This does not happen often: a voice from the middle of the 19th century sounds like we are listening to a live broadcast. Actually, that's what happened. At the First Congress people's deputies USSR, which remains the peak of national parliamentarism, a competition in civic courage unfolded. Having reached the podium, each speaker tried to impress the audience with a merciless exposure of the regime. Yevgeny Yevtushenko shouted that the Soviet State Planning Committee was like "a giant atelier for minor repairs to a naked king's dress." Yuri Afanasiev accused the congress of having formed a "Stalin-Brezhnev Supreme Soviet".
But Chaadaev won with a clear advantage. Most strong man of the planet, Yuri Vlasov, who drifted from a weightlifter to an intellectual, repeated his bitter words from the podium: “We are an exceptional people, we belong to those nations that, as it were, are not part of humanity, but exist only to give the world what some terrible lesson. And he summed it up: there should be no more “terrible lesson”.
And one more observation. Few of the deputies, having stepped onto the Ivanovskaya Square of the Kremlin, did not hold their eyes on the Tsar Bell and the Tsar Cannon. Once upon a time, Chaadaev also looked at them, whose thought Herzen preserved for posterity: “In Moscow, Chaadaev used to say, every foreigner is taken to look at a big cannon and a big bell. A cannon that can't be fired, and a bell that fell off before it rang. An amazing city in which the sights are absurd: or maybe a big bell without a tongue is a hieroglyph that expresses this vast silent country. By the way, the author of "The Past and Thoughts" was also a good aphorist. “Why is there such a frightening silence in Russia?” he asked. And he himself answered: “Because the people are sleeping or because they are painfully hit on the heads of those who have woken up.” Chaadaev, who woke up earlier than others, experienced this for himself.
In one of the last sunny days I decided to realize a long-standing plan: to find in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery the graves of Chaadaev and the romantic girl Avdotya Sergeevna Norova, who was in love with him.
At the time of their acquaintance, he was 34 years old, she was 28. Smart, who did not part with books, Dunya loved him selflessly. There was no passion in her feeling - only tenderness and care. She cooked cherry syrup for him, knitted warm stockings for the winter. He generously allowed this worship to her, and sometimes spoiled her, saying: “My angel, Dunichka!” The 49 letters of her preserved in Chaadaev's archive amaze with their reckless devotion. “Does it seem strange and unusual to you that I want to ask you for your blessing? she wrote to him one day. “I often have this desire, and it seems that if I decide on this, I would be so pleased to accept it from you, on my knees, with all the reverence that I have for you.” And even more poignantly: "I would be afraid to die if I could assume that my death could cause your regret."
Some researchers consider Norova, with her dreamy look and long arches of eyebrows, the prototype of Tatyana Larina. Perhaps this comes from the "hint" of Pushkin, who wrote: "The second Chadaev is my Evgeny." And what is Onegin without Tatyana? And yet this version is unlikely to be true. There is only one rapprochement between them: both were the first to confess their love to their idols.
Dunya was weak from childhood, often got sick, and when, before she reached 37, she quietly faded away (many believed - from love), her relatives did not blame Chaadaev. But he himself, having survived Norova by two decades, was shocked by her death. After his death, on April 14, 1856, it turned out that in Chaadaev’s will “in case of sudden death”, the second number was a request: “Try to bury me in the Donskoy Monastery near the grave of Avdotya Sergeevna Norova.” He couldn't have given her a better gift.

There is no equality in the cemetery
These are the two graves on the old Donskoy churchyard that I wanted to find. At the reference stand, I quickly found the name of Chaadaev in the list of the buried, who was assigned the number 26-Sh. But Norova, apparently, seemed to the administration a figure too insignificant to be included in the list of VIP dead. Nevertheless, I found a place of rest for both of them, buried near the Small Cathedral. Chaadaev's grave is covered by a cracked slab. And at its head rise two modest granite columns a meter and a half high, set above the ashes of Dunya and her mother.
I grabbed a camera to take a picture of this inconspicuous corner, having previously laid scarlet roses on Dunya's grave. They would simply blaze against the background of a gray cemetery landscape. But it turned out that flowers in the Donskoy Monastery are not for sale - only candles.

Fire that can blind
You can’t apply the famous Nekrasov line about Dobrolyubov to Chaadaev: “Like a woman, he loved his homeland.” We will talk more about Chaadaev's attitude to his homeland. The ladies, who always surrounded this tall, slender handsome man with gray-blue eyes and a face as if sculpted from marble, he tried to keep at a distance. In part, this coincided with the advice of his wise friend Ekaterina Levashova: “Providence has given you a light too bright, too blinding for our darkness, isn’t it better to introduce it little by little than to blind people, as it were, with the Tabor radiance and make them fall face down on the ground?” For those who have not looked into the Bible for a long time, let me remind you: on Mount Tabor near Nazareth, the transfiguration of Christ took place, after which His face shone like the sun.
But there was another reason as well. Historian and philosopher Mikhail Gershenzon in the monograph Chaadaev. Life and Thought," published in 1907, delicately summarized it in two lines of footnote: "There seems to be reason to believe that he suffered from congenital atrophy of the sexual instinct." Dmitry Merezhkovsky spoke with equal restraint: “Like many Russian romantics of the 20s and 30s, Nikolai Stankevich, Konstantin Aksakov, Mikhail Bakunin, he was a “born virgin”.
To appreciate how far the inquisitive thought of researchers has advanced since then, I will refer to the book by Konstantin Rotikov “Another Petersburg”, dedicated to the gay culture of the city on the Neva, among the representatives of which he ranked Chaadaev. Closing the topic, I would like to note that Olga Vainshtein, the author of the major study Dendy, strongly disagrees with Rotikov. In her opinion, such coldness towards women was typical of the first generation of dandies, starting with the legendary George Brummal, who never had mistresses, preached strict masculinity and, being a trendsetter, gave humanity a black tailcoat. The one that no one knew how to wear as elegantly as Chaadaev, Russia's first dandy.
He looked no worse in a hussar uniform. At the age of 18, Chaadaev participated in the Battle of Borodino and fought his way to Paris. He fought near Tarutino and Maly Yaroslavets, participated in the main battles on German soil. For the battle near Kulm he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, and for the difference in the campaign - the Iron Cross.
The first meeting with Europe had a radical impact on Chaadaev's worldview. Russian officers, many of whom, like himself, knew French better than their native, discovered something new for themselves in Paris.

