Some Reflections upon Russian Literary Prose and the Chaadayev/Pushkin/Custine/Mickiewicz Node

Abstract

The article considers, fi rstly, the linguistic aspects of the letters of P. Ya. Chaadayev, and secondly, the political and philosophical motives of his writings. Chaadaev can be considered the first philosopher in Russia, but at the same time he
wrote his works in French. This fact is very important, and the article discusses the conditions under which this situation turned out to be possible. The author came to the conclusion that Chaadayev’s “Philosophical Letters” were written in French
because they are philosophical works, because they are letters and because they are addressed to a woman. Chaadaev’s style corresponds to the French literary samples of those days.