National personal autonomy
Encyclopedia
The Austromarxist
principle of national personal autonomy ("personal principle"), developed by Otto Bauer
in his 1907 book Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie (The question of nationalities and social democracy) was seen by him a way of gathering the geographically divided members of the same nation, "organize nations not in territorial bodies but in simple association of persons", thus radically disjoining the nation from the territory and making of the nation a non-territorial association
. The other ideological founders of the concept were another Austromarxist, Karl Renner
, in his 1899 essay Staat und Nation (State and Nation), and the Jewish Labour Bundist
Vladimir Medem
, in his 1904 essay Di sotsial-demokratie un di natsionale frage (Social democracy and the national question).
exposed his version of the concept:
from its foundation in 1906, the Jewish Labour Bund at their August 1912 Conference (when the motion "On National Cultural Autonomy" became part of the Bund's program), the Armenian social democrats, the Russian Constitutional Democratic Party
(Kadets) at its June 1917's Ninth Congress, the Thessaloniki
Ottoman, then Greek Socialist Workers' Federation
, the left-wing Zionists (Hashomer Hatzair
) in favour of a binational solution in Palestine
, the Jewish Folkspartei
(inspired by Simon Dubnov who had developed a concept of Jewish autonomy close to Bauer's), and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
(DAHR) after 1989.
s. Stalin
's pamphlet "Marxism and the Nationalities Question" (1913) was their ideological reference on the matter, alongside with Lenin
's Critical Remarks on the National Question (December 1913), in particular in the chapter "Cultural-National Autonomy". (Stalin was later People's Commissar of Nationalities from 1917 - 1923.) Lenin's and Stalin's critics of the national personal autonomy concept were later joined by the Catalan Andreu Nin in his article The Austrian School, National Emancipation Movements (1935).
(1917–1920) and in the interwar Estonia
n Republic (Law on personal autonomy adopted in 1925).
The autonomous representative structure of the Palestinian Jews
between 1920 and 1949, the Asefat ha-Nivharim, can also be considered as an implementation of the national personal autonomy principle.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union
and its satellites regimes, the national personal autonomy is the principle on which legislation applying to ethnic minorities has been enacted e.g. in Estonia
(1993 National Minorities Cultural Autonomy Act), Hungary
(Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities), Latvia
(1991 Law on Unrestricted Development and Right to Cultural Autonomy of Latvia's Nationalities and Ethnic Groups), Lithuania
(1989 Law on Ethnic Minorities), Russia
(1996 Law on National-Cultural Autonomies) and Ukraine
(1992 Law on National Minorities).
Austromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
principle of national personal autonomy ("personal principle"), developed by Otto Bauer
Otto Bauer
Otto Bauer was an Austrian Social Democrat who is considered one of the leading thinkers of the left socialist Austro-Marxist tendency...
in his 1907 book Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie (The question of nationalities and social democracy) was seen by him a way of gathering the geographically divided members of the same nation, "organize nations not in territorial bodies but in simple association of persons", thus radically disjoining the nation from the territory and making of the nation a non-territorial association
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
. The other ideological founders of the concept were another Austromarxist, Karl Renner
Karl Renner
Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...
, in his 1899 essay Staat und Nation (State and Nation), and the Jewish Labour Bundist
Bundism
Bundism is a Jewish socialist and secular movement, which originates from the General Jewish Labour Bund founded in the Russian empire in 1897. Bundism was an important component of the social democratic movement in the Russian empire until it was violently suppressed by the Communist party after...
Vladimir Medem
Vladimir Medem
right|250px|thumb|Picture of Medem from the Medem Library in ParisVladimir Davidovich Medem, né Grinberg , , was a Russian Jewish politician and ideologue of the Jewish Labour Bund...
, in his 1904 essay Di sotsial-demokratie un di natsionale frage (Social democracy and the national question).