Rendezvous with Europe
“We were young upstarts,” Chaadaev later wrote in his sarcastic manner, “and did not contribute to the common treasury of peoples, be it some tiny solar system, following the example of the Poles subject to us, or some inferior algebra, following the example of these non-Christian Arabs. We were treated well because we behaved like well-bred people, because we were courteous and modest, as befits beginners who have no other right to general respect than a slender frame.
The defeated French were cheerful and open. Prosperity was felt in their way of life, the achievements of culture were admired. And the sign on one of the houses - the memory of the revolution - amazed: "Street of Human Rights"! What could representatives of a country where the word "personality" was invented by N. M. Karamzin only in the 19th century know about this? And in Western Europe, this concept, along with “individuality”, turned out to be in demand five centuries earlier, without which there would be no Renaissance. Russia skipped this stage. Once at home, the victors of Napoleon saw their homeland with new eyes - an effect that Soviet soldiers would also face in a century and a half. The picture that awaited them at home turned out to be difficult: mass poverty, lack of rights, arbitrariness of the authorities.
But back to the hero of our story. Count Pozzo di Borgo, a Russian diplomat originally from Corsica, once said: if he were in power, he would force Chaadaev to constantly travel around Europe so that she would see "a completely secular Russian." It was not possible to implement this project on a full scale, but in 1823 Chaadaev went on a three-year trip to England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Pushkin, who was languishing in Chisinau at that time, complained: "They say that Chaadaev is going abroad - my favorite hope was to travel with him - now God knows when we will meet." Alas, the poet until the end of his life remained "restricted to travel abroad."
The purpose of the tour made by Chaadaev was quite accurately defined in the letter of recommendation given to him by the English missionary Charles Cook: "To study the causes of the moral well-being of Europeans and the possibility of its instillation in Russia." Consideration of this issue formed an essential part of the "Philosophical Letters" that Chaadaev still had to write, there will be eight of them in total. He left with the firm intention of not returning. Speaking four languages, Chaadaev easily made acquaintance with leading European philosophers and enjoyed an intellectual feast. However, it turned out that his connection with Russia is stronger than he thought. And Pyotr Yakovlevich decided to return. “Chadaev was the first Russian, in fact, who ideologically visited the West and found his way back,” writes Osip Mandelstam. - The trace left by Chaadaev in the minds of Russian society is so deep and indelible that the question involuntarily arises: is it not a diamond that has been drawn over glass?

"Philosophical writing" and its consequences
Chaadaev belonged to the circle of people who were called "Decembrists without December." He was a friend of almost everyone who came out on December 14, 1825 on Senate Square, and he himself was a member of the Welfare Union, but formally: he did not take a practical part in the affairs. The news of the drama that took place in St. Petersburg caught him abroad, and he was acutely worried about this misfortune. The bitterness that settled in him forever was reflected in the Philosophical Letters, which became the main work of his life.
And it all started with a trifle - with a letter from Ekaterina Panova, a young advanced lady who was interested in politics and even allowed herself - scary to say! - "pray for the Poles, because they fought for freedom." She liked to talk with Chaadaev about religious questions, but it began to seem to her that he had lost his former disposition towards her and did not believe that her interest in this subject was sincere. “If you write me a few words in response, I will be happy,” concluded Panova. An impeccably correct person, Chaadaev immediately sat down to write a reply letter, if in the age of text messages 20 pages of dense text can be called that. It took a year and a half, and, putting an end to the letter, he decided that it was probably too late to send it. Thus was born the first and most famous "Philosophical letter" of Chaadaev. Pyotr Yakovlevich was pleased: it seemed to him that he had found a natural, unconstrained form for presenting complex philosophical issues.
What was revealed to readers in the long-suffering and repeatedly thought-out thoughts that he tried to convey to them? According to Mandelstam, they turned out to be "a strict perpendicular restored to traditional Russian thinking." It was really perfect A New Look on Russia, "perpendicular" to the official point of view, a harsh but honest diagnosis. Why do we not know how to live intelligently in the reality that surrounds us? Why do we have to “hammer in the head with a blow of a hammer” what has turned into instinct and habit among other peoples? Comparing his country with Europe, Chaadaev, who called himself a "Christian philosopher", Special attention emphasized the role of religion in historical development Russia. He was convinced that it “was torn out, secluded by Christianity, taken from an infected source, from corrupted, fallen Byzantium, which had renounced the unity of the church. The Russian Church has become enslaved to the state, and this has become the source of all our slavery.” The willingness of the clergy to submit to secular authority was a historical feature of Orthodoxy, and one must try very hard not to notice that this process is taking place even today.
Here is one of the most powerful and bitter passages in the Philosophical Letters: “The ideas of order, duty, law, which make up, as it were, the atmosphere of the West, are alien to us, and everything in our private and public life is accidental, fragmented and absurd. Our mind is devoid of the discipline of the Western mind, Western syllogism is unknown to us. Our moral sense is extremely superficial and shaky, we are almost indifferent to good and evil, to truth and falsehood.
In all our long life, we have not enriched humanity with a single thought, but only looked for ideas borrowed from others. So we live in one narrow present, without a past and without a future - we go nowhere without going anywhere, and we grow without maturing.
The "letter" published in the 15th issue of the "Telescope" magazine under the innocent heading "Science and Art" was greeted, according to Chaadaev, with "an ominous cry." The abuse heaped upon him could be included in an anthology of the highest achievements of this genre. “Never, anywhere, in any country, has anyone ever allowed themselves such audacity,” said Philipp Wiegel, vice-president of the Department of Foreign Faiths, a German by birth, a patriot by profession. “The adored mother was scolded, slapped on the cheek.” Dmitry Tatishchev, the Russian ambassador in Vienna, turned out to be a no less ferocious critic: “Chadaev poured out such terrible hatred on his fatherland that could only be instilled in him by hellish forces.” And the poet Nikolai Yazykov, who became close to the Slavophiles at the end of his life, scolded Chaadaev in verse: “Russia is completely alien to you, / Your native country: / Its legends are holy / You hate everything in full. / You renounced them cowardly, / You kiss the shoes of dads. Here he got excited. Chaadaev, who highly valued the social principles in Catholicism, its close ties with culture and science, nevertheless remained faithful to the Orthodox rite.
The students of Moscow University, who reminded me of the class vigilance of modern "Nashists", came to the trustee of the Moscow educational district, Count Stroganov, and declared that they were ready to stand up for offended Russia with weapons in their hands. The consciousness of the youth was assessed, but no weapons were issued to them.
Chaadaev's letter also gained international resonance. The Austrian ambassador in St. Petersburg, Count Ficquelmont, sent a report to Chancellor Metternich, in which he announced: “In Moscow, in a literary periodical called Telescope, a letter was printed written to a Russian lady by a retired colonel Chaadaev ... It fell like a bomb in the midst of Russian vanity and those principles of religious and political primacy, to which the capital is very inclined.
The fate of Chaadaev, as expected, was decided at the top. Emperor Nicholas I, of course, did not finish reading his essay, but drew a resolution: “After reading the article, I find that its content is a mixture of impudent nonsense worthy of a lunatic.” This was not a literary assessment, but a medical diagnosis, very similar to the one that the autocrat honored Lermontov as well, having leafed through A Hero of Our Time. And the car turned over. An investigative commission was created, and although no traces of a conspiracy were found, the measures turned out to be decisive: the Telescope was closed, the editor Nadezhdin was exiled to Ust-Sysolsk, and the censor Boldyrev, by the way, the rector of Moscow University, was dismissed from his post. Chaadaev was officially declared insane. It is noteworthy that Chatsky in the comedy "Woe from Wit" - in the manuscript Griboyedov called him Chadsky - had the same fate: rumor considered him crazy, And the play, by the way, was written five years earlier than the royal diagnosis sounded. Real art overtakes life.
The decision of the sovereign-emperor turned out to be truly Jesuit. According to his instructions, Benckendorff, chief of the Third Department, sent an order to the Moscow governor, Prince Golitsyn: “His Majesty commands that you entrust the treatment of him (Chaadaev) to a skilled physician, making it his duty to visit Mr. Chaadaev every morning, and that an order be made, so that Mr. Chaadaev does not expose himself to the influence of the current damp and cold air. Humane, isn't it? But the subtext is simple: do not leave the house! And a year after the removal of supervision from Chaadaev, a new instruction followed: “Do not dare to write anything!”
General Alexei Orlov, who was considered the favorite of the emperor, in a conversation with Benckendorff asked him to put in a good word for Chaadaev, who was in trouble, emphasizing that he believed in the future of Russia. But the chief of gendarmes waved it off: “Russia's past was amazing, its present is more than magnificent. As for its future, it is higher than anything that the wildest imagination can imagine. Here, my friend, is the point of view from which Russian history should be considered and written. This optimistic thesis seemed vaguely familiar to me. And although not immediately, I remembered: this is the official concept, a squeeze from the discussion that has made a noise not so long ago about what a textbook on the history of Russia should be like.
Chaadaev gave his detractor an answer full of dignity and civic courage: “Believe me, I love my fatherland more than any of you ... But I don’t know how to love with my eyes closed, with my head bowed, with mute lips.”

