Self-government or cultural autonomy: the national question for Rosa Luxemburg and the Bund

• Grant number: 18/15650-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: January 04, 2019
• End date: January 03, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Barros Mariutti
• Grantee: Antonio Vogaciano Barbosa Mota Filho
• Supervisor: Michael Lowy
• Host Institution: Instituto de Economia (IE). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/10986-1 - The political economy of internationalism: Rosa Luxemburg and the national question, BP.DR

Abstract

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was an important polish economist of the early twentieth century, who played a relevant role in different political controversies in marxism. The issue of nationalities was notable among these polemics because it was taken up at different times and involving different interlocutors: initially the Polish Socialist Party and later the Bolsheviks. However, the controversy about nationalities also develops in a more nuanced way with another interlocutor: the Socialist Jews of the Labor Jewish Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, better known as the Bund. The research project we propose aims to analyze the development of this controversy with the Bund, particularly the differences between the proposals of "cultural autonomy" formulated by the Bund and of self-government (Landesselbstverwaltung), proposed by Rosa. Since the discussions between Rosa and the Jews appear indirectly in spaced works, it is relevant to seek other sources to understand how the author has made contact with the formulations of the Bund and developed their responses to them. Thus, the reconstitution of the terms of this controversy involves the analysis of Rosa's manuscripts and correspondences, as well as documents from both Rosa Luxemburg's party, Social Democracy the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, and the Bund. As a result of the research it is hoped to highlight what elements of Rosa's formulations on the question of nationalities were developed in the context of her controversy with the Bundists.