Isaiah Berlin once argued that the concept of the intelligentsia
was "Russia's greatest contribution to world civilization." Since
the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian intelligentsia has shared a
profound sense of responsibility for the fate of its country and a
belief in the transformative power of the Word-a belief reinforced
by the state, which has relentlessly tried to suppress any form of
intellectual dissent. Starting in 1986, this belief has been sorely
tested. The floodgates of information were opened, but no miracle
followed. No new sense of morality was awakened, no one rushed to
redeem the nation. Indeed, once the novelty of free speech wore
off, people lost interest in it. While the intelligentsia was
watching its most treasured dream disintegrate, it was also losing
its social standing, its prestige and, finally, its money. As it
had frequently done in the past, the intelligentsia responded by
declaring itself dead, obsolete. Once again, it was the end. Masha
Gessen, one of the most perceptive of a new generation of
correspondents in Russia, does not share this opinion. Her
fascinating book is the first to examine the ways in which
intellectuals are finding an identity in the new Russia. Through a
series of extraordinary individual stories, she shows their quest
for a new faith, be it religion or the paranormal, a commitment to
nationalist ideology, or to feminist principles. She shows, too,
their search for a place in the new society, as artist or
politician, entrepreneur or neo-dissident. Some of those she
describes as already famous (or infamous); others unknown. Her
accounts of their careers and preoccupations can be inspiring or
harrowing, and sometimes hilarious. Finally, Masha Gessen considers
the prospects for future generations of intellectuals, giving a
vivid, and disturbing, portrait of Russia's outcast Generation X,
and of those younger still, who have largely abandoned any notion
of society or hope for a place in it.
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