Fate of the Intelligentsia
Almost involuntarily they were forced into open enmity to the old order that had no use for them. Beginning as gentle dreamers, reformers, and humanitarians, they were constantly being punished for mere dreaming and forbidden to dream. In despite of themselves they were driven into open rebelliousness, a mood so general that the very word "student" would finally became synonymous with revolutionist. The better to regiment them and set them apart, the state devised a student uniform for them, and, sometimes, before their formal education was completed, exiled them to their native village, or to Siberia, for a "higher education". Many were lost and broken, many more forsook their generous vision as they grew older and adapted themselves to a career under the existing order. The noblest and the best sought to merge themselves with the people who did not receive them; or hurled themselves single-handed, or in desperate little bands, against the still unshakable regime; or finished out their lives dreaming of home and freedom in distant lands.
Onward to the Next!
Quote from Three Who Made a Revolution, by Bertram D. Wolfe.
Copyright 1983, Stein and Day Publications.
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