Over the five years following the Russian revolution of 1917 there occurred a brilliant outburst of theory and criticism among Russian intellectuals struggling to comprehend their country's vast social upheaval. Much of their intense speculation focused on issues that are still hotly debated: Was this socialism? Why had the revolution happened in Russia? What did Bolshevik power mean for Russia and the Western world? This compelling study recovers these early responses to 1917 and analyzes the specific ideological context out of which they emerged. Jane Burbank explores the ideas and experiences of diverse prominent intellectuals, ranging from the monarchists on the right to the Mensheviks, Socialist revolutionaries, and Anarchists on the left. Following these thinkers through the turbulent years of civil war and rebuilding of state power, Burbank shows how revolution both revitalized their political culture and exposed the fragile basis of its existence.

This book shows that the rise of the intelligentsia occurred earlier than is normally thought, and that by 1922, rather than 1932, the underlying principles of the new Soviet government's policies towards culture had already emerged and "proto-Stalinism" was increasingly important.

In the autumn of 1922, Lenin personally drew up a list of some 220 "undesirable" intellectuals - mostly philosophers, academics, scientists, and journalists - to be deported before the creation of the Soviet Union in December that year. Two ships sailed from Petrograd that autumn, taking around seventy of these eminent men and their families away to what became permanent exile in Berlin, Prague, and Paris. Lenin's Private War tells the story of these writers, journalists, and scholars expelled from their homeland. It describes the world they left behind, and the emigre communities they were forced to join. Lesley Chamberlain paints a rich portrait of this chilling historical moment using the journals, letters, and memoirs of those involved. Lenin's Private War also tells the story of the fate of ideas: not just those of Lenin, but also of the men forced to leave their homeland. Men like Nicholas Berdyaev, Semyon Frank, and Sergei Bulgakov made unique contributions to the intellectual life of the twentieth century through their work on creativity and faith. They perpetuated core Russian cultural traditions that were banned in the Soviet Union and incomparably deepened Western understanding of Russian history and culture.

Content Description #Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

Among the least-chronicled aspects of post-World War II European intellectual and cultural history is the story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin. Vladislav Zubok turns a compelling subject into a portrait as intimate as it is provocative. Zhivago's children, the spiritual heirs of Boris Pasternak's noble doctor, were the last of their kind - an intellectual and artistic community committed to a civic, cultural, and moral mission.

This study focuses on the first group targeted in the genocide known as the Holodomor: Ukrainian intelligentsia, the “brain of the nation,” using the words of Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term genocide and enshrined it in international law. The study’s author examines complex and devastating effects of the Holodomor on Ukrainian society during the 1920–1930s. Members of intelligentsia had individual and professional responsibilities. They resisted, but eventually they were forced to serve the Soviet regime. Ukrainian intelligentsia were virtually wiped out, most of its writers and a third of its teachers. The remaining cadres faced a choice without a choice if they wanted to survive. The author analyzes how and why this process occurred and what role intellectuals, especially teachers, played in shaping, contesting, and inculcating history. Crucially, the author challenges Western perceptions of the all-Union famine that was allegedly caused by ad hoc collectivization policies, highlighting the intentional nature of the famine as a tool of genocide, persecution, and prosecution of the nationally conscious Ukrainian intelligentsia, clergy, and grain growers. The author demonstrates the continuity between Stalinist and neo-Stalinist attempts to prevent the crystallization of the nation and subvert Ukraine from within by non-lethal and lethal means.