Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions

Lenin drafted a programmatic document for the Second Congress of the Communist International on the national and colonial questions. This document was first published before the opening of the Second Congress of the Communist International in June 1920. Later it was published in the 11th issue of the Communist International on July 14, 1920. On December 20,1924, a translation of the work was published in Guangzhou New Youth quarterly issue No. 4. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 39 of the second revised edition of the Complete Works of Lenin.

With the outbreak of the World War I, the question of national oppression intensified by capitalism in the era of imperialism was thoroughly revealed. The oppressed nations in the colonies and semi-colonies have stepped onto the stage of history and became a revolutionary force that cannot be ignored. After the victory of Russia’s October Revolution, it pushed the revolutionary movement all over the world to a climax. The proletariat all over the world, including Western Europe, has been on the road of revolution, especially in the colonial and semi-colonial areas, such as China, India and others. In many other countries working people which have successively initiated the fierce revolutionary movement against imperialism and feudalism undoubtedly shook the foundation of colonial imperialist rule in the world.

In the face of this situation, the imperialist powers established the “international alliance”, in order to maintain their colonial and hegemonic status by suppressing the proletarian movement at home and abroad. However, the Second International opportunists at that time could not realize the essence of the “international alliance” and were in the company of the “international alliance” on the issues of nationality and colony, which would certainly hinder and destroy the liberation movement of the oppressed nations. Therefore, Lenin attributed great importance to it. Under the guidance of Marxism, this document displays the mistakes of opportunists.

This document consists of 12 parts, mainly expounding the following viewpoints:

Exposing the hypocrisy of bourgeois democracy and the task of the Communist Party. Lenin pointed out that an abstract or formal posing of the problem of equality in general and national equality in particular is in the very nature of bourgeois democracy. The concept of equality itself is the reflection of the relations of commodity production. In essence, the actual meaning of proletariat’s demand for equality can only be to demand the abolition of classes. The imperialist war of 1914-1918 clearly exposed the deception of bourgeois democracy. The Communist Party is the conscious representative of the proletariat’s struggle to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie. We should take it as our basic task to oppose bourgeois democracy and expose its deceit and hypocrisy.

Encouraging proletarians all over the world to unite. Lenin argued that under the condition that the capitalist world had been divided into oppressed and oppressing nations, the Communist International’s policy on the issue of nations and colonies should be to unite the proletarians and working people of all nations and countries in order to jointly carry out the revolutionary struggle and overthrow the landlords and the bourgeoisie. Only in this way we can ensure the victory over capitalism and eliminate the phenomenon of national oppression and inequality.

Putting forward the tasks of the new Soviet regime after the victory of revolution. The first task is to support and advance the world proletarian revolutionary movement. On the one hand, we need to unite the Soviet movements of the advanced workers in all countries, and, on the other, we need to unite all the national liberation movements in the colonies and among the oppressed nationalities. The second task is to make all national liberation movements and all colonial liberation movements carry out the closest alliance policy with Soviet Russia. Only in this way can we effectively stop imperialist aggression and war policies, advance the world proletarian revolutionary movement and achieve the goal of abolishing imperialism. The third task is to recognize that federalism is a transitional form for the working people of different nations to move towards complete unity. The feasibility of federation has already been demonstrated in practice. Then, it is the task of the Comintern to further develop and also to study and test by experience these new federations, which are arising on the basis of the Soviet system and the Soviet movement.

Adhering to the principle of proletarian internationalism and oppose petty-bourgeois nationalism. The principles of proletarian internationalism include: Firstly, to demand that the interests of the proletarian struggle in each country should be subordinated to the interests of the proletarian struggle on the whole world arena; secondly, that a proletarian state which achieves victory over the bourgeoisie should be able and willing to make the greatest national sacrifices for the overthrow of international capital. In order to adhere to proletarian internationalism, we must oppose petty-bourgeois nationalism and thus fight against the Second International opportunists, who only recognize internationalism verbally, but actually distort the principles of internationalism as well as promote bourgeois nationalism.

The strategy and path that the backward countries and nations must follow when carrying out the revolution.

As for the revolutionary struggle in those countries where feudal or patriarchal relations and patriarchal-peasant relations are dominant, we must uphold the following strategies: Firstly, the Communist parties of all countries must practically help these countries to carry out their bourgeois-democratic liberation movement; secondly, they must fight against all kinds of backward and reactionary thoughts within the backward countries; thirdly, they must give special assistance to the backward countries in their fight against the landlord class. They should oppose the system of large-scale land ownership and all kinds of feudal phenomena while giving special support to the peasant movement against the landlords; fourthly, they must give a determined struggle against attempts to give a communist color to bourgeois-democratic liberation movements in the backward countries; fifthly, the Communist International must enter into a temporary alliance with bourgeois democratic movements in the colonial and backward countries, but should not merge with them, and should under all circumstances uphold the independence of the proletarian movement, even if it is in its most embryonic form.

This document is the first programmatic document of the Communist International on the revolutions in the nationally and colonially oppressed nations, wherein Lenin discussed the position and task of the Communist Party on the questions of the oppressed nations and colonies, enriched and developed Marxist theory on these questions, provided the basis for the Communist International to formulate fundamental policies on the questions of the oppressed nations and revealed the opportunism of Second International while promoting the liberation movement of the oppressed people in the colonies and semi colonies.