921 is rather scarce. It is known that they arrived in Constantinople from Batum in the early days of July 1920. More or less detailed data about Gurdjieff’s stay and work in Constantinople is contained in two books of memoirs. I note first the book Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff (1964) by one of his closest students, the celebrated Russian composer, Thomas (Foma Aleksandrovich) de Hartmann (1885–1956), and his wife, an opera singer, Olga (Ol’ga Arkad’ evna) de Hartmann (née de Schumacher, 1885–1979). The second book is Gurdjieff: A Master of Life (1990), the memoirs of Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch (1900–1958), who was a student of both Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. The drawback of these memoires is that they are written many decades after the events described.
The Hartmanns arrived in Constantinople with Gurdjieff from Batum in July 1920. Their book3 gives a brief account of what the Gurdjieff group did before leaving for Berlin in August 1921.4 This includes rehearsals of the ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians, an attempt to open a branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, public lectures, and concerts. The Hartmanns also published the work program of the Constantinople branch of the Institute, compiled in December 1920, as well as a list of public lectures and lecturers.5
The most detailed account of Gurdjieff’s stay in Constantinople is contained in Tchekhovitch’s book. Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch was a Russian officer of Polish descent who served in the White Army and ended up in Constantinople in January 1920 (probably evacuated from Odessa). Tchekhovitch first met Peter Ouspensky, who lectured at the premises of one of the Russian newspapers in Constantinople (Russkij majak, “Russian Lighthouse”). He met Gurdjieff, probably through Ouspensky in the autumn of 1920. His memoires are much more voluminous and less formal than those of the Hartmanns.6 Tchekhovitch, having become a devoted student of Gurdjieff and living in the same house with him, reports on numerous conversations with the teacher and his followers and provides interesting details about the work of the department of the Institute. At the same time, it is impossible to compose an integral picture of the work of the Gurdjieff group in Constantinople from his memoirs—these are fragmentary memories recorded over thirty years later.
As is known, Peter Ouspensky maintained relations with Gurdjieff in Constantinople, provided some assistance in organizing a branch of the Institute, and then lectured at the Institute (he himself was not a member). In addition, he drafted the scenarios for Gurdjieff’s ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians. Ouspensky himself very briefly describes his life in Constantinople in the book, In Search of the Miraculous (1949). He remembers: ‘At that time Constantinople was full of Russians. I met acquaintances from St. Petersburg and with their assistance I began to give lectures ⟨…⟩ I at once collected a fairly large audience mostly of young men. I continued to develop the ideas begun in Rostov and Ekaterinodar, connecting general ideas of psychology and philosophy with ideas of esotericism.’ As for Gurdjieff, he writes: ‘he wanted to organize a continuation of his Tiflis Institute in Constantinople, the principal place in which would be taken by dances and rhythmic exercises which would prepare people to take part in the ballet ⟨…⟩ I helped G. all I could in organizing his Institute. ⟨…⟩ I visited G.’s Institute from time to time.’7 And that is practically all that we can learn from Ouspensky’s memoirs.
Some information about the activities of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff in Constantinople is reported by John G. Bennett (1897–1974), at that moment a British intelligence officer,8 who met Gurdjieff in 1920. However, he does not provide much information about the work of the Gurdjieff group, probably because this activity was connected almost exclusively with a rather closed circle of Russian emigrants. At the same time, he attended some of Gurdjieff’s performances, talked with him and Ouspensky and gives interesting details about their life in Constantinople.9
Probably the only participant in the events of 1920–1921 who directly recorded what happened at the time, was a student of both Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, the young Russian officer Boris Vasilyevich Ferapontoff (1891–1930). Beginning in February 1920, he attended Ouspensky’s lectures in Constantinople, as well as Gurdjieff’s lectures after he arrived in Constantinople in June. He worked as a secretary and personal translator for Gurdjieff, as he was fluent in English. After Gurdjieff’s departure for Berlin, in August 1921, Ferapontoff joined him and other students in Germany, later moving on to the Château Le Prieuré in France. At the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Prieuré, he worked as a translator and also as a dance instructor. Soon, however, he left the Institute and emigrated to Australia and then lived in England.10 Ferapontoff’s notes, which he made in Constantinople, contain very valuable information on the content of the lectures that Gurdjieff and Ouspensky gave, but do not include any historical information on the activities of the Institute’s branch.11
Our knowledge about the life and work of Gurdjieff and his students in Constantinople is practically limited to the sources mentioned.12 The lack of information about this period of Gurdjieff’s life is explained by the fact that his activities at that time should be considered in the context of the history of Russian emigration from Russia: his circle of contacts consisted almost exclusively of Russian refugees, he wrote and lectured in Russian. Both he and his pupils had just been forced out of their country, deprived of their social position and familiar life. The very conditions of their half-miserable life in Constantinople did not contribute to the preservation of detailed information about this time.
In this article, I add two new important sources that allow us to more fully cover the activities of Gurdjieff at this early stage of his work. The first one is a brochure published by the Constantinople branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Constantinople in late 1920. The second source is a memoir of a visit to the Constantinople branch of the Institute and of conversations with Gurdjieff’s students, written by the famous Russian politician Vasily V. Shulgin.13
2 Brochure of the Constantinople Branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, 1920
Description of the book: Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff (on the cover: Know—Understand—To Be. The Science of the Harmonious Development of Man. The Method of G.I. Gurdjieff. Western Section). [Constantinople: s.p.], [1920?]. 16 p. 13.5 × 19 cm.
Figure 2
Cover of the brochure of the Institute for Harmonious Development of Man [Constantinople, 1920]
The booklet of the Institute was developed in the autumn of 1920 and most likely printed in November of this year in Constantinople. It contains general information about the Institute, the program of the Institute, a rather lengthy theoretical introduction to the Gurdjieff method (pp. 7–13), information about the Institute of Constantinople, and at the end a list of topics for Gurdjieff’s proposed lectures. The brochure is printed on light brown paper. The cover of the brochure is printed separately on higher quality white paper. It is known that the cover design was created by Alexander de Salzmann14 in Tiflis in 1919 for a similar brochure that Gurdjieff planned to publish before the opening of the Institute in the capital of Georgia.15 It was Gurdjieff who asked de Salzmann to draw his portrait in an oval and place it on the cover. Apparently, this drawing is the earliest known image of Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff chose the same cover later to advertise his “European section” in France.16
The cover image, in addition to the portrait of Gurdjieff, contains a significant number of details and symbols. In the center, in a circle formed by a snake biting its tail, there is the picture of a human being surrounded by four animals from the Apocalypse,17 which are, as it were, inscribed in an enneagram. On the sides are an angel and the devil. The lower part of the figure shows a lot of different objects reflecting the diversity of human activity—a microscope and a spyglass, scales and retorts, an iron and an abacus, a globe and a sewing machine, a palette with paints and compasses, etc. All this, according to the Hartmanns, terrified them.
[W]hat was our horror and despair when, around the portrait, Mr Gurdjieff obliged him [A. de Salzmann.—K.B.] to draw an iron, a sewing-machine—particularly odious to us—and all sorts of other tools, seemingly to represent instruments of harmonious development. When all this was printed on thin yellow paper, the whole brochure had the appearance of an advertisement in bad taste for a provincial occultist. It drove a nail into my heart.18
As far as we know, not a single copy of the Tiflis brochure has been preserved (if it was really printed at all in this city).19 As regards the publication from Constantinople, which was really published a year later, in the fall of 1920, its existence is not reported in any memoirs. The copy that I studied and the full translation of which I provide below is preserved in my personal collection of books, periodicals, manuscripts and documents related to the Russian emigration of the 20th century. I managed to get this prospectus from a private bookseller in Germany in the late 2000s. Unfortunately, he did not know where it came from.
The brochure does not contain any indication of the publisher or printing house. However, I compared it with fifteen books and brochures in Russian, printed at various printing houses in Constantinople in 1920–1922 (all these books are also kept in my personal collection). The features of paper, fonts, and other printing features indicate that the Institute’s brochure was most likely printed in a printing house owned by the “Pressa” Publishing Partnership (according to the imprint of the books printed in this printing house, it was located at ‘Constantinople, Asmalı Mescit Street, 35, Péra’). This Russian printing house printed books for the largest Russian publishing house in Constantinople of that time, “Russkaya Mysl’ ” (“Russian Thought”), whose office and bookstore were located at Péra, Tünel Street, 2, in the immediate vicinity of the premises in which the classes of the Gurdjieff group took place.
Some additional details about the processing of the text of the Institute’s pamphlet can be found in the memoirs of Anna Kashina-Evreinova,20 the wife of the well-known theater director and philosopher Nikolai Evreinov.21
Nikolai Evreinov, one of the key characters in the history of Russian symbolism and the early 20th century theater of the Russian avant-garde, was a highly original philosopher and esotericist, the creator of a special doctrine called “The Philosophy of Theater”. Its principles were formulated by him in several monographs.22 The basis of Evreinov’s teaching and practical method is the desire to transform life and the individual to achieve a true existence. It is quite obvious that he could not help but be interested in other projects of this kind, in particular, the one proposed by Gurdjieff. According to Nikolai Evreinov’s theory, the goal of the theater is not the usual formula “to teach and please,” but the creation of a “theater of life”. For him, the “theatricalization of life”23 is a special philosophy that explains the nature of man and the basic principles of the world order. Evreinov believed that man is characterized by the desire to transform his life, to theatricalize it. The “instinct of transformation” inherent in every person leads to opposing himself to the people and nature surrounding him; it generates a desire to be different, to strive for self-perfection, and to achieve an authentic, perfect way of being.
According to Anna Evreinova, her husband met Gurdjieff in the second half of 1914 in St. Petersburg. Here is how she describes it:
My friend Natalia Butkovskaya had a sister, Anna [Butkovskaya] (both were daughters of a very respectable notary). She [Anna.—K.B.] found somewhere an “Eastern sage” [i.e. Gurdjieff.—K.B.] and first brought him to her home, and then introduced him to many Petersburg salons. ⟨…⟩ Anna Butkovskaya, of course, was Gurdjieff’s love-mate, like many ladies of his entourage, where the intellectual atmosphere reigned in the spirit of reverence for Rasputin,24 against which Gurdjieff reigned in the halo of an oriental sage.25
Natalya Butkovskaya26 mentioned here was a close friend of Nikolai Evreinov, his closest assistant and publisher of his books. Her sister Anna, the mistress of the famous St. Petersburg salon, was also well acquainted with Evreinov and familiar with the infamous Russian “elder” Grigory Rasputin (1869–1916).27 Anna Butkovskaya subsequently became a student and companion of Gurdjieff, who at the end of her life wrote memories of her acquaintance with him.28
In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, Evreinov ended up in Tiflis and accidentally ran into Gurdjieff on the street. This is how he told his wife about this meeting:
I walked ⟨…⟩ along Golovinsky Prospekt.29 This was either at the end of 1919, or at the beginning of 1920. And suddenly I heard: ‘Nikolai Nikolaevich, is that really you?’ I looked—this was Gurdjieff! ‘I just need you!’ he said. ‘How can I be of any use to you?’ I asked ⟨…⟩. ‘You are a writer, philosopher, Nikolai Nikolaevich, and I am about to give a literary form to the program of the institution that I intend to establish in Paris.’30
According to Anna Evreinova, ‘it turned out that Evreinov had to create a detailed program for the “Institute for Harmonious Development” based on incoherent and illiterate sketches of Gurdjieff himself.’ Evreinov successfully fulfilled this request.
‘He really liked my version of the text,’ said my husband. Gurdjieff paid him a sum of money and finally ⟨…⟩ said: ‘And now my offer to you: come with us abroad, because we will all be leaving for Europe soon’ ‘Who are we?’—asked Evreinov in surprise. ‘I, the composer Hartmann with his wife, the artist Salzmann, also with his wife, and several other people. I have carpets in Constantinople, there will be things to start life abroad.’31
According to Anna Evreinova, her husband did not want to go with Gurdjieff (for Evreinov, who had been practicing hypnosis for a long time, Gurdjieff’s attempts to use hypnosis in their meetings were especially unpleasant). In the 1920s, the Evreinovs, however, came to Gurdjieff several times in Fontainebleau and met with him in Paris. They were friends with some of his students, but they were always critical of his ideas and methods.
Figure 3
Page from the Constantinople booklet of the Gurdjieff Institute
Thus, it turns out that the pamphlet, which for the first time introduces the main ideas of Gurdjieff and the method he developed, is a joint work of two people: Gurdjieff himself, who created the draft version of the text, and Nikolai Evreinov, who gave the text a literary form.
It should be noted that the text published below, originally written in Russian, obviously was the basis for the descriptive brochure of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man published in Fontainebleau in 1923. This prospectus was printed as a private edition in the fall of 1923 in English, French and German.32 There are numerous parallels between the Russian edition of 1920 and the text of the aforementioned brochure of 1923, but there are also many differences between them. A comparison of these two sources, however, is beyond the scope of this article.
Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff
The program of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man comprises a number of subjects. For each person, according to his individual properties, a certain group of activities is selected, which deals with those aspects of the personality that must be developed.
The Institute also includes a medical branch, since for many people, before starting to develop their natural properties, it is necessary to correct already existing functional irregularities. Any productive work for the desired harmonic development is impossible without this preparatory activity.
The Institute’s activity is based on the principle that it is better not to work on yourself at all than to work without full knowledge, since all work can only be useful for a person when it is based on full knowledge of human nature and is in strict accordance with the individual physical and psychic faculties of the person, as well as with the circumstances and conditions of his external life. Therefore, an individual and specially developed course is selected for each student from the subjects included in the program of the Institute.
The program includes the study of special methods: harmonic rhythm, various crafts, arts and languages. In parallel with this, there is a comprehensive study of man and the world in all their proportions, according to both European science and ancient Eastern knowledge.
Such a study, which requires the use of new, unusual methods of perception and thinking, on the one hand develops the untapped faculties of man, and on the other hand helps to establish the correct process of thinking and feeling.
Among the leaders of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man there are instructors who are specialists in various fields: in medicine, psychology, physical and mathematical sciences, gymnastics, various kinds of exercises, etc. Only such instructors who are specially trained and have studied comprehensively the science of the harmonious development of man can fully implement the Institute’s program in accordance with all of the aforementioned principles.
PROGRAM
Lecture Section: Science of harmonious development of man. Psychology and man’s internal development. Study of the methods of self-knowledge and self-improvement according to European science and the schools of the East. (Practical experiments and works.) Application of the psychological method to various fields of knowledge. Philosophy of the world process. The mechanics of the universe. The science of relativity. The science of numbers. The science of symbols. Modern and ancient chemistry, astronomy, physics and mathematics. Ancient medicine. Modern oriental medicine. Comparative study of religions. Mythology. Idolatry. Ancient esoteric schools and modern Eastern schools. Psychology of art. Ancient and modern philosophy.
Practical Section: 1) Harmonic rhythm. 2) Special exercises for the development of will, memory, attention, thinking, sensation, etc. 3) Music, singing, plastics, ancient oriental (sacred) dances, drawing, painting, sculpture. 4) Crafts and applied arts. 5) Languages.
All of these subjects are studied by special methods.
Medical Section: Therapeutic gymnastics combined with other therapeutic methods (hydrotherapy, phototherapy, electrotherapy, magnetotherapy, psychotherapy, diethetics) according to the results of a special examination of the individual.
In addition to studying basic functions of the organism, a separate examination is made of the attention, memory, speech, degree of intelligence, temperament, the nature of physical and psychic reflexes, smell, taste, hearing, vision, color perception, properties of emanations, etc.
These [separate] examinations, together with the general medical observations and the particulars collected regarding the inclinations and abilities of the individual, serve to establish ways of effective work on his self-development, i.e. they are a guide to determine the necessary treatment, as well as the subject of [further] research and special work.
At the large departments of the Institute, special rooms are arranged for independent research in the field of physical measurements, analytical chemistry and experimental psychology, as well as for verifying theories and theses that seem doubtful or arbitrary.
The Institute accepts adults and children from 4 years old.
Particular attention is paid to the individuals who have deviated in their development to the degree of pathology, resulting in forms of weakness of will, “self-will”, laziness, painful fears, feelings of constant fatigue, apathy, irritability, impaired metabolism (obesity, exhaustion), alcohol or drug abuse, etc.
Those who enter the Institute are divided into three categories:
Category 1. Those who are working for self-development according to a program specially drawn up for them.
Category 2. a) Those who are working in order to study special subjects selected by themselves personally. b) Those who wish to receive treatment in accordance with the methods of the Institute.
Category 3. a) Those who wish to attend the general lectures only, and b) those studying one special subject.
Note. Some subjects, both in lecture and in practical parts, are taught only for the first category.
There are two types of Institute departments:
1) Branches working in full, which are opened in large centers.
2) Branches working under the reduced program, which are opened in those places where there are sufficient groups of people who want to work in these areas, as well as in cases where there are other favorable conditions.
In those places where it is not possible to open a department, even working on an abbreviated program, circles can be organized for theoretical study of the science of the harmonious development of man, etc. according to the lecture program.
Note. The work of such a circle is taken care of by the nearest branch of the Institute.
The program of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man is based on a psychological system that is based on the following grounds:
Owing to the conditions of modern life, man has departed from his original type, from the type with which he should have been created by the combined influence of the locality, environment and culture in which he was born and nurtured and which, by their very nature, marked out for man the paths of development and the final normal type to which he should have attained. The civilization of our time, with its unlimited means for extending its influence, has torn man from the natural conditions in which he should be living. It is true that it opened a new path for man in the field of knowledge, technology and economic life, and thereby significantly expanded his worldview, but instead of raising him to a higher all-round level of development, civilization has developed only some aspects of his being at the expense of others, completely destroying some faculties, deprived him of the natural advantages of his type, without at the same time providing him with what was needed for the harmonious development of a new type. From an individually finished man, normally adapted to the surrounding nature and the environment that gave birth to him, it [i.e. civilization] has produced a creature, torn from the soil, unfitted for life, and turned out to be a complete stranger to all the conditions of life.
