As a continuation of our series of documents on the question of national self determination we are publishing Three significant writings of Lenin on the national question.<\/p>\n
The Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) APRIL 24\u201329, 1917<\/strong><\/p>\n Resolution on the National Question<\/strong><\/p>\n The policy of national oppression, inherited from the autocracy and monarchy; is maintained by the landowners, capitalists, and petty bourgeoisie in order to protect their class privileges and to cause disunity among the workers of the various nationalities. Modern imperialism, which increases the tendency to subjugate weaker nations, is a new factor intensifying national oppression.<\/p>\n The elimination of national oppression, if at all achievable in capitalist society, is possible only under a consistently democratic republican system and state administration that guarantee complete equality for all nations and languages.<\/p>\n The right of all the nations forming part of Russia freely to secede and form independent states must be recognised. To deny them this right, or to fail to take measures guaranteeing its practical realisation, is equivalent to supporting a policy of seizure or annexation. Only the recognition by the proletariat of the right of nations to secede can ensure complete solidarity among the workers of the various nations and help to bring the nations closer together on truly democratic lines.<\/p>\n The conflict which has arisen at the present time between Finland and the Russian Provisional Government strikingly demonstrates that denial of the right to free secession leads to a direct continuation of the policy of tsarism.<\/p>\n The right of nations freely to secede must not be confused with the advisability of secession by a given nation at a given moment. The party of the proletariat must decide the latter question quite independently in each particular case, having regard to the interests of social development as a whole and the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat for socialism.<\/p>\n The Party demands broad regional autonomy, the abolition of supervision from above, the abolition of a compulsory official language, and the fixing of the boundaries of the self-governing and autonomous regions in accordance with the economic and social conditions, the national composition of the population, and so forth, as assessed by the local population itself.<\/p>\n The party of the proletariat emphatically rejects what is known as \u201cnational cultural autonomy\u201d, under which education, etc., is removed from the control of the state and put in the control of some kind of national diets. National cultural autonomy artificially divides the workers living in one locality, and even working in the same industrial enterprise, according to their various \u201cnational cultures\u201d; in other words, it strengthens the ties between the workers and the bourgeois culture of their nations, whereas the aim of the Social-Democrats is to develop the international culture of the world proletariat.<\/p>\n The party demands that a fundamental law be embodied in the constitution annulling all privileges enjoyed by any one nation and all infringements of the rights of national minorities.<\/p>\n The interests of the working class demand that the workers of all nationalities in Russia should have common proletarian organisations: political, trade union, co-operative educational institutions, and so forth. Only the merging of the workers of the various nationalities into such common organisations will make it possible for the proletariat to wage a successful struggle against international Capital and bourgeois nationalism.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>Beginning<\/a> from 1903, when our Party adopted its programme, we have been encountering violent opposition on the part of the Polish comrades. If you study the Minutes of the\u00a0Second Congress you will see that they were using the same arguments then that they are using now, and that the Polish Social-Democrats walked out from that Congress because they held that recognition of the right of nations to self-determination was unacceptable to them. Ever since then we have been coming up against the same question. Though imperialism already existed in 1903, the Polish Social-Democrats made no mention of it in their arguments. They are making the same strange and monstrous error now as they were then. These people want to put our Party\u2019s stand on a par with that of the chauvinists.<\/p>\n Owing<\/a> to long oppression by Russia, Poland\u2019s policy is a wholly nationalist one, and the whole Polish nation is obsessed with one idea\u2014revenge on the Muscovites. No one has oppressed the Poles more than the Russian people, who served in the hands of the tsars as the executioner of Polish freedom. In no nation does hatred of Russia sit so deep as with the Poles; no nation dislikes Russia so intensely as the Poles. As a result we have a strange thing. Because of the Polish bourgeoisie, Poland has become an obstacle to the socialist movement. The whole world could go to the devil so long as Poland was free. Of course, this way of putting the question is a mockery of internationalism. Of course, Poland is now a victim of violence, but for the Polish nationalists to count on Russia liberating Poland\u2014that would be treason to the International. The Polish nationalists have\u00a0 so imbued the Polish people with their views that this is how the situation is regarded in Poland.