Chaadaev first philosophical letter. Chaadaev's first philosophical letter
- 23.45 Kb"Philosophical Letters" P.Ya. Chaadaev. The content and conclusions of the first philosophical letter.
In the period 1828-1831. P.Ya. Chaadaev creates his most important work - "Philosophical Letters" in French. “It used to be assumed that the letters were written to a certain Mrs. Panova, but now it has been proven that she was not the addressee at all. Chaadaev simply chose the epistolary form for presenting his views, which was then quite common.(Zenkovsky V.V. "History of Russian Philosophy"). Thanks to the choice of the epistolary genre, Chaadaev's theory takes the form of a fiery appeal to the interlocutor, his letters are direct and emotional.
« Philosophical Letters” is one of the first Russian original philosophical and historical treatises. The product was truly innovative. The "letters" analyze philosophical and historical problems, problems of the development of Russian society. Revealed whole line historical patterns, which are compared with Russian reality, and are subjected to sharp criticism.
P.Ya. Chaadaev examines the place of Russia in relation to the general historical process. According to him, each nation has its own mission, and is called upon to realize the divine plan. But in Russia, according to Chaadaev, there was no period of great achievements. The whole history of Russia is a continuous stagnation. “When talking about Russia, they constantly imagine that they are talking about such a state, like others; in fact, this is not true at all. Russia is a whole special world, submissive to the will, arbitrariness, and fantasy of one person. Whether he is called Peter or Ivan is not the point: in all cases it is the same - the personification of arbitrariness. Thus, we come to Chaadaev's key characteristic of a special world called Russia - this is a world that is the personification of the arbitrariness of an individual. Not firm and objective rules, laws and norms of life, coming from an external and independent source in relation to the life and consciousness of an individual person, determine the existence of an entire state, but the arbitrariness or self-will of this individual person.
It can be said that the skills of consciousness of a Russian person have not been worked out to automatism by Christian upbringing, and in this sense, every time he is in a state of “movement”, in which there are no rules and certainty of the sphere of activity, "but this means the generality of the situation of arbitrariness and self-will. This is what Chaadaev means when he writes that Russia has not entered the scope of the global process of education of the human race by Christianity, and that it has been left to itself until now: We belong neither to the West nor to the East, and we have no traditions of either. Standing, as it were, outside of time, we were not affected by the universal upbringing of the human race..
In Russia, conditions have developed that are impossible for a normal human life. Joyless, devoid of human meaning, existence in which there is no place for the individual, Chaadaev derives from the no less legal past of the Russian people, which has long been turned into a morally numb organism. All societies have experienced turbulent periods of transition from youth to maturity, and only in Russia nothing changes: “We are growing, but we are not maturing, we are moving forward, but in a crooked line; that is, one that does not lead to the goal ". And in the past, Chaadaev does not deny such a movement, but it happened almost blindly and mainly in one dimension - in the growth of slavery. At first, Russia was in a state of wild barbarism, then deep ignorance, then fierce and humiliating foreign domination, the despotic spirit of which was inherited by the later authorities. Freed from Tatar yoke, Russians fell into a new slavery - serfdom. Russian history "was filled with a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy, which did not revive anything except the atrocities of nothing but slavery".
For Chaadaev himself, Russia's special position in the world is not a good deed, but a great tragedy. In the "First Philosophical Letter" he bitterly states: “We live only in the present within its closest limits, without the past and the future… We also did not perceive anything from the successive ideas of the human race… We have absolutely no internal development, natural progress…” According to Chaadaev, Russia has given nothing to the world, world culture, has not contributed anything to the historical experience of mankind. In other words, Russia has fallen away from the single body of world history and even, as he writes, "lost her way on earth." Finally, Chaadaev claims that Russia is "a gap in the moral world order".
The author cannot understand the reasons for this situation. He sees in this a riddle, a mystery, the guilt of "inscrutable fate." Moreover, Chaadaev suddenly asserts that Divine Providence itself " was not concerned with our fate": “Having excluded us from its beneficial effect on the human mind, it (providence) left us entirely on our own, refused to interfere in our affairs in any way, did not want to teach us anything” .
But not only "rock", the Russian people themselves are to blame for their own situation. And an attempt to determine the reasons for such an unenviable fate of Russia leads Chaadaev to a rather sharp conclusion - he sees this reason in the fact that Russia adopted Orthodoxy: “In obedience to our evil fate, we turned to ... Byzantium for the moral charter that was to form the basis of our upbringing”. However, it should be noted here that Chaadaev's condemnation of Orthodoxy is of a theoretical nature, he himself remained a parishioner of the Orthodox Church all his life.
The thesis that Divine Providence "excluded" Russia from its "beneficial action" was flawed. Recognition of the truth of this thesis meant that the action of Providence is not universal, therefore, it infringed on the concept of the Lord as an all-encompassing force. Therefore, already in the "First Philosophical Letter" Chaadaev seeks to continue his reasoning. Therefore he says: “We belong to the number of those nations that, as it were, are not part of humanity, but exist only in order to give the world some important lesson ... And in general, we lived and continue to live only in order to serve-an important lesson for distant generations. So, from denying at least some participation of Providence in the fate of Russia, Chaadaev gradually comes to the conclusion about the special plan of Providence about Russia, about great destiny Russia, which is intended for her by God Himself.
In the first philosophical letter, Chaadaev constantly emphasizes the importance of the spiritual life of people. It is precisely mental progress, progress in education, in mastering advanced ideas, putting them into practice, that primarily concerns Chaadaev when considering the future of Russia. He remarks: “We do not have the development of our own, original, logical improvement. Old ideas are destroyed by new ones, because the latter are not excluded from the former, but sink to us from God knows where, our minds do not furrow indelible traces of the successive movement of ideas that constitute their strength, because we borrow ideas that are already developed. We guess, but do not study, we appropriate someone else's invention with extreme dexterity, we do not invent aces ". Chaadaev always leaned towards the Western path of Russia's development, but already in his first philosophical letter he resolutely opposed the blind, bad, superficial imitation of foreigners.
P.Ya. Chaadaev puts forward the idea that Russia could be removed from its current position and connected to the process of educating the human race through "revitalization by all means of our beliefs of our truly Christian motive". Considering that he links the process of education of the human race with the development "social idea of Christianity", then this thought can be interpreted as a call to ensure that and Orthodox Church after all, it assumed, following the example of the Western church, the role of the organizing principle in the types of social development of society. Which should finally lead to the introduction into the life and life of Russian society of relevant ideas, traditions and institutions similar to European ones, and to the formation of the thinking of the Russian person, replacing his arbitrariness and willfulness with those “skills of consciousness that give comfort to the mind and soul, ease, measured movement”.
At the same time, this call for a change in the role of the Orthodox Church in the life of Russian society already now coexists in the Philosophical Letters with another consideration - that, apparently, the current state of Russia - "do not enter integral part into humanity"- after all, it has some definite and reasonable meaning, which is only incomprehensible for the time being, but will become understandable to "distant descendants". But in this case, the future of Russia should not be connected with its removal from this state, but precisely with the preservation and consideration of its current state.
This letter was published in 1836 in the Telescope magazine. As Chernyshevsky points out, the letter ended up in print almost by accident. Stankevich read the Letters, and managed to interest Belinsky, then the editor-in-chief of Teleskop, in them. The society was shocked by the letter. “It was a shot that rang out on a dark night; whether something was sinking and heralding its death, whether it was a signal, a call for help, news of the morning or that it would not be - all the same, it was necessary to wake up "(A. I. Herzen "The Past and Thoughts"). Unthinkable excitement, loud discussions were conducted by all thinking circles of society. The letter aroused sharp dissatisfaction with the authorities, because of the indignation expressed in it about the spiritual stagnation that impedes the fulfillment of the historical mission destined from above. The Teleskop magazine was closed for this publication, the censor was fired, and Chaadaev, by order of the tsar, was declared insane.
Summing up, it must be said that the appearance of the "First Philosophical Letter" and the controversy surrounding it had great importance for the development of Russian social thought. It contributed to the beginning of the ideological and organizational formation of Slavophilism and Westernism, two currents that determined the development of Russian philosophical thought in the first half of the 19th century.
Subsequent letters were devoted to general philosophical problems. The second is the need to arrange life in accordance with spiritual aspirations. Thirdly, the idea affirms that complete deprivation of liberty is the highest stage of human perfection. Fourth - proves that numbers and measures are finite, therefore the Creator cannot be understood by the human mind. In the fifth philosophical letter, the author, as it were, sums up the consideration of the unity of the spiritual and material order of being. The sixth and seventh philosophical letters deal with the movement and direction of the historical process. In the eighth and last philosophical letter, partly methodological in nature, the author concludes: “The truth is one: the kingdom of God, heaven on earth, all the gospel promises - all this is nothing more than insight and the realization of the union of all the thoughts of mankind in a single thought; and this single thought is the thought of God himself, in other words, the realized moral law. But these letters did not go to press.
The first "Philosophical Letter" remained the only work of P.Ya. published during his lifetime. Chaadaev. The remaining works of the philosopher became available to a wide range of readers only many years after the death of the author.
Description of work
"Philosophical Letters" is one of the first Russian original philosophical and historical treatises. The product was truly innovative. The "letters" analyze philosophical and historical problems, problems of the development of Russian society. A number of historical patterns are revealed, which are compared with Russian reality, and are subjected to sharp criticism.
“It is your frankness and your sincerity that I like the most, it is these that I value most in you. Judge how your letter must have surprised me. I was fascinated by these wonderful qualities of your character from the first minute of our acquaintance, and they prompted me to talk with you about religion. Everything around us could only keep me silent. Judge again, what was my astonishment when I received your letter! That is all I can tell you about the opinion you suppose I have formed myself of your character. But let's not talk about it any more and go straight to the serious part of your letter ... "
Letter one
May your kingdom come
Madam,
It is your frankness and your sincerity that appeal to me most of all, it is these that I value most in you. Judge how your letter must have surprised me. I was fascinated by these wonderful qualities of your character from the first minute of our acquaintance, and they prompted me to talk with you about religion. Everything around us could only keep me silent. Judge again, what was my astonishment when I received your letter! That is all I can tell you about the opinion you suppose I have formed myself of your character. But let's not talk about that any more and let's get straight to the serious part of your letter.
First, where does this turmoil in your thoughts come from, which worries you so much and exhausts you so much that, according to you, even affected your health? Is it really a sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of peace and tranquility, which should have brought you a new feeling awakened in your heart, it caused you longing, anxiety, almost remorse. And yet, should I be surprised? It is the natural consequence of that sad order of things which controls all our hearts and all minds. You have only succumbed to the influence of the forces that dominate here over everyone, from the highest peaks of society to the slave who lives only for the comfort of his master.
And how could you resist these conditions? The very qualities that distinguish you from the crowd should make you especially accessible. harmful influence the air you breathe. Could the little that I have allowed myself to tell you give strength to your thoughts in the midst of everything that surrounds you? Could I clean up the atmosphere we live in? I had to foresee the consequences, and I did foresee them. Hence those frequent silences, which, of course, could least of all bring confidence to your soul and naturally should have led you into confusion. And if I weren’t sure that, no matter how strong the sufferings that a religious feeling that has not fully awakened in the heart, such a state may still be better than complete lethargy, I would only have to repent of my decision. But I hope that the clouds that now cover your sky will in time turn into blessed dew that will fertilize the seed thrown into your heart, and the effect produced on you by a few insignificant words serves as a sure guarantee for those still more important consequences that without doubt will entail the work of your own mind. Surrender fearlessly to the movements of the soul that the religious idea will awaken in you: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow.
