Chaadaev’s philosophy – briefly. P.Ya's first philosophical letter

Madam,

It is your open-heartedness and your sincerity that I like most, it is precisely this 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 to you about religion. Everything around us could only keep me silent. Judge again what my amazement was when I received your letter! This is all I can tell you about the opinion that you suppose I have formed of your character. But let's say no more about this and move immediately to the serious part of your letter.

Firstly, where does this turmoil in your thoughts come from, which worries you so much and exhausts you so much that, according to you, it even affected your health? Is this really the sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of peace and tranquility, which the new feeling awakened in your heart should have brought you, it caused you melancholy, anxiety, almost remorse. And yet, should I be surprised by this? This is a natural consequence of that sad order of things, which controls all our hearts and all our minds. You have only succumbed to the influence of the forces that dominate everyone here, from the highest peaks of society to the slave who lives only for the pleasure of his master.

And how could you resist these conditions? The very qualities that distinguish you from the crowd should make you especially susceptible to the harmful influences of the air you breathe. Could the little that I allowed myself to tell you give strength to your thoughts amid everything that surrounds you? Could I clear the atmosphere we live in? I should have foreseen the consequences, and I did. 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 were not sure that, no matter how severe the suffering that a religious feeling that is not fully awakened in the heart may cause, such a state is still better than complete lethargy, I would only have to repent of my decision. But I hope that the clouds now covering your sky will transform in time into fertile dew, which will fertilize the seed thrown into your heart, and the effect produced on you by a few insignificant words serves me as a sure guarantee of those even more important consequences that without doubts will result from the work of your own mind. Surrender fearlessly to the emotional movements that a religious idea will awaken in you: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow.

As regards external conditions, be content for the present with the knowledge that a doctrine based on the supreme principle unity and the direct transmission of the truth in an unbroken line of its ministers, of course, is most consistent with the true spirit of religion; for it comes down entirely to the idea of ​​merging all existing things in the world moral forces into one thought, into one feeling, and to the gradual establishment of such social system or churches, which should establish the kingdom of truth among people. Any other teaching, by the very factor of its falling away from the original doctrine, rejects in advance the effect of the high covenant of the Savior: Holy Father, keep them so that they may be one, just as we are, and does not strive to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It does not follow from this, however, that you are obliged to confess this truth in the face of the world: 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 that I have contributed to turning your thoughts towards religion; but I would be very unhappy if at the same time I plunged your conscience into confusion, which over time would inevitably cool your faith.

I think I told you once that best way To preserve a religious feeling is to observe all the rituals prescribed by the church. This exercise of submission, which contains more than is usually thought, and which the greatest minds have undertaken consciously and deliberately, is the real service of God. Nothing strengthens the spirit in its beliefs so much as the strict fulfillment of all the duties related to them. Moreover, most of the rituals of the Christian religion, inspired by a higher mind, have real life-giving power for anyone who knows how to penetrate the truths contained in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which is generally 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 freely devote ourselves to more important labors. But woe to him who would mistake the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for the highest enlightenment, which supposedly frees him from common law! But you, madam, what better thing can you do than to put on the robe of humility, which is so becoming to your sex? Believe me, this will most likely pacify your troubled spirit and shed quiet joy into your existence.

And is it conceivable, tell me, 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 majestic emotions of contemplation, rather than a life concentrated and devoted to a large extent to reflection and matters of religion. You say that when reading, nothing excites your imagination so much as pictures of 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 paintings are not the creation of fantasy; It depends on you alone to realize any of these captivating inventions; and for this you have everything you need. You see, I do not preach too harsh a moral: in your inclinations, in the most attractive dreams of your imagination, I try to find what can give peace to your soul.

There is a certain side to life that concerns not the physical, but the spiritual existence of a person. It should not be neglected; for the soul there is a certain regime in the same way as for the body;

one must be able to obey him. It's an old truth, I know; but I think that in our country it still very often has its own novelty value. One of the saddest features of our peculiar civilization is that we are still only discovering truths that have long since become hackneyed in other places and even among peoples who are in many ways far behind us. This happens because 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 if outside of time, we were not affected by the worldwide education of the human race.

This marvelous connection of human ideas throughout the centuries, this history of the human spirit, which raised it to the height at which it now stands in the rest of the world, has had no influence 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 the perception of 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 have you achieved in front of everyone? these advantages? You don’t even have to think about what to fill your life with, but what to fill your day with. The very conditions that in other countries constitute the necessary framework of life, in which all the events of the day are so naturally placed and without which a healthy moral existence is as impossible as a healthy physical life without fresh air - you have no trace of them. Do you understand that we're talking about yet not at all about moral principles and not about philosophical truths, but simply about a well-ordered life, about those habits and skills of consciousness that impart ease to the mind and bring correctness to a person’s mental life.

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 defined sphere of existence, no one has developed good habits for anything, no rules for anything; there is not even a home; there is nothing that would bind you, that would awaken sympathy or love in you, nothing durable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything goes away, leaving no trace either outside or inside you. In our homes we seem to be stationed, in our families we look like strangers, in cities we seem to be nomads, and even more so than those nomads who graze their herds in our steppes, for they are more closely tied to their deserts than we are to our cities. And please do not think that the subject in question is not important. We are already offended by fate; let us not add to our other troubles a false idea of ​​ourselves, let us not lay claim to a purely spiritual life; let's learn to live wisely 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 experiences a period of violent excitement, passionate anxiety, and thoughtless and aimless activity. At this time, people become wanderers in the world, physically and spiritually. This is an era of strong feelings, broad plans, and great passions of the people. Peoples then rush about excitedly, for no apparent reason, but not without benefit for future generations. All societies went through such a period. To him they owe their most vivid memories, the heroic element of their history, their poetry, all their most powerful and fruitful ideas; it is the necessary basis of any society. Otherwise, there would be nothing in the memory of peoples that they could value, that they could love; they would be tied only to the dust of the earth on which they live. This fascinating phase in the history of nations is their youth, the era in which their abilities develop most strongly and the memory of which constitutes the joy and instruction of their mature age. We don't have any of this. First savage barbarism, then gross ignorance, then ferocious and humiliating foreign dominion, the spirit of which our national power later inherited - such is the sad history of our youth. We did not have this period of vigorous activity, the vigorous play of the spiritual forces of the people. Our era social life, corresponding to this age, was filled with a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy, which was enlivened by nothing except 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 at all the centuries we have lived through, all the space we occupy - you will not find a single attractive memory, not a single venerable monument that would powerfully speak to you about the past, that would recreate it before you vividly and picturesquely. We live alone in the present within its narrowest confines, without past and future, in the midst of dead stagnation. And if we sometimes worry, it is not at all in the hope or calculation of some common good, but out of the childish frivolity with which a child tries to get up and stretches out his hands to the rattle that the nanny 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 good to ripen in any society while it still fluctuates without convictions and rules even in relation to everyday affairs and life is still completely unordered? This is chaotic fermentation in the spiritual world, similar to those revolutions in the history of the earth that preceded current state of our planet. We are still in this stage.

The years of early youth, spent by us in dull immobility, did not leave any trace on our soul, and we have nothing individual on which our thought could rely; but, isolated by a strange fate from the worldwide 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 their future flows, their moral development. If we want to occupy a position similar to that of other civilized nations, we must in some way repeat in ourselves the entire education of the human race. For this purpose, the history of peoples is at our service and the fruits of the movement of centuries are before us. Of course, this task is difficult and, perhaps, within the limits of one human life it is not possible to exhaust this vast subject; but first of all we need to 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 order.

Peoples live only by the powerful impressions that the passing centuries leave in their souls, and by communication with other peoples. That is why each individual person is imbued with the consciousness of his connection with all humanity.

What is human life, says Cicero, if the memory of past events does not connect the present with the past! We, having come into the world like illegitimate children, without an inheritance, without connection with the people who lived on earth before us, we do not keep in our hearts any of the lessons that preceded our own existence. Each of us has to tie up the broken thread of kinship ourselves. What other peoples have turned into a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with hammer blows. Our memories go no further than yesterday; we are, so to speak, strangers to ourselves. We move in time so strangely that with every step we take forward, the past moment disappears for us irrevocably. This is the natural result of a culture based entirely on borrowing and imitation. We have absolutely no internal development, no natural progress; each new idea replaces the old ones without a trace, because it does not flow out of them, but comes to us from God knows where. Since we always perceive only ready-made ideas, then in our brain those indelible grooves are not formed that consistent development makes in the minds and which constitute their strength. We grow, but we do not mature; we move forward, but along a curved 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, their whole soul is outside them. That's exactly who we are.

Nations are just as much moral beings as individuals. They are raised by centuries, just as individuals are raised by years. But we can be said, in some way, to be an exceptional people. We belong to those nations that do not seem to be part of humanity, but exist only to teach the world some important lesson. The instruction we are called to impart will certainly not be lost; but who can say when we will find ourselves among humanity 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 are still general connection, connecting them all into one whole and clearly visible to anyone who has delved deeper into their common history. You know that until relatively recently all of Europe was called the Christian world, and this expression was used in public law. In addition to the general character, each of these peoples also has its own private character, but both are entirely woven from history and tradition. They constitute the continuous ideological heritage of these peoples. Each individual person uses his share of this inheritance there; without labor and excessive effort, he accumulates a supply 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 that could guide us in life? And note, here we are not talking about acquiring knowledge or 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 a child in the cradle, surround him among children's games and are transmitted to him with the affection of a mother, which, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones along with the air he breathes, and create his moral being even before he enters society 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 are a necessary element in the social structure 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 this with us? I don’t know whether it is possible to deduce something completely unconditional from what has been said now and to extract from it any immutable principle; but one cannot help but see the strange position of a people whose thought does not adhere to any series of ideas that gradually developed in society and slowly grew from one another, and whose participation in the general forward movement of the human mind was limited only to blind, superficial and often unskillful imitation to other nations, must powerfully influence the spirit of every individual in that nation.

As a result, you will find that we all lack a certain confidence, mental method, and logic. Western syllogism is unfamiliar to us. Our best minds suffer from something more than simple unfoundedness. The best ideas, lacking connection or consistency, freeze in our brains and turn into fruitless ghosts. It is natural for a person to become lost when he does not find a way to bring himself into connection with what precedes him and with what follows him. He is then deprived of all firmness, all confidence. Not guided by a sense of continuity, he sees himself as lost in the world. Such confused people are found in all countries; This is something we have in common. This is not at all the frivolity for 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 brought extraordinary charm and grace to circulation; this is the carelessness of life, devoid of experience and foresight, not taking into account anything except the fleeting existence of an individual, cut off from the clan, a life that does not value either honor, or the success of any system of ideas and interests, or even that family heritage and those countless prescriptions and prospects, 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 about 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, partly reminiscent of the physiognomy of those peoples who stand on the lower steps of the social ladder. In foreign countries, especially in the south, where faces are so expressive and so animated, more than once, comparing the faces of my compatriots with the faces of the natives, I was amazed at the muteness of our faces.

Foreigners credit us with a kind of reckless courage, found especially in the lower strata of the people; but, having the opportunity to observe only individual manifestations national character, they are not able to judge the whole. They do not see that the same principle, thanks to which we are sometimes so courageous, always makes us incapable of deepening and perseverance; they do not see that this indifference to everyday dangers corresponds in us to the same complete indifference to good and evil, to truth and to lies, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of all the powerful incentives that push people along the path of improvement; they do not see that it is precisely thanks to this careless courage that even the highest 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 although we have some of the virtues of young and underdeveloped peoples, we no longer possess any of the virtues that distinguish mature and highly cultured peoples.

I don’t 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 general spirit that constitutes their vital principle, for only this, and not this or that trait of their character, can lead them to the path of moral perfection and endless development.

The masses of the people are subordinate to certain forces at the top of society. They don't think for themselves; among them there is a certain number of thinkers who think for them, impart impetus to the collective mind of the people and move them forward. While a small group of people thinks, the rest feel, and as a result a general movement occurs. With the exception of some stupid tribes that have retained only the external appearance of man, what has been said is true for 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 sages, 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, with one elbow resting 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 globe. But this is not the role provided for us by providence. Moreover, it seemed not at all concerned about our fate. Having excluded us from its beneficial effect on the human mind, it completely left us to ourselves, refused to interfere in any way in our affairs, and 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 humanity has been abolished in relation to us. Alone in the world, we have given the world nothing, taught it nothing; We have not contributed a single idea to 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 got 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 homeland; 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 appearances and useless luxury.