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>The<\/a> Polish Social-Democratic comrades have rendered a great historic service by advancing the slogan of internationalism and declaring that the fraternal union of the proletariat of all countries is of supreme importance to them and that they will never go to war for the liberation of Poland. This is to their credit, and this is why we have always regarded only these Polish Social-Democrats as socialists. The others are patriots, Polish Plekhanovs. But this peculiar position, when, in order to safeguard socialism, people were forced to struggle against a rabid and morbid nationalism, has produced a strange state of affairs: comrades come to us saying that we must give up the idea of Poland\u2019s freedom, her right to secession.<\/p>\n Why<\/a> should we Great Russians, who have been oppressing more nations than any other people, deny the right to secession for Poland, Ukraine, or Finland? We are asked to become chauvinists, because by doing so we would make the position of Social-Democrats in Poland less difficult. We do not pretend to seek to liberate Poland, because the Polish people live between two states that are capable of fighting. Instead of telling the Polish workers that only those Social-Democrats are real democrats who maintain that the Polish people ought to be free, since there is no place for chauvinists in a socialist party, the Polish Social-Democrats argue that, just because they find the union with Russian workers advantageous, they are opposed to Poland\u2019s secession. They have a perfect right to do so. But people don\u2019t want to understand that to strengthen internationalism you do not have to repeat the same words. What you have to do is to stress, in Russia, the freedom of secession for oppressed nations and, in Poland, their freedom to unite. Freedom to unite implies freedom to secede. We Russians must emphasise freedom to secede, while the Poles must emphasise freedom to unite.<\/p>\n We<\/a> notice here a number of sophisms involving a complete renunciation of Marxism. Comrade Pyatakov\u2019s stand repeats that of\u00a0Rosa Luxemburg<\/a>….[1]<\/a><\/sup> (Holland is an example.)\u00a0 This is how Comrade Pyatakov reasons, and this is how he refutes himself, for in theory he denies freedom of secession, but to the people he says that anyone opposing<\/a>freedom of secession is not a socialist. Comrade Pyatakov has been saying things here that are hopelessly muddled.<\/a>In Western Europe most countries settled their national questions long ago. It is Western Europe that is<\/a>referred <\/a>when it is said that the national question has been settled. Comrade Pyatakov, however, puts this where it<\/a>does not<\/a>belong\u2014to Eastern Europe, and we find ourselves in a ridiculous position.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>Just<\/a> think of the dreadful mess that results!\u00a0Finland is right next door to us. Comrade Pyatakov has no definite answer for Finland and gets all mixed up. In yesterday\u2019sRabochaya Gazeta you read that the movement for separation is growing in Finland. Finns arriving here tell us that separatism is growing there because the\u00a0Cadets refuse to grant the country complete autonomy. A crisis is approaching there, dissatisfaction with\u00a0Governor-General Rodichev is rife, but\u00a0Rabochaya Gazeta<\/em> writes that the Finns should wait for the\u00a0Constituent Assembly, because an agreement will there be reached between Finland and Russia. What do they mean by agreement? The Finns must declare that they are entitled to decide their destiny in their own way, and any Great Russian who denies this right is a chauvinist. It would be another thing if we said to the Finnish worker: Decide what is best for yourself….<\/em><\/p>\n Comrade Pyatakov simply rejects our slogan, saying that it means giving no slogan for the socialist revolution, but he himself gives no appropriate slogan. The method of socialist revolution under the slogan \u201cDown with frontiers\u201d is all muddled up. We have not succeeded in publishing the article in which I called this view \u201cImperialist Economism\u201d.