Abstract
This paper puts the spotlight on the neglected receptions of a major communist idea, namely, the “Leninist solution to the national question” as embodied by the federal political model of the Soviet Union. As the paper argues, many actors in different contexts, where the nationalities question had to be addressed, showed a keen interest in the Leninist solution and the sui generis federal model of the USSR.
These contexts included the post-1945 French Union, as well as postcolonial countries like Sudan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. The Leninist alternative to the nation-state and to assimilation was generally meaningful to minorities.
Nevertheless, it was rejected by Marxist-inspired movements and elites which sought to build homogeneous nation-states. The paper uses the approach of cultural transfers to investigate both the appeal and the limits in the reception of the Leninist federal alternative.