It’s a strange thing: even in the world of science, which embraces everything, our history does not add up to anything, does not clarify anything, does not prove anything. If the savage hordes that troubled the world had not passed through the country in which we live before rushing to the West, we would scarcely have had a page in the history of the world. If we had not spread from the Bering Strait to the Oder, we would not have been noticed. Once great man 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; Having returned from this triumphal march through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only ideas and aspirations, 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 lived and continue to live only in order to serve as some important lesson for distant generations who will be able to understand it; Nowadays, in any case, we constitute a gap in the moral world order. I cannot be amazed enough at this extraordinary emptiness and isolation of our social existence. Of course, an inscrutable fate is partly to blame for this, but, as with everything that happens in the moral world, the person himself is partly to blame. Let us turn once again to history: it is the key to understanding peoples.

What did we do 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 formed? Obeying our evil fate, we turned to the pitiful Byzantium, deeply despised by these peoples, for the moral charter that was to form the basis of our education. By the will of one ambitious man, this family of peoples has just been torn away from the universal brotherhood, and we have, therefore, accepted an idea distorted by human passion. In Europe at that time everything was animated by the life-giving principle of unity. Everything came from him and everything came down to him. The whole mental Movement of that era was aimed at unifying human thinking; all impulses were rooted in that powerful need to find a universal idea, which is the inspiring genius of the new time. Uninvolved in this miraculous beginning, we became victims of conquest. When we overthrew the foreign yoke and only our isolation from the common family prevented us from taking advantage of the ideas that arose during this time among our Western brothers, we fell into even more cruel slavery, sanctified, moreover, by the fact of our liberation.

How many bright rays already illuminated Europe, seemingly shrouded in darkness! Much of the knowledge of which man now prides himself has already been divined by individual minds; the character of society had already been determined, and, having joined the world of pagan antiquity, the Christian peoples acquired those forms of beauty that they still lacked. We became isolated in our religious isolation, and nothing that happened in Europe reached us. We had nothing to do with the great world work. The high qualities which religion has brought as a gift to new peoples and which, in the eyes of sound reason, elevate them as much above the ancient peoples as the latter stood above the Hottentots and Laplanders; these new powers with which she has enriched the human mind; these morals, which, as a result of submission to unarmed power, became as soft as they were previously rude - all this has completely passed us by. While the Christian world marched majestically along the path destined by its divine founder, drawing generations with us, we, although we bore the name of Christians, did not move. The whole world was being rebuilt anew, but nothing was being created here; we still vegetated, huddled in our huts made of logs and straw. In a word, new destinies of the human race took place besides us. Although we were called Christians, the fruit of Christianity did not ripen for us.

I ask you, is it not naive to assume, as is usually done among 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 immediately, without even taking the trouble to find out how it was carried out? ?

He who does not see what is pure in it does not understand Christianity at all. historical side, which is one of the most essential elements of dogma and which contains, one might say, the entire philosophy of Christianity, since it shows what it has given to people and what it will give to them in the future. From this point of view, the Christian religion is not only a moral system contained in the transitory forms of the human mind, but an eternal divine power, operating universally in the spiritual world, and whose manifest manifestation should serve as a constant lesson to us. This is precisely the true meaning of the dogma of faith in a single Church, included in the symbol of faith. 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 that he would remain in his church until the end of the age would not have been true. Then the new order, the Kingdom of God, which should be the fruit of redemption, would be no different from the old order - from the kingdom of evil, which should be destroyed by redemption, and again we would only be left with that illusory dream of perfection that is cherished philosophers and which is refuted by every page of history - an empty game of the mind, capable of satisfying only the material needs of man and raising him to known height only to be immediately thrown into even deeper abysses.

However, you say, aren’t we Christians? and isn’t another civilization conceivable other than European? - Without a doubt, we are Christians; But aren’t the Abyssinians also Christians? Of course, an education different from the European one is also possible; Isn’t Japan educated, and, if you believe one of our compatriots, even in to a greater extent than Russia? But do you really think that the order of things that I just spoke about and which is the ultimate destiny of humanity can be realized by Abyssinian Christianity and Japanese culture? - Do you really think that heaven will be brought to earth by these absurd deviations from divine and human truths?

In Christianity we must distinguish two completely different things: its effect on the individual and its influence 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 view. And therefore we must distinguish the divine action that manifests itself at any specific time in human life from that which takes place in infinity. On the day when the work of redemption is finally completed, 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 humanity.

Hence, a special circle of ideas necessarily arises, in which the minds of the society revolve, where this goal must be realized, that is, the idea that God revealed to people must mature and reach its fullness. This circle of ideas, this moral sphere, in turn, naturally determine a certain way of life and a certain worldview, which, while not being identical for everyone, nevertheless create for us, as for all non-European peoples, the same way of life, which is the fruit that enormous 18-century spiritual work in which all the passions, all the interests, all the sufferings, all the dreams, all the efforts of the mind participated.

All European peoples moved forward through the centuries hand in hand; no matter how hard they now try to go their separate ways, they constantly converge on the same path. To be convinced of how related the development of these peoples is, there is no need to study history; just read Tassa, and you will see them all prostrate at the foot of the Jerusalem walls. Remember that for fifteen centuries they had one language for addressing God, one spiritual authority and one belief. Think that for fifteen centuries, every year on the same day, at the same hour, they raised their voices in the same words to the supreme being, glorifying him for the greatest of his benefits. A wondrous consonance, a thousand times more majestic than all harmonies physical world! So, if this sphere in which Europeans live and in which alone the human race 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 it general movement, where the social idea of ​​Christianity was developed and formulated, and relegated us to the host of peoples who are destined only indirectly and late to benefit from all the fruits of Christianity, it is clear that we must first of all revive our faith in all possible ways and give ourselves a truly Christian impulse, since in the West everything was created by Christianity. This is what I meant when I said that we must repeat on ourselves from the beginning the entire education of the human race.

The entire history of modern society is based on opinions; thus, it represents real education. Established 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 interests were always born from convictions. All political revolutions there were, in essence, spiritual revolutions: people sought the truth and along the way found freedom and prosperity. This explains the character of modern society and its civilization; otherwise it would be completely impossible to understand him.

Religious persecution, martyrdom for the faith, preaching of Christianity, heresies, councils - these are the events that filled the first centuries. The entire movement of this era, not excluding the invasion of the barbarians, is connected with these first, infant efforts of new thinking. The next era is occupied by the formation of a hierarchy, the centralization of spiritual power and the continuous spread of Christianity among northern peoples. What follows is the highest rise of religious feeling and the consolidation of religious power. The philosophical and literary development of the mind and the improvement of morals under the power of religion completes this history of new peoples, which can just as rightly 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, determined the current structure of society. Thus, the main and, one might say, the only interest of new peoples always lies 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 the perfection possible for it, they saw in it only fanaticism and superstition; but no matter what they say about it, judge for yourself what a deep mark such a thing should have left on the character of these peoples. social development, which flowed entirely from one feeling, indifferently - in good and in evil.

Let superficial philosophy cry as much as it wants about religious wars and bonfires kindled by intolerance - we can only envy the share 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 being transported into it body and soul, as we dream about it.

I say again: of course, not everything in European countries is imbued with reason, virtue and religion - far from it. But everything in them mysteriously obeys the force that has reigned imperiously there for so many centuries; everything is generated by that long sequence of facts and ideas that determined the modern state of society. Here is one example that proves this. The people whose physiognomy is most sharply expressed and whose institutions are most imbued with the spirit of the new time, the English, strictly speaking, have no history other than religious. Their last revolution, to which they owe their freedom and their prosperity, as well as the whole series of events leading to this revolution, beginning with the era of Henry VIII, is nothing more than a phase of religious development. Throughout the entire era, strictly political interest is only a secondary motive force and at times disappears completely or is sacrificed to the idea. And at the moment when I write these lines, the same religious interest is agitating this chosen country. And in general, which European people would not find in its national consciousness, if it took the trouble to understand it, that special element which, in the form of religious thought, was invariably the life-giving principle, the soul of its social body, throughout its entire existence?

The effect 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 accomplished through countless moral, mental and social combinations, where the unconditional victory of the human spirit must find full scope. From here it is clear that everything that has happened since 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 every creature, * - including all attacks on Christianity - is completely covered by this general idea th 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 solidity 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 within itself the beginning of endless development and possesses in the germs and elements everything that is necessary. for his final establishment on earth.

* Gospel of Mark, XVI, 15.

Before finishing these reflections on the role played by religion in the history of society, I want to cite here what I once said about this in an essay unknown to you.

Undoubtedly, I wrote, that until we learn to recognize the action of Christianity everywhere where human thought in any way comes into contact with it, at least with the goal of opposing it, we do not have a clear concept of it. As soon as the name of Christ is uttered, this name alone captivates people, no matter what they do. Nothing reveals so clearly the divine origin of the Christian religion as this unconditional universality of it, which is reflected in the fact that it penetrates souls in all possible ways, takes possession of the mind without its knowledge, and even in those cases when it, apparently, most of all resists, subjugates it and dominates it, bringing into consciousness truths that were not there before, awakening sensations in the hearts that were hitherto alien to them, and instilling in us feelings that, without our knowledge, introduce us into the general order. This is how it defines the role of each individual in the overall work and forces everyone to contribute to one goal. With this understanding of Christianity, every prophecy of Christ will receive the character of tangible truth. Then you begin to clearly distinguish the movement of everyone. levers that his almighty right hand puts into action in order to lead a person to his final goal, without encroaching on his freedom, without killing any of his natural abilities, but, on the contrary, tenfolding their strength and bringing to immeasurable tension that portion of the power that 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, as well as the ardent impulse of feeling, the heroism of a strong spirit, as well as the obedience of a meek soul - everything finds a place and application in it. Accessible to every rational being, combined with every beat of our heart, no matter what it beats about, 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 moves gropingly and walks forward with measured steps; in the contemplative mind it is unconditional and deep; in the soul, subject to the imagination, it is airy and rich in images; in a tender loving heart it resolves into mercy and love; - and every consciousness surrendered to her, she imperiously leads forward, filling it with heat, clarity and strength. Look how diverse the characters are, how multiple the forces set in motion by her: what dissimilar elements serve the same purpose, how many different hearts beat for one idea! But: even more surprising is the influence of Christianity on society as a whole. Expand the complete 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 needs everywhere with moral needs and arousing in the field of thought those great disputes that no time, no society had known before it, those terrible clashes of opinions when the entire 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 carry in their hearts a clear consciousness of the part they are creating in this great movement, which God himself communicated to the world. But not everyone is an active instrument, not everyone works consciously; the necessary masses move blindly, not knowing the forces that drive their movements, and not seeing the goal towards which they are drawn - soulless atoms, inert masses.

But it's time to return to you, madam. I confess that it is difficult for me to tear myself away from these broad perspectives. In the picture that opens to my eyes from this height is all my consolation, and the sweet faith in the future happiness of mankind alone serves as my refuge when, depressed by the pitiful reality that surrounds me, I feel the need to breathe cleaner air, look at a clearer sky . However, I don't think I misused your time. I needed to show you the point of view from which we should look at Christendom and our role in it. What I said about our country must have seemed full of bitterness to you; Meanwhile, I expressed only one truth, and not even the whole one. Moreover, Christian consciousness does not tolerate any blindness, and national prejudice is the worst kind her, since he most of all divides people.

My letter has gotten long and I think we both need a rest. Starting it, I believed that I would be able to express in a few words what I wanted to tell you; but, thinking deeper, I see that a whole volume could be written about this. Is this after your heart? I will be waiting for your response. But, in any case, you cannot avoid another letter from me, because we have barely begun to consider our topic. 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 made you wait so long for it. I sat down to write to you the same day I received your letter; but sad and painful worries then completely consumed me, and I had to get rid of them before starting a conversation with you about such important subjects; then it was necessary to rewrite my scribbling, which was completely illegible. This time you won’t have to wait long: tomorrow I’ll take up my pen again.

