Nation

Also known as “nationality”. A form of group or social community formed by a certain number of people. There is a distinction between general and specific references. In his article Marxism and the National Question, Stalin pointed out that a nation is a historically constituted stable community of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. Common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture are all important features of a nation. A nation is an organic community which has these features. Although Stalin’s thought about the nation are put forth for bourgeois nations, its fundamental principles are also applicable to nations at other phases of social development. This is a specific reference. However, in a wider sense, nation also refers to various historically constituted communities of people at different stages of social development, such as primitive, ancient, modern nations, or called savage, barbaric and civilized nations, etc. Bourgeois nations that arose during the rising period of capitalism and the socialist nations that were formed in the process of socialist revolution and construction on the basis of the fundamental transformation of the bourgeois nations are both civilized and modern nations. The term “nation” is also commonly used to refer to the various nations of a country or a region, such as the Chinese nation, the Indian nation, the Arab nation, etc. This is the concept of nation and its use in a wider sense.

Nation has unique features, and is different from both race and state. Race is marked by certain common genetic characteristics in the physical formation of people, such as skin color, eye color, hair color, blood type, etc., and belongs to the category of anthropology and biology. Nation, instead, is characterized by language, territory, economic life, traditional culture, and psychological make-up, and belongs to the category of sociology and history. Nation is also different from the state, which is the product of irreconcilable class contradictions and is an instrument of class rule. The boundaries of a state and the territory inhabited by a nation sometimes coincide, forming a nation-state with a single component. But in most cases they do not coincide. It is quite common for a state territory to be inhabited by many nations, and it is not rare for people of the same nation to be scattered across several, a dozen or even dozens of states. Most countries in the world today are multi-national states, and mono-national states are in the minority.

Nation is a historical category, which has a process of emergence, development, evolution, fusion and withering-away. It is a product and form of combination of development of human society at a certain historical stage. The formation and development of nations is conditioned by social production and social system. Many nations in the world have a long history and have gone through various different socio-historical stages. According to Marx and Engels, from the end of primitive society to the outset of class society, due to the increase in the level of productive forces, with the transition from barbarism to civilization, from tribe to state, people gradually overcame the limitations of their place of activity and formed ancient nations, i.e., tribes, on the basis of primitive tribes and tribal alliances, which was the formation of ancient nations. Engels pointed out that, with each generation, labor itself became different, more perfect, more diversified. Agriculture was added to hunting and cattle-breeding, then spinning, weaving, metal-working, pottery, and navigation. Along with trade and industry, there appeared finally art and science. From tribes developed nations and states. Modern nations are the most widespread form of community made up with the emergence and formation of capitalism. The elimination of feudal separatism and the expansion of ties between regions were the economic foundation for the emergence of modern nations. At the same time, in class society, there is a close relationship between nation and class. There are different classes in a nation, even classes in opposition to each other, and the exploitation and oppression of one nation by another is often the exploitation and oppression of the masses of working people of other nations by the exploiting class of the dominant nation. This is true not only within a nation, but also on an international scale. As a result, national democratic revolutions have been breaking out continuously since modern times. Engels pointed out that a splitting of the whole nation into two major camps, as witnessed in France at the outbreak of the first revolution, is currently occurring at a higher stage of development in the most progressive countries… Today the German nation consists of the feudal nobility, bourgeoisie, petty-bourgeoisie, peasants and proletariat, a situation is far less complex than it was then. Of course, since modern times, with the development of capitalism, with the realization of the freedom of trade and the opening up of the world market by the bourgeoisie as well as the development of large-scale industry, national fences have been gradually been broken down, and exchanges between nations have become more and more frequent, and “in place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations… The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature. The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization.” In its treatment of the national question, Marxism emphasizes the equality of all nations, recognizes the right of nations to self-determination, and opposes chauvinism and narrow nationalism. History proves that the change and development from ancient to modern nations has gone through a long historical process. Just as classes and the state have their law of emergence and withering-away, so will nations gradually wither away. Once mankind enters communist society, history becomes world history, there is an abundance of material wealth, all nations are highly developed and prosperous, the national distinctions and national barriers gradually vanish, and all nations are united as one, forming a common whole. The further the separate spheres, which interact on one another, extend in the course of this development, the more the original isolation of the separate nationalities is destroyed by the developed mode of production and intercourse and the division of labor between various nations naturally brought forth by these, the more history becomes world history.

The world today is a world of many nationalities. There are roughly more than 2,000 nations, large and small. It is necessary to champion the equality of nations and oppose national oppression. China is a multi-national state made up of 56 nationalities, and we must uphold the equality of all nations, respect the right to autonomy of ethnic minorities, strengthen the solidarity of all nations, and achieve the common prosperity for all nations.

Xi Jinping emphasized to persist in laying a solid ideological foundation for the community of the Chinese nation, which is the foundation of national unity, the basis of national solidarity and the soul of mental strength, that it is necessary to resolutely establish the idea that the Han Chinese are inseparable from ethnic minorities, the ethnic minorities are inseparable from the Han Chinese, and all ethnic minorities are inseparable from one another, and to enhance the identification with the great motherland, the Chinese nation, the Chinese culture, and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.