The mentioned [Gurdjieff’s] psychological system shows this with the help of psychoanalysis and experimentally proves that modern man’s world perception and his own mode of living are not the conscious expression of being taken as a whole. On the contrary, they are only the unconscious manifestations of one or another part of him.
From this point of view, our psyche, neither in relation to our world perception, nor in relation to our expression of it, is a unique and indivisible whole, which would be a common repository of all our perceptions and a source of all our expressions, but on the contrary it is divided into three separate “entities”, which have nothing to do with one another, but are distinct both as regards their functions and their constituent substances.
These three entirely separate sources of the intellectual, emotional, and instinctive or moving life of man, each taken in the sense of the whole set of functions proper to them, are called by the system under notice the thinking, the emotional and the moving centers.
Each conscious perception and expression of man is the result of the simultaneous and coordinated working of all three centers, of which each must carry out its own part of this work, i.e. furnish its quota of associations. A complete apperception in any individual case is possible only with the coordination of the activities of the three centers. But, owing to many disturbing influences affecting modern man, the working of psychic centers is almost disconnected. As a result, his intellectual, emotional, and instinctive or moving functions fail to complete and correct one another, but, on the contrary, they follow completely different paths which rarely meet, and thus allow of very few moments of consciousness.
Due to the lack of coordinated action of the centers, it is as if three different men live in a single individual, of which one only thinks, the second only feels, and the third only lives by his instincts and motor functions: a logical man, an emotional man, an automatic man.
These three men in one individual never understand one another; consciously and unconsciously they frustrate the plans, the intentions and the work of each other, and each of them at the moment when he is acting takes a dominant position and calls himself “I”.
Observation of the disunited and contradictory activity of the centers shows that man cannot be the master of himself, since he does not manage his centers, and he simply does not know which of his centers will begin to function next. People do not notice this, just because they are disturbed by the illusory idea of the unity of their “I’s” and of their psyche in general.
A properly organized observation of a man’s psychic activity shows absolutely clearly that modern man never acts on his own, but only displays or manifests actions that have arisen under the influence of external stimuli. It is not man who thinks, but something thinks in him, he does not act, but something acts through him, he does not create, but something creates in him, he does not accomplish, but something accomplishes through him.
This thesis becomes particularly clear when we understand the method and process of perception by each center of external and internal impressions, as well as the method of producing responsive actions.
The psychic centers of a newborn child may be compared to a system of blank phonograph rolls, upon which from the first day impressions of both the internal and external worlds begin to be recorded. The matter thus recorded (or captured) is preserved in each center in the same order (sometimes quite absurd) and in the same proportions in which the impressions were actually received in life. At the same time, the impressions that arrived more often than others and were more intense remain associated with a large number of other impressions preserved in this and other centers. The processes of imagination, memory, judgment, reasoning, thinking are nothing more than re-viewing existing records in various combinations.
A man’s actions in life, his thoughts, feelings, words, convictions, beliefs and actions are composed solely of the material of these records, consisting only of their various combinations. And those or other combinations are composed under the influence of chance shocks set in motion with more or less intensity one or another of the rolls whose contents (the matter inscribed on it) thus become the center of association in the given case. Another shock or a shock of different intensity, evokes yet another association and, therefore, another series of thoughts, feelings and actions. Moreover, no center can add anything from itself or anything new to the combinations thus formed, nor can it draw upon the material formed in the other centers.
Thus, man’s world perception is always the work of only one part of his being, or, in other words, man has three different patterns of world perception, which are very little associated with each other, or if associated, then only partially and accidentally. Therefore every judgment man forms about things, is the product of merely a part of his psyche and the expression of but a fraction of the matter at his disposal. It is always one-sided, and consequently incorrect.
It is clear from the foregoing that the first task of the harmonious development of man is to train him to be able to introduce immediately the work of all three centers into each of his psychic functions, bringing their work to an equal level of intensity. Only in this case, the three main wheels of the human machine will work correctly, without obstructing one another and with the highest efficiency, both as regards their separate functions and as regards the level of consciousness which it is possible for man to attain, but which he never reaches in ordinary circumstances.
If we take into account that in each individual the level of development of each center is different and their contents (napetost’33) and the associations are also different, one cannot but come to the conclusion that an approach to dealing with each person must be strictly individual and can only be like that.
All the functional disorders of the human machine in ordinary life increase as time goes on. Correction of the machine can only be achieved by a long and persistent struggle with the defects that have arisen. But man is unable to carry on this struggle on his own, by his own volitional efforts. Neither can any benefit accrue to him from work upon himself based on various systems of self-education and self-development, which have recently become widespread and recommend specific and general methods and techniques for everyone: various physical exercises, practices of contemplation and concentration (meditation and concentrativeness), breathing and psychic exercises, various systems of diet, fasting, and so on.
Such methods, prescribed for everybody without distinction of individual needs and abilities and without due regard to the peculiarities and qualities of each person, are not only useless, but may even be dangerous, because inept attempts to correct the machine, causing some changes in it, inevitably cause other changes, which an unknowing and inexperienced person can neither foresee nor prevent. One must always bear in mind that the human machine is mechanically balanced in itself at every moment of its correct or incorrect operation. Therefore any change wrought in one direction will inevitably cause a change in another direction, which must be anticipated and, in turn, balanced.
In order to avoid unexpected and undesirable consequences, it is necessary when working upon oneself to conform to the discipline imposed by the special, strictly individual methods aiming at the development of new and special “inertias,” by means of which the old ones may be adjusted and changed. In other words, it is necessary to develop new faculties that are not given by life and which man cannot develop by himself by any general methods.
The whole organization of work at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff leads precisely to the development of these properties. And only through such special work, which was mentioned at the beginning, is it possible to achieve truly correct development of all functions of man to the extent and in those relations that are necessary for completely appropriate psychic work, to achieve the greatest consciousness.
A group of people who have long been interested in issues of self-development and self-improvement and came to the conclusion that such institutions are an urgent need of any cultural center, learning about G.I. Gurdjieff’s accidental stay in Constantinople, asked him to help them establish a branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Constantinople. G.I. Gurdjieff gave his consent to this. Since the opening of the Institute’s branch according to the full program developed by practice, in view of the circumstances of the present time, is not possible, for the time being they decided to open a branch, at least according to the shortened program, so as to expand it as soon as possible.
Figure 4
Pages from the Constantinople booklet of the Gurdjieff Institute
Until the arrival of the person specially invited to head the Constantinople branch, G.I. Gurdjieff takes over the general management of the classes.
Details of the program and organization of work will be clarified in the first lectures and explained in the published prospectuses.
Temporarily, until the establishment of a specially adapted premises, classes are held at Péra, Tunnel, Rue Jéménédji No. 35.
Reception of visitors and information are made from 3 to 8 pm every day.
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At the Institute’s office, twice a week (on Thursdays and Sundays), Mr. Gurdjieff will give public lectures and discussions on religion, philosophy, science, and art from an esoteric point of view; the main attention will be given to systems for studying man and the ideas of the Übermensch37 in oriental teachings, as well as to a review of modern exact sciences—medicine, chemistry, psychology and others, according to ancient knowledge of the East.
The purpose of the lectures is to acquaint the Constantinople audience with scientific and philosophical material, which is the result of many years of research in different countries, mainly in the East, material still not published anywhere.
Outlined topics:
1. Excerpts from [stories] about travels in Turkestan, Pamir, Tibet, Chitral,38 Kafaristan,39 Afghanistan, Balochistan.40
2. Is India really the Land of Miracles?
3. At the excavations of Delhi, in the valleys of the Hindu Kush, Armenia, Babylon, Egypt.
15. Proofs of the unity of the origin of all religions.
16. Explanations with demonstrations of various tricks of fakirs, spiritists, thought-readers, fortune-tellers, etc.
Lectures will be given in Russian, Greek, Turkish and Armenian, depending on the audience.
Lectures-conversations begin at 6 pm.
Lecture fees go to the support of impecunious students in the department.
Due to the limited number of places, an appointment to attend lectures is accepted in advance.
3 Vasily Shulgin’s Memories of G.I. Gurdjieff, 1920–1921
The author of these memoirs, Vasily Vitalyevich Shulgin (1878–1976), was a prominent Russian politician and public figure of the early twentieth century, a well-known journalist, writer, convinced Russian nationalist and monarchist. He was a Deputy of the Second, Third and Fourth State Duma of the Russian Empire (1907–1917). During the February Revolution of 1917, he accepted the declaration of abdication from the hands of Emperor Nicholas II. After the Bolshevik coup in October 1917, Shulgin became one of the organizers and ideologists of the White movement, which fought against the power of the Communists. Together with the White Army, he went through the whole war and ended up in Constantinople in November 1920 together with the troops of General Peter N. Wrangel evacuated from Crimea. Shulgin continued the struggle against the Soviet power in exile. In 1944, he was arrested by the Soviet secret services in Yugoslavia, taken to Moscow and in 1945–1956 was detained in a political prison in the city of Vladimir. After his release, he lived in this city under the strict supervision of the KGB, never accepting USSR citizenship. Shulgin was the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and works on history and politics.
Figure 5
‘Russkaya Gazeta’ published in Paris in 1923–1925.
Throughout his life, Shulgin was interested in unusual, mystical phenomena and abilities, mysterious phenomena of the human psyche. Like Peter Ouspensky, he collected “an anthology of mysterious cases” that had happened to him or to his relatives and friends.43 Shulgin was personally acquainted with a number of prominent occultists, including George Gurdjieff, the clairvoyant Angelina Sacco, diplomat, occult writer, and freemason Sergey Tukholka, the famous psychic Wolf Messing, and others. All his life he was fond of spiritualism, and also seriously engaged in the practice of yoga. According to his recollections, he was able to survive the many years spent in prison thanks to extensive daily yoga exercises (including a special practice of breathing, minimizing the need for food, etc.). Some people he shared a cell with were much younger and stronger than him, but nevertheless quickly died in custody.44 It is known that towards the end of his life his tendency to mysticism intensified; he wrote down the contents of his dreams every day, and also (according to the memoirs of the artist Ilya Glazunov) from 1966 until his death he wrote a diary called “Mysticism”.45 Probably, it was thanks to special psychological and yogic practices that Shulgin, having lived to the age of 98 in the terrible conditions of war, refuge, and prisons, retained a clear mind and excellent memory. In memoirs written by him at the age of 80–90, he still recalls the smallest details about dates, names, and places.
We give below some excerpts from Shulgin’s memoirs about his meetings with Gurdjieff and his students in Constantinople in late 1920 to early 1921.46 The full text of these memoirs was published in March 1924 in the Russian newspaper Russkaya Gazeta published in Paris.47 Probably, it was the editor of the newspaper who gave this part of Shulgin’s memoirs the headline ‘Stop!’, alluding to the word that Gurdjieff himself said during the exercise described by the author of the memoirs. According to Shulgin, in Constantinople he met an old friend, a captain of the White Army, whom he called (probably for reasons of secrecy) by the patronymic “Mikhalych”.48 “Mikhalych” was a member of the Gurdjieff circle in the Constantinople branch of the Institute and invited Shulgin, who was always interested in occult topics, to introduce him to his “teacher”. Shulgin agreed and apparently attended rehearsals of the dance numbers for staging Gurdjieff’s ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians. As we will see, Shulgin was extremely critical of Gurdjieff and his methods of “liberating” a person from mechanicality for the further development of a “harmonious personality”. In these experiments, he saw the threat of enslavement and destruction of the human personality itself. In his opinion, the methods of Gurdjieff are in many ways similar to those of the very Communists against whom Shulgin himself and most of the students of the “guru” fought. Only by the complete destruction of the personal principle in Russian people does Shulgin explain the success of introducing the totalitarian mechanisms of submission, cruelty, and suppression completely alien to the Russian worldview. He tried to discuss all this with several students of Gurdjieff, whom he personally knew. Shulgin’s sharply negative attitude to Gurdjieff’s methods is especially interesting because Shulgin himself, as we noted above, was well versed in occultism and himself engaged in occult practices. He was a very attentive observer, paying attention to small details that other people did not notice. In addition, it is important and rather unusual that a sharp criticism of the danger of “occult totalitarianism” was made by a person belonging to the “right” of conservative Russian thinkers (Shulgin was considered the ideologue of Russian nationalism, and some of his books were characterized as anti-Semitic).
While working on the latest version of the memoirs in the early 1970s, Shulgin revealed the real name of the man named by him “Mikhalych”. He was a Russian officer (since April 1920 a lieutenant colonel) and active participant of the White movement, Pyotr Maksimovich Viridarsky (?–1947). In the clandestine anti-Bolshevik intelligence service “ABC” (Russian Azbuka, 1917–1920s), headed by Shulgin, which consisted of a network of secret agents operating in the territory captured by the Communists, Viridarsky was known by the nickname “Page” (Russian Pazh) and served as chief of the special operations department (since 1 December, 1917). In 1920, until the evacuation from Crimea, he was an officer in the headquarters of the Cossack Don Corps of the White Army. In Constantinople, Shulgin and Viridarsky rented a room together, and, according to Shulgin, it was this man who ‘introduced me to Gurdjieff’.49 Subsequently, Viridarsky moved to Yugoslavia, then lived in France, worked as an engineer, received a doctorate in law, and died in Paris in 1947.50 Shulgin maintained close relations with him over the years, obviously, not only as a fighter against the Communists, but as a lover of esoteric knowledge.51
We do know something about how Viridarsky turned from a disciple to an opponent of Gurdjieff. In December 1968, the writer and philosopher Nikolai Lisovoy (1946–2019) visited Shulgin, and at his request, Shulgin told him more about his acquaintance with Gurdjieff.52 Although this story largely coincides with the memoirs of 1924, it contains additional information about “Mikhalych”, whom he now names in accordance with his real patronymic: “Maksimych”.53 Here is what Shulgin told about the fate of the man who introduced him to Gurdjieff:
Well, you can talk about this for a long time. I finally pulled him [Maksimych.—K.B.] out of there [from the circle of Gurdjieff—K.B.]. But Maksimych turned out to be incorrigible. I met him a few years later in Paris. Of course, he did not return to Gurdjieff. But on the other hand, he joined another magical circle, which was leading a completely merciless struggle—the astral, of course, struggle—with the circle of Gurdjieff. Angelina Vasilievna, clairvoyant of extraordinary power, headed this circle, hostile to Gurdjieff.54 She did a lot of miracles … […] Although, as I believe, you are well prepared for such things, but if I tell you about Angelina what I know, gentlemen, you will not believe me—even you will not believe me! One must experience it himself.55
Vasily Shulgin, “Stop!” (from the memoirs, 1921)
My friend, Mikhalych, came to me.
– My God, you have become so much like a fakir!
He was completely overgrown with a thick black beard, his eyes burned on a very thin face. The clothes were consistent with his appearance.
– You probably don’t eat anything?
– Almost.
– This is bad.
– Not at all. I have never felt like that. And I do not drink [alcohol].
– It’s good. But what happened to you? Have you become a yogi, by any chance?
– Not yet, unfortunately.
– But on the way to that?
– Maybe. Anyway, I would like you to get to know something.
Positively, there was some mysterious change in him. And suddenly …
Suddenly he began to make some strange gestures. He moved with one hand on the crown of the head, and the other on the chest. There was a lot of tension on his face.
– Mikhalych, what’s wrong with you?
– It’s very difficult—just try.
– What for?
– Well, try it.
I tried.
– It’s really difficult. It’s as difficult as writing the letter “D” on the table with your right hand, and at the same time driving circles under the table with your left foot.
– Exactly. You guessed it.
– That is?
– That is, this exercise is of the same type, but there is another.
He began to crouch, while doing something with his hands and head.
– Mikhalych, for God’s sake!
– Yes, it is very difficult. Comes to eleven.
– What are eleven?
– Eleven movements at the same time, and each one certainly contradicts all the others.
– What is this system called?
– “Harmonious development of man”.
– How is it “harmonious” when “everything contradicts”?
– In a harmonious man, all qualities should be equally developed. In a modern man, will is weakly developed. Most of our movements, including gymnastics and dancing, are automatic. Conflicting movements require a lot of willpower. This is one of the exercises for developing the will. We, Russians, most of all we need a will. Russians are weak-willed.
– It’s true, except for the Bolsheviks.
– In order to fight them, you need a will. And so I would like.
– So I squat and drove along the crown?
– In order to fight them, you must have the will. And so I would like [you to try].
– [What to try?] Do you want me to squat down and move my hand along the top of my head?
– Do not pose the question like that. Come and see.
Mikhalych brings us to a man. Here he is, their “teacher”. He is sitting on a wicker sofa.57
Go to a chic tobacco shop somewhere in Kiev or Odessa. That’s how beautiful middle-aged Karaites sit. They will give you a great cigar with a hand studded with diamonds. Their faces are a little bronze, “black skin, mustache like a Turk”, but what eyes they have! Their eyes burn much brighter than the diamonds on their rings.
It was such a man who sat on a wicker sofa. But he was neither a Jew nor a Karaite, he belonged to some other race. Perhaps he was a Hindu, or rather a Greek. However, he was dressed, as usual, in European style. But without grace.
In any case, I immediately felt that in front of me was a strong man. In the oriental style, but strong.
