[NOISE] [MUSIC] Intelligentsia is one of those Russian words that actually became part of international vocabulary, at least, it's part of the English language now. So what, it is, and how it is different from the concept of intellectuals, that will be our topic now. I don't want to get into the details of how this term intelligentsia is coined and whether it is determined by the economic and socioeconomic aspects or more by the Cultural values. We will stop at the. We will stay within this realm of comparing probable values and attitudes of Russian intelligentsia and the western intellectuals. And then a few words about the development. The evolution of this concept of intelligentsia in the more modern. Russian discourse. So difference between intelligentsia and intellectuals can be better shown according to two parameters. So two features characterize both intelligentsia and west intellectuals. The first one is The importance of inner freedom, of academic freedom, spiritual freedom. In the importance of intellectual and spiritual independence this is one feature. The second feature is Putting material values, material goods lower than this importance of being free inside. And actually if we compare these two groups we would say that for intelligentsia. The second parameter. Despise of material world. Being uninterested in consumerism is more important than the first. And if we talk about Western intellectuals. For them, the focus of. Of this group will be about this inner academic and spiritual independence and freedom. That was how things stood traditionally. But since this general definitions were in place, probably, in comparison by mid-20th century, a lot of things happened So let us see or look at this evolution at least in some detail. For instance, in the Soviet times intelligentsia comprised both technocracy and cultural figures. So the scientists who working on the. The space, on, a military, technical issues. And cultural figures, writers, artists, who are organized in the unions. And the special, professional unions, creative unions, groups of people who could be governed, in a way as to project their soviet ideology And not allow deviations from it. Now we have, in the modern Russia, there is new technocracy probably related to other fields, those fields that deal with nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, space programs, of course Which are supported by the state, by the federal programs. Now you know you really can get a lot of money for your research if you have ideas and if you work in this fields because that's where the state really puts a lot of effort to To have more dynamic development. But also have old and new cultural figures because in the Soviet and post-Soviet report and also probably for the older population. The cultural figures which we call old would be related to You know, high culture. That would be the performance of classical music. People who write books. Probably more this division is seen if we talk about music, you know? Everything that is related to the classical idea of Russian music. It's symphonic. symphony orchestras, conductors, composers. Well new cultural fevers of course more associated with mass culture, with young culture, will be singers, performing artists in the area of what we call show business. Show business is really important and these people are considered by many to be their cultural elite. Intelligentsia are coming back to this position. Of course, it doesn't comprise this probably new cultural figures but many people who now are the representatives of this new middle class with this As I said, values, including political values come initially from intelligence. How at the moment it is intelligence as a social concept viewed by the rest of the society? I would say it's not a very nice view, because This indifference to material values in the epoch of consumerism. And consumerism is absolutely normal for the society where people just recently didn't have opportunities to have goods, cars, better apartments, enjoying. For vacations abroad. All these things were not available for the majority of the Soviet time citizens of Russia. And so consumerism is normal. Also it's normal when the economy is changing. When the lives are changing so rapidly when the economy is Developing and there is more opportunity for this consumerism. So, the main feature, the main characteristic feature of the old Intelligentsia, as I said, indifference to material values Just doesn't get along with this new trend. It actually is opposite to the trend. And so, this is a slightly depisable look at those values. And at those people who probably propagate by their lifestyle this indifference to material values. And also partly this slightly despiseful view of intelligence is related to the fact that it failed to register solid achievements. Both in shaping their political agenda and shaping ideology of new Russia. Actually achieving succession this modern life. Both materially but also ideologically in terms of new values that would be created by these people. They are not any more Leaders of our cultural development, so to say. And this is the general view that I'm sort of trying to explain, which is probably not something that is very productive because still the main ideas will come only from the People who believe that consumer is not the most important thing and these ideas of the public discourse related to the social aspects of Russian life, of it's occupational divisions, these ideas already can be clearly seen a lot of Talk shows, discussions, articles are written about how this initial consumerism, actually needs probably, and will go down a little bit, because this is not the way the country can reproduce, the culture, can reproduce it's self In future. So when we speak about intelligentsia the question of survival, of its survival can be put in two different ways. The survival of representatives of intelligentsia. Yes of course, sure. They will reproduce themselves in terms of the new middle class and new professions. Their children are doing well. Because of the traditions of getting better education, that's for sure. But survival of the group, not just as a group but as a discourse community with its specific cultural values, that is already something rather questionable. And probably this will be the term that will Certain temporal borders. It existed in the 20th century, and maybe it's not translated really well in what is going on in the 21st century in Russian life. Because they don't, their discourse system is not, it's not, doesn't coincide, it's not overlapping really well with the discourse system of the u creative class. Except probably for the ideal for political dissent because one of the main main slogans of Russian intelligentsia, but not always in the Soviet period was that you cannot accept the authorities as your partners. You are always against the authorities because by definition authorities cannot do anything good. And this position actually sometimes makes the descent really acute and really non-constructive because if you can not see your opponent as a potential partner, In a win-win negotiation. Then, these negotiations can be only as win-lose. And we discussed it in the previous lecture that win-win negotiations is not part of Russian mentality. [SOUND] [SOUND] [MUSIC]
