The author of the article considers the formation and development of ideas about the mission of the intelligentsia in the journalism of the Russian opposition movement at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. The concept of “intelligentsia” gained a new meaning in the 1880s. Previously, it was regarded as an educated society (the public), then in populist journalism the ideocratic understanding came to the fore. "Intelligentsia" began to call the carriers of high ideas, which could come from very different levels of society, including from the common people ("people's intelligentsia"). The “real intelligentsia” was intended to resist capitalist tendencies. The intelligentsia was endowed with attributes of Christian holiness, but in a secular humanistic sense. The Christian feat was transformed into a social action carried out in the name of a lofty idea. In response, V.A. Ternavtsev formulated the idea of the “churching” of the intelligentsia. D.S. Merezhkovsky created the concept of "revolution of the spirit", she was born under the influence of the populists and Ternavtsev. The “revolution of the spirit” assumed the creation of a new church (a new sociality) on the basis of the Russian intelligentsia, then a comprehensive transformation of the world was to take place. The controversy surrounding the ideas of Merezhkovsky provoked the publication of the collection "Vekhi" (1909). "Vekhi" became self-exposure of the intelligentsia and an attempt to outline new ways of following their mission.