Russian Intelligentsia

Sibelan Forrester is the Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Russian at Swarthmore College. Her publications emphasize translation theory and practice, folklore, and Silver Age Russian poetry; she is editor or co-editor of Engendering Slavic Literatures (Indiana UP, 1996), Over the Wall/After the Fall: Post-Communist Cultures in an East-West Gaze (Indiana UP, 2004), Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts (Academic Studies Press, 2015), A Companion to Marina Tsvetaeva: Approaches to a Major Russian Poet (Brill, 2016), and Times of Mobility: Transnational Literature and Gender in Translation (Central European University Press, 2019). She has published translations of fiction, poetry, and scholarly prose from Croatian, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian. Olga Partan is Associate Professor of Russian Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. She has authored a Russian-language memoir You were right, Filumena! (Moscow: PROZAiK, 2012) and the scholarly book Vagabonding Masks: The Italian Commedia dell’Arte in the Russian Artistic Imagination (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2017); her Commedia dell’ Arte book was also translated into Russian (St Petersburg: Academic Studies Press/Библиороссика, 2021).

“This ambitious, wide-ranging volume traces the evolution of the Russian intelligentsia as a cultural concept and historical entity from its inception in the eighteenth century to the present day. A remarkable diversity of approaches and perspectives enriches the collection, with some invaluably incisive analyses complemented by informative descriptions of incidents, developments, and sources that represent terra incognita to many readers. Alongside famous thinkers, political leaders, and publications such as the accurately titled Landmarks (Vekhi) appear lesser-known figures and writings, many of which engage in dialogue or dispute with their predecessors or, in a few eloquent cases, predict current circumstances in Russia. To the question, ‘Can anything new be said about the intelligentsia?’ this volume responds with an unequivocal ‘Yes!’” — Helena Goscilo, Professor, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, Ohio State University“Illuminating and thought-provoking, The Russian Intelligentsia offers a fascinating journey through the intellectual heartland of Russia. This rigorous yet accessible volume explores how the intelligentsia, perpetually pressed between the hammer of the state and the anvil of the people, has shaped Russia's cultural and political landscape from the 18th century to today. As Russia faces new tormenting and catastrophic challenges, this balanced exploration provides invaluable insights into the nation's past and present, offering a critical lens for understanding its highly problematic future.” — Mikhail Epstein, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Emeritus of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature, Emory University

• Acknowledgements1. Introduction: The Intelligentsia in Russia: Shifting Terms, History, and Scholarly ApproachesOlga Partan and Sibelan ForresterPart One: Pre-Nineteenth Century2. An Essay on the Origins of the Intelligentsia: Catherine the Great and Her Relations with Novikov and RadishchevMarcus LevittPart Two: The Nineteenth Century3. The Intelligentsia in the Russian Press of the 1860s and 1870sKonstantine Klioutchkine4. Dostoevsky and the Intelligentsia Alexander Burry5. Accommodating the Intelligentsia: Tolstoyan Nonresistance as a Response to the Russian IntelligentsiaMichael Denner6. The Russian Intelligentsia and Western Intellectuals: Through the Prism of ChekhovSvetlana EvdokimovaPart Three: The Twentieth Century7. Merchants vs. the Intelligentsia: The Case of the Moscow Art TheatreMaria Ignatieva8. A Bridgeable Schism? The Russian Silver Age Intelligentsia Holds Its Ground, Spruces up, and ProselytizesIrene Masing-Delic9. Landmarks (Vekhi)—the Russian Intelligentsia at a CrossroadsOlga Sobolev10. The End of the Classical Intelligentsia?Gary Hamburg11. The Russian Knights Templar: A Secret Mystical Order and Its LegacyOlga Partan12. Remaking the Literary Intelligentsia (1930s-1940s) Carol Any13. The Soviet Intelligentsia and Thaw-Era Science FictionSibelan Forrester14. The Intelligentsia and the “Thick Journal”Marina Adamovich15. A Romantic Ironist or a New Intellectual? Tatyana Tolstaya and Her Critique of the Russian IntelligentsiaAlexandra SmithPart Four: The Twenty-First Century16. Ulitskaya and Pelevin on the ShestidesiatnikiSofya Khagi17. The Intelligentsia and the Intellectuals: A History of Two Terms in Russian Philosophical DiscourseAlyssa DeBlasio18. Legacy and Denial: Russian Intelligentsia on Screen and Online in the First Two Decades of the Twenty-First CenturyTatiana Smorodinska