Pyotr Chaadaev

Pyotr or Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev ( _ru. Пётр Яковлевич Чаадаев, "Pëtr Jakovlevič Čaadaev") (1794-1856) was a Russian philosopher born in Moscow, who published eight "Philosophical Letters" about Russia in French in 1829, which circulated in Russia as manuscript for many years. The works could not be published in Russia because of its highly critical nature of Russia's significance in world history and politics. The main thesis of his famous "Philosophical Letters" was that Russia had lagged behind Western countries and had contributed nothing to the world's progress and concluded that Russia must start de novo. As a result, they included criticism of Russia's intellectual isolation and social backwardness.Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
title = Commentaries on Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
journal = Soviet Academy of Sciences
publication-place = New York
place = Leningrad
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
publication-date = 1994
editor-last = Pevear
editor-first = Richard
editor-link =
editor2-last = Volokhonsky
editor2-first = Larissa
editor2-link =
year = 1975
date = 1975
volume = 12
page = 715
edition =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-679-42314-1] When in 1836 the first (and only one published during his life) of the philosophical letters was published in the Russian magazine Telescope, its editor was exiled to the Far North of Russia. The Slavophiles at first mistook Tchaadaev for one of them, but later, on realizing their mistake, bitterly denounced and disclaimed him. Tchaadaev really fought Slavophilism all of his life. His first Philosophical Letter has been labeled the "opening shot" of the Westerner-Slavophil controversy which was dominant in Russian social thought of the nineteenth century.

The strikingly uncomplimentary views of Russia in the first philosophical letter caused their author to be adjudged insane, and his next work was entitled, fittingly, "The Vindication of a Madman" (1837). In this brilliant but uncompleted work he maintained that Russia must follow her inner lines of development if she was to be true to her historical mission.

His ideas influenced both the Westerners (who supported bringing Russian into accord with developments in Europe by way of various degrees of liberal reform) and Slavophils (who supported Russian Orthodoxy and national culture.)

During the 1840s Chaadaev was an active participant in the Moscow literary circles. He befriended Alexander Pushkin and was a model for Chatsky, the chief protagonist of Alexander Griboyedov's play "Woe from Wit" (1824).

Most of his works have been edited by his biographer, M. Gershenzon (two volumes, Moscow, 1913-14), whose excellent little study of the philosopher was published at St. Petersburg in 1908.

Life

After leaving Moscow University without completing his course in 1812, Chaadaev entered the army and served in the Napoleonic Wars.

References

External links

* [http://www.philosophy.ru/library/chaad/lettr/chaad1.html "Philosophical Letters", by P. Chaadaev.] .
* [http://www2.unil.ch/slav/ling/textes/ChaadaevPremlettrephilo.html "LETTRES PHILOSOPHIQUES ADRESSÉES À UNE DAME". P. Ja. Tchaadaev.]
*"This article incorporates text from the New International Encyclopedia, a work which is now in the public domain."