Quiz: The Right of Nations to Self-Determination

All 40 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What did Marx write in 1867 about the separation of Ireland from England?

   That he now thought it inevitable, though federation might follow That it was impossible and should not be demanded That it should wait until after the English revolution That only Home Rule within the United Kingdom was practicable
2. 2. Whose point of view, according to Lenin, did the 1896 resolution essentially adopt?

   Plekhanov’s Kautsky’s The PPS’s Rosa Luxemburg’s
3. 3. Who were the “Fraki”?

   Polish landowners and their deputies in the Duma A Swedish nationalist party opposed to Norwegian independence The Polish Social-Democrats of Rosa Luxemburg The Revolutionary Faction of the Polish Socialist Party
4. 4. What analogy does Lenin use to answer the charge that the right of secession encourages separatism?

   Freedom of the press Freedom of religion Freedom of trade Freedom of divorce
5. 5. What did Kautsky say Otto Bauer underestimated?

   The power of finance capital over small nations The importance of a common language for trade The revolutionary role of the peasantry in the borderlands The urge to create a national state
6. 6. What did the Polish Social-Democrats do at the 1903 Congress after their arguments failed in the programme commission?

   They left the Congress without repeating their arguments in full session They accepted Clause 9 and joined the party They demanded Polish independence instead They forced a vote in the full session and lost it by a narrow margin
7. 7. What, according to Lenin, did Semkovsky fail to understand about the right to secession?

   That it is decided by the parliament or referendum of the seceding region, not the central parliament That the right applies only to Poland and Finland, which already had their own institutions That secession requires the consent of all the nations of the state, given through the central parliament alone That only the organised workers of the seceding nation may ever vote on separation, and not its parliament
8. 8. What would the Swedish Social-Democrats have betrayed, in Lenin’s view, had they not defended Norway’s right to secede?

   The cause of socialism and the cause of democracy The unity of the Swedish state and its army Only the interests of the Swedish king and his court The Swedish constitution
9. 9. What does Lenin give as the economic basis of national movements?

   The landlords’ need for cheap labour from the borderlands The church’s defence of national religions against forced conversion The bourgeoisie’s need to win the home market in a state with a common language The peasants’ demand for land and the abolition of serfdom in the borderlands
10. 10. Where does Lenin find evidence that the Austrian Social-Democrats tolerated demands for national independence?

    In the resolution of the London Congress In the Russian party programme of 1903 In the minutes of the Brünn Congress In Kautsky’s pamphlet on the national state
11. 11. What analogy does Lenin use to show that recognising the right to secede does not mean advocating secession?

    The right to divorce The right to strike in wartime The right to vote in elections The right to emigrate
12. 12. Why, according to Lenin, did Hungarians and Czechs gravitate towards preserving Austria?

    Because the Austrian Social-Democrats demanded it at Brünn Because they were economically dependent on Vienna To guard their national independence against stronger neighbours Because of loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty
13. 13. When, according to Lenin, did the period of bourgeois-democratic revolutions occur in Western continental Europe?

    From 1848 to 1905 Roughly from 1640 to 1789 Roughly from 1789 to 1871 From 1871 to 1914
14. 14. Why, according to Lenin, had Marx’s view on Polish independence ceased to be correct by the twentieth century?

    Poland had already won a large measure of independence, so the slogan had lost its object Russia had granted Poland autonomy, so its national movement had been satisfied by reform Democratic and proletarian movements had arisen among the Slavs; Poland was capitalist Marx himself had withdrawn his support for Poland after the failure of the 1863 rising
15. 15. What is the “two-sided” task of proletarian parties in national policy?

    Rejection of all national demands and the unity of the workers in a single centralised state Support for national independence everywhere and the formation of separate national workers’ parties National-cultural autonomy for every nation, and federation of the workers’ parties by nation Self-determination for all nations and the closest union of their workers
16. 16. Which clause of the 1903 programme deals with the right of nations to self-determination?

    Clause 3 Clause 12 Clause 11 Clause 9
17. 17. What does Lenin call Polish Social-Democrats who deny the right to self-determination in the Russian programme?

    “Great Russian chauvinists” “Polish nationalists inside out” “Liquidators” “Utopian socialists of the old school”
18. 18. According to Lenin, whose arguments do Semkovsky, Liebman and Yurkevich merely repeat?

    Luxemburg’s Karl Kautsky’s Otto Bauer’s Georgy Plekhanov’s
19. 19. When did the period of bourgeois-democratic revolutions begin in Eastern Europe and Asia?

    In 1871 In 1848 In 1905 In 1917
20. 20. Which medieval battle does Lenin mention in listing Luxemburg’s quotations from Engels?

