Farewell to the intelligentsia: political transformation and changing forms of leisure consumption in the former communist countries of eastern Europe

This paper refers to evidence from studies of young adults conducted in eight different ex‐communist countries from 1993 onwards, but it is based primarily on data gathered in Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in 2002. The evidence is used to chart the disintegration of the intelligentsia strata that were consolidated under communism. Members were highly educated and were unified by an intelligentsia lifestyle that included the consumption of state‐subsidized high culture and typically involved interest and participation in public affairs. The evidence that is presented shows that under post‐communism higher education graduates continue to be distinguished by their consumption of high culture. However, their occupations are more diverse in terms of work and market situations. Many, especially those in the more intellectual occupations, have been impoverished, state subsidies for their lifestyles having been withdrawn or reduced, making their lifestyles more expensive. The better‐off are now even more exposed to and involved in the new consumer cultures. This paper explains how the cessation of the intelligentsia’s reproduction as a lifestyle group, and the spread of commercial leisure, will have contributed to the post‐1989/91 decline in political interest and activity among young people in the former communist countries of eastern Europe.