* "Necropolis" - Moscow is meant as the “city of the dead.”

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 century Peter Chaadaev (yes, yes, the same one to whom A.S. Pushkin dedicated lines “Comrade, believe: she will rise, / A star of captivating happiness, / Russia will rise from her sleep, / And on the ruins of autocracy / They will write our names.”), in which the thinker reflects on the historical path that shapes the morality of peoples and their beliefs, on the need to educate the human race, as well as on how we differ from the 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.

« Best ideas devoid of connection and consistency, like sterile delusions are paralyzed in our brain.”

Perhaps in some places Pyotr Yakovlevich went too far, but overall there is something to think about. By the way, during the author’s lifetime, only the first philosophical letter was published (there were eight in total, written in 1828-1830) - in the Telescope magazine in 1836. As usual, there was a scandal: the Minister of Public Education Uvarov called the thinker’s work “impudent nonsense,” and Chaadaev himself was declared crazy (by the way, it was Chaadaev who was the prototype of Chatsky from Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” and the plot with madness, as you see, has very real basis). By today's standards, he got off lightly.

"Philosophical Letters". Letter one (fragment)

In life there are circumstances that relate not to physical, but to spiritual existence; they should not be neglected; There is a regime for the soul, just as there is a regime for the body: you must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of newness. 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 us. The fact is that we have never walked together 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 one. We stand, as it were, outside of time; the universal education of the human race has not extended to us. The marvelous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which led it throughout the rest of the world to its modern state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life is still only theory and speculation for us.

Take a look around. Does anything stand strong? We can say that the whole world is on the move. No one has a specific sphere of activity, there are no good habits, there are no rules for anything, there is not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no traces either outside or inside you. In our houses we seem to be assigned to stay; in families we look like strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than the nomads grazing their herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don’t think that this is nothing. 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, without deviating 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 violent unrest, passionate restlessness, and activity without deliberate intentions. At such times people wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is a time of great motives, great achievements, great passions among peoples. They then go on a rampage without a clear reason, but not without benefit for future generations. All societies have gone through periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their miracles, their poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is what the necessary social foundations consist of. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved or addicted to; they would be attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating era in the history of peoples is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of it constitutes the joy and instruction of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. First wild barbarism, then crude superstition, then foreign dominion, cruel and humiliating, the spirit of which the national government subsequently inherited - this is the sad story of our youth. The times of overflowing activity, the seething play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like that. 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 national tradition. 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 powerfully speak about the past and paint it vividly and picturesquely. We live only in the most limited present without a past and without a future, amid flat stagnation. And if we sometimes worry, it is not in anticipation or wishing for some common good, but in the childish frivolity of a baby, when he reaches out and stretches 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 time. While societies still fluctuate without convictions and without rules even in everyday affairs, and life is still completely unordered, how can we expect the rudiments of good to ripen in them? While this is still a chaotic fermentation of objects of the moral world, similar to those revolutions 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, which Chaadaev also wrote about in a letter to I.D. Yakushkin (Letters. No. 75).. We are still in this situation.

Our first years, which passed in motionless savagery, did not leave any trace on our minds and there is nothing personally inherent in us on which our thought could rely; isolated by the strange will of fate from the general movement of mankind, we did not accept 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 identity, like other civilized peoples, we must somehow repeat in ourselves the entire education of the human race. For this we have the history of peoples and before us the results of the movement of centuries. Without a doubt, this task is difficult and one person, perhaps, cannot 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 our place in the general system is.

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 human life, says Cicero? ⓘ See: Cicero. On oratory, XXXV, 120., if the memory of past times does not connect the present with the past? We, having been born as illegitimate children, without an inheritance, without connection with the people who preceded us on earth, do not keep in our hearts any of the teachings left before our appearance. It is necessary that each of us himself tries to tie up the broken thread of kinship. What other nations have is simply a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with a hammer blow. Our memories go no further than yesterday; We are, as it were, strangers to ourselves. We move through time so amazingly that, as we move forward, what we have experienced disappears for us irrevocably. This is a natural consequence of a culture that is entirely borrowed and imitative. We have no internal development, no natural progress at all; old ideas are swept away by new ones, because the latter do not come from the former, but appear to 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 furrow our consciousnesses. We grow, but do not mature, we move forward along a curve, i.e. along a line that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who were not forced to reason for themselves, so that when they grow up, there is nothing special about 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 raised by centuries, just as people are raised 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 included integral part into the human race, but exist only to teach a great lesson to the world. Of course, the instruction that we are destined to be given 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 the fulfillment of our destinies ⓘ There is a difficulty in translating this passage. Chaadaev used the verb “retrouveront” here, i.e. “to find again,” “to find again,” and that’s how we translate it. Gershenzon and Shakhovskoy translate this verb simply “to acquire” (SP II. p. 113), although in the French text the named verb is given and for the Russian word they used, there is a verb “trouveront”.?

The peoples of Europe have a common face, a family resemblance. Despite their division into Latin and Teutonic branches, into southerners and northerners, there is a common connection that unites them all into one, obvious to anyone who delves into their common history. You know that until relatively recently all of Europe bore the name of Christendom and this word was included 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 own share of the common inheritance, without labor, without tension, he selects in life the knowledge scattered in society and uses it. Draw a parallel with what is happening here, and judge for yourself, what elementary ideas can we glean from everyday life, so that we can use them in one way or another for guidance in life? And note that we are talking here not about learning, not about reading, not about anything 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, caress, him mother, about those which, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones along with the air he breathes, and which form his moral nature before going out into the world and appearing in society. Do you want to know what these 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, this is something more than history or psychology, this is the physiology of European man. What do you see with us?

I don’t know whether it is possible to deduce from what has been said just now something completely indisputable and build an immutable position on it; but it is obvious that the soul of each individual person from the people must be strongly influenced by such a strange situation, when this people is not able to concentrate its thoughts on a series of ideas that gradually unfolded in society and gradually flowed from one another, when all its participation and general the movement of the human mind comes down to a blind, superficial, very often stupid imitation of other peoples. That is why, as you can see, we all lack some kind of stability, some kind of consistency in the mind, some kind of logic. The syllogism of the West is unfamiliar to us. In our best heads there is something even worse than lightness. The best ideas, devoid of connection and consistency, like fruitless delusions, are paralyzed in our brain. It is the nature of man to become lost when he does not find a way to connect with what came before him and what will come after him; he then loses all firmness, all confidence; not guided by a sense of continuous duration, he feels lost in the world. Such confused creatures are found in all countries; we have it general property. This is not at all the frivolity for which the French were once reproached and which, however, was nothing more than an easy way to comprehend things, which did not exclude either the depth or breadth of the mind, and brought so much charm and charm to the circulation; here is the carelessness of life without experience and foresight, which has nothing to do with anything other than the ghostly existence of an individual, cut off from his environment, not taking into account either honor, or the success of any set of ideas and interests, or even the ancestral heritage of a given family and with all the prescriptions and perspectives that determine both public and private life in a system based on the memory of the past and anxiety for the future. In our heads there is absolutely nothing in common, everything there is isolated and everything there is shaky and incomplete. I even find that in our view there is something strangely vague, 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 fellow countrymen with the faces of local residents and been amazed at the muteness of our faces.

Foreigners credited us with a kind of careless courage, especially remarkable in lower classes people; but having the opportunity to observe only individual traits of the people’s character, they could not judge it as a whole. They did not notice that the very beginning that sometimes makes us so courageous constantly deprives us of depth and persistence; They did not notice that the property that makes us so indifferent to the vicissitudes of life also causes in us indifference to good and evil, to all truth, to all lies, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of those strong impulses that guide us on the path to improvement; They did not notice that precisely because of such lazy courage, even the highest classes, sadly, are not free from vices that in others are characteristic only of the lowest classes; Finally, they did not notice that if we have some of the advantages of young peoples who are lagging behind civilization, then we do not have any that distinguishes mature and highly cultured peoples. I, of course, 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 examine the common spirit that constitutes their essence, for only this common spirit is capable of elevating them to a more perfect moral state and directing them to endless development, and not this or that trait of their character.

The masses submit to certain forces at the top 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 for all the nations of the earth; the only exceptions are some savage races that have retained only their external appearance from human nature. The primitive peoples of Europe, Celts, Scandinavians, Germans, had their own Druids ⓘ Druids are priests of the Celts., their skalds ⓘ Skalds are medieval Norwegian and Icelandic poets., their bards ⓘ Bards are singers of the ancient Celtic tribes. who were strong thinkers in their own way. Look at the peoples of North America, which the material civilization of the United States is eradicating with such zeal: among them there are people of amazing depth. And now, I ask you, where are our sages, where are our thinkers? Which of us has ever thought, who thinks for us now?

Meanwhile, spread out between two great divisions of the world, between East and West, leaning with one elbow on China, the other on Germany, we should have combined two great principles of spiritual nature - imagination and reason, and united in our civilization the history of everything globe. This is not the role that Providence has given us. On the contrary, it seemed that it was not at all concerned with our fate. Denying us its beneficial influence on the human mind, it left us entirely to ourselves, did not want to interfere in our affairs in any way, 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 humanity has been reduced to nothing. Alone 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 . From the very first moments of our social existence, nothing suitable for the common good of people has come from us, not a single useful thought has sprouted in the barren soil of our homeland, not a single great truth has been brought forward from our midst; we did not take the trouble to create anything in the realm of imagination, and from what was created by the imagination of others, we borrowed only deceptive appearances and useless luxury.

Amazing thing! Even in the field of that science, which covers everything, our history is not connected with anything, 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 have been the head of world history. To get noticed, we had to stretch from the Bering Strait to the Oder. Once a great man ⓘ This means Peter I. decided to civilize us and, in order to instill a desire for enlightenment, threw us the cloak of civilization; we lifted the cloak, but did not touch enlightenment. Another time, another great monarch ⓘ We are talking about Alexander I., introducing us to his glorious destiny, led us as victors from one end to the other of Europe ⓘ This refers to the foreign campaign of the Russian army in 1813–1814.; Having returned home from this triumphal procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only bad ideas and disastrous delusions, the consequence of which was an immeasurable disaster that threw us back half a century ⓘ This refers to the Decembrist uprising.. 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; for now, no matter what they say, we constitute a gap in the intellectual order. I never cease to be amazed at this emptiness, this amazing isolation of our social existence. Our incomprehensible fate is probably partly to blame for this. But there is also, without a doubt, a share of human participation here, as in everything that happens in the moral world. Let us ask history again: it is history that explains nations.

Necropolis ⓘ Necropolis – city of the dead (Greek). This is what Chaadaev calls Moscow here., 1829, December 1.

LETTER FIRST

Madam.

Straightforwardness and sincerity are precisely the traits that I love and value most in you. Judge for yourself how your letter must have struck me. These very kind qualities of yours charmed me when we met, and they prompted me to talk to you about religion. Everything around you called me to silence. I repeat, judge what my surprise was when I received your letter. That's all I have to tell you, madam, about the assumptions expressed there about my assessment of your character. Let us say no more about this and go straight to the essential part of your letter.

And, first of all, where does this confusion come from in your mind, which worries and tires you so much that, according to you, it also affects your health? Is this really a sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of the calm and peace that the awakened feeling in the heart should have brought, it caused anxiety, doubts, and almost remorse. However, why be surprised? This is a natural consequence of the sad state of affairs to which all our hearts and all our minds are subject. You have simply succumbed to the forces that set everything in motion among us, from the very heights of society to the slave who exists only for the pleasure of his master.

And how could you resist this? 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 clear the atmosphere we live in? I should have foreseen the consequences, and I did. Hence the frequent silences that prevented convictions from penetrating your soul and naturally misled you. And if only I were not sure that a religious feeling awakened at least partially in someone’s heart, no matter how much torment it causes him, is still better than completely putting him to sleep, I would have to repent of my zeal. However, I hope that the clouds that now darken your sky will one day turn into fertile dew, and it will fertilize the seed thrown into your heart; and the effect of a few worthless words on you serves me as a sure guarantee of more significant results, which the work of your own consciousness will certainly cause in the future. Feel free to turn, madam, to the disturbances caused in you by thoughts of religion: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow.

