Walker Connor

The National Question in Marxist-Leninist Theory and Strategy Walker Connor

This new, memorial edition features Connor's original thorough-going treatment of The National Question in Marxist-Leninist Theory and Strategy (Princeton, 1984). His study of the evolution of the relationship between communism and nationalism since 1848 demonstrates that Marx and Engels were eager to wed the world revolutionary movement to the forces of nationalism despite the incompatibility of the two aims. Refined by Lenin, a strategy for harnessing nationalism to the world cause in a prerevolutionary situation contributed to the rise of communism in the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia; a plan to accelerate the demise of nationalism in a post-revolutionary situation was far less successful. The original study is situated between memorials to Connor by Donold Horowitz and Brendan O'Leary, a Tribute to Connor's contributions to the study of ethnonationalism, particularly his insightful assessment of "the unwithering national question" in Marxist-Leninist polities, and a new combined Afterword by Connor and Kaiser which reviews developments since 1984 and assesses the significance of the Marxist-Leninist experience for the study of nationalism.