gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) (04/05/85)
> > Greg Kuperberg > > harvard!talcott!gjk > > > > "No Marxist can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the > > interests of the right of nations to self-determination." -Lenin, 1918 > > A reference, please? Like, where did Lenin say this? From \Main Currents of Marxism/, by Leszek Kolakowski, Volume II (the Golden Age), on page 401: "Lenin's position is thus clear, and it is hard to see how he can ever have been represented, as he notoriously was, as a champion of political independence for all peoples. He was a convinced opponent of national oppression and proclaimed the right of self-determination, but always with the reservation that it was only in exceptional circumstances that social democracy could support political separatism. Self-determination was at all times absolutely subordinate to the party's interests, and if the latter conflicted with the national aspirations of any people, the latter were of no account. This reservation in effect nullified the right of self-determination and turned it into a purely tactical weapon. The party would always try and utilize national aspirations in the struggle for power, but the 'interest of the proletariat' could never be subordinated to the desires of a whole people. As Lenin wrote soon after the Revolution in his \Thesis/ on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: 'No Marxist, without renouncing the principles of Marxism and socialism generally, can deny that the interests of socialism are higher than the interests of the right of nations to self-determination.' (\Works/, vol. 26, p. 449)..." -- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk "The eerily accurate drawing of Goetz showed the face of the 'before' figure in comic-book ads for body-building devices."-Time Magazine, April 8