View source for Pyotr Chaadayev

{{Short description|Russian philosopher (1794–1856)}}
{{About|the philosopher|the ski jumper|Petr Chaadaev (ski jumper)}}
[[File:Chaadaev portrait.jpeg|thumb|215px|Pyotr Chaadayev; portrait by<br /> A. Kozina]]
'''Pyotr''' or '''Petr Yakovlevich Chaadayev''' ({{langx|ru|Пётр Я́ковлевич Чаада́ев}}; also spelled '''Chaadaev'''; 7 June [27 May [[Old Style|O.S.]]] 1794 – 26 April [14 April O.S.] 1856) was a Russian [[philosopher]]. He was one of the [[Russian Schellingians]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Terras |first=Victor |date=1998 |title=Schellingianism, Russian |url=https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/schellingianism-russian/v-1 |access-date=29 April 2025 |website=[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=Taylor and Francis |doi=10.4324/9780415249126-E044-1|isbn=978-0-415-25069-6 }}</ref>

Chaadayev was born in Moscow into a wealthy noble family. He interrupted his education to join the military and served with distinction in the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Chaadayev wrote eight "Philosophical Letters"<ref name="demons" /> about Russia in French between 1826 and 1831, which circulated among intellectuals in Russia in manuscript form for many years. They comprise an indictment of Russian culture for its laggard role far behind the leaders of [[Western culture|Western civilization]]. He cast doubt on the greatness of the Russian past, and ridiculed Orthodoxy  for failing to provide a sound spiritual basis for the Russian mind. He extolled the achievements of Europe, especially in rational and logical thought, its progressive spirit, its leadership in science, and its leadership on the path to freedom. 

The Russian government saw his ideas as dangerous and unsound. After some were published, they were all banned by the censorship process. Because there was nothing to charge him with, Chaadayev was declared legally insane and put under constant medical supervision, though this was a formality rather than a real administrative abuse.{{Sfn|Glazov|1986}}

== Biography ==
Chaadayev was born in Moscow on {{OldStyleDateNY|7 June|27 May}} 1794. His family was part of the landed nobility; he was of Lithuanian descent on his father's side.<ref name="Kline">{{Cite book |author-link=George Kline |last=Kline |first=George L. |title=Russian Literature in the Age of Pushkin and Gogol: Prose |publisher=Gale |year=1999 |editor-last=Rydel |editor-first=C. |series=Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 198 |chapter=Petr Iakovlevich Chaadaev |location=Detroit}}</ref>{{Efn|The family name of the {{ill|Chaadayevs|ru|Чаадаевы}} probably derives from the Mongol name ''Chaʿadai'' ([[Chagatai Khan|Chagatai]]),<ref name="Saunders">{{cite book|first=J. J. |last=Saunders|title=The History of the Mongol Conquests|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFx3OlrBMpQC&q=Chaadayev+turkic+name&pg=PA247|year= 2001|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-1766-7|page=247}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Charles J.|last=Halperin|title=Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History|publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1987|page=112}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Stefan |last1=Berger |first2=Alexei |last2=Miller|title=Nationalizing Empires|publisher=Central European University Press |year=2015|page=312}}</ref> which was the name of the second son of [[Genghis Khan]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas |last=Riha |title=Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 1: Russia Before Peter the Great, 900-1700 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |page=191}}</ref>}} His maternal grandfather was Prince [[Mikhail Shcherbatov]], a well-known intellectual who wrote ''A Discourse on the Corruption of Morals in Russia''. After the early deaths of his mother and father, he was brought up by his uncles and aunts. He was educated by French and German governesses and teachers and became totally fluent in French early in his life; he was also able to read well in German.<ref name="Kline"/>

Chaadayev enrolled at [[Moscow State University|Moscow University]] in 1808 but left without completing his studies in 1811. He joined the Semenovsky Guard Regiment as a cadet officer and fought against the 1812 [[French invasion of Russia]]. He participated in the battles of [[Battle of Borodino|Borodino]], [[Battle of Kulm|Kulm]], and [[Battle of Leipzig|Leipzig]] and received the Iron Cross and the Order of Anna, Fourth Class. He was among the Russian soldiers who entered Paris with Tsar [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] in April 1814. He returned to Russia in 1816 and interacted with the tsar and the court in connection with several official assignments. He was chosen to serve at the imperial court, but he suddenly resigned in 1821 for unclear reasons. Philosopher [[George Kline]] write that one likely reason was his "proud independence and his unwillingness, despite the high honor involved, to become what he called […] a kind of elegant 'plaything.'"<ref name="Kline"/> From 1823 to 1826 he travelled in Europe, so he was out of Russia during the 1825 [[Decembrist revolt|Decembrist]] insurrection, though he was questioned on his return about his connections with many of the Decembrists. These connections may have contributed to his failure to find a position in the new administration of Emperor [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] ({{reign | 1825 |1855}}).

