* PROJECTS FOR THE PROGRAM’S SECTION ON
NATIONAL RELATIONS
a.
* LENIN’S INITIAL DRAFT.
In the national question, the policy of the RCP—unlike the bourgeois‑democratic proclamation of national equality, which is unattainable under imperialism—consists in the steadfast pursuit of closer ties and the fusion of proletarians and working masses of all nations in their revolutionary struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie. The distrust toward Great Russians, inherited from the era of tsarist and bourgeois

PROJECTS FOR THE NATIONAL SECTION OF THE PROGRAM

Great Russian imperialism is rapidly fading among the working masses of the nations that once formed part of the Russian Empire; it is dissipating under the influence of firsthand experience with Soviet Russia. Yet this distrust has not entirely vanished—not for all peoples, nor for every stratum within the working masses. Therefore, special care must be taken in addressing national sentiment, ensuring that equality and the freedom of secession are genuinely upheld in practice—so as to undermine the foundations of this distrust and to secure the voluntary, heartfelt union of Soviet republics across all nations. Assistance to backward and weak nations must be intensified through the independent organization and education of workers and peasants in each such nation, empowering them to combat both medieval and bourgeois oppression, while simultaneously fostering the development of the languages and literatures of nations that have long been oppressed or formerly denied equal rights.
b.
* LENIN’S SECOND DRAFT.
In the national question, the policy of the proletariat—which has seized state power—differs from the bourgeois‑democratic formal proclamation of national equality, an ideal unattainable under imperialism: it consists in the unwavering, actual realization of the close integration and fusion of workers and peasants of all nations in their revolutionary struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie. The attainment of this goal requires the complete emancipation of colonial and other nations that have been subjected to oppression or deprived of full rights, granting them the freedom to secede—as a guarantee that the legacy of capitalist-era distrust among the working masses of various nations, and the resentment harbored by the workers of oppressed nations toward the workers of oppressor nations, will be fully dispelled and replaced by a conscious, voluntary union. For workers in those nations that were once oppressors under capitalism, special caution is required in their dealings with the national sentiments of oppressed peoples (for example, among Great Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles toward Jews; among Tatars toward Bashkirs, and so on), promoting not only de facto equality but also the development of the languages and literatures of the working masses of formerly oppressed nations—thus eliminating all traces of the distrust and alienation inherited from the age of capitalism.

c.
* BUKHARIN–LENIN’S FINAL DRAFT.
In the national question, the RCP is guided by the following principles:
1. At the forefront stands the policy of bringing together proletarians and semi‑proletarians of different nationalities for joint revolutionary struggle to overthrow landowners and the bourgeoisie—and for the organization of international Soviet associations of working people.
2. In order to overcome the distrust that the working masses of oppressed countries harbor toward the proletariat of states that have oppressed those very countries, it is essential to abolish all privileges whatsoever enjoyed by any national group, to establish full equality among nations, and to recognize the right of colonies and of nations previously denied equal status to achieve statehood through secession.
3. With the same aim in mind—as one of the transitional forms along the path toward complete unity—the Party proposes the Federal Union of States organized according to the Soviet model.
[4. On the question of self‑determination (secession), the RCP considers it possible, under certain conditions, to advance the slogan of national self‑determination as the ultimate goal for underdeveloped and backward nations where the working classes have not yet begun to oppose the exploiting classes. However, for nations that are economically and politically advanced, the slogan of national self‑determination is replaced by the slogan of self‑determination for the working classes organized into state power of the Soviet type.]
In determining who serves as the [expresser, determiner] of the nation’s will regarding secession or self‑determination, the RCP adheres to a historically‑class-based perspective, taking into account the stage of historical development at which a given nation finds itself: whether it is still moving from the medieval period toward bourgeois democracy, or from bourgeois democracy toward Soviet—or proletarian—democracy, and so forth.
In any case, the proletariat of those nations that were once oppressor nations must exercise particular caution and pay close attention to the lingering vestiges of national sentiment among the working masses of oppressed or otherwise disadvantaged nations. Only through such a policy can the conditions be created for the [genuine] establishment of a truly lasting, voluntary unity among the nationally diverse elements of the international proletariat—as the experience of uniting several [national labor] Soviet republics across the territory formerly surrounding Soviet Russia has demonstrated.

Lenin intended, in the programmatic section defining the Party’s tasks in the military sphere, to precede the text below with a brief introduction on the transformation of imperialist war into civil war. In subsequent revisions, Lenin made the following changes to this text: he deleted the first and third paragraphs; in the second paragraph, he struck out the words “as our Party had long foreseen”; the phrase beginning with “this petty‑bourgeois illusion” and the words “against the exploiters,” and he replaced the phrase “by means of a simple peace settlement” with the words “by means of a somewhat more stable peace.” The Program Commission deemed it necessary to devote a special section to this issue (see item 45 of the Commission’s draft, cited in the footnote) within the general part of the program, drawing upon Lenin’s outline as source material when composing it.
Lenin’s text was written in red ink on both sides of the sheet; the central portion of the manuscript, which contained the second paragraph, was cut out and affixed to another text when the Program Commission used it, leaving the manuscript divided into three small fragments.
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