Transformations of the East European Intelligentsia: Reflections on the Bulgarian Case

Although we are not concerned here primarily with definitions, it is necessary to introduce the term "intelligentsia" in a more general way. It is commonly agreed that the intelligentsia is one of the most elusive phenomena and very difficult to define. In an attempt to sum up the various definitions of the intelligentsia, Aleksander Gella contrasts a formal (or sociological) approach to a historical one. The sociological approach, used mainly by western sociologists, defines the intelligentsia or the intellectuals (both terms used as more or less equivalent) in terms of education and/or in terms of function-as creators, administrators and consumers of cultural goods (ideas, values, symbols, and meanings). [...]