PETER JAKOVLEVIČ ČAADAEV. — Russian thinker, the “first Westernizer.” Born between 1793 and 1796 into a noble family, he was educated in admiration for Western culture. In 1812 he took part in the Battle of Borodino; he then went to France with the victorious Russian regiments. For a time he was a member of Freemasonry. From 1823 he made a long journey abroad. The years 1826–31 he spent in Moscow, leading a very retired life. Famous are his Philosophical Letters, the first of which dates from 1836. Because of the ideas on Russia and on the Church of Rome contained in them, he was declared insane by Emperor Nicholas I. To defend himself he later wrote the Apologia of a Madman.
Čaadaev’s Westernism is not positivistic or atheistic, but religious, and contains in embryo the messianic idea of Slavophilism. On the one hand, Čaadaev opposed the much-debated formula “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality,” appreciated Western culture, expressed himself very negatively about Russia’s historical and cultural development, which he considered backward; he admitted the idea of the primacy of the Church of Rome and praised its cultural and social activity (though without ever becoming Catholic); on the other hand, he prophesied for Russia—a young, virgin, deeply religious land—a great Christian and social future. Politically he was a supporter of an enlightened and cautious liberalism informed by historicist considerations. He died in 1856.
His Works and Letters, largely written in French, were edited by M. Gerschenson (2 vols., Moscow 1913).