[3]<\/a><\/sup> What does the \u201cmethod\u201d of socialist revolution under the slogan \u201cDown with frontiers\u201d mean? We maintain that the state is necessary, and a state presupposes frontiers. The state, of course, may hold a bourgeois government, but we need the\u00a0Soviets. But even Soviets are confronted with the question of frontiers. What does \u201cDown with frontiers\u201d\u00a0 mean? It is the beginning of anarchy….The \u201cmethod\u201d of socialist revolution under the slogan \u201cDown with frontiers\u201d is simply a mess. When the time is ripe for socialist revolution, when it finally occurs, it will spread to other countries. We shall help it along, but in what manner, we do not know. \u201cThe method of socialist revolution\u201d is just a meaningless phrase. We stand for the settlement of problems which the bourgeois revolution has left unsolved. Our attitude to the separatist movement is indifferent, neutral. If Finland, Poland or Ukraine secede from Russia, there is nothing bad in that. What is wrong with it? Anyone who says that is a chauvinist. One must be mad to continue Tsar Nicholas\u2019s policy. Didn\u2019t Norway secede from Sweden? Alexander I and Napoleon once bartered nations, the tsars once traded Poland. Are we to continue this policy of the tsars? This is repudiation of the tactics of internationalism, this is chauvinism at its worst. What is wrong with Finland seceding? After the secession of Norway from Sweden mutual trust increased between the two peoples, between the proletariat of these countries. The Swedish landowners wanted to start a war, but the Swedish workers refused to be drawn into such a war.<\/a><\/p>\n All the Finns want now is autonomy. We are for Finland receiving complete freedom, because then there will be greater trust in Russian democracy and the Finns will not separate. While Mr.\u00a0Rodichev goes to Finland to haggle over autonomy, our Finnish comrades come here and say, \u201cWe want autonomy.\u201d But what they get is a broadside, and the answer: \u201cWait for the Constituent Assembly.\u201d But we say: \u201cAny Russian socialist who denies Finland freedom is a chauvinist.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a><\/a>We<\/a> say that frontiers are determined by the will of the\u00a0[local]\u00a0population. Russia, don\u2019t you dare fight over\u00a0Kurland! Germany, get your armies out of Kurland! That is how we solve the secession problem. The proletariat cannot use force, because it must not prevent the peoples from obtaining their freedom. Only when the socialist revolution has become a reality, and not a method, will the slogan \u201cDown with frontiers\u201d be a correct slogan. Then we shall say: Comrades, come to us….<\/p>\n War<\/a> is a different matter entirely. If need be, we shall not draw the line at a revolutionary war. We are not pacifists….\u00a0 When we have Milyukov sitting here and sending Rodichev to Finland to shamefully haggle with the Finnish people,we say to the Russian people: Don\u2019t you dare coerce Finland; no nation can be free that oppresses other nations. In the resolution concerning Borgbjerg we say: Withdraw your troops and let the nation settle the question itself. But, if the Soviet takes over power tomorrow, that will not be a \u201cmethod of socialist revolution\u201d, and we shall then say: Germany, get your troops out of Poland, and Russia, get your troops out of Armenia. If we did otherwise we should be deceiving people.<\/p>\n Comrade<\/a> Dzerzhinsky tells us that in his oppressed Poland everybody is a chauvinist. But not a single Pole has said a word about Finland or Ukraine. We have been arguing over this so much since 1903 that it is becoming difficult to talk about it. Do as you please….Anyone who does not accept this point of view is an annexationist and a chauvinist. We are for a fraternal union of all nations. If there is a Ukrainian republic and a Russian republic, there will be closer contact and greater trust between the two. If the Ukrainians see that we have a Soviet republic, they will not secede, but if we have a Milyukov republic, they will. When Comrade Pyatakov said in self-contradiction that he is against the forcible retention of nations within the frontiers, he actually recognised the right of nations to self-determination. We certainly do not want the peasant in\u00a0Khiva to live under the Khan of Khiva. By developing our revolution we shall influence the oppressed people. Propaganda among the oppressed mass must follow only this line.<\/p>\n Any<\/a> Russian socialist who does not recognise Finland\u2019s and Ukraine\u2019s right to freedom will degenerate into a chauvinist. And no sophisms or references to his \u201cmethod\u201d will ever help him to justify himself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n When they discuss the national question, opportunists in Russia are given to citing the example of Austria. In my article in\u00a0Severnaya Pravda which the opportunists have attacked (Mr.\u00a0Semkovsky in\u00a0Novaya Rabochaya Gazeta and Mr.\u00a0Liebman in\u00a0Zeit), I asserted that, insofar as that is at all possible under capitalism, there was only one solution of the national question, viz., through consistent democracy. In proof of this, I referred, among other things, to Switzerland.<\/p>\n This<\/a> has not been to the liking of the two opportunists mentioned above, who are trying to refute it or belittle its significance. Kautsky, we are told, said that Switzerland is an exception; Switzerland, if you please, has a special kind of decentralisation, a special history, special geographical conditions, unique distribution of a population that speak different languages, etc., etc.