Russian Language Exported: INTELLIGENTSIA
They were the conscience of the nation, the drivers of progress and the bearers of morality. Their name, which originated in Russia, has become an international concept.
In the Russian understanding, the intelligentsia (English ‘intelligentsia’, French ‘intelligentsia, German ‘Intelligentsia’) refers not merely to educated people, but an entire cultural stratum. The word entered the Russian language from Latin in the first half of the 19th century and acquired a special meaning.
Writer Pyotr Boborykin declared himself the “godfather” of this new concept in the 1860s: he defined the ‘intelligentsia’ as individuals of “high intellectual and ethical culture”.
The word soon spread from Russian into other languages in this very sense.