__TITLE__
The Theory and Practice
Translated from the Russian
TEOPHH M RPAKTHKA npojiETAPCKoro HHTEPHAUHOHAJIIISMA Ha USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy Section of the Philosophical Aspects of Proletarian Internationalism and National Relations __EDITORS__ Edited by M. S. JUNUSOV, M. M. SKIBITSKY and I. P. TSAMERYAN __WRITTEN_BY__ Written by M. S. Junusov (senior author): Chs. 1 and 2 and Conclusion; Yu. M. Samoshchenko (Voronezh): Ch. 3; V. 1. Zateyev (Ulan Udeh) and I. F. Anoshkin: Ch. 4; A. S. Frisk: Ch. 5; I. P. Tsameryan: Ch. 6; E. V. Tadevosyan: Ch. 7; M. A. Binder (Alma Ata) and I. Z. Ismailov (Baku): Ch. S; M. M. Suzhikov (Alma Ata): Ch. 9; N. D. Jandildin (Alma Ata): Ch. 10; L. V. Metelitsa and G. 0. Zimanas (Vilnius): Ch. 11; F. T. Kartstantinov. Ch. 12; and V. P. Sergeyev: Ch. 13.First printing 1976
©Translation into English. Progress Publishers 1976
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
10504—311 014(01)—70 72—7,r>
[5]CONTENTS
Foreword
Part I
GENERAL THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM
Chapter 1. Proletarian Internationalism—the Theory and Practice of Uniting Proletarians of All Nations and Countries . . 11
Chapter 2. Proletarian Internationalism as a System of Principles 40
Chapter 3. The Correlation Between the Internationalist and National Interests of the Working Class....... 76
Chapter 4. Internationalist Duty.......... 100
Chapter ">. Proletarian Internationalism and the Relationships of Collectivism.................. 124
Part II
THE ENRICHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAS OF PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF THE USSR
Chapter 6. The Achieving of Real Equality Between Nations and Nationalities Means the Triumph of the Ideas of Proletarian Internationalism................ 143
Chapter 7. The Soviet Multinational State as a Living Embodiment of the Principles of Proletarian Internationalism . . 170
Chapter 8. The Implementation and Development of Proletarian Internationalism Based on the Experience of the Peoples That Have Taken the Road of Socialism Bypassing Capitalism 191
Chapter 9. The Principles of Internationalism and the Fraternal Co-operation of the Peoples in Creating the Material and Technical Base of Communism...........209
6 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ CONTENTSChapter 10. The Unity of the Internationalist and the National in the Life of the Soviet Peoples.......... 220
Chapter 11. The Struggle Against Bourgeois Nationalism Is a Vital Condition for the Assertion of Socialist Internationalism 231
Part III
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONALISM THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SOCIALIST COMMUNITY
Chapter 12. Socialist Internationalism—the Basis of Relations Between Socialist States...............247
Chapter 13. Socialist Internationalism in Economic Relations Between the Fraternal Countries........... 273
Conclusion . . . 303
[7] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FOREWORDThe theory and practice of proletarian internationalism and national relations are particularly relevant in the current revolutionary period of the transition of society from capitalism to socialism and communism.
Socialism affirms peace and friendship among nations. Socialist assistance and mutual help draw the peoples closer together. The first country in which national relations were developed on the basis of the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism was the Soviet Union—a country of over 100 nations and nationalities. The 50th anniversary of the formation of the USSR—the world's first multinational socialist state and a state of a new type—was celebrated at the end of 1972. The documents of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and fraternal Communist and Workers' Parties reflect the results of the evolution of the Party's theoretical thought and the fruits of the collective efforts of Party functionaries and scholars. More than a quarter of a century has passed since socialism emerged from the confines of a single country to become a real world system. Interstate relations between the socialist countries are based on the ideology of proletarian internationalism. The international communist and working-class movement is a vital international community and is developing under the ideological banner of proletarian internationalism.
History has shown that the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism are maintained in the relations between the parties of the working class and between the socialist countries and nations in the struggle against 8 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ FOREWORD nationalism and chauvinism. In order to hamper this process, imperialist propaganda employs a whole arsenal of devices to kindle nationalism in the socialist countries.
Many theoretical and pressing aspects of proletarian internationalism have not as yet been given adequate treatment in scientific literature. Naturally, therefore, the authors of this book too do not claim to have thrown light on all the facets of this complex issue.
The team of authors aimed (1) to elucidate the general theoretical aspects of proletarian internationalism, its origins and indissoluble link with the practice of the revolutionary movement, and to outline the system of the principles of proletarian internationalism; (2) to examine the historical experience of the implementation, enrichment and development of the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism in the Soviet Union; and (3) to provide an analysis of the historical experience of the implementation and evolution of proletarian internationalism in the world community of the socialist countries.
The terms proletarian internationalism and socialist internationalism are used in this book as being of the same type in their social connotation. Socialist internationalism is a new, higher stage in the development of proletarian internationalism.
We trust that this book will be of use to our friends abroad.
[9] __NUMERIC_LVL1__ PART I __ALPHA_LVL1__ GENERAL THEORETICAL ASPECTSThe world revolutionary process at its present stage has reached an unprccedentcdly high level of development. A powerful impetus to historical progress was provided by the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the construction of socialism in the USSR, and the formation and consolidation of the world socialist system. The process of the emergence and strengthening of socialist society and its conversion into a world system could be prevented neither by the imperialist powers' armed intervention against the young Soviet Republic, nor by fascism, the spearhead of imperialism, nor by any other of the intrigues devised by international reaction. The world system of socialism shown its great vital force in the historic contest with capitalism. The unity of the world communist movement is generally growing, and fruitful bilateral and multilateral interparty relations are being activated. The international working-class movement is developing and gaining in strength. Working class action against the monopolies has become widespread. The attack on the whole system of the state-monopoly rule of the bourgeoisie is gathering momentum. Imperialism is coming under increasing pressure from the forces that have emerged from the national liberation struggle, especially that put up by the young independent and anti-imperialist minded states of Asia and Africa.
The bourgeoisie is doing its utmost to retard the development of the world revolutionary process, and so the international class struggle is growing fiercer.
12 __RUNNING_HEADER_LEFT__ THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONALISMThe working class of the socialist countries acts in today's international relations as a class organised within a state framework. It makes use of state power as the most important instrument of the class struggle on the international scene. The socialist countries' struggle against imperialist reaction goes hand in hand with the struggle mounted by the working class in capitalist countries against the monopoly bourgeoisie and with the struggle for social progress in which the working masses of the Third World countries are engaged.
Such is the objective tendency of the development of the world revolutionary process. It would not, however, be true to say that this tendency is occurring in social practice all by itself, automatically and without any struggle against attempts to isolate and disunite the national detachments of the world army of fighters against imperialism.
The ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism constitute the most important ideological and theoretical instrument for realising the enormous potential that is inherent in the current world revolutionary process. Consequently, the thorough theoretical treatment of proletarian internationalism is a vital requirement of modern social practice.
Nothing delights the imperialist ideologists so much as the manifestation of nationalism in relations between socialist countries. They cherish the hope that the ideology of proletarian internationalism will become ``rusty'' and `` hopelessly eroded''. They are trying to revive and kindle nationalism and chauvinism, and to set the socialist countries against one another.
Marxism-Leninism teaches that the struggle of ideas and socio-political theories has always been an integral part of class battles and will continue to be. Not a single major encounter between social forces has ever occurred without an ideological struggle. It is precisely because the ideological struggle is a component of the struggle between the classes that it leaves no room for apathy and non-commitment. The constantly intensifying antagonism between imperialism and socialism is reflected in the battle of ideas and socio-political doctrines. Today this struggle has become more bitter than ever before. Previously the ideological struggle between proletarian internationalism and nationalism was 13 __RUNNING_HEADER_RIGHT__ THEORETICAL ASPKCTS OF PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM
never as heated as it is now: today the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism have become reality and are employed in the development of world socialism; today also these principles have given rise to close interaction between the three main revolutionary forces of the times—socialism, the working-class movement and the national liberation movement. The ruling circles of the imperialist powers have raised to the level of state policy the ideological struggle against socialism, an important aspect of which is the kindling and exploitation of nationalism to destroy the unity of the arjti-imperialist forces. They are devoting enormous resources to this struggle.The whole course of modern social development is bringing aspects of proletarian internationalism to the forefront. A whole system of objective preconditions and subjective factors for the growing role of proletarian internationalism in socio-political life is in operation. Such objective preconditions as the building of a developed socialist society in the USSR, the consolidation of the world socialist system, the growth of the working-class and communist movement, the collapse of the colonial system of imperialism, and the increased revolutionary potential of the national liberation movement under the influence of world socialism, international detente, expansion and consolidation of the Leninist principles of peaceful coexistence that occurred as a result of the vigorous effort for peace, have vastly extended the scope for employing the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism. The subjective factors behind the growing role of proletarian internationalism include the creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and other fraternal parties, and the successfully evolving struggle against bourgeois ideology and Right-wing and ``Left'' opportunism.
Proletarian internationalism emerges from the revolutionary movement of the proletariat, which, like the other classes, consists of various national contingents. Nations, in turn, consist of classes. Class relations develop within a nation (e.g., the relationship of the British bourgeoisie to the British workers) and between nations (e.g., the British bourgeoisie's relationship to Irish workers). All the variations on this situation also show the existence of 14 national differences between these opposed classes. Class oppression is complemented by national oppression, and social antagonisms an: reinforced by conflict among nations.
Classes determine the social content of life in society, wJiile nations arc a historically necessary form of the social development of capitalism and of the period of the establishment of a ro'or/c/ communist, society. The point is that there is no class that does not consist of national contingents. The interrelationship of these contingents, and all the processes connected with their interaction form the content of intraclass relations. For example, the relations between the British and French workers simultaneously include both intraclass and national relations (workers of different nations).
Depending on its social nature, each class has its own political and moral standards and principles. For example, in relations between the British and French bourgeoisie, as is the case with other groups of the bourgeoisie, self-- interest is the order of the day—rivalry and the extraction of maximal profit. The common interests of the world bourgeoisie are defended by its individual national groups to the extent to which they happen to coincide with the interests of a particular group at a given time. Posing as the defenders of the ``free world'', ``Western civilisation'', and the like, the American imperialists are seeking to create the best conditions for the expansion of American capital.
The bourgeoisie as a class is inherently nationalist. It is unable to base its relations on equality and co-operation between national groups. The socio-class basis for the contradictions between the imperialist powers is provided by the clash of interests between the different national groups of the bourgeoisie. Whenever the bourgeoisie is at the centre of a nation's affairs, interstate antagonistic contradictions will be an inevitable, inalienable feature of its international relations. Interimperialist contradictions are becoming more intense as capital is internationalised and the economic integration of bourgeois Europe proceeds further. The centres of imperialist rivalry are shifting: the new pattern is the USA versus the West European countries and the USA versus Japan. But, as before, competition and rivalry are the 15 socio-political and moral norm in relations between national detachments of the bourgeoisie.
A completely different type of social relations takes shape between the workers of different nations and countries. Relations of domination and subordination cannot exist between them, since they are incompatible with the nature of that particular class. The dream of equality conceived by the great humanists of the past became reality for the first time in the social relations between the workers of various nations and countries.
