Creative Intelligentsia in Socio-Political Processes of the Epoch of the First Russian Revolution

The attitude of artistic intelligentsia to the revolutionary events of 1905–1907 years is covered in the article. General discontent with the regime of Nicholas II and the wish to change something contributed to intelligentsia’s sympathy for the revolution, which was seen as the attempt of solving social problems. However, artistic intelligentsia’s involvement level in the current events was unequal: some tried to grasp the idea of what was going on, some were simply passive onlookers, and others ignored those events and did not reflect them in their works. Archive materials, used in the article, published sources and the evidence of intelligentsia’s representatives make it possible to say that, in general, intelligentsia chose the role of an outside observer instead of being an active supporter of the revolutionary events. The analysis of intelligentsia’s creativity, given in the article, shows that they were trying to reconsider people's role in the development of Russian history and, as the result of that, civil subject appeared in intelligentsia’s works. However, lack of understanding by intelligentsia of ongoing social processes in the country contributed to the inability to give a sharp awareness of the subject of revolution in intelligentsia’s works. The identity of Russian and Siberian intelligentsia’s views toward the revolution has been revealed on the basis of comparative study. Being sympathetic towards people, intelligentsia did not approve of violence, which scared them off from taking part in the revolution. They showed their disapproval of the regime in the way of protesting, making statements and declarations without going in for active actions. The content and the topics of works of artistic intelligentsia’s most famous representatives at that period have been analyzed in the article and its role in the formation of public conscience and the development of culture in general has been validated