Page - 118 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

© ewa czerwińska-schupp, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/9789004325838_005 This isanopenaccessarticledistributedunderthetermsofthecc-by-ncLicense. chapter 4 TheNationalQuestion 1 TheNationandNationalCulture Prior to the outbreak ofWorldWar i, the national questionwas a pressing concern for Austrian Social Democracy. Quarrels and national conflicts not onlyjeopardisedtheexistenceandstabilityoftheAustro-Hungarianmonarchy, theyalsomadeitmoredifficult toachievetheprimaryobjectiveSocialDemo- cracyhadsetforitself:maintainingtheunityoftheworking-classmovementin amulti-ethnic state.AsAustrianactivists and leadersof theEuropean labour movementbecameaware,itwouldbeimpossibletodesignacoherentandreal- isticnationalitiesprogrammeifargumentsinsufficientlydiscussedbytheclas- sicalMarxistsremainedunsolved.1Amongthesewere,forinstance,theessence ofthenation,traitsthatconstituteanation,andtherelationshipbetweensoci- ety,nation,andstate. Inhisearlywork,TheQuestionofNationalitiesandSocial Democracy (1907),Bauerattemptedtosolvethese,aswellasrelatedissues.He intendedthetextasadraftforaSocial-Democraticpoliticalprogrammeonthe nationalitiesquestionundertheHabsburgmonarchy.2Inwayofapreliminary study,Bauer’s textalsocontainedremarkablesociological theory,whichgran- ted it a place in the canonof classic contributions on the so-called ‘national question’.3 1 The classicalMarxists did not codify a definition of the nation. It is possible to conclude fromtheirtextsontheJewishquestion,pan-Slavism,colonialism,andtherightofoppressed nationstoindependencethattheyconceivedofthenationasaproductofeconomic, social, and political relations rooted in territory and language. In their positions on the national question, the classicalMarxists instead favoured social revolution and the class interest of theproletariat inthestruggle forsocialandpolitical liberation. 2 Bauer’sobservationsontheessenceofthenation,itsconstitutivefactors,anddeterminantsin theprocessofnationformationwerethefirstMarxistinterpretationsofthenationalquestion onaEuropean scale. Thebookconsists of four thematicunits: (1) thenationas a concept, (2) thenationstate, (3) themulti-ethnicHabsburgstate, (4) thenationalitiesprogrammeof SocialDemocracy. 3 ThetextprovokedcontroversyamongMarxistswhenitsauthorwasstillalive,anditcontin- ues todoso today.KautskyandStalin immediately rebuked it.Bauer’s theoryof thenation alsoprovokedvividdebate inthePolishsocialistcamp.MieczysławNiedziałkowskiwasdir- ectlyinfluencedbyit,whileLeonWasilewskievaluateditcritically.SeeKautsky1917,2009and 2010;Stalin1913and2003;Niedziałkowski 1926and1943;andWasilewski 1929.Fortestimony