The National Question

To throw off the feudal yoke, all national oppression, end all privileges enjoyed by any particular nation or language, is the imperative duty of the proletariat as a democratic force, and is certainly in the interests of the proletarian class struggle, which is obscured and hampered by bickering on the national question. But to go beyond these strictly limited and definite historical limits in helping bourgeois nationalism means betraying the proletariat and siding with the bourgeoisie. There is a borderline here, which is often very slight and of which the Bundists and Ukrainian nationalist-socialists completely lose sight.

Combat all national oppression? Yes, of course! Fight for any kind of national development, for “national culture” in general? Of course not.

The development of nationality in general is the principle of bourgeois nationalism. Hence the exclusiveness of bourgeois nationalism, hence the endless national bickering. [my emphasis] The proletariat, however, far from undertaking to uphold the national development of every nation, on the contrary, warns the masses against such illusions, stands for the fullest freedom of capitalist intercourse and welcomes every kind of assimilation of nations, except that which is founded on force or privilege. [my emphasis]

The… proletariat cannot support any consecration of nationalism on the contrary, it supports everything that helps to obliterate national distinctions and remove national barriers it supports everything that makes the ties between nationalities closer and closer, or tends to merge nations. To act differently means siding with reactionary nationalist philistinism.[45]