Political ideology combining nationalism with communism
National communism
is a term describing various forms in which
Marxism?Leninism
and
socialism
has been adopted and/or implemented by leaders in different countries using aspects of
nationalism
or
national identity
to form a policy independent from
communist internationalism
. National communism has been used to describe movements and governments that have sought to form a distinctly unique variant of
communism
based upon distinct national characteristics and circumstances, rather than following policies set by other
socialist states
, such as the
Soviet Union
.
[1]
In each independent state, empire, or dependency, the relationship between
social class
and nation had its own particularities. The Ukrainian communists
Vasil Shakhrai
,
Alexander Shumsky
, and Mazlakh, and then the
Tatar
Sultan Galiyev
, considered the interests of the
Bolshevik Russian
state at odds with those of their countries.
Communist parties
that have attempted to pursue independent foreign and domestic policies that conflicted with the interests of the Soviet Union have been described as examples of national communism; this form of national communism differs from communist parties/movements that embrace nationalist rhetoric. Examples include
Josip Broz Tito
and his independent direction that led
Yugoslavia
away from the Soviet Union,
Imre Nagy
's anti-Soviet
democratic socialism
,
Alexander Dub?ek
's
socialism with a human face
, and
Janos Kadar
's
Goulash Communism
.
[1]
[2]
Communist parties that have sought to follow their own variant of communism by combining communist/socialist ideals with nationalism have been described as national communist. These include the
Socialist Republic of Romania
under
Nicolae Ceau?escu
, the
Democratic Kampuchea
under
Pol Pot
,
[3]
and
North Korea
under
Juche
.
[4]
[5]
Communism as
Karl Marx
and
Friedrich Engels
envisioned it was meant to be
internationalist
, as proletarian internationalism was expected to place
class conflict
well ahead of nationalism as a priority for the
working class
. Nationalism was often seen as a tool that the
bourgeoisie
used to
divide and rule
the proletariat (
bourgeois nationalism
) and prevent them from uniting against the
ruling class
. Whereas the influence of
international communism
was very strong from the late 19th century through the 1920s, the decades after that?beginning with
socialism in one country
and progressing into the
Cold War
and the
Non-Aligned Movement
, made national communism a larger political reality.
Origins
[
edit
]
19th century
[
edit
]
During the decade of the 1840s,
communist
came into general use to describe those who hailed the left-wing of the
Jacobin Club
of the
French Revolution
as their ideological forefathers.
[6]
In 1847, the
Communist League
was founded in London. The League asked Marx and Engels to draft
The Communist Manifesto
, which was adopted by the league and published in 1848.
The Communist Manifesto
included a number of views of the role of the nation in the implementation of the manifesto. The
preamble
says that
The Communist Manifesto
arose from
Europeans
from various nations coming together in London to publish their shared views, aims, and tendencies.
[7]
Chapter one then discusses how the rise of the bourgeoisie has led to
globalization
and the place of national issues.
[8]
In
Marxism and the Muslim World
,
Maxime Rodinson
wrote: "
Classical Marxism
, for once faithful to Marx himself, postulates that a socialist state cannot be imperialist. But no proof is provided to support this thesis."
[9]
According to
Roman Rozdolsky
: "When the Manifesto says that the workers 'have no country', this refers to the bourgeois national state, not to nationality in the ethnical sense. The workers 'have no country' because according to Marx and Engels, they must regard the bourgeois national state as a machinery for their oppression and after they have achieved power they will likewise have 'no country' in the political sense, inasmuch as the separate socialist national states will be only a transitional stage on the way to the classless and stateless society of the future, since the construction of such a society is possibly only on the international scale."
20th century
[
edit
]
Milovan đilas
popularized the term "national communism" in his
New Class
(1957), where he wrote: "No single form of communism ... exists in any other way than as national communism. In order to maintain itself it must become national." A few years earlier, ex-communist Manabendra Roy said: "Communism in Asia is essentially nationalism painted Red."
