Povijest jedne zablude: poimanje nacije i nacionalizma u marksističkoj tradiciji
History of a misconception: the notion of nation and nationalism in Marxist tradition

Summary/Abstract: Consideration of nation and nationalism within Marxist thought never acquired the status of epistemologically important subject, and it was often considered as an epiphenomenon or atavism of bourgeois ideology. However, the entire history of Marxist thought shows that this subject is more than important and represented, and that without serious consideration it remains without a context and within its self-distorted misconception. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief chronological cross-section of argumentations and key authors of the Marxist tradition who, through their works, left significant marks in the theory of nation. It sets off from the plurality of the Marxist perspective and the inability to derive a generic i.e. comprehensive theory. For this reason the emphasis is placed on the specificities of particular theories or arguments, as well as on the differences between the authors. Regardless of that pluralism, it is still possible to consider the entire paper as a depiction of a certain tradition or perspective, albeit heterogeneous and often mutually exclusive, but with important elements which separate it from other approaches in the research of nation. Regarding the structure of the paper, the first section will present the theoretical sources of the Marxist approach to these fields of study, basically it discusses the classics and tries to connect their fragmented political thoughts into a unitary view. The second section is dedicated to the second generation, i.e. a somewhat contextual modification of then-established Marxist views. That section will demonstrate the divergence of different actors (theoreticians) of socialist movement and the important concepts which influenced further development of Marxist thought. The last section will present representative authors who approach the phenomena of nation and nationalism from different paradigmatic positions but with overlapping analytical insights, especially in certain prescriptive elements.

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