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Eastern Europe: Two Case Studies in Nationalism
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15451 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1989 |
6,994 Words |
| Author
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R.V. Burks
R.V. Burks is emeritus professor of history at Wayne State
University. He is the author of The Dynamics of Communism in
Eastern Europe (Princeton University Press), and was policy
director of Radio Free Europe in Munich for four years. |
Basically there are two different kinds of nationalism in the Communist world. There is the nationalism of the party, which serves the interest of one-party rule as understood within the framework of Marxist-Leninist doctrine, and may or may not coincide with the national interests of the ruled. And there is the nationalism of the people, which reflects their interests as seen in the light of the traditional values of the folk, be they democratic, as in the case of Americans; autocratic, as with Russians; or theocratic, as currently best exemplified by the Iranians. Under long-term repression by communist regimes people-nationalism has often acquired an explosive character, as, for example, that of the Hungarians in 1956, the Czechs in 1968, and the Poles in 1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, and 1980.
Historically, the nation is an outgrowth of the extended family, with all living together in a huge, single household, the eldest brother serving as undisputed master not only of his immediate family but also of his brothers, their wives, and their children. In the past, two or three extended families were typically joined in clans whose members believed themselves to be lineal descendants of the same distant, often mythical, ancestor. As a rule, clans had the responsibility of maintaining order among and between themselves by the one method they understood: the vendetta or blood feud, which tolerated reciprocal killings in punishment for criminal acts until such time as both parties were ready for a negotiated settlement. Clans also banded together for protection in tribes whose leaders were men of military prowess, the tribe serving as the unit of defense. In Western Europe in the Middle Ages, tribal chieftains became kings and with the technological changes of the late Middle Ages--the longbow, the crossbow, the pike, and the cannon--which made it feasible to organize masses of ordinary men for battle, national consciousness began to appear, the notion that all the people of a certain territory owed loyalty to each other and to their sovereign ruler, including the obligation of adult males to military service when the country was endangered. With the development of modern communications in the nineteenth century, it was further understood that all members of a given nation had the ability to communicate in the same language and together cherished a common belief in the virtue and reasonableness of their distinctive way of life. In Europe, national feeling had already emerged on the western seaboard during the late Middle Ages; only in the nineteenth century, however, did it surface among such peoples as the Germans, the Italians, and the Poles.
Political oppression, economic disaster, or military defeat will often produce
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