As far as external conditions are concerned, content yourself for the time being with the realization that the doctrine based on the supreme principle unity and the direct transmission of the truth in an uninterrupted series of his ministers, of course, is most in line with the true spirit of religion; for it is wholly reduced to the idea of the fusion of all the moral forces existing in the world into one thought, into one feeling, and to the gradual establishment of such a social system or churches which is to establish the kingdom of truth among men. Any other teaching, by the very fact of its falling away from the original doctrine, rejects in advance the operation of the Savior’s high testament: Holy Father, keep them, that they may be one, as we are and does not seek to establish the kingdom of God on earth. It does not, however, follow that you are obliged to confess this truth in the face of the light: this, of course, is not your calling. On the contrary, the very principle from which this truth proceeds obliges you, in view of your position in society, to recognize in it only the inner light of your faith, and nothing more. I am happy to have contributed to the conversion of your thoughts to religion; but I should be very unhappy if, at the same time, I plunged your conscience into confusion, which, in the course of time, would inevitably cool your faith.
I think I told you once that The best way to preserve a religious feeling is to observe all the rites prescribed by the church. This exercise in obedience, which contains more than is commonly thought, and which the greatest minds have placed upon themselves consciously and deliberately, is the true service of God. Nothing so strengthens the spirit in its beliefs as the strict fulfillment of all duties relating to them. Moreover, most of the rites of the Christian religion, inspired by a higher mind, have real life-giving power for anyone who knows how to be imbued with the truths contained in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which in general is unconditional, namely, when a person feels in himself beliefs of a higher order compared to those professed by the masses - beliefs that elevate the spirit to the very source of all certainty and at the same time do not in the least contradict folk beliefs, but, on the contrary, reinforcing them; then, and only then, is it permissible to neglect external rituals in order to devote more freely to more important labors. But woe to him who would take the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for the highest enlightenment, which supposedly frees him from the general law! But you, madam, what better thing can you do than put on the garment of humility, which is so befitting to your sex? Believe me, this will most likely pacify your agitated spirit and shed a quiet joy into your existence.
And is it conceivable, say, even from the point of view of secular concepts, a more natural way of life for a woman whose developed mind knows how to find beauty in knowledge and in the stately emotions of contemplation than a life concentrated and devoted to a large extent to reflection and religious affairs. You say that in reading nothing excites your imagination so much as pictures of a peaceful and serious life, which, like the sight of a beautiful countryside at sunset, infuse peace into the soul and take us away for a moment from bitter or vulgar reality. But these pictures are not creations of fantasy; it is up to you alone to realize any of these captivating inventions; and for this you have everything you need. You see, I preach not too harsh morality: in your inclinations, in the most attractive dreams of your imagination, I try to find something that can give peace to your soul.
There is a certain side to life that concerns not the physical, but the spiritual being of a person. It should not be neglected; there is a certain regime for the soul just as there is for the body; you have to be able to obey him. It's an old truth, I know; but I think that in our country it still very often has all the value of novelty. One of the saddest features of our peculiar civilization is that we are only just discovering truths that have long since become beaten in other places and even among peoples that in many ways are far behind us. This comes from the fact that we have never walked hand in hand with other peoples; we do not belong to any of the great families of the human race; we belong neither to the West nor to the East, and we have no traditions of either. Standing, as it were, outside of time, we were not affected by the worldwide education of the human race.
This marvelous connection of human ideas through the ages, this history of the human spirit, which raised it to the height on which it now stands in the rest of the world, had no effect on us. What in other countries has long been the very basis of community life, for us is only theory and speculation. And here is an example: you, who have such a happy organization for perceiving everything that is true and good in the world, you who are destined by nature itself to know everything that gives the sweetest and purest joys to the soul - speaking frankly, what you have achieved with all these benefits? You have to think not even about how to fill your life, but how to fill your day. The very conditions that in other countries constitute the necessary framework of life, in which all the events of the day are so naturally located and without which a healthy moral existence is just as impossible as a healthy physical life without fresh air, you do not have them at all. You understand that this is not at all about moral principles and not about philosophical truths, but simply about a well-ordered life, about those habits and habits of consciousness that impart ease to the mind and bring correctness to mental life person.
Take a look around you. Doesn't it seem like we all can't sit still? We all look like travelers. No one has a definite sphere of existence, there are no good habits for anything, there are no rules for anything; there is not even a home; there is nothing that would bind, that would awaken sympathy or love in you, nothing lasting, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything goes away, leaving no trace either outside or inside you. In our homes, we seem to be at the station, in the family we look like strangers, in the cities we seem to be nomads, and even more than those nomads who graze their flocks in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And please don't think that the subject in question is not important. We are already offended by fate, so we will not add to our other troubles a false idea of ourselves, we will not lay claim to a purely spiritual life; let us learn to live rationally in empirical reality. “But first, let’s talk a little more about our country; we will not go beyond the scope of our topic. Without this introduction, you would not understand what I have to tell you.
Every nation has a period of stormy excitement, passionate anxiety, thoughtless and aimless activity. At this time, people become wanderers in the world, physically and spiritually. This is the era of strong sensations, broad ideas, great passions of the people. Peoples then rush about excitedly, for no apparent reason, but not without benefit for future generations. All societies have gone through such a period. They owe him their most vivid memories, the heroic element of their history, their poetry, all their most powerful and fruitful ideas; This - necessary basis any society. Otherwise, there would be nothing in the memory of peoples that they could cherish, that they could love; they would be bound only to the dust of the earth on which they live. This fascinating phase in the history of peoples is their youth, the epoch in which their abilities develop most strongly and the memory of which constitutes their joy and instruction. middle age. We don't have any of that. First, wild barbarism, then gross ignorance, then the cruel and humiliating foreign domination, the spirit of which was later inherited by our national power - such is the sad history of our youth. This period of stormy activity, the seething play of the spiritual forces of the people, we did not have at all. The era of our social life, corresponding to this age, was filled with a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy, which revived nothing but atrocities, nothing softened except slavery. No captivating memories, no graceful images in the memory of the people, no powerful teachings in their tradition. Take a look around all the centuries we have lived, all the space we have occupied - you will not find a single attractive memory, not a single venerable monument that would powerfully tell you about the past, that would recreate it before you vividly and picturesquely. We live in one present within its closest limits, without the past and the future, in the midst of a dead stagnation. And if we sometimes get excited, it is by no means in the hope or calculation for some common good, but out of childish frivolity with which the child tries to get up and stretches out his hands to the rattle that the nurse shows him.
The true development of man in society has not yet begun for the people if their life has not become more comfortable, easier and more pleasant than in the unstable conditions of the primitive era. How do you want the seeds of goodness to ripen in any society while it still vacillates without convictions and rules even in regard to daily affairs and life is still completely unordered? This is a chaotic fermentation in the spiritual world, similar to those upheavals in the history of the earth that preceded the present state of our planet. We are still at this stage.
The years of early youth, spent by us in dull immobility, have left no trace in our soul, and we have nothing individual on which our thought could rely; but, separated by a strange fate from the world movement of mankind, we also did not perceive anything from successive ideas of the human race. Meanwhile, it is on these ideas that the life of peoples is based; from these ideas follows their future, proceeds their moral development. If we want to assume a position similar to that of other civilized peoples, we must in some way repeat in ourselves the whole education of the human race. For this, the history of peoples is at our service, and before us are the fruits of the movement of the ages. Of course, this task is difficult, and, perhaps, within the limits of one human life, this vast subject cannot be exhausted; but first of all we must find out what the matter is, what this education of the human race is, and what is the place that we occupy in the general system.
Peoples live only by the powerful impressions that the past centuries leave in their souls, and by contact with other peoples. That is why each individual person is imbued with the consciousness of his connection with all of humanity.
What is the life of a person, says Cicero, if the memory of past events does not connect the present with the past! But we, having come into the world, like illegitimate children, without inheritance, without connection with people who lived on earth before us, we do not store in our hearts any of those lessons that preceded our own existence. Each of us has to tie up the broken thread of kinship ourselves. What has become a habit, an instinct among other peoples, we have to hammer into our heads with hammer blows. Our memories do not go beyond yesterday; we are, so to speak, strangers to ourselves. We move so strangely in time that with each step we take forward, the past moment disappears for us forever. This is the natural result of a culture based entirely on borrowing and imitation. We have absolutely no inner development, no natural progress; each new idea completely displaces the old ones, because it does not follow from them, but comes to us from God knows where. Since we always perceive only ready-made ideas, then those indelible furrows are not formed in our brain, which successive development makes in the minds and which constitute their strength. We grow but do not mature; we move forward, but along a crooked line, that is, along one that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who have not been taught to think for themselves; in the period of maturity they have nothing of their own; all their knowledge is in their external life, all their soul is outside of them. That's what we are.
Nations are as much moral beings as individuals. They are brought up by centuries, as individual people are brought up by years. But we, one might say, in some way, are an exceptional people. We belong to the number of those nations that, as it were, are not part of humanity, but exist only in order to give the world some important lesson. The instruction we are called to give will certainly not be lost; but who can say when we will find ourselves among mankind and how many troubles we are destined to experience before our destiny is fulfilled?
All the peoples of Europe have a common physiognomy, some family resemblance. Despite their indiscriminate division into the Latin and Teutonic races, into southerners and northerners, there is still a common connection that connects them all into one and is clearly visible to anyone who has delved deeper into their common history. You know that quite recently the whole of Europe was called Christendom, and this expression was used in public law. In addition to the general character, each of these peoples also has its own particular character, but both of them are entirely woven from history and tradition. They constitute the successive ideological heritage of these peoples. Each individual person uses his share of this inheritance there, without labor and excessive efforts, he gains a store of this knowledge and skills in his life and derives his benefit from them. Compare for yourself and tell me, how many elementary ideas do we find in our everyday life, which could be guided in life with sin in half? And note that here we are not talking about the acquisition of knowledge and not about reading, not about anything related to literature or science, but simply about the mutual communication of minds, about those ideas that take possession of the child in the cradle, surround him among children's games and are transmitted to him from caresses of the mother, which in the form of various feelings penetrate to the marrow of his bones together with the air that he breathes, and create his moral being even before he enters the world and society. Do you want to know what these ideas are? These are the ideas of duty, justice, law, order. They were born from the very events that formed society there, they enter necessary element in the social order of these countries.
This is the atmosphere of the West; it is more than history, more than psychology; This is the physiology of European man. What will you replace it with us? I do not know whether it is possible to deduce something completely unconditional from what has just been said and to extract from it any immutable principle; but it is impossible not to see what a strange state the people are in, whose thought does not adjoin any series of ideas that gradually developed in society and slowly grew one from the other, and whose participation in the general progressive movement of the human mind was limited only to blind, superficial and often unskillful imitation other nations, must powerfully influence the spirit of every single person in this people.