Of all the classes in bourgeois society only the proletariat possesses an organisation of intraclass relations between the different national contingents of the working class which enables it to act as a world class, defending the interests of all working people and all those who are exploited. Solidarity and mutual assistance are the hallmark of the relations between workers of different nations and countries. Proletarian internationalism expresses the aspects and facets of social relations whose subject is the working class. The relations between the national contingents of the working class develop on the principles of equality, friendship and solidarity, and are a very specific form of social relations.
The working class is anti-nationalist by nature. Since it is the most advanced section of every nation, it expresses most fully the real interests of the majority in that nation. By rallying class allies around itself in the struggle to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie the working class acts as the principal social force uniting different peoples. Proletarian internationalism is an inalienable feature of the social relationship between the workers of various nations and countries. Internationalism arose within the workingclass movement as a special kind of social practice, which grows out of the mutual support and assistance afforded by the national detachments of the working class.
Since it is a special kind of social relationship, proletarian internationalism cannot function without the workers' class awareness. They recognise themselves as a class when they compare working people with the capitalists and understand the complete opposition of their interests. The class awareness of the workers, in which there are various levels 16 as it develops, can only be strengthened in the struggle against the bourgeoisie.
The workers' recognition of their social nature, which is assisted by the whole of their daily experience of capitalism, is just one of the elements in the workers' class awareness. Others are the nascent feeling of belonging to a world-wide army of working people, and the workers' hatred of capitalists. International ties between workers of different nations and countries arise from all this quite spontaneously.
As for class instinct, it contains nothing more than elements of the workers' class awareness, and they only become a developed and orderly system when they acquire a scientific and theoretical expression. Possession of their own programme showing the aims and means of struggle, the existence of a political party, the degree to which the workers have grasped revolutionary theory and the part they play in political struggle are all indications of how developed the workers' class awareness really is.
Proletarian internationalism reflects the moment of transition from the ideal (the workers' class consciousness) to the material (the practice of the proletariat's revolutionary movement). The workers derive the understanding of their position in society, their role in history and their main class enemy, i.e., class awareness, from real life, ''. . .constantly gaining experience from the very struggle that they begin to wage against the employers and that increasingly develops, becomes sharper, and involves larger numbers of workers as big factories = grow".^^1^^
The class awareness of the workers includes a whole complex of socio-political, ideological, ethical and sociopsychological phenomena. It embraces an understanding of one's oppressed position, the feeling of belonging to the working class, opposition to the bourgeoisie and the understanding of one's own interests. Also involved are ideological, socio-ethical and socio-psychological principles, an understanding of one's place in both present and future society and of the necessity of one's party, a knowledge of the relationship between the classes in society, and _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 2, p. 113.
17 developing the ability to resist the ideology and policies of other classes. The highest form of the working class's awareness is the realisation of the community of interests of the proletariat the world over.Class self-awareness is an active and transforming force. It is involved in the practice of the proletariat's class struggle. Like the whole of reality, the latter is viewed by the adherents of dialectical materialism not "in the form of the object [Objekt] or of contemplation [Anschauung], but as human sensuous = activity".^^1^^ The working-class movement is a specific form of social practice. In this practice the highest form of the workers' self-awareness not only reflects the social relations between the workers of different nations and countries, but also helps to create the elements of a new social reality.
The spontaneous working-class movement and the spontaneously developed feeling of international solidarity preceded the formulation of the scientific ideology of proletarian internationalism, which was created by the founders of Marxism after their discovery of the laws of social development. For the idea of the international cohesion of the proletariat to take a firm grip on the minds of millions of people of all nations, it had to acquire the force of a revolutionary scientific theory. In turn, scientific knowledge assists the development and expansion of the feeling of revolutionary solidarity.
In the General Rules of the International Working Men's Association Karl Marx expressed the historical necessity for the workers to develop international ties and provided the following justification: ''. . .The emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society = exists".^^2^^ In the report of the Central Council of the International Working Men's Association to the Brussels Congress he wrote that the destiny of modern society "coalesces with the historical progress of the class that bear in their hands the regeneration of = mankind".^^3^^ Proletarian internationalism is one _-_-_
~^^1^^ See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works, in three volumes, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1973, p. 13.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 19.
~^^3^^ The General Council of the First International 1866--1868, = Moscow, 1974, p. 329.
18 of the conditions necessary for the accomplishment of the proletariat's historic mission, which will lead to the social regeneration of mankind.Class struggle within one nation and one state, and the uniting of workers belonging to different nations and states are different levels of the proletariat's class struggle. In the latter case the revolutionary transforming activity goes beyond national and national-state bounds.
The proletariat's developing class awareness enables it to break free of petty-bourgeois nationalist ideology and psychology. Hence, at the very outset of their revolutionary actions advanced workers of different nations and states began to evince internationalist solidarity. Free from national narrow-mindedness and nationalist prejudices, European workers were voicing in the 1830s slogans that struck a chord among the proletarians of other continents.
The ideological and organisational guidance of the international working-class movement by the First International (1864--76) was a striking instance in the development of the practice of proletarian internationalism. The internationalist revolutionary forces in the Second International (1889-- 1914) also did much to rally and unite the workers and to organise joint action by workers of different = countries.^^1^^
The workers of various countries provided examples of proletarian unity during the first Russian revolution, which was a ``dress rehearsal" for the October Socialist Revolution. The events of the 9th of January, the mutiny on the battleship Potyomkin, the October general strike and the December armed rising evoked a deep response among the workers of Europe and America. In Germany and Britain the workers foiled an attempt by their governments to provide armed support to tsarism. The German working class directly assisted the Russian revolutionaries by organising an arms cache. The French proletariat frustrated a French Government plan to aid tsarism financially. A "not a sou for tsarism" movement was launched in = France.^^2^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ A great deal has been written on the history of the First and Second Internationals. William Foster's History of the Three Internationals (New York, 1955) deserves special mention.
~^^2^^ See: A History of the USSR from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Vol. VI, Moscow, 1968, pp. 251--52; A History of the Second International, Vol. II, Moscow, 1966, pp. 146--49 (both in Russian).
19All these events and the historic events that followed showed that Marxism-Leninism had given scientific expression to the historical necessity to establish friendship and brotherhood among nations. The working class is the chief social force that translates this historical necessity into reality. The internationalism of the proletariat is rooted in the social nature of the working class and its scientific ideology. It serves the proletariat as a tested ideological and political weapon in the struggle to accomplish its historic tasks.
This can be illustrated by the activities of the Third International. The victory of the October Revolution and the setting up of the Third International opened up a new stage in the development of proletarian unity. The Third International was not just an organisational device for the international communist movement. It was founded on the upsurge in the working-class movement and in international proletarian solidarity that occurred under the direct influence of the victorious October Revolution. The appearance of the Third International and its varied efforts to consolidate the world communist .movement ideologically and politically were a substantial element in the new stage of the development of proletarian internationalism which began after the October Revolution. For the first time a socialist revolution had taken place in one of the most multinational countries in the world. It had triumphed because of the revolutionary fellowship of the working masses of over 100 nations and nationalities. The Soviet Republic was history's first testing ground for the strength and viability of proletarian internationalism (this is dealt with in detail in Part II).
The international solidarity of the workers was manifested ^with renewed vigour in the victory of the October Revolution and the establishment of Soviet society. Conscious and advanced workers in all countries viewed the victory of the October Revolution as their own, and launched a powerful movement in support of the socialist state. Workers in Britain, France, the USA and Italy played an active part in the "Hands off Soviet Russia" struggle against the intervention.
Harry Pollitt, a prominent member of the British working-class movement, headed the national committee of the Hands Off Russia Movement. A Society of Friends of Soviet __PRINTERS_P_19_COMMENT__ 2* 20 Russia, led by William Foster, Elisabeth Flynn and other outstanding members of the working-class movement, was set up in the USA. Massive demonstrations took place in support of the young Soviet Republic. Workers demanded that their governments establish diplomatic, trade and cultural relations with the Land of Soviets. In September 1920 German workers went on strike, demanding the cessation of aid to the White Poles. "The international bourgeoisie has only to raise a hand against us to have it seized by its own workers,'' Lenin = declared.^^1^^ The world's workers made a great contribution to the development of the practice of proletarian internationalism by providing effective help to the young Soviet Republic. The active support of the working class in capitalist countries was one of the causes of the victory of Soviet Russia in the Civil War and the foreign intervention.
Many prisoners of war who were in Russia after the October Revolution went over to the Soviet side. About 80,000 Hungarians, up to 40,000 Chinese, some 30,000 Yugoslavs and thousands of Czechs, Poles, Germans, Koreans, Rumanians, Bulgarians and Finns fought in the Red Army for Soviet power in 1917--20. Red Guard detachments were organised from prisoners of war in 400 towns and villages in Soviet = Russia.^^2^^
The Red Paper accounted for the POWs' joining the Red Army by citing motives such as the following: "The power that rose above nationalities, the power that rose above bourgeois patriotism is able to muster all working people beneath its = banners."^^3^^ Among the internationalists fighting in the ranks of the Red Army were the members of many nationalities—Karol Swierczewski, Bela Kun, Mate Zalka, S. Gheorgiu, Oleko Dundic, Jaroslav Hasek, Ferenc Mirnmch, Toivo Antikainen, Jeng Fu-ch'eng, J. Strombach and many others. Speaking at a meeting held to mark the despatch to the front of the Warsaw Revolutionary Regiment, Lenin commented that "an alliance is coming into being between the revolutionaries of different nations—something that the _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 309.
~^^2^^ See The Cause of the Working People of the Whole World, Moscow, 1957, pp. 45--46 (in Russian).
~^^3^^ Quoted From the History of International Proletarian Solidarity, Documents and Materials, Book I, Moscow, 1957, p. 65 (in Russian).
21 finest people have dreamt of; a real alliance of workers, and not intellectual dreamers."The guarantee of victory lies in overcoming national hatred and = mistrust."^^1^^
In response to Lenin's Appeal to the International Proletariat on August 2, = 1921,^^2^^ working people the world over shared in the task of providing relief to the starving population of the Volga area. At the initiative of the Comintern's Executive Committee, the co-ordination of these efforts was entrusted to a committee sitting abroad and subsequently known as the International Workers' Aid. This organisation was headed by Clara Zetkin.
Pravda of August 11, 1921, reported that "Czechoslovak workers will work an extra hour every week for the benefit of Russia. Socialist deputies are demanding free transport along the Danube for food supplies to = Russia".^^3^^
The Austrian Communists proposed in 1921: "(1) ...to organise a World Solidarity Day on August 4. On August 4 every proletarian, no matter what party he belongs to, should hand over his day's wages to the proletarians and peasants of Russia. (2) During the following period every worker should work at least one hour a week for the benefit of his Russian = comrades.''^^4^^ At the end of 1922 Lenin wrote to Wilhelm Miinzenberg: "The fraternal aid of the international working class has already begun to operate. The American tractor column near Perm, the agricultural groups of the American Technical Aid, the agricultural and industrial undertakings of the International Workers' Aid, the allocation of and subscriptions to the first proletarian loan, through the Workers' Aid to Soviet Russia—all these are very promising beginnings in the cause of workers' fraternal aid to promote the economic restoration of Soviet Russia.
