The Russian intelligentsia

by A. Sini͡avskiĭ

In 1990, after the fall of Soviet communism, Andrei Sinyavsky went home to Russia. In exile for nearly two decades, the writer known as Abram Tertz had suffered prison and oppression for liberating both the writer and reader from the constraints of totalitarianism. The Russian Intelligentsia is the record of an exile's return - both a riveting chronicle of poverty, crime, and corruption and a passionate call for Russian intellectuals to rearm in a new struggle for freedom and democracy. Sinyavsky creates a vivid picture of today's Russian intelligentsia and its role as conscience and critic since the fall of communism in 1989, as well as a chilling portrait of economic and political stagnation under Yeltsin. He revisits the historically troubled relationship of the Russian intelligentsia and the "masses" for whom it has traditionally spoken. Drawing striking parallels to the role of intellectuals under the czar, he finds that contemporary writers and artists have lost touch with popula