Imperialism and the National Question

Lenin’s texts breaking with Eurocentrism in the socialist movement

Fired up by the outbreak of the First World War and outraged by the capitulation of most socialist parties to the demands of national bourgeoisies, Lenin sought to understand the deeper roots of the crisis of the world movement. The result was Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, which went on to become a core text for the international communist movement. But Lenin also sought to break with the Eurocentrism of the socialist movement, which tended to look down with disdain at or simply reject struggles for self-determination, especially among colonized peoples.

This volume, with an introduction by the renowned abolitionist and anti-imperialist theorist Ruth Wilson Gilmore, brings together the texts on imperialism and those on the national question to provide a window into Lenin’s global vision of revolution.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin (1870–1924), was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He played a leading role in the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917.

Introduction by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Critical Remarks on the National Question (1913)
The Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1914)
The Revolutionary Proletariat and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1915)
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline (1916)
The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up (1916)
Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions for The Second Congress of The Communist International (1920)
Memo Combatting Dominant Nation Chauvinism (1922)
The Question of Nationalities or ‘Autonomisation’ (1922)

Notes