Woe to the mind
For Pyotr Yakovlevich, who was five years older than Pushkin and was considered his mentor, it was especially important to find out the opinion of a friend about the article in Telescope, and he sent him a print of it. At one time, the poet dedicated three poetic messages to Chaadaev - more than to anyone, including Arina Rodionovna. And in a Chisinau diary he wrote about him: “I will never forget you. Your friendship has replaced happiness for me - my cold soul can love you alone ”(Rotikov, mentioned above, could have strained at this point).
Pushkin found himself in a difficult position. He could not offend his friend, about whom he wrote: “At the moment of death over the hidden abyss / You supported me with an unsleeping hand.” And now Chaadaev is hanging over the abyss. He nevertheless wrote a letter to him, but he brought out on the last page: “A crow will not peck out a crow’s eyes,” after which he hid three sheets in a desk drawer. In many ways, Pushkin agreed with his friend, but not with his assessment of Russian history. “I am far from delighted with everything that I see around me ... but I swear on honor,” he wrote, “that for nothing in the world I would not want to change my fatherland or have a different history. In addition to the history of our ancestors. The way God gave it to us." What can I say - high spirit, high words!

Valery Jalagonia

Echo of the Planet, No. 45

Unlike his characters, Chaadaev lived far from human passions and died alone.

Childhood and youth

Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev was born on May 27 (June 7), 1794 in Moscow. Father Yakov Petrovich served as an adviser to the Nizhny Novgorod Criminal Chamber, his mother was Princess Natalya Mikhailovna, daughter of Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov. The parents of Peter and Mikhail, his older brother, died early, and in 1797 the boys were taken into care by their mother's elder sister Anna Shcherbatova.

In 1808, Pyotr Chaadaev, having received a decent education at home, entered Moscow University. Among his teachers were the legal historian Fyodor Bause, a researcher of manuscripts Holy Scripture Christian Friedrich Mattei. Philosopher Johann Bule called Chaadaev his favorite student. Already in his student years, Chaadaev showed interest in fashion. The memoirist Mikhail Zhikharev described the portrait of a contemporary as follows:

“The art of dressing Chaadaev raised almost to a power historical significance».

Pyotr Yakovlevich was famous for his ability to dance and conduct a secular conversation, which put him in a favorable light among women. Attention from the opposite sex, as well as intellectual superiority over his peers, made Chaadaev a "hard-hearted self-lover."

Military service and social activities

The Patriotic War of 1812 found the Chaadaev brothers in the Moscow Society of Mathematicians. Young people joined the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment with the rank of ensigns. For the courage shown in the Battle of Borodino, Pyotr Yakovlevich was promoted to ensign, awarded the Order of St. Anna and the Kulm cross for a bayonet attack in the battle of Kulm. He also participated in the Tarutinsky maneuver, the battle of Maloyaroslavets.

In 1813, Chaadaev transferred to the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment. The Decembrist Sergei Muravyov-Apostol explained this act of Pyotr Yakovlevich with a desire to show off in a hussar uniform. In 1816, he moved to the Life Guards of the Hussar Regiment, promoted to lieutenant. A year later, Chaadaev became the adjutant of the future General Illarion Vasilchikov.

