Geistige Auseinandersetzung mit dem Erbe der Revolution
Intelligentsija facing the Legacy of the Revolution

Summary/Abstract: This old Russian intelligentsia helped to bring about the revolution and was then largely destroyed by it. The newly created Soviet "intelligentsia" seems to have at first glance only the name together with its predecessor. It is less a matter of political and mental convictions than of social status, education and achievement which decides about the degree of social belonging. In addition to the academically educated and the artists, today one counts the large army of technicians as well as the higher officials and officials to the "intelligentsia". The old name actually designates a completely new, the so-called "third class". In its social structure it is more or less "bourgeois" and much more solid than the old intelligentsia, but it lacks its spiritual unity. This is especially true for the intelligentsia in the narrower and the real sense, namely for the intellectuals. By turning almost exclusively to areas of art and science, they withdraw from state access, renouncing from the outset all participation in social and political life.

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