Yelena Andreyevna Hahn von Rottenstern (née Fadeyeva) (sometimes transliterated as Elena Gan) (Russian: Елена Андреевна Ган, Ukrainian: Олена Андріївна Ган; 11 January 1814 – 6 July 1842) was a Russian writer known for her contributions to the literary journals Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya and Otechestvennye Zapiski. In addition to her literary works, she is known as the mother of Helena Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy.
In 1835 she made a partial translation of the Bulwer-Lytton novel Godolphin, which was published in Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya, then edited by her literary mentor Osip Senkovsky. In 1837 her first novel, The Ideal, was serialized under the pseudonym Zeneida R-va.[2] While traveling in the Caucasus in 1837 she met exiled Decembrists, an experience that informed a number of subsequent works, including Memoirs of Zheleznovodsk and Utballa and Jellaleddin, published in 1838. In the following three years she published further stories: Medallion, Court of Light, Theophania Abbiaggio. In 1842 she authored Idle Gift, published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Her collected works were published in St. Petersburg in 1843, and republished in 1905.
Hahn's literary merits did not go unnoticed by her contemporaries. Many prominent literary figures responded to her works. Ivan Turgenev wrote, "In this woman there was ... both a warm Russian heart and the experience of female life, as well as the passion of conviction."[3]Vissarion Belinsky wrote, "There are writers who live a separate life from their creations, and there are writers whose personality is closely related to their works. Reading the first, you enjoy the divine art without thinking about the artist; reading the second, you enjoy the contemplation of a beautiful human being, think about her, love her, and want to know the details of her life. Our gifted Zeneida R-va (Yelena Hahn) belongs to this second category."[4]
Hahn has been compared to George Sand due to her criticism of male society and her depiction of the position which women occupy in the world and in society, however her prose does not have the same themes as Sand's work.[5]
References
^Kaydash, Svetlana (1994–1997). "Yelena Blavatsky in Russia". "Morning Star" Scientific and Artistic Illustrated Almanac of the International Centre of the Roerichs, No. 2-3.
^Mazayev, M.N. (1890–1907). "Hahn, Yelena Andreyevna". Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. St. Petersburg.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)