The hussar regiment was stationed in Tsarskoye Selo. It was here, in the historian's house, that Chaadaev met. The great Russian poet dedicated to the philosopher the poems “To the Portrait of Chaadaev” (1820), “In the Country Where I Forgot the Worries of Previous Years” (1821), “Why Cold Doubts” (1824), and Pyotr Yakovlevich, being a friend of Pushkin, “forced him to think”, talking on literary and philosophical topics.

Vasilchikov entrusted Chaadaev with serious matters, for example, a report on a riot in the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. After a meeting with the emperor in 1821, the adjutant, promising a bright military future, resigned. The news shocked society and gave rise to many legends.

According to official version, Chaadaev, who once served in the Semenovsky regiment, did not endure the punishment of his close comrades. For other reasons, the philosopher was disgusted with the idea of ​​informing on former fellow soldiers. Contemporaries also assumed that Chaadaev was late for a meeting with Alexander I, because he was choosing a wardrobe for a long time, or that the sovereign expressed an idea that contradicted the ideas of Peter Yakovlevich.

After parting with military affairs, Chaadaev plunged into a protracted spiritual crisis. Due to health problems, in 1823 he set out on a trip to Europe with no plans to return to Russia. On trips, Pyotr Yakovlevich actively updated the library with religious books. He was especially attracted to works whose main idea was the interweaving of scientific progress and Christianity.

Chaadaev's health deteriorated, and in 1826 he decided to return to Russia. At the border, he was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Decembrist uprising that had taken place a year earlier. They took a receipt from Pyotr Yakovlevich stating that he was not a member of secret societies. However, this information was obviously false.

Back in 1814, Chaadaev was a member of the St. Petersburg Lodge of United Friends, and reached the rank of "master". The philosopher quickly became disillusioned with the idea of ​​secret societies, and in 1821 he completely left his associates. Then he joined the Northern Society. Later, he criticized the Decembrists, believing that the armed uprising pushed Russia back half a century.

Philosophy and creativity

Returning to Russia, Chaadaev settled near Moscow. His neighbor was Ekaterina Panova. The philosopher began a correspondence with her - first business, then friendly. Young people discussed mainly religion, faith. Chaadaev's answer to Panova's spiritual throwing was the Philosophical Letters, created in 1829-1831.

Written in the epistolary genre, the work aroused the indignation of political and religious figures. For the thoughts expressed in the work, he recognized Chaadaev and Panova as crazy. The philosopher was put under medical supervision, and the girl was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The Philosophical Letters were sharply criticized because they debunked the cult of Orthodoxy. Chaadaev wrote that the religion of the Russian people, unlike Western Christianity, does not free people from slavery, but, on the contrary, enslaves them. The publicist later called these ideas "revolutionary Catholicism."

The magazine "Telescope", in which in 1836 the first of eight "Philosophical Letters" was published, was closed, the editor was exiled to hard labor. Until 1837, Chaadaev underwent daily medical examinations to prove his mental well-being. The supervision of the philosopher was removed on the condition that he "do not dare to write anything."

This promise Chaadaev broke in the same 1837, writing "The Apology of a Madman" (not published during his lifetime). Trud responded to accusations of "negative patriotism", spoke about the reasons for the backwardness of the Russian people.

Pyotr Yakovlevich believed that Russia is located between East and West, but in its essence does not belong to any of the cardinal points. A nation that strives to draw the best of two cultures and at the same time not become a follower of either of them is doomed to degradation.

The only ruler about whom Chaadaev spoke with respect was the one who returned Russia to its former greatness and power by introducing elements of the West into Russian culture. Chaadaev was a Westerner, but the Slavophiles treated him with respect. Proof of this is the words of Alexei Khomyakov, a prominent representative of Slavophilism:

“An enlightened mind, an artistic sense, a noble heart - these are the qualities that attracted everyone to him; at a time when, apparently, the thought plunged into a heavy and involuntary sleep. He was especially dear to the fact that he himself was awake and encouraged others.

Personal life

Ill-wishers called Chaadaev a "ladies' philosopher": he was constantly surrounded by women, he knew how to make even wives devoted to their husbands fall in love with him. At the same time, the personal life of Peter Yakovlevich did not work out.

There were three loves in Chaadaev's life. Ekaterina Panova, the addressee of the Philosophical Letters, suffered the most from male ambition. Even after her release from the psychiatric hospital, the girl did not blame her lover for her misfortune. She was looking for a meeting with a philosopher, but died without a response letter, a lonely, legless old woman.

Chaadaev served as a prototype for Eugene Onegin from the novel of the same name by Alexander Pushin, and Avdotya Norova acted as the role. She fell in love with the philosopher without a memory, and when he had no money left to pay for the servants, she offered to look after him for free, but he left for Moscow, to the Levashov family.

Avdotya was a sickly and weak girl, and therefore she died early - at the age of 36. Chaadaev, who left Norova's letters unanswered for a long time, visited her in the hospital shortly before his death.

Ekaterina Levashova, although she was a married woman, sincerely loved Chaadaev. Her husband and older children did not understand why she did not take money from the philosopher for housing. Catherine's reverent attitude towards the guest lasted 6 years, until her death.

Death

“At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, one of the Moscow old-timers Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev, known in almost all circles of our metropolitan society, died after a short illness.”

He died of pneumonia, a little before the age of 63. Memoirist Mikhail Zhikharev once asked the philosopher why he runs from women, “like hell from incense,” and he replied:

"You will find out after my death."

Chaadaev ordered to be buried near his beloved women - in the Donskoy Monastery at the grave of Avdotya Norova or in the Intercession Church near Ekaterina Levashova. The philosopher found his last rest at the Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow.

Quotes

"Vanity breeds a fool, arrogance breeds malice."

“No one considers himself entitled to receive anything without at least taking the trouble to reach out for it. There is one exception - happiness. They consider it perfectly natural to have happiness without doing anything to acquire it, that is, to deserve it.

“The unbeliever, in my opinion, is likened to a clumsy circus performer on a tightrope, who, standing on one leg, awkwardly seeks the balance of the other.”

“The past is no longer under our control, but the future depends on us.”