"The work of economic assistance, so happily begun by the International Workers' Aid to Soviet Russia, should be supported in every possible way by the workers and toilers _-_-_
~^^1^^ See V. I. Lenin, Collected Walks, Vol. 28, pp. 39-40.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 32. p. 502.
~^^3^^ From the History of Intemalioncd Proletarian Solidarity, Book II. Moscow, 195S. p. 301 (in Russian).
~^^4^^ Ibid., p. 299.
22 of the whole world. Side by side with the continuing strongpolitical pressure on the governments of the bourgeois countries over the demand for recognition of the Soviet government, widespread economic aid by the world proletariat is at present the best and most practical support of Soviet Russia in her difficult economic war against the imperialist concerns, and the best support for her work of building a socialist = economy."^^1^^In its turn, the working class of the first socialist country provided the international revolutionary forces with moral support and material assistance.
Under capitalism the working class had been unable to make use of the power of the state in the development of international ties. A completely different situation arose with the advent of socialism. In developing its links with the proletariat in capitalist countries and with the oppressed peoples the Soviet working class used state power. Thus, the socialist state's foreign policy, as well as its internal arrangements, cut fresh ground in developing the practice of international ties. The Soviet working class took an active part in the international campaigns against fascism in Italy and in defence of Tom Mooney, Sacco and Vanzetti, and supported the anti-fascist movement in defence of Ernst Thalmann and Georgi Dimitrov.
The Soviet people provided moral and material assistance in the Chinese people's anti-imperialist national liberation struggle. Aid committees were founded in a number of Soviet towns. A branch of the Hands Off China workers' association was organised in Moscow's Krasnaya Presnya district in 1924, for example. As the Chinese press pointed out at one time, the assistance and support given by the Soviet Union was one of the most important external factors in the victory of the Chinese revolution.
International proletarian unity developed vigorously in the struggle against fascism. A striking example is the backing provided by the international proletariat to the Spanish Republicans' heroic struggle against fascism. During the Spanish people's national revolutionary war 54 countries were represented in the international brigades fighting on the Republican side. Many peoples of the USSR were _-_-_
^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 35, pp. 559--60,
23 represented, together with Germans and Austrians, Italians, Poles, Bulgarians, Frenchmen, Belgians and many others. The struggle put up by the international brigades in Spain provided considerable moral, political and military assistance to the Spanish Republicans.The international solidarity of the proletariat also developed during the Second World War. Brought up in the spirit of internationalism, many thousands of convinced and selfless anti-fascists and experienced revolutionaries heroically waged an unequal struggle for the freedom of their own people and the other peoples that had been enslaved by the nazis. After the treacherous attack by nazi Germany and her satellites on the USSR workers in capitalist countries performed new feats of proletarian solidarity. In turn, the Soviet people and its army played the decisive role in the defeat of nazi Germany and not only defended the freedom and independence of their own country, but also helped to liberate the peoples of many countries in Europe and Asia. The Soviet people made the principal contribution towards routing fascism, the strike force of world imperialism, and thereby discharged its internationalist duty to working people the world over.
The history of the revolutionary movement shows that proletarian internationalism as the working class's scientific ideology in the national question arose and is developing in the principled battle against nationalism. The ideas and sentiments of national narrow-mindedness and isolation were affecting some members of the working-class movement. The practice of the workers' internationalist unity developed in the struggle to overcome chauvinist and nationalist trends. Thus, a bitter struggle took shape in the General Council of the First International in June-July 1866, when war broke out between Austria and Prussia. Referring to the situation that had arisen in the General Council, Marx wrote to Engels: "... the situation is difficult now, because on the one hand silly English Italianism and on the other the erroneous French polemics against it must be equally = combated."~^^1^^
_-_-_^^1^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, = Moscow, 1965, p. 179.
24International ties develop in the struggle against opportunism, which frequently goes hand in hand with nationalism. This alliance between opportunism and nationalism had been detected at the time when Marx and Engels were writing. It can be seen particularly in the understanding and assessment of differences in tactics and the forms and methods of the revolutionary struggle of the workers' national contingents. Both overestimations and underestimations of these differences proved to be an obstacle to the development of international ties. Special mention should be made of the existence of national prejudices. There are numerous examples of this. One is that provided by the British trade unions, which looked disparagingly on the German socialists in the 1890s to combat the opportunists. In this connection Engels wrote to the German socialist leader, August Bebel: "Here you are simply boycotted out of pure English chauvinism. People here are much angered by the fact that a working-class movement exists in Germany. . .".^^1^^
This disregard for the revolutionary activities of proletarians belonging to other nationalities was explained by "the English masses' extreme ignorance of foreign affairs and their inherent arrogance, as a result of which a foreigner is regarded as a second-rate person and all events abroad are of hardly any = significance. . . ".^^2^^
Engels considered that if British workers could be made familiar with the experience of the German workers' movement, then this would help to dispel British arrogance towards the Germans. Engels pointed out in the same letter that "if for only a year we had a paper which would simply publish accounts of the German movement, this situation [ignorance of foreign affairs.—Auth.} would soon be at an end; after all, there is a great latent spirit of internationalism, needing only food in order to put paid to mindless British arrogance, at least in a large number of = people".^^3^^ "Latent spirit of internationalism" here means the feeling of revolutionary solidarity that arose in the heat of the class struggle.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Marx/Engels, Werke, Berlin, 1968, Bd. 38, S. 510.
~^^2^^ Ibid., S. 511.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
25The practice of the development of international ties between the workers of different nations and countries was not smooth and straightforward or without its lurches and temporary retreats. An example of this is provided by the disintegration of the parties of the Second International during the very first year of the imperialist war of 1914--18. At that time the feelings of national narrow-mindedness among the opportunist leaders of the Second International were one of the sources of the theoretical and political vacillation among the revolutionaries. These leaders did nothing to implement the decision of the Basle Congress that imperialism had to be opposed by proletarian solidarity. At the outset of the world war they betrayed the cause of socialism and defected to the imperialist bourgeoisie. On August 4, 1914, Germany's Social-Democrats in the Reichstag voted in favour of war credits, and the Social-Democratic leaders of Britain, France, Belgium and other countries adopted a similar position in their own parliaments. The opportunist leaders became blatant social chauvinists, supporting the bourgeois call to "defend the Fatherland" and declaring "civil peace" within the nation. European Social-Democracy connived to spread a nationalist, chauvinist fervour throughout the various countries. During the war the party leaders of the Second International proved unable to adhere to their internationalist positions and yielded to "patriotic fervour''. Some members of the Social-Democratic parties entered reactionary governments. In the Second International bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism gained the upper hand over the internationalist traditions of the working-class movement.
The lesson of the ideological and subsequent organisational collapse of the Second International is that nationalism is a source of great danger to the working class and communist movement. The nationalism of the leaders of the Second International resulted from their loss of the class, proletarian, criterion when assessing social phenomena in general and national interrelations in particular.
The social chauvinism that grew out of nationalism destroyed the Second International. This sad experience shows that nationalism creates division and discord among revolutionaries. "One who has adopted the standpoint of nationalism,'' Lenin wrote, "naturally arrives at the desire 26 to erect a Chinese Wall around his nationality, his national working-class movement; he is unembarrassed even by the fact that it would mean building separate walls in each city, in each little town and village, unembarrassed even by the fact that by his tactics of division and dismemberment he is reducing to nil the great call for the rallying and unity of the proletarians of all nations, all races and all = languages."^^1^^
The only Marxist party to remain true to the sacred cause of proletarian internationalism was the Bolshevik Party. The Bolsheviks launched an ideological and political struggle against the social chauvinists, who were calling on the Russian proletariat to defend their bourgeois-monarchist fatherland. Having abandoned the class, proletarian approach to assessing the first imperialist war, the social chauvinists substituted nationalism for proletarian internationalism and appealed to Russia's working masses to give their wholehearted support to the armed struggle mounted by tsarism and its allies against the Prussian junkers.
The bourgeoisie's attempt to intoxicate the Russian workers with nationalist fervour by setting up military-industrial committees produced no tangible results. A wave of spontaneous defence hysteria engulfed insignificant strata of workers, who demanded that German foremen should be dismissed from factories. Class awareness was strongest in most Russian workers. V. V. Kuibyshev, who was in close contact at the beginning of the war with the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, wrote: "Among most worker-reservists I detected approximately the following mood: I did not see any swaggering chauvinism or indiscriminate anger against all Germans, but their hatred for the German Government and Germany's ruling classes is strong. .. . They dream oi liberating Germany from irresponsible rule and of disarming the whole of Europe as a = result."^^2^^
The appearance of nationalist and opportunist trends in the working-class movement shows that the social practice of the development of the liberation movement is complex and contradictory. The tendency for the international unity _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 6, pp. 520--21.
~^^2^^ Quoted from = A History of the USSR from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Vol. VI, p. 592 (in Russian).
27 of the workers to develop emerges as it overcomes this contradictoriness. Internationalism develops in the struggle against nationalism. Lenin wrote: "Bourgeois nationalism and proletarian internationalism—these are the two irreconcilably hostile slogans that correspond to the two great class camps throughout the capitalist world, and express the two policies (nay, the two world outlooks) in the national ques- tion."^^1^^Bourgeois nationalism is founded on the idealistic conception of the nation as some kind of irrational essence that is unbounded by time. It proceeds from the view that each nation has at its basis its own behavioural stereotype, by which that nation's whole history is predetermined.
Epistemologically, bourgeois nationalism is a distorted and illusory reflection of social reality in which people's national ties are divorced from the system of social relations, and the role of the nation in social development is made into an absolute. As an example of the absolutisation of the significance of the nation and the ignoring of the role of classes in social development, the following statement made by the American bourgeois sociologist Rupert Emerson could be quoted: "The nation is today the largest community which . . . effectively commands men's loyalty, overriding the claims both of the lesser communities within it and those which cut across it or potentially enfold it within a still greater society, reaching ultimately to mankind as a whole. In this sense the nation can be called a 'terminal community' with the implication that it is for present purposes the effective end of the road for man as a social animal, the end point of working solidarity between = men."^^2^^ Given this inflated conception of the nation, Emerson finds no place in society for either classes or class struggle.
For Emerson the highest form of human community is the nation. This gives rise to the conclusion that all the interests of the other communities, which he calls lesser communities, must be sacrificed to the major community, the nation, the guiding force of which is the bourgeoisie. The result is that unity of action within nations is "the end point of working _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 26.
~^^2^^ Rupert Emerson, From Empire to Nation, Cambrige, 1960, p. 96.
28 solidarity between men'', and that all human acts, designs and feelings can serve only the nation and cannot extend beyond its bounds. In political terms, this amounts to a denial of the existence of proletarian revolutionary solidarity as a socio-political value.Emerson is a contemporary of ours. Thus, he cannot fail to see that world working-class and communist movements exist in the world of today. Referring to these movements, he laments that ''. . .the primacy of the nation is by no means unchallenged. The challenges come not only from the older forms of community, . . . but also from newer variants. . . . In terms of its current impact the challenge to the hold of the nation which has had by far the greatest effect is that of the Communists who, at least in theory, give their first allegiance to the class community of the workers of the world. ... To the Communist the nation is properly no more than a human = frailty. . . ."^^1^^
Clearly, Emerson is distorting the Marxist conception of nations. Marxists-Leninists challenge not the nation, but nationalism. They recognise the historical necessity for the existence not only of the nation, but also of national interests. The obstacle to social progress is not the nation, but nationalism, which is a means of kindling enmity between different peoples.
