identified the social contradiction inherent in the intelligentsia being politically progressive, whilst also willing to work for the
status quo of the State. defined the intelligentsia as both the managers of a society, and as the creators of society's
high culture. The intelligentsia existed as a
social stratum in European societies before the term was coined in 19th-century Poland, to identify the intellectual people whose professions placed them outside the traditional workplaces and labours of the town-and-country social classes (
royalty,
aristocracy,
bourgeoisie) of a
monarchy; thus the are a
social class native to the city. In the 1860s, journalist
Pyotr Boborykin popularised the term () to identify and describe the Russian social stratum of people educated at university who engage in the intellectual occupations (law, medicine, engineering, the arts) who produce the culture and the
dominant ideology by which society functions. In
The Rise of the Intelligentsia, 1750–1831 (2008) Maciej Janowski writes that the Polish intelligentsia were the
think tank of the State, intellectual servants whose progressive social and economic policies decreased the social backwardness (illiteracy) of the Polish people, and also decreased Russian political repression in
partitioned Poland.
Poland 19th century and his assistants. Painting by
Leon Wyczółkowski In 1844 Poland, Libelt described a status class of people characterised by intellect and Polish
nationalism; qualities of mind, character, and spirit that made them natural leaders of the modern Polish nation. That the intelligentsia were aware of their social status and of their duties to society: Educating the youth with the nationalist objective to restore the Republic of Poland; preserving the Polish language; and love of the
Fatherland. Consequent to the Imperial Prussian, Austrian, Swedish and Russian partitions of Poland, the imposition of Tsarist
cultural hegemony caused many of the political and cultural élites to participate in the
Great Emigration (1831–70).
Second World War After the
invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the Nazis launched the
extermination of the Polish intelligentsia by way of the military operations of the
Special Prosecution Book-Poland, the
German AB-Aktion in Poland, the
Intelligenzaktion, and the
Intelligenzaktion Pommern. In eastern Poland, the Soviet Union proceeded with the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia with operations such as the
Katyn massacre (April–May 1940), during which university professors, physicians, lawyers, engineers, teachers, military, policeman, writers and journalists were murdered.
Russia Imperial era The Russian also was a mixture of messianism and intellectual elitism, which philosopher
Isaiah Berlin describes as follows: "The phenomenon, itself, with its historical and literally revolutionary consequences, is, I suppose, the largest, single Russian contribution to social change in the world. The concept of intelligentsia must not be confused with the notion of intellectuals. Its members thought of themselves as united, by something more than mere interest in ideas; they conceived themselves as being a dedicated order, almost a secular priesthood, devoted to the spreading of a specific attitude to life." The idea of
progress, which originated in Western Europe during the
Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, became the principal concern of the intelligentsia by the mid-19th century; thus, progress social movements, such as the
Narodniks, mostly consisted of intellectuals. Russian philosopher
Sergei Bulgakov said that the Russian intelligentsia was the creation of
Peter the Great, that they were the "window to Europe through which the Western air comes to us, vivifying and toxic at the same time." Moreover, Bulgakov also said that the literary critic of
Westernization,
Vissarion Belinsky was the spiritual father of the Russian intelligentsia. In 1860, there were 20,000 professionals in Russia and 85,000 by 1900. Originally composed of educated nobles, the intelligentsia became dominated by
raznochintsy (classless people) after 1861. In 1833, 78.9 per cent of secondary-school students were children of nobles and bureaucrats, by 1885 they were 49.1 per cent of such students. The proportion of commoners increased from 19.0 to 43.8 per cent, and the remaining percentage were the children of priests. In fear of an educated proletariat, Tsar
Nicholas I limited the number of university students to 3,000 per year, yet there were 25,000 students by 1894. Similarly the number of periodicals increased from 15 in 1855 to 140 periodical publications in 1885. The "third element" were professionals hired by
zemstva. By 1900, there were 47,000 of them, most were liberal radicals. Although Tsar Peter the Great introduced the idea of progress to Russia, by the 19th century, the tsars did not recognize "progress" as a legitimate aim of the state, to the degree that
Nicholas II said "How repulsive I find that word" and wished it removed from the Russian language.
Bolshevik perspective In Russia, the
Bolsheviks did not consider the status class of the to be a true social class, as defined in
Marxist philosophy. In that time, the Bolsheviks used the Russian word (stratum) to identify and define the intelligentsia as a separating layer without an inherent class character. In the creation of post-monarchic Russia,
Lenin was firmly critical of the class character of the intelligentsia, commending the growth of "the intellectual forces of the workers and the peasants" will depose "the bourgeoisie and their accomplices, the educated classes, the lackeys of capital, who consider themselves the brains of the nation." This was followed up by Lenin's famous phrase, "In fact they are not its brain, but its shit" ("На деле это не мозг, а говно"). The
Russian Revolution of 1917 divided the intelligentsia and the social classes of tsarist Russia. Some Russians emigrated, the political reactionaries joined the right-wing
White movement for counter-revolution, some became Bolsheviks, and some remained in Russia and participated in the political system of the
Soviet Union. In reorganizing Russian society, the Bolsheviks deemed non-Bolshevik intelligentsia
class enemies and expelled them from society, by way of deportation on
Philosophers' steamers, forced labor in the
gulag, and
summary execution. The members of the tsarist-era intelligentsia who remained in Bolshevik Russia (the USSR) were
proletarianized. Although the Bolsheviks recognized the managerial importance of the intelligentsia to the future of Soviet Russia, the bourgeois origin of this stratum gave reason for distrust of their ideological commitment to Marxist philosophy and Bolshevik societal control.
Soviet Union In the late Soviet Union the term "intelligentsia" acquired a formal definition of mental and cultural workers. There were subcategories of "scientific-technical intelligentsia" (научно-техническая интеллигенция) and "creative intelligentsia" (творческая интеллигенция). Between 1917 and 1941, there was a massive increase in the number of engineering graduates: from 15,000 to over 250,000.
Post-Soviet period In the post-Soviet period, the members of the former Soviet intelligentsia have displayed diverging attitudes towards the communist government. While the older generation of intelligentsia has attempted to frame themselves as victims, the younger generation, who were in their 30s when the Soviet Union collapsed, has not allocated so much space for the repressive experience in their self-narratives. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the popularity and influence of the intelligentsia has significantly declined. Therefore, it is typical for the post-Soviet intelligentsia to feel
nostalgic for the last years of the Soviet Union (
perestroika), which they often regard as the golden age of the intelligentsia.
Vladimir Putin has expressed his view on the social duty of intelligentsia in modern Russia. We should all be aware of the fact that when revolutionary—not evolutionary—changes come, things can get even worse. The intelligentsia should be aware of this. And it is the intelligentsia specifically that should keep this in mind and prevent society from radical steps and revolutions of all kinds. We've had enough of it. We've seen so many revolutions and wars. We need decades of calm and harmonious development. ==Mass intelligentsia==