Nationalism and Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union: A Basic Contradiction? by Walter A. s> Kemp (review)

Abstract

382 SEER, 8o, 2, 2002 recourse will be had to ethnicity to hold society together. But ethnicity, the sphere of informalrelations,is ill-equipped to provide the formal, impersonal ground-ruleswhich democratic politics requires.This is a more sophisticated approach than imputationsof 'tribalism'to the post-communist ethnicization of the region'spolitics and attendantdifficulties,exacerbated by the legacy of anti-liberal,utopian communism and exaggerated hopes of speedy transition to democracy. ProfessorSchopflin'soverall theme does not lead him to think multi-culturalstates are impossible in Eastern Europe or elsewhere (Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium), only that the difficulties should be fully acknowledged. Guaranteeing minorities the means for their own cultural reproduction (language rights) and some share in public symbols is his recommendation rather than federalism or territorial changes, fitting the Hungarian minorities he particularlydiscusses.Two chapters on Yugoslavia suggest that the communists, misled by ideology and a largely common language, underestimated the difficulties of running a multi-national state; here theoreticians' attempts to reconcile nationalism with 'socialist selfmanagement ' could perhaps receive more attention, not for their intellectual weight but for the way they permitted nationalism and eventual disillusionment to develop within the system. Almost an equal interestattachesto the application of Schopflin'spowerful categories to areas outside his regional specialism. Multi-culturalism risks obstructinghistoricalprocessesof assimilationof ruralmigrantsto the city, he suggests.The Left's selective adoption of identity politics since the I96os has privilegedgender, race and ethnic migrants,leaving the ethnicityof dominant groups underplayed. A fascinating essay on 'Englishness' has illuminating pointers to the role of classin English ethnicity, on the threat to this posed by the European issue and on the survivalof Scottish and Welshidentitieswithin a defactoEnglish state. There are comments on the near self-reproductivityof Muslim identity in France, the likelihood of Quebecois separatism, the Europeanization of Irish identity and much more. Overall, while individual interpretations might be debated, and the judgment of ethnic migrant assimilationin western Europe appear controversial,ProfessorSchopflin has certainlysucceeded in bringingfreshand thought-provokingperspectivesto a complex field. Department ofHistory ROBIN OKEY University of Warwick Kemp, Walter A. Nationalism and Communism in EasternEuropeand theSoviet Union.A Basic Contradiction? Macmillan, Basingstoke and St Martin's Press,New York, I 999. XVii + 292 pp. Bibliography.Index. ?45.??. THIs book representsan intellectualtourde force on the partof WalterKemp. In a little under 300 pages he delivers a devastating series of broadsides directed at the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninismand its appreciation of nations and nationalism. In a nutshell Kemp's point is this: Marx and Engels were convinced that national identity and nationalism were of little relevance in the greater scheme of things. Accordingly neither attached any REVIEWS 383 great importance to these themes in their writings. Those Marxists, such as Bauer and Renner, who did attempt to come to terms with the phenomena were shuntedto one sideby Lenin and otherpractitionersof communismwho sought to build a communist society on the ruins of an imperial multi-ethnic empire. As Kemp convincingly displays, the essential problem that the Bolsheviks faced was that Marxism-Leninism was simply intellectually unequipped to deal with the 'nationalities question' in the Soviet Union. Lenin's political opportunism and mental gymnasticsdid nothing to alleviate the situation. In fact, the main consequence of Bolsheviknationalitiespolicy was actuallyto reenforce national identityin some republicsand to createit in others.Naturally enough, when the inherent contradictions of the 'world socialist system' brought about its collapse between I989- I99 I, in the absence of any crosscuttingcleavages, or alternativebonds of societal cohesion, demands for change were couched in the language of self-determination.As Kemp points out, it is equally unsurprising that so many communist officials were able seamlessly to make the transition from communist functionaryto nationalist patriot. After all, politicians such as Heydar Aliev and EduardShevardnadze built theircareersat republicanlevel. Kemp demonstrates these and other related points in an erudite and efficient manner. He does this, as I have already intimated, by first of all examining Marx and Engels's ruminations on the ideas of nationhood and nationalism.In so doing, not only does he expose the intellectualshortcomings of the founding fathers of 'scientific socialism', he points to a certain chauvinismon the part of Engels (p. 3) that is hardlycompatible with ideas of international solidarity. Mind you, comparing...