Acta Universitatis Sapientiae European and Regional Studies, vol. 1, no. 1 (2010) 3358 Compatibilities and Incompatibilities in the Political Doctrines of Communism and Nationalism TORÓ Tibor Department of European Studies, Sapientia University Cluj-Napoca email:
[email protected] Abstract. Some would say communism and nationalism are the most inuential political doctrines and ideologies of the 20th century, chang- ing not only history itself, but the institutional, political, cultural and social framework of the Central and Eastern European states. Many of the scholars, taking in consideration only the early incompatibility of the two, argue that their simultaneous appearance, such as in the case of Romania of the 1970s and 1980s is an interesting anomaly, a particular deviation from the pattern, which needs to be studied separately from the whole. This paper argues that the relationship between communism and nationalism evolved gradually from a palpable incompatibility in the 19th century to a perceptible compatibility at the end of the 20th. More- over, the concurrent appearance of the two doctrines does not represent a particular case, but it is rather the result of an organic ideological development which was triggered by the problems met by Marxism in deconstructing nationalism. Keywords: communism, nationalism, national question, political the- ory, Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Romania Introduction Some would say communism and nationalism are the most inuential politi- cal doctrines and ideologies of the 20th century, changing not only history itself, but the institutional, political, cultural and social framework of the Central 34 Toró Tibor and Eastern European states. Beyond this, Marxism the theoretical basis of the socialist doctrine has become one of the leading analytical schools and methodologies in current social sciences and philosophy.