It is characteristic of all forms of nationalism that they ignore the decisive role of class relations in social life and preach the idea that the nation is a suprahistorical personage that must be preserved and developed at all costs. Nationalism of any kind alienates nations from one another, erecting a political and psychological barrier between them.
Nationalists make capital from people's ideas that what is national is habitual, familiar and traditional. This view is supported by the American sociologist Walter Sulzbach: "Men generally prefer to belong to a group distinct from other groups, and possibly opposed to the others; they want to know with whom they are allied, not artificially, but by 'nature'. It seems 'natural' that if there are many states, their boundaries should generally follow language = lines."^^2^^ This _-_-_
~^^1^^ Rupert Emerson, Op. cit, pp. 97--98.
~^^2^^ Walter Sulzbach, National Consciousness, Washington, 1943, p. 50.
29 leads to the conclusion that national boundaries are unshakeable and that they arc more important than all other social links.Proletarian internationalism is based on the recognition that there is a community of the fundamental interests of the working class in different countries, and that it is perfectly ``natural'' that there should be social ties between workers ol different nations. Moreover, as the workers come to recognise this situation more deeply and more completely, and as they become more profoundly aware of the community of ideals and fundamental interests of the workers of different nations and countries, so they become more capable to oppose the spread and consolidation of pettybourgeois nationalist tendencies. Nationalism disunites the national contingents of the working class. Nationalism is the main doctrine of the bourgeoisie, opposed to the slogan "Workers of all countries, unite!''. Lenin said: "The more strongly the working-class movement develops, the more frantic are the attempts by the bourgeoisie and the feudalists to suppress it or break it up. Both these methods—suppression by force and disintegration by bourgeois influence—are constantly employed all over the world, in all countries, and one or another of these methods is adopted alternately by the different parties of the ruling = classes."^^1^^
Among the devices and means employed by the bourgeoisie in order to cause ideological discord among the workers, a special place is accorded to bourgeois nationalism. This ideology is capable of disuniting workers' consciousness and feelings more powerfully and swiftly than other forms of ideology. Among the ideas most widely used by the bourgeoisie to strengthen its ideological influence on the working people, Lenin identified "refined nationalism, which advocates the division and splitting up of the proletariat on the most plausible and specious pretexts, as for example, that of protecting the interests of `national culture', `national autonomy, or independence', and so on, and so = forth".^^2^^ Nationalism in the working-class and communist movement arises from the anti-dialectical opposing of the general and the specific in the interests of the workers of different nations _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin. Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 289.
~^^2^^ Ibid.
30 and countries. What is general in the social interest, policies and strategy of the working class cannot manifest itself in any other way than in harmony with the nationally specific in the interests of the national contingent of workers in question. The epistemological roots of nationalism in the working-class and communist movement must be seen in the absolutisation of the national-specific and its metaphysical separation from what is general. Lenin's critique of the platform of the = Bund^^1^^ is of fundamental methodological significance here.The Bundists' nationalist leanings followed from their belief that a special political organisation was needed to express the specific national interests of Jewish workers. The methodological flimsiness of the Bund's idea must be pointed out. The general and the particular do not exist in isolation in a "pure form''. They express the connection and the interaction of various aspects of one and the same process. The party of the working class provides a coherent expression of both the general and the specific interests of the workers. It takes into account the specific national interests of the workers of all nationalities.
To oppose the specific in the workers' national interests to their general class features means, as Lenin figuratively put it, "contrasting the different colours, tastes, and fragrances of particular apples to the number of 'other' apples. . . . Not only some, but every apple has its special taste, colour, and fragrance."^^2^^
The interests of the working class can be very shrewdly defined as a contradictory unity of the general and the particular. The general (class) and the specific (national) are two inseparable aspects of social life. Correct political guidance _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Bund, or the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, appeared in 1897 as a petty-bourgeois nationalist organisation. Its members upheld the principle that a party should be formed on a nationality principle. The Bund's nationalism had much in common with the Zionist tendency. In defiance of the position adopted by the Bund's Right wing, some of the organisation's Left-wing members convened the 13th Conference in Minsk in 1921 at which it was decided to amalgamate wtih the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). This meant the end of the Bund. The organisation's reactionary leaders subsequently emigrated from Russia and took up anti-Soviet activities.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 7, p. 97.
31 must unite into a single complex both the class and national interests of the working people.Taking account of specific national interests does not in the least contradict the class interests of the working class. Moreover, the interests of the working class cannot be consistently realised without due account being taken of national and particular interests and without their being combined with those common to all proletarians. Lenin made it clear that "the fundamental interest of proletarian solidarity, and consequently of the proletarian class struggle, requires that we never adopt a formal attitude to the national = question."^^1^^
The enemies of communism try to prove that the workers' international interests exclude national interests. It is in precisely this area that they see causes that might ``erode'' communist ideology. Sulzberger, for example, asks: "Does Marxism contain within itself the seeds of its own destruction?" and then goes on to provide the answer: "When tied to national interests it most assuredly = does."^^2^^ However, this is nothing but wishful thinking. In fact, the reverse is true.
Internationalism does not discard national interests. It would be wrong to claim that the interests of the working class were incompatible with nationally specific interests. To adopt an approach based on proletarian internationalism in dealing with all matters regarding the interrelationship of national contingents of the working class means being able to correctly combine the general and the specifically national in the class struggle, in the building of socialism and in cooperation between socialist countries, and being able to give preference to the common interests of the working class— the only class in the history of society to possess no class or national selfishness.
The separation and opposition of the general and the specifically national in the working-class and communist movement give rise to opportunism and nationalism, which, socially, are of the same nature. The social role of opportunism boils down to attempts to reconcile the workers with the capitalists. The nationalists also perform this function by dulling the workers' class awareness. Lenin wrote that _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 36, p. 609.
~^^2^^ S. L. Sulzberger, The Big Thaw, New York, 1956, p. 230.
32 "social-nationalism has developed from opportunism, and it was the latter that gave it strength. How could social-- nationalism have appeared 'all of a sudden'? In the same fashion as a babe appears 'all of a sudden' if nine months have elapsed since its conception. Each of the numerous manifestations of opportunism during the entire second (or yesterday) epoch in all the European countries was a rivulet, which now llowed `all of a sudden' into a big though very shallow (and, we might add parenthetically, muddy and dirty) river of social-nationalism. Nine months after conception the babe must separate from its mother; many decades after opportunism was conceived, social-nationalism, its ripe fruit, will have to separate from present-day democracy within a period that is more or less brief (as compared with = decades)."^^1^^The opportunism of the leaders of the Second International impelled them towards nationalism. Here we are dealing with a historically specific type of nationalism—the nationalism of the opportunists of the Second International. Lenin showed that "the ideological and political affinity, connection, and even identity between opportunism and socialnationalism are beyond = doubt."^^2^^ In pointing to the internal link between nationalism and opportunism we have not exhausted all the causes of the manifestation of opportunism. It arises from a betrayal of the class interests of the proletariat within a country and internationally.
Lenin's idea of the internal link between opportunism and nationalism is of fundamental importance to the world communist movement. As Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the CPSU delegation to the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties held in Moscow in 1969, pointed out, "a frequent feature of both 'Left' and Right-wing opportunism is concessions to nationalism, and sometimes even an outright switch to nationalistic positions.
"Of course, the struggle against opportunism and nationalism in one country or another is, above all, a sphere within the competence of the fraternal Party concerned. No Party can advance successfully unless it consistently and resolutely upholds the purity of Marxist-Leninist principles. But it is _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21. pp. 154--55.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 154.
33 also true that when this struggle is abandoned in some sector of our movement, it affects the movement as a = whole."^^1^^At the Meeting Janos Kadar made the point that of the bourgeois views, "the nationalistic views, particularly the form of nationalism expressed in anti-Sovietism, are unquestionably the most dangerous for our = movement".^^2^^
The idea that the internal unity of opportunism and nationalism arises from opposing the international and the national was also expressed in a speech delivered to the Meeting by Gus Hall, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USA, who noted that "whenever these are momentary differences between international responsibility and some specific national interests, opportunism will in all cases lead to discarding of internationalism. Opportunism leads to an emphasis on the differences and on nationalism. A working-class revolutionary concept will lead to a search for the points of unity. Opportunism will seek to widen the points of difference. A revolutionary concept leads to the elimination of the differences. The struggle for concepts of internationalism is a struggle against opportunism.
"Theories of disunity are also not new in the history of the revolutionary movement. They appear in exact ratio to opposition to working-class = internationalism."^^3^^
The link between opportunism and nationalism can also be traced with reference to internationalist duty and obligations to the world proletariat. Both opportunists and nationalists deny the international tasks of the working class. They are both slaves to bourgeois ideology. This denial of the historical necessity for the workers to unite is typical of both opportunism and nationalism. Nationalism in the workingclass and communist movement is essentially this same opportunism, but manifested in matters arising from the relations between the national contingents of the working class. Consequently, opportunism and nationalism feed one another. They both distort the workers' class-consciousness. _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, = Moscow 1969, Prague, 1969, p. 156.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 331.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 437.
34 Proletarian internationalism develops and grows stronger in the struggle against opportunism and nationalism.The basic task of proletarian internationalism is to ensure in practice the unity of revolutionary action by workers from all countries, by the world communist movement and by all revolutionary forces.
Proletarian revolutionary solidarity helps the working masses of all nationalities to come to a deeper understanding of their own social essence. It enables all the national contingents of the working class to perceive themselves as a part of a single world working class. As Marx wrote, "the brotherhood of man is no mere phrase with them, (i.e., the workers of various nations and countries—Auth.] but a fact of life, and the nobility of man shines upon us from their work-hardened = bodies".^^1^^
The vital chain of revolutionary links between the workers of different nations and countries has never been broken, even though the bourgeoisie has done its utmost, and still does, to throw the international working class into disarray and to prevent its acting as a united revolutionary force. In order to set the workers of various nations and countries against one another, the bourgeois ideologists are employing sophisticated tactics. They are relying particularly on the use of national self-awareness. Workers are part of a particular nation. Correctly understood national pride and national self-awareness are not alien to them. Bourgeois ideologists endeavour to magnify and absolutise these feelings. But, in addition to national self-awareness, the workers are also endowed with their class, proletarian awareness. The workers' class and national self-awareness exist simultaneously. Whenever the workers' loyalties are determined by nationality alone and class awareness fails to operate, these workers are firmly in the grip of nationalism. Internationalism among workers arises when their class awareness is operating and when workers of different nations put forward as the supreme socio-political value the principle "we are workers, and they are bourgeois".
Proletarian internationalism as a phenomenon of socio-- _-_-_
~^^1^^ Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, = Moscow, 1974, p. 109.