Bibliography

• 1829-1831 - "Philosophical Letters"
• 1837 - "A Madman's Apology"

Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev

In 1836, the first letter from P.Ya. Chaadaev. This publication ended in a big scandal. The publication of the first letter, according to A. Herzen, gave the impression of "a shot that rang out on a dark night." Emperor Nicholas I, after reading the article, expressed his opinion: "... I find that the content thereof is a mixture of impudent nonsense, worthy of a lunatic." The result of the publication: the journal was closed, the publisher N. Nadezhdin was exiled to Ust-Sysolsk (modern Syktyvkar), and then to Vologda. Chaadaev was officially declared insane.

What do we know about Chaadaev?

Of course, first of all, we recall the poem addressed to him by A.S. Pushkin, which everyone learns at school:

Love, hope, quiet glory
The deceit did not live long for us,
Gone are the funs of youth
Like a dream, like a morning mist;
But desire still burns in us,
Under the yoke of fatal power
With an impatient soul
Fatherland heed the invocation.
We wait with longing hope
Minutes of liberty of the saint,
As a young lover waits
Minutes of true goodbye.

While we burn with freedom
As long as hearts are alive for honor,
My friend, we will devote to the fatherland
Souls wonderful impulses!
Comrade, believe: she will rise,
Star of captivating happiness
Russia will wake up from sleep
And on the ruins of autocracy
Write our names!

The commentary to this poem is usually the words that Chaadaev is Pushkin's oldest friend, whom he met in his lyceum years (in 1816). Perhaps that's all.

Meanwhile, 3 poems by Pushkin are dedicated to Chaadaev, his features are embodied in the image of Onegin.

Pushkin wrote about the personality of Chaadaev in the poem “To the Portrait of Chaadaev” as follows:

He is by the will of heaven
Born in the fetters of the royal service;
He would be Brutus in Rome, Pericles in Athens,
And here he is a hussar officer.

Pushkin and Chaadaev

In 1820, Pushkin's southern exile began, and their constant communication was interrupted. But correspondence and meetings continued throughout life. On October 19, 1836, Pushkin wrote a famous letter to Chaadaev, in which he argued with the views on the destiny of Russia, expressed by Chaadaev in the first “ philosophical writing».

From the biography of P.Ya. Chaadaeva (1794-1856)

Portrait of P.Ya. Chaadaeva

Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev - Russian philosopher and publicist, in his writings sharply criticized the reality of Russian life. IN Russian Empire his works were banned from publication.

Born into an old noble family. On the maternal side, he is the grandson of the historian M. M. Shcherbatov, the author of the 7-volume edition of Russian History from Ancient Times.

P.Ya. Chaadaev was orphaned early, his aunt, Princess Anna Mikhailovna Shcherbatova, raised him and his brother, and Prince D. M. Shcherbatov became his guardian, in his house Chaadaev received an excellent education.

Young Chaadaev listened to lectures at Moscow University, and among his friends were A. S. Griboyedov, future Decembrists N. I. Turgenev, I. D. Yakushkin.

He participated in the war of 1812 (including the Battle of Borodino, went to the bayonet attack at Kulm, was awarded the Russian Order of St. Anne and the Prussian Kulm Cross) and subsequent hostilities. Serving then in the Life Hussar Regiment, he became close friends with the young Pushkin, who was then studying at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

V. Favorsky "Pushkin Lyceum student"

He greatly contributed to the development of Pushkin, and later to the rescue of the poet from exile in Siberia that threatened him or imprisonment in the Solovetsky Monastery. Chaadaev was then adjutant to the commander of the guards corps, Prince Vasilchikov, and managed to get a meeting with Karamzin in order to convince him to stand up for Pushkin. Pushkin repaid Chaadaev with warm friendship and greatly appreciated his opinion: it was to him that Pushkin sent the first copy of Boris Godunov and was looking forward to a review of his work.

In 1821, unexpectedly for everyone, Chaadaev abandoned a brilliant military and court career, retired and joined the secret society of the Decembrists. But even here he did not find satisfaction for his spiritual needs. Experiencing a spiritual crisis, in 1823 he went on a trip to Europe. In Germany, Chaadaev met the philosopher F. Schelling, assimilated the ideas of Western theologians, philosophers, scientists and writers, got acquainted with the social and cultural structure Western countries: England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy.

Returning to Russia in 1826, he lived as a hermit in Moscow for several years, comprehending and experiencing what he had seen over the years of wandering, and then began to lead an active social life, appearing in secular salons and speaking out on topical issues of history and modernity. Contemporaries noted his enlightened mind, artistic sense and noble heart - all this earned him unquestioned authority.

Chaadaev chose a peculiar way of disseminating his ideas - he expressed them in private letters. Then these ideas became public knowledge, they were discussed as journalism. In 1836, he published his first "Philosophical Letter" in the Teleskop magazine, addressed to E. Panova, whom he calls Madame.

In total they were written in French 8 "Philosophical Letters" , the last of these was in 1831. In his Letters, Chaadaev outlined his philosophical and historical views on the fate of Russia. It was this view of his that was not recognized by the ruling circles and part of his contemporary public opinion, the public outcry was enormous. “After Woe from Wit, there was not a single literary work that would have made such a strong impression,” A. Herzen believed.

Some even declared that they were ready, with arms in hand, to stand up for Russia, insulted by Chaadaev.

He considered a feature of the historical fate of Russia “a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy, which did not enliven anything except atrocities, did not soften anything except slavery. No captivating memories, no graceful images in the memory of the people, no powerful teachings in its tradition... We live in the present, in its narrowest limits, without the past and the future, among dead stagnation.

The appearance of the first “Philosophical Writing” became the reason for the division of thinking and writing people into Westerners and Slavophiles. Disputes between them do not stop today. Chaadaev, of course, was a staunch Westernizer.

Minister of Public Education Uvarov submitted a report to Nicholas I, after which the emperor officially declared Chaadaev crazy. He was doomed to a hermitage in his house on Basmannaya Street, where he was visited by a doctor who reported monthly on his condition to the tsar.

