Lenin on the national question

Submitted by Anon on 5 March, 2006 - 11:40

The history of capitalism is filled with examples of nations conquering nations, taking control of territories, plundering economies, downgrading language and culture and treating the conquered peoples as less than equal. Russia under the Tsar was a "prison-house of nations": the ethnic Russian majority oppressed other nationalities within that country mercilessly.

One of Lenin's big contributions to Marxism was consistent democracy on the national question. "We fight against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation." (The Right of Nations to Self Determination, 1914)

Lenin championed the right of all nations to self-determination i.e. the right of a clearly defined majority to decide whether they remain part of a larger state, or separate and form their own state e.g. Norway's separation from Sweden in 1905.

Whether socialists positively advocate independence depended on the consequences for the workers' movement.

Lenin's view on how socialists should relate to minorities within states of mixed population was: "In so far as national peace is in any way possible in a capitalist society based on exploitation, profit making and strife it is attainable only under a consistently and thoroughly democratic republican system of government the constitution of which contains a fundamental law that prohibits any privileges whatsoever to any one nation and any encroachment whatsoever upon the rights of a national minority. This particularly calls for wide regional autonomy and fully democratic local government, with the boundaries of the self-governing and autonomous regions determined by the local inhabitants themselves on the basis of their economic and social conditions, national makeup of the population."

Lenin supported the rights of peoples under colonial rule and of countries oppressed by Tsarism (such as Poland) to independence, but advocated a Balkan federation for the (intermingled) peoples of south-east Europe. Such ideas are important in working out a socialist stance to current questions such as Ireland, Israel-Palestine and Kosova.

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