The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter establishes the dialectical relationship between the socialist revolution and the national question, arguing that genuine socialism cannot be achieved without consistent revolutionary struggle for democratic demands, including the right of nations to self-determination. Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism, simultaneously creates the objective conditions for socialism while intensifying national oppression. The socialist revolution is not a single act but an epoch of acute class conflicts, within which the struggle for democracy cannot be dismissed as a diversion from proletarian objectives.
The core argument insists that the right to self-determination means the right to free political separation—without this, any talk of a "free union" of nations is mere phrase-mongering. This is not a demand for universal separation; rather, recognition of the right to secede paradoxically reduces the desire for separation, particularly given the economic advantages of larger states. The secession of Norway from Sweden in 1905 demonstrates that such demands are practicable even under capitalism, refuting those who dismiss self-determination as impossible under imperialism.
The chapter divides countries into three categories: advanced capitalist oppressor nations; Eastern Europe with developing bourgeois-democratic national movements; and semi-colonial countries and colonies. For each, socialists have distinct tasks. The proletariat of oppressor nations must fight for the right of oppressed nations to separate, while socialists of oppressed nations must maintain full organisational unity with workers of the oppressor nation. Marx's position on Ireland—demanding separation from England as a precondition for working-class emancipation—serves as the model, contrasting sharply with the Proudhonists who denied the national question entirely.
The polemical thrust targets social-chauvinists who either deny self-determination outright or defend it hypocritically while opposing actual freedom to secede. Both positions betray Marxism. In Russia, where oppressed nations constituted over 57% of the population, the RSDLP's 1913 resolution recognising the right to secede from tsarism is deemed absolutely obligatory; those denying it support Great-Russian chauvinism. The Polish social-democrats' Zimmerwald declaration, while condemning the partitioning of Poland, is criticised for vaguer formulations that substitute Proudhonism for Marxism and involuntarily bolster Great-Power chauvinism.
The chapter concludes that socialism aims to integrate nations, but this requires a transitional period of complete emancipation, including freedom to secede. The socialist revolution will demand proclaiming liberty to all oppressed peoples as urgently as bourgeois-democratic revolutions demanded their own freedoms.