How Do Local Conditions Inform Socio-Political Language? The Concept of ‘Intelligentsia’ in Łódź Press before the Mid-Twentieth Century

Abstract

This article seeks to answer the question of whether the local conditions or determinants influence the socio-political language. Within the context of the nationwide discourse in the nineteenth-century Kingdom of Poland, an analysis follows how the concept of ‘intelligentsia’ functioned in the local press from the industrial city of Łódź. A source analysis leads to the conclusion that in the specific circumstances, of which the social mix was a constituent, certain notions of a defined meaning in the countrywide context may be interpreted in a manner divergent from the rule. As the social structure of Łódź was becoming more and more similar to that of Warsaw and other big cities, the differences in the definitions of the term ‘intelligentsia’ were gradually smoothening out.