Re: [A-List] James Petras on Beslan - fire away

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Waistline2@xxxxxxx wrote:
> (Here is an article that is the exact political position of the left wing
> front men for the imperial bourgeoisie.

I guess Lenin was a front man for the imperial bourgeoisie when he was
all set to remove Stalin from his post as general secretary for running
roughshod over the peoples of the Caucuses. Of course, Lenin was dealing
with a member of the Bolshevik Party. If Lenin was unstinting with
Stalin, what would he make of the counter-revolutionary Yeltsin's
hand-picked successor Putin?

from:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/testamnt/autonomy.htm

In my writings on the national question I have already said that an
abstract presentation of the question of nationalism in general is of no
use at all. A distinction must necessarily be made between the
nationalism of an oppressor nation and that of an oppressed nation, the
nationalism of a big nation and that of a small nation.

In respect of the second kind of nationalism we, nationals of a big
nation, have nearly always been guilty, in historic practice, of an
infinite number of cases of violence; furthermore, we commit violence
and insult an infinite number of times without noticing it. It is
sufficient to recall my Volga reminiscences of how non-Russians are
treated; how the Poles are not called by any other name than
Polyachiska, how the Tatar is nicknamed Prince, how the Ukrainians are
always Khokhols and the Georgians and other Caucasian nationals always
Kapkasians.

That is why internationalism on the part of oppressors or "great"
nations, as they are called (though they are great only in their
violence, only great as bullies), must consist not only in the
observance of the formal equality of nations but even in an inequality
of the oppressor nation, the great nation, that must make up for the
inequality which obtains in actual practice. Anybody who does not
understand this has not grasped the real proletarian attitude to the
national question, he is still essentially petty bourgeois in his point
of view and is, therefore, sure to descend to the bourgeois point of view.

What is important for the proletarian? For the proletarian it is not
only important, it is absolutely essential that he should be assured
that the non-Russians place the greatest possible trust in the
proletarian class struggle. What is needed to ensure this? Not merely
formal equality. In one way or another, by one's attitude or by
concessions, it is necessary to compensate the non-Russian for the lack
of trust, for the suspicion and the insults to which the government of
the "dominant" nation subjected them in the past.

I think it is unnecessary to explain this to Bolsheviks, to Communists,
in greater detail. And I think that in the present instance, as far as
the Georgian nation is concerned, we have a typical case in which a
genuinely proletarian attitude makes profound caution, thoughtfulness
and a readiness to compromise a matter of necessity for us. The Georgian
[Stalin] who is neglectful of this aspect of the question, or who
carelessly flings about accusations of "nationalist-socialism" (whereas
he himself is a real and true "nationalist-socialist", and even a vulgar
Great-Russian bully), violates, in substance, the interests of
proletarian class solidarity, for nothing holds up the development and
strengthening of proletarian class solidarity so much as national
injustice; "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 over-do
rather than undergo the concessions and leniency towards the national
minorities. That is why, in this case, the fundamental interest of
proletarian class struggle, requires that we never adopt a formal
attitude to the national question, but always take into account the
specific attitude of the proletarian of the oppressed (or small) nation
towards the oppressor (or great) nation.


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