35 political and socio-psychological life functions whenever the workers are profoundly aware of the community of their own interests with the interests of workers in other countries. Given that racial and national prejudice is a real fact of capitalist life, and given that the bourgeoisie is trying to use national self-awareness in order to create friction between workers of different nations and states, then it is easy to see that proletarian internationalism can only develop in the struggle against racism, bourgeois chauvinism and nationalism in the revolutionary movement.In order to create hostility and disunity among the workers of various countries and races, the bourgeoisie makes full use of its government machine. It should also be borne in mind here that the competition of the employment market is exploited for these ends. Whenever workers organise strikes and stoppages, the capitalists frequently avail themselves of the services of foreign workers. By flooding the jobs market with foreigners, the capitalists use them as a weapon against the local workers. Thus, for example, the presence in the FRG in the early seventies of some two million imported workers from Yugoslavia, Turkey and Italy enabled the imperialists to soften the demands for higher wages in West = Germany.^^1^^
The use of national and racial differences between the workers in order to disunite them and kindle nationalism and racism is the most characteristic device used by the bourgeoisie against the revolutiona' y solidarity of the workers. It is well known that the nazis managed to employ racism to dull the German workers' class consciousness. Racism provided the foundation for the nazis' world outlook. In the race theory they saw the key to understanding the whole mystery of social development and social conflict.
From its very outset German fascism used for reactionary purposes the German masses' hatred for the predatory Treaty of Versailles, and energetical!}' disseminated a highly aggressive chauvinism and a race theory that stirred up hatred for other peoples, especially the Slavs and Jews. The _-_-_
~^^1^^ See Philip Bart, = ``The Multi-National Corporations and the Prolems of the Working Class'', World Marxist Review, No.~7, July 1971, p. 30
__PRINTERS_P_35_COMMENT__ 3* 36 aim of this propaganda was to conceal the class antagonisms within the country and hence to ``ideologically'' prepare the ground for taking revenge for the defeat of German imperialism in the 1914--18 war.The fascists elevated racism into an official ideology that provided the basis for monstrous crimes. Applied to foreign policy, the race theory served as the basis for expansion, justifying it by the ``right'' of a superior nation to rule over inferior peoples, by the necessity to "put an end" to the ``scheming'' of the inferior nations that arose from their ``jealousy'' of the superior nation, and so on. Setting out from their barbarous race theory, the nazis aimed to enslave the peoples of Europe, Asia and Latin America and to annihilate whole peoples. The overwhelming majority of the world's peoples were declared by the nazis to be inferior and sub-human. The Second World War showed what this ideology and these policies meant in practice. The nazis surpassed all the horrors and barbarous excesses of the past.
Bourgeois ideologists talk of the USA as the "welfare society''. They go into raptures over the "freedom and justice" that are ``guaranteed'' by the US Constitution. All this is said of the country in which Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Indians feel the whole weight and harshness of racial discrimination.
The hundred years that have elapsed since the abolition of slavery have not brought the 25 million American Negroes either equal rights or real freedom. Cruel exploitation, bad living conditions, unemployment, wage discrimination and humiliation typify the plight of the Negroes in modern America. Every year the whole world witnesses further examples of the atrocities of police terror against the Negro population.
Social life in the United States is permeated by the spirit of racial hatred with which the exploiters are dulling the working people's consciousness. The American communist leader William Foster wrote: "White chauvinism is a cancerous disease in American culture. Large sections of the working class, constantly subjected to this flood of intellectual filth, are also more or less afflicted with it. It is white chauvinism that lies behind tendencies to bar Negro workers from jobs, from union membership and leadership, from 37 friendly social = relationships."^^1^^ If racism affects the workers' spiritual lives, it dulls their class awareness. It is very much in the interests of the imperialists to align the workers according to the principle "we are white and they are black''. The organised working-class movement in the USA is developing in the ideological and political struggle against racism and nationalism.
Racism and chauvinism are the principal ideological credos of American imperialism's foreign policy as well as its domestic policy. Racism and chauvinism provided the ideological basis for the predatory war that the USA had waged for many years against the Vietnamese people and other peoples in Indochina. Following in the footsteps of the nazis, American soldiers reduced villages to ashes, slaughtered women, children and old men, and inflicted sophisticated tortures on the Vietnamese patriots.
The capitalist world never has known, and cannot know, national relations based on equality and friendship between peoples. Nationalism, chauvinism and racism make up the bourgeoisie's ideology as far as the national question is concerned.
Today there are two world systems and, consequently, two types of national relations. The opposition of proletarian internationalism and bourgeois nationalism expresses the fundamental difference between the two social types of national relations.
Proletarian internationalism has developed enormously since the time when it grew out of the revolutionary working-class movement. Originally it was one of the elements of the day-to-day, practical awareness of the workers. Thanks to the discovery by the founders of Marxism of the laws of social development and the laws of the class struggle, proletarian internationalism developed as the scientific ideology of the working class in the national question. This ideology was enriched by the proletariat's class battles and by its struggle against opportunism and nationalism.
Conscious proletarians in Russia strove doggedly for complete unity between workers and the poorer peasants in _-_-_
~^^1^^ William Z. Foster, = The Negro People in American History, New York, 1970, p. 444.
38 the struggle against reaction, and spurned all forms of bourgeois-nationalist ideology (be it Great-Power chauvinism or local nationalism, national conceit or national nihilism, anti-Semitism or Zionism). In the multinational Soviet Union the national question has been one of the fundamental issues involved in the building of a socialist society.Under socialism the social links between the workers of different nations that were forged in the flames of the class struggle formed the basis for the development of relations between different nations and nationalities. As socialism was being constructed in the USSR, proletarian internationalism acquired a new function as the ideological and moral foundation for international and interstate relations in the socialist community of peoples.
Proletarian and socialist internationalism are both of the same type as regards their essence and their socio-class nature. Socialist internationalism is the stage in the development of proletarian internationalism under socialism where the ideology of the working class has become common to all working people. Proletarian internationalism's development into socialist internationalism occurs through the spread and further development of working-class ideology and its assimilation by the masses.
Once the foundations of socialism had been laid in the USSR, the social base had been created for the development of proletarian internationalism into socialist internationalism, and the ideology of the working class has become the ideology of the whole of society. The collective-farm peasantry and the intelligentsia have adopted the social ideas and principles of the working class in all spheres of social life, including the national question, and so fostered the development of proletarian internationalism into socialist internationalism.
Thus, socialist internationalism is typified by the expansion of the social base of proletarian internationalism, a process which takes place as a result of the resolution of class and national antagonisms and the assertion of society's socio-political and ideological unity. The role of the ideas and principles of the working class in the national question and in economic, state and cultural construction becomes more prominent in the struggle against national 39 deviationists and manifestations of nationalism and chauvinism. The enlargement of the sphere of influence of these ideas and principles makes for their enrichment. The working class's ideas and principles in the sphere of national relations are upheld by the legislation established by the socialist state. The will of the working class over the national question, which includes the vision of an ideal future—a world fraternity of nations—is put into effect not just by the force of public opinion, but also by all the organs of state power.
Proletarian internationalism is the starting point for socialist states' foreign and domestic national policies. In addition to the common ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism, the national policy of any Marxist-Leninist party also expresses the specifics of a particular country and its national relations. Proletarian internationalism arms the Communist and Workers' Parties with a knowledge of the general principles that must underlie a national policy. This involves consideration of all the conditions prevailing in the country in question. Since they are applied to the varied and specific conditions of a given country, the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism in the national policy of every Communist and Workers' Party become greatly enriched.
The Leninist national policy pursued by the CPSU is the first form in which the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism have been applied by a socialist state in order to brinsr about fraternal co-operation between peoples, and is of worldwide significance.
Proletarian internationalism provides Marxist-Leninist parties with a class approach to the national question, assisting their struggle against either ignoring or exaggerating national factors in the revolutionary movement and in socialist construction. A Communist's attitude towards the ideas and principles of proletarian internationalism is the main criterion for determining his ideological and political maturity. The unity between workers of all nations and countries, the equality and friendship between the national contingents of the working class, and the socialist community of peoples incorporate the prototype of mankind's existence in the future.
40 __NUMERIC_LVL2__ CHAPTER~2 __ALPHA_LVL2__ PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISMThe theory of proletarian internationalism is a coherent complex of ideas and principles which, taken together, reflect different aspects of the relations of the national contingents of the international working class and their Marxist-Leninist parties, socialist nations and states.
Engels pointed out that "the principles are only valid in so far as they are in conformity with nature and = history".^^1^^ The principles of proletarian internationalism are not thought up by people, but are deduced as a sum total of scientific cognition and as the lesson of the history of the development of the revolutionary movement. These principles are true to the extent that they reflect the objective law governing the development of social ties between the national contingents of the international working class. The principles of proletarian internationalism are of universal significance and can be applied to all the situations that arise in national relations.
These principles are the fundamental tenets of the theory of proletarian internationalism and constitute its main guidelines. Every principle is connected with the others. It has a specific range of application and makes its own contribution to the way in which the scientific ideology and policies of the working class handle the national question. Each principle expresses different aspects and elements of the objective process of consolidating the fraternity between the workers of the various nations and countries, and the community of the socialist nations and states, whose leading force is their Marxist-Leninist parties.
Proletarian internationalism as a system of principles is a complex of various logically interrelated principles which, in toto form the working class's whole ideology, policies and ethics relating to the national question. To apprehend this system means to establish the substantive links and points of transition between the principles.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Frederick Engels, Anti-D\"uhring, Moscow, 1969, p. 48.
41It should be borne in mind that all the principles of proletarian internationalism serve the cause of unity and solidarity among the workers of all countries. Each principle has its own specific approach and makes its own contribution towards solving the problems standing in the way of worker unity. By proceeding from these premises and taking account of the variety of social practice, it is possible to formulate the following range of = principles.^^1^^
The basic principle of proletarian internationalism is revolutionary proletarian solidarity and unity among the workers of the whole world. International proletarian solidarity arises from the development of the workers' class awareness and from the recognition that the fundamental interests of workers belonging to all countries and nations are the same. Addressing those present at the meeting held in Amsterdam to mark the closing of the Second International's Hague Congress, Marx said: "Citizens, let us think of the fundamental principle of the International, solidarity! It is by establishing this vivifying principle on a strong basis, among all the working people of all countries, that we shall achieve the great goal we have set = ourselves."^^2^^ Substantiating and developing the principles of proletarian internationalism at the time of the formation in St. Petersburg of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, Lenin wrote in the draft and explanation of the programme of the Social-Democratic Party: "Capitalist domination is international. That is why the workers' struggle in all countries for their emancipation is only successful if the workers fight jointly against international = capital."^^3^^ The idea of uniting the workers contains in cmbrvo all the principles of proletarian internationalism. The principles of equality and mutual assistance and all the other principles supplement and deepen the content of the above principle.
The subordination of national interests to the international interests of the workers of the whole world as a principle of proletarian internationalism requires that the workers should _-_-_
~^^1^^ It goes without saying that the system of principles of proletarian internationalism must be further studied, refined, enriched and perfected.
~^^2^^ Karl Marx and Frederick Engels = Selected Works, in three volumes. Vol. 2, p. 293.
~^^3^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 2, p. 109.
