The development of human society occurs as a complex dialectically regular movement of a consolidating nature, which is ultimately based on labor, the development of productive forces, and social production.

The data obtained by science about the primitive communal system, about this huge period of human history in terms of its duration, speak about the diversity of forms of social existence, the peculiarity of the evolution of material and spiritual culture, which distinguished relatively small and more or less isolated and dispersed groups of people who existed in different parts of the world. As the world's population grew, human collectives were enlarged, and ties between them were strengthened and developed. Gradually, over time, through a series of intermediary stages, broader and more stable communities of people - nationalities and nations-are formed. Nations, and later international communities, are therefore the product of relatively recent historical development.

In our time, there are many different historical and ethnic communities: nations, nationalities and nationalities, as well as such socio-ethnic groups as tribes and clans. Each of them has its own long history, its own specifics, resulting from special external and internal conditions of their development. An objective and unbiased study of the various concrete paths of this development, which are often complex and tortuous, and a respectful attitude to their history, culture, and moral norms, especially those that have developed among the working people-all this requires strict adherence to the principle of historicism, and a strong criticism of concepts that somehow contain nationalist ideas about more or less the perfection of certain specific historical communities, about nationalities that have a history and supposedly do not have one.

Data on the national composition of the World's population indicate a numerical predominance of large and medium-sized peoples and nations. About 200 nations (more than 1 million people each) cover more than 95% of the world's population, and many hundreds of small ethnic groups (less than 100 thousand people each) account for about 0.5% of all humanity .1 Recognizing the great historical significance of large and medium-sized peoples and nations, especially the role of their working class and working people in the world liberation struggle, Marxism-Leninism resolutely opposes underestimating the contribution of small peoples, nations and ethnic groups to the history of mankind. It is impossible to cram all the richness and diversity of concrete historical communities and ways of their development into the formation of any one of them.

1 "Population of countries of the world", Moscow, 1974, pp. 321-322.

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The subject of this study is the genesis of those diverse historical communities that later developed step by step into modern nations and international communities. The article deals mainly with those communities that developed before the emergence of capitalist or socialist nations. Special attention is paid to the genesis of nationalities( nationalities), pre-bourgeois national ethnic communities as immediately preceding the emergence of nations, the continuity and difference of these communities from nations, and so on. Nations or international communities are discussed below only in general terms.

V. I. Lenin pointed out that "the most important thing is.. from the scientific point of view, this means not forgetting the basic historical connection, looking at each question from the point of view of how a certain phenomenon in history arose, what main stages in its development this phenomenon went through, and from the point of view of its development, look at what this thing has become now."2 It follows that when analyzing consolidation processes in the history of mankind, one should also try to identify consolidation trends that took place from the very beginning of the existence of mankind, trace their development up to the formation of nations, and then at subsequent stages. This approach contributes to understanding modern consolidation processes. In the current conditions of the revival of national movements and attempts to use nationalism in the ideological struggle of two opposing social systems, a scientific explanation of the consolidation processes and ways of forming historical communities of people before the appearance of nations is relevant not only in scientific, but also in political relations.

History shows that consolidation processes were contradictory, in the struggle of various trends. Antagonistic socio-economic formations, as evidenced, for example, by the history of ancient slave-owning despotisms, and then centralized feudal and bourgeois states, were characterized by wars between states, and increasingly intensified class struggle. The consolidation processes under capitalism, and especially during its imperialist stage, were accompanied by the colonial enslavement of the vast majority of the peoples of the Earth, which was carried out and supported by the most brutal violent means and served the interests of the few imperialist Powers that were ahead in technical and economic terms.

At the same time, there was a constant desire for association among the working masses of all nations. It manifested itself in social labor and its corresponding attitudes and morals, in the class struggle, which was the most important factor in social progress and consolidation, directed against the exploiting classes and all kinds of reactionary alliances between them. At the same time, elements of a democratic culture were also created, which tended to increase the cohesion of peoples among themselves. In the era of capitalism, the desire of workers for association rose to the highest level of internationalism of the international working class, which turned the twentieth century world history in a completely new direction. The Great October Socialist Revolution opened a new era in the history of mankind. Following the Soviet Union, the peoples of other countries entered the path of building socialism and communism. Under the conditions of socialism, the processes of consolidation took on a completely different character. In the U.S.S.R., on the basis of developed socialism, a new historical community of people has emerged - the Soviet people, which is international in nature and does not know class antagonisms and exploitation

2 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 39, p. 67.