Mikhalych let me down, as a convert is led to an idol. It angered me, internally. The man with burning eyes, apparently, was going to say hello to me without getting up. But he probably felt that it would be impolite, got up, extended his hand and invited us to sit down.
We sat down. Then I saw that we were not alone—guests. There were several more people. One general with whom I was familiar, one well-known statistician and someone else. All Russians. In addition, “behind the piano” I saw a familiar face. We met once in Petrograd.
– Mikhalych, how old is “he”?
– Unknown. Looks like 35, but they say that he is much older.
– Maybe two hundred? And what is his nationality?
– Also unknown. He speaks all languages.
– And in Russian?
– And in Russian.
– Who is studying with him, other than the Russians?
– Almost nobody. All are Russians.
– It’s strange. Is it free?
– No, absolutely not.
– How do Russians manage to [pay]?
– But this is the mystery. They give their last pennies. But I’m sorry—I have to …
⟨…⟩
These were strange exercises. They grew in a certain direction. At first it was only guessed. Where have I already seen this? And suddenly I remembered. I remembered when the thought leading them became clearly expressed, when a strong psychic tension appeared on the faces and in the eyes stubbornly directed somewhere up and forward, the ecstasy of torment flashed. When the strange straight arms, as if struck by disunity, were looking for and couldn’t find each other. When the whole body and especially the curved heads began to musically painfully twitch in “eleven contradictory” movements. Then I remembered: if the Nesterov saints, frozen on the walls of the Kiev Cathedral of St. Vladimir,58 moved in, then it would be like this. It was a body freed from the laws of the body.
⟨…⟩
After the exercises, we moved to another small room. “Conversations” began.
The “teacher” sat down on the couch. Guests against him in chairs. Students around, on the floor—in an oriental manner. ⟨…⟩
The teacher put one leg over the cushion roller. A whole brood of young women was located near this leg. Not all of them were beautiful, but they were Russian women—that means intelligent, some sophisticated.
He began to speak Russian with a strong oriental accent, so I mentally gave him the nickname “Khaldy-Baldy”.59
– Well, where do we start? Who wants what?
Silence.
– Nobody wants anything?! Do you know everything?
Silence.
⟨…⟩
I remembered Mikhalych’s argument about lack of will and said:
– That’s what interests me. Why is this so? Here we Russians have suffered as much as it seems that a human being simply cannot stand it. But we managed and survived. And so, we are able to bear this great, huge misfortune, but we are absolutely not able to endure trifles. And because of trifles, our life is often unbearable. Here is an example. Like many others, I suffered everything, including very difficult ones. And I stood it. But this light bulb shines in my eyes, and I cannot bear it.
I was hoping that the “Khaldy-Baldy” would first order to cover with something the light of the bulb, and then begin to explain. But that did not happen.
⟨…⟩
He began to say:
– This is a very good question. Yes, it is. This is because great grief at the same time implies solace; next to grief is solace for you. It hurts you, but you know that it’s grief, great grief and you heal yourself. You feel sorry for yourself. To suffer great sorrow, trials, hardships—no will is needed. Nature itself works for you. Here you have poison, here you have medicine. But when you are tormented by the shining of a light bulb, there is no consolation from nature. It is tormenting—and you cannot bear it. You cannot. You do not know how to bear anything, because you have no power over yourself.
⟨…⟩
I listened. It lasted a long time. ⟨…⟩
– So, I’ll say. Here is a horse, a cabman, a passenger. And that’s all—the man himself. One man—only a horse. He runs. And where? He does not know where the cab driver is driving him. And who is the cab driver? The cab driver is his passions, desires. He runs to where he is driven by passions. Another person—he is already a cab driver. He himself—instead of passions. He already drives a horse. Where? Wherever the passenger says. And who is the passenger? The passenger is the mind. The alien mind. The cab driver doesn’t care where to go. Where they [i.e. passions. K.B.] will tell him. And the third person is the passenger himself. He is the mind himself—he knows what he lives for. Such a person, he orders the cab driver—so he orders the man, who has already freed himself from passions, who can go, but don’t know where to go and why to go. And this man orders the horses—that means he controls such a person who obeys passion. Such a person, freed from passions, he rules a man led by passions. He pulls in one direction, and that person runs in this direction, then he pulls in the other direction—and he runs in the other direction. But how to become a passenger? It’s difficult. It’s impossible right away, only gradually. For this, there is science.60 Will needs to be developed. How to develop a will? It’s hard for yourself. For this we need to go to science. It is necessary to give our will to science. This is what we are doing. For the will there is also gymnastics. What can I say, they are doing. But it’s hard to do it yourself. If you want to learn, you have to believe me. Here, for example, she …
Without turning, he pointed with his thumb at the blonde, who was sitting closer than the others at his feet.
– Here, for example, she. What’s on the table—tea? Tea! But I’ll tell her: it’s coffee! And she will think—coffee!
All that sort of thing lasted about two hours. The light of the bulb completely tormented me, the “Khaldy-Baldy” was not to my liking. I felt, I don’t know why, sharp resistance towards him. Meanwhile, what he said was almost true. Of course, the will needs to be exercised. Of course, Christ also taught his disciples to master themselves first and foremost.
Power over oneself is power over people. But what is this power for? To mock people like Lenin? This is the power of the Devil, the power of evil. To ease their grief? This is the power of the Saints and the Good.
I don’t feel Kindness here. I don’t feel Goodness here.
⟨…⟩
Both of them are from Petrograd, sophisticated, weak. In the colors of fleure fanée.61 Both of them have been following this man for several years.62 I told them:
– I came to scold your “teacher”, I honestly warn you. If you do not want me to do this—forbid me.
She said:
– Please scold him.
I started like this:
– Explain to me, for God’s sake, how you, sophisticated Russian women, can every day, i.e. for the thousandth time, to listen to what I heard yesterday. This is nothing more than the most ordinary banality presented in an exotic sauce. And not even that, I wanted to say. I want to ask how you, a refined native of Petrograd, can bear this “Khaldy-Baldy’s” person from the Kiev bazaar? And not only to endure this oriental man ⟨…⟩ but also to connect his fate with him? Explain to me, is this foot of yours lying across the couch not shocking you, or his phrase “here, for example, she”, well, in a word, everything what he gave to yesterday? Is this really what he is, your “teacher”?!
She smiled.
– I told my husband yesterday what kind of impression he [“teacher”] will make on you. Yesterday he was … In a word, maybe I feel it even more than you. But I’ll tell you something: if he talked for 10 minutes with you as he knows how, with you would be the same as with all of us.
– Why didn’t he say that?
– That is, do you think there is one person in him? There are ten people in him, if not more. And there is one like he was yesterday. It’s on purpose. Maybe in order to push you away from him. Maybe you don’t suit him for some reason. Maybe he wants to experience you. He brings only those who so much want to know that nothing can push them away [from him].
– What to know?
– Everything. He knows everything. My husband is sick. I am completely calm: he will cure him. And in general there is nothing, there is no area that he does not know. But most importantly, he knows how to live, what to live for. You need to live in order to improve. He knows how to do it,—how to improve, “improvement techniques”, and gradual steps, that is, something that no one knows.
– Jacob’s ladder?
– I’m sorry, what?
– That is, the stairs to heaven—to God, or to the underworld—to the Devil? And it’s very simple. Isn’t the “Bolshevik technique” perfect, which leads the masses to certain death, keeping them in obedience? Or did the Devil, teaching Eve to eat the apple of Good and Evil, not tell her: “Taste it and you will be like God”? “Perfect” steel equally serves both the scalpel and the killer’s knife. It all depends on why a person is being improved. Where does he lead you?
She thought for a moment and said:
– I met him when it was very hard for me. My husband was taken to the front. This, of course, still does not say anything. You need to know the relationship. For me it was such a horror that has no equal. And so I met him. He reassured me He gave me the strength to bear it. He gave me the strength to wait until my husband returns. And since then … here we are following him. And if I had to leave, my life would lose value. Living like everyone else? My God, it’s such boredom and emptiness, after living with him, under his leadership, when you know that the hand of a person who is no longer a person leads you to some higher goal.
⟨…⟩
We met. It was in a small “German” coffee house, where a large stuffed eagle hung on the wall. A lot of legends have been told about this coffee house. That its owner is the former builder of the Baghdad Road, that there is an intelligence center here—either German, or generally all countries of the world. The fact is that the coffee here was delicious. For twenty piasters a man could get enough.
My new acquaintance looked doomed and tired.
– Just from Japan,—said Mikhalych.
– What did you do there?
– I learned something there.
– Special religious dances,—said Mikhalych.
– Dancing? And how long?
– Yes, three years.
– Three years? Business trip? Any scientific research?
– He was sent by “him”,—said Mikhalych.
– Is “he”? And “he” gave the funds?
The traveler for the first time grinned.
– The funds? None. Just said “go and come when you learn”.
– And you did?
– And I did.
– What makes you obey?
– But why live like “that”? Man is weak. A stick is needed. A master is needed. If you find a master—obey. Without a master—it’s bad. So—albeit hard, damn hard. but you still know that you are being led somewhere. And so—without a path. Why?
He turned to Mikhalych and spoke in a different tone.
“What other dirty trick will he come up with for me now?” I imagine … you know, I call his system—“umbrella”.
– Why?
– Imagine that an umbrella was inserted into your esophagus. Is it unpleasant? True? But you think—it’s okay, we will tolerate. After all, at some point he will take it out of there. Yeah! He will not take it out—vice versa, he will suddenly open an umbrella inside you. Yes … in your esophagus! Such a system!! It’s getting harder and harder and harder. The end? There will never be an end.
He waved his hand, this doomed and tired man.
∵
This time it was in the theater.
All the same people were on the scene, and many others. And Mikhalych.
In spacious suits, white, soft, wide. They differ only in silk belts of different colors.
There are strange melodies in the orchestra. And others, even weirder.
They are guided by a certain, perfectly self-aware thought.
It begins with almost prayerful and almost European movements, i.e. coordinated, natural. Only a thin vein of something strange, contradictory, snakes in some unusual postures and gestures. But maybe this unusualness is just an oriental style? The breath of the East, which should be something different from the West. Maybe that’s why the young man who explains to the public (in French) before each issue what comes next, talked about the religious dances of the East?
⟨…⟩
With each performance number, everything becomes more and more expressive. Orientalism or “unnaturalness”, if it is the same thing, intersperses more and more. The admixture of torment is clearer. They began to twitch on the stage! Savage is breaking through. More and more they are drawn from the sky to the earth. There are no more prayer movements. Instead—something strange, half-animal. However! This—this is just disgusting! They got on all fours and painfully shake their heads, jerk their nose down, just like obsessed animals.
⟨…⟩
The second part began with blood. “Dances of the dervishes”, in a wide variety of forms.
All more or less imagine how dervishes dance. They drive themselves into a frenzy state with a whole assortment of unnatural movements. The dervishes dance is a means to achieve ecstasy.
To come to a state where the body does not feel the laws of the body. Why? Exactly: what for? It’s known that the climax of the [dance] of the dervishes—when they cut themselves and others with knives, shred human bodies, but these bodies don’t feel anything, they are insensitive because they are “freed from the laws of the body”.
And therefore, it clearly smelled of blood when the dervish dances began to be performed on the stage. There were, however, knives. And therefore there was no blood itself, but its aroma was felt.
∵
To give a “respite”, there was an exercise called “Stop”. But was it a respite, or just the next step?
They danced some very complex dance, and each of them danced something different and special. And, of course, unnatural. Some eleven, or maybe one hundred eleven “contradictory” movements at once. Guided by someone’s will, they were completely immersed in the execution of this devilishly difficult program, contrary to all laws of nature, created by the pride of a mind that denies nature. Their faces were strained to suffering. Any thought about everything in the world disappeared, if only not to go astray! If only to fulfill the will, dictating, commanding, leading.
And suddenly the word: sharp, like a whip, sparkling from somewhere, must have been behind the curtains, blinding like lightning,—the word:
– Stop!!!
He was not visible, but, of course, it was he—the “teacher”. Invisible, but visible.
What happened?
“Tetanus” happened with all of them together and with each one individually. Each and every one stopped in the pose in which they were found. Everyone—in different poses, because everyone danced their own. But they all—in unnatural positions, because it was one hundred and eleven “contradictory” movements. And all together they were one frozen cramp. Or rather, there were as many different cramps as there were unhappy Russians, on the stage.
They stopped, motionless, like stones. But after a second one began to fall. After him another, third.
Those dancers fell, whom the inexorable order—“Stop!”—found in a position impossible according to the laws of physical equilibrium. Undefeated nature arose, dropping human bodies.
And they fell.
And this fall of petrified bodies, which, having fallen, on the ground, maintained the position of a frozen cramp, was terrible in the ensuing absolute silence.
The rest of the dancers stood as grimaced, twisted in the most impossible way, like bronze sculptures.
And a certain power was blowing from behind the curtains with a cold waft of hell. A strange power of the “teacher”. The power dictating, commanding, leading.
Having driven us through the madness of blood, did he not make us Russians dance the terrible dance of socialism—a dance all woven from cramps, unnaturalness and contradictions, all drawn by the pride of the human mind, denying the laws of nature? Dance, arising from the arrogance of the Devil, ever rebelling against God, who established these laws of nature?
Who knows, perhaps, having exhausted the Russian body with “one hundred and eleven contradictions”, that is, socialist fabrications that are completely impossible, are contrary to human nature; chained the Russian soul and mind to the performance of this demonic dance of the “dervishes of the womb”; having completely enslaved the will of people in this Black Sabbath of false equality and believable lie. Perhaps he [Lenin.—K.B.] will get bored with the blood and antics of his “disciples”, and then he suddenly shouts to the robbed Russia:
– Stop!!!
∵
And the poor slaves will stop and stand like “pillars”, like bronze idols, frozen due to torture, until “someone in a cap”64 shouts to them:
– Allez!!!
Who shouted it? Lenin? No, this is the man behind the curtains. And the frozen ones came to life and again danced their dark dance, which leads them.
Where to?
∵
All this was explained in the last act, i.e. in the last issue of the production, which was called: “Adoration of the Devil”.65
The Devil sat in the middle.
And they, in turn, went one by one to him, dancing, to worship him.
And it was scary.
Because their dances were too clear. Each of them portrayed some kind of terrible nervous illness. They were all “obsessed”. They writhed, twisted convulsively in every way. In these convulsions they “brought” to the Devil. And then they “worshiped”. Their “obeisances” were like a dog’s bite. As if it wanted to bite, but couldn’t, clanged its teeth, gasping for air, and ran away, confounded, to its place.
⟨…⟩
Seriously speaking, I don’t think that the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” was a venture of the Satanists. It seems to me that their “teacher” is just a strong and strong-willed person who also knows a lot. He skillfully uses this [knowledge], and gathered around himself circles of “ownerless” people, people “without dogma”, looking for a leader. The fact that they turned out to be almost entirely Russian is also understandable. The Russians are generally weak-willed and always felt the need to “roll on their belly66 before one [master], then another”, and now especially when all the previous dogmas and former masters were gone away. If these people found “peace and quietness”67 at the Institute, then thank God.
But if we say “thank God”, then why does he [Gurdjieff.—K.B.] need all this Luciferian cuisine? Why would he evoke the image of Beelzebub if he did not essentially serve him? Why are these cramps and convulsions, a bloody aroma with devil worship in an apotheosis?
After all, it is said: “And do not lead us into temptation”.68
The Russians now know from their own experience what it means to “play with fire”. They played, played with the revolution and played out. For a hundred years they preached “freedom, equality and fraternity”, and did not notice who wears this placard around the world on huge poles as tall as the Eiffel Tower. And if they paid attention, they would see that Someone in black and red walks under the banner and that he has a tail and goat hooves. And that with his hooves he walks in the thick—a mess made up of dirt, blood and gold. Anyone who is seduced, who runs after this placard through the [bloody] mess, will get bogged down in this thicket of dirt, blood and gold. So Russia got bogged down.
So it is with the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man”. If it is harmony, that is—strength, health, then there is no need for cramps, cramps and those possessed by terrible diseases; if this is the way to the Light, that is, to God, then you do not need to bring gifts to Satan.
Satan is very close without all this. For it is said: “… but deliver us from the Evil One.”
⟨…⟩
Oh, human race!
4 A Few Words in Conclusion
The documents we publish here are related both to the legacy of George Gurdjieff and his school, and to the history of Russian emigration. More precisely, they testify to Russian esotericism in exile, since Gurdjieff himself and his first students were refugees, forced to leave their homeland under the threat of persecution by the new Communist power.
The brochure published by the Gurdjieff Institute in Constantinople is unique for several reasons. As far as we know, this was the first attempt to publicize the main ideas of Gurdjieff, as well as to show the possibilities of practical application of his method. Before the appearance of this pamphlet, Gurdjieff had not printed a single article, lecture or prospectus outlining his ideas.69
Surprisingly enough, Gurdjieff (unlike, e.g., Peter Ouspensky) did not publish with special Russian-language publishing houses, or in periodicals on esotericism, although dozens of journals of this profile existed in Russia before the 1917 revolution. The publication of this brochure also looks unusual for Russian-language publications that were published in Constantinople in 1920–1922: as far as we can judge, this was the only Russian book on esotericism that saw the light of day in Constantinople. It should be noted, however, that Russian-language publications, especially newspapers and magazines that appeared in Constantinople during these years, have been practically not preserved, and the few that came to us are scattered in libraries, archives and private collections throughout the world. Until now, there is neither a complete bibliography, nor are there special studies devoted to the Russian press in Constantinople at that time.
