Soviet Nations and Russian Civil War

Democracy and Class Struggle does not agree with all views expressed in this video - but is is one of the few resources that focuses on the National Question in the Russian Revolution which we feel has not had enough attention from comrades.

Yuri Slezkine a Russian Expert on the National Question who is profoundly anti communist provides a backhanded compliment in the article below to the Bolsheviks for their support of national minorities - similar to Putin he sees this as a Bolshevik mistake as a time bomb under Russia not as an extension of democracy like Lenin.

https://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-ussr-as-communal-apartment-or-how.html

THE REAL MEANING OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION BY NICKGLAIS

The real meaning of the October revolution is lost in the celebration of it as an historic event - the event came at the end of a long revolutionary social process which goes back to 1905 if not earlier of the birth of a party that built revolution - the Bolshevik Party.

The Bolshevik Party was versatile and offered full spectrum resistance to the Tzarist Military Feudal State from assassination to participation in the Duma - from mass strike to bank robberies - organizing oppressed nationalities to setting up peasant committees.

It was a class war of peasants/proletariat it was also a People's war of the oppressed - in fact a Revolutionary Protracted Peoples War as later theorized by Mao Zedong and Chairman Gonzalo.

In essence the October Revolution was the result of years of work and not just an event in October 1917 - that was just its dramatic appearance on the world stage.

Protracted Peoples War was the essence of the Russian Revolution - Leninism was proto Maoism with Land Peace and Bread being a precursor of the Mass Line.

The other key element of the Russian Revolution that does not get the attention it deserves is Bolshevik nationalities policy and the right of nations to self determination.

The Bolsheviks were not only for socialism but against empire.

The working class could now take over direction of the national struggle from a hesitant and nervous bourgeoisie as part of the struggle for socialism.

The bourgeoisie became more cosmopolitan and was no longer interested in the local democracy of self determination.

This extended the appeal of socialist revolution to wider sections of the people.

The real meaning of the October Revolution will not be revealed by the bourgeoisie but is part of the struggle for clarity that Marxist Leninist Maoists make in the 21st century in the struggle for socialism.