Rich Russians View Themselves as Heirs of Intelligentsia – and That is a Big Problem, Martynov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 16 – A new book by Elisabeth Schimpfossel, Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie (Oxford, 2018) is attracting attention and concern among Russian commentators like Moscow’s Kirill Martyonv because of its conclusion that the newly rich Russians see themselves as heirs of the intelligentsia.

            In a comment for the Rosbalt portal, Martynov points out that Schimpfossel is talking not so much about the oligarchs as about the larger class of Russians who have become wealthy in the last decade and who, the anthropologist says, “consider themselves heirs of the Russian intelligentsia”  (rosbalt.ru/posts/2018/08/13/1724389.html).

                As such, Schimpfossel continues, they view themselves as “the preservers of a great Russian culture” and explain their wealth as an indication that they can and should play that role.  But that view carries with it a downside: they often view the rest of the Russian people as “uncultured” and their exclusion of their circle as an elect as natural and justified. 

            “If wealth is explained by ‘a rich internal world,’” Martynov says drawing on the scholar’s study, “then poverty is explained by ignorance and a lack of culture. A myth about people with good faces is thereby called upon to explain social inequality.” And that has some unfortunate consequences.

            These Russian elites, the Moscow commentator says, thus have become “bearers of all kinds of discriminatory ideologies: sexism, racism, homophobia, and so on down the list.  These ideas are a partial case of a view of the world in which there are a privileged minority and ‘the lower classes.’” 

            He notes that in her book, Schimpfossel stresses that “the self-proclaimed heirs of the Russian intelligentsia boldly proclaim that they, in contrast to the politically correct Europeans, have not lost the ability to speak the truth,” even though “the truth” they put forward is often the most vulgar form of prejudice.

            What neither Schimpfossel nor Martynov discuss, however, is the way in which newly wealthy elites in other countries have adopted similar attitudes about the rest of their societies, attitudes that have poisoned social discourse and undermined national unity even as those manifesting these ideas say they are promoting precisely that.