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human rights, in which the political and de facto equality of socialist nations and nationalities is guaranteed, and fraternity and friendship of social groups and nationalities flourish .3
Extensive archaeological, geological, paleontological, anthropological, and ethnographic research in the second half of the twentieth century, and especially in the 1970s, enriched science with new data about the oldest period of human society, which turned out to be much longer than was generally believed before. Of particular importance were the finds in East Africa-Tanzania (Olduvai Gorge), Ethiopia (Omo River Valley), Kenya (the area of the island of Osu). Rudolph) - the remains of hominids together with primitive stone (pebble) tools found in geological deposits dating back up to 2.5 million years4 . Representatives of the "Olduvai culture", which science has given the name Homo habilis ("skillful man"), can be assumed to have existed at the expense of collective hunting, which they combined with gathering. They made the simplest tools of labor, shared the spoils collectively, had common dwellings (caves, etc.), and united in common labor efforts. In these latter, which were already carried out with the help of tools, social principles were thus laid down. This gives every reason to speak about the formation of man in the era of Olduvai. This is where the sources of the consolidation processes that later determined the progressive course of the society's history originate .5
Fire and its extraction played a huge social role in the development of mankind, in the settlement of all climatic zones of the globe. The closest successors of Homo habilis, Pithecanthropus and synanthropus, apparently lived only in warm climates, inhabiting most of Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia. Further north were the areas of Neanderthal distribution, which represented the next link known to us on the road to modern man. This progress was undoubtedly promoted by further improvement of tools, further progress in the use of fire. Stone tools, already more sophisticated and better processed than those of Homo habilis, gave Neanderthals the opportunity to adapt to a variety of natural conditions in a collective (primitive horde or herd), which was especially important in the Ice age. Already reached, for example, by the severe Ris glaciation (200 - 130 thousand years ago). the level of labor and social development allowed humanity to create by collective labor that material protective barrier (tools, etc.), which excluded people from the action of the phylogenetic trunk splitting law common to the animal world, revealing new patterns inherent only in the human species. The struggle to overcome difficulties and meet new needs even accelerated to a certain extent the development of this real artificial environment and of man himself (even more widespread use of fire, clothing, and means of transportation, especially in the conditions of post-Wurm warming, etc.).

In the subsequent Postglacial, or modern, period (the so-called Holocene, about 6 thousand years BC), people are already settled up to the regions of the Far North. By this time

3 See: L. I. Brezhnev. Lenin's Course. vol. 3, M. 1972, p. 279; vol. " 4. M. 1974, p. 242-243; vol. 5. M. 1976, p. 541.

4 M. I. Uryson. The origins of the human race in the light of the latest data. Voprosy Istorii, 1976, No. 1, pp. 99-100. There are also recent similar discoveries in older geological deposits up to 3-3.75 Ma, which may require more careful evaluation. See International Herald Tribune, 10. III. 1976.

5 See S. A. Semenov. About Olduvai hominids. "Questions of Anthropology". Issue 49. Moscow, 1975; M. I. Uryson. Edict op.

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many achievements in the field of material culture were achieved within the pre-class society: high technology of processing various tools was developed, clothing appeared, large multi-level dwellings (indicating an increase in the number of communities, wide connections between them, including the exchange of tools), utensils, dishes, etc. Spiritual culture is also developing on the basis of collective labor: language, customs, customs, rituals, music, art. With the growth of material and spiritual culture, there is a further rapprochement of people based on common economic interests.

