Kursk, Donbass, Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine
In July 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Marx and Engels, having seen the developing formation of a unified German state, resulting from the role of Prussia, argued in favour of a victory for Prussia, against France, because they thought that such a victory would enhance that process, and hasten the proletarian revolution in Germany and France. Marx wrote to Engels,
“If the Prussians win, the centralisation of the state power will be useful for the centralisation of the German working class. German predominance would also transfer the centre of gravity of the workers' movement in Western Europe from France to Germany, and one has only to compare the movement in the two countries from 1866 till now to see that the German working class is superior to the French both theoretically and organisationally. Their predominance over the French on the world stage would also mean the predominance of our theory over Proudhon's, etc.”
Prussia's victory in the war did, indeed, hasten the formation of a German state, and the leading role of Germany in Europe, replacing that of France. It ended the days of Imperial France, and spurred the era of the French Republics, as well as prompting the workers of Paris to rise up, and create the short-lived Paris Commune. However, in a mirror image of the argument of those who believe that, if Ukraine were to win back the annexed regions, in Eastern Ukraine, it would mean an end to hostilities, they also concluded that, as majority French regions, in Alsace-Lorraine, the people in those regions, backed by France, would continue to seek to retrieve them. The same has been seen in the Middle East, where the consequence of Zionism, and creation of the Zionist state, by the seizure of Arab lands, has simply led to 80 years of war and conflict.
Marx and Engels wrote to the Brunswick Committee of the German SPD,
“The military camarilla, the professors, burghers and pot-house politicians claim that this is the means whereby Germany can be forever protected against war with France. Just the opposite. It is the best means of turning this war into a European institution. It is indeed the surest way of perpetuating military despotism in the rejuvenated Germany as essential to retaining possession of a western Poland – of Alsace and Lorraine. It is an infallible means of turning the coming peace into a mere armistice until France has recovered sufficiently to demand back her lost territories. It is the most infallible method of ruining both Germany and France by internecine strife.”
In other words, the people in Alsace-Lorraine saw themselves as French not German. As soon as France felt strong enough, it would seek to address that view, and enable them to return to French rule, requiring another war to bring it about – an event that occurred via WWI. The same is true with the majority ethnic Russian areas of Ukraine, and other states neighbouring Russia. Particularly as anti-Russian sentiment is stoked by the US and its NATO allies, and is used by the governments of these neighbouring states, as they seek to solidify their own attachment to, and sense of security from, NATO, ethnic Russians, in these other states, will see themselves the victims of that anti-Russian xenophobia, and will, in turn, seek support from Mother Russia, thereby, dividing the working-class of the area against each other, and preventing their unified struggle against their real enemy, the capitalist ruling class. The same is true of oppressed Palestinians, as it was of Irish Catholics trapped in the North of Ireland.
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