Intellectuals in the ruling elite political stratum of modern Russia: theoretical and applied aspects of sociological analysis

Abstract

The article deals with the rather urgent problem of the qualitative composition of the modern elite political stratum of the Russian society and the place occupied by intellectuals in it. The article compares the categories of intelligentsia and intellectuals, which allows us to say that intellectuals are a special social layer that has a number of basic features of the intelligentsia, with the exception of the representation of many of its members with a special ethical self-determination characteristic of this group. This is largely confirmed by the analysis of biographies of 685 political figures representing the modern Russian political elite. Using the latest research on this problem and the results of his own analysis of biographies of elite members, the author comes to the conclusion that, having the necessary theoretical basis, professional characteristics (in the form of appropriate education, experience of activity) modern intellectuals in the ruling elite form layers, one of which in the ruling elite group represents more formal-technocratic stratum, however, far from the layer of technostructure described by J. Galbraith, and in the near-elite environment – the layer of formally deideologized experts.