Intelligentsia

The intelligentsia (from Latin: intelligentia) is a social class of intellectuals and social groups close to them (e.g. artists, school teachers), which can be also seen as a class of mental workers in opposition to non-working aristocracy or business owners on the one hand and to manual laborers on the other.

Related Topics:
Latin - Social class - Social group

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The usage of the term is reported in Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century. For example, the word was casually used in the diaries of Vasily Zhukovsky dated by 1836. In Poland (which was part of the Russian Empire) the term was popularised in a sense close to the present one by Polish philosopher Karol Libelt and became widespread in Polish science after the publication of his O mi?o?ci ojczyzny (On Love of the Motherland) in 1844, in which he defines "inteligencja" to be those well educated who undertake to lead the people as scholars, teachers, clergy, engineers, who guide for the reason of their higher enlightenment. The term was also popularised by a Russian writer Pyotr Boborykin in 1860s, who self-proclaimed himself the "godfather" of the notion in 1904. From there it came into English and several other languages. In English this word is often applied to the "intelligentsia" in Central European and Eastern European countries in the 19th - 21th centuries. The distinction was based on the economical and cultural situation of intellectuals in these countries, different from the one in Western Europe or North America.

Related Topics:
Russian Empire - 19th century - Vasily Zhukovsky - Poland - Philosopher - Karol Libelt - 1844 - Pyotr Boborykin - English - Central Europe - Eastern Europe - 21th - Western Europe - North America

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The emergence of elite classes of intellectuals or well-educated people had been observed in other European countries (e.g., "intellectuels" in France or "Gebildete" in Germany). However There were importand distinctions observed in the lands of the Russian Empire. These differences were caused by various historical processes, whose influence still is disputed by historians. Presence of long-lasting autocratic regimes or national suppression in this region, or low level of general education in these countries in the 19th century are among them. This situation motivated local intellectuals to elaborate a system of common values and a sense of internecine sympathy.

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Additionally, the intelligentsia of Central and Eastern Europe, being divided mostly by national dependence, fostered a sense of responsibility for one's nation, up to the belief, that progress of a nation mostly depends on cultural level of intelligentsia of the nation. This self-confidence often led Eastern European intelligentsia to play a role of non-existing political opposition, and position of intelligentsia always had significant consequences to revolutions or national liberation movements in Central and Eastern Europe.

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Presently, some authors point to an ongoing extinguishing of intelligentsia in Central and Eastern Europe or a changing of the intelligentsia into a class of intellectuals or simply a middle class. In this case also a new tendency, to make opposition between intelligentsia and intellectuals, is seen.

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