Mystery of Nikoli Rerich

[Mark Yoffe]

Dear colleagues,
Can anyone help with the question regarding Nikolai Rerikh, Russian painter
and... and many other things.
That's exactly is my question: what or who was Rerikh?
Lately I came across of a great deal of literature regarding this mysterious
character, some of it very new.
Some accounts are absolutely sensationalistic and others claim to be
"scholarly..."
But what is clear to me is that there is absolutely no clarity regarding
Rerich, his mission, adventures, theories, plans and associations. The range
of opinions about him is so wide that these opinions kind of exclude each
other: he is portrayed as a saint, crook, spy, bolshevik collaborator,
megalomaniac, "Fuhrer" like leader to his obsessive followers, agent of
subversion, mystical guru, Buddha incarnated etc.
Are there any definitive studies of Rerich that can be trusted? Any work done
by refereed authors, scholars without specific ideological biases or
uncontrollable rhetorical urges?
Thank you in advance.
MY
--
Mark Yoffe, Ph.D.
Curator, International Counterculture Archive
Slavic Librarian
Gelman Library, George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202 994-6303
Fax: 202 994-1340
HTTP: gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~yoffe

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