Представления А.С. Изгоева об интеллигенции

Философский журнал. 2022. Т. 15. № 2. С. 17–30.

Черновская М. А.

A special footnote was added to the article «Educated Youth (Notes on its Life and Sentiments)», included in the famous collection of essays «Vekhi» (1909), in which author A. Izgoev expressed his disagreement with a «common platform» of the collection, outlined by M. Gershenzon in the introduction. What was the reason of Izgoev’s falling out with the assertion of «Vekhi»’s other authors that individial’s inner life is the only foundation on which a society can be built? If Izgoev criticized ideas on intelligentsia of some of authors’ participants back in 1903, why did he agree to take part in «Vekhi» and, moreover, why did he defend «Vekhi» from critiqies’ condemnations in conservatism after the collection had been published? In our opinion, answers to these questions can be found in Izgoev’s theory of intelligentsia, an attempt to reconstruct which is made in the present article. Izgoev considered that conception of intelligentsia of populists (in particular, N. Mikhaylovsky) and neoidealists (N. Berdyaev and S. Bulgakov) was false because it did not consider material interests of this social group. Intelligentsia earns an income by teaching and research, and with a lack of freedom of speech and thought in the state cannot execute its functions, which demand spiritual freedom. Intelligentsia can join together to fight for freedom, which is beneficial for itself and serves the progress of the whole nation. Despite Izgoev’s disagreement of understanding intelligentsia as an above-class group which does not pursue its material interests, he, as other authors of «Vekhi» considered it ti be the only group which is capable of transforming Russia into a democratic and law-governed state.

Keywords: интеллигенция, intelligentsia, Vekhi, Вехи, Бердяев, революция 1905–1907 гг., Berdyaev, А.С. Изгоев, A,S, Izgoev, Russian revolution (1905–1907), The Dreyfus Affair, Дело Дрейфуса

Publication based on the results of: XX century: Russia as a problem of Europe and Europe as a problem of Russia (2022)