<\/p>\n All these are nothing more than attempts to\u00a0evade the issue. To be sure, Switzerland is an exception in that she is not a single-nation state. But Austria and Russia are also exceptions (or are backward, as Kautsky adds). To be sure, it was only her special, unique historical and social conditions that ensured Switzerland\u00a0greater<\/em> democracy than most of her European neighbours.<\/p>\n But where does all this come in, if we are speaking of the\u00a0model<\/em> to be adopted? In the whole world, under present-day conditions, countries in which any particular institution has been founded on\u00a0consistent<\/em> democratic principles are the exception. Does this prevent us, in our programme, from upholding consistent democracy in all institutions?<\/p>\n Switzerland\u2019s special features lie in her history, her geographical and other conditions. Russia\u2019s special features lie in the strength of her proletariat, which has no precedent in the epoch of bourgeois revolutions, and in her shocking general backwardness, which objectively necessitates an exceptionally rapid and resolute advance, under the threat of all sorts of drawbacks and reverses.<\/p>\n We are evolving a national programme from the proletarian standpoint; since when has it been recommended that the worst examples, rather than the best, be taken as a model?<\/p>\n At all events, does it not remain an indisputable and undisputed fact that national peace under capitalism has been achieved (insofar as it is achievable)\u00a0exclusively<\/em> in countries where consistent democracy prevails?<\/p>\n Since this is indisputable, the opportunists\u2019 persistent references to Austria instead of Switzerland are nothing but a typical Cadet device, for the Cadets always copy the worst European constitutions rather than the best.<\/p>\n In Switzerland there are\u00a0three official languages, but bills submitted to a referendum are printed in\u00a0five languages, that is to say, in two Romansh dialects, in addition to the three official languages. According to the 1900 census, these two dialects are spoken by 38,651 out of the 3,315,443 inhabitants of Switzerland, i.e., by a little over\u00a0one per\u00a0cent. In the army, commissioned and non-commissioned officers \u201care given the fullest freedom to speak to the men in their native language\u201d. In the cantons of Graub”unden and Wallis (each with a population of a little over a hundred thousand) both dialects enjoy complete equality.<\/p>\n The<\/a> question is: should we advocate and support this, the living\u00a0experience<\/em> of an advanced country, or borrow from the Austrians\u00a0inventions<\/em> like \u201cextra-territorial autonomy\u201d, which have not yet been tried out anywhere in the world (and not yet been adopted by the Austrians themselves)?<\/p>\n To<\/a> advocate this invention is to advocate the division of school education according to nationality, and that is a downright harmful idea. The experience of Switzerland\u00a0 proves, however, that the greatest (relative) degree of national peace\u00a0can be, and has been, ensured in practice<\/em> where you have, a consistent (again relative) democracy throughout the state.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>\u201c<\/a>In<\/a> Switzerland,\u201d say people who have studied this question, \u201cthere is\u00a0no national question<\/em> in the East-European sense of the term. The very phrase (national, question) is unknown there….\u201d \u201cSwitzerland left the struggle between nationalities a long way behind, in 1797\u20131803.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This<\/a> means that the epoch of the great French Revolution, which provided the most democratic solution of the current problems of the transition from feudalism to capitalism,succeeded<\/em> incidentally,\u00a0en passant<\/em>, in \u201csolving<\/em>\u201d the national question.<\/p>\n Let<\/a> the Semkovskys, Liebmans, and other opportunists now fry to assert that this \u201cexclusively Swiss\u201d solution is\u00a0inapplicable<\/em> to any uyezd or even part of an uyezd in Russia, where out of a population of only 200,000 forty thousand speak\u00a0two dialects<\/em> and want to have\u00a0complete equality<\/em> of language in their area!<\/p>\n Advocacy<\/a> of complete equality of nations and languages distinguishes only the consistently democratic elements in each nation (i.\u00a0e., only the proletarians), and\u00a0unites<\/em> them, not according to nationality, but in a profound and earnest desire to improve the entire system of state. On the contrary, advocacy of \u201ccultural-national autonomy\u201d, despite the pious wishes of individuals and groups,\u00a0divides the nations<\/em> and in fact draws the workers and the bourgeoisie of any one nation closer together (the adoption of this \u201ccultural-national autonomy\u201d by all the Jewish bourgeois parties).