Russia, we are told in the writing, has neither history nor tradition, for she has no guiding ideal, and nations cannot live and thrive unless they have an ideal and realise it in practice. Russia has not given a single thought to the world, the world has been able to learn nothing from the Russians, for all individual Russians and the Russian people as a whole are poor-spirited, empty and dead in soul—Čaadaev's essays are dated from "Necropolis." He considered that the universal spiritual inactivity was actually stamped upon the Russians, that Russians had no physiognomy.
The Philosophic Writing contains the outline of a philosophy of history. With full awareness of the import of his demand, Čaadaev insists that Russians need an entirely new philosophic outlook upon history, so that they may attain to clear views regarding their position in historical evolution and the tasks they have to fulfil. He follows here the path indicated by western philosophy, in especial by Schelling and in part also by Hegel, but it was inevitable that the suggestion should seem monstrous to the champions of official patriotism, seeing that Uvarov's philosophy of history had formulated perfectly clear prescriptions as to Russia's place in the world and the duties incumbent upon Russians.
To Čaadaev human history is the history of Christianity and of the church, the history of the realisation of God‘s kingdom upon earth, the history of religious education. To him the Christian religion is no more system of morality Above all it is the eternal, divine energy, not acting upon the individual alone, but infused into society at large. The dogma of the one true church implies such a social influence. Christianity has organised society; Christianity has actually realised God's kingdom upon earth; Christianity is not merely an ideal, for it is a living energy, the divine energy incarnate.
second and the third continue the correspondence, and refer to several previous writings; the fourth treats of Gothic and Egyptian architecture, and conveys Čaadaev's views upon Christianity and upon the antique. These four essays are spoken of as Čaadaev's philosophic writings, in contra-distinction to a number of his letters which have been preserved. There is likewise extant a fragment written in 1836, entitled A Madman's Apology. The four essays are included in Oeuvres choisies de P. Tschadaieff, publiées pour la premiére fois par le Prince Gagarin de la Compagnie de Jésus, 1862. A work by V. Frank, Russisches Christentum, 1898, contains epitomes of the first and second essays, together with the Apology, two letters to Schelling, and certain other extracts trom Čaadaev and opinions about his writings. Frank's publication, like Gagarin's was to subserve the aims of Catholic propaganda.
