Bourgeois nationalism is a term from Marxist phraseology. It refers to the practice of dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, which were alleged to deflect them from class warfare. It is seen as a divide and conquer strategy used by the ruling classes to prevent the working class from uniting against them (hence the Marxist slogan, Workers of all countries, unite!).

In the Soviet Union

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Minority national cultures were not completely abolished in the Soviet Union's official Marxist-Leninist ideology. By Soviet definition, national cultures were to be "socialist by content and national by form", to be used to promote the official aims and values of the state. In practice, Russian national culture and language were promoted, especially during and after World War II, while Ukrainian, Georgian, Armenian, Lithuanian, Jewish (see Yevsektsiya) and other national movements and cultures were suppressed and their leaders purged.

See also

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• Proletarian internationalism, an antonym of bourgeois nationalism.
• Marxism
• Nationalism

References

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• Internationalism and Nationalism by Liu Shaoqi
• Marxism and Nationalism by Tom Lewis

Soviet expressions | Marxism | Soviet phraseology