42 put to the fore that which they have in common and which unites and welds them into a single world revolutionary force. This principle is in full accord with the objective dialectics of social development and, in particular, with the correlation between the part and the whole. The interests of the whole—the world proletariat—are expressed in both the international and the national. But in the national there is also, in addition to this, the specific.Thus, in the national there are also elements which cannot fully enter into the whole. For instance, the current and temporary interests of the workers of one country may not coincide in certain circumstances with the common interests of the world proletariat. But they do coincide if one takes the fundamental and long-term interests of the workers of different nations and countries. In this case there is no need to subordinate them to one another. Revolutionary collaboration between the workers of different nations and countries can only be effective if preference is given to the workers' fundamental interests that are common. Consequently, as Lenin emphasised, in order to be a real internationalist, ''. .. one must not think only of one's own nation, but place above it the interests of all nations, their common liberty and = equality".^^1^^ The voluntary co-ordination of the revolutionary efforts made by the working people in different countries after the October Revolution came to be of particular importance. Lenin pointed out that account of the interests of the worldwide revolutionary process required that the interests of the proletarian struggle in any one country should be subordinated to the interests of that struggle on a worldwide = scale.^^2^^ However, this does not mean neglecting the national interests of the workers of the country in question, but combining them in such a way that the tasks and aims of the general proletarian struggle are put to the fore. What must be accentuated in national interests is the goals whose attainment will do most to further the common international tasks.
Readiness to make national sacrifices for the sake of _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 22, p. 347.
^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 31, p. 148.
43 international interests is an important aspect of this principle. By performing their own national revolutionary tasks, the workers in any one country are accomplishing a part of their common internationalist mission. In the development of the revolution situations can arise in which a voluntary limitation of their national interests may be demanded of workers. Joint revolutionary action by workers of different nations and states must take place through combining their international and national interests. As the working class of Soviet Russia showed during the struggle for the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, conscious workers must be prepared for considerable national sacrifice for the sake of the common interests of the world proletariat. The Leninist Communist Party made such sacrifices at Brest. Thus, in order to preserve the Soviet Republic as the base for world revolution, the Soviet Government accepted the ultimatum presented by Germany and her allies. The Brest Peace meant in fact the transfer to Germany of the whole Baltic area, Poland and a part of Byelorussia. Soviet Russia undertook to cede to Turkey the province of Kars, Batumi and Ardagan, to demobilise the Russian Army and to withdraw the fleet to Russian = ports.^^1^^This sacrifice was necessary in order to defend the fundamental interests of socialism and the revolutionary struggle of the world proletariat. It was not, therefore, surprising that in a reference to the Brest Peace Lenin wrote: ''. . . We Marxists could expect only the class-conscious vanguard of the proletariat to appreciate the truth that we were making and were obliged to make great national sacrifices for the sake of the supreme interests of the world proletarian = revolution."^^2^^ In his draft theses for the Second Congress of the Comintern Lenin stressed that proletarian internationalism demands that "a nation which is achieving victory over the bourgeoisie should be able and willing to make the greatest national sacrifices for the overthrow of international = capital".^^3^^ In a letter to American workers he _-_-_
~^^1^^ See A History of the USSR from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Vol. VII, pp. 343--44 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 187.
^^3^^ Ibid., Vol. 31, p. 148.
44 wrote: "A real socialist would have provided by deeds his willingness for 'his' country to make the greatest sacrifice to give a real push forward to the cause of the socialist revolu- tion."^^1^^Petty-bourgeois revisionists do their utmost to distort the question of national sacrifice. Sometimes they elevate sacrifice into an absolute, while at others they ignore any temporary restriction on national interests. The provision of help to the peoples struggling against imperialism and the assistance granted to the formerly oppressed peoples in order to eliminate their economic and cultural backwardness presuppose some restriction of the temporary national interests of the people supplying this aid. These restrictions may be in the form of abatement in certain material resources, manpower, and so on. They may also be made on a moral and psychological level and constitute a temporary limitation on national pride and national prestige.
Historical experience has shown that one can neither ignore the necessity in certain circumstances for voluntary limitations on national interests in co-operation between the socialist countries, nor depict voluntary and temporary restriction of national interests as a constantly operative phenomenon. The limits and forms of voluntary restriction of national interests in co-operation between socialist countries can be summarised as follows: they are temporary and are brought about by certain critical situations; they do not affect the fundamental interests of the nation; national sacrifice is made for the sake of common interests, the interests of world socialism and the world revolutionary process, and not for the sake of any one particular country; recognition of the need for voluntary limitation on national interests must spread to all national contingents of the working class and to all socialist nations and states, otherwise it will be internationalism "for export'', i.e., demanding internationalism from others, while failing to notice or combat the manifestation of national narrow-mindedness at home; finally, recognition of the need for national sacrifice is an antidote to national narrow-mindedness.
The temporary restriction of national interests that are _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 66.
45 borne by various contingents of the working class are ultimately in the interests of the people which has temporarily narrowed the framework in which its own national interests are realised.The principle of equality and sovereignly features among the demands made by proletarian internationalism. The workers of different nations and countries participate as equals in the revolutionary struggle. They are struggling to affirm the principles of the equality of nations and languages. The unity of the socialist countries and co-operation between the Communist and Workers' Parties proceed from the principle of equality.
The idea of the voluntary union and co-operation of peoples that is contained in proletarian internationalism is enriched and supplemented by the ideas of national and state sovereignty. These ideas are directed against any opposition of proletarian solidarity to the sovereignty of nations and states. As was pointed out at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969, the acknowledgement of proletarian solidarity "does not refute or belittle the principles of the independence, sovereignty and equality of either the socialist countries or of individual national contingents of the world working-class and communist movement. Respect for, and strict observance of, these principles is for Communists a law precisely because they are internationalists".^^1^^
Another of the principles of proletarian internationalism, the proposition on the self-determination and voluntary union of peoples, is closely linked with the principle of equality and sovereignty. The consistent application of the principle of the equality of peoples presupposes relations between them that are founded on the free will of the peoples. While pointing to the essence of Marx's critique of Proudhonism over the national question, Lenin commented: ''.. .In contrast to the Proudhonists who 'denied' the national problem 'in the name of social revolution', Marx mindful in the first place of the interests of the proletarian class struggle in the advanced countries, put the fundamental principle of internationalism and socialism in the foreground _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, p. 161.
46 —namely, that no nation can be free if it oppresses other = nations."^^1^^ Among an oppressor nation's proletariat which is not pressing for the colonial and semi-colonial peoples' right to political secession "the internationalism of the proletariat would be nothing but empty = words. . . ."^^2^^ Moreover, Marxists-Leninists stressed that the workers of the metropolis and the working people of the colonies should place different emphases when upholding this principle. The workers in the metropolis should stress the idea of self-- determination right up to the point of secession. As Lenin put it, "a Social-Democrat from a small nation must emphasise in his agitation the second word of our general formula: `voluntary = integration' of nations..., he must fight against small-nation narrow-mindedness, seclusion and isolation, consider the whole and the general, subordinate the particular to the general = interest."^^3^^The point must be made that some people have attempted to replace the principle of the self-determination of nations by that of the self-determination of the working people. In his speech at the 8th Congress of the RCP(B) Lenin showed that "to reject the self-determination of nations and insert the self-determination of the working people would be absolutely wrong, because this manner of settling the question does not reckon with the difficulties, with the zigzag course taken by differentiation within nations. In Germany it is not proceeding in the same way as in our country—in certain respects more rapidly, and in other respects in a slower and more sanguinary = way".^^4^^ The socio-class selfdetermination of the working masses within the nation is a very complicated and zigzag process. Far from delaying it, the self-determination of the nation actually fosters the dawning of the class consciousness of the working masses and their emancipation from the influence of the bourgeoisie. Lenin pointed out that "the demarcation between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is proceeding in different countries in their own specific ways. Here we must act with _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 22, p. 140
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 148.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 347.
~^^4^^ Ibid., Vol. 29, p. 173.
47 utmost caution. We must be particularly cautious with regard to the various nations, for there is nothing worse than lack of confidence on the part of a = nation."^^1^^The fraternal co-operation of the peoples in socialist construction through their help and mutual assistance is a vital principle of proletarian internationalism. Fraternal co-- operation among the peoples as a new form of relations between countries and peoples arose in the course of socialist construction. In these conditions internationalism demands not only expressions of mutual sympathy and support, but also the peoples' joint efforts in the decisive sphere of social life—production and the distribution of material wealth. Summarising the historical experience of the development of the community of peoples in the USSR, the CPSU recorded in its Programme, adopted at the 22nd Congress: ''. .. all the nations are equal, their life is based on a common socialist foundation, the material and spiritual needs of every people are satisfied to the same extent, and they are all united in a single family by common vital interests and are advancing together to the common = goal—communism."^^2^^ The Party sees its task in the field of national relations as being to ensure "increasingly close fraternal co-operation, mutual aid, unity and affinity in all spheres of = life. . . ".^^3^^
The strengthening of the unity and. solidarity of the world socialist system is a further principle of proletarian internationalism. As the CPSU Programme stresses, the Party views the consolidation of the world socialist system as its main task in foreign = policy.^^4^^ The Final Document of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties held in 1969 declares: "One of the most important tasks before the Communist and Workers' Parties of the socialist countries is to develop all-embracing co-operation between their countries and ensure fresh successes in the decisive areas of the economic competition between the two systems, in the advance of science and = technology."^^5^^ This principle _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid.. p. 174.
~^^2^^ The Road to Communion, Moscow, 1962, p. 559.
~^^3^^ Ibid., p. 560.
~^^4^^ Ibid., p. 582,
~^^5^^ See International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, p. 23.
48 provides the basis for the development of co-operation between the socialist countries and of economic integration among the countries that are members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).In its Directives for the Five-Year Economic Development Plan for 1971--75 the 24th Congress of the CPSU stated: "Economic, scientific and technical ties between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, aimed at further strengthening co-operation and consistently promoting the economic integration of the CMEA countries, shall be improved and extended in every way. Comprehensive forms of co-operation with other socialist countries encompassing the spheres of material production, science and technology, mutual trade and trade on the markets of third countries, shall be developed in a planned = way."^^1^^
Unity of will and action among the Communist and Workers' Parties features prominently among all the demands made by proletarian internationalism. The Communist and Workers' Parties are the working class's highest form of class organisation. The cohesion of the working class as an international force depends on these parties' unity of action. The ideological unity of the Communist and Workers' Parties ensures their unity of action. As Lenin put it, "giving effect to united action on an international scale calls for both clarity of fundamental ideological views and precise definiteness in all practical methods of = action".^^2^^ Without ideological unity the Communist and Workers' Parties cannot act as a coherent international political force. In present conditions the international Meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties represent the most effective form of strengthening and improving the unity and cohesion of the world communist movement, of exchanging experience and collectively discussing current issues. After the Comintern ceased to operate three international Meetings were held in Moscow (1957, 1960 and 1969), as well as a whole series of regional meetings between representatives of Communist Parties. The International Meeting of 1969 stated: "The participants in _-_-_
~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1971, p. 315.
~^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21, p. 372.
