title: Introduction: Intelligentsia science inside and outside Russia.
abstract: The concept of "intelligentsia" has had a long life both as an actors' category and as a tool of historical analysis to understand the role of the educated elite in Russia and the Soviet Union. For a variety of reasons, this term has not achieved much prominence in exploring the assimilation of science and technology into Russian culture. This essay examines the term's convoluted historiography and makes a case for the utility of its revival--understanding "intelligentsia" not as a single concept or group but as a heterogeneous and evolving social institution. The entire volume is then introduced with these features in mind.
authors.affiliation: Department of History, 129 Dickinson Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. mgordin@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Gordin
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D006663:Historiography; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006809:Humanities / Q000266:history*; D012425:Russia (Pre-1917); D012923:Social Class; D014586:USSR