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Communism is supposed to be an internationalist ideology.

However, in practice, communist regimes are nationalist (USSR, Popular Republic of China, Vietnam, etc.).

How is that? And how does this nationalism differ from ethno-nationalism?

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    You may want to look into the Stalinist doctrine of Socialism in One Country Jul 23 at 18:59
  • Is that Popular Republic of China or People's Republic of China? Jul 24 at 21:23
  • This question is based on a false premise. "Communism is supposed to be an internationalist ideology" - some varieties were but there's no central authority that says what communism is, and no requirement that it be internationalist. You should reformulate it to ask how specific communists who you can show believed in internationalist ideology nonetheless promoted nationalism. Or else it's as pointless as asking "Milk is made from cows so how can we have vegan milk?"
    – Stuart F
    Jul 25 at 10:19

6 Answers 6

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Communism, as theorized by Marx and Engels, was indeed an internationalist ideology. The famous phrase, "Workers of the world, unite!" encapsulates this sentiment. The theory posits that the working class has no country and that their interests are fundamentally international.

However, in practice, many communist regimes have demonstrated strong nationalist tendencies. Here's why:

  1. Nation-State as a Vehicle for Social Change: Communist regimes often use the nation-state as the primary vehicle to achieve their social and economic objectives. Nationalism provides a sense of unity, purpose, and motivation that can be harnessed to mobilize the population behind these objectives.

  2. Defense Against External Threats: Communist regimes often face hostility and even military threats from non-communist countries. By stirring up nationalist sentiment, these regimes can strengthen internal cohesion and resistance against external threats.

  3. Legitimacy and Popular Support: Nationalism can be a powerful source of legitimacy and popular support. By positioning themselves as defenders of the nation, communist leaders can boost their popularity and strengthen their grip on power.

  4. Historical and Cultural Factors: In many countries, nationalist sentiment predated the advent of communism and was simply carried over into the new regime. In some cases, communism was even seen as a way to achieve national liberation and self-determination.

As for how communist nationalism differs from ethno-nationalism, it's important to note that the two are not mutually exclusive and can often overlap. However, there are some key differences:

  • Communist Nationalism: In theory, communist nationalism is supposed to be inclusive and based on shared class interests rather than ethnicity. The nation is defined in terms of its relationship to the means of production rather than in ethnic or racial terms. However, in practice, communist nationalism can and often does take on ethnic dimensions, particularly in multiethnic societies.

  • Ethno-Nationalism: Ethno-nationalism is based on a shared ethnic or racial identity. It tends to be exclusive rather than inclusive, and it often involves a belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group and a desire for its dominance. While communist regimes can and do exploit ethno-nationalist sentiment, this is not a fundamental tenet of communism as a political ideology.

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    I think you are missing a key point: The regimes having "communist" in their name are anything but. In fact, they are often close to the opposite, namely autocratic regimes relying on a personal cult, or a technocratic ruling class, like the old GDR. There has never been a communist regime in the original sense of the word; except maybe the Paris Commune for a few weeks of utopian spring party. Jul 23 at 15:38
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    Probably AI generated but I'm letting it slide.
    – ohwilleke
    Jul 23 at 23:49
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    Nationalism and blaming everything that goes wrong on external others, makes it easier for people to ignore all of the problems.
    – Questor
    Jul 24 at 15:51
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    @ohwilleke why on earth would you do that
    – iono
    Jul 24 at 21:07
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Communism as Marx envisaged is explicitly international in that it calls for the building of international democratic (i.e. worker-centric) political structures.

In the earlier years of the USSR, it openly sought international ideological supremacy, the cascading of the Soviet revolution, the collapse of capitalism, and the integration of further territories into the Soviet system.

As time went on, these hopes and efforts were moderated by the fact that the capitalist world itself increasingly used the state to organise and develop the economy, to redistribute wealth to workers, and to provide security against unemployment and sickness - all reducing the attractiveness or advantage of any communist transition - whereas the USSR itself rowed back from the most radical economic experiments which failed.

Stalin it seems soon recognised that the primary task was to preserve the Soviet system as a model covering part of the world, rather than assuming the USSR was in a position to conquer the entire world.

The USSR was a nation insofar as it was a power in the world amongst others, rather than a single state that governed the entire world. And once it became obvious that this would be the indefinite status, it optimised itself largely along the logic that applies to other nations.

The PRC meanwhile was nationalist from the outset. There was never an ambition for global conquest under a single Chinese state, and unlike the USSR the current territory covered by the PRC has significantly more historical tradition of being governed as a single state called "China".

The PRC have also had relatively sympathetic land neighbours from the outset (at least from a perspective of economic ideology and attitudes towards Western liberalism), a gargantuan population that rivals that of all Europe and North America, and came into being after WW2 and the development of nuclear weapons, meaning that concern about a successful capitalist military attack never predominated as it did for the USSR.

Finally, "ethno-nationalism" is broadly the nationalism as would have been understood by the term before WW2 - in other words, it's a Hitlerian ideology which categorises the world into races (or "ethnicities") and seeks to align (and maintain the alignment of) the scope of states and political territories with these races.

Ethno-nationalism since WW2 is broadly associated with the politics in colonial outposts like Northern Ireland or the former Rhodesia. It typically provokes war in its locality (as it did frequently when it reigned in Europe), and can be sustained nowadays only by transfers from a larger patron with different and more stable politics.