<\/p>\n Guaranteeing<\/a> the rights of a national minority is inseparably linked up with the principle of complete equality. In my article in\u00a0Severnaya Pravda<\/em> this principle was ex pressed in almost the same terms as in the later, official and more accurate decision of the conference of Marxists. That decision demands \u201cthe incorporation in the constitution of a fundamental law which shall declare null and void all privileges enjoyed by any one nation and all infringements of the rights of a national minority\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Mr.<\/a> Liebman<\/a> tries to ridicule this formula and asks: \u201cWho knows what the rights of a national minority are?\u201d Do these rights, he wants to know, include the right of the minority to have \u201cits own programme\u201d for the national schools? How large must the national minority be to have the right to have its own judges, officials, and schools with instruction in its own language? Mr.\u00a0Liebman wants it to be inferred from these questions that a \u201cpositive<\/em>\u201d national programme is essential.<\/p>\n Actually,<\/a> these questions clearly show what reactionary ideas our Bundist tries to smuggle through under cover of a dispute on supposedly minor details and particulars.<\/p>\n \u201cIts<\/a> own programme\u201d in its national schools!… Marxists, my dear nationalist-socialist, have a\u00a0general<\/em> school programme which demands, for example, an absolutely secular school. As far as Marxists are concerned, no\u00a0departure<\/em> from this general programme is anywhere or at any time permissible in a democratic state (the question of introducing any \u201clocal\u201d subjects, languages, and so forth into it being decided by the local inhabitants). However, from the principle of \u201ctaking educational affairs out of the hands of the state\u201d and placing them under the control of the nations, it ensues that we, the workers, must allow the \u201cnations\u201d in our democratic state to spend the people\u2019s money on clerical schools! Without being aware of the fact, Mr.\u00a0Liebman has clearly demonstrated the reactionary nature of \u201ccultural-national autonomy\u201d!<\/p>\n \u201cHow<\/a> large must a national minority be?\u201d This is not defined even in the Austrian programme, of which the Bundists are enamoured. It says (more briefly and less clearly than our programme does): \u201cThe rights of the national minorities are protected by a special law to he passed by the Imperial Parliament\u201d (\u00a74 of the Br”unn programme).<\/p>\n Why<\/a> has nobody asked the Austrian Social-Democrats the question: what exactly is that law, and exactly which rights and of which minority is it to protect?<\/p>\n That<\/a> is because all sensible people understand that it is inappropriate and impossible to define particulars in a programme. A programme lays down only fundamental principles. In this case the fundamental principle is implied with the Austrians, and directly expressed in the decision of the\u00a0 latest conference of Russian Marxists. That principle is: no national privileges and no national inequality.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>Let<\/a> us take a concrete example to make the point clear to the Bundist. According to the school census of January\u00a018, 1911, St.\u00a0Petersburg elementary schools under the Ministry of Public \u201cEducation\u201d were attended by 48,076 pupils. Of these, 396, i.\u00a0e., less than one per\u00a0cent, were Jews. The other figures are: Rumanian pupils\u20142, Georgians\u20141, Armenians\u20143, etc.[6]<\/a><\/sup> Is it possible to draw up a \u201cpositive\u201d national programme that will cover this diversity of relationships and conditions? (And St.\u00a0Petersburg is, of course, far from being the city with the most mixed population in Russia.) Even such specialists in national \u201csubtleties\u201d as the Bundists would hardly be able to draw up such a programme.<\/p>\n And<\/a> yet, if the constitution of the country contained a fundamental law rendering null and void every measure that infringed the rights of a minority, any citizen would be able to demand the rescinding of orders prohibiting, for example, the hiring, at state expense, of special teachers of Hebrew, Jewish history, and the like, or the provision of state-owned premises for lectures for Jewish, Armenian, or Rumanian children, or even for the one Georgian child. At all events, it is by no means impossible to meet, on the basis of equality, all the reasonable and just wishes of the national minorities, and nobody will say that advocacy of equality is harmful. On the other hand, it would certainly be harmful to advocate division of schools according to nationality, to advocate, for example, special schools for Jewish children in St.\u00a0Petersburg, and it would be utterly impossible to set up national schools for\u00a0every<\/em> national minority, for one, two or three children.<\/p>\nThe Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)<\/h3>\n
APRIL 24\u201329, 1917<\/h4>\n
Speech on the National Question April\u00a029 (May\u00a012)<\/h4>\n
Critical Remarks on the National Question<\/h3>\n
\n5. THE EQUALITY OF NATIONS AND THE RIGHTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES<\/h4>\n
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