As a consequence, you will find that we all lack a certain certainty, mental method, logic. Western syllogism is unfamiliar to us. Our best minds suffer from something more than simple futility. Best Ideas, for lack of connection or consistency, freeze in our brain and turn into barren ghosts. It is human nature to get lost when he does not find a way to bring himself into connection with what precedes him and what follows him. He then loses all firmness, all confidence. Unguided by a sense of continuity, he sees himself lost in the world. Such confused people are found in all countries; we have this common feature. This is not at all the frivolity with which the French were once reproached and which in essence was nothing more than the ability to easily assimilate things, which did not exclude either depth or breadth of mind and introduced extraordinary charm and grace into circulation; it is the carelessness of life, devoid of experience and foresight, taking into account nothing but the fleeting existence of an individual cut off from the genus, a life that does not value honor, nor the successes of any system of ideas and interests, nor even that ancestral heritage and those countless prescriptions and perspectives, which, in the conditions of everyday life, based on the memory of the past and the provision of the future, constitute both public and private life. There is absolutely nothing in common in our heads; everything in them is individual and everything is shaky and incomplete. It even seems to me that there is some strange uncertainty in our gaze, something cold and uncertain, reminiscent in part of the physiognomy of those peoples who stand on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. In foreign countries, especially in the south, where the physiognomies are so expressive and so lively, more than once, comparing the faces of my compatriots with the faces of the natives, I was amazed at this dumbness of our faces.
Foreigners commend us for a kind of reckless courage, which is found especially in the lower strata of the people; but, having the opportunity to observe only individual manifestations of the national character, they are not able to judge the whole. They do not see that the same principle by which we are sometimes so courageous makes us always incapable of deepening and perseverance; they do not see that this indifference to worldly dangers corresponds in us to the same complete indifference to good and evil, to truth and falsehood, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of all powerful stimuli that push people along the path of perfection; they do not see that it is precisely because of this careless courage that even the upper classes in our country, unfortunately, are not free from those vices that in other countries are characteristic only of the lowest strata of society; they do not see, finally, that if we have some of the virtues of young and underdeveloped peoples, we do not possess, on the other hand, any of the virtues that distinguish mature and highly cultured peoples.
I do not want to say, of course, that we have the same vices, and the European peoples have the same virtues; God forbid! But I say that in order to make a correct judgment about peoples, one should study the common spirit that constitutes their vital principle, for only it, and not this or that feature of their character, can lead them to the path of moral perfection and endless development.
The popular masses are subject to certain forces standing at the top of society. They don't think for themselves; among them there are a certain number of thinkers who think for them, give impetus to the collective mind of the people and move it forward. While a small group of people thinks, the rest feel, and as a result, a general movement takes place. With the exception of some stupid tribes who have retained only the outward appearance of man, this is true of all peoples inhabiting the earth. The primitive peoples of Europe - the Celts, Scandinavians, Germans - had their own druids, skalds and bards, who were strong thinkers in their own way. Look at the tribes of North America that the material culture of the United States is trying so hard to exterminate: among them there are people of amazing depth.
And so I ask you, where are our wise men, our thinkers? Who ever thought for us, who now thinks for us? But, standing between the two main parts of the world, East and West, resting one elbow on China, the other on Germany, we would have to combine in ourselves both great principles of spiritual nature: imagination and reason, and combine in our civilization the history of everything. the globe. But this is not the role assigned to us by Providence. More than that: it seemed to be completely unconcerned with our fate. Excluding us from its beneficent action on the human mind, it left us completely to ourselves, refused to interfere in our affairs in any way, did not want to teach us anything. Historical experience does not exist for us; generations and centuries have passed without benefit to us. Looking at us, one could say that the general law of mankind has been abolished in relation to us. Alone in the world, we have given the world nothing, taught it nothing; we have not introduced a single idea into the mass of human ideas, we have not contributed in any way to the progress of the human mind, and we have distorted everything that we have inherited from this progress. From the first minute of our social existence, we have done nothing for the common good of people; not a single useful thought was born on the barren soil of our country; no great truth has come out of our midst; we did not take the trouble to invent anything ourselves, and from what others invented, we adopted only deceptive appearance and useless luxury.
It is strange that even in the world of science, which embraces everything, our history adjoins nothing, explains nothing, proves nothing. If the wild hordes that have disturbed the world had not passed through the country in which we live, before rushing to the West, we would hardly have been assigned a page in world history. If we had not spread from the Bering Strait to the Oder, we would not have been noticed. Once great person wanted to enlighten us, and in order to make us want education, he threw us the cloak of civilization; we lifted the cloak, but did not touch enlightenment. Another time, another great sovereign, introducing us to his glorious destiny, led us victoriously from one end of Europe to the other; returning from this triumphal procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only ideas and strivings, the fruit of which was an enormous misfortune that threw us back half a century. There is something in our blood that is hostile to all true progress. And in general, we have lived and continue to live only in order to serve as some important lesson for distant generations who will be able to understand it; now, in any case, we constitute a gap in the moral order of the world. I cannot marvel at this extraordinary emptiness and isolation of our social existence. Of course, some inscrutable fate is to blame for this, but, as in everything that happens in the moral world, the person himself is also partly to blame. Let us turn once again to history: it is the key to understanding peoples.
What were we doing at that time when, in the struggle between the energetic barbarism of the northern peoples and the lofty thought of Christianity, the temple of modern civilization was taking shape? In obedience to our evil fate, we turned to the pathetic Byzantium, deeply despised by these peoples, for the moral charter that was to form the basis of our education. By the will of an ambitious man, this family of peoples has just been torn away from the universal brotherhood, and we have therefore adopted an idea distorted by human passion. Everything in Europe was then animated by the life-giving principle of unity. Everything emanated from him and everything came down to him. The whole mental movement of that era was directed towards the unification of human thinking; all motives were rooted in that imperious need to find the universal idea which is the inspiring genius of modern times. Not participating in this miraculous beginning, we became a victim of conquest. When we overthrew the foreign yoke, and only our isolation from the common family prevented us from using the ideas that arose during this time among our Western brothers, we fell into an even more cruel slavery, sanctified, moreover, by the fact of our liberation.
How many bright rays already illuminated then Europe, seemingly shrouded in darkness! Most of the knowledge that man now prides himself on has already been foreseen by individual minds; the nature of society has already been determined, and, having joined the world of pagan antiquity, the Christian peoples have acquired those forms of beauty that they still lacked. We closed ourselves in our religious isolation, and nothing that happened in Europe reached us. We had nothing to do with the great world work. The lofty qualities which religion has bestowed on the new peoples, and which, in the eyes of sound reason, exalt them as much above the ancient peoples as the latter stood above the Hottentots and Laplanders; these new forces with which she enriched the human mind; these morals, which, as a result of subjection to unarmed power, have become as mild as they used to be rude - all this has completely passed us. While the Christian world marched majestically along the path destined by its divine founder, dragging generations along with it, we, although we bore the name of Christians, did not move from our place. The whole world was rebuilt anew, but nothing was created in our country; we still vegetated, huddled in our huts made of logs and straw. In a word, the new destinies of the human race were accomplished apart from us. Although we were called Christians, the fruit of Christianity did not ripen for us.
I ask you, is it not naive to suppose, as is usually done with us, that this progress of the European peoples, which took place so slowly and under the direct and obvious influence of a single moral force, we can assimilate at once, without even taking the trouble to find out how it was carried out? ?
Anyone who does not see that there is a purely historical side to Christianity, which is one of the most essential elements of dogma, and which contains, one might say, the whole philosophy of Christianity, because it shows what it has given people and what it will give, does not understand Christianity at all. them in the future. From this point of view, the Christian religion is not only a moral system enclosed in the transient forms of the human mind, but an eternal divine power, acting universally in the spiritual world, and whose manifest manifestation should serve as a constant lesson for us. This is precisely the true meaning of the dogma of faith in the one church, included in the creed. In the Christian world, everything must necessarily contribute - and indeed contributes - to the establishment of a perfect order on earth; otherwise the word of the Lord would not be justified that he would remain in his church until the end of time. Then the new order, the kingdom of God, which should be the fruit of redemption, would not differ in any way from the old order, from the kingdom of evil, which must be destroyed by redemption, and again we would be left with only that illusory dream of perfection, which cherished by philosophers and which every page of history refutes - an empty game of the mind, capable of satisfying only the material needs of a person and raising him to a certain height only to immediately overthrow him into even deeper abysses.
However, you say, aren't we Christians? and isn't a civilization other than the European one conceivable? “No doubt we are Christians; but are not Christians and Abyssinians? Of course, education other than European is also possible; Isn't Japan educated, moreover, according to one of our compatriots, even more so than Russia? But do you really think that the order of things that I just spoke about and which is the ultimate destination of mankind, can be implemented by Abyssinian Christianity and Japanese culture? Do you really think that heaven will be brought down to earth by these absurd deviations from divine and human truths?
In Christianity, two completely different things must be distinguished: its effect on the individual and its effect on the general mind. Both naturally merge in the higher mind and inevitably lead to the same goal. But the period in which the eternal plans of divine wisdom are realized cannot be grasped by our limited vision. And therefore we must distinguish between the divine action, which manifests itself at any particular time in human life, from that which takes place in infinity. On the day when the work of redemption is finally accomplished, all hearts and minds will merge into one feeling, into one thought, and then all the walls separating peoples and confessions will fall. But now it is important for everyone to know what place is assigned to him in the general vocation of Christians, that is, what means he can find in himself and around him in order to contribute to the achievement of the goal set for all mankind.
From this, a special circle of ideas necessarily arises, in which the minds of that society rotate, where this goal must be realized, that is, where the idea that God has revealed to people must mature and reach its fullness. This range of ideas, this moral sphere, in turn, naturally determines a certain way of life and a certain worldview, which, while not being identical for everyone, nevertheless create in us, like in all non-European peoples, the same way of life, which is the fruit of that huge 18-century spiritual work, in which all passions, all interests, all sufferings, all dreams, all efforts of the mind participated.
All the peoples of Europe have marched forward through the ages hand in hand; and no matter how hard they try now to go their separate ways, they incessantly converge on the same path. There is no need to study history in order to be convinced of how related the development of these peoples is; read only Tassa, and you will see them all prostrate at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. Remember that for fifteen centuries they had one language for addressing God, one spiritual authority and one conviction. Consider that for fifteen centuries, every year on the same day, at the same hour, they raised their voice in the same words to the supreme being, praising him for his greatest beneficence. A wondrous consonance, a thousand times more majestic than all the harmonies of the physical world! If, therefore, this sphere in which the Europeans live, and in which the human race alone can fulfill its final destiny, is the result of the influence of religion, and if, on the other hand, the weakness of our faith or the imperfection of our dogmas has hitherto kept us aloof from this general movement, where the social idea of Christianity developed and formulated, and reduced us to a host of peoples who are destined only indirectly and late to enjoy all the fruits of Christianity, it is clear that we should first of all revive our faith in every possible way and give ourselves a truly Christian impulse, because in the West everything is created by Christianity. This is what I meant when I said that we must from the beginning repeat on ourselves the whole education of the human race.