Modern humans (neoanthropes, Homo sapiens), who appeared about 40-70 thousand years ago, from a biological point of view represent the same species, which has races that differ from each other in physical characteristics: skin color, hair, eyes, facial features, height, skull shape, etc. the so-called big races: Negroid, Caucasian and Mongoloid, formed due to the influence of geographical conditions on a number of generations6 . The historical development of peoples living on different continents completely refutes the racist concepts of the alleged existence of" chosen "or" inferior " races. The" backwardness " of certain peoples (from the point of view of Europeans of the XIX-XX centuries) is actually the result of their development conditions, and not at all of racial inferiority. This is indicated, for example, by the now-extinct Aztec or Inca civilizations in America, which were very developed for their time, some civilizations in Asia, and the large southern African state of Monomotapa with the culture of Zimbabwe.

Modern science considers primitive hordes to be the oldest form of human social existence. However, they were a rather unstable organization. The first stable form of social organization of mankind is the maternal family with its characteristic institution of exogamy (prohibition of marriages between people belonging to the same kindred group). According to one of the most widespread hypotheses at present, initially childbirth was connected in pairs by marital relations. Gradually, this dual-generational organization stabilized, acquiring a number of social functions and thereby turning into tribes. A tribe usually united several clans.

In the process of socio-economic consolidation, the gradual transition from disparate groups to tribal formations, and then to larger associations, the production and exchange of cultural objects, especially material ones, played an extremely important role. The material life of people acquired intertribal significance 7 . Thus, from the very beginning of the existence of mankind, one of the most important general trends in its development was consolidation, which was embodied in the formation of primitive hordes, clans, and then tribes. This process was based on social labor.

Consolidation processes in the early stages of human development were by no means painless. There were military actions of some tribes against others. However, it was not these clashes that prevailed. Larger and larger amalgamations-

6 Ya. Ya. Roginsky, M. G. Levin. Anthropology, Moscow, 1963, pp. 317-429; Yu. V. Bromley. Ethnos and Ethnography, Moscow, 1973, p. 19. The richness of various transitional forms is noted. The settlement of people of different races in all countries and equal opportunities for the existence and perception of modern culture by them in our days have become an indisputable fact.

7 Ethnographers are well aware of how readily metal tools or just pieces of metal were exchanged and quickly mastered, for example, by the islanders of Oceania when they first encountered Europeans.

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Human settlements were often created to protect themselves from belligerent and aggressive neighbors.

Of great importance for the further development of social consolidation was the transition from a consuming economy (gathering, etc.) to a producing economy (agriculture and cattle breeding), which was accompanied by the complication of the forms of human collectives. 8 With the transition from stone to metal, the decomposition of the primitive communal system begins, the mother-clan communities gradually turn into patriarchal clans, which, as the productive forces develop, are replaced by rural (neighboring) communities, which no longer have the character of a blood-related, but of a territorial community. Since that time, we can probably talk about the development of broader socio-ethnic communities that had a certain differentiation. With the growth of production and exchange between tribal groups, in the course of internecine wars and acute internal struggles associated with the maturation of new social relations, ties between tribes strengthened, first tribal families were created, and then their unions. Tribal alliances strengthened the security of each tribe and ensured regular intertribal relations and exchanges. They differed from the tribal families that preceded them not only in their increased social differences and property inequality, but also in their ethnic structure. "A tribal alliance could include tribes of different families. In other words, tribal unions could be ethnically heterogeneous; in such cases, they should obviously be considered as a kind of federation of several ethno-social communities. " 9
Tribal unions undertook long-distance campaigns and made migrations related not only to military, but also to industrial activities, for example, the development of new vast spaces, which required the combined efforts of numerous collectives. All this led to the mixing of the population, assimilation, changes in ethnic and tribal boundaries, the formation of new, original cultural communities, in which the connections between tribes and proto-peoples were based on a certain similarity in the stages of material and spiritual culture. Such cultural communities on the territory of the USSR, for example, were: srednedniprovskaya, Baltic, Fatyanovskaya, Abashevskaya, Andronovskaya and others .10 The formation of tribal alliances, together with the development of multilateral ties within them, increased the need for a common language - the main means of communication. There were more and more intensive processes of convergence of tribal dialects, cultural and linguistic assimilation.

With the transition to a class society, which took centuries of complex internal struggles, often accompanied by comeback movements, consolidation processes were marked by an increase in internal class differentiation and an increase in antagonisms between exploiters and exploited.