Therefore, it seems very important to further study the “Russian trace” of the stay of Gurdjieff and his students based on the materials of the Russian emigrant periodicals, as well as on the memoirs of contemporaries and participants in those events. The publication of fragments of the memoirs by Vasily Shulgin, a Russian emigrant who was not a follower of Gurdjieff, is the first step in this direction. We have reason to hope that a further examination of the legacy of Russian emigrant thought, especially related to esotericism, can significantly complement the picture of the early stage in the life and teachings of George Gurdjieff.
Acknowledgments
The author is sincerely grateful to Birgit Menzel for her continued support and assistance in the work on the article.
For a review of studies of esotericism among Russian emigrants in the 1920s and 1930s, see Burmistrov, ‘Russian Emigration of the 1920s–1930s in Yugoslavia and Esotericism’; idem, ‘Knigoizdatel’skaya deyatel’nost’ ezotericheskih shkol i grupp russkogo zarubezh’ya’.
Later a famous British scientist and technologist. In 1946, Bennett and his wife founded the non-profit Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences. At the beginning of 1949, Gurdjieff appointed Bennett as his “official representative for England”. See Petsche, Gurdjieff and Music, 252.
Ferapontoff, Boris. Constantinople Notes. Undated Ms. Yale Univ. Library, box 53, folder 1825b (MS 840, Series III). Ferapontoff’s notes was published by Joseph Azize: Ferapontoff, Constantinople Notes on the Transition to Man 4. Cf. also Ferapontoff, Σημειώσεις από τις Διαλέξεις του Π.Ντ. Ουσπένσκυ και του Γ.Ι. Γκουρτζίεφ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη(1920–1921); Azize, Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation, and Exercises, 35, 75, 100.
The story of the compilation of the Tiflis pamphlet by Gurdjieff, with the participation of the Hartmanns, is described in Hartmann, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, 138–139. The cover of this book is published on p. 140.
Peter Ouspensky mentions a copy of this brochure sent to him by Gurdjieff and gives some excerpts from it. See Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 381.
Anna Alexandrovna Evreinova (née Kashina, 1898–1981), actress, writer, journalist, was engaged in psychoanalysis. Evreinova studied at St. Petersburg University and, after the revolution lived in exile in Paris.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Evreinov (1879–1953) was a Russian director, dramatist, theater practitioner, art critic, artist, and freemason. In 1925 he emigrated from Soviet Russia, from 1927 he lived permanently in Paris. Evreinov was a member of various esoteric organizations and orders in Russia and in the Soviet Union, as well as a prominent Masonic figure of the Russian emigration (he served in different years as master of rituals in a number of Paris masonic lodges). See Kashina-Evreinova, N.N. Evreinov v mirovom teatre XX veka; Serkov, Russkoe masonstvo. 1731–2000. Enciklopedicheskij slovar’, 321–322.
‘Introduction to Monodrama’ (1909), ‘Theater as Such’ (1912), ‘Theater for Oneself’ (1915), ‘On the Denial of Theater’ (1916) (all printed in St. Petersburg, in Russian).
Anna Ilyinichna Butkovskaya (Butkovsky-Hewitt, b. 1885, d. after 1978), pianist, dancer, close acquaintance of P. Ouspensky and G. Gurdjieff since 1914. It is known that together with Grigory Rasputin, Anna Butkovskaya visited the residence of the Imperial family in Tsarskoye Selo. In exile she became an antiques dealer in Paris and London. It is curious that in 1926 in the United States Nikolai Evreinov gave a public lecture ‘Rasputin and the history of imposture in Russia’ (see Evreinov, Original o portretistakh, 25). However, the question of possible contacts between Gurdjieff, Evreinov and Rasputin is clearly beyond the scope of this article.
Evreinova, A., ‘Chto ya pomnyu o G.I. Gyurdzhieve’, 278. Here is how Anna Butkovskaya describes this meeting: ‘We were all stupefied when we met him in the street, and felt that there must be some special meaning to so extraordinary a meeting. Evreinoff came up to Gurdjieff, leaned his head towards him and said, “I am a difficult, pretentious man. I am ambitious. But here, Georgi Ivanovitch, I bow to you, and I can only say, since I met you here that I don’t think our meeting (like this) is casual. I will stay with you for some time, and you will look at me and I will look at the group.” So Evreinoff stayed for a time.’ Butkovsky-Hewitt, With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris, 105.
See the publication of the English version of the brochure in Gurdjieff International Review, 1997, vol. I (1); on the date of its publication and distribution see Tamdgidi, Gurdjieff and Hypnosis, 247.
An archaic Russian word that cannot be adequately translated. It roughly means individual content formed over a long time. In the English translation of the 1923 Institute booklet published in France, this term in brackets is rendered as “impressions registered”.
Jeanne Matignon de Salzmann (born Jeanne-Marie Allemand, 1889–1990), a French-Swiss dance teacher and a close pupil of G.I. Gurdjieff. She was introduced to Gurdjieff in 1919 by Thomas de Hartmann.
Julia Osipovna Ostrowska (1889–1926), Gurdjieff’s wife and one of his first students. Gurdjieff said that she was an ‘old soul who had lived many lives’. Some authors believe that they got married in 1912; according to M. Tamdgidi, they met and got married in 1909. See Moore, Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth, 1999, 66–68; Peters, Boyhood With Gurdjieff, 91; Moore, ‘Gurdjieff’, 447; Tamdgidi, Gurdjieff and Hypnosis, 245.
Leonid Robertovich de Stjernvall (Stjoernval, 1872–1938), a noted medical doctor and psychologist in St. Petersburg, one of the first Gurdjieff students (since 1915).
Balochistan (Baluchistan, Baluchestan) is a historical region in south-western Asia. It comprises the Pakistani province of Balochistan, the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and the southern areas of Afghanistan.
It is worth noting that Shulgin in his memoirs writes the surname “Gurdjieff” as “Гюрджиев” (using the Russian letter “ю” instead “у”). This is not a mistake, but, obviously, that is how Gurdjieff himself wrote his surname in Russian. In this spelling, it is also given in the Constantinople brochure of the Gurdjieff Institute of 1920.
‘It was in Constantinople in 1921. I once met one officer, my old acquaintance. We will call him Maksimych. It seems he was in the rank of captain’. Shulgin, Poslednij ochevidec, 522.
Angelina Vasilievna Sacco (dates unknown), clairvoyant, palmist, theosophist and—at the same time, a zealous Catholic. In exile she lived in Paris, communicated with some famous surrealists. See Matheson, Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior, 81, 87–88. Shulgin met her in 1921 in Constantinople and in 1923–1924 in Paris. Shulgin’s memories about Sacco were recorded by Rostislav Krasyukov in 1973; they are published in Shulgin, Teni, kotorye prohodjat, 322–327.
Cf. ‘And now I remember. It was an unusually beautiful hall ⟨…⟩ and the stage ahead. And Gurdjieff was just sitting on the stage. Maksimych led me to him.’ Shulgin, Poslednij ochevidec, 522.
Shulgin is referring to fresco images painted on the walls of the famous church in Kiev by the Russian artist Mikhail V. Nesterov (1862–1942) in the 1890s.
The Russian term наука is used here, which in the strict sense means “science”. However, it can be assumed that it can be understood in a broader sense, as a special knowledge (or discipline) and method of its application in practice.
In an interview with Nikolai Lisovoy (1968), Shulgin said that he knew these two people in St. Petersburg, before the revolution. The husband of this woman worked as a secretary in the State Duma (Russian Parliament).
John G. Bennett painstakingly depicts the practice of “Stop” in his book Witness: The Story of a Search: ‘After the Initiation of the Priestess, there were several exercises for men only. Then everyone lined up at the back of the room while Hartmann played a series of chords. Gurdjieff shouted an order in Russian and all the dancers jumped in the air and rushed at full speed towards the spectators. Suddenly Gurdjieff in a loud voice shouted “Stop!” and everyone froze in his tracks. Most of the dancers, being carried by the momentum of their rush, fell and rolled over and over on. the floor. As they came to rest they became rigid like people in a cataleptic trance. There was along silence. Gurdjieff gave another order and all quietly got up and resumed their places in the original ranks. The exercise was repeated two or three times, but the impact on us was no longer the same’. Bennett, Witness: The Story of a Search, 59.
According to Shulgin, the last act of the dance performance to which he was invited was called “Adoration of the Devil”. It was the culmination scene in the play, during which all the participants gathered around the “devil”, presumably Gurdjieff. We have no additional evidence of the presence of such a part in the production, which was prepared by Gurdjieff. Shulgin was very accurate in his memoirs (one might even say—unusually accurate), but his description could be influenced by his creative imagination, implying an interpretation of the events taking place at that time in the spirit of eschatology and apocalyptic.
The only exception is the announcement of the staging of the “Struggle of the Magicians” performance, published in November or December of 1914 in the newspaper “Golos Moskvy”, the official organ of the constitutional monarchist political party “Soyuz 17 Oktyabrya” (“The Union of October 17”). This announcement is mentioned by Peter Ouspensky. He also reports on a small unpublished story “Glimpses of Truth”, probably written at that time by Gurdjieff’s pupils and based on a draft prepared by him. See Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 6, 9–10.
Bennett, John G., Gurdjieff: Making a New World, London: Harper & Row 1973.
Bennett, John G., Witness: The Story of a Search, Tucson, AZ: Omen Press 1974.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Russian Emigration of the 1920s–1930s in Yugoslavia and Esotericism,’ Esotericism, Literature and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe / ed. by Nemanja Radulović, Belgrade: Univ. of Belgrade Press 2018, 143–152.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Knigoizdatel’skaya deyatel’nost’ ezotericheskih shkol i grupp russkogo zarubezh’ya’ (‘Publishing Activities of Esoteric Schools and Groups of the Russian Émigrés’), Mistiko-ezotericheskie dvizheniya v teorii i praktike: misticizm i ezoterizm v Rossii i drugih stranah postsovetskogo prostranstva (Mystical and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice: Mysticism and Esotericism in Russia and Other Post-Soviet Countries) / ed. by S.V. Pakhomov, St.-Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, 2018, 100–115 (in Russian).
Butkovsky-Hewitt, A., With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978.
Chuvakov, V.N., Nezabytye mogily. Rossijskoe zarubezh’e: nekrologi 1917–1997 (Unforgettable Graves. Russia Abroad: Obituaries 1917–1997). In 6 vols. Vol. 1. Moscow: Pashkov Dom 1999 (in Russian).
Evreinov, N., Original o portretistakh (An Original Artist about Portrait Painters), Moscow: Sovpadeniye 2005 (in Russian).
Evreinova, A., ‘Chto ya pomnyu o G.I. Gyurdzhieve’ (‘What I remember about G.I. Gurdjieff’), Novyj zhurnal (The New Review), New York, 1977, N 128, 277–282 (in Russian)
Ferapontoff, Boris, Constantinople Notes on the Transition to Man 4 / With an Introduction and Commentary by Joseph Azize, Mount Desert, ME: Beech Hill 2017.
Ferapontoff, Boris V., Σημειώσεις από τις Διαλέξεις του Π.Ντ. Ουσπένσκυ και του Γ.Ι. Γκουρτζίεφ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη(1920–1921) (Notes on the lectures of P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff in Constantinople, 1920–1921), Rafina: Μεταμόρφωση, 2018 (Greek transl. from English).
Hartmann, Thomas & Olga, de. Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, N.Y.: Penguin Books 1992.
Joffe, G., ‘Ja zavjornut v svitok iz koljuchej provoloki’ (‘I am wrapped in a scroll of barbed wire’), Nauka i Zhizn’ 2 (2010), 72–80 (in Russian).
Kashina-Evreinova, A., N.N. Evreinov v mirovom teatre XX veka (N.N. Evreinov in the World Theater of the XX Century), Paris: Les Éditeurs Réunis 1964 (in Russian).
Lachman, G., In search of P.D. Ouspensky: the genius in the shadow of Gurdjieff / 2nd ed., Wheaton (IL): Quest Books 2006.
Lipsey, R., Gurdjieff Reconsidered. The Life, the Teaching, the Legacy, Boulder: Shambhala 2019.
Matheson, N., Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior, N.Y.: Routledge 2017.
Moore, J., Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth: a Biography, Shaftesbury: Element Books 1999.
Moore, J., ‘Gurdjieff’, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W. Hanegraaff, Leiden: Brill 2005, 445–450.
Ouspensky, P. In Search of the Miraculous, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Co. 1949.
Peters, F., Boyhood With Gurdjieff, Fairfax: Arete Communications 2006.
Petsche, J., Gurdjieff and Music: The Gurdjieff / de Hartmann Piano Music and Its Esoteric Significance, Leiden: Brill 2015.
Serkov, A.I., Russkoe masonstvo. 1731–2000. Enciklopedicheskii slovar’ (Russian Freemasonry. 1731–2000. An Encyclopedic Dictionary), Moscow: Rosspen 2001 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., ‘1921. Ocherki’ (‘1921. Essays’), Russkaya Gazeta (Paris) 13 (31.03.1921), 2–3; 14 (07.04.1921), 2 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., 1921, Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole 2018 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., Poslednij ochevidec. Memuary, ocherki, sny (The Last Eyewitness. Memoirs, Essays, Dreams) / comp., with the foreword by N.N. Lisovoy, Moscow: OLMA-Press 2002 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., Teni, kotorye prohodjat (Shadows that pass) / comp. by R.G. Krasyukov, St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya 2012 (in Russian).
Tamdgidi, M.H., Gurdjieff and Hypnosis: A Hermeneutic Study, N.Y., L.: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
Tchekhovitch, Tcheslaw, Gurdjieff. A Master in Life, Toronto: Dolmen Meadows 2006.
Utuaguri, S.N., Belye russkie na Bosfore, 1919–1929 (White Russians on the Bosphorus, 1919–1929), Moscow: MBA 2013 (in Russian).
Volkov, S. Oficery kazach’ih vojsk. Opyt martirologa (Officers of the Cossack troops. A Martyrology), Moscow: Universitet Dmitriya Pozharskogo 2013 (in Russian).
Bennett, John G., Gurdjieff: Making a New World, London: Harper & Row 1973.
Bennett, John G., Witness: The Story of a Search, Tucson, AZ: Omen Press 1974.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Russian Emigration of the 1920s–1930s in Yugoslavia and Esotericism,’ Esotericism, Literature and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe / ed. by Nemanja Radulović, Belgrade: Univ. of Belgrade Press 2018, 143–152.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Knigoizdatel’skaya deyatel’nost’ ezotericheskih shkol i grupp russkogo zarubezh’ya’ (‘Publishing Activities of Esoteric Schools and Groups of the Russian Émigrés’), Mistiko-ezotericheskie dvizheniya v teorii i praktike: misticizm i ezoterizm v Rossii i drugih stranah postsovetskogo prostranstva (Mystical and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice: Mysticism and Esotericism in Russia and Other Post-Soviet Countries) / ed. by S.V. Pakhomov, St.-Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, 2018, 100–115 (in Russian).
Butkovsky-Hewitt, A., With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978.
Chuvakov, V.N., Nezabytye mogily. Rossijskoe zarubezh’e: nekrologi 1917–1997 (Unforgettable Graves. Russia Abroad: Obituaries 1917–1997). In 6 vols. Vol. 1. Moscow: Pashkov Dom 1999 (in Russian).
Evreinov, N., Original o portretistakh (An Original Artist about Portrait Painters), Moscow: Sovpadeniye 2005 (in Russian).
Evreinova, A., ‘Chto ya pomnyu o G.I. Gyurdzhieve’ (‘What I remember about G.I. Gurdjieff’), Novyj zhurnal (The New Review), New York, 1977, N 128, 277–282 (in Russian)
Ferapontoff, Boris, Constantinople Notes on the Transition to Man 4 / With an Introduction and Commentary by Joseph Azize, Mount Desert, ME: Beech Hill 2017.
Ferapontoff, Boris V., Σημειώσεις από τις Διαλέξεις του Π.Ντ. Ουσπένσκυ και του Γ.Ι. Γκουρτζίεφ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη(1920–1921) (Notes on the lectures of P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff in Constantinople, 1920–1921), Rafina: Μεταμόρφωση, 2018 (Greek transl. from English).
Hartmann, Thomas & Olga, de. Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, N.Y.: Penguin Books 1992.
Joffe, G., ‘Ja zavjornut v svitok iz koljuchej provoloki’ (‘I am wrapped in a scroll of barbed wire’), Nauka i Zhizn’ 2 (2010), 72–80 (in Russian).
Kashina-Evreinova, A., N.N. Evreinov v mirovom teatre XX veka (N.N. Evreinov in the World Theater of the XX Century), Paris: Les Éditeurs Réunis 1964 (in Russian).
Lachman, G., In search of P.D. Ouspensky: the genius in the shadow of Gurdjieff / 2nd ed., Wheaton (IL): Quest Books 2006.
Lipsey, R., Gurdjieff Reconsidered. The Life, the Teaching, the Legacy, Boulder: Shambhala 2019.
Matheson, N., Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior, N.Y.: Routledge 2017.
Moore, J., Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth: a Biography, Shaftesbury: Element Books 1999.
Moore, J., ‘Gurdjieff’, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W. Hanegraaff, Leiden: Brill 2005, 445–450.
Ouspensky, P. In Search of the Miraculous, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Co. 1949.
Peters, F., Boyhood With Gurdjieff, Fairfax: Arete Communications 2006.
Petsche, J., Gurdjieff and Music: The Gurdjieff / de Hartmann Piano Music and Its Esoteric Significance, Leiden: Brill 2015.