49 the Meeting consider that the most important prerequisite for increasing the Communist and Workers' Parties' contribution to the solution of the problems facing the peoples is to raise the unity of the communist movement to a higher level in conformity with present-day requirements. This demands determined and persistent effort by all the Par- ties."^^1^^Unity of will and action among Communists cannot be attained if their views are narrow and one-sided, and they see their moral responsibility as being only to their own working class and their own people. Responsibility must be acknowledged to the proletariat of the whole world and to its vanguard—the international communist movement. The feeling and awareness of responsibility on the part of the Communist and Workers' Parties to all the contingents of the world revolutionary movement for their revolutionary practical ideological and theoretical activities is reinforced as a result of the battle against opportunism and nationalism.
Close unification of the forces of socialism and of the working-class and national liberation movement in the struggle for peace, national independence and social progress as a demand made by proletarian internationalism motivates revolutionaries throughout the world to unite the three main revolutionary forces of modern times. The idea of international revolutionary solidarity is also embodied in this principle. It is here enriched and developed in line with the tasks of creating a united front of anti-imperialist forces. The objective is solidarity not only between the workers of different countries, but also between socialism and the national liberation movement.
The formation of the Soviet state heralded a new stage in the history of international relations: a state which promoted the common interests of working people the world over had made its appearance. Referring to the Bolsheviks, Lenin wrote: "We now stand not only as representatives of the proletarians of all countries but as representatives of the oppressed peoples as = well."^^2^^ Proceeding from this experience, Lenin extended the idea of the historical role of _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, p. 36.
^^2^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 453.
__PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---0798 50 proletarian internationalism in the development of the world revolutionary process. He approved the slogan "Workers of all countries and all oppressed peoples, = unite!"^^1^^As long as socialism was subject to capitalist encirclement, this principle of proletarian internationalism meant in practice that the proletarians of all countries and the oppressed people should side with the Soviet Union in the struggle against imperialism and for peace, national independence and socialism.
With the formation of the world socialist system and its conversion into the decisive factor in the development of human society, the slogan of proletarian internationalism was further enriched. The International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969 proclaimed: "Peoples of the socialist countries, workers, democratic forces in the capitalist countries, newly liberated peoples and those who are oppressed, unite in a common struggle against imperialism, for peace, national liberation, social progress, democracy and = socialism!"^^2^^
Unity between the socialist countries and the workers and democratic forces in capitalist countries can only be ensured in the struggle against bourgeois nationalism. As has already been pointed out, the defeat of bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism is a historical law governing the consolidation of proletarian internationalism.
We must now examine the typical features of nationalism as the ideology and policy of the bourgeoisie with regard to the national question. The bourgeoisie needs an ideology and a policy that represent its own selfish interests as national interests and which set up the bourgeoisie as the "spiritual father" of the nation. The bourgeoisie cannot adopt any other attitude towards its own nation without insulting the national dignity of other peoples and deepening social alienation through national differences.
Bourgeois nationalism acts as an ideological expression of a course of development of national relations in which the interests of one nation cannot be satisfied without infringing those of other nationalities. Following as it does from the nature of social relations in class antagonistic _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 453.
~^^2^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, p. 39.
51 societies nationalism is inevitable wherever there exist social antagonism between classes and nations and the resulting alienation.As a phenomenon of the political and spiritual life of a society, nationalism is a powerful ideological and political weapon for the classes which have an interest in preserving bourgeois social relations. Bourgeois nationalism is reflected in politics, law, morality, science and philosophy.
Marxism-Leninism opposes the abstract approach to nationalism which ignores historical context. Marxists-Leninists take into account that there are different forms of nationalism.
It is important to differentiate bourgeois and petty-- bourgeois nationalism. Among the big bourgeoisie nationalism is linked with the policies of the monopolies. For this section of the bourgeoisie nationalism means capturing the markets of its own nation and of other nations, and making use of the national factor in the competitive struggle. Petty-- bourgeois nationalism appears in various forms. It frequently takes the form of national selfishness and national narrowmindedness.
Nationalism can act both as a form of ideology and as a form of social psychology. It is not, therefore, surprising that it embraces not only people's awareness, but also their feelings.
In most cases nationalism is geared to a particular purpose. The negative emotional charge is not absolutely identical with regard to all nationalities, and the degree of national hostility differs depending on the specific historical circumstances.
The psychology of nationalism is expressed by a whole complex of negative cliquish emotions that come into play in contacts between different nationalities: unpleasant tones or gestures when referring to people of a particular nationality, national arrogance and conceit, temporary or permanent distrust of people belonging to a particular nationality and national antipathy, which can in certain circumstances easily develop into hostility between nations and hatred between peoples. Feelings of hostility and hatred between nations are extreme forms of the psychology of nationalism.
__PRINTERS_P_51_COMMENT__ 4* 52It is wrong to equate the nationalism of an oppressed and an oppressor nation, i.e., a nationalism that serves an anticolonial purpose and one that has an anti-socialist trend.
The awakening of national consciousness among the peoples of the European countries took place during one historical period, while the same process in Asia, Africa and Latin America occurred during another. As in Europe in the past, nationalism in these other continents now has an anti-feudal trend, but at the same time its anti-colonial content is also clearly visible. As a result, the nationalism of the oppressed nations contains general democratic elements that are directed against national oppression. To the extent that it includes the notion of struggle for national freedom and independence, it can be said to display progressive features.
In the course of historical development the nationalism of oppressed nations takes on a different socio-political colouring. It is brought into play in a slightly different way on every occasion, so that it is impossible to find two historical specific forms of it that are identical in all their manifestations. It is as individual and inimitable in its permutations as the nation itself. One should also distinguish the nationalism of a large and a small nation. Consequently, in every particular case it is important to bear in mind the specific nature of the nationalism in question, otherwise the struggle against nationalism will be ineffectual.
Since it is an ineradicable element of bourgeois ideology, nationalism may infect individual groups in the international working-class and communist movement. Thus, for example, as the influence of Chinese internationalist Communists declined, so nationalism became more prevalent in the ideology and policies of the Communist Party of China. As was pointed out at the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties by Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the CPSU delegation, "from polemics with the Communist Parties the CPC leaders went on to splitting, subversive activity, to active attempts to set the revolutionary forces of our day against each other. From cutting off their ties with the socialist countries to hostile acts against them. From criticism of peaceful coexistence to the staging of armed conflicts, to a policy undermining the cause of 53 peace."^^1^^ The Maoists' nationalism is helping imperialism and not the forces that are struggling against it.
Claiming to have a ``class'' understanding of the national, the Maoists are opposed to the development of the national statehood, culture and language of the non-Chinese nationalities. Their handling of the international, which is opposed to the national, is used as an ideological shield concealing Great Han chauvinism.
We have already dealt with the internal link between opportunism and petty-bourgeois nationalism. Nationalism as practised in the working-class and communist movement is a form of action in the relations between different national contingents in the world revolutionary movement that is taken contrary to the common international interests of the working class. Nationalism in the working-class and communist movement frequently arises where consideration of specific national features develops into a self-sufficient factor, and this leads willy-nilly to neglect of the common international tasks of strengthening unity among the workers of different nations and countries. Both ``Left'' and Right-wing opportunists abandon proletarian internationalism and sink into the swamp of nationalism in their understanding of the correlation of the international and national tasks of the Communist and Workers' Parties. In an attempt to conceal their opposition between international and national interests, the opportunists have produced the thesis that the interests of the international proletarian struggle should not be identified with the interests of the Soviet Union. They endeavour to ``prove'' that the Soviet people has certain special interests that conflict with the interests of the world revolutionary movement. All this is idle fabrication. Mao Tsetung's clique have particularly strong voices in the antiSoviet choir. By opposing the international and national interests of the socialist nations, the opportunists are betraying the revolutionary dialectics, which shows the different forms of relationship and dependence between the general and the particular.
Unity of the international and the national does not mean that they are identical. It is a unity of variety, which _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Mealing of Communist and Workers' Parties, p. 157.
54 excludes both their diametrical opposition and their absolute coincidence. As more countries embark on the path of socialist construction, so more dissimilar, as well as similar, elements come to light in the structure of international and national tasks and interests.Consequently, the struggle against manifestations of nationalism, and particularly against petty-bourgeois nationalism, is becoming increasingly urgent. Lenin taught that the struggle against petty-bourgeois nationalist prejudices and national narrow-mindedness ''. . . looms ever larger with the mounting exigency of the task of converting the dictatorship of the proletariat from a national dictatorship (i.e., existing in a single country and incapable of determining world politics) into an international one (i.e., a dictatorship of the proletariat involving at least several advanced countries, and capable of exercising a decisive influence upon world politics as a = whole)".^^1^^
A further principle of proletarian internationalism, to be tactful in national interrelations, shows the need to take account of socio-psychological factors when organising a community of peoples. Not all peoples are equally sensitive over questions of national relations. It is usually small and oppressed peoples which are the most sensitive towards them. Lenin pointed out that "'offended' nationals are not sensitive to anything so much as to the feeling of equality and the violation of this equality, if only through negligence or jest—to the violation of that equality by their proletarian comrades. That is why in this case it is better to overdo rather than underdo the concessions and leniency towards the national = minorities".^^2^^ Tact is, therefore, particularly important in the sphere of national relations. After all, every nation possesses the feeling of the national dignity of the people. Nationalist elements can represent any indiscretion in these relations as an insult to national dignity. The struggle against manifestations of nationalism in general and national narrow-mindedness in particular will be ineffectual if the people's easily wounded national feelings are hurt. But it should be borne in mind that consideration of _-_-_
~^^1^^ V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 148.
~^^2^^ Ibid., Vol. 30, pp. 608--09.
55 national feelings and playing on them are completely different things.Being tactful in national relations docs not mean adopting a conciliatory attitude towards manifestations of nationalism. It means having regard for the complexity of the historical process of establishing friendship among peoples and finding the most effective methods and forms of struggle against nationalism. Rashness and undue haste in uniting peoples and drawing nations together and fusing them can only injure the cause of establishing complete trust between peoples. Lenin declared that a voluntary and solid union of peoples ''. . . cannot be effected at one stroke; we have to work towards it with the greatest patience and circumspection, so as not to spoil matters and not to arouse = distrust."^^1^^
__*_*_*__The principles reviewed above do not exhaust the whole wealth of the propositions and ideas contained in proletarian internationalism. No attempt was made to do this. Subsequent chapters of the book will deal more specifically both with the principles and ideas already outlined and with a number of other principles. So far we have simply tried to indicate that the classics of Marxism-Leninism and the programme documents of the world communist movement constitute an inexhaustible source of material for studying the principles of proletarian internationalism.
The system formed by these principles was given detailed discussion at the Ail-Union Scientific Conference on the Theoretical Questions of Proletarian Internationalism in May 1968. The first steps in exploring the matter have already been taken. Considerable work has already been done by N. F. Sheetov, who highlights the following principles of proletarian internationalism: "Cohesion, unity and a fraternal alliance between the proletarians of all nations and countries in the struggle for the common objectives— socialism and communism; proletarian solidarity. .. in the struggle against the exploiters and for the social and national _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., Vol. 30, p. 293.
