Definitions for "intelligentsia"
an educated and intellectual{2} elite; intellectuals, collectively or considered as a class.
Intellectuals, usually referring to professionals such as writers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, professors, scientists. The intelligentsia is a middle stratum between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Generally has greater ideological links with the bourgeoisie, but vacillates between the workers and capitalists. In a workers' state, the intelligentsia usually has elements with ties to the old bourgeois order.
in teli jent sEE uh, - gent-] Russian term denoting articulate intellectuals as a class; 19th century group bent on radical change in Russian political and social system; often wished to maintain a Russian culture distinct from that of the West. (p. 815)