Serkov, A.I., Russkoe masonstvo. 1731–2000. Enciklopedicheskii slovar’ (Russian Freemasonry. 1731–2000. An Encyclopedic Dictionary), Moscow: Rosspen 2001 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., ‘1921. Ocherki’ (‘1921. Essays’), Russkaya Gazeta (Paris) 13 (31.03.1921), 2–3; 14 (07.04.1921), 2 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., 1921, Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole 2018 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., Poslednij ochevidec. Memuary, ocherki, sny (The Last Eyewitness. Memoirs, Essays, Dreams) / comp., with the foreword by N.N. Lisovoy, Moscow: OLMA-Press 2002 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., Teni, kotorye prohodjat (Shadows that pass) / comp. by R.G. Krasyukov, St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya 2012 (in Russian).
Tamdgidi, M.H., Gurdjieff and Hypnosis: A Hermeneutic Study, N.Y., L.: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
Tchekhovitch, Tcheslaw, Gurdjieff. A Master in Life, Toronto: Dolmen Meadows 2006.
Utuaguri, S.N., Belye russkie na Bosfore, 1919–1929 (White Russians on the Bosphorus, 1919–1929), Moscow: MBA 2013 (in Russian).
Volkov, S. Oficery kazach’ih vojsk. Opyt martirologa (Officers of the Cossack troops. A Martyrology), Moscow: Universitet Dmitriya Pozharskogo 2013 (in Russian).
Portrait of George Gurdjieff by Alexander de Salzman, Tiflis, 1919 (on the cover of the brochure published in Constantinople, 1920). Signed in Russian: “Г.И. Гюрджіевъ”. The earliest portrait of Gurdjieff available
Portrait of George Gurdjieff by Alexander de Salzman, Tiflis, 1919 (on the cover of the brochure published in Constantinople, 1920). Signed in Russian: “Г.И. Гюрджіевъ”. The earliest portrait of Gurdjieff available
George Gurdjieff (1866–1949) and his students’ stay in Constantinople in 1920–1921 remains a blank spot in the movement’s history. Very few records relating to this period survive. In Constantinople, Gurdjieff succeeded in founding the first branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, after his attempts in Tbilisi in 1919 had failed. In this article, two important documents related to this period are published in English translation. The first is a booklet that contains information about the branch of the Institute in Constantinople, its program, theories, and working methods. It was published in Constantinople in 1920, in Russian. The second is a translation of fragments from the memoirs of Vasily Shulgin (1878–1976), a prominent Russian politician, writer, and journalist who witnessed and interacted with the Gurdjieff group in Constantinople. These materials significantly expand our knowledge of this early stage of the Gurdjieff movement and its cultural-historical context.
1 Introducing New Evidence on Gurdjieff’s Constantinople Period
After the October 1917 coup in Russia and during the ensuing Civil War (1917–1920 / 22), Constantinople became the main transshipment point for Russian refugees fleeing communist rule. In 1918–1923, this huge city on the banks of the Bosphorus Strait was occupied by Entente troops. As a result of several waves of evacuation from the Black Sea ports (from Odessa in April 1919, Novorossiysk in January–March 1920, Crimea in November 1920 and Batum in April 1921), more than 200,000 Russian refugees were found in and around Constantinople, not less than 70,000 of them lived in the city itself.1 Among them were representatives of all ranks in Russian society—army officers, civilian officials, representatives of the intelligentsia and creative professions, workers, and peasants. Back in Russia, some of them had been engaged in the study of occultism, notably Theosophy and Anthroposophy, and been members of Masonic lodges. In exile, they continued these studies.2 Among the teachers known in this environment in Constantinople were the spiritual teacher, writer, composer, and traveler, George (Georgij Ivanovich) Gurdjieff (1866/1877–1949) and his acquaintance and associate, Russian mathematician, writer, occultist, and tarot specialist, Peter (Pyotr Dem’janovich) Ouspensky (1878–1947).
Figure 1
Portrait of George Gurdjieff by Alexander de Salzman, Tiflis, 1919 (on the cover of the brochure published in Constantinople, 1920). Signed in Russian: “Г.И. Гюрджіевъ”. The earliest portrait of Gurdjieff available
Information about the stay of G.I. Gurdjieff and his followers in Constantinople in 1920–1921 is rather scarce. It is known that they arrived in Constantinople from Batum in the early days of July 1920. More or less detailed data about Gurdjieff’s stay and work in Constantinople is contained in two books of memoirs. I note first the book Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff (1964) by one of his closest students, the celebrated Russian composer, Thomas (Foma Aleksandrovich) de Hartmann (1885–1956), and his wife, an opera singer, Olga (Ol’ga Arkad’ evna) de Hartmann (née de Schumacher, 1885–1979). The second book is Gurdjieff: A Master of Life (1990), the memoirs of Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch (1900–1958), who was a student of both Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. The drawback of these memoires is that they are written many decades after the events described.
The Hartmanns arrived in Constantinople with Gurdjieff from Batum in July 1920. Their book3 gives a brief account of what the Gurdjieff group did before leaving for Berlin in August 1921.4 This includes rehearsals of the ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians, an attempt to open a branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, public lectures, and concerts. The Hartmanns also published the work program of the Constantinople branch of the Institute, compiled in December 1920, as well as a list of public lectures and lecturers.5
The most detailed account of Gurdjieff’s stay in Constantinople is contained in Tchekhovitch’s book. Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch was a Russian officer of Polish descent who served in the White Army and ended up in Constantinople in January 1920 (probably evacuated from Odessa). Tchekhovitch first met Peter Ouspensky, who lectured at the premises of one of the Russian newspapers in Constantinople (Russkij majak, “Russian Lighthouse”). He met Gurdjieff, probably through Ouspensky in the autumn of 1920. His memoires are much more voluminous and less formal than those of the Hartmanns.6 Tchekhovitch, having become a devoted student of Gurdjieff and living in the same house with him, reports on numerous conversations with the teacher and his followers and provides interesting details about the work of the department of the Institute. At the same time, it is impossible to compose an integral picture of the work of the Gurdjieff group in Constantinople from his memoirs—these are fragmentary memories recorded over thirty years later.
As is known, Peter Ouspensky maintained relations with Gurdjieff in Constantinople, provided some assistance in organizing a branch of the Institute, and then lectured at the Institute (he himself was not a member). In addition, he drafted the scenarios for Gurdjieff’s ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians. Ouspensky himself very briefly describes his life in Constantinople in the book, In Search of the Miraculous (1949). He remembers: ‘At that time Constantinople was full of Russians. I met acquaintances from St. Petersburg and with their assistance I began to give lectures ⟨…⟩ I at once collected a fairly large audience mostly of young men. I continued to develop the ideas begun in Rostov and Ekaterinodar, connecting general ideas of psychology and philosophy with ideas of esotericism.’ As for Gurdjieff, he writes: ‘he wanted to organize a continuation of his Tiflis Institute in Constantinople, the principal place in which would be taken by dances and rhythmic exercises which would prepare people to take part in the ballet ⟨…⟩ I helped G. all I could in organizing his Institute. ⟨…⟩ I visited G.’s Institute from time to time.’7 And that is practically all that we can learn from Ouspensky’s memoirs.
Some information about the activities of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff in Constantinople is reported by John G. Bennett (1897–1974), at that moment a British intelligence officer,8 who met Gurdjieff in 1920. However, he does not provide much information about the work of the Gurdjieff group, probably because this activity was connected almost exclusively with a rather closed circle of Russian emigrants. At the same time, he attended some of Gurdjieff’s performances, talked with him and Ouspensky and gives interesting details about their life in Constantinople.9
Probably the only participant in the events of 1920–1921 who directly recorded what happened at the time, was a student of both Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, the young Russian officer Boris Vasilyevich Ferapontoff (1891–1930). Beginning in February 1920, he attended Ouspensky’s lectures in Constantinople, as well as Gurdjieff’s lectures after he arrived in Constantinople in June. He worked as a secretary and personal translator for Gurdjieff, as he was fluent in English. After Gurdjieff’s departure for Berlin, in August 1921, Ferapontoff joined him and other students in Germany, later moving on to the Château Le Prieuré in France. At the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Prieuré, he worked as a translator and also as a dance instructor. Soon, however, he left the Institute and emigrated to Australia and then lived in England.10 Ferapontoff’s notes, which he made in Constantinople, contain very valuable information on the content of the lectures that Gurdjieff and Ouspensky gave, but do not include any historical information on the activities of the Institute’s branch.11
Our knowledge about the life and work of Gurdjieff and his students in Constantinople is practically limited to the sources mentioned.12 The lack of information about this period of Gurdjieff’s life is explained by the fact that his activities at that time should be considered in the context of the history of Russian emigration from Russia: his circle of contacts consisted almost exclusively of Russian refugees, he wrote and lectured in Russian. Both he and his pupils had just been forced out of their country, deprived of their social position and familiar life. The very conditions of their half-miserable life in Constantinople did not contribute to the preservation of detailed information about this time.
In this article, I add two new important sources that allow us to more fully cover the activities of Gurdjieff at this early stage of his work. The first one is a brochure published by the Constantinople branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Constantinople in late 1920. The second source is a memoir of a visit to the Constantinople branch of the Institute and of conversations with Gurdjieff’s students, written by the famous Russian politician Vasily V. Shulgin.13
2 Brochure of the Constantinople Branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, 1920
Description of the book: Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff (on the cover: Know—Understand—To Be. The Science of the Harmonious Development of Man. The Method of G.I. Gurdjieff. Western Section). [Constantinople: s.p.], [1920?]. 16 p. 13.5 × 19 cm.
Figure 2
Cover of the brochure of the Institute for Harmonious Development of Man [Constantinople, 1920]
The booklet of the Institute was developed in the autumn of 1920 and most likely printed in November of this year in Constantinople. It contains general information about the Institute, the program of the Institute, a rather lengthy theoretical introduction to the Gurdjieff method (pp. 7–13), information about the Institute of Constantinople, and at the end a list of topics for Gurdjieff’s proposed lectures. The brochure is printed on light brown paper. The cover of the brochure is printed separately on higher quality white paper. It is known that the cover design was created by Alexander de Salzmann14 in Tiflis in 1919 for a similar brochure that Gurdjieff planned to publish before the opening of the Institute in the capital of Georgia.15 It was Gurdjieff who asked de Salzmann to draw his portrait in an oval and place it on the cover. Apparently, this drawing is the earliest known image of Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff chose the same cover later to advertise his “European section” in France.16
The cover image, in addition to the portrait of Gurdjieff, contains a significant number of details and symbols. In the center, in a circle formed by a snake biting its tail, there is the picture of a human being surrounded by four animals from the Apocalypse,17 which are, as it were, inscribed in an enneagram. On the sides are an angel and the devil. The lower part of the figure shows a lot of different objects reflecting the diversity of human activity—a microscope and a spyglass, scales and retorts, an iron and an abacus, a globe and a sewing machine, a palette with paints and compasses, etc. All this, according to the Hartmanns, terrified them.
[W]hat was our horror and despair when, around the portrait, Mr Gurdjieff obliged him [A. de Salzmann.—K.B.] to draw an iron, a sewing-machine—particularly odious to us—and all sorts of other tools, seemingly to represent instruments of harmonious development. When all this was printed on thin yellow paper, the whole brochure had the appearance of an advertisement in bad taste for a provincial occultist. It drove a nail into my heart.18
As far as we know, not a single copy of the Tiflis brochure has been preserved (if it was really printed at all in this city).19 As regards the publication from Constantinople, which was really published a year later, in the fall of 1920, its existence is not reported in any memoirs. The copy that I studied and the full translation of which I provide below is preserved in my personal collection of books, periodicals, manuscripts and documents related to the Russian emigration of the 20th century. I managed to get this prospectus from a private bookseller in Germany in the late 2000s. Unfortunately, he did not know where it came from.
The brochure does not contain any indication of the publisher or printing house. However, I compared it with fifteen books and brochures in Russian, printed at various printing houses in Constantinople in 1920–1922 (all these books are also kept in my personal collection). The features of paper, fonts, and other printing features indicate that the Institute’s brochure was most likely printed in a printing house owned by the “Pressa” Publishing Partnership (according to the imprint of the books printed in this printing house, it was located at ‘Constantinople, Asmalı Mescit Street, 35, Péra’). This Russian printing house printed books for the largest Russian publishing house in Constantinople of that time, “Russkaya Mysl’ ” (“Russian Thought”), whose office and bookstore were located at Péra, Tünel Street, 2, in the immediate vicinity of the premises in which the classes of the Gurdjieff group took place.
Some additional details about the processing of the text of the Institute’s pamphlet can be found in the memoirs of Anna Kashina-Evreinova,20 the wife of the well-known theater director and philosopher Nikolai Evreinov.21
Nikolai Evreinov, one of the key characters in the history of Russian symbolism and the early 20th century theater of the Russian avant-garde, was a highly original philosopher and esotericist, the creator of a special doctrine called “The Philosophy of Theater”. Its principles were formulated by him in several monographs.22 The basis of Evreinov’s teaching and practical method is the desire to transform life and the individual to achieve a true existence. It is quite obvious that he could not help but be interested in other projects of this kind, in particular, the one proposed by Gurdjieff. According to Nikolai Evreinov’s theory, the goal of the theater is not the usual formula “to teach and please,” but the creation of a “theater of life”. For him, the “theatricalization of life”23 is a special philosophy that explains the nature of man and the basic principles of the world order. Evreinov believed that man is characterized by the desire to transform his life, to theatricalize it. The “instinct of transformation” inherent in every person leads to opposing himself to the people and nature surrounding him; it generates a desire to be different, to strive for self-perfection, and to achieve an authentic, perfect way of being.
According to Anna Evreinova, her husband met Gurdjieff in the second half of 1914 in St. Petersburg. Here is how she describes it:
My friend Natalia Butkovskaya had a sister, Anna [Butkovskaya] (both were daughters of a very respectable notary). She [Anna.—K.B.] found somewhere an “Eastern sage” [i.e. Gurdjieff.—K.B.] and first brought him to her home, and then introduced him to many Petersburg salons. ⟨…⟩ Anna Butkovskaya, of course, was Gurdjieff’s love-mate, like many ladies of his entourage, where the intellectual atmosphere reigned in the spirit of reverence for Rasputin,24 against which Gurdjieff reigned in the halo of an oriental sage.25
Natalya Butkovskaya26 mentioned here was a close friend of Nikolai Evreinov, his closest assistant and publisher of his books. Her sister Anna, the mistress of the famous St. Petersburg salon, was also well acquainted with Evreinov and familiar with the infamous Russian “elder” Grigory Rasputin (1869–1916).27 Anna Butkovskaya subsequently became a student and companion of Gurdjieff, who at the end of her life wrote memories of her acquaintance with him.28
In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, Evreinov ended up in Tiflis and accidentally ran into Gurdjieff on the street. This is how he told his wife about this meeting:
I walked ⟨…⟩ along Golovinsky Prospekt.29 This was either at the end of 1919, or at the beginning of 1920. And suddenly I heard: ‘Nikolai Nikolaevich, is that really you?’ I looked—this was Gurdjieff! ‘I just need you!’ he said. ‘How can I be of any use to you?’ I asked ⟨…⟩. ‘You are a writer, philosopher, Nikolai Nikolaevich, and I am about to give a literary form to the program of the institution that I intend to establish in Paris.’30
According to Anna Evreinova, ‘it turned out that Evreinov had to create a detailed program for the “Institute for Harmonious Development” based on incoherent and illiterate sketches of Gurdjieff himself.’ Evreinov successfully fulfilled this request.
‘He really liked my version of the text,’ said my husband. Gurdjieff paid him a sum of money and finally ⟨…⟩ said: ‘And now my offer to you: come with us abroad, because we will all be leaving for Europe soon’ ‘Who are we?’—asked Evreinov in surprise. ‘I, the composer Hartmann with his wife, the artist Salzmann, also with his wife, and several other people. I have carpets in Constantinople, there will be things to start life abroad.’31
According to Anna Evreinova, her husband did not want to go with Gurdjieff (for Evreinov, who had been practicing hypnosis for a long time, Gurdjieff’s attempts to use hypnosis in their meetings were especially unpleasant). In the 1920s, the Evreinovs, however, came to Gurdjieff several times in Fontainebleau and met with him in Paris. They were friends with some of his students, but they were always critical of his ideas and methods.
Figure 3
Page from the Constantinople booklet of the Gurdjieff Institute
Thus, it turns out that the pamphlet, which for the first time introduces the main ideas of Gurdjieff and the method he developed, is a joint work of two people: Gurdjieff himself, who created the draft version of the text, and Nikolai Evreinov, who gave the text a literary form.
It should be noted that the text published below, originally written in Russian, obviously was the basis for the descriptive brochure of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man published in Fontainebleau in 1923. This prospectus was printed as a private edition in the fall of 1923 in English, French and German.32 There are numerous parallels between the Russian edition of 1920 and the text of the aforementioned brochure of 1923, but there are also many differences between them. A comparison of these two sources, however, is beyond the scope of this article.
Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff
The program of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man comprises a number of subjects. For each person, according to his individual properties, a certain group of activities is selected, which deals with those aspects of the personality that must be developed.
The Institute also includes a medical branch, since for many people, before starting to develop their natural properties, it is necessary to correct already existing functional irregularities. Any productive work for the desired harmonic development is impossible without this preparatory activity.
The Institute’s activity is based on the principle that it is better not to work on yourself at all than to work without full knowledge, since all work can only be useful for a person when it is based on full knowledge of human nature and is in strict accordance with the individual physical and psychic faculties of the person, as well as with the circumstances and conditions of his external life. Therefore, an individual and specially developed course is selected for each student from the subjects included in the program of the Institute.
The program includes the study of special methods: harmonic rhythm, various crafts, arts and languages. In parallel with this, there is a comprehensive study of man and the world in all their proportions, according to both European science and ancient Eastern knowledge.