56 emancipation of the enslaved peoples; the equality of nations, their genuine freedom and sovereignty; fulfilment by the working class of each country of its internationalist duty to the international = proletariat."^^1^^ There is good reason for the author's giving pride of place to the cohesion and unity of the peoples in the struggle for socialism. However, as will be shown in detail in Chapter~4, a people's internationalist duty is discharged by applying the whole system of principles of proletarian internationalism. This internationalist duty includes both the accomplishment of revolutionary tasks in one's own country, and the provision of assistance to the revolutionary movement in other countries.The system of principles that we have put forward in this book is to be regarded as an attempt to resolve this issue. However, no matter what views are taken by the different specialists working on the question, they all agree that all the principles of proletarian internationalism develop and enrich in one way or another the slogan "Workers of all countries, unite!" The proletarians of different countries and nations unite as equals. This unity is founded on the community of their fundamental interests.
The unity of the principles of proletarian internationalism is ensured by the fact that they supplement and enrich one another. No one principle can fully replace another. The absence of any of the principles makes proletarian internationalism incomplete. But this does not mean that main and fundamental principles cannot be selected from the total system. The unity of the workers of different countries is just such a principle. All the principles of proletarian internationalism are developed and enriched subject to this chief principle. At the same time, it would be incorrect to oppose one principle to any other, as petty-bourgeois revolutionaries do. They set such principles as equality and sovereignty up in opposition to the unity of proletarians the world over and to the recognition of the priority of international interests over national ones.
_-_-_~^^1^^ N. F. Sheetov, = The Teaching of K. Marx and F. Engels on Proletarian Internationalism and the World Today, Moscow, 1970, p. 9. = See also his Socialist Internationalism and Patriotism, Moscow, 1971 (both in Russian).
57The development and enrichment of the principles of proletarian internationalism are demonstrated in the following example. The idea of the equality of peoples and of their sovereignty was put forward within the framework of preMarxist democratic ideology. However, this does not mean that the ideas of equality and sovereignty in a democratic and a proletarian, socialist ideology are exactly the same. In the first case, since it forms part of a system of democratic ideology, the idea of equality and sovereignty is based on the abstract principle of philanthropy. In the second case, it acts as a component in socialist ideology, and its value is measured in terms of the class interests of the proletariat. The idea of the equality and sovereignty of peoples and states in proletarian internationalism serves the interests of accomplishing the common revolutionary tasks of the international working class. This principle plays an important role in the struggle against manifestations of chauvinism and nationalism.
Recognition of the equality of nations and languages and of national and state sovereignty forms part of the demands made by proletarian internationalism. But the content of proletarian internationalism is not limited to just this principle, as is claimed by the petty-bourgeois revolutionaries. Not every person who accepts equality and sovereignty is a consistent internationalist.
For a Marxist-Leninist the principle of national and state sovereignty is not abstract and absolute or unconnected with the other principles of proletarian internationalism. National sovereignty is a political and legal category. It is expressed in the independent solution of questions affecting a nation's domestic affairs, its socio-economic, political and cultural matters and its relations with other peoples. Marxists-Leninists link the understanding of sovereignty, as of all other problems, with the most important international interests.
Speaking of the class approach to the question of sovereignty, Janos Kadar declared at the International Meeting of Communists: "Our Parties are independent. The socialist countries are sovereign and independent. The sovereignty of our countries, the national independence of our peoples are combined with socialist social relations and rest on them. 58 At the given historical stage the sovereignty of our countries, their national independence are ensured above all by our alliance with the other socialist countries and also by the strength and further development of the socialist foundations of our = society."^^1^^
In connection with the well-known events in Czechoslovakia in 1968, anti-communist ideologists have come out with the false idea that world socialism needed to limit sovereignty in order to build up its own strength. Moreover, they deliberately confuse internationalist duty and sovereignty, trying to prove that the recognition of sovereignty excludes the need for socialist countries to be aware of their moral responsibility to the world proletariat and to the international communist movement. By preaching the idea of an abstract sovereignty that is connected neither with class interests nor with the class struggle, the imperialist ideologists are striving to crack the unity of the socialist countries. As Gustav Husak, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, put it: "Our own experience shows that the slogan of sovereignty devoid of class content is a refined and very effective weapon of the Right opportunist, revisionist and anti-socialist forces. That is what happens when the Party does not carry forward a consistently Marxist-Leninist policy and backs out of a resolute, consistent struggle in all spheres against all manifestations of bourgeois nationalism. That is why we reject the various quasi-theories of limited sovereignty, artificially concocted by our class enemies, and look upon them as perfidious manoeuvres of modern = anti-communism."^^2^^
In order to consolidate themselves, socialism and communism do not need to limit sovereignty, but to resist the nationalist understanding of it. On the contrary, it is the imperialist bourgeoisie that is the social force which needs to limit sovereignty. The point is that in the capitalist world the trend towards internationalising the productive forces is advancing by means of stirring up Intel-imperialist antagonisms and, as a means of eliminating these antagonisms, the suggestion is put forward to abolish national sovereignty and _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties p. 330.
~^^2^^ Ibid., pp. 412--13.
59 state borders and to make people reject their own country and national affiliation. Voices are heard calling for the creation of a world republic or a world federation, seeing the United Nations as a prototype of this. In the USA the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James William Fulbright, once called unambiguously for the abandonment of peoples' national sovereignty: ''. . . If we are to survive under these new conditions [i.e., in the nuclear age.— Auth.] the nation-state can no longer serve as the ultimate unit of law and human = association.''~^^1^^ The bourgeoisie acknowledges national sovereignty when it is in its interests to do so, and discards it whenever it hinders its class interests.The understanding of national sovereignty and the use of the peoples' sovereign rights have always been an object of the class struggle, and still is. The working class links this principle with its own class interests, with the interests of the struggle against world capitalism and with the interests of revolutionary unity. The abstract, non-class approach to sovereignty, the approach stemming from petty-bourgeois nationalism, leads to a slackening of internationalist ties.
The point must be made that the prejudices arising from the petty-bourgeois, nationalist understanding of sovereignty are very resilient. The dissipation of prejudices of any kind, and nationalist ones in particular, is a complicated and lengthy process. There is a common denominator between the eradication of individual selfishness, and national selfishness. In both cases socialist society is struggling against these vestiges of the past. In the first case the struggle is waged in the collective, while in the second it takes place in inter-nation and interstate relations. It is a very complicated and difficult matter to set public opinion against manifestations of national selfishness in the world communist movement. One of the most important results of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in 1969 was precisely the creation of a collective public opinion against relapses into opportunism and national narrowmindedness within the world communist movement.
A great deal of attention was given to this problem at the _-_-_
~^^1^^ J. M. Fulbright, = Prospects for the West, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1963, p. 43.
60 24th CPSU Congress, at which it was pointed out that "it is precisely the nationalistic tendencies, especially those which assume the form of anti-Sovietism, that bourgeois ideologists and bourgeois propaganda have placed most reliance on in their fight against socialism and the communist movement. They have been trying to induce the opportunist elements in the Communist Parties to make something of an ideological deal. They appear to be telling them: just give us proof that you are anti-Soviet, and we shall be prepared to proclaim that you are the true 'Marxists', and that you are taking completely 'independent = attitudes'\thinspace".^^1^^The equality of the Communist Parties is manifested not only in their sovereignty, but also in their obligations. Those who embody national selfishness recognise the equality of the national contingents of the revolutionary movement as incompatible with an awareness of their obligations to the international working class and the world communist movement. Marxism-Leninism proceeds from the view that each Communist Party is socially responsible to all the contingents in the modern world revolutionary movement.
The First Secretary of the CC of the Iraqi Communist Party, Aziz Mohammed, pointed out at the International Meeting of Communists in 1969 that "proletarian internationalism requires each Party to fulfil its duty to the working class and peoples of its own country and its duty of solidarity with all the contingents of the world communist movement, sharing in their collective responsibility. To weigh international proletarian solidarity against the principle of the independence of each Party, against the national sovereignty of each socialist country, means to ignore the common interests and destinies of the world communist move- ment."^^2^^ In exactly the same way, connivance with anti-- Sovietism in any form is a departure from the principles of internationalism. Solidarity with the Soviet Union and the CPSU has always been "the touchstone of a Party's internationalism, the internationalism of each socialist = state".^^3^^
These examples show that studying the system formed by the principles of proletarian internationalism and their _-_-_
~^^1^^ 24th Congress of the CPSU, p. 27.
~^^2^^ International Meeting of Communist and Walkers' Parties, p. 315.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
61 interaction should not be viewed as a purely academic exercise. Exploration oi the question has a direct bearing on scientific criticism of contemporary opportunism and nationalism.If, despite their interconnections, one dips into the system of the principles of proletarian internationalism, artificially extracts the principle of equality and sovereignty and transforms it into an absolute, ignoring the importance of the idea of the unity of the socialist countries and of the world communist movement and their collective responsibility to the international working class and the communist movement, the result is simply a distortion of the strategy and tactics of the world communist movement. The possibility of this happening becomes reality whenever petty-- bourgeois revolutionaries have an influence on policy-making within the Communist Parties. For example, during the political crisis in Czechoslovakia in 1968 opportunist elements tried to discredit the idea of internationalist duty by appealing to the national feelings of the Czechs and Slovaks, considering it necessary to "stress the national rather than the internationalist".
Thus, there are two mutually exclusive understandings of the principle of the equality and independence of the Communist and Workers' Parties: one is Marxist-Leninist and internationalist, and the other is anti-Leninist and nationalist. The adherents of the nationalist view are betraying the revolutionary ideals of the working class and are only benefiting the imperialists. Imperialist ideologists give every encouragement to those who see the main criterion for their parties' freedom to be their ``independence'' of the CPSU. These cunning tactics are designed to isolate the Communist and Workers' Parties from the vanguard of the world communist movement—the CPSU, the Party of Lenin.
The potentials that are inherent in proletarian internationalism as the effective ideological, political and moral source of unity in the world communist movement are realised in the struggle against any manifestation of nationalism. Marxism-Leninism organically links the idea of the equality of nations and nationalities with the principle of revolutionary solidarity. Lenin wrote: "Recognition of the 62 equality of nations and languages is important to Marxists, not only because they are the most consistent democrats. The interests of proletarian solidarity and comradely unity in the workers' class struggle call for the fullest equality of nations with a view to removing every trace of national distrust, estrangement, suspicion and = enmity."^^1^^ MarxistsLeninists have always considered that the drawing together and uniting of peoples are only possible ''. . . on a truly democratic, truly internationalist basis, which is inconceivable without the freedom to = secede".^^2^^ The classic example of this is provided by the voluntary union of the peoples of the USSR within the framework of a single multinational state.
In the course of this union the Leninist party and the working class staunchly upheld the equality of all nations and nationalities and the right of nations to self-- determination, up to and including the formation of independent states.
The principles of equality in proletarian internationalism serve to unite the revolutionary forces. Opportunists, on the other hand, strive to use it in order to weaken international ties and undermine the Communists' unity of will and action.
An internationalist is a person who is able to combine love and respect for his own nation and his own country with a recognition of the unity of interests among workers in all countries, who does not set peoples against one another and who seeks to strengthen their friendship. An internationalist cannot withdraw into the shell of national interests. He is vitally and constantly interested in what is happening to other peoples and is ready to offer them help. It would be wrong to claim that this position might lead to a rejection of national values. Internationalism requires a class, proletarian approach to the national question. It must treat his fatherland and national culture with all d