Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism

by Masha Gessen

Isaiah Berlin once argued that the concept of the intelligentsia was “Russia’s greatest contribution to world civilization.” Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian intelligentsia has shared a profound sense of responsibility for the fate of its country and a belief in the transformative power of the Word—a belief reinforced by the state, which has relentlessly tried to suppress any form of intellectual dissent. Starting in 1986, this belief has been sorely tested. The floodgates of information were opened, but no miracle followed. No new sense of morality was awakened,  no one rushed to redeem the nation. Indeed, once the novelty of free speech wore off, people lost interest in it. While the intelligentsia was watching its most treasured dream disintegrate, it was also losing its social standing, its prestige and, finally, its money. As it had frequently done in the past, the intelligentsia responded by declaring itself dead, obsolete. Once again, it was the end.

Masha Gessen, one of the most perceptive of a new generation of correspondents in Russia, does not share this opinion. Her fascinating book is the first to examine the ways in which intellectuals are finding an identity in the new Russia. Through a series of extraordinary individual stories, she shows their quest for a new faith, be it religion or the paranormal, a commitment to nationalist ideology, or to feminist principles. She shows, too, their search for a place in the new society, as artist or politician, entrepreneur or neo-dissident. Some of those she describes as already famous (or infamous); others unknown. Her accounts of their careers and preoccupations can be inspiring or harrowing, and sometimes hilarious. Finally, Masha Gessen considers the prospects for future generations of intellectuals, giving a vivid, and disturbing, portrait of Russia’s outcast Generation X, and of those younger still, who have largely abandoned any notion of society or hope for a place in it.

Genres: Russia, Nonfiction, Politics, Russian History

222 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

Masha Gessen (born 1967) is an American-Russian journalist, translator, and nonfiction author. They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns.

Born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Russia, in 1981 they moved with their family to the United States to escape anti-Semitism. They returned in 1991 to Moscow, where they worked as a journalist, and covered Russian military activities during the Chechen Wars. In 2013, they were publicly threatened by prominent Russian politicians for their political activism and were forced to leave Russia for the United States.

They write in both Russian and English, and has contributed to The New Republic, New Statesman, Granta and Slate. Gessen is a staff writer at The New Yorker, covering international politics, Russia, LGBT rights, and gender issues.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting set of what amount to essays about conditions in Russia for the immediate period before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the first 5 years of the supposed democratic period to 1996. The substance is basically interviews with a number of well educated, highly intelligent members of society, hence the title referencing the "intelligentsia."
This is a society and a way of life so utterly alien to our experience in the West that it is strange and fascinating and humorous, all at the same time. The writing is sardonic and wry. It is amazing to me how well Masha Gessen can write in what is a second language for her.
I was led to this book because of her book "The man Without a Face" about Vladimir Putin which I strongly recommend to all with an interest in world affairs.

[Moira Downey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gessen is an engaging, wry observer of their surroundings (in this case, the often surreal, anything-goes frontier lands of mid 90s Russia), but this read is a little bit scatter-shot and, from 2013, out-of-date.

[Frazer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this only because I've enjoyed reading Gessen's stuff in the New Yorker. I think this was a bit niche for my taste.