In relation to external conditions, it is enough for you to know for now that a teaching based on the highest principle of unity and the direct transmission of truth in the continuous succession of its servants can only be most consistent with the true spirit of religion, because this spirit lies entirely in the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bmerging all, no matter how many of them there are in the world, moral forces - in one thought, in 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, due to the mere falling away from the original teaching, pushes far away from itself the sublime appeal of the Savior: “I pray you, 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 publicly proclaim this truth before the face of the earth: of course, this is not your calling. The very beginning from which this truth comes obliges you, on the contrary, in your position in the world, to see in it only the inner light of your faith - and nothing more. I consider it fortunate that I contributed to the conversion of your thoughts to religion, but I would feel very unhappy, madam, if at the same time I caused confusion in your mind, which, over time, could not help but cool your faith.

I think I once told you that the best way to preserve religious feeling is to adhere to all the customs prescribed by the church. This exercise in submission is more important than is usually thought; and the fact that it was imposed upon themselves thoughtfully and consciously by the greatest minds is a real service to God. Nothing so strengthens the mind in its beliefs as the strict fulfillment of all the duties pertaining to them. However, most of the rites of the Christian religion, emanating from the higher mind, are an effective force for everyone who is able to penetrate the truths expressed in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which is unconditional, 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 at all 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 mistake the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for an extraordinary insight that frees him from the general law. And you, madam, wouldn’t it be best to put on the clothes of humility, so suitable for your sex? Believe me, this will best calm the confusion of your spirit and bring peace into 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 pursuits and serious reflections 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 the beautiful countryside at sunset, bring peace to the soul and lift us for a moment from the painful or colorless reality. But these are not fantastic pictures at all: the implementation of one of these captivating fictions depends only on you. You have everything you need for this. As you can see, I am not at all preaching too strict a morality to you: in your tastes, in the most pleasant dreams of your imagination, I am looking for what can bring peace to your soul.

In life there are circumstances that relate not to physical, but to spiritual existence; they should not be neglected; There is a regime for the soul, just as there is a regime for the body: you must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of newness. 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 us. The fact is that we have never walked together 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 one. We stand, as it were, outside of time; the universal education of the human race has not extended to us. The marvelous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which led it throughout the rest of the world to its modern state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life is still only theory and speculation for us. And, for example, you, madam, so happily gifted for the perception of everything good and true in the world, you, as if created to experience all the sweetest and purest spiritual pleasures, what, one wonders, have you achieved with all these advantages? You still have to look for something to fill not even your life, but only the current day. However, you are completely deprived of what creates the necessary framework of 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, we are not yet talking about moral principles or philosophical principles, but simply about a well-ordered life, about these habits, about these skills of consciousness that give comfort to the mind and soul, ease, measured movement.

Take a look around. Does anything stand strong? We can say that the whole world is on the move. No one has a specific sphere of activity, there are no good habits, there are no rules for anything, there is not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no traces either outside or in you. In our houses we seem to be assigned to stay; in families we look like strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than the nomads grazing their herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don’t think that this is nothing. 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, without deviating 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 violent unrest, passionate restlessness, and activity without deliberate intentions. At such times people wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is a time of great motives, great achievements, great passions among peoples. They then go on a rampage without a clear reason, but not without benefit for future generations. All societies have gone through periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their miracles, their poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is what the necessary social foundations consist of. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved or addicted to; they would be attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating era in the history of peoples is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of it constitutes the joy and instruction of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. First wild barbarism, then crude superstition, then foreign dominion, cruel and humiliating, the spirit of which the national government subsequently inherited - this is the sad story of our youth. The times of overflowing activity, the seething play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like that. 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 enchanting memories, no captivating images in the memory, no effective instructions in the national tradition. 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 powerfully speak about the past and paint it vividly and picturesquely. We live only in the most limited present without a past and without a future, amid flat stagnation. And if we sometimes worry, it is not in anticipation or wishing for some common good, but in the childish frivolity of a baby, when he reaches out and stretches 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 time. While societies still fluctuate without convictions and without rules even in everyday affairs, and life is still completely unordered, how can we expect the rudiments of good to ripen in them? For now, this is still a chaotic fermentation of objects of the moral world, similar to those revolutions in the history of the earth that preceded the modern state of our planet in its present form. We are still in this situation.

Our first years, which passed in motionless savagery, did not leave any trace on our minds and there is nothing personally inherent in us on which our thought could rely; isolated by the strange will of fate from the general movement of mankind, we did not accept 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 identity, like other civilized peoples, we must somehow repeat in ourselves the entire education of the human race. For this we have the history of peoples and before us the results of the movement of centuries. Without a doubt, this task is difficult and one person, perhaps, cannot 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 our place 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 a person’s life, says Cicero, if the memory of past times does not connect the present with the past? We, having been born as illegitimate children, without an inheritance, without connection with the people who preceded us on earth, do not keep in our hearts any of the teachings left before our appearance. It is necessary that each of us himself tries to tie up the broken thread of kinship. What other nations have is simply a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with a hammer blow. Our memories go no further than yesterday; We are, as it were, strangers to ourselves. We move through time so amazingly that, as we move forward, what we have experienced disappears for us irrevocably. This is a natural consequence of a culture that is entirely borrowed and imitative. We have no internal development, no natural progress at all; old ideas are swept away by new ones, because the latter do not come from the former, but appear to 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 furrow our consciousnesses. We grow, but do not mature, we move forward along a curve, i.e. along a line that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who were not forced to reason for themselves, so that when they grow up, there is nothing special about 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 raised by veins, just as people are raised 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 to teach a great lesson to the world. Of course, the instruction that we are destined to be given 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 the fulfillment of our destinies?

The peoples of Europe have a common face, a family resemblance. Despite their division into Latin and Teutonic branches, into southerners and northerners, there is a common connection that unites them all into one, obvious to anyone who delves into their common history. You know that until relatively recently all of Europe bore the name of Christendom and this word was included 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 own share of the common inheritance, without labor, without tension, he selects in life the knowledge scattered in society and uses it. Draw a parallel with what is happening here, and judge for yourself, what elementary ideas can we glean from everyday life, so that we can use them in one way or another for guidance in life? And note that we are talking here not about learning, not about reading, not about anything 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, caress, him mother, about those which, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones along with the air he breathes, and which form his moral nature before going out into the world and appearing in society. Do you want to know what these 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, this is something more than history or psychology, this is the physiology of European man. What do you see with us?

I don’t know whether it is possible to deduce from what has been said just now something completely indisputable and build an immutable position on it; but it is obvious that the soul of each individual from the people must be strongly influenced by such a strange situation, when this people are unable to concentrate their thoughts on a series of ideas that gradually unfolded in society and gradually flowed from one another, when all their participation and general the movement of the human mind comes down to a blind, superficial, very often stupid imitation of other peoples. That is why, as you can see, we all lack some kind of stability, some kind of consistency in the mind, some kind of logic. The syllogism of the West is unfamiliar to us. In our best heads there is something even worse than lightness. The best ideas, devoid of connection and consistency, like fruitless delusions, are paralyzed in our brain. It is the nature of man to become lost when he does not find a way to connect with what came before him and what will come after him; he then loses all firmness, all confidence; not guided by a sense of continuous duration, he feels lost in the world. Such confused creatures are found in all countries; We have this common property. This is not at all the frivolity for which the French were once reproached and which, however, was nothing more than an easy way to comprehend things, which did not exclude either the depth or breadth of the mind, and brought so much charm and charm to the circulation; here is the carelessness of life without experience and foresight, which has nothing to do with anything other than the ghostly existence of an individual, cut off from his environment, not taking into account either honor, or the success of any set of ideas and interests, or even the ancestral heritage of a given family and with all the prescriptions and perspectives that determine both public and private life in a system based on the memory of the past and anxiety for the future. In our heads there is absolutely nothing in common, everything there is isolated and everything there is shaky and incomplete. I even find that in our view there is something strangely vague, 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 fellow countrymen with the faces of local residents and been amazed at the muteness 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 traits of the people’s character, they could not judge it as a whole. They did not notice that the very beginning that sometimes makes us so courageous constantly deprives us of depth and persistence; They did not notice that the property that makes us so indifferent to the vicissitudes of life also causes in us indifference to good and evil, to all truth, to all lies, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of those strong impulses that guide us on the path to improvement; They did not notice that precisely because of such lazy courage, even the highest classes, sadly, are not free from vices that in others are characteristic only of the lowest classes; Finally, they did not notice that if we have some of the advantages of young peoples who are lagging behind civilization, then we do not have any that distinguishes mature and highly cultured peoples. I, of course, 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 examine the common spirit that constitutes their essence, for only this common spirit is capable of elevating them to a more perfect moral state and directing them to endless development, and not this or that trait of their character.

The masses submit to certain forces at the top 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 for all the nations of the earth; the only exceptions are some savage races that have retained only their external appearance from human nature. The primitive peoples of Europe, the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Germans, had their druids, their skalds, their bards, who were strong thinkers in their own way. Look at the peoples of North America, which the material civilization of the United States is eradicating with such zeal: among them there are people of amazing depth. And now, I ask you, where are our sages, where are our thinkers? Which of us has ever thought, who thinks for us now?

Meanwhile, spread out between two great divisions of the world, between East and West, leaning with one elbow on China, the other on Germany, we should have combined two great principles of spiritual nature - imagination and reason, and united in our civilization the history of everything globe. This is not the role that Providence has given us. On the contrary, it seemed that it was not at all concerned with our fate. Denying us its beneficial influence on the human mind, it left us entirely to ourselves, did not want to interfere in our affairs in any way, 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 humanity has been reduced to nothing. Alone 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 . From the very first moments of our social existence, nothing suitable for the common good of people has come from us, not a single useful thought has sprouted in the barren soil of our homeland, not a single great truth has been brought forward from our midst; we did not take the trouble to create anything in the realm of imagination, and from what was created by the imagination of others, we borrowed only deceptive appearances and useless luxury.

Amazing thing! Even in the field of that science, which covers everything, our history is not connected with anything, 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 have been a chapter in world history. To get noticed, we had to stretch from the Bering Strait to the Oder. Once upon a time, a great man decided to civilize us and, in order to instill a desire for enlightenment, he threw us the 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 as victors from one end to the other of Europe; Having returned home from this triumphal procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only bad ideas and disastrous delusions, the consequence 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; for now, no matter what they say, we constitute a gap in the intellectual order. I never cease to be amazed at this emptiness, this amazing isolation of our social existence. Our incomprehensible fate is probably partly to blame for this. But there is also, without a doubt, a share of human participation here, as in everything that happens in the moral world. Let us ask history again: it is history that explains nations.

At a time when, in the midst of the struggle between the powerful barbarism of the peoples of the North and the sublime thought of religion, the edifice of modern civilization was erected, what did we do? By the will of fate, we turned for moral teaching, which was supposed to educate us, to the corrupted Byzantium, to the object of deep contempt of these peoples. Just before this family was stolen from the universal brotherhood by one ambitious mind; and we perceived the idea in a form so distorted by human passion. In Europe at that time everything was animated by the life-giving principle of unity. Everything there came from him, everything converged to him. The entire mental movement of that time only sought 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 principle, we became victims of conquest. And when, then, having freed ourselves from the foreign yoke, we could have taken advantage of the ideas that had blossomed during this time among our brothers in the West, we found ourselves torn away from the common family, we fell into slavery, even more severe, and, moreover, sanctified by the very fact of our liberation.

