Dead or Alive: The Discursive Massacre or the Mass-suicide of Post-Soviet Intelligentsia?

This paper seeks to make sense of the transformation of identity in post-Soviet Russia by exploring the debates surrounding the social category ‘intelligentsia’. I argue that the concept of intelligentsia should be seen as both a source of collective identity and a rhetorical resource in the struggle for power and domination. Here then, the usage of the category intelligentsia becomes a means for understanding broader post-Communist cultural change and some of its underlying tensions and conflicts. The paper examines two competing discourses about the intelligentsia currently vying for supremacy in Russia and their associated rival interests: one discourse is affirmative, the other negative. In relation to each discourse, several discursive practices are identified and observed on political and academic territories. The analysis of the discursive struggle over definitions contributes to understanding the transformation of power relations in modern Russia. Importantly the paper speculates on the present and future implications of these different tendencies.