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p Patriotism, i.e., love for one’s country, must be considered from the historical aspect. It changes together with a change in the class nature of society. The labouring classes, which have always been champions of their country’s interests and independence, display real patriotism. Loss of independence spells oppression not only by local but also by foreign exploiters and this, naturally, is something to which the people cannot reconcile themselves. The patriotism of the working masses merges with hatred for the exploiting classes. One of the salient features of the working people’s patriotism in a society with antagonistic classes is their desire to get rid of exploiters and acquire their own motherland.

p As regards the exploiting classes, the bourgeoisie in particular, they are quite willing to make a display of patriotic slogans but theirs is mostly a sham patriotism. They utilise patriotic slogans in order to divert the working people from the class struggle and, speculating on their patriotic feelings, make them accomplices in their predatory practices. When matters boil down to profits, Lenin wrote, “the bourgeoisie will sell their country and strike a bargain with any foreigner against their own people”.  [313•* 

p The Soviet Union’s time-honoured patriotic traditions were shaped in the course of many centuries of struggle against foreign enslavers. Soviet socialist patriotism, which has inherited the best patriotic traditions of the past, enriches these traditions with the gains of the revolution and of socialism. The revolution and socialism have given the working people a genuinely free motherland, and in Soviet patriotism, therefore, devotion to the motherland organically merges with fidelity to the Soviet socialist system.

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p An important feature of Soviet patriotism is that national pride, i..e, devotion to one’s national culture, traditions and language, intertwines with devotion and loyalty to the multinational state—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Naturally, Russia with her vast expanses and numerous physical features of great beauty and charm is closer to the heart of the Russian, as Georgia, cradle of one of the most ancient civilisations, with her mountains, swift rivers and warm sea is to the Georgian, and the boundless steppes of the Ukraine to the Ukrainian, and so on. But the Soviet motherland with her bright present and still brighter future is dearest and closest to the heart of the Russian, the Georgian, the Ukrainian or any other individual from the scores of other nationalities inhabiting the U.S.S.R. That is what made them rise as one man to fight back the invasion of 14 imperialist powers and the internal reaction during the Civil War, build mammoth projects during the years of the early five-year plans of economic development and heroically fight the nazi hordes during the Second World War.

p This brings us to yet another important feature of Soviet patriotism, namely, its intrinsic bond with proletarian internationalism. National and racial prejudices, bourgeois nationalism and dominant-nation chauvinism are alien to Soviet patriotism. It combines devotion to the motherland with devotion to all socialist countries, with respect for other peoples, big and small, with a sense of fraternal class solidarity with the working people of other countries. “In fostering the Soviet people’s love of their country,” states the Programme of the C.P.S.U., “the Party maintains that with the emergence of the world socialist system the patriotism of the members of socialist society is expressed in devotion and loyalty to their own country and to the entire community of socialist countries. Socialist patriotism and socialist internationalism necessarily imply proletarian solidarity with the working class and all working people of all countries.”

p The unity of Soviet patriotism and proletarian internationalism lies in the fact that they serve the single purpose of combating capitalism and establishing the new, communist societij in the world. The building of communism in the U.S.S.R. is the supreme patriotic and internationalist 315 duty of Soviet people because successful communist construction in one country or another is a tangible contribution towards the world-wide struggle for the triumph of communism. This makes the strengthening of international unity of the working people of the socialist countries a vital task.

p This unity is all the more essential in vievC of the fact that serious divergences, expressed in the activation of nationalist and chauvinist sentiments in some Communist Parties, have come to light in the world communist movement and the socialist system.

p Soviet patriotism and internationalism are awakened by day-to-day education and self-education, in struggle against cosmopolitanism (indifference to the motherland, to its history, traditions and national culture), and nationalism (the preaching of national exclusiveness, the fostering of scorn and hate for other peoples).

p Nationalism has neither economic nor class roots in socialist society, but some of its manifestations have survived. This is mirrored in the embellishment and idealisation of the past of one nation or another, in the slurring over of social antagonisms in world history, in the placing of local interests above the interests of the state, in trends towards national conceit and exclusiveness and in outworn manners and customs.

p These hang-overs of the past are gradually overcome and each member of society becomes profoundly conscious of his internationalist duty in the process of communist construction, through the further blossoming and drawing together of nations, the expansion of economic, political and cultural intercourse between them, joint labour for the benefit of the socialist motherland, the influence of socialist reality and the educational activities of the Party and the government.

p Devotion to the motherland is kindled in the heart of each person when he knows his country’s history and culture, the traditions of his people and their labour and military feats. To inculcate patriotism means to inculcate a sense of duty to one’s country, the desire to make one’s utmost contribution in order to strengthen one’s country’s economic and military might. It means inculcating the 316 consciousness that socialism is superior to capitalism, the confidence that there are unbounded potentialities in the new system.

The threat that imperialist reaction may start another world war has brought military-patriotic education into the limelight. Soviet people are brought up in a spirit of attachment to the Armed Forces, in a spirit of respect for the soldier, who guards their peaceful work and the great gains of socialism against encroachment by enemies and is prepared to sacrifice his life for his motherland and the other socialist countries. The people’s agelong struggle against invaders has given the Soviet Union rich military-patriotic traditions, which communist education safeguards and fosters.