How many bright rays had already flashed among the apparent darkness covering Europe. Most of the knowledge that the human mind is now proud of was already guessed in the minds; the character of the new society had already been determined and, turning back to pagan antiquity, the Christian world again acquired the format of beauty, which it still lacked. Nothing that was happening in Europe reached us, who were isolated in our schism. 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 powers with which she has enriched the human mind; these morals, which, under the influence of submission to unarmed power, became as soft as they were previously cruel - all this has passed us by. Despite the name of Christians that we bore, at the very time when Christianity marched majestically along the path indicated by its divine founder, and carried away generations with it, we did not move from our place. The whole world was being rebuilt anew, but nothing was being created for us: we still huddled in our huts made 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 that our prevailing assumption is that we can immediately assimilate this progress of the peoples of Europe, which took place so slowly and, moreover, under the direct and obvious influence of one moral force, without even bothering to find out how it happened?

Those who do not notice its purely historical side, which constitutes such an essential part of the doctrine, that to some extent it contains the whole philosophy of Christianity, since it is here that it is revealed what it has done for people and what it has to do for them, understand nothing about Christianity. them in the future. In this sense, the Christian religion is revealed not only as a system of morality perceived in the transitory forms of the human mind, but also as a divine eternal power acting in a universal manner in the spiritual world, so that its visible manifestation should serve as constant instruction to us. This is the proper meaning of the dogma expressed in the symbol of faith of the one universal church.

In the Christian world, everything must certainly contribute to the establishment of a perfect system on earth, and in fact leads to this. Otherwise, deeds would refute the words of the Savior. He wouldn't be among his church until the end of time. The new order - the kingdom of God, which must come thanks to redemption - would not differ from the old order - from the kingdom of evil - which must be eradicated by redemption, and we would again be left with this imaginary property of indispensable perfection, which philosophy dreams of and which is 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 cast him into an even deeper abyss.

But aren’t we Christians, you 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 think that in the Christianity of the Abyssinians and in the civilization of the Japanese the order of things that I just spoke about and which constitutes the final destination of the human race has been realized? Do you really think that these absurd deviations 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 not able to capture all the time in which the eternal plans of divine wisdom are realized. We need to distinguish between the divine action that manifests itself at a given time in a person's life, and that action that manifests itself only in infinity. On the day of the final completion of the work of redemption, all hearts and all minds will form only one feeling and only one thought, and all the walls dividing nations and religions will fall. But nowadays it is important for everyone to know their place in the general structure 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 human society as a whole.

Therefore, there must certainly be a special circle of ideas within which there is a fermentation of minds in the society where this goal should 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 among different peoples, nevertheless in relation to us, as in relation to all non-European peoples, create the same peculiarity and behavior, as a consequence of that enormous spiritual work during eighteen centuries, in which all the passions, all the interests, all the sufferings, all the imaginations, all the efforts of the mind participated.

All the peoples of Europe, moving from century to century, walked hand in hand. Whatever they do now, each in their own way, they still constantly converge on the same path. To understand the family resemblance in the development of these peoples, you don’t even need to study history: just read Thassa and you will see all the peoples prostrate at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. Remember that for fifteen centuries they had only one language when addressing 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 voices to the Supreme Being, glorifying him in the greatest of his benefits: a wondrous consonance, a thousand times more majestic than all the harmonies of the physical world. After this, it is clear that if the sphere in which 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 creed kept us out of this universal movement, in which the social idea of ​​Christianity has developed and received definite expression, and we have been classed among the peoples who are destined to use the full influence of Christianity only indirectly and with great delay, it is necessary to strive in every way to revive our beliefs and our truly Christian motivation, because Christianity accomplished everything there. So this is what I meant when I spoke about the need to begin again the education of the human race.

The entire history of the new society occurs 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 him always followed ideas and never preceded them. In this society, interests were constantly created from beliefs; interests never gave rise to beliefs. All political revolutions there were essentially moral revolutions. They sought the truth and found freedom and prosperity. This is the only way to explain the exceptional phenomenon of the new society and its civilization; otherwise nothing in it could be understood.

Religious persecution, martyrdom, the spread of Christianity, heresies, councils: these are the events that filled 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 continued spread of religion in the countries of the north - this is what the next era was filled with. Then comes the highest enthusiastic rise of religious feeling and the consolidation 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 current state of societies is 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 admiring 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 social development must have left on the character of these peoples, entirely caused, both for good and for evil, by one feeling. Let superficial philosophy make as much noise as it wants about religious wars, bonfires lit by intolerance; as for us, we can only envy the fate of the peoples who, in this clash of beliefs, in these bloody battles in defense of the truth, created for themselves a world of concepts that we cannot even imagine, much less be transported there body and soul, as we We claim this.

I repeat once again: of course, in European countries 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-term concatenation of acts and ideas that created the current state of society, and here, by the way, is an example of this. The people whose personality is most clearly defined, whose institutions always reflect more new spirit, - the British, - strictly speaking, have no history other than the church one. Their last revolution, to which they owe their freedom and prosperity, as well as the whole sequence of events leading to this revolution, starting with Henry VIII, is nothing more than a religious development. Throughout this entire period, strictly political interests appeared only as secondary motives, and sometimes they completely disappeared or were sacrificed to convictions. And as I write these lines, again the religious question worries this chosen country. And in general, which of the peoples of Europe would not find in its national self-consciousness, if it bothered to look, this special feature, which, like a holy covenant, was a constant life-giving principle, the soul of its social existence throughout the entire continuation of its existence.

The effect of Christianity is by no means limited to its immediate and direct influence on the soul of people. The strongest influence which it is designed to exert is exercised in a multitude of moral, mental and social combinations, where the complete freedom of the human spirit must necessarily find unlimited scope. So, it is clear that everything that has happened since 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 contained in its entirety, with all the attacks on Christianity, including the general the idea of ​​his influence. To be convinced of the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy, it is enough to observe the widespread establishment of his dominion in hearts, whether consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or against the will. And therefore, despite everything that is unfinished, vicious and criminal in European society, as it has now developed, yet the kingdom of God, in a certain sense, is really realized in it, because this society contains within itself the beginning of endless progress and has in the germ and in the elements everything necessary for his 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 this in a work unknown to you.

“There is no doubt,” I wrote, “that while you do not notice the influence of Christianity wherever human thought collides with it in any way, even if only for the purpose of struggle, you do not have a clear idea of ​​it. Wherever the name of Christ is pronounced, it in itself irresistibly captivates people, no matter what they do. Nothing reveals more accurately the divine origin of this religion than its characteristic feature of absolute universality, as a result of which it takes root in souls in all possible ways, takes possession of their minds without their knowledge, dominates them, subjugates them. even when they seem to resist most strongly, introducing into the consciousness hitherto alien truths, forcing the heart to experience previously unexperienced impressions, instilling in us feelings that imperceptibly force us to take a place in the general order. This determines the action. every individuality and everything is directed towards one goal. With such a view of Christianity, every utterance of Christ becomes a tangible truth, and then one clearly discerns the action of all the levers that his almighty right hand puts into play to direct a person to his destiny, without encroaching on his freedom, without fettering any of his natural powers, but, on the contrary, causing their highest tension and exciting to infinity all his own power, no matter how much it is in him. Then it is striking that in the new routine not a single moral element is left without action, that everything finds a place and application in it, the most active gifts of the mind, as well as the hot 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 causes it to beat, the thought of revelation captures everything, grows and strengthens 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 floats in the ether and is full of images; in a tender and loving heart it comes from mercy and love; she always goes along with every consciousness entrusted to her, filling it with heat, strength and light. See what a variety of properties, what a multitude of forces it sets in motion, how many different faculties it merges into one, how many dissimilar hearts it makes beat for one and the same idea! But even more striking is the effect of Christianity on society as a whole. Take a look at the whole picture of the development of the new society and you will see that Christianity transforms all the interests of people into its own, everywhere replacing material needs with moral needs, arousing great debates in the field of thought, which history has not observed in any other era and in no other society , causing a fierce struggle between beliefs, so that the life of peoples turned into a great idea and into an all-encompassing feeling; you will see that in Christianity, and only in it, everything was allowed: private life 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 stirred up in the world by God himself, carry in their hearts the inner consciousness of the action they perform; but not all tools in this movement are active, not all work consciously; the masses, of necessity, move blindly, like inanimate atoms, inert masses that do not know the forces that set them in motion, without discerning the goal towards which they are drawn.”

It's time to turn to you again, madam. I must admit, it is difficult for me to tear myself away from these broad horizons. From this height a picture opens before my eyes from which I will draw all my consolation; in the sweet aspiration of the future bliss of people is my refuge, when, under the weight of the sad reality surrounding me, I feel the need to breathe cleaner air, look at a clearer sky. However, I don't think I abused your time. It was necessary to find out the point of view from which you should look at the Christian world and what we are doing in this world. I should have seemed bilious to you in my reviews of my homeland: however, I told only the truth and not even the whole truth. Moreover, the Christian consciousness does not tolerate any blindness, and least of all other national prejudices, since it most of all divides people.

My letter took too long, madam. I think we should both take a break. At first it seemed to me that I could convey to you what I had in mind in a few words. On reflection, I find that there is a whole volume of material here. Does this suit you, madam? You tell me that. In any case, you cannot avoid the second letter, for we have just begun to the essence of the matter. Meanwhile, I will be very grateful to you if you consider the length of the first letter to be compensation for the time of your forced wait. I put pen to paper on the very day I received the letter. Sad and tiresome 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 mess, which was completely unreadable. This time you won't have to wait long: tomorrow I'll take up my pen again.

A.S. KHOMYAKOV

Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich (1804-1860) - Russian religious philosopher,publicist, founder of Slavophilism.

The short passage presented to the reader's attention clearly reflects the viewsThe author’s views on the originality of Russia, the meaning of its “primordial beginnings.” Speaking againstblind copying of European culture, Khomyakov at the same time considers it necessary to critically assimilate everything positive that has accumulated in the Western CapeI pour.

From the preface to “Russian Conversation”

When Russian society came face to face with Western science, amazed, blinded by the newly discovered treasures, it rushed towards them with all the passion of which its somewhat lazy nature was only capable. It seemed to him that only now had mental and spiritual life begun for the Russian land, that before that it either had not lived at all, or at least had not done anything that would be worth remembering in the human race. But it really wasn't like that at all. The Russian spirit created the Russian land itself in its infinite volume, a community, the best form of coexistence within narrow limits; The Russian spirit understood the holiness of the family and placed it as the purest and unshakable foundation of the entire social edifice; he developed in the people all their moral strength, faith in holy truth, indestructible patience and complete humility. Such were his deeds, the fruits of God’s mercy, which illuminated him with the full light of Orthodoxy. Now, when thought has become stronger in knowledge, when the very course of history, revealing the secret principles of social phenomena, has exposed in many ways the lies of the Western world, and when our consciousness has appreciated (although, perhaps not yet fully) the strength and beauty of our primordial principles, we are presented with reconsider all those provisions, all those conclusions made by Western science, which we believe so unconditionally; we must subject the entire shaky edifice of our enlightenment to a dispassionate criticism of our own spiritual principles and thereby give it indestructible strength. At the same time, we have the responsibility to wisely assimilate every new fruit of Western thought, which is still so rich and worthy of study, so as not to find ourselves behind at a time when the wealth of our data imposes on us the obligation to strive for first place in the ranks of enlightened humanity (C . 515-516).

Khomyakov A.S. Op. M., 1861. T. 1

Quote from: Social philosophy: Reader. Part 2. – M.: Higher. school, 1994. – P. 85 – 86.

I.V. KIREEVSKY

Kireevsky Ivan Vasilievich (1806-1856) - Russian philosopher, publicist, founderfounder of Slavophilism.

The text reflects the criticism of the one-sided rationalism of the European Enlightenment, characteristic of Khomyakov’s work. The author contrasts thisone-sidedness, the unity of faith and knowledge, science and morality characteristic of Russia,reveals the role of the customs of Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church throughout history and culturetour of Russia.

From the article “In response to A.S. Khomyakov"

The question is usually proposed in this way: was the former Russia, in which the order of things was composed of its own elements, better or worse than the present Russia, where the order of things is subject to the predominance of the Western element? - If the former Russia was better than the present one, they usually say, then one must want to return the old, exclusively Russian and destroy the Western, distorting the Russian peculiarity: if the former Russia was worse, then we must try to introduce everything Western and destroy the Russian peculiarity.