Anton Pannekoek
, a Dutch
left communist
, and Russian monarchists Nicholas Ustrialov and Vasilii Shulgin stated in 1920 that Russians first nationalized communism. They drew attention to how far the
Bolsheviks
differed from all other European social democratic parties in terms of structure and ideology and to the fact
Vladimir Lenin
's
Bolshevik Party
(formed from the left-wing of the
Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party
) can be considered the first national communist party. In March 1918, Lenin renamed his party the Russian Communist Party. National communism also refers to non-Russian communist currents that arose in the former tsarist empire after Lenin seized power in the
October Revolution
(1917) and to the various communist regimes that emerged after 1945 in other parts of the world.
In the wake of their Russian counterparts, left-wing socialists in
Ukraine
and the
Muslim
areas of the former
Russian Empire
also developed distinct variants of communism that continued in the Soviet Union until 1928. Ukrainian and Muslim variants differed from each other on two points in particular. The Muslims believed the fate of world revolution depended on events in Asia and not Europe. They also argued alliances with the national bourgeoisie were necessary for the duration of the liberation struggle. Class divisions had to be ignored, otherwise the national bourgeoisie would turn away from national liberation, ally with their imperial counterparts and thus ensure the ultimate collapse of any revolutionary struggle and national liberation. In its Muslim variant, it was a synthesis of nationalism, communism and anarchism as well as religion. Muslim communists included people from groups which predated the
Russian Revolution
, joining the Russian Bolshevik Party between 1917 and 1920?some of whom later were
Narkomnats
under
Joseph Stalin
, the
People's Commissar
.
[
citation needed
]
The term "national communism" was adopted by a small number of
French fascists
, such as politician
Pierre Clementi
. The
French National-Communist Party
existed between 1934?1944 and espoused a national-communist platform noted for its similarities with
fascism
, and popularized
racial antisemitism
. The group was also noted for its agitation in support of
pan-European nationalism
and
rattachism
, maintaining contacts in both
Nazi Germany
and
Wallonia
. Later, the party would drop
National-Communist
from its name, renaming itself the French National-Collectivist Party.
[10]
The
Murba Party
was an
Indonesian
political party that proclaimed itself to be national communist.
[11]
Historian
Herbert Feith
labelled the profile of the party as "extreme nationalism and messianic social radicalism (whose inchoateness was only mildly tempered by the Marxist and Leninist theory to which it laid claim), it was a citadel of 'oppositionism', the politics of refusing to recognize the practical difficulties of governments'."
[12]
History
[
edit
]
In Ukraine
[
edit
]
In 1918, the book
Do Khvyli
(translated into English as
On The Current Situation in the Ukraine
, as edited by P. Potichnyj in 1970), written by the Ukrainian communists Serhii Mazlakh and
Vasyl' Shakhrai
, challenged what they saw as Russian domination over Ukraine under Bolshevik rule. The precursors of the Ukrainian communists, the Ukrainian left-social democrats in March 1919 tried to direct the mass anti-Bolshevik uprising that began then in Ukraine but failed to win control over a sizable territory. Their main military force under Danylo Zeleny was defeated by July 1919. Faced with
Anton Denikin
's successful offensive, they decided to stop further military activity and ally with the Bolsheviks as the
lesser evil
. In January 1920, they formed the
Ukrainian Communist Party
, which recognized Russian Communist rule over Soviet Ukraine but criticized Bolshevik administrative, cultural, political, party, and economic centralization. In a letter submitted to the
Third International
that year, they extended the analysis of Shakhrai and Mazlakh.
[13]
Another prominent Ukrainian national communist movement was the
Borotbists
led by
Alexander Shumsky
. Shumsky took a more pro-Bolshevik position than Shakhrai as he started the
January Uprising
to attempt to overthrow the
UPR government
. Shumsky also attempted to overthrow the hetman
Pavlo Skoropadskyi
through a revolution. After the establishment of the USSR, Shumsky became a promoter of Ukrainization in the CPSU, and he contributed to the
Korenizatsiya
, which favored the promotion of language and culture of ethnic minorities in the USSR. Shumsky was also a Soviet negotiator of the
Peace of Riga
.
