Historiographic aspect of the problem of the intellectuals in political and sociocultural development of Russia

The article discusses the historiographic aspect of the issues related to the intellectuals: origin, classification, activity, etymology of concepts such as “intelligentzia” and “intelligence”, and therefore stand out features of their perception and evaluation of domestic and foreign research literature. The authors also pay attention to a particular direction of historiography concerning the problems of interaction between the intellectuals and power in political and sociocultural development of Russia especially in the multi-ethnic region of Chuvashia.