586
LEON TROTSKY
has it been so much in the limelight and so concerned with itself as in
recent years. Never before has it carried self-congratulation, self-infatu–
a tion and sheer pretense to such a pitch. Having put itself wholly under
a microscope, its members scarcely refrain from satisfying their fatuous
vanity by minutely recording everyone of its gestures and every convolu–
tion of its soul.
I am religion, I am culture, I am ihe past, the present
and the futur e.
It is well known that Mr. Ivanov-Razumnik" has based his entire
philosophy of history on this mania for greatness. In his view the Russian
intelligentsia is a supra-class formation, a high-principled group burning
with a sacred flame .
It
is the mainspring of historical development,
carrying on a significant struggle against philistine ethics and conquering
new spiritual domains with which the mass of philistines can come in
contact only gradually a nd assimilate only in small doses. The intel–
ligentsia never rests ; with pilgrim's staff in hand it moves on and on–
forward to new worlds. According to Ivanov-Razumnik, this self-sufficient
II1O\'ement of the intelligen tsia determines Russian history. And Mr.
M erezhkovsky has gone so far as to promise that the Russian intelligent–
sia, armed with religious dogma , will save the entire world from the
comi ng kingdom of the boors. There are people who believe him. Where
::Ire the roots of this self-styled Messianism? Is it a reflection of a higher
calling or simply another version of Khlestakovism/ an old national
trait?
No,
it is little more than an ideological reflection of the fatal
curse of Russian history: the character of Karatayev. s In its own way
it supplements the fatal meekness and submissiveness of Alyosha
Gorshok.
4
In so far as Ivanov-Razumnik has been persuasive in a superficially
convincing book. he has created something more than a mere falsifica–
tion of history. To represent the entire development of our social thought
as the self-sufficient history of the intelligentsia is of course a falsifica–
tion, and a monstrous one at that. But the nub of the matter lies else–
where : his false theory reflects our backwardness, poverty and cultural
pauperism. This tragic and supremely important factor has put its stamp
on the whole evolution of our social thought.
1 Ivanov-Razumnik ( 1878-1945 ) was a leading historian and critic belonging
to
the Pop ulist camp. H is
Histor,.
0/
Russian Social Th ouf!.ht
was entirely
centered on the role of the intelligentsia in Russian history.
2 Khlestakov, the p rotagonist of Gogol's play
The In spector General,
is an
archswindler, braggart and pretender.
3 Platon Karatayev, a character in Tolstoy's
War and Peace,
is the embodi–
ment of the long-suffering submissiveness of the p easant masses,
4 Alyosha Gorshok is the title character of a posthumous story by T olstoy.
Of peasant origin, he works as a servant in the city and lives and dies without
uttering one word of protest against his miserable fate.