Due to Shumsky's opposition to the
Russification
policy by the Stalinist regime, he was later condemned in 1927 for his national communist position, which the Soviet authorities referred as ‘national deviation.’ He was arrested and prosecuted by the regime in 1933 and was labeled as a nationalist and counterrevolutionary, which led to his death sentence in 1937. In 1946, he was murdered by NKVD agents under the instruction of
Joseph Stalin
and
Lazar Kaganovich
during his transfer from Kyiv to SaraToby.
[14]
In Muslim regions of the former Russian Empire (1919?1923)
[
edit
]
Open conflict between prominent Muslim theorists, such as
Mirsayet Soltan?aliev
on the one hand and Lenin and Stalin on the other, broke out in 1919 at the
Second Congress of the Communist International
over the autonomy of the Muslim Communist Party, as well as at the
Congress of the Peoples of the East
and the First Conference of the Turkic Peoples' Communists of Soviet Russia, and significantly at the
Tenth Congress of the Bolshevik Party
(April 1921). The crisis resulted in the purge of the
Communist Party of Turkestan
in December 1922 and the arrest of
Sultan Galiev
in 1923. Galiev was the first Bolshevik Party member to be arrested by Stalin. The immediate cause of his arrest were his comments on the 12th Congress resolutions regarding concessions to non-Russians. Stalin was infuriated that Galiev rejected his juxtaposition of
great-power chauvinism
with local nationalism. Galiev commented that reaction to great-power chauvinism was not nationalism, and it was simply reaction to great-power chauvinism. Nine days later, he was arrested.
During this time, Soltan?aliev,
Turar Ryskulov
,
Nariman Narimanov
, and
Ahmet Baytursunov
were very influential, especially through the
Communist University of the Toilers of the East
, which opened in 1921 and was very active until its staff was purged in 1924. Communists from outside the Soviet Union, such as
Manabendra Nath Roy
,
Henk Sneevliet
, and
Sultan Zade
, also taught there, formulating similar political positions. Students of the university included
Sen Katayama
,
Tan Malaka
,
Liu Shaoqi
, and
Ho Chi Minh
.
The great purge in the Muslim republics began in 1928 with executions of
Veli ?braimov
of the Tatar Communist Party and
Milliy Firqa
followed by the leaders of
Hummet
, the Tatar Communist Party, and the
Tatar Union of the Godless
. It also happened in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and the
Young Bukharians
.
In Romania (1960s?1980s)
[
edit
]
Although the term "national communism" was never officially used by the
Romanian Communist Party
, it has been used to describe the ideology of the
Socialist Republic of Romania
between the early 1960s and 1989.
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
originally developed an emphasis on
Romanian nationalism
when attempted to pursue a more autonomous domestic and foreign policy independent from the Soviet Union. This culminated in 1964 when Gheorghiu-Dej announced a "declaration of independence", abandoning communist internationalism.
[15]
Gheorghiu-Dej's successor,
Nicolae Ceau?escu
, developed this further by combining both Marxist?Leninist principles and doctrines of
Romanian nationalism
. In 1971, through his
July Theses
manifesto, Ceau?escu declared a national
cultural revolution
. National communism in Romania was built around
Ceau?escu's cult of personality
and the idealization of
Romanian history
, also known as
protochronism
. The main argument of the tenet was the endless and unanimous fighting throughout two thousand years to achieve unity and independence.
[16]
Part of Romanian national communism was the rehabilitation of Romanian historical figures who had previously been denounced by the
communist regime
. Examples include the nationalist historian
Nicolae Iorga
and
Ion Antonescu
, a fascist
Conduc?tor
[
citation needed
]
. These figures were deemed as Romanian patriots despite their strong
anti-communist
views.
In Vietnam
[
edit
]
Since the 1930s, when the
Vietnamese Communist Party
was founded, many nationalists decided to join the party. This is remarkable because it marks the fact that nationalism has been recrystallized into an organized system rather than as individual struggle movements as before. On the other hand, nationalism in Vietnam has existed for a long time, even clinging to many different types of political institutions, from feudal states to one-party states. Thus, unlike communist parties or other
left-wing parties
, the Communist Party of Vietnam is a nationalist party in nature, with
Ho Chi Minh Thought
often regarded as the main ideology of the party. This may have enabled the party to attract the support of the Vietnamese people.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"National Communism"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
.
