Andrei Znamenski explores spiritual and geopolitical utopia The Sacred Union of the East that was promoted by Russian artist and seeker Nicholas Roerich. Particularly, he discusses Roerich's "botanical expedition" (1934-1935) in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Znamenski explains why this scientific expedition with an occult twist was sponsored by Henry Wallace, US Secretary of Agriculture in the 1930s: Znamenski puts this ambitious spiritual scheme into the context of that turbulent time, when people from San Francisco to the Ural Mountains were on the quest for grand ultimate solutions and when the call of the day was "big is beautiful." This talk, which is based on Znamenski's most recent book Red Shambhala, was delivered during a conference "Utopia in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences" at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA, March 2, 2014. Николай Рерих: его духовная и геополитическая утопия "Священный союз востока". Профессор Знаменский исследует как и почему Генри Уоллес, министр сельского хозяйства США в правительстве Рузвельта, спонсировал ботаническую экспедицию с оккультным уклоном Николая Рериха (1934-1935 годы). Знаменский ставит эту странную экспедицию в контекст того времени, времени которое было отмечено поиском универсальных решений для всех проблем человечества, времени когда элиты и интеллектуалы были убеждены что просвещенные правители и диктаторы, используя результаты науки, способны повернуть реки, накормить всех людей и принести душевное успокоение всему человечеству.

1. The Sacred Union of the East:
Geopolitical Utopia of Nicholas Roerich
Andrei Znamenski
The University of Memphis

2. Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)

3. US Department of Agriculture “botanical
expedition,” 1934-1935

4. Botanical Expedition with a Geopolitical Twist

9.  Louis Horch, rich patron
 Master Building, 1929
Beacon for Humankind in Manhattan

12. Theocracy
Blueprint for a new order
Carrier of the highest spirituality
From Siberia in the north to the Himalayan
mountains in the south
Economic foundation: cooperatives
Ideology: universalist religion (Theosophy +
Buddhism)
The Sacred Union of the East (Kansas, the Great
Plan, the New Country)

16.  FDR Secretary of
Agriculture, later VP
 Agriculturalist, reporter
 Frustration about
mainstream Christianity
and cut-throat competition
 Interested in cooperatives
 Light from the East
 Dreams of New Order
(Novus Ordo Seclorum)
Henry Wallace

21.  Sparks to help launch the Scared Union of the East
 Mongolia and Manchuria, the “Power keg” of Asia
(1930s)
 Invaded by Japan (1931): autonomy for Mongols
 Rise of Mongol Nationalism
 Revolt in Red Mongolia against communism
(1930-1931
 Inner Mongolia against Chinese land advances
(1930s)
 Rise of popular prophecy about the Shambhala
War and the end of the world
Why East Asia?

23. Nicholas Roerich, “Armageddon”

24. Courting “white” Russians
in China
Courting Mongol nationalist
leaders, Inner Mongolia
Military reconnaissance of
Manchuria/Inner Mongolia
Roerich in China: Gathering the Russian-Mongol
“Shambhala Army”

28. Context: Spirit of Time (Zeitgeist), 1920s-1930s
 “Big is Beautiful”
 Social engineering by a state
 “Worship” of Science
 Cultivating community
 Cult of enlightened master (e.g. Mussolini,
Stalin, FDR)