Subjective notes on the objective situation among Russian intellectuals

Abstract

It’s flattering to feel you are a part of something so complex mere words can’t describe it. I’m talking about the Russian intelligentsia. So as not to end up drowning in definitions, let us be guided by the intuitive understandings that almost always suffice. We don’t require precise definitions for a horse or a table – we understand what it is without venturing ‘A horse is... ’ With regards to the intelligentsia, it’s clear that education is a necessary qualification for membership in this group, but not a sufficient one. The working definition must also include a certain system of values, lifestyle, and aesthetic preferences. At the same time, the professed moral ideals of responsibility to country and its people are not always put into practice. The very act of proclaiming these values does, however, inform one’s sense of self. In the same way, a person can sincerely believe he loves the theater while barely attending any shows, with the love of theater remaining a part of his or her identity. The same is with books – a member of the intelligentsia must have books in his home. He may never read them, but the bookshelves nonetheless create a certain atmosphere in the apartment. In the Soviet Union, everything belonged to the bureaucracy, and yet it was the intelligentsia that formed a privileged class. It wasn’t about the money. Many of the Soviet intelligentsia members were not well off. University professors with higher academic degrees and the staff of research institutes made a decent living, but young engineers, for example, lived rather humbly. Still, almost all of them had a clean – ‘brainy’ – job. This was quite important in a country where a huge percentage of the population earned their living through physical labor, often toiling in terrible conditions. If you belonged to the intelligentsia, you didn’t have to lift heavy loads, freeze on construction sites, or work in dirty overalls. This, along with the higher education, which became a widespread norm only in the post-Soviet period, gave him or her the sense of being among the elect, of belonging to a sort of nobility. Interestingly, the bureaucrats also considered the intelligentsia to be the privileged class – the nomenklatura sought to place their children into academic institutions rather than Party jobs. A comfortable life awaited the children of the party bosses after they defended their dissertations, which they did without fail.