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Petr Chaadaev's 'The Letter Of A Madman'

1045 Words5 Pages

Audrey Yuan
Paper #1: The Letter of a Madman
August 27, 2017 During the 1820-1830s, Russia was in a period where the group of educated people was an elite group. A few years earlier, the Decembrist revolt, an attempt to overthrow Tsar Nicholas I, had led to the small group of educated men to question their thoughts. As time has gone by during this period in Russia, many of those educated had many different thoughts and “basic questions” toward the nation’s present and past. However, not all of these ideas were in agreement with the Tsar’s thoughts and Russia’s empire. Chaadaev, a thinker, and educated man, wrote letters to a “Madam” discussing his beliefs towards Russia’s past, present, and the future it should follow. Petr Chaadaev’s first …show more content…

In his letter, he further condemns Russia’s past and present by revealing that they have no past, …show more content…

Chaadaev states that nations will only move forward “through the strong impressions left by ages past,” yet the memories of people “go back no further than yesterday.” Without a past, there is no change from previous years to the present. The lack of a memory of the past reveals that Russians do not know their purpose for living or for the existence, nor do they understand the past, rather, they live their lives in obscurity, unknowingly moving ahead in time yet not, as they have been continuing without any change. Since the memories of these people do not exist, they have had no change. Chaadaev uses this to reveal that Russia has not contributed to modern European life, as the past and the present have little variation, both following the same views and practices of life which have been followed for many years before. Chaadaev looks condescendingly at Russia’s incapability to have a past while comparing Russia’s contributions with other nations, to further exemplify that they, the people of a nation, live in a primitive state and are behind other nations. Chaadaev then diminishes the value of the Russian culture and civilization, claiming that the people are “like illegitimate children, without a heritage.” He likens themselves to children without a background, without a heritage.

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