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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
of wars that each race should be declared independent or
at liberty to join whatever State it likes, always preserving
autonomous rights. This meant disintegration, the wilful
negation of sovereignty over territory which, in the historic
past and by the requirements of national existence, had
been welded together to form one mighty State organism
commanding the respect and admiration of the world.
The so-called right of self-determination of any part of
the population of Russia is a cheap edition of the fallacious
principle proclaimed by Napoleon III that each race should
have an independent national existence, and it was
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the philosophical forerunners of
the great French Revolution, who maintained that small
self-governing communities should be formed which should
take the place of the State itself.
This doctrine leaves out of account that international
relations of the civilised world have become so closely
interwoven that constant intervention, direct or indirect,
in the affairs of State is unavoidable. Even if theoretically
the right of independence may be ascribed to each race,
such a right is hardly in keeping with practical statesmanship.
No race can avoid the influence of other races, and such
influence is necessarily more pronounced and more felt
if it comes from a more powerful race. It would, for
instance, scarcely be possible for England to consent to
Ireland’s political independence, since this country is in such
close proximity. England’s safety demands, therefore, the
exercise of a certain control in order to prevent Ireland
from preserving a dangerous attitude. Another example is
Finland, whose political independence threatens Petrograd
from a military point of view.
The so-called right of self-determination is a right in vacuo
generated outside such vital requirements which every
independent State should be able to fulfil and without which
it cannot exist. Self-determination can only lead to
independent national existence in so far as the possibility of
maintaining itself against foreign aggression gives it practical
value.
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