Stalin supplied the Comintern’s flawed theoretical basis for treating Blacks as a nation.
Evidence
Lenin proved to be the theoretical and ideological midwife, but it was Stalin, it came to be believed in the American Communist Party and by its historians, who had provided the theoretical basis for the party’s position that Blacks were a nation within a nation. “If there was a ‘genius’ in this scheme,” Theodore Draper would declare, “it was undoubtedly Stalin.” However, the contrast between Stalin and Engels and Marx was dramatic. In what was to be one of the most frequently cited justifications for the Comintern’s “Negro program,” Stalin had entirely forsaken analytical sophistication: … A nation is a historically established, stable community of people, coming into existence on the basis of a community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological constitution, which manifest themselves in a community of culture. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1064
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEFINE: Stalin’s definition of a nation — language, territory, economic life, psychological constitution — is a key conceptual frame.
Related
- Stalin’s definition of nation was ahistoric and tautological. (similarity 0.85)
- Stalin’s theory of nationhood was ahistoric, tautological, and un-Marxian. (similarity 0.84)
- The Comintern’s Negro program was political opportunism rationalized after the fact. (similarity 0.81)
- Marxist orthodoxy denied American Blacks nation status. (similarity 0.81)
- Lenin personally drove the Comintern’s recruitment of American Blacks (similarity 0.81)
- Marxist theory could not logically class American Blacks as a nation (similarity 0.80)
- Marxist theory viewed nations as instruments of the bourgeoisie. (similarity 0.79)
- Stalin defined nationhood by shared language, territory, economy, and culture (similarity 0.79)
- Marxism failed to comprehend nationalism, consciousness, racism, and Black history (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- The Comintern’s Negro program was political opportunism rationalized after the fact.
#corroborates(0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1066 - Stalin’s theory of nationhood was ahistoric, tautological, and un-Marxian.
#corroborates(0.65) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1066 - Padmore saw the Comintern’s about-face as a betrayal of black people.
#complicates(0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2377