In 1836-1837. Chaadaev wrote the article “Apology of a Madman”, in which he decided to explain the features of his patriotism, his views on the high destiny of Russia: “I have not learned to love my homeland with my eyes closed, with my head bowed, with my lips locked. I find that a man can only be useful to his country if he sees it clearly; I think that the time of blind love has passed, that now we are primarily indebted to our homeland for the truth ... I have a deep conviction that we are called to solve most of the problems of the social order, to complete most of the ideas that arose in old societies, to answer the most important questions, which occupy humanity."

Chaadaev died in Moscow in 1856.

"Philosophical Letters"

Philosophical Letters" by P. Chaadaev

First letter

Chaadaev was worried about the fate of Russia, he was looking for ways to guide the country to a better future. To do this, he identified three priority areas:

“First of all, a serious classical education;

the emancipation of our slaves, which is necessary condition any further progress;

an awakening of the religious feeling, so that religion might emerge from the sort of lethargy in which it now finds itself.

Chaadaev’s first and most famous letter is imbued with a deeply skeptical mood towards Russia: “One of the most regrettable features of our peculiar civilization is that we are still discovering truths that have become commonplace in other countries and among peoples much more backward than we are. The fact is that we have never walked with other peoples, we do not belong to any of the known families of the human race, neither to the West nor to the East, and we have no traditions of either. We stand, as it were, outside of time; the universal upbringing of the human race has not spread to us.

“What other nations have long entered into life,” he writes further, “for us is still only speculation, theory ... Look around you. Everything seems to be on the move. We all seem to be strangers. No one has a sphere of a definite existence, there are no good customs for anything, not only rules, there is not even a family center; there is nothing that would bind, that would awaken our sympathy, disposition; there is nothing permanent, indispensable: everything passes, flows, leaving no trace either in appearance or in yourself. We seem to be at home, in families as strangers, as if wandering in cities, and even more than the tribes wandering through our steppes, because these tribes are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities.

Chaadaev describes the history of the country as follows: “First, wild barbarism, then gross superstition, then foreign domination, cruel and humiliating, the spirit of which the national authorities subsequently inherited - this is the sad story of our youth. The pores of overflowing activity, the ebullient play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like it.<…>Take a look around all the centuries we have lived, all the spaces we have occupied, and you will not find a single riveting memory, not a single venerable monument that would speak authoritatively about the past and draw it vividly and picturesquely. We live only in the most limited present without past and without future, among flat stagnation.

“What other peoples have is just a habit, an instinct, then we have to hammer it into our heads with a blow of a hammer. Our memories do not go beyond yesterday; we are, as it were, strangers to ourselves.”

“Meanwhile, stretching between the two great divisions of the world, between East and West, leaning with one elbow on China, the other on Germany, we should have combined in ourselves the two great principles of spiritual nature - imagination and reason, and unite history in our civilization Total the globe. This role was not given to us by providence. On the contrary, it did not seem to concern our fate at all. Denying us its beneficial effect on the human mind, it left us completely to ourselves, did not want to interfere in our affairs in anything, did not want to teach us anything. The experience of time does not exist for us. Centuries and generations have passed fruitlessly for us. Looking at us, we can say that in relation to us, the universal law of mankind has been reduced to nothing. Lonely in the world, we gave nothing to the world, took nothing from the world, we did not contribute a single thought to the mass of human ideas, we did not contribute in any way to the forward movement of the human mind, and we distorted everything that we got from this movement. . Since the very first moments of our social existence, nothing suitable for the common good of people has come out of us, not a single useful thought has germinated on the barren soil of our homeland, not a single great truth has been advanced from our midst; we did not take the trouble to create anything in the realm of the imagination, and from what was created by the imagination of others, we borrowed only deceptive appearance and useless luxury.

But Chaadaev sees the meaning of Russia in the fact that "we lived and now still live in order to teach some great lesson to distant descendants."

Second letter

In the second letter, Chaadaev expresses the idea that the progress of mankind is directed by the hand of Providence and moves through the chosen peoples and chosen people; source of eternal light never faded among human societies; man walked along the path determined for him only in the light of the truths revealed to him by higher reason. He criticizes Orthodoxy for the fact that, unlike Western Christianity (Catholicism), it did not contribute to the liberation of the lower strata of the population from slave dependence, but, on the contrary, consolidated serfdom in the times of Godunov and Shuisky. He also criticizes monastic asceticism for its indifference to the blessings of life: “There is something truly cynical in this indifference to the blessings of life, which some of us take credit for. One of the main reasons that slows down our progress is the lack of any reflection of the elegant in our home life.

Third letter

In the third letter, Chaadaev develops the same thoughts, illustrating them with his views on Moses, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Epicurus, Homer, etc. He reflects on the relationship between faith and reason. On the one hand, faith without reason is a dreamy whim of the imagination, but reason without faith also cannot exist, because “there is no other reason than the mind of the subordinate. And this submission consists in serving the good and progress, which consists in the implementation of the “moral law”.

fourth letter

The image of God in man, in his opinion, is contained in freedom.

Fifth letter

In this letter, Chaadaev contrasts consciousness and matter, believing that they have not only individual, but also world forms. So "world consciousness" is nothing but the world of ideas that live in the memory of mankind.

sixth letter

In it, Chaadaev sets out his "philosophy of history." He believed that the history of mankind should include the names of such figures as Moses and David. The first "showed the people the true God", and the second showed "an image of sublime heroism." Then, in his opinion, comes Epicurus. He calls Aristotle "the angel of darkness." Chaadaev considers the goal of history to be the ascent to the Kingdom of God. He calls the Reformation "an unfortunate event" that divided the united Christian Europe.

seventh letter

In this letter, Chaadaev recognizes the merit of Islam and Muhammad in the eradication of polytheism and the consolidation of Europe.

Eighth letter

The purpose and meaning of history is the “great apocalyptic synthesis”, when a “moral law” is established on earth within the framework of a single planetary society.

Conclusion

Reflections...

In the "Apology of a Madman" Chaadaev agrees to recognize some of his former opinions as exaggerated, but caustically laughs at the society that fell upon him for the first philosophical letter out of "love for the fatherland."

