A self-made national elite can awaken a passive people by skipping historical stages

Evidence

An elite consisting of some of the most active, energetic, enterprising and disciplined members of the society emigrates abroad and assimilates the culture and historical experiences of the most advanced countries of the West, without however losing the most essential characteristics of its own nationality, that is to say without breaking its sentimental and historical links with its own people. Having thus performed its intellectual apprenticeship it returns to its own country and compels the people to an enforced awakening, skipping historical stages in the process. The difference between this elite and that imported from Germany (by Peter the Great, for example) lies in its essentially national-popular character. It could not be assimilated by the inert passivity of the Russian people, because it was itself an energetic reaction of Russia to her own historical inertia. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 310

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the imported-elite model (Peter the Great) to define what makes an elite ‘national-popular’ — useful in understanding colonial and postcolonial intelligentsias that Western education later produces.
• SEED: Curious resonance with postcolonial elites trained in the metropole who return to lead independence movements — but Gramsci’s version keeps organic links with the people.
• QUESTION: How does Gramsci’s ‘national-popular’ elite concept map onto the colonial-native intelligentsia pattern later theorized by Fanon and others?