ABSTRACT
Any political enterprise that aspires to power will have to command the allegiance of a sizable number of intellectuals and professionals, because their skills are indispensable for its success. Intellectuals not only support mass movements: they also originate and promulgate the ideological appeal to fit the mass situation. The atomization of masses who possess a sufficient degree of literacy to receive the intellectuals' messages provides the opportunity for intellectuals to make common cause with them. Free-lance intellectuals tend to have fewer institutional responsibilities than intellectuals in professional organizations, and therefore are less likely to be committed to central institutions. The Bolshevik movement, initially was constituted by intellectuals to a much greater extent than was the early Nazi movement. The German and Russian experiences suggest the general proposition that the more isolated the intellectuals from their society, the more revolutionary and messianic their outlook.
