Book Discussion: The Russian Intelligentsia: Myth, Mission, and Metamorphosis, by eds. Sibelan Forrester and Olga Partan

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

This round table book discussion will be dedicated to the new volume on The Russian Intelligentsia: Myth, Mission, and Metamorphosis that was published in February 2025 by Academic Studies Press. The volume is a collaboration of a group of 17 scholars from the US and UK. The Russian intelligentsia is the historic phenomenon of an educated opposition, and it provoked a substantial body of Russian and Western Publications. This book focuses on the Intelligentsia Myth, Mission, and Metamorphosis as discovered in literature, journalism, and theater. The chapters define essential elements of the myth of the intelligentsia as a distinctive social group and a spiritual formation claiming high moral standards and expectations for the self and the society. Second, the volume explore hos the intelligentsia sees its mission on various historical stages as inextricably linked with Russian’s cultural destiny. Finally, the volume addresses the metamorphosis of the intelligentsia over the centuries, as socio-political factors shaped its persistence and its perpetual transformation.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Sibelan E. S. Forrester, Swarthmore College

Roundtable Speakers

• Alexander Burry, Ohio State U

• David L. Hoffmann, Ohio State U

• Sofya Khagi, U of Michigan

• Tatiana Smorodinska, Middlebury College

• Olga Simonova Partan, College of the Holy Cross