Thepolitics of the government are soaked in the spirit of nationalism. Attemptsare made to confer every kind of privilege upon the "ruling", i.e.,the Great-Russian nation, even though the Great Russians represent a minorityof the population of Russia, to be exact, only 43 per cent.
Attemptsare made to cut down still further the rights of all the other nationsinhabiting Russia, to segregate one from the other and stir up enmity amongthem.
Theextreme expression of present-day nationalism is the scheme for thenationalisation of Jewish schools. The scheme emanated from the educationalofficer of Odessa district, and has been sympathetically considered by the Ministryof Public "Education". What does this nationalisation mean?
Itmeans segregating the Jews into special Jewish schools (secondary schools). Thedoors of all other educational establishments--both private and state--are tobe completely closed to the Jews. This "brilliant" plan is roundedoff by the proposal to limit the number of pupils in the Jewish secondaryschools to the notorious "quota"!
In allEuropean countries such measures and laws against the Jews existed only in thedark centuries of the Middle Ages, with their Inquisition, the burning ofheretics and similar delights. In Europe the Jews have long since been grantedcomplete equality and are fusing more and more with the nations in whose midstthey live.
Themost harmful feature in our political life generally, and in the above schemeparticularly, apart from the oppression and persecution of the Jews, is thestriving to fan the flames of nationalism, to segregate the nationalities inthe state one from another, to increase their estrangement, to separate theirschools.
Theinterests of the working class--as well as the interests of political libertygenerally--require, on the contrary, the fullest equality of all thenationalities in the state without exception, and the elimination of every kindof barrier between the nations, the bringing together of children of allnations in the same schools, etc. Only by casting off every savage and foolishnational prejudice, only by uniting the workers of all nations into oneassociation, can the working class become a force, offer resistance tocapitalism, and achieve a serious improvement in its living conditions.
Look atthe capitalists! They try to inflame national strife among the "commonpeople", while they themselves manage their business affairs remarkablywell--Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Germans together in one and thesame corporation. Against the workers the capitalists of all nations andreligions are united, but they strive to divide and weaken the workers bynational strife!
Thismost harmful scheme for the nationalisation of the Jewish schools shows,incidentally, how mistaken is the plan for so-called "cultural-nationalautonomy", i.e., the idea of taking education out of the hands of thestate and handing it over to each nation separately. It is not this we shouldstrive for, but for the unity of the workers of all nations in the struggleagainst all nationalism, in the struggle for a truly democratic commonschool and for political liberty generally. The example of the advancedcountries of the world--say, Switzerland in Western Europe or Finland inEastern Europe--shows us that only consistently democratic state institutionsensure the most peaceable and human (not bestial) coexistence of variousnationalities, without the artificial and harmful separation of educationaccording to nationalities.
[1] This refers to theenrolment quota, introduced by the tsarist government in 1887, which wasspecifically designed to restrict the number of Jews in secondary and higherschools. The Jewish working masses suffered most from this restriction, beingpractically denied education.
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Source: Collected Works, Vol 19