Lori Paras
- Aug 17, 2023
- 3 min read

"Helena Roerich & A Holy Stone" (Part II)

The decade in France known as the "crazy years” was known in North America as the ‘roaring twenties’, a time that redefined social norms in many areas of life including art and culture.

The twenties are known for many things; jazz, prohibition, women obtaining the right to vote and fashion designer Coco Chanel, who greatly influenced the ‘flappers’, women who cut their hair, wore short skirts and, enjoyed a good party. It was also a time of substantial economic prosperity after WW1, and saw immense growth in commercial and residential construction.

Electricity allowed for the mass production of goods, and the United States, per capita, became the wealthiest country in the world. In the roaring twenties citizens began enjoying lifestyles that included electrical appliances, telephones, radio, film, and the development of media that was funded by these new industries to drive consumer demand. Consumerism had found its footing by using celebrities, including movie stars and sports heroes, a strategy that continues today. But not all people bought into the new lifestyle of the constant consumption of goods.

Many young people who had witnessed the atrocities of WW1 were now disillusioned with society and were speaking out. Many were the writers of the time including Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote about the materialism that was overtaking American culture, and their dismay at these trends. They were part of a group of young people called, The Lost Generation.

But where the twenties had their most impressive display of success was on the New York Stock Exchange. Share prices saw unprecedented highs with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing six-fold from August 1921 to September 1929, many believing that this positive growth would continue for years to come. But it did not, and on October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed as 16 million shares were traded on a single day wiping out thousands of investors. Stock prices would continue to decline until 1932 and by 1933, fifty percent of all banks in the United States had failed leaving their depositors in financial crisis.

Many lost their life savings, and the rich lifestyle they had been living the year before began to disintegrate with many fearing for their jobs and their ability to pay the bills and put food on the table.

In 1934, five years after the crash Helena and her husband Nicholas would be thrown into their own financial crisis when Louis Horch, a disciple of the Roerich’s and a major investor in The Roerich Museum and The Master Building betrayed them by reincorporating all the business holdings and removing their names from these documents without their knowledge, eventually losing all their assets. It would take close to 25 years for the United States to recover from the stock market crash, the Roerich’s would never recover.

Suggested Websites:

Nicholas Roerich Museum New York https://www.roerich.org/

Nicholas Roerich Estate Museum in Izvara http://roerich-izvara.ru/

Roerich Library https://roerich-lib.ru/

International Roerich Centre https://roerich.museum/

https://gallery.facets.ru/

https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/

Suggested Reading:

*Purchasing any of these books using the links below helps support SHE Life

through the Amazon Associates program #CommissionsEarned

Helena Roerich

📖 The Leaves of Morya's Garden I: The Call (1924)