Nikolai Zlobin: Russian Intelligentsia and American Intellectuals

The famous and authoritative political scientist Nikolai Zlobin on issues of Russian-American relations and why Russians will never understand Americans.

There is no need to exaggerate the closeness of America and Russia from the point of view of culture and mentality; they are still very different countries. From whatever point of view one looks — everyday mentality, culture, history — Americans relate to many things differently, and it is sometimes difficult for Russians to grasp this understanding of America. It either does not suit them, or it gives the wrong impression. For example, in Russia there is a pretty widespread stereotype that Americans are a poorly educated and provincial people.

America actually is a provincial country; before the Second World War, it was a country of farmers, but afterward it became a superpower, determining the character of development of the world in the second half of the 20th century. The American educational system is designed completely differently from the Russian system. The Russian education system was designed — I myself am its product — from grade school through college, for the creation of an intelligent person, the creation of an intelligent stratum in Russia; it is a broad, fundamental education, one that asks its students to learn a lot — practically the whole course of subjects both in grade school and in college. In America, there is no understanding of the intelligentsia; they have intellectuals. How does the Russian intelligentsia differ from American intellectuals? [Translator’s note: “intelligentsia” actually comes to English from Russian. In English we speak of the collective intelligentsia, but in Russian one can also speak of individuals. An individual is called an “intelligent” as a noun, and I use this to draw the distinction the author intends between the Americans and Russians. Since this is not normally said in English, I put it in quotation marks when it is used.]

The Russian “intelligent” knows something about everything and is able to carry on a conversation on any subject for 20 minutes, literally talking about anything from nuclear physics to Gogol, from soccer to the cosmos. The American is unable to do this because the American education system is designed to produce a narrow specialist with profound knowledge of a subject. He gets confused when a Russian “intelligent” begins to talk to him about everything, but as soon as the subject turns to concrete themes, the American delves much deeper — that is the big difference. They prepare specialists; we prepare “intelligents.” Each has its own right to exist, but that is the big difference, and one must understand what the education system is aiming for. In America it is specialization, directed at the markets; the markets need specialists with in-depth knowledge, not people who know how to talk about any subject. And that is the origin of the impression that Americans are obtuse. Of course they are not obtuse; they are educated differently, they are educated in consideration of the market. The market demands quality, not quantity of knowledge, and thus this completely incorrect stereotype is established.

I taught for many years in some very good American universities. When there are Russian students or graduates, they easily outperform the Americans in the first year, but when the subject goes on another three or four years, or even further, then the Americans begin to quite markedly surpass them because our system of education is not designed well for instilling critical thinking. These two educational systems are not formed very similarly to each other, and as a result, mutual misunderstanding begins to grow.

The Americans consider the Russians very educated, very knowledgeable people, but they do not understand why the Russians lack in-depth knowledge of many subjects. The question they always ask me is: Why is it that are you are so smart, you have these mathematicians, physicists, chemists, chess masters, writers and composers, but after a thousand years of existence Russians have not managed to establish a government that satisfies them? It would seem that authority is the easiest to establish: It is easier to establish a system of government than to send a rocket into space. You Russians were the first to send a rocket into space, but you can’t establish a system of government. We Americans have the opposite situation: We have a system of government established by our founding fathers, the same Constitution, which we have never had to change, and a system that functions automatically, however poorly educated we are. Why can’t you Russians establish a system of government? It is as if your mind does not extend to politics.

And there is no answer to that, honestly. Such stereotypes are formed and there are very serious misunderstandings between Russians and Americans in that sense. [Translator’s note: Although the Constitution has been amended often, the author probably meant that it has never been replaced entirely, unlike in most of the former Soviet countries.]