Marx distinguished nations from nationalities by economic independence capacity

Evidence

Still the theoretical basis for the party’s identification of Blacks as a nation was quite unorthodox in terms of Marxist theory. Marx and Engels had both distinguished between “nations” and “nationalities,” recognizing in the former the capacity for independent economic existence and in the latter an incapacity. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1060