In Peter Chaadaev\u2019s Apology of a Madman, he asks the reader, \u201cWhere are our sages, where are our thinkers? Which one of us ever thought, which one of us is thinking today?\u201d (Chaadaev 305). From the readings and artwork that I have been exposed to this semester, it seems clear to me that this question is ridiculous; at that point in history, there had been many great \u201csages\u201d and \u201cthinkers\u201d in Russia. Alexander Pushkin\u2019s \u201cTo Chaadaev\u201d is so interesting because he is one of Russia\u2019s most notable luminaries from that time that Chaadaev chooses to dismiss. Unlike Chaadaev, Pushkin does not believe that Russia is without inspired individuals; yet, he chooses not to completely dismiss Chaadaev in his response. Pushkin addresses him, saying, \u201cBelieve, my friend: Russia will rise\u2026On tyranny\u2019s stark wreck the nation\/Will write for evermore our name!\u201d (Pushkin 36). Even though Chaadaev essentially directly insulted Pushkin, Pushkin wants to cultivate the shared Russian identity and so calls him a \u201cfriend\u201d. Pushkin, however, molds Chaadaev\u2019s criticism of Russian thought, or the lack thereof, to fit an argument that he has made in other pieces of his writing we have read; it is not the fault of the individual but of the autocracy if the Russian culture has not made a significant impact world-wide. According to Pushkin, \u201cRussia will rise\u201d once \u201ctyranny\u201d is brought to \u201cstark wreck\u201d; i.e., once authoritarian government is brought down, Russia\u2019s full glory will be realized. Perhaps that is why Chaadaev\u2019s piece is entitled \u201cApology of a Madman\u201d; he places the blame of Russia\u2019s lack of prominence in the world\u2019s cultural cannon on lack of individual genius instead of on real societal hindrances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Peter Chaadaev\u2019s Apology of a Madman, he asks the reader, \u201cWhere are our sages, where are our thinkers? Which one of us ever thought, which one of us is thinking today?\u201d (Chaadaev 305). From the readings and artwork that I have been exposed to this semester, it seems clear to me that this question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-7-romanticism-and-folk-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}