National Identity and Intelligentsia Self-definition within Global Russian Cultures
Background & Concept
The subject of this study is the National Identity and Self-determination of the Intelligentsia in the context of Global Russian cultures.
The globalization of the 21st century, the development of high-speed technologies and gadgets, which led to a change in communications, mixed the cards not only in the sphere of national identity, but also in the traditional structure of society for previous centuries.
The concept of "national" in the context of Russian culture denoting ethnicity has faded and changed its meaning in the era of the global Internet, high-speed transport and huge waves of emigration.
Traditionally, the most conscientious and educated stratum of Russian society, the intelligentsia, has changed its traditions, mixed with the emerging new classes, and is now located not only in Russia.
The history of the study includes many attempts to examine Russian identity in the Soviet and post-Soviet period, to describe the first post-Soviet generation, its values and meanings and to consider the interaction of the intelligentsia with the government during the 20-21 centuries
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Born as a result of the large-scale reforms and Westernization of Russia, implemented by Peter the Great in the 18th century, the intelligentsia first took shape as a class only in the first quarter of the 19th century and became a unique, untranslatable Russian phenomenon.
Being a very small number and, despite the disputes of Westerners and Slavophiles, still a Pro-Western, Pro-European class, the intelligentsia took a position between the government and the people, taking on the mission not only of education, but also of moral evaluation.
The most educated and intellectual circles of Russia dreamed of changes, freedoms and the abolition of serfdom, which, despite the failure of the first major demonstration of intellectuals in the face of the Decembrist uprising, was still cancelled 36 years later.
The further thirst for liberal changes that the intelligentsia dreamed of turned into an unexpected disaster. Russian revolution of 1917 overthrew the autocracy and really at first brought a lot of freedom, contributed to mass education, abolished unjust prohibitions, including the line of settlement for Russian Jews (which later added to the Russian intellectual elite but in the end turned into Red terror.
The intelligentsia under the Communists was both a privileged and persecuted class. The carrot and stick policy was used not only by Stalin, but also by subsequent Soviet leaders. A huge number of intellectuals fled Russia, were forcibly expelled, repressed or killed. Those who remained were forced to compromise with the regime to some extent.
In terms of national discourse, the territory of freedom was also shrinking. If under Lenin, internationalism prevailed and all ethnic components were equally accepted, then Stalin began to expel entire peoples and in the mid-40s officially declared Russocentrism. This national policy forced people to hide their ethnic origin, and in the passport column "nationality", which in fact in Russia meant ethnicity, always write "Russian".
Khrushchev went even further along the path of Russocentrism and introduced compulsory education in Russian in all 15 republics, forcing the other peoples of the USSR to forget their native languages and ethnicity for a long time.
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The changes brought by Khrushchev's Thaw are difficult to overestimate. Thousands of people were released from the camps and rehabilitated. In Russia, a peculiar circle of intellectuals was formed, called the Sixties. In the future, this circle formed Gorbachev's entourage, and according to some researchers, it was the sixties in the government that provoked Perestroika. In any case, Khrushchev tried to keep the intelligentsia in check - he forbade their children to enter universities after school, repressed the famous poet Pasternak, and destroyed several important exhibitions.
Brezhnev, who replaced Khrushchev, rather went down in history by discrediting all Communist meanings, in the shadow of which a whole generation of dissidents, human rights activists and representatives of underground culture matured in the USSR.
Perestroika and Gorbachev became the star hour for the Russian intelligentsia and the only short time when this class was actually in power. National Russocentrism was shattered, people remembered their ethnic origin, history, languages - which eventually became one of the many reasons for the collapse of the great Empire - the Soviet Union.
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The disillusionment and crisis of the Russian intelligentsia that followed in the 90's has been described by many authors. Some of them even talked about the death of the intelligentsia as a class. Market reforms that led many social layers, including the intelligentsia as a class, to poverty, numerous accusations of failed reforms, frustration and the subsequent course of the authorities to authoritarianism did their job. Emigration has increased again, and the last two waves of it have been described by sociologists as emigration of intellectuals or "brain drain".
The next generation of intellectuals, hardly separated from the nascent middle class, took a two-fold position. Some of them supported the government in a compromise, while others took part in the growing protests in the late tenth years.
The intelligentsia in emigration formed a special, not small layer, on the one hand supporting Russian culture in the world context, on the other - gradually moving away and feeling less and less the mood in the country. The new nationalist Russian course chosen by Putin, the cult of great victories of the past and a strong hand, planted by propaganda, probably could somehow affect the self-consciousness of young Russians, but it hardly significantly changed the worldview of the intelligentsia today.
Project methodology: a series of interviews
Selection of respondents: the survey selected a number of well-known Russian writers, poets, producers, artists, gallery owners and patrons, human rights activists and dissidents who have influenced modern Russian culture and certainly represent the intelligentsia today.
Specify
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The specific of this project is the study of modern Russian creative intelligentsia living both in Russia and in emigration (differentiation is difficult here: many respondents claim that the word emigration is outdated in the 21st century or spend so much time traveling that they find it difficult to determine their place of residence), establishing the national identity of this group, identifying the main images associated with Russia and trying to understand what exactly formed these identification layers, meanings and images.
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