Chaadaev’s work and its interpretationin the intellectual culture of the Silver Age

Abstract

Peter Y. Chaadaev (1794‒1856) is a key figure of Russian philosophy. His experience of theorizing about subjects of the highest order – God, man, knowledge, history, and reli­gion – is still a historical and philosophical problem that does not allow us to fully under­stand the mystery of Chaadaev’s creativity, which has the thickness of a cultural myth. From our point of view, the Chaadaev theme in the history Russian thought is not only the question of what the author of the Philosophical Letters said, in other words, it is not about the explication of his ideas. In our opinion, this is rather a question about the exist­ing discourse about Chaadaev as well as about the perception and understanding of his texts in the context of Russian intellectual and political culture. Philosophers of the Silver Age tried to get close to understanding the deep motives of Chaadaev’s thought. “Chaadaev’s problem” provided Russian intellectuals with a powerful creative impulse prompting them to ask questions about Russia, its history as well as its cultural, civiliza­tional, and political identity.