The whole history of modern society is made on the basis of opinions; thus, it represents true education. Approved from the beginning on this basis, society moved forward only by the power of thought. Interests always followed ideas there, and did not precede them; convictions never arose there from interests, but always interests were born from convictions. All political revolutions there were, in essence, spiritual revolutions: people were looking for the truth and along the way found freedom and prosperity. This explains the nature modern society and its civilization; otherwise it would be completely incomprehensible.
Religious persecution, martyrdom for the faith, the preaching of Christianity, heresies, councils - these are the events that filled the first centuries. The whole movement of this era, not excluding the invasion of the barbarians, is connected with these first, infantile efforts of the new thinking. The next epoch is then occupied by the formation of a hierarchy, the centralization of spiritual power and the continuous spread of Christianity among the northern peoples. This is followed by the highest rise of religious feeling and the strengthening of religious power. The philosophical and literary development of the mind and the improvement of morals under the reign of religion complete this history of new peoples, which can just as well be called sacred as the history of the ancient chosen people. Finally, a new religious turn, a new scope imparted by religion to the human spirit, has also determined the present way of society. Thus, the main and, one might say, the only interest of the new peoples has always been in the idea. All positive, material, personal interests were absorbed by her.
I know that instead of admiring this marvelous impulse of human nature towards its possible perfection, they saw in it only fanaticism and superstition; but no matter what they say about it, judge for yourself what a deep mark in the character of these peoples such a social development must have left, which flowed entirely from one feeling, indifferently - in good and in evil. Let superficial philosophy cry out as much as it likes about religious wars and bonfires lit by intolerance—we can only envy the proportion of peoples who have created for themselves in the struggle of opinions, in bloody battles for the cause of truth, a whole world of ideas that we cannot even imagine. , not to mention how to be transported into it with body and soul, as we dream about it.
I say again: of course, not all European countries imbued with reason, virtue and religion - far from it. But everything in them mysteriously obeys that force that has reigned there for so many centuries, everything is generated by that long succession of facts and ideas that has determined the current state of society. Here is one example that proves this. The people whose physiognomy is most pronounced and whose institutions are most imbued with the spirit of modern times - the English - in fact, have no other history than religious. Their last revolution, to which they owe their freedom and their well-being, as well as the whole series of events that led to this revolution, starting from the era of Henry VIII, is nothing but a phase of religious development. Throughout the epoch, the proper political interest is only a secondary driving force and at times disappears altogether or is sacrificed to the idea. And at the moment when I am writing these lines, the same religious interest is stirring this chosen country. And in general, which of the European peoples would not find in their national consciousness, if they took the trouble to understand it, that special element that, in the form of religious thought, has invariably been the life-giving principle, the soul of its social body, throughout its existence?
The action of Christianity is by no means limited to its direct and immediate influence on the human spirit. The enormous task that it is called upon to fulfill can only be achieved through countless moral, mental and social combinations, where the unconditional victory of the human spirit must find full scope for itself. From this it is clear that everything that happened from the first day of our era, or rather, from the moment when the Savior said to his disciples: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation, - including all attacks on Christianity - is completely covered by this general idea of his influence. One has only to pay attention to how the power of Christ is immutably exercised in all hearts - consciously or unconsciously, by free will or compulsion - to be convinced of the fulfillment of his prophecies. Therefore, despite all the incompleteness, imperfection and depravity inherent in the European world in its modern form, it cannot be denied that the kingdom of God is to a certain extent realized in it, for it contains the beginning of infinite development and possesses in germs and elements everything that is necessary. for his final settlement on earth.
Before I finish these reflections on the role that religion has played in the history of society, I want to quote here what I said about this once in a work that you do not know.
Undoubtedly, I wrote, that until we learn to recognize the action of Christianity wherever human thought in any way comes into contact with it, even with the aim of opposing it, we have no clear idea of it. As soon as the name of Christ is uttered, this name alone captivates people, no matter what they do. Nothing reveals the divine origin of the Christian religion so clearly as this unconditional universality of it, which manifests itself in the fact that it penetrates souls in all possible ways, takes possession of the mind without his knowledge, and even in those cases when it seems to be most of all to her. opposes, subjugates it to itself and dominates it, while bringing into the consciousness of truths that were not there before, awakening sensations in the hearts, hitherto alien to them, and instilling in us feelings that, without our knowledge, introduce us into the general system. Thus it determines the role of each individual in the common work and forces everything to contribute to one goal. With such an understanding of Christianity, every prophecy of Christ acquires the character of tangible truth. Then you begin to clearly distinguish the movement of all the levers that his almighty right hand sets in motion in order to lead a person to his ultimate goal, without encroaching on his freedom, without killing any of his natural abilities, but, on the contrary, multiplying their strength tenfold and bringing to immeasurable tension that share of power that is inherent in himself. Then you see that not a single moral element remains inactive in the new system, that the most energetic efforts of the mind, like a hot impulse of feeling, the heroism of a strong spirit, like the humility of a meek soul, all find a place and application in it. Accessible to every rational being, combined with every beating of our heart, no matter what it beats, the Christian idea carries everything along with it, and the very obstacles it encounters help it grow and strengthen. With genius, she rises to a height inaccessible to other people; with a timid spirit she gropes and walks forward with a measured step; in the contemplative mind it is absolute and profound; in the soul, subject to the imagination, it is airy and rich in images; in gentle and loving heart it resolves into mercy and love; – and each consciousness that surrendered to her, she imperiously leads forward, filling it with heat, clarity and strength. See how diverse are the characters, how many are the forces set in motion by it, what dissimilar elements serve the same end, how many different hearts beat for one idea! But even more surprising is the impact of Christianity on society as a whole. Expand fully the picture of the evolution of the new society, and you will see how Christianity transforms all the interests of people into its own, replacing material need everywhere with moral need, and rousing in the realm of thought those great controversies that no time, no society had known before, those terrible clashes of opinions, when the whole life of peoples turned into one great idea, one boundless feeling; you will see how everything becomes him, and only him - private and public life, family and homeland, science and poetry, reason and imagination, memories and hopes, joys and sorrows. Happy are those who bear in their hearts a clear consciousness of the part they are creating in this great movement, which God Himself has communicated to the world. But not all are active instruments, not all work consciously; the necessary masses move blindly, not knowing the forces that set them in motion, and not seeing the goal towards which they are drawn - soulless atoms, inert masses.
But it's time to get back to you, ma'am. I confess that it is difficult for me to tear myself away from these broad perspectives. In the picture that opens up to my eyes from this height is all my consolation, and sweet faith in the future happiness of mankind alone serves as a refuge for me when, dejected by the miserable reality that surrounds me, I feel the need to breathe more clean air, take a look at the clearer sky. However, I don't think I've misused your time. I had to show you the point of view from which to look at Christendom and our role in it. What I have said about our country must have seemed bitter to you; meanwhile, I told only one truth, and not even the whole. Moreover, the Christian consciousness does not tolerate any kind of blindness, and national prejudice is its worst kind, since it divides people the most.
My letter has dragged on and I think we both need a break. Starting it, I thought that I would be able to state in a few words what I wanted to tell you; but, thinking more deeply, I see that a whole volume could be written about it. Is it to your heart's content? I will be waiting for your answer. But in any case, you cannot avoid another letter from me, because we have barely begun to consider our subject. In the meantime, I would be extremely grateful to you if you would deign, by the length of this first letter, to excuse the fact that I have kept you waiting for it for so long. I sat down to write to you on the same day that I received your letter; but sad and painful worries then completely swallowed me up, and I had to get rid of them before starting a conversation with you about such important subjects; then I had to rewrite my maranie, which was completely illegible. This time you will not have to wait long: tomorrow I will take up the pen again.
We have another “sedition” here: we are publishing an excerpt from the philosophical letters of the publicist and philosopher of the first half of the 19th century Pyotr Chaadaev (yes, yes, the one to whom A. S. Pushkin dedicated the lines “Comrade, believe: it will rise, / The star of captivating happiness, / Russia will wake up from sleep, / And on the ruins of autocracy / Our names will be written”), in which the thinker reflects on the historical path that forms the morality of peoples and their beliefs, on the need to educate the human race, and also on how we differ from East and West, and why it turned out that Russians, like children, did not learn to think but only blindly, superficially and stupidly imitate others.
“The best ideas, devoid of coherence and consistency, are like fruitless delusions paralyzed in our brain.”
Perhaps, in some places Pyotr Yakovlevich had enough of a surplus, but in general there is something to think about. By the way, during the life of the author, only the first philosophical letter was published (there were eight in total, written in 1828-1830) - in the magazine "Telescope" in 1836. As usual, there was a scandal: the Minister of Education Uvarov called the work of the thinker "impudent nonsense", and Chaadaev himself was declared crazy (by the way, it was Chaadaev who was the prototype of Chatsky from Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" and the plot with madness, as you can see, has very realistic basis). By today's standards, he got off lightly.
"Philosophical Letters". Letter one (fragment)
There are circumstances in life that are not related to the physical, but to the spiritual being; they should not be neglected; There is a regimen for the soul, just as there is a regimen for the body: one must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of a novelty. One of the most deplorable features of our peculiar civilization is that we are still discovering truths that have become hackneyed in other countries and even 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. The wondrous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which has brought it throughout the rest of the world to its present state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life, for us is still only theory and speculation.
Take a look around. Is anything really worth it? We can say that the whole world is in motion. No one has a definite field of activity, no good habits, no rules for anything, not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no trace either outside or in you. In our homes, we seem to be determined to wait; in families we have the appearance of strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than nomads grazing herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don't think it's nonsense. Our poor souls! Let's not add to our other troubles a false idea of ourselves, let's not strive to live a purely spiritual life, let's learn to live prudently in this reality. But first, let's talk a little more about our country, while we will not deviate from our topic. Without this preface, you will not be able to understand what I want to tell you.
All peoples have a period of turbulent unrest, passionate restlessness, activity without deliberate intentions. People at such a time wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is the time of great impulses, great accomplishments, great passions among the peoples. They then rage for no clear reason, but not without benefit to future generations. All societies have gone through such periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their own miracles, their own poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is the necessary social foundations. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved, something to be addicted to, they would have been attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating epoch in the history of nations is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of him is the joy and lesson of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. 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. The pores of overflowing activity, the ebullient play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like it. The era of our social life, corresponding to this age, was filled with a dull and gloomy existence without strength, without energy, animated only by atrocities and softened only by slavery. No charming memories, no captivating images in the memory, no effective instructions in the national tradition. 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 the past and without the future, among flat stagnation. And if we sometimes get excited, it is not in expectation or with a wish for some common good, but in the childish frivolity of a baby when he reaches out and holds out his hands to the rattle that the nurse shows him.
The real development of the human being in society has not yet begun for the people until life in them has become more orderly, easier, more pleasant than in the uncertainty of the first period. As long as societies still vacillate without convictions and without rules even in everyday affairs, and life is still completely unregulated, how can we expect the rudiments of good to ripen in them? So far, this is still a chaotic fermentation of objects of the moral world, similar to those upheavals in the history of the earth that preceded the modern state of our planet in its present form. ⓘ We are talking about Cuvier's theory of catastrophes, about which Chaadaev also wrote in a letter to I.D. Yakushkin (Letters. No. 75).. We are still in this position.
