{"id":804,"date":"2018-09-21T11:05:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=804"},"modified":"2022-01-19T08:30:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T12:30:18","slug":"who-was-petr-chaadaev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2018\/09\/21\/who-was-petr-chaadaev\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Petr Chaadaev?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Austin Hall<\/p>\n

As Jacob Beard, a Ph.D. student in Russian Literature at the Ohio State University, regaled his audience with the trials and tribulations of Peter Chaadaev\u2019s philosophical and literary career, it became clear that Chaadaev was a key figure in the development of modern Russia. Part of the Fall 2018 lecture series sponsored by the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies on the theme of \u201cRussia Abroad,\u201d Beard\u2019s September 5 lecture helped his audience better situate Chaadaev\u2019s historical significance.<\/p>\n

Chaadaev\u2019s \u201cLetter 1,\u201d published in 1836, along with an analysis of the literature of the previous decade such as Alexander Griboyedov\u2019s play Woe from Wit<\/em>, shows that the salon mentality of the early nineteenth century allowed for a reimagination of where Russia was in the global atmosphere. Was Russia part of the East? Part of the West? For many Russians, there was no definitive answer to that question. Although many Russians did not take the chance to speak out against the tsarist state, Beard showed that Chaadaev believed that Russia had no place in the world at the time because it was caught between the East and the West. This assertion was the key to understanding the entire lecture and Chaadaev\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

After reading John Glad\u2019s \u201cThe Politicals\u201d and Marc Raeff\u2019s \u201cThe Emergence of the Russian European\u201d, Beard\u2019s lecture was even more intriguing. Focusing on a variety of Russian authors, Glad\u2019s analysis of the literary and salon atmosphere of the early nineteenth century provides greater insight to support Beard\u2019s argument that Chaadaev was attempting to construct a philosophy that could move Russia toward a European political and economic atmosphere. As Beard stated, \u201cChaadaev was a Hegelian who assumed that humanity was one and that Western civilization was its vanguard.\u201d[1]<\/a> Beard took this fact and argued that Chaadaev\u2019s \u201cLetters\u201d were an attempt to illuminate Russians to their state in the world, and that Russia needed to Westernize to construct a true national image.<\/p>\n

This assertion is also backed up by Raeff\u2019s \u201cThe Emergence of the Russian European.\u201d Raeff tracks the beliefs and strategies of the Russian leaders Peter the Great, Catherine II, and Paul I to display the ways that the rulers brought Russia into the European atmosphere. Through literature, economics, and the aristocratic salons, the intelligentsia began to usher in a new era of Russian society.[2]<\/a> As Beard brilliantly argued, the salon culture of Chaadaev\u2019s time was utilized by Russians to foster ideals, strategies, and even philosophical ideas to change the shape of the Russian Empire from a nation without an identity to one with a European character.<\/p>\n

Yet another insight and parallel to Beard\u2019s statements about Chaadaev is Alexander Griboyedov\u2019s The Woe to Wit<\/em>. Throughout the play, Griboyedov satirizes the entirety of Russian society even a decade before Chaadaev\u2019s \u201cLetter 1.\u201d The youthful idealism of the young protagonist Alexandr Andreyevich Chatsky, who Beard noted was based on Chaadaev, displays the want of a changing atmosphere of Russia\u2019s status to European entity. Even writing the play in rhymed, iambic verse, a style that set Griboyedov apart from his contemporaries, displays the allure of the West. It reminds the author of a Shakespearean style of writing, demonstrating a fondness and ideological alliance to the West. This admiration for European ideals aligns perfectly with Beard\u2019s lecture on Chaadaev.<\/p>\n

As Beard noted during his lecture, Russia was changing from what Chaadaev believed was a nation without an identity\u2014an assertion exposed in his \u201cLetter 1\u201d\u2014to one that aligned with European trends. Beard decisively argued that the salon atmosphere and the shift in philosophical thinking drove the Russian thinkers to change the landscape of Russia forever.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> John Glad, \u201cThe Politicals,\u201d in Russia Abroad: Writers, History, Politics<\/em> (Hermitage & Birchbark Press, 1999), 73.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Marc Raeff, \u201cThe Emergence of the Russian European,\u201d in Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825<\/em>, Edited by Cynthia Hyla Whittaker (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 124-26.<\/p>\n

Austin Hall is a second-year M.A. student in History.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Austin Hall As Jacob Beard, a Ph.D. student in Russian Literature at the Ohio State University, regaled his audience with the trials and tribulations of Peter Chaadaev\u2019s philosophical and literary career, it became clear that Chaadaev was a key … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12,6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colloquium-talks","category-havighurst-lecturers","category-lecture_reviews","category-miami-alumni","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}