INDIA AND TSARIST RUSSIA 23 all aspects of the national question.958 But he immediately underlines that ^this task is largely a negative one. But this is the limit that the proletariat can go to in supporting nationalism, for beyond that begins the 'positive5 activity of the bourgeoisie striving to fortify nationalism.959 This crucial line between the negative and ^positive' aspects, referred to above, of the national question was more sharply drawn by Lenin in the following terms. Insofar as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation fights the oppressor? we are always, in every case, and more strongly than anyone else, in favour, for we are the staunchest and the most consistent enemies of oppression. But insofar as the bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation stands for its own bourgeois nationalism, we stand against. We stand against the privileges and violence of the oppressor nation and do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the part of the oppressed nation.1 ° Revolutionary Internationalism Positively interpreted, the above means that while fighting against the inequalities and injustices imposed by the oppressing nation, the toiling sections of the oppressed nation, led by its preletariat, must take utmost care (i) to seek the closest unity with the proletariat and toiling sections of the oppressing nation and (ii) to maintain and strengthen their independence vis-a-vis the bourgeoisie of their own nation. This indeed is the red thread running through the Marxist-Leninist approach to the national question. Lenin underlines it thus: Working class-democracy contraposes to the nationalist wranglings "of the various bourgeois parties over questions of language^ etc., the demand for the unconditional unity and complete amalgamation of workers of all nationalities in all v^erking-class organizations —trade union, cooperative, consumers, educational and all others—in contradistinction to any kind of bourgeois nationalism. Only this type of unity and amalgamation can uphold democracy and defend the interests of the workers against capital—which is already international and becoming more so—and promote the development of mankind towards a new way of life that is alien to all privileges and all exploitation.1! The rationale behind this internationalist-revolutionary position is explained by Lenin: There are two nations in every modern nation—we say to all nationalist-socialists. There are two national cultures in every national culture. There is the Great-Russian culture of the Purishkeviches, Guchkovs and Struves but there is also the Great-Russian culture of Chcrnyshev-sky and Plekhanov. There are the same two cultures in the Ukraine as there are in Germany, in France, in England, among the Jews; and so forth.l a Earlier in the same piece, Lenin had pointed oui: