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Lenin, the National Question and the Baltic States, 1917-19

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

Stanley W. Page
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Extract

One of the problems confronting early Bolshevist theory was that of minority nationalism in the Russian Empire. If the Bolsheviks were to be the champions of downtrodden workers everywhere, then certainly they had to stand up for the rights of the man oppressed, not only for class reasons, but also for national reasons. It was precisely because of this twofold oppression within the Russian Empire after the 1880s that so many revolutionists came from among national minority groups. The Bolsheviks had no desire to disassociate themselves from this powerful revolutionary current. Discontent from whatever working-class quarter of the imperial structure was grist for Lenin's mill. The problem lay in how to reconcile the nationalist revolutionary sentiment, which, in the final analysis, meant the break-up of Russia into independent and nationally minded (bourgeois) states, with the Marxian slogan: “Workers of the world—unite” (i.e., one great working class state or social order).

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , February 1948 , pp. 15 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1948

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References

1 See Rossiskaja kommunističeskaja partija (bolševikov) v rezoljucijakh ee c'esdov i konferenci i (1898-1922) (Moscow, 1923), p. 159. At the party conference of August, 1913, Lenin and Stalin together presented the report on the national question. The scheme, drawn up by them then, as a solution to the problem, was in its essentials the same as the plan of action which was later put into effect. See also Stalin, I., Sbornik statei (Tula, 1920)Google Scholar, for an article entitled “Marksizm i nacional'naja problema” which, in pamphlet form, first appeared in 1914, shortly after the party conference of 1913. In this article, according to Trotsky, “the word and thought patterns of Lenin are obvious throughout.” ( Trotsky, L., Stalin, pp. 157, 158.Google Scholar) Trotsky's bias notwithstanding, to one familiar with Lenin's writings the truth of this statement can scarcely be questioned.

2 Lenin, V.I., Collected Works (New York, 1929)Google Scholar, XX, Bk. I, 112; italics Lenin's.

3 Ibid., p. 91.

4 Ibid., Bk. II, p. 144.

5 Ibid., p. 320.

6 Ibid., p. 315.

7 ibid.

8 Ibid., Bk. I, p. 144.

9 Ibid., pp. 310-13.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid., p. 144.

12 Ibid., p. 155.

13 Gaillard, G., L'Allemagne et le Baltikum (Paris, 1919), p. 74.Google Scholar

14 Sbornik ukazov i postanovlenii vremmenogo pravitelstva, vypusk pervyj, February 27-May 5, 1917 (St. Petersburg, 1917), pp. 255-57; vypusk vtoroj, p. 177.

15 Martna, M., Estland (Olten, 1919), p. 118.Google Scholar

16 Ibid.

17 Čudenok, S., “Iz vospominanija ob oktjabrskoj revoljucii v Estlandii,” Proktarskaja revoljucija, 1927, X, 69, p. 239.Google Scholar

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19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., p. 178.

21 Jackson, J. H., Estonia (London, 1941), p. 130.Google Scholar

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23 Čudenok, , op. cit., p. 243.Google Scholar The Bolsheviks called for the creation of peasant committees and provided armed force to help poor peasants seize the land of the wealthy.

24 Ibid.

25 Grimm, C., Jahre deutscher Entscheidung im Baltikum, 1918-1919 (Essen, 1939), p. 52.Google Scholar

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27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Wrangell, W., Geschichte des Balten Regiments (Reval, 1928), p. 1.Google Scholar

30 Grimm, , op. cit., p. 54.Google Scholar

31 Pour l'Esthonie independante (Copenhagen, 1918), pp. 9, 10.

32 Czernin, O., In the World War (London, 1919), p. 302.Google Scholar

33 Izvestia, January 20, 1918; Grimm, , op. cit., p. 44.Google Scholar

34 Jackson, , op. cit., p. 131.Google Scholar

35 Izvestia, January 27, 1918.

36 Ibid., February 7, 1918.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., January 27, 1918.

39 Ibid., February 7, 1918.

40 Ibid., January 20, 1918.

41 Ibid., January 27, 1918; February 7, 1918.

42 Martna, , op. cit., pp. 177, 178.Google Scholar

43 Jackson, , op. cit., p. 131.Google Scholar

44 Social Demokraat, January 12, 1918, quoted by Jackson, , op. cit., p. 131.Google Scholar

45 Martna, , op. cit., p. 178.Google Scholar Jackson, , op. cit., p. 132.Google Scholar

46 Constitution of the U.S.S.R., Section 17.

47 Izvestia, January 15, 1919.

48 Ibid., January 17, 1919.

49 Ibid., January 19, 1919.

50 Ibid., January 31, 1919.

51 Ibid., April 4, 1919.

52 Ibid., January 15, 1919.

53 Ibid., January 28, 1919.

54 Ibid., February 22, 1919.

55 Ibid., May 8, 1919.

56 Ibid., May 3, 1919.

57 Ibid., May 8, 1919.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid., January 16, 1919.

60 Ibid., December 25, 1918.

61 Ibid.

62 Popov, G., The City of the Red Plague (New York, 1932), p. 240.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., pp. 240, 241.

64 Ibid., p. 242.

65 Izvestia, February 1, 1919.

66 Ibid., January 21, 1919.

67 Ibid., February 7, 1919.

68 Ibid., January 21, 1919.

69 Ibid., January 14, 1919.

70 Ibid., February 4, 1919.