Our first years, which passed in motionless savagery, left no trace in our mind and there is nothing in us personally inherent in us, on which our thought could rely; singled out by a strange will of fate from the general movement of mankind, we have not accepted the traditional ideas of the human race. And yet it is on them that the life of peoples is based; it is from these ideas that their future flows and their moral development occurs. If we want to have our own face, like other civilized peoples, we must somehow repeat the entire upbringing of the human race. For this we have the history of peoples and before us are the results of the movement of centuries. No doubt this is a difficult task, and it would be impossible for a single person to exhaust such a vast subject; however, first of all, we must understand what the matter is, what this education of the human race consists of, and what is the place we occupy in the general system.
Peoples live only by strong impressions preserved in their minds from past times, and by communication with other peoples. In this way, each individual feels his connection with all of humanity.
What is the life of man, says Cicero ⓘ See: Cicero. About oratory, XXXV, 120. if the memory of past times does not connect the present with the past? But we, having come into the world as illegitimate children, without inheritance, without connection with people, our predecessors on earth, do not keep in our hearts any of the teachings left before our appearance. It is necessary that each of us try to tie up the broken thread of kinship. What in other nations is just a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with a blow of a hammer. Our memories do not go beyond yesterday; we are like strangers to ourselves. We move so amazingly through time that, as we move forward, what we have experienced disappears for us forever. This is the natural consequence of a culture wholly borrowed and imitated. We have no inner development, no natural progress at all; old ideas are swept away by new ones, because the latter do not originate from the former, but appear in us from nowhere. We perceive only completely ready-made ideas, therefore those indelible traces that are deposited in the minds by the consistent development of thought and create mental strength do not plow our consciousnesses. We are growing, but we are not maturing, we are moving forward along a curve, i.e. along a line that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who have not been forced to reason for themselves, so that when they grow up, there is nothing of their own in them; all their knowledge is superficial, their whole soul is outside of them. So are we.
Nations are moral beings, just like individuals. They are brought up by centuries, as people are brought up by years. It can be said about us that we constitute, as it were, an exception among nations. We belong to those of them who, as it were, are not part of the human race, but exist only in order to teach a great lesson to the world. Of course, the instruction that we are destined to give will not pass without a trace, but who knows the day when we will again find ourselves among humanity and how many troubles we will experience before our destinies are fulfilled. ⓘ There is a difficulty in translating this passage. Chaadaev used here the verb "retrouveront", i.e. “to find again”, “to find again”, and that is how we translate it. Gershenzon and Shakhovskoy translate this verb simply as “to acquire” (SP II, p. 113), although the French text contains exactly the named verb and for the Russian word used by them, there is the verb “trouveront”.?
The peoples of Europe have a common face, a family resemblance. Despite their division into branches Latin and Teutonic, into southerners and northerners, there is a common connection that connects them all into one, obvious to anyone who delves into their common history. You know that quite recently all of Europe bore the name of Christendom, and that the word was in public law. In addition to the character common to all, each of these peoples has its own special character, but all this is only history and tradition. They constitute the ideological heritage of these peoples. And each individual person has his share of the common heritage, without difficulty, without stress, picks up in life the knowledge scattered in society and uses it. Draw a parallel with what is being done in our country, and judge for yourself, what elementary ideas can we draw from everyday life, so that in one way or another we can use them to guide our lives? And note that we are not talking here about learning, not about reading, not about something literary or scientific, but simply about the contact of consciousnesses, about the thoughts that embrace the child in the cradle, surround him among the games that whisper, caressing him mother, about those that, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones together with the air that he breathes, and which form his moral nature before his appearance in the world and appearance in society. Do you want to know what those thoughts are? These are thoughts about duty, justice, law, order. They come from the very events that created society there, they form constituent elements social world of those countries. Here it is, the atmosphere of the West, it is something more than history or psychology, it is the physiology of European man. What do you see with us?
I do not know whether it is possible to deduce anything completely indisputable from what has just been said and build an immutable proposition on this; but it is obvious that the soul of each individual person from a people must be strongly influenced by such a strange situation, when this people is not able to concentrate its thoughts on what series of ideas that gradually unfolded in society and gradually flowed one from another, when all its participation and general movement of the human mind is reduced to a blind, superficial, very often stupid imitation of other peoples. That is why, as you can see, we all lack some stability, some consistency in the mind, some logic. The syllogism of the West is unknown to us. There is something even worse in our best minds than lightness. The best ideas, devoid of coherence and consistency, are like fruitless delusions paralyzed in our brain. It is in the nature of man to get lost when he does not find a way to connect with what was before him and what will be after him; he then loses all firmness, all confidence; unguided by the sense of continuity, he feels lost in the world. Such confused beings are found in all countries; we have this common property. This is not at all the frivolity with which the French were once reproached and which, however, was nothing more than the easy way to comprehend things that did not exclude either the depth or the breadth of the mind, brought so much charm and charm into circulation; here is the carelessness of life without experience and foresight, which has nothing to do with anything but the ghostly existence of a person, cut off from his environment, not considering either honor, or the successes of any set of ideas and interests, or even the ancestral heritage of a given family and with all the prescriptions and perspectives that define both public and private life in an order based on the memory of the past and on concern for the future. There is absolutely nothing in common in our heads, everything there is isolated and everything there is shaky and incomplete. I even find that in our glance there is something strangely indefinite, cold, uncertain, reminiscent of the difference between peoples standing on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. In foreign lands, especially in the South, where people are so animated and expressive, I have so many times compared the faces of my countrymen with the faces of local residents and was struck by this dumbness of our faces.
Foreigners credited us with a kind of careless courage, especially remarkable in the lower classes of the people; but having the opportunity to observe only individual features of the national character, they could not judge him as a whole. They did not notice that the very beginning that sometimes makes us so courageous, constantly deprives us of depth and perseverance; they did not notice that the property that makes us so indifferent to the vicissitudes of life also makes us indifferent to good and evil, to every truth, to every lie, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of those strong motives that guide us on the path to improvement; they did not notice that precisely because of such lazy courage, even the upper classes, regrettably, are not free from vices, which in others are peculiar only to the lowest classes; Finally, they did not notice that while we possess some of the virtues of peoples young and lagging behind civilization, we do not have any that distinguishes mature and highly cultured peoples. Of course, I do not claim that among us there are only vices, and among the peoples of Europe there are only virtues, God forbid. But I say that in order to judge peoples, it is necessary to investigate the common spirit that constitutes their essence, for only this common spirit is capable of raising them to a more perfect moral state and directing them to infinite development, and not this or that feature of their character.
The masses are subject to certain forces that stand at the heights of society. They don't think directly. Among them there is a certain number of thinkers who think for them, who give impetus to the collective consciousness of the nation and set it in motion. A small minority thinks, the rest feels, and the result is a general movement. This is true of all the peoples of the earth; the only exceptions are certain feral races, which have retained only external appearance from human nature. The primitive peoples of Europe, the Celts, Scandinavians, Germans, had their own druids ⓘ Druids are the priests of the Celts., their skalds ⓘ Skalds are medieval Norwegian and Icelandic poets., their bards ⓘ Bards are the singers of the ancient Celtic tribes. who were powerful thinkers in their own way. Look at the peoples of North America who are so assiduously eradicated by the material civilization of the United States: among them there are people of amazing depth. And now, I'll ask you, where are our wise men, where are our thinkers? Who among us has ever thought, who is thinking for us now?
And 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 in our civilization the history of everything 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 have not taken the trouble to create anything in the realm of imagination, and from what is created by the imagination of others, we have borrowed only deceitful appearance and useless luxury.
Amazing thing! Even in the field of that science which embraces everything, our history is connected with nothing, explains nothing, proves nothing. If the hordes of barbarians who shook the world had not passed through our country before the invasion of the West, we would hardly be the head of world history. To make ourselves noticed, we had to stretch from the Bering Strait to the Oder. Once a great man ⓘ I mean Peter I. took it into his head to civilize us, and in order to incline us to enlightenment, he threw us a cloak of civilization; we lifted the cloak, but did not touch enlightenment. Another time another great monarch ⓘ It's about Alexander I., introducing us to his glorious destination, led us as winners from edge to edge of Europe ⓘ This refers to the foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813-1814.; returning home from this triumphant procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only bad ideas and fatal errors, the consequence of which was an immeasurable disaster that threw us back half a century. ⓘ This refers to the uprising of the Decembrists.. We have something in our blood that rejects all real progress. In a word, we lived and are still living in order to teach some great lesson to distant descendants who will understand it; so far, no matter what they say, we make up a gap in the intellectual order. I never cease to be amazed at this emptiness, this amazing isolation of our social existence. This, perhaps, is partly to blame for our incomprehensible fate. But there is still, no doubt, a share of human participation, as in everything that happens in the moral world. Let us ask history again: it is history that explains peoples.
Necropolis ⓘ Necropolis - the city of the dead (Greek). So Chaadaev calls Moscow here., 1829, December 1st.
Read, a wise man was. He put it all very clearly.
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Adveniat regnum tuum
May your kingdom come
Madam.
Straightforwardness and sincerity are precisely the traits that I love and appreciate most of all in you. Judge for yourself how I must have been struck by your letter. It was these most amiable qualities of yours that fascinated me when we met, and it was they that prompted me to talk to you about religion. Everything around you called me to silence. I repeat, consider what my surprise was when I received your letter. That is all I have to tell you, madam, about the assumptions expressed there about my assessment of your character. We will not say more about this and will go straight to the essential part of your letter.
And, first of all, where does this confusion come from in your mind, so exciting and tiring for you that, as you say, it affects your health? Is this a sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of calming and peace, which should have brought a feeling awakened in the heart, it caused anxiety, doubts, almost remorse. However, why be surprised? This is the natural consequence of the sad state of affairs to which all our hearts and all minds are subject. You simply succumbed to the action of the forces that set everything in motion with us, from the very heights of society to the slave, who exists only for the comfort of his master.
And how could you resist it? The very qualities that make you stand out from the crowd should make you all the more susceptible to the harmful effects of the air you breathe. In the midst of everything around you, could the little that I was allowed to tell you give stability to your ideas? Could I clean up the atmosphere we live in? I should have foreseen the consequences, and I foresaw them. Hence the frequent silences that prevented convictions from penetrating into your soul and, naturally, led you astray. And if only I were not sure that a religious feeling awakened at least partially in someone's heart, no matter what torment it may cause him, is still better than his complete lull, I would have to repent of my zeal. However, I hope that the clouds that now darken your sky will one day turn into beneficial dew and it will fertilize the seed that has been sown in your heart; and the effect produced on you by several is nothing standing words serves me as a sure guarantee of more significant results, which will certainly be brought about in the future by the work of your own consciousness. Boldly plunge, madam, into the agitations that thoughts of religion arouse in you: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow.
