Jacques Rupnik on intellectuals in Eastern Europe

Historian Jacques Rupnik talks to Armand Gosu about intellectuals in Eastern Europe. "In the 19th century the intellectuals performed the function of the political elite because these states were not sovereign, but under foreign rule. In those times intellectuals played an important role in the rediscovery of national identity - they acted as a kind of spokesman for the nation. This was also true under the communist system, when society lacked freedom. The life of intellectuals thus took on a new dimension unknown to intellectuals in the West. ... Not long ago, the Czech Literárny Noviny published an uncensored debate between Václav Havel und Milan Kundera about 1968 that took place just before the Russian invasion. This was a very high-level discussion, encompassing historical visions and values. Today no one writes texts raising questions like: Where are we now? What is our destiny? Our destiny has been decided: we are in NATO and we are moving from the sublime to the ridiculous."

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