Who can call himself an intellectual is the question that the well-known Russian writer Sergey Zalygin is discussing. (Сочинения ЕГЭ английский язык)

Who can call himself an intellectual is the question that the well-known Russian writer Sergey Zalygin is discussing.

This problem exists in Russia since the time of Peter the Great, who for the first time gathered around him a circle of self-taught intellectuals, called upon to help him with the imposition of a new statehood. Since then, who has not thought about who can be called an intellectual: the writer PD Boborykin, and the philosopher-poet DS Merezhkovsky, and the leader, the inspirer of the Great October Socialist Revolution, VI Lenin. The poets of the silver age Sasha Cherny and Valery Bryusov created poems under the heading "The Intelligent".

The latter wrote, referring to the "conscience of the nation":

Have you been any tragedy and doom

Or the horror of a new flood,

And you guessed: in fire, on the rack

Old Europe will die?

The author of the article claims that the intellectual is not only the person who is fond of classical literature, music, painting, but also one who takes upon himself moral obligations; The criterion of intelligence is not only beliefs, morals, creativity, but also deeds. A man who offended a servant, an unknown passer-by, a beggar, conductor, has no right to call himself an intellectual.

I fully agree with the author of the article that an intellectual is a person who not only knows a lot, but also focuses on universal qualities, committed to justice and humanism.

Take, for example, AP Chekhov. His intellectual is in constant, hard, hard work. "You have to train yourself, " the writer said. He developed a whole program of moral self-improvement of a person claiming the title of an intellectual. A. Chekhov believed that educated people should be polite, compliant, gentle, not talkative, sincere and must be afraid of lies as fire.

Which of my contemporaries could I call a true intellectual? Of course, Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev. The academician said: "... you can not pretend to be intelligent. You can pretend to be kind, generous, even profound, wise, but intelligent - never. "

Thus, I can conclude that an intellectual can be called not only someone who knows a lot, but who is noble in his actions.