Will the Russian intellectuals ever be able to overcome their commitment to either revolution or servility to the authorities, to shift from social utopias, official doctrines or social escapism to independent analyses of realities, to an active public role, to the development of new principles of social and political life? — Vladimir Ryzhkov poses the question in his foreword to the Russian edition of the book. This collective work by leading Spanish political scientists, philosophers, and historians traces the evolution of intellectuals’ mission as carriers of knowledge and critics of regimes, analyses their relationship with the authorities and society, and their contribution to solving national and global problems.