Osiris, Volume 23 – Intelligentsia Science: The Russian Century, 1860–1960

The newest annual volume of Osiris, Intelligentsia Science explores the transformations in science in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, from serfdom to Sputnik, as a series of developments in Russian culture.
The contributors argue that it was the generation of the 1860s that transformed “intelligentsia” into a central notion of Russian popular discourse, cementing its association with revolutionary politics—and with science. Science became the cornerstone of the intelligentsia’s ideological and political projects, either as an alternative to socialism, or more often as its nominal raison d’être. The Russian century may in fact be over, but the interrelation of the intelligentsia and science to form “intelligentsia science” proves enduring.

Michael D. Gordin is professor of the history of science at Princeton University.


Karl Hall is assistant professor of history at Central European University in Budapest.

Alexei Kojevnikov is associate professor in the Department of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.