PRIVILIGENTSIA

noun Also written privilegentsia (Politics) (People and Society) A class of intellectuals and Party bureaucrats in Communist countries who, until the reforms of the late eighties, enjoyed social and economic privileges over ordinary citizens; more widely, any privileged class. Etymology: Formed by telescoping privilege and intelligentsia to make a blend. History and Usage: Priviligentsia was coined, probably by Western observers, as the name for the privileged class of important Party members in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact states as long ago as the fifties, but remained a specialized word used only in academic journals until the early eighties. Then it was taken up by the media as a convenient shorthand for all those who could avoid food shortages by shopping in special shops, speed through the traffic by travelling in specially reserved lanes, get jobs through friends and contacts, and generally lead a life of privilege and luxury which starkly contrasted with the life of ordinary people in the Soviet Union. The priviligentsia was one of the main targets of Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika in the second half of the eighties, and the group which had most to lose from the reform programme. By the middle of the decade, the English-language press had already extended the word's use to cover any group of people who either enjoyed or advocated privilege. An unholy alliance of Labour 'egalitarians' and the Tory 'priviligentsia'. Daily Telegraph 28 Jan. 1985, p. 16 These bureaucrats get their jobs under the nomenklatura or privilegentsia system, whereby Communist party members nominate their friends in return for kickbacks and privileged access to rationed goods. Economist 30 May 1987, p. 72 When technology is expanding as fast as it...is now, freer markets bring gains to everybody except the conservative privilegentsia. Sunday Telegraph 9 Aug. 1987, p. 20