The Discussion on Self Determination Summed Up (1916)

  • Author: Lenin
  • Date: October 1916
  • Location: Russia
  • Link: www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/SD16.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

We have affirmed that it would be a betrayal of socialism to refuse to implement the self-determination of nations under socialism. We are told in reply that "the right of self-determination is not applicable to a socialist society". The difference is a radical one. Where does it stem from?

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The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self Determination (1916)

  • Author: Lenin
  • Date: April 1916
  • Location: Russia
  • Link: http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/SRSD16.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

Imperialism is the highest stage in the development of capitalism. In the foremost countries capital has outgrown the bounds of national states, has replaced competition by monopoly and has created all the objective conditions for the achievement of socialism. In Western Europe and in the United States, therefore, the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for the overthrow of capitalist governments and the expropriation of the bourgeoisie is on the order of the day. Imperialism forces the masses into this struggle by sharpening class contradictions on a tremendous scale, by worsening the conditions of the masses both economically — trusts, high cost of living — and politically — the growth of militarism, more frequent wars, more powerful reaction, the intensification and expansion of national oppression and colonial plunder….

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The Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914)

  • Author: Lenin
  • Date: 1914
  • Location: Russia
  • Link: www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/RNSD14.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

A precise formulation of this question, which no Marxist can avoid, would at once destroy nine-tenths of Rosa Luxemburg's arguments. This is not the first time that national movements have arisen in Russia, nor are they peculiar to that country alone. Throughout the world, the period of the final victory of capitalism over feudalism has been linked up with national movements. For the complete victory of commodity production, the bourgeoisie must capture the home market, and there must be politically united territories whose population speak a single language, with all obstacles to the development of that language and to its consolidation in literature eliminated. Therein is…

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Marxism and the National Question (1913)

  • Author: Stalin
  • Date: 1913
  • Location: Vienna
  • Link: www.marx2mao.com/Stalin/MNQ12.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

The period of counter-revolution in Russia brought not only "thunder and lightning" in its train, but also disillusionment in the movement and lack of faith in common forces. As long as people believed in "a bright future," they fought side by side irrespective of nationality — common questions first and foremost! But when doubt crept into people's hearts, they began to depart, each to his own national tent — let every man count only upon himself! The "national question" first and foremost! …

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Economics and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1919)

  • Author: Lenin
  • Date: 1919
  • Location: Russia
  • Link: www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/EPDP19.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

Theoretically, there can be no doubt that between capitalism and communism there lies a definite transitional period which must combine the features and properties of both these forms of social economy. This transition period has to be a period of struggle between dying capitalism and nascent communism — or, in other words, between capitalism which has been defeated but not destroyed and communism which has been born but is still very feeble.

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Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)

  • Author: Marx
  • Date: 1875
  • Location: Germany
  • Link: http://www.marx2mao.com/M&E/CGP75.html
  • PDF: see attachment at the bottom of this page.

Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme is one of the most important contributions to the development of the theory of scientific communism and an example of uncompromising struggle against opportunism. It was written in April and early May of 1875 and sent to the leadership of the Eisenachers (Wilhelm Bracke) on May 5, 1875. The work contains a critical examination of the draft programme of the united German Social-Democratic Party and was prepared for the Gotha Unity Congress.

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