Chaadayev befriended [[Alexander Pushkin]] (1799–1837) and became a model for [[Woe from Wit|Chatsky]], the chief protagonist of [[Alexander Griboyedov]]'s play ''[[Woe from Wit]]'' (1824). During the 1840s Chaadayev was an active participant in Moscow literary circles.

==Philosophy==
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. The ''Letters'' included criticism of Russia's intellectual isolation and social backwardness.<ref name="demons">{{cite book|first=Fyodor|last=Dostoevsky|chapter=Notes|title=Demons|publication-place=New York|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|date=1994|others=Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780679423140/page/715 715]|isbn=0-679-42314-1}}</ref>

When in 1836 the first edition (and only one published during his life)<ref name="demons" /> of the philosophical letters was published in the Russian magazine Telescope, its editor was exiled to the Far North of Russia. The [[Slavophile]]s at first mistook Chaadayev for one of them, but later, on realizing their mistake, bitterly denounced and disclaimed him. Chaadayev fought Slavophilism all of his life. His first Philosophical Letter has been labeled the "opening shot" of the [[Slavophile|Westernizer-Slavophile]] controversy which was dominant in Russian social thought of the nineteenth century.<ref name="demons" /> He wrote in his "first letter":

{{Blockquote|1=We are an exception among people. We belong to those who are not an integral part of humanity but exist only to teach the world some type of great lesson.}}

Upon reading the first Philosophical Letter, Tsar Nicholas I wrote in the margin that only a madman could have expressed the views it contained, a comment that shortly thereafter caused Chaadayev to be declared insane, though the judgment may also have been based on Chaadayev's "eccentricities and nervous peculiarities."<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas Garrigue|last=Masaryk|author-link=Thomas Garrigue Masaryk |title=The Spirit of Russia |others=Translated by [[Eden Paul|Eden]] and [[Cedar Paul]]|volume=1 |page=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Spirit_of_Russia_by_T_G_Masaryk,_volume_1.pdf/250 224] |location=London |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin|George Allen & Unwin]] |year=1919}}</ref> Chaadayev's case may have been the first recorded incident in Russia in which [[political abuse of psychiatry|psychiatry was used to suppress dissent]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Gordon |last=Thomas |author-link=Gordon Thomas (author)|title=Journey Into Madness: Medical Torture and the Mind Controllers |year=1988|publisher=Bantam Press|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/journeyintomadne0000thom_k3v1|url-access=registration|page=100|isbn=978-0-593-01142-3 }}</ref>

Living under house arrest following his declaration of insanity, Chaadayev's next work was entitled, fittingly, "Apologie d'un Fou" (which has been translated as "[[Apology (act)|Apology]] of a Madman" but may better be translated as "[[Apologia]] of a Madman") (1837).  It opens with a quote from [[Samuel Coleridge]] stating "O my brethren!  I have told / Most bitter truth, but without bitterness."<ref>{{cite book|first=Petr Iakovlevich |last=Chaadaev |title=Sochineniia i pisʹma|volume=1|script-title=ru:Сочиненія и письма |editor-first=M. |editor-last=Gershenzon|location=Moscow|year=1913|page=219 ff|language=ru,fr|url=https://imwerden.de/pdf/chaadaev_sochineniya_tom1_1913.pdf}}</ref> 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 Westernizers (who supported bringing Russia into accord with developments in Europe by way of various degrees of liberal reform) and Slavophiles (who supported Russian Orthodoxy and national culture).<ref name="demons" /> According to historian [[Raymond T. McNally]], Chaadayev cannot be placed in either grouping. His positive appraisal of the historical role played by the Catholic Church set him apart from both Slavophiles and Westernizers, as did his idea of a "new Christian universal socio-cultural organization". His negative attitude towards contemporary European political and social developments, such as secularism and constitutionalism, also distinguished him from the Westernizers. Like the Slavophiles, Chaadayev saw religion as "the basis of all culture," but he did not share their views on Russian Orthodoxy or [[Peter the Great]].<ref name="1969p17">{{Cite book |last=Chaadaev |first=Peter |title=The Major Works of Peter Chaadaev |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |others=Translation and commentary by [[Raymond T. McNally]]; introduction by Richard Pipes |year=1969 |pages=17–18}}</ref>

