Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia

Drawn from Prof. Vladislav Zubok’s new book of the same title (Harvard University Press, 2009), this talk examines one of the least-chronicled aspects of post-World War II European intellectual and cultural history: the the story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin. In pursuing the dream of a civil, democratic, socialist society, Russian intellectuals, writers, and artists contributed to the political disintegration of the communist regime. This highly educated and idealistic elite played a unique role in galvanizing their country to strive toward a greater freedom. Like their contemporaries in the United States, France, and Germany, members of the Russian intelligentsia had a profound effect during the 1960s, sounding a call for reform, equality, and human rights that echoed beyond their time and place.

Vladislav Zubok is Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including the two prize-winning books INSIDE THE KREMLIN’S COLD WAR: FROM STALIN TO KHRUSHCHEV with C. Pleshakov (Harvard University Press, 1996) and A FAILED EMPIRE: THE SOVIET UNION IN THE COLD WAR FROM STALIN TO GORBACHEV (University of North Carolina Press, 2007). He is a Fellow of the National Security Archive and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and has served as a consultant to CNN. Prof. Zubok’s most recent book is ZHIVAGO’S CHILDREN: THE LAST RUSSIAN INTELLIGENTSIA (Harvard University Press, 2009).

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