The federal principle appears to us as a transitory form
towards the complete unity of the workers of all countries.
This is the formula for co-operation with Sinn Fein or with Egyptian
and Indian nationalism. It is further defined later. In regard to
backward countries, Lenin says, we must have in view:--
The necessity of the co-operation of all Communists in the
democratic-bourgeois movement of emancipation in those
countries.
Again:
"The Communist International must conclude temporary alliances
with the bourgeois democracy of backward countries, but must
never fuse with it." The class-conscious proletariat must
"show itself particularly circumspect towards the survivals of
national sentiment in countries long oppressed," and must
"consent to certain useful concessions."
The Asiatic policy of the Russian Government was adopted as a move
against the British Empire, and as a method of inducing the British
Government to make peace. It plays a larger part in the schemes of the
leading Bolsheviks than is realized by the Labour Party in this
country. Its method is not, for the present, to preach Communism,
since the Persians and Hindoos are considered scarcely ripe for the
doctrines of Marx. It is nationalist movements that are supported by
money and agitators from Moscow. The method of quasi-independent
states under Bolshevik protection is well understood.
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