Speech at the First All-Russia Congress of the Navy (Extract From Minutes)¶
Core Argument¶
In this extract from his speech to the First All-Russia Congress of the Navy on 22 November 1917, Lenin directly addresses the nationalities question in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution. His core argument is that the Bolsheviks have nothing to fear from national self-determination, even if it leads to the formal disintegration of the old Russian Empire into separate republics. The decisive factor is not the location of state borders but the class alliance of working people across all nations against their respective bourgeoisies.
Lenin grounds his argument in a stark historical assessment of Tsarist rule. He notes that Russians constituted only about forty percent of the empire’s population, with the majority composed of oppressed nationalities. The savagery of Tsarist national oppression—including the prohibition of mother tongues and the deliberate perpetuation of illiteracy—had generated a reservoir of fierce hatred among the rightless peoples. This hatred, Lenin observes, was directed not only at the monarchy but at all Russians, who were perceived as the privileged nationality under Nicholas II and Kerensky. The Bolsheviks, he insists, must break decisively with this legacy.
The speech contains a notable polemic against the claim, presumably advanced by opponents, that granting independence to nationalities will cause Russia to disintegrate. Lenin dismisses this fear entirely. He offers the concrete example of Finland, where the Finnish bourgeoisie were arming themselves with German weapons to use against their own workers. Lenin declares that the Bolsheviks are “conquering” Finland not through the methods of robber barons but by offering the Finnish working people complete freedom to choose their own alliance, with full Bolshevik support against their bourgeoisie. This is not an alliance of treaties, he stresses, but of exploited against exploiters.
Turning to the Ukraine, Lenin states unconditionally that the Bolsheviks stand for the Ukrainian people’s complete and unlimited freedom. He calls for the eradication of the “bloodstained and dirty past” in which capitalist Russia acted as the executioner of other peoples. The speech closes with the assertion that only a socialist alliance of working people can remove all grounds for national persecution and strife—a position met with stormy applause from the Congress.