With regard to external conditions, it is enough for you to know for the time being that a doctrine based on the highest principle of unity and the direct transmission of truth in the uninterrupted succession of its ministers can only be most in agreement with the true spirit of religion, because this spirit consists entirely in the idea of the fusion of all, no matter how many moral forces there are in the world - into one thought, one feeling and in the gradual establishment of a social system or church, which should establish the kingdom of truth among people. Any other teaching, as a result of a mere falling away from the original teaching, repels far from itself the sublime appeal of the Savior: "I pray thee, Father, that they may be one, as we are one" and does not desire the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. But it does not at all follow from this that you are obliged to proclaim this truth publicly before the face of the earth: of course, this is not your calling. The very beginning from which this truth proceeds obliges you, on the contrary, in your position in the light, to see in it only the inner light of your faith - and nothing more. I consider it fortunate that I helped turn your thoughts to religion, but I would feel very unhappy, madam, if at the same time I caused confusion in your mind, which, in time, could not but cool your faith.
I think I once told you that the best way to preserve a religious feeling is to adhere to all the customs prescribed by the church. This exercise in obedience is more important than is commonly thought; and the fact that the greatest minds have deliberately and consciously imposed it on themselves is a real service to God. Nothing so strengthens the mind in his beliefs as the strict execution of all the duties relating to them. However, most of the rites of the Christian religion, arising from a higher mind, are an effective force for everyone who is able to be imbued with the truths expressed in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which has an unconditional character - namely, when you acquire beliefs in yourself more high order than those who profess the masses, beliefs that elevate the soul to the very source from which all beliefs flow, and these beliefs do not in the least contradict popular beliefs, but, on the contrary, confirm them; in this case, but only in this case, it is permissible to neglect external rituals in order to more freely devote oneself to more important works. But woe to him who would take the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for an extraordinary insight that liberates from the general law. And you, madam, would it not be best to put on the robe of humility, so befitting to your sex? Believe me, this is the best way to calm the confusion of your spirit and bring peace to your existence.
Yes, even from the point of view of secular views, tell me, what could be more natural for a woman whose developed mind knows how to find charm in scientific studies and serious reflection than a concentrated life devoted mainly to religious thoughts and exercises? You say that when reading books, nothing affects your imagination so much as pictures of peaceful and thoughtful existences, which, like beautiful countryside at sunset, bring peace to the soul and tear us away for a moment from painful or colorless reality. But after all, these are not fantastic pictures at all: the realization of one of these captivating inventions depends only on you. You have everything you need for this. As you see, I am not at all preaching to you too strict morality: in your own tastes, in the most pleasant dreams of your imagination, I am looking for that which can bring peace to your soul.
There are circumstances in life that are not related to the physical, but to the spiritual being; they should not be neglected; There is a regimen for the soul, just as there is a regimen for the body: one must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of a novelty. One of the most deplorable features of our peculiar civilization is that we are still discovering truths that have become hackneyed in other countries and date 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. The wondrous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which has brought it throughout the rest of the world to its present state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life, for us is still only theory and speculation. And, for example, you, madam, so fortunately gifted for the perception of all that is good and true in the world, you, as it were, were created for experiencing all the sweetest and purest spiritual pleasures, what have you achieved, I ask, with all these advantages? You still have to look for something to fill not even life, but only the current day. However, you are completely deprived of what creates the necessary framework for life, which naturally accommodates everyday events, and without them a healthy moral existence is just as impossible as a healthy physical state is impossible without fresh air. You understand, the matter is not yet about moral principles or philosophical positions, but simply about a comfortable life, about these habits, about these habits of consciousness, which give comfort to the mind and soul, ease, measured movement.
Take a look around. Is anything really worth it? We can say that the whole world is in motion. No one has a definite field of activity, no good habits, no rules for anything, not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no trace either outside or in you. In our homes, we seem to be determined to wait; in families we have the appearance of strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than nomads grazing herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don't think it's nonsense. Our poor souls! Let's not add to our other troubles a false idea of ourselves, let's not strive to live a purely spiritual life, let's learn to live prudently in this reality. But first, let's talk a little more about our country, while we will not deviate from our topic. Without this preface, you will not be able to understand what I want to tell you.
All peoples have a period of turbulent unrest, passionate restlessness, activity without deliberate intentions. People at such a time wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is the time of great impulses, great accomplishments, great passions among the peoples. They then rage for no clear reason, but not without benefit to future generations. All societies have gone through such periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their own miracles, their own poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is the necessary social foundations. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved, something to be addicted to, they would have been attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating epoch in the history of nations is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of him is the joy and lesson of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. 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. The pores of overflowing activity, the ebullient play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like it. The era of our social life, corresponding to this age, was filled with a dull and gloomy existence without strength, without energy, animated only by atrocities and softened only by slavery. No charming memories, no captivating images in the memory, no effective instructions in the national tradition. 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 the past and without the future, among flat stagnation. And if we sometimes get excited, it is not in expectation or with a wish for some common good, but in the childish frivolity of a baby when he reaches out and holds out his hands to the rattle that the nurse shows him.
The real development of the human being in society has not yet begun for the people until life in them has become more orderly, easier, more pleasant than in the uncertainty of the first period. As long as societies still vacillate without convictions and without rules even in everyday affairs, and life is still completely unregulated, how can we expect the rudiments of good to ripen in them? So far, this is still a chaotic fermentation of the objects of the moral world, similar to those upheavals in the history of the earth that preceded the modern state of our planet in its present form. We are still in this position.
Our first years, which passed in motionless savagery, left no trace in our mind and there is nothing in us personally inherent in us, on which our thought could rely; singled out by a strange will of fate from the general movement of mankind, we have not accepted the traditional ideas of the human race. And yet it is on them that the life of peoples is based; it is from these ideas that their future flows and their moral development occurs. If we want to have our own face, like other civilized peoples, we must somehow repeat the entire upbringing of the human race. For this we have the history of peoples and before us are the results of the movement of centuries. No doubt this is a difficult task, and it would be impossible for a single person to exhaust such a vast subject; however, first of all, we must understand what the matter is, what this education of the human race consists of, and what is the place we occupy in the general system.
Peoples live only by strong impressions preserved in their minds from past times, and by communication with other peoples. In this way, each individual feels his connection with all of humanity.
What is the life of a man, says Cicero, if the memory of past times does not connect the present with the past? But we, having come into the world as illegitimate children, without inheritance, without connection with people, our predecessors on earth, do not keep in our hearts any of the teachings left before our appearance. It is necessary that each of us try to tie up the broken thread of kinship. What in other nations is just a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with a blow of a hammer. Our memories do not go beyond yesterday; we are like strangers to ourselves. We move so amazingly through time that, as we move forward, what we have experienced disappears for us forever. This is the natural consequence of a culture wholly borrowed and imitated. We have no inner development, no natural progress at all; old ideas are swept away by new ones, because the latter do not originate from the former, but appear in us from nowhere. We perceive only completely ready-made ideas, therefore those indelible traces that are deposited in the minds by the consistent development of thought and create mental strength do not plow our consciousnesses. We are growing, but we are not maturing, we are moving forward along a curve, i.e. along a line that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who have not been forced to reason for themselves, so that when they grow up, there is nothing of their own in them; all their knowledge is superficial, their whole soul is outside of them. So are we.
Peoples are moral beings, just like individuals. They are brought up by a vein, as people are brought up by years. It can be said about us that we constitute, as it were, an exception among nations. We belong to those of them who, as it were, are not part of the human race, but exist only in order to teach a great lesson to the world. Of course, the instruction that we are destined to give will not pass without a trace, but who knows the day when we will again find ourselves among humanity and how many troubles we will experience before our destinies are fulfilled?
The peoples of Europe have a common face, a family resemblance. Despite their division into branches Latin and Teutonic, into southerners and northerners, there is a common connection that connects them all into one, obvious to anyone who delves into their common history. You know that quite recently all of Europe bore the name of Christendom, and that the word was in public law. In addition to the character common to all, each of these peoples has its own special character, but all this is only history and tradition. They constitute the ideological heritage of these peoples. And each individual person has his share of the common heritage, without difficulty, without stress, picks up in life the knowledge scattered in society and uses it. Draw a parallel with what is being done in our country, and judge for yourself, what elementary ideas can we draw from everyday life, so that in one way or another we can use them to guide our lives? And note that we are not talking here about learning, not about reading, not about something literary or scientific, but simply about the contact of consciousnesses, about the thoughts that embrace the child in the cradle, surround him among the games that whisper, caressing him mother, about those that, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones together with the air that he breathes, and which form his moral nature before his appearance in the world and appearance in society. Do you want to know what those thoughts are? These are thoughts about duty, justice, law, order. They come from the very events that created society there, they form the constituent elements of the social world of those countries. Here it is, the atmosphere of the West, it is something more than history or psychology, it is the physiology of European man. What do you see with us?
I do not know whether it is possible to deduce anything completely indisputable from what has just been said and build an immutable proposition on this; but it is obvious that such a strange situation must strongly influence the soul of each individual person from the people, when this people is not able to concentrate its thoughts on what series of ideas that gradually unfolded in society and gradually flowed one from the other, when all its participation and general movement of the human mind is reduced to a blind, superficial, very often stupid imitation of other peoples. That is why, as you can see, we all lack some stability, some consistency in the mind, some logic. The syllogism of the West is unknown to us. There is something even worse in our best minds than lightness. The best ideas, devoid of coherence and consistency, are like fruitless delusions paralyzed in our brain. It is in the nature of man to get lost when he does not find a way to connect with what was before him and what will be after him; he then loses all firmness, all confidence; unguided by the sense of continuity, he feels lost in the world. Such confused beings are found in all countries; we have this common property. This is not at all the frivolity in which the French were once reproached and which, however, was nothing more than an easy way to comprehend things, which did not exclude either depth or breadth of mind, introduced so much charm and charm into circulation; here is the carelessness of life without experience and foresight, which has nothing to do with anything but the ghostly existence of a person, cut off from his environment, not considering either honor, or the successes of any set of ideas and interests, or even the ancestral heritage of a given family and with all the prescriptions and perspectives that define both public and private life in an order based on the memory of the past and on concern for the future. There is absolutely nothing in common in our heads, everything there is isolated and everything there is shaky and incomplete. I even find that in our glance there is something strangely indefinite, cold, uncertain, reminiscent of the difference between peoples standing on the lowest rungs of the social ladder. In foreign lands, especially in the South, where people are so animated and expressive, I have so many times compared the faces of my countrymen with the faces of local residents and was struck by this dumbness of our faces.
Foreigners credited us with a kind of careless courage, especially remarkable in the lower classes of the people; but having the opportunity to observe only individual features of the national character, they could not judge him as a whole. They did not notice that the very beginning that sometimes makes us so courageous, constantly deprives us of depth and perseverance; they did not notice that the property that makes us so indifferent to the vicissitudes of life also makes us indifferent to good and evil, to every truth, to every lie, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of those strong motives that guide us on the path to improvement; they did not notice that precisely because of such lazy courage, even the upper classes, regrettably, are not free from vices, which in others are peculiar only to the lowest classes; Finally, they did not notice that while we possess some of the virtues of peoples young and lagging behind civilization, we do not have any that distinguishes mature and highly cultured peoples. Of course, I do not claim that among us there are only vices, and among the peoples of Europe there are only virtues, God forbid. But I say that in order to judge peoples, it is necessary to investigate the common spirit that constitutes their essence, for only this common spirit is capable of raising them to a more perfect moral state and directing them to infinite development, and not this or that feature of their character.