    Crécy Kosovo Hastings Morgarten
21. 21. What does Lenin say the Norwegian example proves workers must work for?

    That republics are always preferable to monarchies, whatever the nation’s wishes That small nations should always remain inside larger states, for the sake of economic progress That nations should secede whenever possible That conflicts over secession be settled as in 1905, not “in the Russian way”
22. 22. What kind of self-determination did the Kadet programme recognise?

    Religious self-determination Political self-determination Cultural self-determination Economic self-determination
23. 23. What was the subject of the resolution Marx proposed to the General Council in November 1869?

    The disestablishment of the Irish Church by Parliament The Irish Land Act Gladstone’s refusal of an amnesty for Irish political prisoners The Fenian rising of 1867 and the Manchester executions
24. 24. Which nation’s right to form an independent state does Lenin give as his example?

    Georgia Ukraine Finland Armenia
25. 25. Which international congress declared for the full right of self-determination of all nations?

    The Stuttgart congress of 1907 The London congress of 1896 The emergency Basel congress of 1912 The founding Paris congress of 1889
26. 26. Which two periods of capitalism does Lenin distinguish?

    The period of free competition among small producers, and the later period of state-run capitalism The collapse of feudalism and rise of bourgeois society, and that of formed capitalist states The period of colonial conquest by the European powers, and the period of colonial revolts The period of mercantile capitalism and world trade, and the period of large-scale industrial capitalism
27. 27. How did Marx mock Lafargue and the French Proudhonists who “abolished” nationalities?

    By accusing them of serving Bonaparte, whose empire also claimed to stand above all nations By noting they spoke French and seemed to mean absorption into the “model French nation” By reading aloud Proudhon’s own praise of nationality, which contradicted their position By refusing to debate with them, and leaving the question to the next congress
28. 28. How does Lenin define the self-determination of nations?

    The right to schooling in one’s own language Political separation and the forming of an independent national state Cultural autonomy for each nation within a larger multinational state Economic independence from larger states
29. 29. What is Lenin’s answer to whether a nation can be free if it oppresses other nations?

    It can, once socialism is established It can, if its own institutions are democratic It depends on the size of the oppressed nation It cannot
30. 30. How does Lenin say the proletariat supports the bourgeoisie in the national question?

    Unconditionally, as long as it fights the tsar Only when the bourgeoisie is in power Only conditionally, in a certain direction Never, under any circumstances
31. 31. Why, according to Marx in December 1869, was it in the interest of the English workers to break the connection with Ireland?

    Irish immigrants were taking English jobs The Irish were more revolutionary, and would lead them Ireland was a drain on the English treasury English reaction was rooted in the subjugation of Ireland
32. 32. What share of Russia’s population does Lenin say the “subject peoples” make up?

    30 per cent 70 per cent 43 per cent 57 per cent
33. 33. How did the Bundist Goldblat, quoting Plekhanov, express the meaning of self-determination?

    Every nation must have its own schools, taught in its own language at public expense No nation may be held in Russia by force, but it may leave only with the consent of all the others If Poland does not wish to enter lawful wedlock with Russia, she must not be hindered Self-determination means regional self-government within a single democratic state
34. 34. How did Norway confirm its separation from Sweden in 1905, according to Lenin?

    By a short war in which Norway defeated the Swedish army By a referendum with an overwhelming majority for secession By a vote of the Swedish parliament alone By a decision of the great powers at a congress in London
35. 35. What “weak point” did Marx find in the young Russian socialist Lopatin?

    His knowledge of economics His support for terrorism His religious beliefs His attitude to Poland
36. 36. Which Asian country does Lenin cite as the only place in Asia with the best conditions for capitalist development?

    Turkey Japan Persia China
37. 37. What did Trotsky claim in Borba about the Polish Marxists, which Lenin denies?

    That they held the right of self-determination empty of content and fit to be deleted That they supported national-cultural autonomy, in alliance with the Bund and the Caucasians That they had accepted Clause 9 without reservation and defended it against the Bund That they supported Polish independence and wanted that demand placed first in the programme
38. 38. What did Luxemburg’s work of 1898 argue, according to Lenin?

    The case for an independent Poland, restored within its historic borders The rapid industrial development of Poland, with goods sold in Russia The history of the Polish nobility and its failed risings against Russia The decline of Polish agriculture under competition from Russian grain
39. 39. What did the Polish delegates propose instead of self-determination in 1903?

    A federation of all the nations of the Russian empire, with equal rights for each Institutions guaranteeing full freedom of cultural development to all nations Independence for Poland only Regional self-government for the borderlands
40. 40. What does Lenin say Luxemburg substituted for the question of political self-determination?

    The question of the agrarian programme The question of economic independence The question of national schools The question of the party’s organisation