Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

A CARICATURE OF MARXISM53Swedes and irrespective of their will, would have been asocial-chauvinist and a miscreant the Social-Democratic Partycould not tolerate in its ranks.That is how §9 of our Party Programme should be applied.But our imperialist Economist tries to jump over this clause.You cannot jump over it, gentlemen, without falling intothe embrace of chauvinism!And what of the Norwegian worker? Was it his duty,from the internationalist point of view, to vote for secession?Certainly not. He could have voted against secessionand remained a Social-Democrat. He would have been betrayinghis duty as a member of the Social-Democratic Partyonly if he had proffered a helping hand to a Black-HundredSwedish worker opposed to Norway’s freedom of secession.Some people refuse to see this elementary difference inthe position of the Norwegian and Swedish worker. Butthey expose themselves when they evade this most concreteof political questions, which we squarely put to them. Theyremain silent, try to wriggle out and in that way surrendertheir position.To prove that the “Norwegian” issue can arise in Russia,we deliberately advanced this proposition: in circumstancesof a purely military and strategic nature a separate Polishstate is fully achievable even now. Kievsky wants to “discuss”that—and remains silent!Let us add this Finland too, out of purely military andstrategic considerations, and given a certain outcome of thepresent imperialist war (for instance, Sweden joining theGermans and the latter’s semi-victory), can become a separatestate without undermining the “achievability” ofeven a single operation of finance capital, without making“unachievable” the buying up of Finnish railway and industrialshares.** Given one outcome of the present war the formation of newstates in Europe (Polish, Finnish, etc.) is fully “achievable” without inany way disturbing the conditions for the development of imperialismand its power. On the contrary, this would increase the influence, contactsand pressure of finance capital. But given another outcome,the formation of new states of Hungary, Czechia, etc., is likewise“achievable”. The British imperialists are already planning this secondoutcome in anticipation of their victory. The imperialist era does notdestroy either the striving for national political independence or its