Right of Nations to Self-Determination

The right of nations to self-determination is a revolutionary principle developed by several socialists until its final formulation and application by Vladimir Lenin and the Soviet Union.

Development of Theory

It was the long-proclaimed Marxist dictum that "No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations " and "A nation that enslaves another forges its own chains."[1]

The Second International continued to raise the colonial question and uphold the right to national self-determination of European nations, it was the

Stalin, who was recognised as having the greatest expertise in he affairs of nationalities , wrote Marxism and the National Question in 1913. The work Lenin went on to tremendously elaborate the Marxist-Leninist position when he wrote the Right of Nations to Self-Determinations in 1915

Bourgeois versions

As better remembered in bourgeois-propagated popular memory, the incumbent President of the United States Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the right of nations to self-determination for the central and eastern territories which had been occupied by regional imperialist powers . However, this was vision was highly limited[2] :

...Mr President, your conception of the League of Nations with which you propose to crown the work of peace. You demand the independence of Poland, Serbia, Belgium, and liberty for the peoples of Austria-Hungary. You probably mean to say that the popular masses everywhere must first take the determination of their fate into their own hands in order afterwards to associate in a free league of nations. But, strangely enough, we have not seen among your demands the liberation of either Ireland, Egypt, India or even the liberation of the Philippines, and we greatly desire that these peoples, through their freely-elected representatives, should have an opportunity, jointly with us, to take part in the organisation of the League of Nations.

— RSFSR FM Georgy Chicherin, Peace proposals to Wilson

Bourgeois nationalism of the post-Versailles states were highly exclusionary in nature, as shown by the oppression of Jews, Belorussians and Ukrainians in interwar Poland. Another bourgeois ideology which bastardises the concept of national self-determination is Zionism, which claims that all Jews, no matter where they live and the language they speak, constitute a single nation - and that they would attain self-determination by colonising the land of Palestine for themselves. Such views were refuted by Stalin, in response to Otto Bauer:

The above-mentioned Jews undoubtedly lead their economic and political life in common with the Georgians, Daghestanians, Russians and Americans respectively, and they live in the same cultural atmosphere as these; this is bound to leave a definite impress on their national character; if there is anything common to them left, it is their religion, their common origin and certain relics of the national character. All this is beyond question. But how can it be seriously maintained that petrified religious rites and fading psychological relics affect the "destiny" of these Jews more powerfully than the living social, economic and cultural environment that surrounds them? And it is only on this assumption that it is possible to speak of the Jews as a single nation at all

— Joseph Stalin, Marxism and the national question

Theory in Practice

For further information, check the article on Soviet nations.

On November 16 1917, Lenin issued the document which went on to be ratified by the Third Congress of Soviets on January 18,1918 and enunciated the following principles:

1. Equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia.
2. The Right of the peoples of Russia to self-determination, including the right to secede and form an independent national state.
3. The abolition of all national and religious privileges and restrictions whatsoever
4. Free Development for the national minorities and ethnographical groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.[3]

The Baltic provinces and Finland went on to apply for and obtain secession. This loss was more than compensated by the confidence the proclamation instilled for oppressed nations across the world. The right of nations to self determination helped the Bolsheviks to gain the confidence of the oppressed nations in the imperial state and win the Russian Civil War.