S. Dolnyk. Lenin’s Racism and Antisemitism

For the first time available online — a work long present in the academic references of historians in various countries, yet previously absent from the digital space.

Lenin’s Racism and Antisemitism — «Ленинский расизм и антисемитизм» — is a study by Solomon Dolnyk devoted to a critical analysis of the national policy of the Russian Bolsheviks.

At the centre of the book lies the contradiction between the proclaimed right of oppressed nations to self-determination (including the right to secede) and the actual practice of maintaining imperial control. The author analyses how the ideology of liberation coexisted with mechanisms of centralisation, and how restrictions accompanied political rhetoric on the real agency of non-Russian nations.

For this reason, the book resonates especially strongly today. In the realities shaped by Putin, the issue of self-determination has once again become fundamental for many nations living under the temporary occupation of the modern Russian state. Dolnyk’s work provides a historical lens for understanding the roots of this problem and intellectual arguments in the discussion about the right of nations to freedom and independence.

This publication is important not only as a historical study, but also as a source for those who reflect on the long struggle against the empire, yesterday, and who seek its dismantling today.