Chaadeev denounced the cultural isolation and mediocritiy of Russia; he denounced, too, the intellectual impotence of the Russian elite, of which he himself was a member. "Our memories" he wrote

reach back no further than yesterday; we are, as it were, strangers to ourselves.... That is but a natural consequence of a culture that consists entirely of imports and imitation.... We absorb all our ideas ready-made, and therefore the indelible trace left in the mind by a progressive movement, which gives it strength, does not shape our intellect.... We are like children who have not been taught to think for themselves: when they become adults, they have nothing of their own - all their knowledge is on the surface of their being, their soul is not within them.

found in Pankaj Mishra's introduction to V.S. Naipaul's essay anthology Literary occasions