Medem's Social democracy and the national question
In his 1904 text, Social democracy and the national question, Vladimir MedemVladimir Medem
right|250px|thumb|Picture of Medem from the Medem Library in ParisVladimir Davidovich Medem, né Grinberg , , was a Russian Jewish politician and ideologue of the Jewish Labour Bund...
exposed his version of the concept:
"Let us consider the case of a country composed of several national groups, e.g. Poles, Lithuanians and Jews. Each national group would create a separate movement. All citizens belonging to a given national group would join a special organisation that would hold cultural assemblies in each region and a general cultural assembly for the whole country. The assemblies would be given financial powers of their own: either each national group would be entitled to raise taxes on its members, or the state would allocate a proportion of its overall budget to each of them. Every citizen of the state would belong to one of the national groups, but the question of which national movement to join would be a matter of personal choice and no authority would have any control over his decision. The national movements would be subject to the general legislation of the state, but in their own areas of responsibility they would be autonomous and none of them would have the right to interfere in the affairs of the others".
Partisans
This principle was later adopted by various parties, among them the Jewish Socialist Workers PartyJewish Socialist Workers Party
The Jewish Socialist Workers Party , often nicknamed Seymists, was a Jewish socialist political party in the Russian Empire. The party was founded in April 1906, emerging out of the Vozrozhdenie circles. The Vozrozhdenie was a non-Marxist tendency which was led by the nonmarxist thinker and...
from its foundation in 1906, the Jewish Labour Bund at their August 1912 Conference (when the motion "On National Cultural Autonomy" became part of the Bund's program), the Armenian social democrats, the Russian Constitutional Democratic Party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...
(Kadets) at its June 1917's Ninth Congress, the Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
Ottoman, then Greek Socialist Workers' Federation
Socialist Workers' Federation
The Socialist Workers' Federation , led by Avraam Benaroya, was an attempt at union of different nationalities' workers in Ottoman Thessaloniki within a single labor movement.-The Federation in the Ottoman Empire:...
, the left-wing Zionists (Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
) in favour of a binational solution in Palestine
History of Palestine
The Southern Levant is the southern portion of the geographical region bordering the Mediterranean between Egypt and Mesopotamia . A narrow definition would take in roughly the same area as the modern states of Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jordan, while a wider definition would...
, the Jewish Folkspartei
Folkspartei
The Folkspartei was founded after the 1905 pogroms in the Russian Empire by Simon Dubnow and Israel Efrojkin. The party took part to several elections in Poland and Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s and did not survive the Shoah.-Ideology:...
(inspired by Simon Dubnov who had developed a concept of Jewish autonomy close to Bauer's), and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....
(DAHR) after 1989.
Opponents
The whole concept was strongly opposed by the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s. Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's pamphlet "Marxism and the Nationalities Question" (1913) was their ideological reference on the matter, alongside with Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's Critical Remarks on the National Question (December 1913), in particular in the chapter "Cultural-National Autonomy". (Stalin was later People's Commissar of Nationalities from 1917 - 1923.) Lenin's and Stalin's critics of the national personal autonomy concept were later joined by the Catalan Andreu Nin in his article The Austrian School, National Emancipation Movements (1935).
Implementation
It was adopted as an official policy in the short-lived Ukrainian People's RepublicUkrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
(1917–1920) and in the interwar Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n Republic (Law on personal autonomy adopted in 1925).
The autonomous representative structure of the Palestinian Jews
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
between 1920 and 1949, the Asefat ha-Nivharim, can also be considered as an implementation of the national personal autonomy principle.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and its satellites regimes, the national personal autonomy is the principle on which legislation applying to ethnic minorities has been enacted e.g. in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
(1993 National Minorities Cultural Autonomy Act), Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities), Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
(1991 Law on Unrestricted Development and Right to Cultural Autonomy of Latvia's Nationalities and Ethnic Groups), Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
(1989 Law on Ethnic Minorities), Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(1996 Law on National-Cultural Autonomies) and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(1992 Law on National Minorities).
See also
- Millet (Ottoman Empire)Millet (Ottoman Empire)Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
- Jewish AutonomismJewish AutonomismJewish Autonomism was a non-Zionist political movement that emerged in Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of its major proponents was a historian and activist Simon Dubnow, who also called his ideology folkism....
- KehillaKehilla (modern)The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...
- Asefat ha-Nivharim - Non-territorial language policy
- ConsociationalismConsociationalismConsociationalism is a form of government involving guaranteed group representation, and is often suggested for managing conflict in deeply divided societies...