Pyotr Chaadaev’s Journey to Italy Part One Milan - Florence (1824-1825)

This is the first article in the series that examines the circumstances of the stay of the Russian philosopher Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (1793-1856), whose 225^th anniversary is celebrated in 2019, in Italy in December 1824 -August 1825. Leaving Russia in the summer of 1823, Chaadaev initially did not plan to visit the Italian states, limiting himself to Germany, England, France and possibly Switzerland. However, during the voyage it was Italy that became the central and most important stage of Chaadayev’s European journey. According to the author, it was there that Chaadaev formed the main provisions of the original historiosophical concept, which were then set out in the Philosophical Letters in the second half of the 1820s. This article focuses on Chaadaev’s stay in Milan and Florence. The author analyzes the circumstances of Chaadaev’s visit to the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie, where he had the opportunity to see Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper, which first was subjected to vandalism by the French soldiers who had seized Milan and then became the object of unsuccessful attempts of restoration already in the years of Austrian rule. In the analysis of the Florentine stage of Chaadaev’s journey, special attention is paid to his meetings with Russian diplomats at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with readers of the unique for the then Europe scientific and educational center Gabinetto scientifico letterario G.P. Vieusseux (later its visitors will be Stankevitch, Chicherin, Herzen, Bakunin, Dostoevsky), and - most importantly - with the English Protestant missionary Charles Cook (January 1825), which became, according to the Chaadayev, “decisive meeting” of his life.

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