The syllogism, it seems to me, is not entirely correct. If the old was better than the present, it does not follow from this that it is better now. What was suitable at one time under one circumstance may not be suitable at another, under other circumstances: If the old was worse, then it also does not follow that its elements could not themselves develop into something better, if only this development was not stopped by the forcible introduction of an alien element. The young oak, of course, is shorter than the same year-old willow, which is visible from afar, gives shade early, looks like a tree early and is suitable for firewood. But you, of course, will not serve the oak tree by grafting a willow tree onto it.

Thus, the question itself is proposed unsatisfactorily. Instead of asking: was the old Russia better? - it seems more useful to ask: to improve our lives, is it now necessary to return to the old Russian, or is it necessary to develop elements of the Western, the opposite of it? (pp. 188-189).

Last time I did not finish my article, and therefore I am obliged to continue it now. I talked about the difference between education in Russia and the West. Our educational beginning was in our church. There, together with Christianity, the still fruitful remnants of the ancient pagan world acted on the development of enlightenment. Western Christianity itself, having separated from the Universal Church, took into itself the germ of that principle that constituted the general shade of all Greek-pagan development: the beginning of rationalism. That is why the character of European education is distinguished by a predominance of rationality... But at first rationalism... appears only in embryo. The Roman Church separated from the Eastern Church in that it replaced some dogmas that existed in the tradition of all Christianity with others, as a result of inference. Some were spread as a result of the same logical process, and also in opposition to the tradition and spirit of the Universal Church. Thus, logical conviction formed the very first foundation of Catholicism. But this limited the effect of rationality at first. The internal and external structure of the church, which had already been completed in a different spirit, until then existed without obvious change, until the entire body of church teaching passed into the consciousness of the thinking part of the clergy. This was accomplished in scholastic philosophy, which, due to the logical principle at the very foundation of the Church, could not otherwise reconcile the contradiction of faith and reason except by the power of syllogism, which thus became the first condition of any conviction. At first, naturally, this same syllogism proved faith against reason and subordinated reason to it by the power of reasonable arguments. But this faith, logically proven and logically opposed to reason, was no longer a living, but a formal faith, not faith as such, but only a logical negation of reason. Therefore, during this period of scholastic development of Catholicism, precisely because of its rationality, the Western Church is an enemy of reason, an oppressive, murderous, desperate enemy of it. But having developed to the extreme... this unconditional destruction of reason produced that well-known counteraction, the consequences of which constitute the character of the present enlightenment...

Eastern Christianity did not know either this struggle of faith against “reason,” or this triumph of reason over faith. Therefore, his actions towards enlightenment were not like Catholic ones.

Considering the social structure of former Russia, we find many differences from the West, and firstly: the formation of society into small so-called worlds. Private, personal identity, the basis of Western development, was as little known to us as public autocracy. Man belonged to the world, the world belonged to him. Landed property, the basis of personal rights in the West, was a part of society in our country. A person participated in the right of ownership insofar as he was part of the society.

But this society was not autocratic and could not organize itself, because it was not separated from others like it, governed by a monotonous custom. The countless number of these small worlds that made up Russia were all covered with a network of churches, the dwellings of solitary hermits, from where the same concepts about the relations of public and private were constantly spreading everywhere. These concepts little by little had to turn into a general conviction, a conviction into a custom that replaced the law, arranging throughout the entire expanse of lands subject to our Church one thought, one view, one aspiration, one order of life. This universal uniformity of the custom was probably one of the reasons for its incredible strength, which has preserved its living remains even to our time, despite all the resistance of the destructive influences that for 200 years have sought to introduce new principles into its place.

As a result of these strong, uniform and ubiquitous customs, any change in the social structure that was inconsistent with the structure of the whole was impossible. Everyone's family relationships were determined before he was born; in the same predetermined order the family was subordinated to the world, the wider world to the gathering, the gathering to the veche, etc., until all private circles closed in one center, in one Orthodox Church. No private understanding, no artificial agreement could establish a new order, invent new rights and advantages (pp. 193-195).

In Russia, we do not know well the boundaries of princely power before the subordination of the appanage principalities to Moscow; but if we realize that the force of unchangeable custom made any autocratic legislation impossible; that the analysis and trial, which in some cases belonged to the prince, could not be carried out inconsistently with comprehensive customs, nor the interpretation of these customs, for the same reason, could not be arbitrary; that the general course of affairs belonged to the worlds and orders, which also judged according to centuries-old custom and therefore known to everyone; finally, that in extreme cases, a prince who violated the correctness of his relations with the people and the church was expelled by the people themselves - having realized all this, it seems obvious that the prince’s own power consisted more in the leadership of squads than in internal government, more in armed patronage, than in the possession of areas.

In general, it seems that Russia was just as little known to the smaller rulers of the West, who used society as soulless property for their personal benefit, just as it was unknown to the noble knights of the West, who relied on personal strength, fortresses and iron armor, who did not recognize any other law than own sword, and conditional rules of honor based on the law of self-government (p. 196).

What is the result of all this? Do we want to return the past to Russia, and is it possible to return it? If it is true that the very peculiarity of Russian life lay in its living origin from pure Christianity and that this form fell along with the weakening of the spirit, then now this dead form would have absolutely no importance. Returning her by force would be ridiculous, even if it were not harmful. But only those who do not believe that Russia will someday return to that life-giving spirit that the Church breathes can destroy the remaining forms (p. 200).

KireyevskyI.V.Op.M., 1861. T.1

Quote from: Social philosophy: Reader. Part 2. – M.: Higher. school, 1994. – P. 86 – 89.

Adveniat regnum tuurn Thy kingdom come 1

Madam.

Straightforwardness and sincerity are precisely the traits that I love and value most in you. Judge for yourself how your letter must have struck me. These very kind qualities of yours charmed me when we met, and they prompted me to talk to you about religion. Everything around you called me to silence. I repeat, judge what my surprise was when I received your letter. That's all I have to tell you, madam, about the assumptions expressed there about my assessment of your character. Let us say no more about this and go straight to the essential part of your letter.

And, first of all, where does this confusion come from in your mind, which worries and tires you so much that, according to you, it also affects your health? Is this really a sad consequence of our conversations? Instead of the calm and peace that the awakened feeling in the heart should have brought, it caused anxiety, doubts, and almost remorse. However, why be surprised? This is a natural consequence of the sad state of affairs to which all our hearts and all our minds are subject. You have simply succumbed to the forces that set everything in motion among us, from the very heights of society to the slave who exists only for the pleasure of his master.

And how could you resist this? 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 clear the atmosphere we live in? I should have foreseen the consequences, and I did. Hence the frequent silences that prevented convictions from penetrating your soul and naturally misled you. And if only I were not sure that a religious feeling awakened at least partially in someone’s heart, no matter how much torment it causes him, is still better than completely putting him to sleep, I would have to repent of my zeal. However, I hope that the clouds that now darken your sky will one day turn into fertile dew and it will fertilize the seed thrown into your heart; and the effect of a few worthless words on you serves me as a sure guarantee of more significant results, which the work of your own consciousness will certainly cause in the future. Feel free to turn, madam, to the disturbances caused in you by thoughts of religion: from this pure source only pure feelings can flow.

In relation to external conditions, it is enough for you to know for now that a teaching based on the highest principle of unity and the direct transmission of truth in the continuous succession of its servants can only be most consistent with the true spirit of religion, because this spirit lies entirely in the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bmerging all, no matter how many of them there are in the world, moral forces - in one thought, in 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, due to the mere falling away from the original teaching, pushes far away from itself the sublime appeal of the Savior: “I pray you, Father, that they may be one, just as we are one.” 3 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 publicly proclaim this truth before the face of the earth: of course, this is not your calling. The very beginning from which this truth comes obliges you, on the contrary, in your position in the world, to see in it only the inner light of your faith - and nothing more. I consider it fortunate that I contributed to the conversion of your thoughts to religion, but I would feel very unhappy, madam, if at the same time I caused confusion in your mind, which, over time, could not help but cool your faith.

I think I once told you that the best way to preserve religious feeling is to adhere to all the customs prescribed by the church. This exercise in submission is more important than is usually thought; and the fact that it was imposed upon themselves thoughtfully and consciously by the greatest minds is a real service to God. Nothing so strengthens the mind in its beliefs as the strict fulfillment of all the duties pertaining to them. However, most of the rites of the Christian religion, emanating from the higher mind, are an effective force for everyone who is able to penetrate the truths expressed in them. There is only one exception to this rule, which is unconditional, 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 at all 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 mistake the illusions of his vanity or the delusions of his mind for an extraordinary insight that frees him from the general law. And you, madam, wouldn’t it be best to put on the clothes of humility, so suitable for your sex? Believe me, this will best calm the confusion of your spirit and bring peace into 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 pursuits and serious reflections 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 the beautiful countryside at sunset, bring peace to the soul and lift us for a moment from the painful or colorless reality. But these are not fantastic pictures at all: the implementation of one of these captivating fictions depends only on you. You have everything you need for this. As you can see, I am not at all preaching too strict a morality to you: in your tastes, in the most pleasant dreams of your imagination, I am looking for what can bring peace to your soul.

In life there are circumstances that relate not to physical, but to spiritual existence; they should not be neglected; There is a regime for the soul, just as there is a regime for the body: you must be able to obey it. I know this is an old truth, but with us it seems to have all the value of newness. 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 us. The fact is that we have never walked together 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 one. We stand, as it were, outside of time; the universal education of the human race has not extended to us. The marvelous connection of human ideas in the succession of generations and the history of the human spirit, which led it throughout the rest of the world to its modern state, have had no effect on us. However, what has long been the very essence of society and life is still only theory and speculation for us. And, for example, you, madam, so happily gifted for the perception of everything good and true in the world, you, as if created to experience all the sweetest and purest spiritual pleasures, what, one wonders, have you achieved with all these advantages? You still have to look for something to fill not even your life, but only the current day. However, you are completely deprived of what creates the necessary framework of 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, we are not yet talking about moral principles or philosophical principles, but simply about a well-ordered life, about these habits, about these skills of consciousness that give comfort to the mind and soul, ease, measured movement.

Take a look around. Does anything stand strong? We can say that the whole world is on the move. No one has a specific sphere of activity, there are no good habits, there are no rules for anything, there is not even a home, nothing that binds, that awakens your sympathies, your love; nothing stable, nothing permanent; everything flows, everything disappears, leaving no traces either outside or inside you. In our houses we seem to be assigned to stay; in families we look like strangers; in the cities we are like nomads, we are worse than the nomads grazing their herds in our steppes, for they are more attached to their deserts than we are to our cities. And don’t think that this is nothing. 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, without deviating 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 violent unrest, passionate restlessness, and activity without deliberate intentions. At such times people wander around the world and their spirit wanders. This is a time of great motives, great achievements, great passions among peoples. They then go on a rampage without a clear reason, but not without benefit for future generations. All societies have gone through periods when they develop their most vivid memories, their miracles, their poetry, their most powerful and fruitful ideas. This is what the necessary social foundations consist of. Without this, they would not have retained in their memory anything that could be loved or addicted to; they would be attached only to the dust of their land. This fascinating era in the history of peoples is their youth; this is the time when their talents develop most strongly, and the memory of it constitutes the joy and instruction of their mature age. We, on the contrary, had nothing of the kind. First wild barbarism, then crude superstition, then foreign dominion, cruel and humiliating, the spirit of which the national government subsequently inherited - this is the sad story of our youth. The times of overflowing activity, the seething play of the moral forces of the people - we had nothing like that. 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 enchanting memories, no captivating images in the memory, no effective instructions in the national tradition. 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 powerfully speak about the past and paint it vividly and picturesquely. We live only in the most limited present without a past and without a future, amid flat stagnation. And if we sometimes worry, it is not in anticipation or wishing for some common good, but in the childish frivolity of a baby, when he reaches out and stretches 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 time. While societies still fluctuate without convictions and without rules even in everyday affairs, and life is still completely unordered, how can we expect the rudiments of good to ripen in them? While this is still a chaotic fermentation of objects of the moral world, similar to those revolutions in the history of the earth that preceded the modern state of our planet in its present form 4 . We are still in this situation.

