Quotes:Fadeyev, Rostislav Andreyevich

Zirkoff, Boris

Fadeyev, Rostislav Andreyevich de. Russian General, military writer and reformer of considerable renown, b. at Ekaterinoslav, March 28/April 9, 1824; d. at Odessa, December 29, 1883 old style (January 10, 1884 new style). Highly talented from early childhood, he was especially interested in history and the life of well-known military men. As a boy of ten knew by heart long poems of Russian and foreign poets. After some years of private tutoring, entered in 1838 the College of Artillery at St. Petersburg, where his impulsive temperament ruined his studies and he was sent, 1839, to a battery at Tiraspol· and later at Saratov. In 1842, he took an exam in St. Petersburg to become an officer and returned to Saratov where he soon resigned his commission. For a number of years he devoted his time to the study of various sciences, acquiring a vast background of knowledge. In the period of 1850-59, having become active again in his military career, Fadeyev took part in the current conquest of the Caucasus and the war with the Turks, and distinguished himself on several occasions. The Viceroy of the Caucasus, Prince A. I. Baryatinsky, appointed him as one of his aids, and he was made a Colonel in 1860. The next year he published his first work, Sixty Years of the Caucasian War, which proved to be a classic source of information on the Caucasus in general and its many ethnic groups. In 1864, Fadeyev was made a Major-General. His next literary effort was Letters from the Caucasus published in 1865. The same year he went on a trip abroad, and upon his return was invited by the Secretary of War, D. A. Milyutin, to become attached to the Ministry of War, an invitation which Fadeyev declined. He began writing his third work, The Armed Forces of Russia, which was at first printed in the Russkiy Vestnik, and published separately in 1868. This work was of such an outstanding character that it was translated into several foreign languages. A number of well-known military leaders in Russia supported his views and suggested reforms, while others became his enemies. This situation forced Fadeyev to retire into private life and put an end to his military career.

In 1869, Fadeyev published in the newspaper Birzheviya Vedomosti an essay of far-reaching importance entitled “Ideas on the Eastern Problem.” This essay placed the writer in the forefront of Pan-Slavism, and his series of articles entitled “What are We to Be?” published in 1872 in the Russkiy Mir, established his reputation as the protagonist of widespread social reforms in Russia.

In 1870, Fadeyev was invited by the Egyptian Government to come and reorganize the Egyptian army. He accepted and went there in January, 1875. It would appear that he had secretly hoped to 507 arouse the Khedive to a war against Turkey, to coincide with a general rebellion of the Slavs. He was offered the Command of the Egyptian Armed Forces, but refused the position if he had to wear an Egyptian uniform. His entire stay in Egypt was a very friendly one. During the ensuing Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, Fadeyev stayed in Montenegro, taking part in military actions.

In the Summer of both 1878 and 1879, Fadeyev had two separate interviews with Emperor Alexander II at Yalta, and outlined to him various needed reforms; with the Emperor’s approval, the text of these was published at Leipzig in 1881 under the title of Letters on the Current, State of Russia. The views which he expressed in these Letters were shared by many, among them by the Russian Prime-Minister, Count Μ. T. Loris-Melikov, who insisted that Fadeyev be attached to the General Staff and the Ministry of the Interior. However, in 1882, Fadeyev was notified that he would be retired into the Reserve by June, 1884. He was undoubtedly the victim of various underhand machinations, professional jealousies and secret enmities. This turn of affairs aggravated in Fadeyev a condition of long-time illness and he died soon after, and was buried with considerable pomp in the Odessa Cemetery.

(Chief Source: article of his sister, Madame Nadyezhda Andreyevna de Fadeyev, H.P.B.’s favorite aunt, entitled “Reminiscences about R. de Fadeyev,” published as an Introductory to Volume I of Fadeyev’s Collected Works, St. Petersburg, 1889.)

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, pp. 506-507