Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/247



HE decabrist rising was suppressed in blood, Poland was pacified, and under the supervision of the third section Count Uvarov, in the name of the official trinity of Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality, had just proclaimed the infallibility of Tsar Nicholas' policy, when there suddenly appeared Čaadaev's Philosophic Writing wherein in the name of religion Uvarov's formula and the entire history of Russia were declared null. Petr Jakovlevič Čaadaev was born in Moscow on May 17, 1794. His mother was the daughter of Prince Ščerbatov the historian, and, after the early death of his parents, Petr and his brother Mihail, his elder by eighteen months, were brought up by his aunt Princess Ščerbatova. Čaadaev was well read at an early age. Entering the army in 1812, he was under fire at Borodino, Leipzig, and elsewhere, and sent in his papers in 1821. He associated freely with the decabrists, and was for a time an active freemason, but Ieft his lodge in 1818. The years 1823 to 1836 were spent in a visit to Europe. Upon his return to Russian soil he was arrested for complicity in the decabrist rising, but was set at liberty after a brief examination. He lived in Moscow, solitary at first, just as in Europe he had lived a lonely life, for in 1820 he had experienced a spiritual conversion, immersing himself in the study of certain mystics, and it seems that the state of his nervous system was not perfectly normal. His brother was likewise an eccentric, living an isolated village life, haunted by fears inspired by the decabrist rising. But in the year 1831, Petr Čaadaev, acting upon medical advice, joined the English club, and spent the rest of his days moving in the best circles of Moscow society, delighting in the impression he produced, not only by his philosophic views, but also by his faultless attire and by his studied courtliness of manner. Count Pozzo di Borgo, the celebrated Corsican in the Russian service, described Čaadaev as "un russe parfaitement comme il faut." Čaadaev never left Moscow, not even during the summer months, and died there on April 14, 1856. His literary reputation was secured by the publication of his Philosophic Writing, which appeared in Nadeždin's "Telescop." It was first composed in French in 1829, and was addressed to a lady. Three other essays of Čaadaev's are extant. The