Our first years, which passed in motionless savagery, did not leave any trace on our minds and there is nothing personally inherent in us on which our thought could rely; isolated by the strange will of fate from the general movement of mankind, we did not accept 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 identity, like other civilized peoples, we must somehow repeat in ourselves the entire education of the human race. For this we have the history of peoples and before us the results of the movement of centuries. Without a doubt, this task is difficult and one person, perhaps, cannot 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 our place 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 human life, says Cicero? 5 , if the memory of past times does not connect the present with the past? We, having been born as illegitimate children, without an inheritance, without connection with the people who preceded us on earth, do not keep in our hearts any of the teachings left before our appearance. It is necessary that each of us himself tries to tie up the broken thread of kinship. What other nations have is simply a habit, an instinct, we have to hammer into our heads with a hammer blow. Our memories go no further than yesterday; We are, as it were, strangers to ourselves. We move through time so amazingly that, as we move forward, what we have experienced disappears for us irrevocably. This is a natural consequence of a culture that is entirely borrowed and imitative. We have no internal development, no natural progress at all; old ideas are swept away by new ones, because the latter do not come from the former, but appear to 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 furrow our consciousnesses. We grow, but do not mature, we move forward along a curve, i.e. along a line that does not lead to the goal. We are like those children who were not forced to reason for themselves, so that when they grow up, there is nothing special about 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 raised by veins, just as people are raised 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 to teach a great lesson to the world. Of course, the instruction that we are destined to be given 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 the fulfillment of our destinies?

The peoples of Europe have a common face, a family resemblance. Despite their division into Latin and Teutonic branches, into southerners and northerners, there is a common connection that unites them all into one, obvious to anyone who delves into their common history. You know that until relatively recently all of Europe bore the name of Christendom and this word was included 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 own share of the common inheritance, without labor, without tension, he selects in life the knowledge scattered in society and uses it. Draw a parallel with what is happening here, and judge for yourself, what elementary ideas can we glean from everyday life, so that we can use them in one way or another for guidance in life? And note that we are talking here not about learning, not about reading, not about anything 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, caress, him mother, about those which, in the form of various feelings, penetrate to the marrow of his bones along with the air he breathes, and which form his moral nature before going out into the world and appearing in society. Do you want to know what these 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, this is something more than history or psychology, this is the physiology of European man. What do you see with us?

I don’t know whether it is possible to deduce from what has been said just now something completely indisputable and build an immutable position on it; but it is obvious that the soul of each individual person from the people must be strongly influenced by such a strange situation, when this people is not able to concentrate its thoughts on a series of ideas that gradually unfolded in society and gradually flowed from one another, when all its participation and general the movement of the human mind comes down to a blind, superficial, very often stupid imitation of other peoples. That is why, as you can see, we all lack some kind of stability, some kind of consistency in the mind, some kind of logic. The syllogism of the West is unfamiliar to us. In our best heads there is something even worse than lightness. The best ideas, devoid of connection and consistency, like fruitless delusions, are paralyzed in our brain. It is the nature of man to become lost when he does not find a way to connect with what came before him and what will come after him; he then loses all firmness, all confidence; not guided by a sense of continuous duration, he feels lost in the world. Such confused creatures are found in all countries; We have this common property. This is not at all the frivolity for which the French were once reproached and which, however, was nothing more than an easy way to comprehend things, which did not exclude either the depth or breadth of the mind, and brought so much charm and charm to the circulation; here is the carelessness of life without experience and foresight, which has nothing to do with anything other than the ghostly existence of an individual, cut off from his environment, not taking into account either honor, or the success of any set of ideas and interests, or even the ancestral heritage of a given family and with all the prescriptions and perspectives that determine both public and private life in a system based on the memory of the past and anxiety for the future. In our heads there is absolutely nothing in common, everything there is isolated and everything there is shaky and incomplete. I even find that in our view there is something strangely vague, 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 fellow countrymen with the faces of local residents and been amazed at the muteness 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 traits of the people’s character, they could not judge it as a whole. They did not notice that the very beginning that sometimes makes us so courageous constantly deprives us of depth and persistence; They did not notice that the property that makes us so indifferent to the vicissitudes of life also causes in us indifference to good and evil, to all truth, to all lies, and that it is precisely this that deprives us of those strong impulses that guide us on the path to improvement; They did not notice that precisely because of such lazy courage, even the highest classes, sadly, are not free from vices that in others are characteristic only of the lowest classes; Finally, they did not notice that if we have some of the advantages of young peoples who are lagging behind civilization, then we do not have any that distinguishes mature and highly cultured peoples. I, of course, 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 examine the common spirit that constitutes their essence, for only this common spirit is capable of elevating them to a more perfect moral state and directing them to endless development, and not this or that trait of their character.

The masses submit to certain forces at the top 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 for all the nations of the earth; the only exceptions are some savage races that have retained only their external appearance from human nature. The primitive peoples of Europe, the Celts, Scandinavians, Germans, had their druids 7, their skalds 8, their bards 9, who were strong thinkers in their own way. Look at the peoples of North America, which the material civilization of the United States is eradicating with such zeal: among them there are people of amazing depth. And now, I ask you, where are our sages, where are our thinkers? Which of us has ever thought, who thinks for us now?

Meanwhile, spread out between two great divisions of the world, between East and West, leaning with one elbow on China, the other on Germany, we should have combined two great principles of spiritual nature - imagination and reason, and united in our civilization the history of everything globe. This is not the role that Providence has given us. On the contrary, it seemed that it was not at all concerned with our fate. Denying us its beneficial influence on the human mind, it left us entirely to ourselves, did not want to interfere in our affairs in any way, 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 humanity has been reduced to nothing. Alone 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 . From the very first moments of our social existence, nothing suitable for the common good of people has come from us, not a single useful thought has sprouted in the barren soil of our homeland, not a single great truth has been brought forward from our midst; we did not take the trouble to create anything in the realm of imagination, and from what was created by the imagination of others, we borrowed only deceptive appearances and useless luxury.

Amazing thing! Even in the field of that science, which covers everything, our history is not connected with anything, 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 have been a chapter in world history. To get noticed, we had to stretch from the Bering Strait to the Oder. Once a great man 10 decided to civilize us and, in order to instill a desire for enlightenment, threw us the cloak of civilization; we lifted the cloak, but did not touch enlightenment. Another time, another great monarch 11, introducing us to his glorious appointment, led us as victors from one end to the other of Europe 12; Having returned home from this triumphal procession through the most enlightened countries of the world, we brought with us only bad ideas and disastrous delusions, the consequence of which was an immeasurable disaster that threw us back half a century 13 . 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; for now, no matter what they say, we constitute a gap in the intellectual order. I never cease to be amazed at this emptiness, this amazing isolation of our social existence. Our incomprehensible fate is probably partly to blame for this. But there is also, without a doubt, a share of human participation here, as in everything that happens in the moral world. Let us ask history again: it is history that explains nations.

At a time when, in the midst of the struggle between the powerful barbarism of the peoples of the North and the sublime thought of religion, the edifice of modern civilization was erected, what did we do? By the will of fate, we turned for moral teaching, which was supposed to educate us, to the corrupted Byzantium, to the object of deep contempt of these peoples. Just before this family was stolen from the universal brotherhood by an ambitious mind i ; and we perceived the idea in a form so distorted by human passion. In Europe at that time everything was animated by the life-giving principle of unity. Everything there came from him, everything converged to him. The entire mental movement of that time only sought 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 principle, we became victims of conquest. And when, then, having freed ourselves from the foreign yoke, we could have taken advantage of the ideas that had blossomed during this time among our brothers in the West, we found ourselves torn away from the common family, we fell into slavery, even more severe, and, moreover, sanctified by the very fact of our liberation.

How many bright rays had already flashed among the apparent darkness covering Europe. Most of the knowledge that the human mind is now proud of was already guessed in the minds; the character of the new society had already been determined and, turning back to pagan antiquity, the Christian world again acquired the format of beauty, which it still lacked. Nothing that was happening in Europe reached us, who were isolated in our schism. 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 powers with which she has enriched the human mind; these morals, which, under the influence of submission to unarmed power, became as soft as they were previously cruel - all this has passed us by. Despite the name of Christians that we bore, at the very time when Christianity marched majestically along the path indicated by its divine founder, and carried away generations with it, we did not move from our place. The whole world was being rebuilt anew, but nothing was being created for us: we still huddled in our huts made 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 that our prevailing assumption is that we can immediately assimilate this progress of the peoples of Europe, which took place so slowly and, moreover, under the direct and obvious influence of one moral force, without even bothering to find out how it happened?

Those who do not notice its purely historical side, which constitutes such an essential part of the doctrine, that to some extent it contains the whole philosophy of Christianity, since it is here that it is revealed what it has done for people and what it has to do for them, understand nothing about Christianity. them in the future. In this sense, the Christian religion is revealed not only as a system of morality perceived in the transitory forms of the human mind, but also as a divine eternal power acting in a universal manner in the spiritual world, so that its visible manifestation should serve as constant instruction to us. This is the proper meaning of the dogma expressed in the symbol of faith of the one universal church 14.

In the Christian world, everything must certainly contribute to the establishment of a perfect system on earth, and in fact leads to this. Otherwise, deeds would refute the words of the Savior. He wouldn't be among his church until the end of time. The new order - the kingdom of God, which should come thanks to redemption - would not differ from the old order - from the kingdom of evil - which must be eradicated by redemption, and we would again be left with this imaginary property of indispensable improvement, which philosophy dreams of and which is 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 cast him into an even deeper abyss.

But aren’t we Christians, you 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, if you believe one of our compatriots 15? But do you think that in the Christianity of the Abyssinians and in the civilization of the Japanese the order of things that I just spoke about and which constitutes the final destination of the human race has been realized? Do you really think that these absurd deviations 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 not able to capture all the time in which the eternal plans of divine wisdom are realized. We need to distinguish between the divine action that manifests itself at a given time in a person's life, and that action that manifests itself only in infinity. On the day of the final completion of the work of redemption, all hearts and all minds will form only one feeling and only one thought, and all the walls dividing nations and religions will fall. But nowadays it is important for everyone to know their place in the general structure 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 human society as a whole.

Therefore, there must certainly be a special circle of ideas within which there is a fermentation of minds in the society where this goal should 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 among different peoples, nevertheless in relation to us, as in relation to all non-European peoples, create the same peculiarity and behavior, as a consequence of that enormous spiritual work during eighteen centuries, in which all the passions, all the interests, all the sufferings, all the imaginations, all the efforts of the mind participated.

All the peoples of Europe, moving from century to century, walked hand in hand. Whatever they do now, each in their own way, they still constantly converge on the same path. To understand the family resemblance in the development of these peoples, you do not even need to study history: read only Tassa 16 and you will see all the peoples prostrate at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. Remember that for fifteen centuries they had only one language when addressing 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 voices to the Supreme Being, glorifying him in the greatest of his benefits: a wondrous consonance, a thousand times more majestic than all the harmonies of the physical world. After this, it is clear that if the sphere in which 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 creed kept us out of this universal movement, in which the social idea of ​​Christianity has developed and received definite expression, and we have been classed among the peoples who are destined to use the full influence of Christianity only indirectly and with great delay, it is necessary to strive in every way to revive our beliefs and our truly Christian motivation, because Christianity accomplished everything there. So this is what I meant when I spoke about the need to begin again the education of the human race.

The entire history of the new society occurs 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 him always followed ideas and never preceded them. In this society, interests were constantly created from beliefs; interests never gave rise to beliefs. All political revolutions there were essentially moral revolutions. They sought the truth and found freedom and prosperity. This is the only way to explain the exceptional phenomenon of the new society and its civilization; otherwise nothing in it could be understood.

Religious persecution, martyrdom, the spread of Christianity, heresies, councils: these are the events that filled 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 continued spread of religion in the countries of the north - this is what the next era was filled with. Then comes the highest enthusiastic rise of religious feeling and the consolidation 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 current state of societies is 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 admiring 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 social development must have left on the character of these peoples, entirely caused, both for good and for evil, by one feeling. Let superficial philosophy make as much noise as it wants about religious wars, bonfires lit by intolerance; as for us, we can only envy the fate of the peoples who, in this clash of beliefs, in these bloody battles in defense of the truth, created for themselves a world of concepts that we cannot even imagine, much less be transported there body and soul, as we We claim this.