Such a study, which requires the use of new, unusual methods of perception and thinking, on the one hand develops the untapped faculties of man, and on the other hand helps to establish the correct process of thinking and feeling.
Among the leaders of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man there are instructors who are specialists in various fields: in medicine, psychology, physical and mathematical sciences, gymnastics, various kinds of exercises, etc. Only such instructors who are specially trained and have studied comprehensively the science of the harmonious development of man can fully implement the Institute’s program in accordance with all of the aforementioned principles.
PROGRAM
Lecture Section: Science of harmonious development of man. Psychology and man’s internal development. Study of the methods of self-knowledge and self-improvement according to European science and the schools of the East. (Practical experiments and works.) Application of the psychological method to various fields of knowledge. Philosophy of the world process. The mechanics of the universe. The science of relativity. The science of numbers. The science of symbols. Modern and ancient chemistry, astronomy, physics and mathematics. Ancient medicine. Modern oriental medicine. Comparative study of religions. Mythology. Idolatry. Ancient esoteric schools and modern Eastern schools. Psychology of art. Ancient and modern philosophy.
Practical Section: 1) Harmonic rhythm. 2) Special exercises for the development of will, memory, attention, thinking, sensation, etc. 3) Music, singing, plastics, ancient oriental (sacred) dances, drawing, painting, sculpture. 4) Crafts and applied arts. 5) Languages.
All of these subjects are studied by special methods.
Medical Section: Therapeutic gymnastics combined with other therapeutic methods (hydrotherapy, phototherapy, electrotherapy, magnetotherapy, psychotherapy, diethetics) according to the results of a special examination of the individual.
In addition to studying basic functions of the organism, a separate examination is made of the attention, memory, speech, degree of intelligence, temperament, the nature of physical and psychic reflexes, smell, taste, hearing, vision, color perception, properties of emanations, etc.
These [separate] examinations, together with the general medical observations and the particulars collected regarding the inclinations and abilities of the individual, serve to establish ways of effective work on his self-development, i.e. they are a guide to determine the necessary treatment, as well as the subject of [further] research and special work.
At the large departments of the Institute, special rooms are arranged for independent research in the field of physical measurements, analytical chemistry and experimental psychology, as well as for verifying theories and theses that seem doubtful or arbitrary.
The Institute accepts adults and children from 4 years old.
Particular attention is paid to the individuals who have deviated in their development to the degree of pathology, resulting in forms of weakness of will, “self-will”, laziness, painful fears, feelings of constant fatigue, apathy, irritability, impaired metabolism (obesity, exhaustion), alcohol or drug abuse, etc.
Those who enter the Institute are divided into three categories:
Category 1. Those who are working for self-development according to a program specially drawn up for them.
Category 2. a) Those who are working in order to study special subjects selected by themselves personally. b) Those who wish to receive treatment in accordance with the methods of the Institute.
Category 3. a) Those who wish to attend the general lectures only, and b) those studying one special subject.
Note. Some subjects, both in lecture and in practical parts, are taught only for the first category.
There are two types of Institute departments:
1) Branches working in full, which are opened in large centers.
2) Branches working under the reduced program, which are opened in those places where there are sufficient groups of people who want to work in these areas, as well as in cases where there are other favorable conditions.
In those places where it is not possible to open a department, even working on an abbreviated program, circles can be organized for theoretical study of the science of the harmonious development of man, etc. according to the lecture program.
Note. The work of such a circle is taken care of by the nearest branch of the Institute.
The program of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man is based on a psychological system that is based on the following grounds:
Owing to the conditions of modern life, man has departed from his original type, from the type with which he should have been created by the combined influence of the locality, environment and culture in which he was born and nurtured and which, by their very nature, marked out for man the paths of development and the final normal type to which he should have attained. The civilization of our time, with its unlimited means for extending its influence, has torn man from the natural conditions in which he should be living. It is true that it opened a new path for man in the field of knowledge, technology and economic life, and thereby significantly expanded his worldview, but instead of raising him to a higher all-round level of development, civilization has developed only some aspects of his being at the expense of others, completely destroying some faculties, deprived him of the natural advantages of his type, without at the same time providing him with what was needed for the harmonious development of a new type. From an individually finished man, normally adapted to the surrounding nature and the environment that gave birth to him, it [i.e. civilization] has produced a creature, torn from the soil, unfitted for life, and turned out to be a complete stranger to all the conditions of life.
The mentioned [Gurdjieff’s] psychological system shows this with the help of psychoanalysis and experimentally proves that modern man’s world perception and his own mode of living are not the conscious expression of being taken as a whole. On the contrary, they are only the unconscious manifestations of one or another part of him.
From this point of view, our psyche, neither in relation to our world perception, nor in relation to our expression of it, is a unique and indivisible whole, which would be a common repository of all our perceptions and a source of all our expressions, but on the contrary it is divided into three separate “entities”, which have nothing to do with one another, but are distinct both as regards their functions and their constituent substances.
These three entirely separate sources of the intellectual, emotional, and instinctive or moving life of man, each taken in the sense of the whole set of functions proper to them, are called by the system under notice the thinking, the emotional and the moving centers.
Each conscious perception and expression of man is the result of the simultaneous and coordinated working of all three centers, of which each must carry out its own part of this work, i.e. furnish its quota of associations. A complete apperception in any individual case is possible only with the coordination of the activities of the three centers. But, owing to many disturbing influences affecting modern man, the working of psychic centers is almost disconnected. As a result, his intellectual, emotional, and instinctive or moving functions fail to complete and correct one another, but, on the contrary, they follow completely different paths which rarely meet, and thus allow of very few moments of consciousness.
Due to the lack of coordinated action of the centers, it is as if three different men live in a single individual, of which one only thinks, the second only feels, and the third only lives by his instincts and motor functions: a logical man, an emotional man, an automatic man.
These three men in one individual never understand one another; consciously and unconsciously they frustrate the plans, the intentions and the work of each other, and each of them at the moment when he is acting takes a dominant position and calls himself “I”.
Observation of the disunited and contradictory activity of the centers shows that man cannot be the master of himself, since he does not manage his centers, and he simply does not know which of his centers will begin to function next. People do not notice this, just because they are disturbed by the illusory idea of the unity of their “I’s” and of their psyche in general.
A properly organized observation of a man’s psychic activity shows absolutely clearly that modern man never acts on his own, but only displays or manifests actions that have arisen under the influence of external stimuli. It is not man who thinks, but something thinks in him, he does not act, but something acts through him, he does not create, but something creates in him, he does not accomplish, but something accomplishes through him.
This thesis becomes particularly clear when we understand the method and process of perception by each center of external and internal impressions, as well as the method of producing responsive actions.
The psychic centers of a newborn child may be compared to a system of blank phonograph rolls, upon which from the first day impressions of both the internal and external worlds begin to be recorded. The matter thus recorded (or captured) is preserved in each center in the same order (sometimes quite absurd) and in the same proportions in which the impressions were actually received in life. At the same time, the impressions that arrived more often than others and were more intense remain associated with a large number of other impressions preserved in this and other centers. The processes of imagination, memory, judgment, reasoning, thinking are nothing more than re-viewing existing records in various combinations.
A man’s actions in life, his thoughts, feelings, words, convictions, beliefs and actions are composed solely of the material of these records, consisting only of their various combinations. And those or other combinations are composed under the influence of chance shocks set in motion with more or less intensity one or another of the rolls whose contents (the matter inscribed on it) thus become the center of association in the given case. Another shock or a shock of different intensity, evokes yet another association and, therefore, another series of thoughts, feelings and actions. Moreover, no center can add anything from itself or anything new to the combinations thus formed, nor can it draw upon the material formed in the other centers.
Thus, man’s world perception is always the work of only one part of his being, or, in other words, man has three different patterns of world perception, which are very little associated with each other, or if associated, then only partially and accidentally. Therefore every judgment man forms about things, is the product of merely a part of his psyche and the expression of but a fraction of the matter at his disposal. It is always one-sided, and consequently incorrect.
It is clear from the foregoing that the first task of the harmonious development of man is to train him to be able to introduce immediately the work of all three centers into each of his psychic functions, bringing their work to an equal level of intensity. Only in this case, the three main wheels of the human machine will work correctly, without obstructing one another and with the highest efficiency, both as regards their separate functions and as regards the level of consciousness which it is possible for man to attain, but which he never reaches in ordinary circumstances.
If we take into account that in each individual the level of development of each center is different and their contents (napetost’33) and the associations are also different, one cannot but come to the conclusion that an approach to dealing with each person must be strictly individual and can only be like that.
All the functional disorders of the human machine in ordinary life increase as time goes on. Correction of the machine can only be achieved by a long and persistent struggle with the defects that have arisen. But man is unable to carry on this struggle on his own, by his own volitional efforts. Neither can any benefit accrue to him from work upon himself based on various systems of self-education and self-development, which have recently become widespread and recommend specific and general methods and techniques for everyone: various physical exercises, practices of contemplation and concentration (meditation and concentrativeness), breathing and psychic exercises, various systems of diet, fasting, and so on.
Such methods, prescribed for everybody without distinction of individual needs and abilities and without due regard to the peculiarities and qualities of each person, are not only useless, but may even be dangerous, because inept attempts to correct the machine, causing some changes in it, inevitably cause other changes, which an unknowing and inexperienced person can neither foresee nor prevent. One must always bear in mind that the human machine is mechanically balanced in itself at every moment of its correct or incorrect operation. Therefore any change wrought in one direction will inevitably cause a change in another direction, which must be anticipated and, in turn, balanced.
In order to avoid unexpected and undesirable consequences, it is necessary when working upon oneself to conform to the discipline imposed by the special, strictly individual methods aiming at the development of new and special “inertias,” by means of which the old ones may be adjusted and changed. In other words, it is necessary to develop new faculties that are not given by life and which man cannot develop by himself by any general methods.
The whole organization of work at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man according to the System of G.I. Gurdjieff leads precisely to the development of these properties. And only through such special work, which was mentioned at the beginning, is it possible to achieve truly correct development of all functions of man to the extent and in those relations that are necessary for completely appropriate psychic work, to achieve the greatest consciousness.
A group of people who have long been interested in issues of self-development and self-improvement and came to the conclusion that such institutions are an urgent need of any cultural center, learning about G.I. Gurdjieff’s accidental stay in Constantinople, asked him to help them establish a branch of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Constantinople. G.I. Gurdjieff gave his consent to this. Since the opening of the Institute’s branch according to the full program developed by practice, in view of the circumstances of the present time, is not possible, for the time being they decided to open a branch, at least according to the shortened program, so as to expand it as soon as possible.
Figure 4
Pages from the Constantinople booklet of the Gurdjieff Institute
Until the arrival of the person specially invited to head the Constantinople branch, G.I. Gurdjieff takes over the general management of the classes.
Details of the program and organization of work will be clarified in the first lectures and explained in the published prospectuses.
Temporarily, until the establishment of a specially adapted premises, classes are held at Péra, Tunnel, Rue Jéménédji No. 35.
Reception of visitors and information are made from 3 to 8 pm every day.
-----
At the Institute’s office, twice a week (on Thursdays and Sundays), Mr. Gurdjieff will give public lectures and discussions on religion, philosophy, science, and art from an esoteric point of view; the main attention will be given to systems for studying man and the ideas of the Übermensch37 in oriental teachings, as well as to a review of modern exact sciences—medicine, chemistry, psychology and others, according to ancient knowledge of the East.
The purpose of the lectures is to acquaint the Constantinople audience with scientific and philosophical material, which is the result of many years of research in different countries, mainly in the East, material still not published anywhere.
Outlined topics:
1. Excerpts from [stories] about travels in Turkestan, Pamir, Tibet, Chitral,38 Kafaristan,39 Afghanistan, Balochistan.40
2. Is India really the Land of Miracles?
3. At the excavations of Delhi, in the valleys of the Hindu Kush, Armenia, Babylon, Egypt.
15. Proofs of the unity of the origin of all religions.
16. Explanations with demonstrations of various tricks of fakirs, spiritists, thought-readers, fortune-tellers, etc.
Lectures will be given in Russian, Greek, Turkish and Armenian, depending on the audience.
Lectures-conversations begin at 6 pm.
Lecture fees go to the support of impecunious students in the department.
Due to the limited number of places, an appointment to attend lectures is accepted in advance.
3 Vasily Shulgin’s Memories of G.I. Gurdjieff, 1920–1921
The author of these memoirs, Vasily Vitalyevich Shulgin (1878–1976), was a prominent Russian politician and public figure of the early twentieth century, a well-known journalist, writer, convinced Russian nationalist and monarchist. He was a Deputy of the Second, Third and Fourth State Duma of the Russian Empire (1907–1917). During the February Revolution of 1917, he accepted the declaration of abdication from the hands of Emperor Nicholas II. After the Bolshevik coup in October 1917, Shulgin became one of the organizers and ideologists of the White movement, which fought against the power of the Communists. Together with the White Army, he went through the whole war and ended up in Constantinople in November 1920 together with the troops of General Peter N. Wrangel evacuated from Crimea. Shulgin continued the struggle against the Soviet power in exile. In 1944, he was arrested by the Soviet secret services in Yugoslavia, taken to Moscow and in 1945–1956 was detained in a political prison in the city of Vladimir. After his release, he lived in this city under the strict supervision of the KGB, never accepting USSR citizenship. Shulgin was the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and works on history and politics.
Figure 5
‘Russkaya Gazeta’ published in Paris in 1923–1925.
Throughout his life, Shulgin was interested in unusual, mystical phenomena and abilities, mysterious phenomena of the human psyche. Like Peter Ouspensky, he collected “an anthology of mysterious cases” that had happened to him or to his relatives and friends.43 Shulgin was personally acquainted with a number of prominent occultists, including George Gurdjieff, the clairvoyant Angelina Sacco, diplomat, occult writer, and freemason Sergey Tukholka, the famous psychic Wolf Messing, and others. All his life he was fond of spiritualism, and also seriously engaged in the practice of yoga. According to his recollections, he was able to survive the many years spent in prison thanks to extensive daily yoga exercises (including a special practice of breathing, minimizing the need for food, etc.). Some people he shared a cell with were much younger and stronger than him, but nevertheless quickly died in custody.44 It is known that towards the end of his life his tendency to mysticism intensified; he wrote down the contents of his dreams every day, and also (according to the memoirs of the artist Ilya Glazunov) from 1966 until his death he wrote a diary called “Mysticism”.45 Probably, it was thanks to special psychological and yogic practices that Shulgin, having lived to the age of 98 in the terrible conditions of war, refuge, and prisons, retained a clear mind and excellent memory. In memoirs written by him at the age of 80–90, he still recalls the smallest details about dates, names, and places.
We give below some excerpts from Shulgin’s memoirs about his meetings with Gurdjieff and his students in Constantinople in late 1920 to early 1921.46 The full text of these memoirs was published in March 1924 in the Russian newspaper Russkaya Gazeta published in Paris.47 Probably, it was the editor of the newspaper who gave this part of Shulgin’s memoirs the headline ‘Stop!’, alluding to the word that Gurdjieff himself said during the exercise described by the author of the memoirs. According to Shulgin, in Constantinople he met an old friend, a captain of the White Army, whom he called (probably for reasons of secrecy) by the patronymic “Mikhalych”.48 “Mikhalych” was a member of the Gurdjieff circle in the Constantinople branch of the Institute and invited Shulgin, who was always interested in occult topics, to introduce him to his “teacher”. Shulgin agreed and apparently attended rehearsals of the dance numbers for staging Gurdjieff’s ballet, The Struggle of the Magicians. As we will see, Shulgin was extremely critical of Gurdjieff and his methods of “liberating” a person from mechanicality for the further development of a “harmonious personality”. In these experiments, he saw the threat of enslavement and destruction of the human personality itself. In his opinion, the methods of Gurdjieff are in many ways similar to those of the very Communists against whom Shulgin himself and most of the students of the “guru” fought. Only by the complete destruction of the personal principle in Russian people does Shulgin explain the success of introducing the totalitarian mechanisms of submission, cruelty, and suppression completely alien to the Russian worldview. He tried to discuss all this with several students of Gurdjieff, whom he personally knew. Shulgin’s sharply negative attitude to Gurdjieff’s methods is especially interesting because Shulgin himself, as we noted above, was well versed in occultism and himself engaged in occult practices. He was a very attentive observer, paying attention to small details that other people did not notice. In addition, it is important and rather unusual that a sharp criticism of the danger of “occult totalitarianism” was made by a person belonging to the “right” of conservative Russian thinkers (Shulgin was considered the ideologue of Russian nationalism, and some of his books were characterized as anti-Semitic).
