The global circulation of Marxist perspectives on the national question

Borochovism at the service of the Eritrean cause

Bibliographic Data

ID6306396
AuthorsLeonardo G Cohen (0000-0002-1705-8773, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, corresponding author), Leonardo Cohen (Ben Gurion University of the Negev Beersheba Israel)
Year2023
Volume29
Issue2
Pages618-632
Publication date2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNations and Nationalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1345-5078 • E-ISSN: 1469-8129
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/nana.12936
OpenAlexW4323975915
LanguageEN
References cited16

In 1979, a group of activists belonging to the EPLF (the Eritrean People's Liberation Front) came across a materialistic interpretation of the national question, which was penned at the turn of the century by one Dov Ber Borochov (1881–1917), a Russian–Jewish intellectual who was a leading ideologue of Marxist Zionism. Among the fruits of this encounter was a book advocating the Eritrean people's right to self‐determination. Owing to developments in the Soviet Union and Marxist circles in the 1920s, Borochov's works were all but ignored throughout the remainder of the century. How, then, did a Spanish translation of his treatise, Nationalismo y lucha de clases (known in English as The National Question and Class Struggle), find its way into the hands of Eritrean nationalists? Furthermore, against the backdrop of Moscow and Havana's open support for Ethiopia, what attracted these Eritreans to the thought of an obscure Marxist–Zionist intellectual

Front (military · Ideology · Judaism · Marxist philosophy · Materialism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · Law · Philosophy

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