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INTELLIGENTSIA
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cause is one and the same. In the last analysis it is our social poverty
which accounts for them.
Count Rastopchin once made the ironic comment about the De–
cembrist uprising of 1825 that in France the "rabble" brought about a
revolution to make itself equal with the aristocracy whereas our aris–
tocrats made a revolution in the interest of the "rabble." Rastopchin's
paradox is used by I vanov-Razumnik to emphasize the supra-class,
purely idealistic character of the Decembrist movement. To what degree
and in what proportions the elements of disinterested, idealistic radical–
ism were combined by the Decembrists with their class interests is an–
other question.
It
is nevertheless true that the Decembrists acted out a
part that the Russian intelligentsia has reenacted more than once. The
Decembrists acted in a "substitutive" fashion for the interests of a class
that had not yet emerged in Russia. They acted for bourgeois liberalism
by proxy, as it were.
This representation of nonexistent or feebly developed classes - a
role masking the social weakness of the intelligentsia - has now become
an ideological necessity for it and almost a political profession. At first
the aristocratic intelligentsia substituted itself for the "rabble," then
plebeian populists substituted themselves for the peasantry; finally, the
Marxist intelligentsia substituted itself for the proletariat.... Two more
decades passed before the real live peasantry could demonstrate its
authentic and cohesive social personality; and only then did the intel–
ligentsia play-acting in the part of pseudo-peasants come to an end.
Thus, throughout our history the intelligentsia's role as ideological stand–
ard-bearer was connected with the country's political life not through
the class which it wanted to serve but merely through the "idea" of
that class. So it was with the first Marxist circles among us. Only very
gradually did the spirit become flesh.
During the 1905-6 Revolution large social entItles appeared on the
historical scene - classes able to proclaim their own interests and their
own dt'mands. At one stroke Russian even ts leaped into world promi–
nence, arousing a powerful response in Europe and in Asia. Political
ideas ceased to be ethereal spirits wafted down from some kind of
ideological heaven ; the intelligen tsia had exhausted historically its role
as class proxy.
It
is remarkable, though, that directly after those event–
ful years the intelligentsia's bacchanalia of self-exaltation should have
gone into full swing! In just this way as the lamp is put out its flame
flares up more brightly than ever.
It
is sheer nonsense to say that after a great effort history must