- ^
Skilling, H. Gordon (1984).
"The Crisis in Eastern Europe Communism: National and International"
.
International Journal
.
39
(2): 429?455.
doi
:
10.1177/002070208403900211
.
JSTOR
40202342
.
S2CID
147194186
.
- ^
Kiernan, Ben (2017).
"Cambodia: Detonator of Communism's Implosion"
.
The Cambridge History of Communism
.
doi
:
10.1017/9781316471821.006
.
ISBN
9781316471821
.
- ^
Chen, Cheng; Lee, Ji-Yong (2007).
"Making sense of North Korea"
.
Communist and Post-Communist Studies
.
40
(4): 459?475.
doi
:
10.1016/j.postcomstud.2007.10.003
.
JSTOR
48609679
.
- ^
Byun, Dae-Ho (1990).
North Korea's foreign policy of 'Juche' and the challenge of Gorbachev's new thinking
(Thesis). University of Miami.
ProQuest
303835540
.
- ^
Fernbach, David (1973). "Introduction".
Political Writings: The revolutions of 1848
. New York: Random House. p. 23.
- ^
Marx K. & Engels F.
"Manifesto of the Communist Party"
. Retrieved
August 16,
2012
– via Marxists Internet Archive.
- ^
Marx K. & Engels F.
"Chapter I. Bourgeois and Proletarians"
. Retrieved
August 16,
2012
– via Marxists Internet Archive.
In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West. ... Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie.
- ^
Rodinson, Maxime (1981).
Marxism and the Muslim world
.
Zed Books
.
ISBN
978-0-85345-586-8
.
- ^
Camus & Lebourg, p. 64; Gordon
et al.
, p. 276; Leclercq, p. 26
- ^
Feith, Herbert
.
The Wilopo Cabinet, 1952?1953: A Turning Point in Post-Revolutionary Indonesia
. Ithaca, N.Y.: Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Dept. of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University, 1958. p. 52
- ^
Feith, Herbert (2009).
The Wilopo Cabinet, 1952-1953: A Turning Point in Post-Revolutionary Indonesia
. Equinox.
ISBN
9786028397155
.
- ^
"Memorandum of the Ukrainian Communist Party to the Second Congress of the III Communist International July-August 1920".
Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
.
17
(2): 247?262. 2009.
doi
:
10.1080/09651560903172282
.
S2CID
218546077
.
- ^
"Entry Display Web Page"
.
- ^
Boia, Lucian (2001).
History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness
. Central European University Press.
ISBN
9789639116979
.
JSTOR
10.7829/j.ctv10tq53w
.
- ^
"Rethinking National Identity after National-Communism? The case of Romania (by Cristina Petrescu, University of Bucharest)"
. www.eurhistxx.de. Archived from
the original
on 2014-03-05
. Retrieved
2014-04-03
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bennigsen, A.,
Muslim national communism in the Soviet Union : a revolutionary strategy for the colonial world
(1979).
- Ford, Christopher (2009). "Outline History of the Ukrainian Communist Party (Independentists): An Emancipatory Communism 1918?1925".
Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
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17
(2): 193?246.
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10.1080/09651560903172274
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S2CID
145338689
.
- Gizzatullin H. G., D.R., Sharafutdinov D.R., eds.,
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev. Izbrannye trudy
(Moscow, 1998).
- Mace, J.,
Communism and the dilemmas of national liberation : national communism in Soviet Ukraine, 1918-1933
(1983).
- Mace, James (1993).
"National communism"
.
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
. Retrieved
2022-11-25
.
- Rosdolsky,R., '
The Workers and the Fatherland: A Note on a Passage in the "Communist Manifesto"
', International (London) 4.2 (Winter 1977)
- Velychenko S., "
Ukrainian anticolonialist Thought in Comparative Perspective
," AB IMPERIO no. 4 (2012)
- idem,
Painting Imperialism and Nationalism Red. The Ukrainian Marxist Critique of Russian Communist Rule in Ukraine (1918-1925)
(Toronto, 2015)
External links
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