« Un homme d’origine russe, à la nationalité douteuse et avec un passeport français » : Nicolas Roerich entre jeux et enjeux de l’apatridie

The present article is the result of an investigation into a question which seems of limited interest at first glance: what identity documents did the painter and mystic Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) use when travelling after he left Russia in the spring of 1917? Leaving aside the answers given by the American, French, Russian and above all the British archives (yes, Roerich did get a Nansen passport in Paris, yes, he did obtain a “true” French passport in 1930, no, he never obtained French nationality), leaving aside these assertions, one should look at the painter’s strategy on the international scene. He built up a network of influential and well-known figures and made impressive use of the media, which allowed him to enjoy special privileges and, in particular, rather astonishing freedom of movement. De facto, the political, diplomatic and media infiltration which is reported in this article brings valuable information about the sectarian excesses one can notice in the religious movement created by the painter and his wife in New York in 1920, the Agni Yoga. It is also an opportunity to shed light on one of the most intriguing utopias of Russian emigration. Being outside their homeland and having lost their nationalities, may well have been the cause, far more than Mme Blavatsky’s theosophy, of a tremendous shock which encouraged Nicholas and Elena Roerich on a utopian and epic path, aiming to save, recapture and build the lost country. In other words, the present article suggests that the “migratory fact”, as much as the religious fact, must be considered to analyse Elena and Nicholas Roerich’s utopia.