The Unity and Struggle of Opposites in Concepts of the Right of Nations to Self-Determination Developed by V.I. Lenin and V. Wilson

Abstract

The paper deals with the conflict between the concepts of self-determination stated by V.I. Lenin and V. Wilson, which determined the formation of a new world order from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Second World War, which is based on the political and legal idea of self-determination.In 1914, Vladimir Lenin put forward the concept of self-determination in the article «On the right of nations to self-determination», which was dedicated to the confrontation between the «oppressive» and «oppressed» nation with the right to secede the latter and «form a national state». This concept was taken up by American President Woodrow Wilson. He used it as a basis for the «Fourteen Points» when addressing the US Congress in 1917 as a political formula and legal justification for the US entry into the First World War, the fragmentation of Europe into nation states and the increase in political influence.The author concludes that the principle of self-determination, developed by Lenin and further developed by Wilson, was based on various ideological premises and initially had a diametrically opposite meaning. Whereas in Lenin’s work the emphasis was on the creation of a sovereign state up to the point of secession and/or annexation to another state, but under the protection of international law, then for Wilson self-determination was almost identical to «government of the people» or «government by consent», with the possibility of exerting political influence on a self-determined nation and justifying military conflicts with the participation of the United States in Latin America.Exploring the conceptual component of ideas, foreign policy documents of Soviet and American diplomacy, the author, based on an analysis of the world order that emerged after the First World War and the rapid process of national liberation movements and decolonization, concludes about the stunning influence of the Leninist formula on the emergence of new states in Europe, Asia, and others regions of the world, as well as for the return of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire lost as a result of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.