The masses are subject to certain forces that stand at the heights of society. They don't think directly. Among them there is a certain number of thinkers who think for them, who give impetus to the collective consciousness of the nation and set it in motion. A small minority thinks, the rest feels, and the result is a general movement. This is true of all the peoples of the earth; the only exceptions are certain feral races, which have retained only external appearance from human nature. The primitive peoples of Europe, the Celts, Scandinavians, Germans, had their druids, their skalds, their bards, who were strong thinkers in their own way. Look at the peoples of North America who are so assiduously eradicated by the material civilization of the United States: among them there are people of amazing depth. And now, I'll ask you, where are our wise men, where are our thinkers? Who among us has ever thought, who is thinking for us now?
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 in our civilization the history of everything 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 have not taken the trouble to create anything in the realm of imagination, and from what is created by the imagination of others, we have borrowed only deceitful appearance and useless luxury.
Amazing thing! Even in the field of that science which embraces everything, our history is connected with nothing, explains nothing, proves nothing. If the hordes of barbarians who shook the world had not passed through our country before the invasion of the West, we would hardly be the head of world history. To make ourselves noticed, we had to stretch from the Bering Strait to the Oder. Once upon a time, a great man took it into his head to civilize us, and in order to incline us to enlightenment, he threw us a cloak of civilization; we lifted the cloak, but did not touch enlightenment. Another time, another great monarch, introducing us to his glorious appointment, led us victorious from end to end of Europe; returning home from this triumphal procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only bad ideas and fatal errors, the result of which was an immeasurable disaster that threw us back half a century. We have something in our blood that rejects all real progress. In a word, we lived and are still living in order to teach some great lesson to distant descendants who will understand it; so far, no matter what they say, we make up a gap in the intellectual order. I never cease to be amazed at this emptiness, this amazing isolation of our social existence. This, perhaps, is partly to blame for our incomprehensible fate. But there is still, no doubt, a share of human participation, as in everything that happens in the moral world. Let us ask history again: it is history that explains peoples.
At a time when, in the midst of the struggle between the powerful barbarism of the peoples of the North and the lofty thought of religion, the building of modern civilization was being erected, what were we doing? By the will of fatal fate, we turned for the moral teaching that was supposed to educate us, to the corrupted Byzantium, to the subject of deep contempt of these peoples. Just before this family was stolen from the universal brotherhood by one ambitious mind; and we accepted the idea in such a form distorted by human passion. Everything in Europe was then animated by the life-giving principle of unity. Everything there came from him, everything converged to him. The whole mental movement of that time only strove to establish the unity of human thought, and any impulse came from the imperious need to find a world idea, this inspirer of new times. Alien to this miraculous beginning, we became a victim of conquest. And when, then, freed from the foreign yoke, we could use the ideas that have flourished during this time among our brothers in the West, we found ourselves cut off from the common family, we fell into slavery, even more difficult, and, moreover, sanctified by the very fact of our liberation.
How many bright rays had already flared up in the midst of the apparent darkness covering Europe. Most of the knowledge that the human mind is now proud of was already guessed in the minds; the nature of the new society has already been determined and, turning back to pagan antiquity, the Christian world again acquired the format of beauty, which it still lacked. As for us, closed in our schism, nothing of what was happening in Europe reached us. We had nothing to do with the great world work. The outstanding qualities with which religion has endowed modern peoples, and which, in the eyes of common sense, place them as much above the ancients, as the latter are above the Hottentots or Lapps; these new forces with which she enriched the human mind; these morals, which, under the influence of subjection to unarmed power, have become as mild as they were cruel before - all this has passed us by. Contrary to the name of Christians that we bore, at the very time when Christianity majestically marched along the path indicated by its divine founder, and dragged generations along with it, we did not move from our place. The whole world was rebuilt anew, but nothing was built in our country: we still huddled in our shacks of logs and straw. In a word, the new destinies of the human race were not accomplished for us. Although we are Christians, the fruits of Christianity did not ripen for us.
I ask you: isn’t it absurd the assumption that prevails among us that this progress of the peoples of Europe, which has taken place so slowly and, moreover, under the direct and obvious influence of one moral force, we can immediately assimilate, without even bothering to find out how it was accomplished?
Those who do not understand anything in Christianity are those who do not notice in its purely historical side, which is such an essential part of the dogma that to some extent the whole philosophy of Christianity is contained in it, since it is here that it is revealed what it has done for people and what it has to do for them in the future. In this sense, the Christian religion is revealed not only as a system of morality, perceived in the transient forms of the human mind, but also as a divine eternal power, acting in a universal way in the spiritual world, so that its visible manifestation should serve as a constant teaching to us. This is the proper meaning of the dogma, expressed in the creed of the one universal church.
In the Christian world, everything must certainly contribute to the establishment of a perfect order on earth, and in fact it leads to this. Otherwise, deeds would have belied the words of the Savior. He would not be among his church until the end of time. The new order - the kingdom of God, which must come through redemption - would not differ from the old order - from the kingdom of evil - which must be uprooted by redemption, and we would again be left with this imaginary property of indispensable perfection, of which philosophy dreams and which refuted on every page of history: this is an empty excitement of the mind, which satisfies only the needs of material existence and which, if it raises a person to a certain height, it is always only in order to overthrow him into an even deeper abyss.
But aren't we Christians, you will say, and isn't it possible to be civilized not according to the European model? Yes, we are without any doubt Christians, but aren't the Abyssinians also Christians? And one can, of course, be civilized differently than in Europe; isn't Japan civilized, and even more so than Russia, according to one of our compatriots? But do you really think that in the Christianity of the Abyssinians and in the civilization of the Japanese, the order of things of which I have just spoken, and which constitutes the final destination of the human race, has been realized? Do you really think that these absurd departures from divine and human truths will bring heaven down to earth?
Christianity has two easily distinguishable functions. Firstly, by the action on the individual, and secondly, by the action on the general consciousness. In the supreme mind, both naturally merge and lead to the same goal. But our limited view is unable to grasp all the time in which the eternal plans of divine wisdom are realized. We need to distinguish between the divine action that is manifesting at a given time in a person's life, from that action that manifests itself only in infinity. On the day of the final consummation of the work of redemption, all hearts and all minds will be but one feeling and only one thought, and all the walls separating nations and creeds will fall. But at the present time, it is important for everyone to know their place in the general order of the vocation of Christians, i.e. to know what are the means that he finds in himself and around him in order to cooperate in achieving the goal facing all human society generally.
Consequently, there must necessarily be a special circle of ideas, within which there is a fermentation of minds in the society where this goal must be realized, i.e. where the idea of revelation must mature and reach its fullness. This circle of ideas, this moral sphere inevitably determines a special way of life and a special point of view, which, although they may not coincide with different peoples, however, in relation to us, as in relation to all non-European peoples, they create one and the same feature and behavior, as a result of that huge spiritual work during eighteen centuries, in which all passions, all interests, all sufferings, all imaginations participated , all the efforts of the mind.
All the peoples of Europe, moving from century to century, walked hand in hand. Whatever they do now, each in his own way, they still constantly converge on the same path. To understand the family resemblance in the development of these peoples, one does not even need to study history: read only Tassa and you will see all the peoples stretched out at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. Remember that for fifteen centuries they had only one language when speaking to God, only one moral authority, only one conviction; remember that for fifteen centuries, in the same year, on the same day, at the same hour, in the same expressions, they raised their voice to the Supreme Being, glorifying him in his greatest beneficence: marvelous harmony, a thousand times more majestic than all the harmonies of the physical world. After this, it is clear that if the sphere in which the Europeans live, and which alone can lead the human race to its final destination, is the result of the influence exerted on them by religion, and it is clear that if the weakness of our beliefs or the imperfection of our dogma kept us out of of this general movement, in which the social idea of Christianity has developed and received a definite expression, and we have been classified among the peoples who are destined to use the impact of Christianity in all its strength only indirectly and with a great delay, then it is necessary to strive by all means to revive our beliefs and our truly Christian motivation, for Christianity did everything there. So that's what I had in mind when I spoke about the need to start again with us the education of the human race.
The whole history of the new society takes place on the basis of beliefs. So this is real education. Established from the very beginning on this basis, the new society moved forward only under the influence of thought. Interests in it always followed ideas and never preceded them. In this society, interests were constantly created from convictions, interests never aroused convictions. All political revolutions there were essentially moral revolutions. They searched for the truth and found freedom and prosperity. Only in this way is the exceptional phenomenon of the new society and its civilization explained; otherwise it would be impossible to understand anything in it.
Religious persecutions, martyrdoms, the spread of Christianity, heresies, councils: these are the events that fill the first centuries. All the achievements of this era, not excluding the invasion of the barbarians, are entirely associated with the infantile efforts of the new spirit. The formation of a hierarchy, the concentration of spiritual power and the continuation of the spread of religion in the countries of the north - this is what the next era was filled with. Then comes the highest enthusiastic upsurge of religious feeling and the strengthening of spiritual power. The philosophical and literary development of consciousness and the improvement of morals under the influence of religion complete this history, which can be called sacred, like the history of the ancient chosen people. Finally, the present state of societies is also determined by religious reaction, a new impetus imparted to the human spirit by religion. So, the main, one might say the only interest of the new peoples was only in persuasion. All interests - material, positive, personal - were absorbed by this interest.
I know that instead of worshiping such a wonderful impulse of human nature towards possible perfection, it was called fanaticism and superstition. But no matter what they say, judge for yourself what a deep impression a social development must have left on the character of these peoples, wholly caused, both in good and in evil, by one feeling. Let superficial philosophy make as much noise as it likes about religious wars, bonfires kindled by intolerance; As for us, we can only envy the fate of peoples who, in this clash of beliefs, in these bloody battles in defense of the truth, have created for themselves a world of concepts that we cannot even imagine, let alone be transported there in body and soul, as we we claim it.
I repeat once again: of course, in the countries of Europe, not everything is full of intelligence, virtue, religion, not at all. But everything there is mysteriously subordinated to the power that reigned supreme for centuries; everything is the result of that long chain of acts and ideas by which the present state of society has been created, and here, by the way, is an example of this. The people whose personality is most clearly defined, whose institutions always more reflect the new spirit - the English - in fact, have no history other than the church. Their last revolution, to which they owe their freedom and prosperity, as well as the whole sequence of events leading up to this revolution, beginning with Henry VIII, is nothing but a religious development. Throughout this period, specifically political interests appeared only as secondary motives, and sometimes they completely disappeared or were sacrificed to convictions. And as I write these lines, again religious question worries this chosen country. And in general, what of the peoples of Europe would not have found in their national self-consciousness, if they bothered to look for, this special feature, which, like a holy testament, was a constant life-giving principle, the soul of its social being throughout its entire existence.
The action of Christianity is by no means limited to its immediate and direct influence on the soul of people. The strongest impact that it is intended to have is in a variety of moral, mental and social combinations, where absolute freedom the human spirit must certainly find unlimited scope. So, it is clear that everything that happened from the first day of our era, or rather, from the moment the Savior of the world said to his disciples: "Go, preach the Gospel to every creature," is in its entirety, with all the attacks on Christianity, including the general idea of his influence. To be convinced of the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy, it is enough to observe the universal establishment of his dominion in hearts, whether consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or against will. And therefore, despite everything that is unfinished, vicious and criminal in European society, as it has now developed, the kingdom of God is still in in a certain sense it is really realized in it, because this society contains in itself the beginning of infinite progress and possesses in the germ and in the elements everything necessary for its final establishment in the future on earth.