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In the "Manifest" by K. Marx and F. Engels it is written that "the working class has no home country" so theoretically it is not. USSR also theoretically was not. The dominance of the Russian language was explained by the need to have a shared language everyone understands. It was claimed that the existing nationalities will soon disappear, also the Russian one, just the language remaining.

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    Thx. You explained clearly the theoritical aspect, but not the practical aspect, which is the main part of my question: why in theory they are internationalist, while in practice they are nationalist?
    – Starckman
    Jul 22 at 8:31
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    USSR was continuation of a Russian Empire that existed for centuries, so it inherited most real life problems and issues from there regardless what they could say in Pravda newspaper. :) Jul 22 at 9:31
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    Also when speaking about USSR and its claims, what USSR do you mean? Of 1929 or 1979? Those were two very different countries. There was no a uniform coherent USSR, it changed a lot during 70 years, though keeping some symbols Jul 22 at 9:44
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    It was consistent over all history of the Soviet Union. This explains why there was no much hostility against ethnic Russians in Baltic states. "Russians are the ethnicity that suffered the most from Stalinism", used to be heard. Nobody ever called them the higher race.
    – Stančikas
    Jul 22 at 9:56
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    @Stančikas Maybe there was not much hostility against ethnic russians while the USSR existed, but requiring the local language (if not outrightly forbid russian language) was a very common first move by all the ex-soviet republics. Trying to join NATO was the second one.
    – Rekesoft
    Jul 24 at 10:49
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Steve touched on this already, but I think it needs to be expanded.

From around 1920 to 1980, communist movements in most of the world were strongly anti-imperialist, often to the point they defined themselves more as fighting against the occupying power than against capitalism. This is largely because foreign domination was the status quo, whether through a puppet regime (e.g. Cuba), a colonial mandate (e.g. Angola), or annexation (e.g Vietnam, part of French 3rd and 4th republics).

Since the Enlightenment, the world has seen nation-states as the main alternative to empires. To change the form of government in one country would mean gaining independence, and so nationalism had to be a cornerstone of any revolutionary manifesto, whether the original motive was communist, conservative, religious, right-wing or simply opportunist.

Of course, there is a more ambitious goal, to change the character of the entire empire, and that is how the USSR and PRC came to be. Both states continued traditional imperial power politics, playing to Russian and Han nationalism while suppressing the national identities of the countries they occupied/occupy.

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  • I think this is largely the answer. For a lot of colonized countries in particular, any revolution that merely gives the people votes, but continues to respect the colonizers' per-existing property rights to local resources, isn't going to ultimately do much to return full sovereignty to the locals. So a popular nationalist movement is going to be much more attracted to an ideology that lets them fully kick out the colonizers.
    – T.E.D.
    Jul 25 at 14:13
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There has historically been a consistent problem with Communists trying to foment revolution, and then run the resulting states. Communist leaders have been among the educated elites of their countries. As such they are almost always in the minority -- sometimes a tiny minority -- and unable to raise an army on their own. Almost all Communist revolutions have been carried out in coalitions with other parties who would normally be excluded from participating in the resulting government.

In 1919 Béla Kun, a Hungarian Communist, started a revolution which created the very short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. Even though Kun was a friend of Lenin, and had funding from the CPSU, he couldn't raise a big enough army without enlisting the help of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, which was much larger and better integrated into Hungarian society.

The Hungarian Soviet Republic collapsed four months after its establishment, due primarily to partisan Romanian nationalists who wanted to sever ties from Hungarian influence. Previously, in WWI, Hungarian nationalists had worked to sever ties from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although Béla Kun was a died-in-the-wool Communist and friend of Lenin's, his goal of transforming Hungarian society depended on help from "bourgeois Democratic Socialists" and had to focus on the struggle between Hungarian and Romanian nationalism.

This pattern has repeated itself across the world. Minority elite Communists needing to enlist or co-opt those with divergent political views and/or national liberation anti-colonial partisans. None of this was foretold in Marx's utopian writing, and as time progressed the ideals became, notably in China, "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Socialism With Chinese Characteristics", codifying the sometimes drastic changes to Marx's writing while still referring to themselves as the Communist Party.

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  • Am I correct in understanding that your thesis here is that it's because nationalism acts a counter-force to imperialism and Communists align themselves with anti-imperialists? If that's the case, I think the answer could be improved a little by stating the thesis explicitly and then presenting your defense of it. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with you, btw. I just had to think for a bit to understand how you are actually answering the question.
    – wrod
    Jul 24 at 6:46
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Nationalism comes from they believe they are in a weak position and must unite. While it's not something in the definition, the people among them with the strongest opinions tend to choose between things, politics or economy or culture, nuclear weapons or conventional weapons, honor or reason, now or future, with the cost of the other, instead of getting them all. If you are strong, choosing between them as in one mind would only cause redundant duplicated work, not even making the chosen option developed better.

China isn't weak. But as the current situation of the internet, it's difficult for everyone to share the same information and everyone to realize their situation, and people with strong opinions are more vocal. It's hardly near the official stance. And as everyone is attacking each other, I doubt anyone want to devote resources to solve the problem for now if it is one. Someone's personal dependency of a choice implies they are not the capable exact person to develop something new to make a change, after all.

It's irrelevant to communism, as the part about communism technically is they officially believe communism must come after capitalism everywhere in the world, even if not actively pursuing this, but nothing is said about they are more or less near the situation to make communism appropriate than the other countries.

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