----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
Earlier
[WS:] I guess it depends on the country. What you are talking may be true for Romania and perhaps Hungary, but certainly not for other EE countries. Czechoslovakia had a relatively sizable pre- WW2 intelligentsia, but they tended to be progressive. In any case, Czechoslovakia did not have much domestic upper class at least since 1620. In Poland, otoh, pre-war intelligentsia was rather small (Poland was predominantly rural) and most of it perished in WW2 - so it is certainly true that post war intelligentsia was created by the Communists from the scratch. This is also true for Russia. Pre-revolutionary intelligentsia was rather small to begin with, and whatver was left of it after the revolution was really a drop in a bucket comparing to the vast number of college graduates produced by the Soviet higher educational system.
PS. sorry for the wrong attribution of the original quote.
Wojtek ___________________________________
You're very right to make these distinctions. I think where we disagree is about the predominant role of the CP in creating the intelligentia's sense of entitlement.
No doubt, some of this relates to the CPs un-democratic and authoritarian structure. But, a good deal also comes from pre-existing class prejudice. And remember, class prejudice is no more restricted to the upper class than racism is restricted to whites. By this I mean, that a good part of the working/lower class accepts the hierarchy and asks nothing better than to be one rung higher than his brother.
Joanna