Pyotr Chaadayev illustrated in the Presidential Library’s collections

Electronic biographical resources of the Presidential Library have been added with another collection - “Pyotr Chaadayev (1794-1856)”. Chaadayev, Russian philosopher, thinker, publicist, continues to live in his writings, published letters, memoirs of his contemporaries, research papers and other materials included in the collection timed to his 225th anniversary. The author’s main work “Philosophical Letters” contained such a merciless criticism of contemporary Russia that the authorities officially declared him insane with the requirement to never write anything else.

Chaadayev’s parents died early, and three-year-old Pyotr and his elder brother were taken to be raised by the sister of the mother, Anna Scherbatova. At first, foreign tutors were engaged in education of  brothers, and then the best professors of Moscow University, which Chaadayev subsequently entered, were invited to teach them. In addition to the future creator of “Woe from Wit”, N. I. Turgenev, I. D. Yakushkin, the Perovsky brothers and other talented peers became his comrades here.

At 16, reports N. Puzanov in the publication “Pyotr Chaadayev and his worldview”, “the young man was one of the most brilliant young people of the Moscow big world and was known as one of the best dancers. Even then, he was notable for his aristocratic appearance, secular-casual elegance of costume, manners and behavior, which he did not lose until his death. In combination with the proud independence of the judgments, the personality of Chaadayev attracted the views”.

According to M. Gershenzon large role in the development of Chaadayev’s personality was played by his collection of books, which became widely known among bibliophiles.

After graduation of the university course, Chaadayev was accepted as a lieutenant of the Life Guards in the Semenov regiment, participated in the battle of Borodin, Tarutin and Maly Yaroslavtsy, under Kulm and Leipzig.

A successful military career was guaranteed to him. Pyotr Chaadayev joined the Hussar Life Guards regiment and in 1817 he was appointed adjutant to the commander of the Guards Corps, General-Adjutant Vasilchikov. The regiment of Pyotr Chaadaeyv was deployed in Tsarskoye Selo, and here, in the house of Karamzin, he met the last year lyceum student Alexander Pushkin, about whom he had heard so many complimentary words from Griboyedov. The topics of lengthy conversations with the poet are reflected in the three epistles of Pushkin to Chaadayev, which characterize both the author and his addressee as deep thinkers and real patriots of their Fatherland.

Four years which Chaadayev spent in St. Petersburg (up to retirement in 1821) were the happiest days of his life. The proximity to Vasilchikov, extensive contacts and personal acquaintance with the great princes promised a brilliant career in the service; the sovereign knew him and, as they said, he read to his adjutant. But Chaadayev prefers resignation, the motivation of which becomes clear from a letter to his beloved aunt (the quote was taken from Gershenzon’s book).

Chaadayev’s philosophical ideas and political views that have changed several times. At the same time, according to historiographers, they in no way depended on the conjuncture.

For example, many considered Chaadayev to be a staunch Decembrist, and how would it seem otherwise? Chaadayev was among the Decembrists, many of whom were his friends, at some time he was a member of a secret society. But if for some people the new political trends were the subject of a superficial hobby, then Chaadayev with his usual depth worked out the question of the possibility of the forcible overthrow of power.

Being a strategist and thinker, Chaadayev went further than the "practitioners" of decabrism. He wrote his “Philosophical Letters” without any hope of going through the censors of the censorship and being printed. In a handwritten version, Chaadayev sent his thoughts to his most trusted friends. And suddenly, without any participation on his part, in the 15th issue of the Telescope in September 1836, the first “Philosophical Letter” was printed without the author’s name - the only thing that dealt with Russia. The harsh denunciation of Russia from the position of superiority of the West contained in the “letter” caused a powerful resonance in society and marked the beginning of the division of Russian thought into Westernism and Slavophilism.

The magazine "Telescope" was closed, a search was conducted at Chaadayev's house, all papers were confiscated and sent to Section III. Nicholas I of the article put it like this: "I find that the content thereof is a mixture of audacious nonsense worthy of the insane". For a whole year, medical and police control was carried out for Chaadayev, which was lifted only under the condition “dare not to write anything”.

Knocked out of the rut by attacks from numerous critics and censors, Chaadayev travels to Europe in the hope of putting his nerves in order and heal. While traveling, Chaadayev corresponded not only with his pen colleagues. The most interesting letter to him by the composer M. Glinka is presented in the study “New Materials about Pyotr Chaadayev” (1896). The collection of the Presidential Library Memories of Pyotr Chaadayev also offers My Memories by Baron A. Delvig, the memoirs of D. Slonimsky, M. Kovalevsky, N. Polonsky and others. Almost all contemporaries of the author of Philosophical Letters, as written in the book “Pyotr Chaadayev: Life and Thoughts", realized that "he did not mix up, did not merge with this society. And everyone understood that this was not an outward peculiarity, but a natural closure of an extremely original and personal worldview, thought out to the end and accepted irrevocably. Chaadayev was not just a man with convictions, but a man who completely merged his personality with his conviction”.