While working on the latest version of the memoirs in the early 1970s, Shulgin revealed the real name of the man named by him “Mikhalych”. He was a Russian officer (since April 1920 a lieutenant colonel) and active participant of the White movement, Pyotr Maksimovich Viridarsky (?–1947). In the clandestine anti-Bolshevik intelligence service “ABC” (Russian Azbuka, 1917–1920s), headed by Shulgin, which consisted of a network of secret agents operating in the territory captured by the Communists, Viridarsky was known by the nickname “Page” (Russian Pazh) and served as chief of the special operations department (since 1 December, 1917). In 1920, until the evacuation from Crimea, he was an officer in the headquarters of the Cossack Don Corps of the White Army. In Constantinople, Shulgin and Viridarsky rented a room together, and, according to Shulgin, it was this man who ‘introduced me to Gurdjieff’.49 Subsequently, Viridarsky moved to Yugoslavia, then lived in France, worked as an engineer, received a doctorate in law, and died in Paris in 1947.50 Shulgin maintained close relations with him over the years, obviously, not only as a fighter against the Communists, but as a lover of esoteric knowledge.51
We do know something about how Viridarsky turned from a disciple to an opponent of Gurdjieff. In December 1968, the writer and philosopher Nikolai Lisovoy (1946–2019) visited Shulgin, and at his request, Shulgin told him more about his acquaintance with Gurdjieff.52 Although this story largely coincides with the memoirs of 1924, it contains additional information about “Mikhalych”, whom he now names in accordance with his real patronymic: “Maksimych”.53 Here is what Shulgin told about the fate of the man who introduced him to Gurdjieff:
Well, you can talk about this for a long time. I finally pulled him [Maksimych.—K.B.] out of there [from the circle of Gurdjieff—K.B.]. But Maksimych turned out to be incorrigible. I met him a few years later in Paris. Of course, he did not return to Gurdjieff. But on the other hand, he joined another magical circle, which was leading a completely merciless struggle—the astral, of course, struggle—with the circle of Gurdjieff. Angelina Vasilievna, clairvoyant of extraordinary power, headed this circle, hostile to Gurdjieff.54 She did a lot of miracles … […] Although, as I believe, you are well prepared for such things, but if I tell you about Angelina what I know, gentlemen, you will not believe me—even you will not believe me! One must experience it himself.55
Vasily Shulgin, “Stop!” (from the memoirs, 1921)
My friend, Mikhalych, came to me.
– My God, you have become so much like a fakir!
He was completely overgrown with a thick black beard, his eyes burned on a very thin face. The clothes were consistent with his appearance.
– You probably don’t eat anything?
– Almost.
– This is bad.
– Not at all. I have never felt like that. And I do not drink [alcohol].
– It’s good. But what happened to you? Have you become a yogi, by any chance?
– Not yet, unfortunately.
– But on the way to that?
– Maybe. Anyway, I would like you to get to know something.
Positively, there was some mysterious change in him. And suddenly …
Suddenly he began to make some strange gestures. He moved with one hand on the crown of the head, and the other on the chest. There was a lot of tension on his face.
– Mikhalych, what’s wrong with you?
– It’s very difficult—just try.
– What for?
– Well, try it.
I tried.
– It’s really difficult. It’s as difficult as writing the letter “D” on the table with your right hand, and at the same time driving circles under the table with your left foot.
– Exactly. You guessed it.
– That is?
– That is, this exercise is of the same type, but there is another.
He began to crouch, while doing something with his hands and head.
– Mikhalych, for God’s sake!
– Yes, it is very difficult. Comes to eleven.
– What are eleven?
– Eleven movements at the same time, and each one certainly contradicts all the others.
– What is this system called?
– “Harmonious development of man”.
– How is it “harmonious” when “everything contradicts”?
– In a harmonious man, all qualities should be equally developed. In a modern man, will is weakly developed. Most of our movements, including gymnastics and dancing, are automatic. Conflicting movements require a lot of willpower. This is one of the exercises for developing the will. We, Russians, most of all we need a will. Russians are weak-willed.
– It’s true, except for the Bolsheviks.
– In order to fight them, you need a will. And so I would like.
– So I squat and drove along the crown?
– In order to fight them, you must have the will. And so I would like [you to try].
– [What to try?] Do you want me to squat down and move my hand along the top of my head?
– Do not pose the question like that. Come and see.
Mikhalych brings us to a man. Here he is, their “teacher”. He is sitting on a wicker sofa.57
Go to a chic tobacco shop somewhere in Kiev or Odessa. That’s how beautiful middle-aged Karaites sit. They will give you a great cigar with a hand studded with diamonds. Their faces are a little bronze, “black skin, mustache like a Turk”, but what eyes they have! Their eyes burn much brighter than the diamonds on their rings.
It was such a man who sat on a wicker sofa. But he was neither a Jew nor a Karaite, he belonged to some other race. Perhaps he was a Hindu, or rather a Greek. However, he was dressed, as usual, in European style. But without grace.
In any case, I immediately felt that in front of me was a strong man. In the oriental style, but strong.
Mikhalych let me down, as a convert is led to an idol. It angered me, internally. The man with burning eyes, apparently, was going to say hello to me without getting up. But he probably felt that it would be impolite, got up, extended his hand and invited us to sit down.
We sat down. Then I saw that we were not alone—guests. There were several more people. One general with whom I was familiar, one well-known statistician and someone else. All Russians. In addition, “behind the piano” I saw a familiar face. We met once in Petrograd.
– Mikhalych, how old is “he”?
– Unknown. Looks like 35, but they say that he is much older.
– Maybe two hundred? And what is his nationality?
– Also unknown. He speaks all languages.
– And in Russian?
– And in Russian.
– Who is studying with him, other than the Russians?
– Almost nobody. All are Russians.
– It’s strange. Is it free?
– No, absolutely not.
– How do Russians manage to [pay]?
– But this is the mystery. They give their last pennies. But I’m sorry—I have to …
⟨…⟩
These were strange exercises. They grew in a certain direction. At first it was only guessed. Where have I already seen this? And suddenly I remembered. I remembered when the thought leading them became clearly expressed, when a strong psychic tension appeared on the faces and in the eyes stubbornly directed somewhere up and forward, the ecstasy of torment flashed. When the strange straight arms, as if struck by disunity, were looking for and couldn’t find each other. When the whole body and especially the curved heads began to musically painfully twitch in “eleven contradictory” movements. Then I remembered: if the Nesterov saints, frozen on the walls of the Kiev Cathedral of St. Vladimir,58 moved in, then it would be like this. It was a body freed from the laws of the body.
⟨…⟩
After the exercises, we moved to another small room. “Conversations” began.
The “teacher” sat down on the couch. Guests against him in chairs. Students around, on the floor—in an oriental manner. ⟨…⟩
The teacher put one leg over the cushion roller. A whole brood of young women was located near this leg. Not all of them were beautiful, but they were Russian women—that means intelligent, some sophisticated.
He began to speak Russian with a strong oriental accent, so I mentally gave him the nickname “Khaldy-Baldy”.59
– Well, where do we start? Who wants what?
Silence.
– Nobody wants anything?! Do you know everything?
Silence.
⟨…⟩
I remembered Mikhalych’s argument about lack of will and said:
– That’s what interests me. Why is this so? Here we Russians have suffered as much as it seems that a human being simply cannot stand it. But we managed and survived. And so, we are able to bear this great, huge misfortune, but we are absolutely not able to endure trifles. And because of trifles, our life is often unbearable. Here is an example. Like many others, I suffered everything, including very difficult ones. And I stood it. But this light bulb shines in my eyes, and I cannot bear it.
I was hoping that the “Khaldy-Baldy” would first order to cover with something the light of the bulb, and then begin to explain. But that did not happen.
⟨…⟩
He began to say:
– This is a very good question. Yes, it is. This is because great grief at the same time implies solace; next to grief is solace for you. It hurts you, but you know that it’s grief, great grief and you heal yourself. You feel sorry for yourself. To suffer great sorrow, trials, hardships—no will is needed. Nature itself works for you. Here you have poison, here you have medicine. But when you are tormented by the shining of a light bulb, there is no consolation from nature. It is tormenting—and you cannot bear it. You cannot. You do not know how to bear anything, because you have no power over yourself.
⟨…⟩
I listened. It lasted a long time. ⟨…⟩
– So, I’ll say. Here is a horse, a cabman, a passenger. And that’s all—the man himself. One man—only a horse. He runs. And where? He does not know where the cab driver is driving him. And who is the cab driver? The cab driver is his passions, desires. He runs to where he is driven by passions. Another person—he is already a cab driver. He himself—instead of passions. He already drives a horse. Where? Wherever the passenger says. And who is the passenger? The passenger is the mind. The alien mind. The cab driver doesn’t care where to go. Where they [i.e. passions. K.B.] will tell him. And the third person is the passenger himself. He is the mind himself—he knows what he lives for. Such a person, he orders the cab driver—so he orders the man, who has already freed himself from passions, who can go, but don’t know where to go and why to go. And this man orders the horses—that means he controls such a person who obeys passion. Such a person, freed from passions, he rules a man led by passions. He pulls in one direction, and that person runs in this direction, then he pulls in the other direction—and he runs in the other direction. But how to become a passenger? It’s difficult. It’s impossible right away, only gradually. For this, there is science.60 Will needs to be developed. How to develop a will? It’s hard for yourself. For this we need to go to science. It is necessary to give our will to science. This is what we are doing. For the will there is also gymnastics. What can I say, they are doing. But it’s hard to do it yourself. If you want to learn, you have to believe me. Here, for example, she …
Without turning, he pointed with his thumb at the blonde, who was sitting closer than the others at his feet.
– Here, for example, she. What’s on the table—tea? Tea! But I’ll tell her: it’s coffee! And she will think—coffee!
All that sort of thing lasted about two hours. The light of the bulb completely tormented me, the “Khaldy-Baldy” was not to my liking. I felt, I don’t know why, sharp resistance towards him. Meanwhile, what he said was almost true. Of course, the will needs to be exercised. Of course, Christ also taught his disciples to master themselves first and foremost.
Power over oneself is power over people. But what is this power for? To mock people like Lenin? This is the power of the Devil, the power of evil. To ease their grief? This is the power of the Saints and the Good.
I don’t feel Kindness here. I don’t feel Goodness here.
⟨…⟩
Both of them are from Petrograd, sophisticated, weak. In the colors of fleure fanée.61 Both of them have been following this man for several years.62 I told them:
– I came to scold your “teacher”, I honestly warn you. If you do not want me to do this—forbid me.
She said:
– Please scold him.
I started like this:
– Explain to me, for God’s sake, how you, sophisticated Russian women, can every day, i.e. for the thousandth time, to listen to what I heard yesterday. This is nothing more than the most ordinary banality presented in an exotic sauce. And not even that, I wanted to say. I want to ask how you, a refined native of Petrograd, can bear this “Khaldy-Baldy’s” person from the Kiev bazaar? And not only to endure this oriental man ⟨…⟩ but also to connect his fate with him? Explain to me, is this foot of yours lying across the couch not shocking you, or his phrase “here, for example, she”, well, in a word, everything what he gave to yesterday? Is this really what he is, your “teacher”?!
She smiled.
– I told my husband yesterday what kind of impression he [“teacher”] will make on you. Yesterday he was … In a word, maybe I feel it even more than you. But I’ll tell you something: if he talked for 10 minutes with you as he knows how, with you would be the same as with all of us.
– Why didn’t he say that?
– That is, do you think there is one person in him? There are ten people in him, if not more. And there is one like he was yesterday. It’s on purpose. Maybe in order to push you away from him. Maybe you don’t suit him for some reason. Maybe he wants to experience you. He brings only those who so much want to know that nothing can push them away [from him].
– What to know?
– Everything. He knows everything. My husband is sick. I am completely calm: he will cure him. And in general there is nothing, there is no area that he does not know. But most importantly, he knows how to live, what to live for. You need to live in order to improve. He knows how to do it,—how to improve, “improvement techniques”, and gradual steps, that is, something that no one knows.
– Jacob’s ladder?
– I’m sorry, what?
– That is, the stairs to heaven—to God, or to the underworld—to the Devil? And it’s very simple. Isn’t the “Bolshevik technique” perfect, which leads the masses to certain death, keeping them in obedience? Or did the Devil, teaching Eve to eat the apple of Good and Evil, not tell her: “Taste it and you will be like God”? “Perfect” steel equally serves both the scalpel and the killer’s knife. It all depends on why a person is being improved. Where does he lead you?
She thought for a moment and said:
– I met him when it was very hard for me. My husband was taken to the front. This, of course, still does not say anything. You need to know the relationship. For me it was such a horror that has no equal. And so I met him. He reassured me He gave me the strength to bear it. He gave me the strength to wait until my husband returns. And since then … here we are following him. And if I had to leave, my life would lose value. Living like everyone else? My God, it’s such boredom and emptiness, after living with him, under his leadership, when you know that the hand of a person who is no longer a person leads you to some higher goal.
⟨…⟩
We met. It was in a small “German” coffee house, where a large stuffed eagle hung on the wall. A lot of legends have been told about this coffee house. That its owner is the former builder of the Baghdad Road, that there is an intelligence center here—either German, or generally all countries of the world. The fact is that the coffee here was delicious. For twenty piasters a man could get enough.
My new acquaintance looked doomed and tired.
– Just from Japan,—said Mikhalych.
– What did you do there?
– I learned something there.
– Special religious dances,—said Mikhalych.
– Dancing? And how long?
– Yes, three years.
– Three years? Business trip? Any scientific research?
– He was sent by “him”,—said Mikhalych.
– Is “he”? And “he” gave the funds?
The traveler for the first time grinned.
– The funds? None. Just said “go and come when you learn”.
– And you did?
– And I did.
– What makes you obey?
– But why live like “that”? Man is weak. A stick is needed. A master is needed. If you find a master—obey. Without a master—it’s bad. So—albeit hard, damn hard. but you still know that you are being led somewhere. And so—without a path. Why?
He turned to Mikhalych and spoke in a different tone.
“What other dirty trick will he come up with for me now?” I imagine … you know, I call his system—“umbrella”.
– Why?
– Imagine that an umbrella was inserted into your esophagus. Is it unpleasant? True? But you think—it’s okay, we will tolerate. After all, at some point he will take it out of there. Yeah! He will not take it out—vice versa, he will suddenly open an umbrella inside you. Yes … in your esophagus! Such a system!! It’s getting harder and harder and harder. The end? There will never be an end.
He waved his hand, this doomed and tired man.
∵
This time it was in the theater.
All the same people were on the scene, and many others. And Mikhalych.
In spacious suits, white, soft, wide. They differ only in silk belts of different colors.
There are strange melodies in the orchestra. And others, even weirder.
They are guided by a certain, perfectly self-aware thought.
It begins with almost prayerful and almost European movements, i.e. coordinated, natural. Only a thin vein of something strange, contradictory, snakes in some unusual postures and gestures. But maybe this unusualness is just an oriental style? The breath of the East, which should be something different from the West. Maybe that’s why the young man who explains to the public (in French) before each issue what comes next, talked about the religious dances of the East?
⟨…⟩
With each performance number, everything becomes more and more expressive. Orientalism or “unnaturalness”, if it is the same thing, intersperses more and more. The admixture of torment is clearer. They began to twitch on the stage! Savage is breaking through. More and more they are drawn from the sky to the earth. There are no more prayer movements. Instead—something strange, half-animal. However! This—this is just disgusting! They got on all fours and painfully shake their heads, jerk their nose down, just like obsessed animals.
⟨…⟩
The second part began with blood. “Dances of the dervishes”, in a wide variety of forms.
All more or less imagine how dervishes dance. They drive themselves into a frenzy state with a whole assortment of unnatural movements. The dervishes dance is a means to achieve ecstasy.
To come to a state where the body does not feel the laws of the body. Why? Exactly: what for? It’s known that the climax of the [dance] of the dervishes—when they cut themselves and others with knives, shred human bodies, but these bodies don’t feel anything, they are insensitive because they are “freed from the laws of the body”.
And therefore, it clearly smelled of blood when the dervish dances began to be performed on the stage. There were, however, knives. And therefore there was no blood itself, but its aroma was felt.
∵
To give a “respite”, there was an exercise called “Stop”. But was it a respite, or just the next step?
They danced some very complex dance, and each of them danced something different and special. And, of course, unnatural. Some eleven, or maybe one hundred eleven “contradictory” movements at once. Guided by someone’s will, they were completely immersed in the execution of this devilishly difficult program, contrary to all laws of nature, created by the pride of a mind that denies nature. Their faces were strained to suffering. Any thought about everything in the world disappeared, if only not to go astray! If only to fulfill the will, dictating, commanding, leading.
And suddenly the word: sharp, like a whip, sparkling from somewhere, must have been behind the curtains, blinding like lightning,—the word:
– Stop!!!
He was not visible, but, of course, it was he—the “teacher”. Invisible, but visible.
What happened?
“Tetanus” happened with all of them together and with each one individually. Each and every one stopped in the pose in which they were found. Everyone—in different poses, because everyone danced their own. But they all—in unnatural positions, because it was one hundred and eleven “contradictory” movements. And all together they were one frozen cramp. Or rather, there were as many different cramps as there were unhappy Russians, on the stage.
They stopped, motionless, like stones. But after a second one began to fall. After him another, third.
Those dancers fell, whom the inexorable order—“Stop!”—found in a position impossible according to the laws of physical equilibrium. Undefeated nature arose, dropping human bodies.
And they fell.
And this fall of petrified bodies, which, having fallen, on the ground, maintained the position of a frozen cramp, was terrible in the ensuing absolute silence.
The rest of the dancers stood as grimaced, twisted in the most impossible way, like bronze sculptures.
And a certain power was blowing from behind the curtains with a cold waft of hell. A strange power of the “teacher”. The power dictating, commanding, leading.
Having driven us through the madness of blood, did he not make us Russians dance the terrible dance of socialism—a dance all woven from cramps, unnaturalness and contradictions, all drawn by the pride of the human mind, denying the laws of nature? Dance, arising from the arrogance of the Devil, ever rebelling against God, who established these laws of nature?
Who knows, perhaps, having exhausted the Russian body with “one hundred and eleven contradictions”, that is, socialist fabrications that are completely impossible, are contrary to human nature; chained the Russian soul and mind to the performance of this demonic dance of the “dervishes of the womb”; having completely enslaved the will of people in this Black Sabbath of false equality and believable lie. Perhaps he [Lenin.—K.B.] will get bored with the blood and antics of his “disciples”, and then he suddenly shouts to the robbed Russia:
– Stop!!!
