The National Question in Our Programme

“The National Question in Our Programme” is an article by Lenin on the national question in the proletarian party program. In 1903, under the influence of the Iskra newspaper, Russia’s Social-Democratic movement developed considerably. Iskra’s revolutionary ideas and slogans reached the factories, the countryside, and the army. A general strike that swept through the south of Russia from July to August 1903 demonstrated the urgent need to unite the proletarian forces in the whole Russia, according to the party building and organizational principles formulated in the Iskra newspaper.

The Russian revolutionary social-democrats began to prepare the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in the summer of 1902. During this period, various issues in the draft program were discussed within the party, and the national question was one of the mainly discussed issues. Lenin pointed out that: “In our draft Party programme we have advanced the demand for a republic with a democratic constitution that would guarantee, among other things, ‘recognition of the right to self-determination for all nations forming part of the state’.

Many did not find this demand in our programme sufficiently clear, and in the issue No. 33, in speaking about the Manifesto of the Armenian Social-Democrats, we explained the meaning of this point in the following way.” This clarification is the basis of the article “The National Question in Our Programme”. In addition, he also criticized the misconceptions of the Polish Socialist Party’s attitude towards national question in their article “The Attitude of the Russian Social-Democrats Towards the National Question”, and guided them to make correct judgments and choices on the issue of national self-determination. Lenin’s article was originally published in Iskra issue No. 44, July 15, 1903. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 7 of the second edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

This article briefly expounded the attitude and principle of the Social-Democratic Party to support the right of national self-determination, and analyzed and refuted the mistaken claims of the Polish Socialist Party.

Lenin made the position of Social Democrats towards the right of national self-determination clear in terms of means, tasks and the needs of class struggle: “The Social-Democrats will always combat every attempt to influence national self-determination from without by violence or by any injustice. As the party of the proletariat, the Social-Democratic Party considers to be its positive and principal task to further the self-determination of the proletariat in each nationality rather than that of peoples or nations. We must always and unreservedly work for the very closest unity of the proletariat of all nationalities...”

Lenin emphasized the conditions and basic principles of recognizing the right to national self-determination, refuted the critique of the Polish socialist party in their article “The Attitude of the Russian Social-Democrats Towards the National Question”, and argued that the Polish Socialist Party’s demand of “complete and unreserved recognition of the right to national self-determination” was an empty talk of bourgeois democracy.

The Social Democrats should unconditionally acknowledge the struggle for the freedom to national self-determination, but this does not mean that they must support the demands for each and every demand of national self-determination. The Social Democrats should analyze and treat the demands of national self-determination historically in general, but specifically on a class basis, completely subordinate to the interests of the proletarian class struggle and should not undermine the unity of the modern proletarian political struggle, which is the essential difference of viewpoint towards the national oppression i.e., “ this is all the difference between our approach to the national question and the bourgeois-democratic approach”. Lenin’s used Marx’s critique of Arnold Ruge and quoted: it is not every kind of national oppression that invariably—at all times— inspires a desire for independence which is justified from the viewpoint of both democracy and the proletariat.

Lenin discussed the proletarian solution for Poland under the conditions of the contemporary era and analyzed the whole situation by comparing two different eras. Under the conditions of Marx’s era, i.e, the era of the last bourgeois revolutionary movements, in Poland, not only the peasants but also the bulk of the nobility were also revolutionary. The traditions of the struggle for national liberation were so strong and deep-rooted that, after their defeat at home, Poland’s best sons went wherever they could find a revolutionary class to support. Consequently, without the restoration of Poland’s independence, the democratic movement could not achieve complete victory in Europe. At that time, Poland was indeed a bulwark of civilization fortress against the Tsarist system and the vanguard of the democratic movement.

But in Lenin’s era, in the age of desperate reaction, extreme tension of all forces on the eve of the proletarian revolution, Poland was on the eve of the proletarian revolution. The Polish ruling classes, the gentry in Germany and in Austria, and the industrial and financial magnates in Russia are supporting the ruling classes of the countries that oppress Poland, while the German and the Russian proletariat are fighting for freedom side by side with the Polish  proletariat, which has heroically taken over the great traditions of the old revolutionary Poland. The advanced representatives of Marxism in the neighbouring country, while attentively watching the political evolution of Europe and fully sympathising with the heroic struggle of the Poles. Lenin pointed out that it was impossible for the bourgeois revolution to establish a free Poland but only through a modern proletarian social revolution can Poland restore its independence.

Lenin stressed the importance of class struggle. He pointed out that the class antagonisms now make the national questions secondary. When Russia’s Social-Democratic party recognized the right of national self-determination in its own program, it did not exclude the Polish proletariat from taking the establishment of a free and independent republic of Poland its slogan. “The programme merely demands that a genuinely socialist party shall not corrupt proletarian class-consciousness, or slur over the class struggle, or lure working class with bourgeois-democratic phrases, or break the unity of the proletariat’s present-day political struggle. This reservation is the crux of the matter, for only with this reservation do we recognise self-determination.” Lenin criticized the idea of “the Social Democrats in Germany or Russia deny the right of self-determination and the right to establish a free and independent republic” advocated by the Polish Socialist Party. The reason for that the Polish socialist party forgot the class view, covered up the class view with chauvinism, and destroyed the unity of the current political struggle. This is why the Polish Socialist Party is not a real Social-Democratic party of the workers.

Lenin also pointed out the essential difference between the Russian Social-Democratic Party and the Polish socialist party. The Polish socialist party holds that: “We can only weaken tsarism by wresting Poland from it; it is the task of the Russian comrades to overthrow it.” Russian Social-Democratic Party on the other hand aimed to overthrow the whole autocratic system and fight against any national oppression in Russia. They call on the entire proletariat of Russia to carry out this struggle, proposing the complete equality of language, nationality, etc. in their own programs, and recognizing that each ethnic group has the right to determine its own destiny. In contrast, the Polish Socialist Party held that the national problem is only the opposition between the Poles, Germans, and Russians. However, the Russian Social-Democrats put the opposition between the proletarians and the bourgeoisie in the first place, and told the Polish workers: “Only the most complete and intimate alliance with the Russian proletariat can meet the requirements of the present political struggle against the autocracy; only such an alliance can guarantee complete political and economic emancipation.”

This short article put forward many important points, such as the task of the proletarian party is not to promote the self-determination of all nationalities, but to promote the self-determination of the proletariat in each nation; compared with the national struggle the class struggle is more fundamental and the opposition between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie should be given priority. These ideas uphold and enrich the national self-determination theories of Marx and Engels.