I repeat once again: of course, in European countries 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-term concatenation of acts and ideas that created the current state of society, and here, by the way, is an example of this. The people whose personality is most clearly defined, whose institutions always most reflect the new spirit - the English - have, strictly speaking, no history other than that of the Church. Their last revolution, 17 to which they owe their freedom and prosperity, as well as the whole sequence of events leading to this revolution, starting with Henry VIII, is nothing more than a religious development. Throughout this entire period, strictly political interests appeared only as secondary motives, and sometimes they completely disappeared or were sacrificed to convictions. And as I write these lines ii, again the religious question worries this chosen country 18. And in general, which of the peoples of Europe would not find in its national self-consciousness, if it bothered to look, this special feature, which, like a holy covenant, was a constant life-giving principle, the soul of its social existence throughout the entire continuation of its existence.

The effect of Christianity is by no means limited to its immediate and direct influence on the soul of people. The strongest influence which it is designed to exert is exercised in a multitude of moral, mental and social combinations, where the complete freedom of the human spirit must necessarily find unlimited scope. So, it is clear that everything that has happened since 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"19, lies entirely, with all the attacks on Christianity, including the general idea of ​​​​its influence. To be convinced of the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy, it is enough to observe the widespread establishment of his dominion in hearts, whether consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or against the will. And therefore, despite everything that is unfinished, vicious and criminal in European society, as it has now developed, yet the kingdom of God, in a certain sense, is really realized in it, because this society contains within itself the beginning of endless progress and has in the germ and in the elements everything necessary for his final establishment in the future on earth.

Before concluding, madam, these reflections on the impact that religion has had on society, I will repeat here what I once said about this in one essay, unknown to you 20.

“There is no doubt,” I wrote, “that as long as you do not notice the influence of Christianity wherever human thought collides with it in any way, 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 itself irresistibly captivates people, no matter what they do. Nothing reveals more accurately the divine origin of this religion than its characteristic feature of absolute universality, as a result of which it takes root in souls in all possible ways, takes possession of the minds without their knowledge, dominates them, subjugates them even when they seem to resist most strongly, introducing at the same time, truths that are hitherto alien to it are brought into consciousness, forcing the heart to experience impressions it has not experienced before, instilling in us feelings that imperceptibly force us to take a place in the general order. By this it determines the action of every individual and directs everything towards one goal. With this view of Christianity, every saying of Christ becomes tangible truth. And then you clearly discern the action of all the levers that his almighty right hand puts into action 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 them to infinity all, no matter how much it contains, of its own power. Then it is striking that in the new routine not a single moral element is left without action, that everything finds a place and application in it, the most active gifts of the mind, as well as the 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 causes it to beat, the thought of revelation captures everything, grows and strengthens 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 floats in the ether and is full of images; in a tender and loving heart it comes from mercy and love; she always goes along with every consciousness entrusted to her, filling it with heat, strength and light. See what a variety of properties, what a multitude of forces it sets in motion, how many different faculties it merges into one, how many dissimilar hearts it makes beat for one and the same idea! But even more striking is the effect of Christianity on society as a whole. Take a look at the whole picture of the development of the new society and you will see that Christianity transforms all the interests of people into its own, everywhere replacing material needs with moral needs, arousing great debates in the field of thought, which history has not observed in any other era and in no other society , causing a fierce struggle between beliefs, so that the life of peoples turned into a great idea and into an all-encompassing feeling; you will see that in Christianity, and only in it, everything was allowed: private life 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 stirred up in the world by God himself, carry in their hearts the inner consciousness of the action they perform; but not all tools in this movement are active, not all work consciously; the masses, of necessity, move blindly, like inanimate atoms, inert masses that do not know the forces that set them in motion, without discerning the goal towards which they are drawn.”

It's time to turn to you again, madam. I must admit, it is difficult for me to tear myself away from these broad horizons. From this height a picture opens before my eyes from which I will draw all my consolation; in the sweet aspiration of the future bliss of people is my refuge, when, under the weight of the sad reality surrounding me, I feel the need to breathe cleaner air, look at a clearer sky. However, I don't think I abused your time. It was necessary to find out the point of view from which you should look at the Christian world and what we are doing in this world. I should have seemed bilious to you in my reviews of my homeland: however, I told only the truth and not even the whole truth. Moreover, the Christian consciousness does not tolerate any blindness, and least of all other national prejudices, since it most of all divides people.

My letter took too long, madam. I think we should both take a break. At first it seemed to me that I could convey to you what I had in mind in a few words. On reflection, I find that there is a whole volume of material here. Does this suit you, madam? You tell me that. In any case, you cannot avoid the second letter, for we have just begun to the essence of the matter. Meanwhile, I will be very grateful to you if you consider the length of the first letter to be compensation for the time of your forced wait. I put pen to paper on the very day I received the letter. Sad and tiresome 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 mess, which was completely unreadable. This time you won't have to wait long: tomorrow I'll take up my pen again.

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“Philosophical Letters” by P.Ya. Chaadaeva. Contents 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 was previously 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 to present his views, which was quite common then.”(Zenkovsky V.V. “History of Russian Philosophy”). Thanks to the choice of the epistolary genre, Chaadaev’s theory takes on the appearance 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 work was truly innovative. The “letters” analyze philosophical and historical problems, problems of the development of Russian society. A whole series of historical patterns are revealed, which are compared with Russian reality and are subjected to sharp criticism.

P.Ya. Chaadaev considers the place of Russia in relation to the general historical process. According to him, each people has its own mission and is called to realize the divine plan. But in Russia, according to Chaadaev, there was no period of great achievements. The entire history of Russia is one of continuous stagnation. “When talking about Russia, people constantly imagine that they are talking about a state like others; in fact this is not the case 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 equally, he is 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 person. It is not firm and objective rules, laws and norms of life, emanating from a source external and independent in relation to the life and consciousness of an individual person, that determine the existence of an entire state, but the arbitrariness or self-will of this individual person.

We can say that the Russian person’s consciousness skills were never developed to the point of automatism by Christian education, and in this sense, he is each time in a state of “movement”, in which there are no rules and certainty of the sphere of activity,” but this also means the universality of the situation of arbitrariness and self-will. This is what Chaadaev means when he writes that Russia has not entered into the scope of the global process of educating the human race with Christianity, and that until now it has been left to its own devices: “ We belong neither to the West nor to the East, and we have no traditions of either. Standing as if outside of time, we were not affected by the worldwide education of the human race.”.

In Russia, conditions have developed that are impossible for a person to live a normal life. Chaadaev derives a joyless existence devoid of human meaning in which there is no place for personality from the no less legal past of the Russian people, which has long been transformed into a morally numb organism. All societies have experienced turbulent eras of transition from youth to maturity, and only in Russia nothing changes: “We grow, but do not mature, we move forward, but along a crooked line; that is, one that does not lead to the goal". And in the past, Chaadaev does not deny such a movement, however, it occurred 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 ferocious and humiliating foreign rule, the despotic spirit of which was inherited by later authorities. Freed from Tatar yoke, the Russians fell into a new slavery - serfdom. Russian history “was filled with a dull and gloomy existence, devoid of strength and energy, which revived nothing except atrocities, nothing absorbed except slavery”.

For Chaadaev himself, Russia’s special position in the world is not a good thing, but a great tragedy. In the “First Philosophical Letter” he bitterly states: “We live alone in the present within its narrowest confines, without past and future... We also have not accepted 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, and has contributed nothing to the historical experience of mankind. In other words, Russia fell away from the unified body of world history and even, as he writes, “got lost on earth.” Finally, Chaadaev argues that Russia constitutes "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 claims that Divine Providence itself “ was not concerned about our fate": “Having excluded us from its beneficial effect on the human mind, it (Providence) left us entirely to ourselves, refused to interfere in any way in our affairs, and 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 for Russia leads Chaadaev to a rather sharp conclusion - he sees this reason in the fact that Russia has adopted Orthodoxy: “Obeying our evil fate, we turned to... Byzantium for the moral code that was to form the basis of our education.”. 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 “beneficent action” was flawed. Recognition of the truth of this thesis meant that the action of Providence is not universal in nature, 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 those nations that, as it were, are not part of humanity, but exist only to give the world some important lesson... And in general, we have lived and continue to live only in order to serve some-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 for Russia, about the great destiny of Russia, which is intended for it by God Himself.

In his first philosophical letter, Chaadaev constantly emphasizes the importance of the spiritual life of people. It is mental progress, progress in education, in mastering advanced ideas, and introducing them into life, that Chaadaev primarily cares about when considering the future of Russia. He notes: “We do not have the development of our own, original, logical improvement. Old ideas are destroyed by new ones, because the latter do not exclude the former, but fall to us from God knows where, our minds are not furrowed with indelible traces of the consistent movement of ideas that constitute their strength, because we borrow ideas that are already developed. We guess, and do not study, we appropriate someone else’s invention with extreme dexterity, we do not invent ourselves.”. Chaadaev was always inclined to the position of the Western path of development of Russia, but already in his first philosophical letter he decisively opposed blind, bad, superficial imitation of foreigners.

P.Ya. Chaadaev puts forward the idea that Russia could be pulled out of its current position and connected to the process of educating the human race through “the revival in all the ways of our beliefs of our truly Christian impulse”. Considering that he connects the process of educating the human race with the development "social idea of ​​Christianity", then this thought can be interpreted as a call to Orthodox Church nevertheless, following the example of the Western church, it took upon itself the role of an organizing principle in the types of social development of society. Which should finally lead to the introduction into life and everyday life Russian society corresponding ideas, traditions and institutions, similar to European ones, and to the formation of the thinking of Russian people, replacing his arbitrariness and self-will 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 is juxtaposed in the Philosophical Letters with another consideration - that, apparently, the current state of Russia - "not to be part of humanity"- still has some definite and reasonable meaning, which is only incomprehensible for now, but will become clear to “distant descendants.” But in this case, the future of Russia should not be connected with its withdrawal from this state, but rather with the preservation and consideration of its current state.

This letter was published in 1836 in the journal Telescope. As Chernyshevsky points out, the letter got into print almost by accident. Stankevich read the “Letters” and managed to interest Belinsky, then the editor-in-chief of Telescope, in them. Society was shocked by the letter. “It was a shot that rang out in dark night; whether something was sinking and announcing its death, whether it was a signal, a call for help, news of the morning or that it would not come - it didn’t matter, you had to wake up.”(A.I. Herzen “The Past and Thoughts”). There was incredible excitement and loud discussions among all thinking circles of society. The letter caused sharp discontent among the authorities, due to the indignation expressed in it about the spiritual stagnation that impedes the fulfillment of the historical mission destined from above. The Telescope magazine, for this publication, was closed, the censor was fired, and Chaadaev, by order of the tsar, was declared crazy.

To summarize, it must be said that the appearance of the “First Philosophical Letter” and the controversy surrounding it had great value for the development of Russian social thought. It contributed to the beginning of the ideological and organizational formation of Slavophilism and Westernism, two trends 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. Third, it affirms the idea that complete deprivation of freedom is the highest level of human perfection. Fourth, it proves that numbers and measures are finite, therefore the Creator cannot be understood by the human mind. In the fifth philosophical letter, the author seems to sum 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 of a methodological nature, the author concludes: “The truth is one: the kingdom of God, heaven on earth, all the promises of the Gospel - all this is nothing more than the insight and implementation of the connections of all the thoughts of humanity in a single thought; and this single thought is the thought of God himself, in other words, the realized moral law.” But these letters were not published.

The first “Philosophical Letter” remained the only work of P.Ya. published during his lifetime. Chaadaeva. The rest of the philosopher's works became available to a wide range of readers only many years after the author's death.

Job description

“Philosophical Letters” is one of the first Russian original philosophical and historical treatises. The work was truly innovative. The “letters” analyze philosophical and historical problems, problems of the development of Russian society. A whole series of historical patterns are revealed, which are compared with Russian reality and are subjected to sharp criticism.