The most ancient slave-owning despotisms (for example, the Assyro-Babylonian, Persian, etc.) were not ethnic formations, and even more so the predecessors of later national communities. The socio-ethnic communities that existed at those stages, as a rule, were repeatedly mixed (except, perhaps, in hard-to-reach mountain areas, where, due to natural isolation, a large ethnic diversity is still preserved).

In the second and first millennia BC, on the vast expanses from the Danube and the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean, on the periphery of the class centers of the Russian Empire.

8 V. M. Mass. Economics and social structure of ancient societies (in the light of archaeological data). L. 1976.

9 Yu. V. Bromley. Op. ed., p. 135.

10" Istoriya SSSR " (History of the USSR), vol. 1, Moscow, 1964, Sec. I, chapter 3.

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there were also unions of nomadic tribes. Among nomadic peoples, the practice of gradual adaptation of foreigners and entire ethnic tribal units was widespread (for example, among Arab nomads)11 . A similar path was followed by agricultural tribes, for example, the Slavs, who in the middle of the first millennium AD, under the threat of nomads living in the south, created stronger defensive alliances of tribes: "unions of tribal unions", "proton peoples", etc. 12 .

At a certain stage of historical development, when economic, political, cultural, and other ties acquired a more solid and stable character based on the growth of production, new, broader communities began to form - nationalities, or, as they were called by F. P. Blavatsky. Engels applied to the history of Europe, nationality 13 . Many socio-ethnic communities that existed under the slave-owning system or in the period of early feudalism joined these new communities, which (of course, not all and not everywhere) then developed into nations. For example, the Krivichi, Polochans, Radimichi, Vyatichi, Dregovichi, Ulics, Northerners, Drevlyans, Volynians, Polyani and other East Slavic tribes cannot be considered "nationalities", but they formed the Old Russian nationality in the IX century.

History provides many examples of how ethnic groups often, in turn, mixed with each other, which sometimes formed real historical prerequisites for the emergence of even larger nationalities in the future, which then developed into nations. All large ethnic groups and nations were polyethnic in origin, because they were formed from various earlier communities, which, having united, as a rule, dissolved into new, broader communities. A huge role was played by the development of production and the associated exchange, class struggle, the need for defense against external attacks, etc. For example, in the Old Russian state already in the IX century. slash-and-burn agriculture was replaced by a three-field system, iron and steel were widely used for the manufacture of tools and weapons, numerous cities appeared as centers of craft production iron-making, blacksmithing, pottery, and jewelry industries are developing, Slavic writing is spreading, and international relations are growing. However, economic fragmentation had not yet been overcome. Only in the course of time do processes take place within the framework of feudalism that led to the creation of new, even more stable communities at later stages. On their basis, a centralized Russian state is formed.

However, according to Lenin, "it was hardly possible to speak of national ties in the proper sense of the word at that time: the state was divided into separate "lands", sometimes even principalities, which retained living traces of the former autonomy, peculiarities in management, sometimes their own special troops (local boyars went to war with their own regiments), special customs borders, etc. Only the new period of Russian history (from about the 17th century) is characterized by the actual merger of all such regions, lands, and principalities into one whole. This merge was triggered... increasing exchange between regions, gradually increasing commodity circulation, and the concentration of small local markets into one all-Russian market " 14.

11 Yu. V. Bromley. Edict op., spr. 131.

12 A. V. Artsikhovsky. Osnovy arkheologii [Fundamentals of Archeology], Moscow, 1955; D. A. Avdusin. Archeology of the USSR, Moscow, 1967, and also: B. A. Rybakov. The first centuries of Russian history, Moscow, 1964. Ancient Russia. Tales. Byliny, Letopisi, Moscow, 1963; M. N. Tikhomirov. Drevnerusskiye goroda [Ancient Russian Cities], Moscow, 1956.

13 See, for example, Karl Marx and Fr. Engels, Op. 21, p. 409.

14 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 1, pp. 153-154.

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there was a time of late or developed feudalism in Russia, that is, the time when here, as in many other countries of the world, the initial capitalist economic forms begin to appear and future capitalist nations pass through the womb of late feudal states.

