For our November newsletter, we explore a historic peace activist named Nicholas Roerich, and his influence in the creation of the Roerich Pact, signed in 1935 at the White House.
Nicholas Roerich was born in 1874 in St. Petersburg, Russia. With his wife Helena, he founded a spiritual movement called Roerichism which drew from Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Theosophy, Buddhism and Russian Cosmism to form a doctrine called the Living Ethics or the Agni Yoga (which translates to “Mergence with Divine Fire”). He was also an accomplished painter. His work was inspired by Russian symbolism, and was said to contain elements that could lead to hypnosis.
Eccentricity aside, Roerich’s deep love for humanity and culture was lastingly expressed through the Roerich Pact. The first international treaty signed in the White House, the pact was signed by 21 Pan-American nations in 1935 to promote “the universal adoption of a flag […] in order […] to preserve in any time of danger all nationally and privately owned immovable monuments which form the cultural treasure of peoples.”
In short, the pact proposed an international banner which could be flown above a cultural or scientific institution to stop it from being destroyed, during war. This flag would bear an emblem which took the form of a “red circle with a triple red sphere in the circle on a white background”.
The flag has since come to be known as an international banner for peace.
A quote from Roerich:
“Humanity in divers ways is striving for peace, and everyone, in his own heart, realizes that this constructive work is a true prophecy of a new era. In view of this it is certainly incongruous to hear discussions on the comparative desirability of various bullets or on whether one type of ship is closer to the conception of world unity than the cannons of two battleships. Let us, however, consider these discussions as preliminary steps toward the same great peace that will tame the belligerent instincts of humanity by the resplendent and joyous creations of the spirit.” (Roerich, 1931)
Download a PDF of a booklet by Roerich here.
Read the Roerich pact here.
Photo: Nicholas Roerich, 1934–35, China
NRM archive, Ref. no: 401434 – link
– Your friends at the IAO
PS. Thanks to Micah Anderson for telling us about this.