Before concluding, madam, these reflections on the effect that religion has had on society, I will repeat here what I once said about it in a work that you do not know.
“Undoubtedly,” I wrote, “that while you do not notice the influence of Christianity wherever human thought somehow collides with it, even if only for the purpose of struggle, you do not have a clear idea about it. Wherever the name of Christ is pronounced, it in itself irresistibly captivates people, whatever they do.Nothing reveals more truly the divine origin of this religion than its characteristic feature of absolute universality, as a result of which it takes root in souls in every possible way, takes possession of the minds without their knowledge, dominates them, subjugates them. even when they seem to resist most of all, bringing into consciousness hitherto alien truths, forcing the heart to experience impressions that it has not experienced before, inspiring us with feelings that imperceptibly force us to take a place in the general system. any individuality and directs everything towards one goal. With such a view of Christianity, every saying of Christ becomes tangible truth. And then you clearly distinguish the action of all the levers that his almighty right hand uses to direct a person to his destination, without encroaching on his freedom, without fettering any of his natural forces, but, on the contrary, causing their highest tension and exciting to infinity all his own power, no matter how much it contains. Then it is striking that in the new order not a single moral element remains without action, that everything finds a place and application in it, the most active gifts of the mind, as well as ardent outpourings of feeling, the heroism of a strong soul, as well as the devotion of a submissive spirit. Accessible to every conscious creature, combined with every movement of the heart, no matter what makes it beat, the thought of revelation captures everything, grows and becomes stronger even due to obstacles in its path. With genius she rises to heights inaccessible to other mortals, with a timid spirit she makes her way, crouching to the ground and moving step by step; in the concentrated mind it is independent and deep; in the imaginative soul it is ethereal and full of images; in a tender and loving heart, she proceeds with mercy and love; she always goes on a par with every consciousness entrusted to her, filling it with heat, strength and light. Look what a variety of properties, what a multitude of forces it sets in motion, how many different abilities it merges together, how many dissimilar hearts it makes beat because of the same idea! But even more striking is the impact of Christianity on society as a whole. Take a look at the whole picture of the development of a new society and you will see that Christianity transforms all the interests of people into its own, everywhere replacing material need with a moral need, arousing great debate in the field of thought, which history has not observed in any other era and in any other society. , causing a fierce struggle between beliefs, so that the life of peoples turned into a great idea and an all-encompassing feeling; you will see that in Christianity, and only in it, everything was allowed: private and public life, family and homeland, science and poetry, reason and imagination, memories and hopes, joys and sorrows. It is good for those who, in the great movement aroused in the world by God himself, bear in their hearts the inner consciousness of their action; but not all instruments in this movement are active, not all work consciously; masses of necessity move blindly, like inanimate atoms, inert masses, unaware of the forces that set them in motion, not discerning the goal towards which they are drawn.
It's time to turn to you again, ma'am. I confess, it is difficult to break away from these broad horizons. From this height, a picture opens up before my eyes, in which I will draw all my consolations; in the sweet expectation of the future bliss of people, my refuge, when, under the yoke of the sad reality that surrounds me, I feel the need to breathe cleaner air, look at a clearer sky. However, I don't think I've misused your time. It was necessary to find out for you the point of view from which one should look at the Christian world and at what we are doing in this world. I should have seemed bilious to you in my comments about my homeland: however, I told only the truth, and not even the whole truth yet. Moreover, the Christian consciousness does not tolerate any kind of blindness, and less than all other national prejudices, since it most of all divides people.
My letter is too long, madame. I think we both need to take a break. At first it seemed to me that I could convey to you what I had planned in a few words. On reflection, I find that there is material for a whole volume. Does that suit you, ma'am? You will tell me this. In any case, you will not miss a second letter, for we have just got down to the merits of the matter. In the meantime, I shall be very grateful to you if you consider the protractedness of the first letter as compensation for the time of your forced waiting. I took up my pen the very day I received the letter. Sad and tedious worries then completely absorbed me: I had to get rid of them before starting a conversation about such important subjects; then I had to rewrite my rubbish, completely unreadable. This time you will not have to wait long: tomorrow I will take up my pen again.
Philosophical letters
Thank you for downloading the book from the free e-library http://filosoff.org/ Happy reading! Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev Philosophical Letters. First letter. Adveniat regnum tuurn May your kingdom come, madam. Straightforwardness and sincerity are precisely the traits that I love and appreciate most of all in you. Judge for yourself how I must have been struck by your letter. It was these most amiable qualities of yours that fascinated me when we met, and it was they that prompted me to talk to you about religion. Everything around you called me to silence. I repeat, consider what my surprise was when I received your letter. That is all I have to tell you, madam, about the assumptions expressed there about my assessment of your character. We will not say more about this and will go straight to the essential part of your letter. And, first of all, where does this confusion come from in your mind, so exciting and tiring for you that, as you say, it affects your health? Is this a sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of calming and peace, which should have brought a feeling awakened in the heart, it caused anxiety, doubts, almost remorse. However, why be surprised? This is the natural consequence of the sad state of affairs to which all our hearts and all minds are subject. You simply succumbed to the action of the forces that set everything in motion with us, from the very heights of society to the slave, who exists only for the comfort of his master. And how could you resist it? The very qualities that make you stand out from the crowd should make you all the more susceptible to the harmful effects of the air you breathe. In the midst of everything around you, could the little that I was allowed to tell you give stability to your ideas? Could I clean up the atmosphere we live in? I should have foreseen the consequences, and I foresaw them. Hence the frequent silences that prevented convictions from penetrating into your soul and, naturally, led you astray. And if only I were not sure that a religious feeling awakened at least partially in someone's heart, no matter what torment it may cause him, is still better than his complete lull, I would have to repent of my zeal. However, I hope that the clouds that now darken your sky will one day turn into beneficial dew and it will fertilize the seed that has been sown in your heart; and the effect produced on you by a few worthless words serves me as a sure guarantee of more significant results, which the work of your own consciousness will certainly bring about in the future. Boldly plunge, madam, into the agitations that thoughts of religion arouse in you: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow. With regard to external conditions, it is enough for you to know for the time being that a doctrine based on the highest principle of unity and the direct transmission of truth in the uninterrupted succession of its ministers can only be most in agreement with the true spirit of religion, because this spirit consists entirely in the idea of the fusion of all, no matter how many moral forces there are in the world - into one thought, one feeling and in the gradual establishment of a social system or church, which should establish the kingdom of truth among people. Any other teaching, as a result of a mere falling away from the original teaching, repels far from itself the sublime appeal of the Savior: “I pray thee, Father, that they may be one, as we are one,” and does not desire the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. But it does not at all follow from this that you are obliged to proclaim this truth publicly before the face of the earth: of course, this is not your calling. The very beginning from which this truth proceeds obliges you, on the contrary, in your position in the light, to see in it only the inner light of your faith, and nothing more. I consider it fortunate that I helped turn your thoughts to religion, but I would feel very unhappy, madam, if at the same time I caused confusion in your mind, which, in time, could not but cool your faith. I think I once told you that the best way to preserve a religious feeling is to adhere to all the customs prescribed by the church. This exercise in obedience is more important than is commonly thought; and the fact that the greatest minds have deliberately and consciously imposed it on themselves is a real service to God. Nothing so strengthens the mind in his beliefs as the strict execution of all the duties relating to them. However, most of the rites of the Christian religion, arising from a higher mind, are an effective force for everyone who is able to be imbued with the truths expressed in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which has an unconditional character, namely, when you acquire in yourself beliefs of a higher order than those professed by the masses, beliefs that elevate the soul to the very source from which all beliefs flow, and these beliefs do not in the least contradict folk, but, on the contrary, confirms them; in this case, but only in this case, it is permissible to neglect external rituals in order to more freely devote oneself to more important works. But woe to him who would take the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for an extraordinary insight that liberates from the general law. And you, madam, would it not be best to put on the robe of humility, so befitting to your sex? Believe me, this is the best way to calm the confusion of your spirit and bring peace to your existence. Yes, even from the point of view of secular views, tell me, what could be more natural for a woman whose developed mind knows how to find charm in scientific studies and serious reflection than a concentrated life devoted mainly to religious thoughts and exercises? You say that when reading books, nothing affects your imagination so much as pictures of peaceful and thoughtful existences, which, like beautiful countryside at sunset, bring peace to the soul and tear us away for a moment from painful or colorless reality. But after all, these are not fantastic pictures at all: the realization of one of these captivating inventions depends only on you. You have everything you need for this. As you see, I am not at all preaching to you too strict morality: in your own tastes, in the most pleasant dreams of your imagination, I am looking for that which can bring peace to your soul. There are circumstances in life that are not related to the physical, but to the spiritual being; they should not be neglected; There is a regimen for the soul, just as there is a regimen for the body: one must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of a novelty. One of the most deplorable features of our peculiar civilization is that we are still discovering truths that have become hackneyed in other countries and date 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. The wondrous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which has brought it throughout the rest of the world to its present state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life, for us is still only theory and speculation. And, for example, you, madam, so fortunately gifted for the perception of all that is good and true in the world, you, as it were, were created for experiencing all the sweetest and purest spiritual pleasures, what have you achieved, I ask, with all these advantages? You still have to look for something to fill not even life, but only the current day. However, you are completely deprived of what creates the necessary framework for life, which naturally accommodates everyday events, and without them a healthy moral existence is just as impossible as a healthy physical state is impossible without fresh air. You understand, the matter is not yet about moral principles or philosophical positions, but simply about a comfortable life, about these habits, about these habits of consciousness, which give comfort to the mind and soul, ease, measured movement. Take a look around. Is anything really worth it? We can say that the whole world is in motion. No one has a definite field of activity, no good habits, no rules for anything, not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no trace either outside or in you. In our homes, we seem to be determined to wait; in families we have the appearance of strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than nomads grazing herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don't think it's nonsense. Our poor souls! Let's not add to our other troubles a false idea of ourselves, let's not strive to live a purely spiritual life, let's learn to live prudently in this reality. But first, let's talk a little more about our country, while we will not deviate from our topic. Without this preface, you will not be able to understand what I want to tell you. All peoples have a period of turbulent unrest, passionate restlessness, activity without deliberate intentions. People at such a time wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is the time of great impulses, great accomplishments, great passions among the peoples. They then rage for no clear reason, but not without benefit to future generations. All societies have gone through such periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their own miracles, their own poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is the necessary social foundations. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved, something to be addicted to, they would have been attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating epoch in the history of nations is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of him is the joy and lesson of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. 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. The pores of overflowing activity, the ebullient play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like it. The era of our social life, corresponding to this age, was filled with a dull and gloomy existence without strength, without energy, animated only by atrocities and softened only by slavery. No charming memories, no captivating images in the memory, no effective instructions in the national tradition. Take a look at all the past centuries, all the spaces we have occupied, and
