THE PHENOMENON OF INTELLIGENTSIA / INTELLECTUALS: THE ISTORICAL TYPOLOGY AND PRESENT STATE
The article treats intelligentsia and intellectuals as special intermediate groups carrying out an autonomous spiritual mission within the opposition to a political class and a people at large. Further taking into account this localization of the phenomenon the following questions are considered: its ratio with such social categories as «professionals» and «the organic intellectuals» (in A. Gramsci's interpretation); the distinction between «intelligentsia» and «intellectuals»; the factors promoting the erosion of the boundaries of this phenomenon at the current historical stage.