ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Russian intellectual culture in its formative years to understand intellectual discourse in today's Russia. It traces the origins of the Russian intellectual tradition and outlines its evolution in the Soviet era. The chapter addresses the challenges the intelligentsia faces in post-Soviet Russia, the stunning reversal of fortunes Russian intellectuals have suffered in recent years, and their struggle to reassert their critical role in society. Russian intellectual culture shares with its Western counterpart a belief in directed social change and cultural critique as a tool for social reconstruction. By the time the 1860s came to a close, Russian intellectual culture had acquired its familiar traits and every educated person aspiring to be an intelligent started to feel its powerful pull. Although the Russian intelligentsia did not evolve into a self-conscious social force until the mid-nineteenth century, its origins can be traced to the early eighteenth century, when Peter the Great embarked on a crash campaign to modernize Russia.