So, in the face of Chaadaev, we see a patriot who loves his homeland, but puts love of truth higher. He contrasts the patriotism of the "Samoyed" ( common name indigenous peoples of Russia: the Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups and the already disappeared Sayan Samoyeds, who speak (or spoke) the languages ​​of the Samoyed group, forming, together with the languages ​​of the Finno-Ugric group, the Ural language family) to his yurt and the patriotism of an "English citizen". Love for the motherland often nourishes national hatred and "clothes the earth in mourning." Chaadaev recognizes progress and European civilization as true, and also calls for getting rid of "remnants of the past."

Chaadaev highly appreciates the activities of Peter the Great in bringing Russia to Europe and sees in this higher meaning patriotism. According to Chaadaev, Russia underestimates the beneficial influence that the West has had on it. All Slavophilism and patriotism are almost abusive words for him.

Coming from the family of Mikhail Shcherbatov, the author of the 7-volume History of Russia from Ancient Times, Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev was born for a brilliant public career. Before the war of 1812, he attended lectures at Moscow University for 4 years, where he managed to make friends with several representatives of secret societies that were gaining strength, future members of the Decembrist movement - Nikolai Turgenev and Ivan Yakushkin. Chaadaev actively participated in the hostilities against Napoleon, fought at Borodino, near Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets (for which he was awarded the Order of St. Anne), took part in the capture of Paris. After the war, this “brave, shelled officer, tested in three gigantic campaigns, impeccably noble, honest and amiable in private relations” (as a contemporary described him) met the 17-year-old Alexander Pushkin, whose views had a significant impact.

In 1817, he entered the military service in the Semyonovsky regiment, and a year later he retired. The reason for such a hasty decision was the harsh suppression of the uprising of the 1st battalion of the Life Guards, to the participants of which Chaadaev was very sympathetic. The sudden decision of a promising young 23-year-old officer caused a considerable scandal in high society: his act was explained either by being late for the emperor with a report on the rebellion, or by the content of the conversation with the king, which caused an angry rebuke from Chaadaev. However, the biographer of the philosopher M. O. Gershenzon, referring to reliable written sources, gives the following explanation in the first person: “I found it more amusing to neglect this mercy than to seek it. I was pleased to show disdain for people who neglect everyone ... It is even more pleasant for me in this case to see the anger of an arrogant fool.

Be that as it may, Chaadaev leaves the service in the status of one of the most famous characters of the era, enviable groom and chief secular dandy. One of the philosopher's contemporaries recalled that “with him it was somehow impossible, it was embarrassing to indulge in daily vulgarity. When he appeared, everyone somehow involuntarily looked around morally and mentally, tidied up and prettier. The most authoritative historian of Russian culture Yu. M. Lotman, describing the features of Chaadaev's public foppery, remarked: "The area of ​​extravagance of his clothes consisted in a daring lack of extravagance." Moreover, unlike another famous English dandy - Lord Byron, the Russian philosopher preferred to appearance discreet minimalism and even purism. Such a deliberate disregard for fashion trends very favorably distinguished him from other contemporaries, in particular, the Slavophiles, who associated their costume with ideological attitudes (wearing a beard indicatively, recommending that ladies wear sundresses). However, the general attitude to the title of a kind of "trendsetter", a model of a public image, made Chaadaev's image related to his foreign dandy colleagues.

In 1823, Chaadaev went abroad for treatment, and even before leaving, he made a donation for his property to two brothers, clearly intending not to return to his homeland. He will spend the next two years either in London, or in Paris, or in Rome or Milan. Probably, it was during this journey through Europe that Chaadaev became acquainted with the works of French and German philosophers. As the historian of Russian literature M. Velizhev writes, “the formation of Chaadaev’s “anti-Russian” views in the mid-1820s took place in a political context associated with the transformation of the structure and content of the Holy Union of European Monarchs.” Russia, following the results of the Napoleonic wars, undoubtedly thought of itself as a European hegemon - "the Russian tsar is the head of the tsars" according to Pushkin. However, the geopolitical situation in Europe almost a decade after the end of the war was rather disappointing, and Alexander I himself had already moved away from the previous constitutional ideas and, in general, had somewhat cooled to the possibility of spiritual unity with the Prussian and Austrian monarchs. Probably, the joint prayer of the victorious emperors during the work of the Aachen Congress in 1818 was finally forgotten.

Upon returning to Russia in 1826, Chaadaev was immediately arrested on charges of belonging to secret societies of the Decembrists. These suspicions are exacerbated by the fact that as early as 1814 Chaadaev became a member Masonic Lodge in Krakow, and in 1819 he was admitted to one of the first Decembrist organizations - the Union of Welfare. By an authoritative decree, three years later, all secret organizations - both Freemasons and Decembrists, without considering their ideology and goals, were banned. The story with Chaadaev ended happily: having signed a paper about the absence of attitude towards freethinkers, the philosopher was released. Chaadaev settled in Moscow, in the house of E. G. Levasheva on Novaya Basmannaya, and began work on his main work, Philosophical Letters. This work instantly returned to Chaadaev the glory of the main oppositionist of the era, although in one of the letters to A.I. Turgenev the philosopher himself complains: “What did I do, what did I say so that I could be ranked among the opposition? I do not say or do anything else, I only repeat that everything strives towards one goal and that this goal is the kingdom of God.

This work, even before its publication, actively went on the lists among the most progressive part of society, but the appearance of "Philosophical Letters" in the magazine "Telescope" in 1836 caused a serious scandal. Both the editor of the publication and the censor paid for the publication of Chaadaev's work, and the author himself, by order of the government, was declared insane. It is interesting that many legends and controversies have developed around this first known case in Russian history of the use of punitive psychiatry: the doctor who was supposed to conduct a regular official examination of the “patient” said to Chaadaev at the first meeting: “If not for my family, wife and six children, I would show them who is really crazy.”

In his most important work, Chaadaev significantly rethought the ideology of the Decembrists, which he, being a “Decembrist without December”, shared in many respects. After a careful study of the main intellectual ideas of the era (in addition to the French religious philosophy of de Maistre, as well as Schelling's work on natural philosophy), the conviction arose that the future prosperity of Russia is possible on the basis of world enlightenment, the spiritual and ethical transformation of mankind in search of divine unity. In fact, it was this work of Chaadaev that became the impetus for the development of the national Russian philosophical school. His supporters would later call themselves Westerners, while their opponents would call themselves Slavophiles. Those first "damned questions" that were formulated in the "Philosophical Letters" were of interest to Russian thinkers in the future: how to bring to life a global universal utopia and the search for one's own national identity, a special Russian path, directly related to this problem.

