PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF PETER CHAADAEV

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF PETER CHAADAEV

SOVIETICA VOLUME 56 PUBLICATIONS AND MONOGRAPHS OF THE INSTITUTE OF EAST-EUROPEAN STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG / SWI1ZERLAND AND THE CENTER FOR EAST EUROPE, RUSSIA AND ASIA AT BOSTON COLLEGE AND. THE SEMINAR FOR POLITICAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH Founded by J. M. Bochenski (Fribourg) Edited by T. J. Blakeley (Boston), Guido Kiing (Fribourg) and Nikolaus Lobkowicz (Munich) Editorial Board Karl G. Ballestrem (Eichstiitt) / Bernard Jeu (Lille) Helmut Dahm (Cologne) / George L. Kline (Bryn Mawr) Richard T. DeGeorge (Univ. of Kansas) / James J. O. 'Rourke (St. Anselm's) Peter Ehlen (Munich) / Friedrich Rapp (Dortmund) Michael Gagern (Munich) / Tom Rockmore (Duquesne) Philip Grier (Dickinson College) / Andries Sariemijn (Eindhoven) Felix P. Ingold (ETH St. Gall) / James Scanlan (Ohio State) Edward M. Swiderski (Fribourg) The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF PETER CHAADAEV Edited by RA YMOND T. McNALLY Boston Col!ege, Chestnut Hil!, U.S.A. and RICHARD TEMPEST University of Illinois at Urbana, U.S.A. SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS, MEDIA, B.V.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chaadaev, P. fa. (Petr fakovlevich), 1794-1856. [Selections. ~nglish. 1991] Philosophical works of Peter Chaadaev / edited by Raymond McNally and Richard Tempest. p. cm. -- (Sovietica; v.56) Translated from the French. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: The philosophieal letters addressed to a lady -- The apologia of a madman -- Fragments and diverse thoughts. ISBN 978-94-010-5396-9 ISBN 978-94-011-3166-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-3166-7 1. Phi losophy. 1. MeNa lly, Raymond T., 1931- II. Tempest, Richard, 1956- III. Title. IV. Series: Sovietica (Universite de Fribourg. Ost-Europa Institut) ; v. 56. B4238.C47E5 1991 197--dc20 91-16765 ISBN 978-94-010-5396-9 Printed on acidjree paper AII Rights Reserved 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, without written pennission from the copyright owner.

Wie schwer sind nicht die Mittel zu erwerben, Durch die man zu den Quellen steigt! Und eh' man nur den halben Weg erreicht, Muss wohl ein armer Teufel sterben. Faust. Part I

CONTENTS Preface 5 Translators' Note 7 Biographical Sketch 8 An Analysis of Chaadaev' s Major Ideas 14 The Philosophical Letters Addressed to a Lady Letter I 18 Lettern 32 Letter III 42 Letter IV. 50 Letter V 58 Letter VI 67 Letter VII 85 Letter vln 97 The Apologia of a Madman 102 Fragments and Diverse Thoughts 112 Commentaries and Notes to the Biographical Sketch 256 Commentaries and Notes to the Analysis of Chaadaev's Ideas 260 Commentaries and Notes to the Philosophical Letters 263 Commentaries and Notes to the Apologia of a Madman 275 Commentaries and Notes to the Fragments, Articles and Other Letters 278 Bibliography 310 Index 313

PREFACE Peter Chaadaev emerges from the pages of history as one of Russia's most provocative and influential thinkers. The purpose of this book is to present the reader with the first English translation of most of his philosophical writings. During the first half of the nineteenth century Chaadaev incited a violent polemic concerning the historical significance of Russian culture. His ideas concerning Russia's real mission in the world still provoke controversy in the Soviet Union. In fact, no edition of most of his works has ever been published in the Soviet Union until the Gorbachev era. Our English translation with commentaries was done in the conviction that these writings should be made available to the English-reading public. The background material in this book is expository; we have not attempted to write a complete biographical study of Chaadaev, nor have we tried to offer an analysis of Chaadaev's philosophy. The point of view is simply that of two scholars who admire Chaadaev's insights into philosophy in general, and the philosophy of history, in particular; so the background material has been limited to a biographical sketch of Chaadaev and a brief explanation of his major ideas. Since there was no definitive edition of Chaadaev's original works in print when this project was begun in 1961, a thorough search was made in the archives of Moscow and Leningrad. The extant manuscripts were studied and evaluated to determine as far as possible how Chaadaev himself would have wanted these works to appear in print, had he been able to publish them. Utilizing the latest Soviet archival reference works, we were able to pinpoint the whereabouts of most of the Chaadaeviana. The manuscript collections in the Soviet Union provided us with further clues to other source materials. Having found the manuscripts, we had them microfilmed and began submitting them to tests to determine authenticity and relative reliability. We also tried to discover when each of the manuscripts had been written. We then concerned ourselves with the variants. In dealing with the manuscripts in which Chaadaev deleted whole passages and changed the working of the texts himself, we used two criteria: 1) What changes apparently represented Chaadaev's final choices? 2) If Chaadaev had had the opportunity of preparing most of his works for publication, which original of the variants would he, in all likelihood, have chosen? The admirable scholarly work done on the Chaadaev manuscripts by the late Dmitri Ivanovich Shakhovskoi was of invaluable aid to us in completing work. After having completed our work on the original manuscripts, we felt that they were important enough to be translated into English, especially in this era of perestroika. and glasnost, when a new Soviet edition of his works is due to appear. However, a word of warning seems in order here before this study begins: Chaadaev does not appeal to anyone in search of systematized, unified philosophical analyses. He did not contribute anything particularly original to the academic field of philosophy. His significance rests upon his peculiar application of a particular set of religious and philosophical ideas to the study of 5

6 PREFACE Russia's place in history. In Chaadaev's mind, the problem of the historical significance of Russian culture revolved around a few specific questions which he formulated for the first time, and in a highly provocative manner: Does Russia belong to the East or to the West? Is Russian culture European or Asiatic? Does it belong to the Judaeo-Christian, Graeco-Roman world? What historical role have Russians played in the past? Have they contributed anything original to world culture? What should Russia's mission be in the present and in the future? We should like to thank the Russian Research Center of Harvard University for making available to us the rich resources at Widener Library. The former Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants and the current International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) were generous in arranging several research trips to Russia. The American Philosophical Society (Penrose Fund) provided financial aid for microfilming and photostating source materials in Leningrad and Moscow, and the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. kindly permitted access to the source materials. We wish to acknowledge the support we received in our research from Boston College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Special thanks go to the Centre d'etudes Russes at Meudon,where the Bibliotheque Slave is located with its rich archival resources. We should like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Karen Potterton for typing the text. We are deeply grateful to the late Professor Thomas Blakeley for his helpful editorial assistance. It is our pleasure to dedicate this book in his memory.