“Philosophical Letters” were written in French and addressed in a preaching manner to a certain lady. They concentrate a system of views by Chaadaev. For them, he was declared insane by “the highest order” of the country’s supreme judge. Why?..
“An Apology for the Madman” is both an analysis of the strange position Chaadaev found himself in—“stricken with madness by the verdict of the country’s supreme judge”—and a definition of the goals he pursued when he published “Philosophical Letter”: out of love for the Fatherland, for truth—not for “the mercy of the crowd” and “the applause of the people.” “Apology” also reveals the main ideas of the letters about the place of Russia in relation to the West and the East, about the ways of its development, and is their logical continuation.