It is curious that Chaadaev himself called himself a religious philosopher, although further reflection of his legacy formed into a unique Russian historiosophy. Chaadaev believed in the existence of a metaphysical absolute Demiurge, who manifests himself in his own creation through the games of chance and the will of fate. Without denying the Christian faith as a whole, he believes that the main goal of mankind is "the establishment of the kingdom of God on Earth", and it is in Chaadaev's work that such a metaphor of a just society, a society of prosperity and equality, first appears.

Maternal grandfather of Peter Chaadaev - Prince M.M. Shcherbatov (+ 1790), famous historian, associate N.I. Novikov. Mother - Princess Natalya Mikhailovna Shcherbatova (+ 1797). Father - Yakov Petrovich Chaadaev (+ 1794), adviser to the Nizhny Novgorod Criminal Chamber.

His teachers were professors F.G. Bause (one of the first collectors of ancient Russian literature), K.F. Mattei (researcher of the manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, lives of the saints), T. Bulle. The latter singled out Chaadaev as one of the most gifted students.

A characteristic shortcoming of the entire system of education in Russia at that time was that lectures were given only in foreign languages. The Russian language was not studied at all. Later, Chaadaev said about himself: " ... It is easier for me to express my thoughts in French than in Russian".

WITH early years Chaadaev impressed those around him with an extraordinary mind, erudition, and a craving for self-education. He was a collector of books and had a rich library. One of the "pearls" of Chaadaev's library was "The Apostle", published in the year by Francis Skorina - there were only 2 copies of this book in Russia. Chaadaev was not a librarian ("book buryer") and willingly shared his books with professors and other students.

At the university, Chaadaev develops a friendship with A.S. Griboedov and I.D. Yakushkin.

Contemporaries noted the refined aristocracy and panache in the clothes of Pyotr Chaadaev. M. Zhikharev, who knew him closely and later became a biographer, wrote that “ Chaadaev raised the art of dressing almost to the level of historical significance". Chaadaev was known as the most brilliant of the young men in Moscow, he also enjoyed the reputation of one of the best dancers. The obvious reverence for his personality impressed Pyotr Chaadaev himself and developed in him the traits of hard-hearted selfishness. intellectual development and secular education were not filled with heartfelt education. In the future, this will turn out to be one of the sources of originality and mobility of his philosophical reflections.

Military service

Went in a bayonet attack at Kulm.

The trip abroad made significant changes in the spiritual life of Chaadaev and influenced the formation of his philosophy of history. He continued to add to his library. Pyotr Yakovlevich's close attention was attracted by works in which attempts were made to harmonize social and scientific progress with Christianity. In the year in Carlsbad, Chaadaev met Schelling.

Despite the fact that he was constantly engaged in treatment, his health only worsened. In June, Chaadaev left for his homeland.

Homecoming. "Philosophical Letters"

Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow also recognized the "Letter" as crazy.

From a year until his death, Chaadaev lived in Moscow in an outbuilding on Novaya Basmannaya Street, which is why he received the nickname "Basman philosopher".

Philosophical ideas

Chaadaev undoubtedly considered himself a Christian thinker.

It should be emphasized that his Christian philosophy is unconventional: it does not talk about the sinfulness of man, nor about the salvation of his soul, nor about the sacraments, nor about anything like that. Chaadaev made a speculative "extraction" from the Holy Scriptures and presented Christianity as a universal force, contributing, on the one hand, to the formation historical process and sanctioning, on the other hand, its good completion.

Such a force, according to Chaadaev, manifested itself most prominently in Catholicism, where it developed and formulated social idea of ​​christianity, which determined the sphere in which Europeans live, and in which alone, under the influence of religion, the human race can fulfill its final destiny, i.e. establishing an earthly paradise. In Catholicism, he emphasized the dual unity of the religious-social principle, "inserted" into history.

G.V. Plekhanov wrote: The public interest comes to the fore even in Chaadaev's religious reflections.".

Interpretation of Christianity by Chaadaev as historically progressive social development, and his identification of the work of Christ with the final establishment of the earthly kingdom, served as the basis for his sharp criticism of Russia and its history.

"First wild barbarism, then gross superstition, then foreign domination, cruel and humiliating, the spirit of which the national power subsequently inherited, this is the sad story of our youth<...>We live only in the most limited present without past and without future, among flat stagnation".

Chaadaev saw the fundamental reason for this situation in Russia in the fact that, having isolated himself from the Catholic West during the period of church schism " we were wrong about the real spirit of religion"by choosing Orthodoxy. Chaadaev considered it necessary for Russia not only to blindly and superficially assimilate Western forms, but to absorb into blood and flesh social idea Catholicism, from the beginning to repeat all stages of European history.

Such are the conclusions of the First Philosophical Letter.

With all his sympathies for Catholicism, Chaadaev remained Orthodox all his life, regularly went to confession and communed, before his death took communion from an Orthodox priest and was buried according to the Orthodox rite. Literary critic M.O. Gershenzon writes that Chaadaev committed a strange inconsistency by not accepting Catholicism and not formally converting, so to speak, "to the Catholic faith", in compliance with the established ritual.

In other "Philosophical letters" Chaadaev, reflecting on the parallelism of the material and spiritual worlds, about the ways and means of knowing nature and man, unfolds the philosophical and scientific evidence of his main idea: in the human spirit there is no other truth than that which God put into him with his own hand when he pulled him out of non-existence. Therefore, it is wrong to explain the actions of a person solely in terms of his own nature, as philosophers often do, " and all the movement of the human spirit, - emphasizes the author, - is the result of an amazing combination of initial concepts, abandoned by God himself, with the influence of our mind ...".

Written by Chaadaev in response to accusations of lack of patriotism "Apology of a Madman"(1837) remained unpublished during the lifetime of the thinker. In it, Chaadaev revised his point of view on Russia, noting that " ... we are called to solve most of the problems of the social order ... to answer the most important questions that concern humanity, "... perhaps it was an exaggeration to grieve at least for a minute for the fate of the people, from the depths of which came the mighty nature of Peter the Great, the all-embracing mind of Lomonosov and the graceful genius of Pushkin".