ENThe history of borderland intelligentsia is still to be written. The main feature of the nobility culture – its language – was even preserved and supported until 1830. The acceptance of the Russian language, almost without reservation, occurred only in the final phase when the traditional source of the Polish intelligentsia – impoverished yeomanry – was definitely declassed and destroyed, and the upper nobility, socially and politically isolated, wanted to preserve its economically stronger position. Violence against yeomanry was not typical only of the imperial system, but also against the Polish landed gentry. Here, we deal with a problem of joint responsibility of the two upper classes of Russian and Polish societies. A common feature of those classes was post-feudalism, a defence of the exclusiveness of their privileges.