Nationalism in the Soviet Union

179 Pages·2022·2.546 MB·English

by  Hans Kohn

Routledge Revivals
Nationalism in the Soviet Union
First published in 1933, Nationalism in the Soviet Union aims at presenting
the mentality of the Soviet citizen, of the Communist ‘theology,’ and the
way in which it tried to make its peace with the ‘theology’ of nationalism
that dominated the world. The author uses the term ‘theology’ intentionally
for he argues that both the Soviet Union and the Western civilization are
based on the same idea: the secularization of the Biblical faith in world his-
tory as a single comprehensive conception; their methods, however, are
radically different. The Soviet Union’s understanding and use of nationalism
provides deep insight into the nature of nationalism while proving the well-
known truth that the emotional appeal of nationalism overrides all other
forms of loyalties. Both a personal account and a political note, this book
will be of interest to students of political science, international relations,
history, geography, and philosophy.

Nationalism in the Soviet Union
Hans Kohn
Firstpublishedin1933
ByGeorgeRoutledge&SonsLtd
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2022byRoutledge
4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
andbyRoutledge
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©HansKohn1933
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedin
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invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
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Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbutpoints
outthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent.
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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
correspondencefromthosetheyhavebeenunabletocontact.
ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderLCCN:33019510
ISBN:978-1-032-38250-0(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-34436-0(ebk)
ISBN:978-1-032-38294-4(pbk)
BookDOI10.4324/9781003344360
N A T I O N A L I S M
IN T H E
S OVI E T U N I O N
HANS KOHN

CONTENTS
PAGE
Pre fa ce . . . . . . . . . vii
East and We s t .........................................................................i
The Pillars of the New Ord er . . . . 1 0
The New Fa it h ......................................................................24
Bolshevism and Nat ion al ism : the Situation and
the Plan of Ac t io n ..................................................37
Nat iona lism and the Prol etariat . . . * 5 9
Lan guage and Cu l t u r e.................................................... 8 6
No t e s ...................................................................................115
Appendix I. The Bases of the Nat ional ity Policy
of the Communist Party . . . . 131
Appendix II. Stat istics con cer ning the Nat ional ity
Pro bl em in the Soviet Union . . . 1 5 6
Index . . . . . . . . 162

PREFACE
T he following inquiry is based both on theoretical
study and on actual experience of the new atmo-
sphere in Russia during a journey which I made
in the summer of 1931 for the Frankfurter
Zeitung. Contact with the new type of man
who is growing up in the Soviet Union, and
with his ideas and ideals, has made plain to me
to how great an extent the phenomenon of
nationalism in the Soviet Union is intellectually
part and parcel of the new system of faith and
philosophy, and how the problems of nationalism
and the efforts to grapple with them can only
be understood if considered in relation to the
system as a whole. Much less attention, however,
has been paid to the problem of nationalism in
the U.S.S.R. and the effort to grapple with it
than to economic questions, although in Europe
and the East alike nationalism continues to this
day to be the formative element that it has been
in modern historic development, the myth of our
epoch, showing itself stronger in times of strong