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

A CARICATURE OF MARXISM61actively resist suppression of a national uprising, for weshall thereby be combating imperialism, our mortal enemy”(Chapter II, §r).To criticise an author, to answer him, one has to quotein full at least the main propositions of his article. Butin all of Kievsky’s propositions you will find that everysentence contains two or three errors or illogicalities thatdistort Marxism!1) He is unaware that a national uprising is also “defenceof the fatherland”! A little thought, however, will make itperfectly clear that this is so, since every “nation in revolt”“defends” itself, its language, its territory, its fatherland,against the oppressor nation.All national oppression calls forth the resistance of thebroad masses of the people; and the resistance of a nationallyoppressed population always tends to national revolt. Notinfrequently (notably in Austria and Russia) we find thebourgeoisie of the oppressed nations talking of nationalrevolt, while in practice it enters into reactionary compactswith the bourgeoisie of the oppressor nation behind the backsof, and against, its own people. In such cases the criticismof revolutionary Marxists should be directed not against thenational movement, but against its degradation, vulgarisation,against the tendency to reduce it to a petty squabble.Incidentally, very many Austrian and Russian Social-Democrats overlook this and in their legitimate hatred of thepetty, vulgar and sordid national squabbles—disputes andscuffles over the question, for instance, of which languageshall have precedence in two-language street signs—refuse tosupport the national struggle. We shall not “support” arepublican farce in, say, the principality of Monaco, orthe “republican” adventurism of “generals” in the small statesof South America or some Pacific island. But that doesnot mean it would be permissible to abandon the republicanslogan for serious democratic and socialist movements. Weshould, and do, ridicule the sordid national squabbles andhaggling in Russia and Austria. But that does not mean thatit would be permissible to deny support to a national uprisingor a serious popular struggle against national oppression.2) If national uprisings are impossible in the “imperialistera”, Kievsky has no right to speak of them. If they are pos-