The collection of the State Pushkin Museum includes a lithograph of the Russian philosopher and prominent publicist Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadayev.
Pyotr Chaadayev and Alexander Pushkin met in Tsarskoye Selo, in the house of the renowned Russian historian Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin. Chaadayev was both a Lyceum friend and mentor to Pushkin; the poet also shared Chaadayev’s freedom-loving ideals.
Between 1829 and 1831, Chaadayev completed his main work — “Philosophical Letters”. It is a collection of texts written in the form of letters addressed to Ekaterina Dmitrievna Panova. She is referred to as “Madame” in the text. In total, Chaadayev composed eight philosophical letters, all in French. In the autumn of 1836, the first “Philosophical Letter” in Russian translation was published in the journal “Telescope”. This event sparked significant interest in Russian society and had a major impact on the fate of its publisher. As a result, Chaadayev was declared insane and placed under house arrest. The censor Alexey Vasilyevich Boldyrev, the rector of Moscow University, was dismissed from his position, and the publisher of the journal, Nikolai Ivanovich Nadezhdin, was sent into exile to Ust-Sysolsk. The journal itself was subsequently shut down. The dissatisfaction of the authorities was due to Chaadayev’s “Philosophical Letter, ” in which he expressed bitter indignation at Russia’s exclusion from the “universal education of mankind” and the spiritual stagnation preventing the fulfillment of Russian historical mission ordained by higher forces.
