Concerning the Presentation of the National Question

Stalin’s article on national question. It was first published in Pravda No, May 8, 1921. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 5 of the Complete Works of Stalin.

After the victory of the October Revolution, the national problems faced by Soviet Russia were very complicated. The presentation of the national question as given by the Communists differs essentially from the presentation adopted by the leaders of the Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals and by all the various “Socialist,” “Social-Democratic”, Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary and other parties.

Their ideas were essentially different from the Communist Party’s formulation of national question, which seriously interfere with the spread of Marxist views and theories on national question and affect the implementation of the Communist Party’s policy on the national question. In order to eliminate the influence of various wrong views of revisionism and opportunism, Stalin wrote the article “Concerning the Presentation of the National Question”.

In this article, Stalin discussed four principal points that are the most characteristic and distinguishing features of the new presentation of the national question, features which draw a line between the old and the new conceptions of the national question.

The first point is the merging of the national question, as a part, with the general question of the liberation of the colonies, as a whole. In the epoch of the Second International it was usual to confine the national question to a narrow circle of questions relating exclusively to the “civilized” nations. The tens and hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa who are suffering from national oppression in its crudest and most brutal form did not, as a rule, come within the field of vision of the “socialists.” They did not venture to place whites and blacks, “uncultured” Negroes and “civilized” Irish, “backward” Indians and “enlightened” Poles on the same footing. And they did not even suspect that the abolition of national oppression in Europe is inconceivable without the liberation of the colonial peoples of Asia and Africa from imperialist oppression, that the former is organically bound up with the latter. Stalin pointed out that it was the Communists who first revealed the connection between the national question and the question of the colonies. This circumstance greatly facilitated the co-ordination of the struggle of the backward colonies with the struggle of the advanced proletariat against the common enemy, imperialism.

The second point is that the vague slogan of the right of nations to self-determination has been replaced by the clear revolutionary slogan of the right of nations and colonies to secede, to form independent states. This slogan has the following merits: Firstly, it removes all grounds for suspicion that the toilers of one nation entertain predatory designs against the toilers of another nation, and therefore creates a basis for mutual confidence and voluntary union. Secondly, it tears the mask of the imperialists, who hypocritically prate about self-determination but who are striving to keep the unequal peoples and colonies in subjection, to retain them within the framework of their imperialist state, and thereby intensifies the struggle for liberation that these nations and colonies are waging against imperialism. When speaking of the right to self-determination, the leaders of the Second International did not as a rule even hint at the right to secede—the right to self-determination was at best interpreted to mean the right to autonomy in general. Springer and Bauer, the “experts” on the national question, even went so far as to convert the right to self-determination into the right of the oppressed nations of Europe to cultural autonomy, that is, the right to have their own cultural institutions, while all political (and economic) power was to remain in the hands of the dominant nation. Thus the vague slogan of self-determination was converted from an instrument for the liberation of nations, for achieving equal rights for nations, into an instrument for taming nations, an instrument for keeping nations in subjection to imperialism.

The third point is the disclosure of the organic connection between the national and colonial question and the question of the rule of capital, of overthrowing capitalism, of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Stalin criticized the opportunistic view of the Second International on national question. For example, it was tacitly assumed that the national question would be settled “naturally,” before the proletarian revolution, by means of a series of reforms within the framework of capitalism. And that the proletarian revolution could be accomplished without a radical settlement of the national question, and that, on the contrary, the national question could be settled without overthrowing the rule of capital, without, and before, the victory of the proletarian revolution. Stalin also pointed out that the national and colonial questions are inseparable from the question of emancipation from the rule of capital; that imperialism cannot exist without the political and economic enslavement of the unequal nations and colonies. The unequal nations and colonies cannot be liberated without overthrowing the rule of capital; the victory of the proletariat cannot be lasting without the liberation of the unequal nations and colonies from the yoke of imperialism. Finally, the victory of the world proletarian revolution may be regarded as assured only if the proletariat is able to combine its own revolutionary struggle with the liberation movement of the laboring masses of the unequal nations and the colonies against the rule of the imperialists and for the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The fourth point is that a new element has been introduced into the national question—the element of the actual (and not merely juridical) equalisation of nations, as one of the conditions necessary for securing fraternal co-operation between the laboring masses of the various nations. First of all, Stalin pointed out that in the epoch of the Second International the matter was usually confined to proclaiming “national equality of rights”. Secondly, the victorious proletariat of the advanced nations must assist, must render assistance, real and prolonged assistance, to the laboring masses of the backward nations in their cultural and economic development , from this it follows that we cannot confine ourselves merely to “national equality of rights,” that we must pass from “national equality of rights” to measures that will bring about real equality of nations, that we must proceed to work out and put into effect practical measures in relation to: (1) The study of the economic conditions, manner of life and culture of the backward nations and nationalities; (2) The development of their culture; (3) Their political education; (4) Their gradual and painless introduction to the higher forms of economy; (5) The organization of economic co-operation between the toilers of the backward and of the advanced nations.

In Stalin’s “Concerning the Presentation of the National Question”, he demonstrated the Marxist view on national question systematically discussed the four principal points which distinguish the new presentation of the national question given by the Russian Communists., criticized the wrong views of the Second International opportunists and other non Marxist parties on national question , and defended and developed the Marxist theory and policy on national question. This article is of great theoretical and practical significance for the multinational socialist countries to correctly handle the relation between nationalities after the victory of the proletarian revolution.