RUDN Journal of Russian History (Dec 2014)
INTELLIGENTSIA IN VIEWS OF RUSSIAN LIBERALS AND REFORMERS-DEMOCRATS OF LATE XIX TH - EARLY XX TH CENTURIES
Abstract
The article considers the attitude of the greatest Russian thinkers of the liberal and reformatory democratic schools of the post-reform modernization time of the early XIX th - late XXth centuries to domestic intelligentsia. The authors analyze the self-reflectiveness of eminent representatives of the Russian intellectuals (intelligentsia) and compare the views of the most important representatives of the liberal (K. Kavelin, A. Gradovsky) and democratic (A. Peshekhonov, V. Myakotin) trends. The analysis of liberals’ and democrats’ views of the two epochs enables to conclude that they were united by their perception of the intelligentsia as a moral force of the society. They are also similar in their understanding of the role of individual freedom in the country's development. However, for the liberals the most urgent was the task of personality formation, the solution to which they associated with the intelligentsia activities. For democrats, who saw the revolutionary events of the early XX th century, the problem of interaction of people and intellectuals became more urgent. But they still maintained their belief in the creative power of people, led by intellectuals for freedom and democracy.