According to Chaadayev, Russian history had not developed normally and lacked intellectual and cultural continuity. This was because Russians never had a "great, universal spiritual ideal" to motivate them. He saw Peter the Great as the first leader to attempt to impart historical consciousness to the Russian people by connecting them with European history. In his view, Russian leaders should follow Peter's example and adopt only the beneficial parts of European culture. He saw this is a step towards his ultimate goal: the establishment of "the kingdom of God on earth, the intellectual, moral, and cultural unification of mankind."<ref name="1969p17"/>

Most of his works have been edited by his biographer, [[Mikhail Gershenzon]] (two volumes, Moscow, 1913–14), whose study of the philosopher was published at [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1908.

==Works==
===Books===
* ''Oeuvres choisies de Pierre Tchadaief publiées pour la première fois par le P[ère] Gagarin'', edited by Ivan Sergeevich Gagarin, S.J. (Paris & Leipzig: A. Franck, 1862).
* ''Sochineniia i pis'ma P. Ia. Chaadaeva'', 2 volumes, edited by Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon (Moscow: A. I. Mamontov, 1913-1914).
* ''Lettres philosophiques adressées à une Dame'', edited by François Rouleau (Paris: Librairie des Cinq continents, 1970).
* ''Stat'i I pis'ma'', edited by Boris Nikolaevich Tarasov (Moscow: Sovremennik, 1987; enlarged edition, 1989).
* ''Sochineniia'', edited by V. Iu. Proskurina (Moscow: Izd-vo Pravda, 1989).
* ''Oeuvres inédites ou rares'', edited by Raymond T. McNally, Rouleau, and Richard Tempest (Meudon, France: Bibliothèque slave, Centre d'études russes, 1990).
* ''Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i izbrannye pis'ma'', 2 volumes, edited by S. G. Blinov, Z. A. Kamensky, and others (Moscow: Izd-vo Nauka, 1991).<ref name="Kline"/>
===Editions in English===
* ''Philosophical Letters and Apology of a Madman'', translated by Mary-Barbara Zeldin (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1969).
* ''The Major Works of Peter Chaadaev: A Translation and Commentary'', translated by McNally (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1969).
* ''Philosophical Works of Peter Chaadaev'', in Sovietica, edited by McNally and Richard Tempest, volume 56 (Dordrecht & Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991).<ref name="Kline"/>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{Source-attribution |''[[New International Encyclopedia]]''}}.
* {{Cite journal |last=Glazov |first=Yuri |date=November 1986 |title=Chaadaev and Russia's destiny |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20100185 |journal=Studies in Soviet Thought |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=281–301|doi=10.1007/BF00831732 |jstor=20100185 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=McNally |first=Raymond T. |date=1964 |title=The Significance of Chaadayev's Weltanschauung |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/126212 |journal=The Russian Review |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=352–361 |doi=10.2307/126212 |jstor=126212 |issn=0036-0341|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book|first=M. A. |last=Mendosa |title=Uno scrittore russo del primo '800: Pëtr Jakovlevič Čaadaev |location=Mantova |publisher=Universitas Studiorum |year=2014 |isbn=978-88-97683-50-6}}

==External links==
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=P. Chaadaev}}
*{{in lang|ru}} [http://new.runivers.ru/lib/book4759/59280/ "Philosophical Letters", by P. Chaadayev] at [[Runivers.ru]] in [[Djvu]] and [[PDF]] format
*{{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20051015122053/http://www.philosophy.ru/library/chaad/lettr/chaad1.html "Philosophical Letters", by P. Chaadayev].
*{{in lang|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20060221145740/http://www2.unil.ch/slav/ling/textes/ChaadaevPremlettrephilo.html "LETTRES PHILOSOPHIQUES ADRESSÉES À UNE DAME". P. Ja. Tchaadaev.]
*{{in lang|es}} [http://enriquecastanos.com/idea_rusa_chaadaev_soloviev_berdiaev.htm   Principales ideas de la ''Carta filosófica a una dama'', de Piotr Chaadaev]

{{Romanticism}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaadayev, Pyotr}}
[[Category:1794 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Moscow]]
[[Category:People from Moskovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:People from the Russian Empire of Tatar descent]]
[[Category:Nobility from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Decembrists]]
[[Category:Moscow State University alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire]]