∵
And the poor slaves will stop and stand like “pillars”, like bronze idols, frozen due to torture, until “someone in a cap”64 shouts to them:
– Allez!!!
Who shouted it? Lenin? No, this is the man behind the curtains. And the frozen ones came to life and again danced their dark dance, which leads them.
Where to?
∵
All this was explained in the last act, i.e. in the last issue of the production, which was called: “Adoration of the Devil”.65
The Devil sat in the middle.
And they, in turn, went one by one to him, dancing, to worship him.
And it was scary.
Because their dances were too clear. Each of them portrayed some kind of terrible nervous illness. They were all “obsessed”. They writhed, twisted convulsively in every way. In these convulsions they “brought” to the Devil. And then they “worshiped”. Their “obeisances” were like a dog’s bite. As if it wanted to bite, but couldn’t, clanged its teeth, gasping for air, and ran away, confounded, to its place.
⟨…⟩
Seriously speaking, I don’t think that the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” was a venture of the Satanists. It seems to me that their “teacher” is just a strong and strong-willed person who also knows a lot. He skillfully uses this [knowledge], and gathered around himself circles of “ownerless” people, people “without dogma”, looking for a leader. The fact that they turned out to be almost entirely Russian is also understandable. The Russians are generally weak-willed and always felt the need to “roll on their belly66 before one [master], then another”, and now especially when all the previous dogmas and former masters were gone away. If these people found “peace and quietness”67 at the Institute, then thank God.
But if we say “thank God”, then why does he [Gurdjieff.—K.B.] need all this Luciferian cuisine? Why would he evoke the image of Beelzebub if he did not essentially serve him? Why are these cramps and convulsions, a bloody aroma with devil worship in an apotheosis?
After all, it is said: “And do not lead us into temptation”.68
The Russians now know from their own experience what it means to “play with fire”. They played, played with the revolution and played out. For a hundred years they preached “freedom, equality and fraternity”, and did not notice who wears this placard around the world on huge poles as tall as the Eiffel Tower. And if they paid attention, they would see that Someone in black and red walks under the banner and that he has a tail and goat hooves. And that with his hooves he walks in the thick—a mess made up of dirt, blood and gold. Anyone who is seduced, who runs after this placard through the [bloody] mess, will get bogged down in this thicket of dirt, blood and gold. So Russia got bogged down.
So it is with the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man”. If it is harmony, that is—strength, health, then there is no need for cramps, cramps and those possessed by terrible diseases; if this is the way to the Light, that is, to God, then you do not need to bring gifts to Satan.
Satan is very close without all this. For it is said: “… but deliver us from the Evil One.”
⟨…⟩
Oh, human race!
4 A Few Words in Conclusion
The documents we publish here are related both to the legacy of George Gurdjieff and his school, and to the history of Russian emigration. More precisely, they testify to Russian esotericism in exile, since Gurdjieff himself and his first students were refugees, forced to leave their homeland under the threat of persecution by the new Communist power.
The brochure published by the Gurdjieff Institute in Constantinople is unique for several reasons. As far as we know, this was the first attempt to publicize the main ideas of Gurdjieff, as well as to show the possibilities of practical application of his method. Before the appearance of this pamphlet, Gurdjieff had not printed a single article, lecture or prospectus outlining his ideas.69
Surprisingly enough, Gurdjieff (unlike, e.g., Peter Ouspensky) did not publish with special Russian-language publishing houses, or in periodicals on esotericism, although dozens of journals of this profile existed in Russia before the 1917 revolution. The publication of this brochure also looks unusual for Russian-language publications that were published in Constantinople in 1920–1922: as far as we can judge, this was the only Russian book on esotericism that saw the light of day in Constantinople. It should be noted, however, that Russian-language publications, especially newspapers and magazines that appeared in Constantinople during these years, have been practically not preserved, and the few that came to us are scattered in libraries, archives and private collections throughout the world. Until now, there is neither a complete bibliography, nor are there special studies devoted to the Russian press in Constantinople at that time.
Therefore, it seems very important to further study the “Russian trace” of the stay of Gurdjieff and his students based on the materials of the Russian emigrant periodicals, as well as on the memoirs of contemporaries and participants in those events. The publication of fragments of the memoirs by Vasily Shulgin, a Russian emigrant who was not a follower of Gurdjieff, is the first step in this direction. We have reason to hope that a further examination of the legacy of Russian emigrant thought, especially related to esotericism, can significantly complement the picture of the early stage in the life and teachings of George Gurdjieff.
Acknowledgments
The author is sincerely grateful to Birgit Menzel for her continued support and assistance in the work on the article.
For a review of studies of esotericism among Russian emigrants in the 1920s and 1930s, see Burmistrov, ‘Russian Emigration of the 1920s–1930s in Yugoslavia and Esotericism’; idem, ‘Knigoizdatel’skaya deyatel’nost’ ezotericheskih shkol i grupp russkogo zarubezh’ya’.
Later a famous British scientist and technologist. In 1946, Bennett and his wife founded the non-profit Institute for the Comparative Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences. At the beginning of 1949, Gurdjieff appointed Bennett as his “official representative for England”. See Petsche, Gurdjieff and Music, 252.
Ferapontoff, Boris. Constantinople Notes. Undated Ms. Yale Univ. Library, box 53, folder 1825b (MS 840, Series III). Ferapontoff’s notes was published by Joseph Azize: Ferapontoff, Constantinople Notes on the Transition to Man 4. Cf. also Ferapontoff, Σημειώσεις από τις Διαλέξεις του Π.Ντ. Ουσπένσκυ και του Γ.Ι. Γκουρτζίεφ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη(1920–1921); Azize, Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation, and Exercises, 35, 75, 100.
The story of the compilation of the Tiflis pamphlet by Gurdjieff, with the participation of the Hartmanns, is described in Hartmann, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, 138–139. The cover of this book is published on p. 140.
Peter Ouspensky mentions a copy of this brochure sent to him by Gurdjieff and gives some excerpts from it. See Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 381.
Anna Alexandrovna Evreinova (née Kashina, 1898–1981), actress, writer, journalist, was engaged in psychoanalysis. Evreinova studied at St. Petersburg University and, after the revolution lived in exile in Paris.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Evreinov (1879–1953) was a Russian director, dramatist, theater practitioner, art critic, artist, and freemason. In 1925 he emigrated from Soviet Russia, from 1927 he lived permanently in Paris. Evreinov was a member of various esoteric organizations and orders in Russia and in the Soviet Union, as well as a prominent Masonic figure of the Russian emigration (he served in different years as master of rituals in a number of Paris masonic lodges). See Kashina-Evreinova, N.N. Evreinov v mirovom teatre XX veka; Serkov, Russkoe masonstvo. 1731–2000. Enciklopedicheskij slovar’, 321–322.
‘Introduction to Monodrama’ (1909), ‘Theater as Such’ (1912), ‘Theater for Oneself’ (1915), ‘On the Denial of Theater’ (1916) (all printed in St. Petersburg, in Russian).
Anna Ilyinichna Butkovskaya (Butkovsky-Hewitt, b. 1885, d. after 1978), pianist, dancer, close acquaintance of P. Ouspensky and G. Gurdjieff since 1914. It is known that together with Grigory Rasputin, Anna Butkovskaya visited the residence of the Imperial family in Tsarskoye Selo. In exile she became an antiques dealer in Paris and London. It is curious that in 1926 in the United States Nikolai Evreinov gave a public lecture ‘Rasputin and the history of imposture in Russia’ (see Evreinov, Original o portretistakh, 25). However, the question of possible contacts between Gurdjieff, Evreinov and Rasputin is clearly beyond the scope of this article.
Evreinova, A., ‘Chto ya pomnyu o G.I. Gyurdzhieve’, 278. Here is how Anna Butkovskaya describes this meeting: ‘We were all stupefied when we met him in the street, and felt that there must be some special meaning to so extraordinary a meeting. Evreinoff came up to Gurdjieff, leaned his head towards him and said, “I am a difficult, pretentious man. I am ambitious. But here, Georgi Ivanovitch, I bow to you, and I can only say, since I met you here that I don’t think our meeting (like this) is casual. I will stay with you for some time, and you will look at me and I will look at the group.” So Evreinoff stayed for a time.’ Butkovsky-Hewitt, With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris, 105.
See the publication of the English version of the brochure in Gurdjieff International Review, 1997, vol. I (1); on the date of its publication and distribution see Tamdgidi, Gurdjieff and Hypnosis, 247.
An archaic Russian word that cannot be adequately translated. It roughly means individual content formed over a long time. In the English translation of the 1923 Institute booklet published in France, this term in brackets is rendered as “impressions registered”.
Jeanne Matignon de Salzmann (born Jeanne-Marie Allemand, 1889–1990), a French-Swiss dance teacher and a close pupil of G.I. Gurdjieff. She was introduced to Gurdjieff in 1919 by Thomas de Hartmann.
Julia Osipovna Ostrowska (1889–1926), Gurdjieff’s wife and one of his first students. Gurdjieff said that she was an ‘old soul who had lived many lives’. Some authors believe that they got married in 1912; according to M. Tamdgidi, they met and got married in 1909. See Moore, Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth, 1999, 66–68; Peters, Boyhood With Gurdjieff, 91; Moore, ‘Gurdjieff’, 447; Tamdgidi, Gurdjieff and Hypnosis, 245.
Leonid Robertovich de Stjernvall (Stjoernval, 1872–1938), a noted medical doctor and psychologist in St. Petersburg, one of the first Gurdjieff students (since 1915).
Balochistan (Baluchistan, Baluchestan) is a historical region in south-western Asia. It comprises the Pakistani province of Balochistan, the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, and the southern areas of Afghanistan.
It is worth noting that Shulgin in his memoirs writes the surname “Gurdjieff” as “Гюрджиев” (using the Russian letter “ю” instead “у”). This is not a mistake, but, obviously, that is how Gurdjieff himself wrote his surname in Russian. In this spelling, it is also given in the Constantinople brochure of the Gurdjieff Institute of 1920.
‘It was in Constantinople in 1921. I once met one officer, my old acquaintance. We will call him Maksimych. It seems he was in the rank of captain’. Shulgin, Poslednij ochevidec, 522.
Angelina Vasilievna Sacco (dates unknown), clairvoyant, palmist, theosophist and—at the same time, a zealous Catholic. In exile she lived in Paris, communicated with some famous surrealists. See Matheson, Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior, 81, 87–88. Shulgin met her in 1921 in Constantinople and in 1923–1924 in Paris. Shulgin’s memories about Sacco were recorded by Rostislav Krasyukov in 1973; they are published in Shulgin, Teni, kotorye prohodjat, 322–327.
Cf. ‘And now I remember. It was an unusually beautiful hall ⟨…⟩ and the stage ahead. And Gurdjieff was just sitting on the stage. Maksimych led me to him.’ Shulgin, Poslednij ochevidec, 522.
Shulgin is referring to fresco images painted on the walls of the famous church in Kiev by the Russian artist Mikhail V. Nesterov (1862–1942) in the 1890s.
The Russian term наука is used here, which in the strict sense means “science”. However, it can be assumed that it can be understood in a broader sense, as a special knowledge (or discipline) and method of its application in practice.
In an interview with Nikolai Lisovoy (1968), Shulgin said that he knew these two people in St. Petersburg, before the revolution. The husband of this woman worked as a secretary in the State Duma (Russian Parliament).
John G. Bennett painstakingly depicts the practice of “Stop” in his book Witness: The Story of a Search: ‘After the Initiation of the Priestess, there were several exercises for men only. Then everyone lined up at the back of the room while Hartmann played a series of chords. Gurdjieff shouted an order in Russian and all the dancers jumped in the air and rushed at full speed towards the spectators. Suddenly Gurdjieff in a loud voice shouted “Stop!” and everyone froze in his tracks. Most of the dancers, being carried by the momentum of their rush, fell and rolled over and over on. the floor. As they came to rest they became rigid like people in a cataleptic trance. There was along silence. Gurdjieff gave another order and all quietly got up and resumed their places in the original ranks. The exercise was repeated two or three times, but the impact on us was no longer the same’. Bennett, Witness: The Story of a Search, 59.
According to Shulgin, the last act of the dance performance to which he was invited was called “Adoration of the Devil”. It was the culmination scene in the play, during which all the participants gathered around the “devil”, presumably Gurdjieff. We have no additional evidence of the presence of such a part in the production, which was prepared by Gurdjieff. Shulgin was very accurate in his memoirs (one might even say—unusually accurate), but his description could be influenced by his creative imagination, implying an interpretation of the events taking place at that time in the spirit of eschatology and apocalyptic.
The only exception is the announcement of the staging of the “Struggle of the Magicians” performance, published in November or December of 1914 in the newspaper “Golos Moskvy”, the official organ of the constitutional monarchist political party “Soyuz 17 Oktyabrya” (“The Union of October 17”). This announcement is mentioned by Peter Ouspensky. He also reports on a small unpublished story “Glimpses of Truth”, probably written at that time by Gurdjieff’s pupils and based on a draft prepared by him. See Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 6, 9–10.
Bennett, John G., Gurdjieff: Making a New World, London: Harper & Row 1973.
Bennett, John G., Witness: The Story of a Search, Tucson, AZ: Omen Press 1974.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Russian Emigration of the 1920s–1930s in Yugoslavia and Esotericism,’ Esotericism, Literature and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe / ed. by Nemanja Radulović, Belgrade: Univ. of Belgrade Press 2018, 143–152.
Burmistrov, K., ‘Knigoizdatel’skaya deyatel’nost’ ezotericheskih shkol i grupp russkogo zarubezh’ya’ (‘Publishing Activities of Esoteric Schools and Groups of the Russian Émigrés’), Mistiko-ezotericheskie dvizheniya v teorii i praktike: misticizm i ezoterizm v Rossii i drugih stranah postsovetskogo prostranstva (Mystical and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice: Mysticism and Esotericism in Russia and Other Post-Soviet Countries) / ed. by S.V. Pakhomov, St.-Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, 2018, 100–115 (in Russian).
Butkovsky-Hewitt, A., With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978.
Chuvakov, V.N., Nezabytye mogily. Rossijskoe zarubezh’e: nekrologi 1917–1997 (Unforgettable Graves. Russia Abroad: Obituaries 1917–1997). In 6 vols. Vol. 1. Moscow: Pashkov Dom 1999 (in Russian).
Evreinov, N., Original o portretistakh (An Original Artist about Portrait Painters), Moscow: Sovpadeniye 2005 (in Russian).
Evreinova, A., ‘Chto ya pomnyu o G.I. Gyurdzhieve’ (‘What I remember about G.I. Gurdjieff’), Novyj zhurnal (The New Review), New York, 1977, N 128, 277–282 (in Russian)
Ferapontoff, Boris, Constantinople Notes on the Transition to Man 4 / With an Introduction and Commentary by Joseph Azize, Mount Desert, ME: Beech Hill 2017.
Ferapontoff, Boris V., Σημειώσεις από τις Διαλέξεις του Π.Ντ. Ουσπένσκυ και του Γ.Ι. Γκουρτζίεφ στην Κωνσταντινούπολη(1920–1921) (Notes on the lectures of P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff in Constantinople, 1920–1921), Rafina: Μεταμόρφωση, 2018 (Greek transl. from English).
Hartmann, Thomas & Olga, de. Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, N.Y.: Penguin Books 1992.
Joffe, G., ‘Ja zavjornut v svitok iz koljuchej provoloki’ (‘I am wrapped in a scroll of barbed wire’), Nauka i Zhizn’ 2 (2010), 72–80 (in Russian).
Kashina-Evreinova, A., N.N. Evreinov v mirovom teatre XX veka (N.N. Evreinov in the World Theater of the XX Century), Paris: Les Éditeurs Réunis 1964 (in Russian).
Lachman, G., In search of P.D. Ouspensky: the genius in the shadow of Gurdjieff / 2nd ed., Wheaton (IL): Quest Books 2006.
Lipsey, R., Gurdjieff Reconsidered. The Life, the Teaching, the Legacy, Boulder: Shambhala 2019.
Matheson, N., Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior, N.Y.: Routledge 2017.
Moore, J., Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth: a Biography, Shaftesbury: Element Books 1999.
Moore, J., ‘Gurdjieff’, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W. Hanegraaff, Leiden: Brill 2005, 445–450.
Ouspensky, P. In Search of the Miraculous, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Co. 1949.
Peters, F., Boyhood With Gurdjieff, Fairfax: Arete Communications 2006.
Petsche, J., Gurdjieff and Music: The Gurdjieff / de Hartmann Piano Music and Its Esoteric Significance, Leiden: Brill 2015.
Serkov, A.I., Russkoe masonstvo. 1731–2000. Enciklopedicheskii slovar’ (Russian Freemasonry. 1731–2000. An Encyclopedic Dictionary), Moscow: Rosspen 2001 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., ‘1921. Ocherki’ (‘1921. Essays’), Russkaya Gazeta (Paris) 13 (31.03.1921), 2–3; 14 (07.04.1921), 2 (in Russian).
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Shulgin, V.V., Poslednij ochevidec. Memuary, ocherki, sny (The Last Eyewitness. Memoirs, Essays, Dreams) / comp., with the foreword by N.N. Lisovoy, Moscow: OLMA-Press 2002 (in Russian).
Shulgin, V.V., Teni, kotorye prohodjat (Shadows that pass) / comp. by R.G. Krasyukov, St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya 2012 (in Russian).
Tamdgidi, M.H., Gurdjieff and Hypnosis: A Hermeneutic Study, N.Y., L.: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
Tchekhovitch, Tcheslaw, Gurdjieff. A Master in Life, Toronto: Dolmen Meadows 2006.
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