The "kin-tribe-nationality-nation" scheme adopted by some scientists is simplified. The actual development of consolidation processes proceeded along much more complex and tortuous paths, which this scheme does not take into account, trying to bring under one category very different types of historical communities, both in terms of the level of socio - economic development and the degree of ethnic consolidation. A simple division of communities according to pre-capitalist formations (for example, "slave-owning nationality", "feudal nationality") also does not provide a satisfactory solution, because the consolidation processes in the conditions of these formations in different regions proceeded differently, often extremely complex and contradictory. In addition, there is sometimes no significant difference between the slave formation and early feudalism.

Taking into account the latest scientific data, we can propose the following generalized scheme for the development of consolidation processes: the primitive horde; a clan , tribe, or union of tribes; more developed socio-ethnic communities of slave-owning or early feudal societies (including unions of tribal unions, "proto-peoples"); nationalities, or, as Engels calls them, nationalities; capitalist nations; and nations of the same name. socialist; international socialist communities. Of course, this scheme of development of historical communities is, like any scheme, to a certain extent conditional. Within each of these periods of communities, transitional forms can be distinguished; the specific ways of development of these communities in individual regions are different .16 A gradual ascent from the lowest and simplest forms to the higher and more complex ones took place, sometimes bypassing the intermediary links.

Although consolidation processes did not occur in the same way among different peoples, there is a deep interaction and mutual influence between them. Chronologically, the peoples entered the stages indicated in the diagram at different times, which is explained by deep historical reasons. Cultural influences of some peoples have always been perceived by other peoples not passively, but on the basis of their own experience, in fact, there was mutual influence, and thus each nation contributes to the common treasury of world culture and progress. Complex consolidation processes involving many ethnic and socio-ethnic groups and communities have led in some cases not only to their merging and assimilation, but also to the preservation and formation of other ethnic and non-ethnic inclusions within or within the population of national and multinational States. Foreign-national inclusions, as well as the "dispersed" state of nationalities within a more or less large national entity, occur not as an exception (contrary to the claims of, for example, Zionists!), but as a very common phenomenon. Examples include Ukrainians in Canada, Armenians and Greeks in different countries, Chinese in the United States, and so on. When analyzing consolidation data

15 Academician B. A. Rybakov believes that it is necessary to unite the genus and tribe in one stage, stipulating that these are two qualitatively different, but related elements.

16 Consolidation processes are not limited to socio-ethnic or national ones. Such forms of consolidation as the formation of large national and multinational states and the development of regional ties also play a very important role, for example, in medieval Europe, where the Latin language and various types of economic community were of considerable importance for cultural consolidation.

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It is very important to take into account both their national aspects and the totality of all the diverse content of these processes.

Let us now turn to the processes of the emergence and development of nationalities and nations, about which , as applied to Europe, there are studies by the founders of scientific communism, 17 who emphasized the role of the masses of the people and the class struggle .18
Engels noted that after the elimination of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, "new nationalities gradually developed out of the mixing of peoples that took place in the early Middle Ages, a process in which, as is well known, in most of the former Roman provinces, the defeated population, peasants and townspeople, assimilated the victor - the German ruler. Consequently, modern nationalities are also the product of oppressed classes. " 19 One of the specific aspects of this process was the differentiation of language groups. For example, when the empire of Charlemagne was divided (according to the Treaty of Verdun in 843) - this vast conglomerate of diverse tribes - King Charles the Bald of the Franks and King Louis the German of the German regions pronounced the oath of alliance before their troops in two different languages - Romance (which later developed into French and other languages) and Old German. "As soon as the division into linguistic groups took place...," Engels continues, " it became natural that these groups served as a definite basis for the formation of states, that nationalities began to develop into nations. How strong this spontaneous process was already in the ninth century is shown by the rapid disintegration of the mixed state of Lorraine. It is true that throughout the Middle Ages the boundaries of language did not coincide with the borders of states; but still, every nationality, with the possible exception of Italy, was represented in Europe by a special large state, and the tendency to create national states, which is becoming more and more clear, is one of the most important levers of progress in the Middle Ages"20 .

It is possible to trace the essential aspects of this process of national consolidation, for example, in France. The development of feudal relations in the IX-X centuries expanded the opportunities for the growth of productive forces within the framework of large-scale land ownership and small-scale peasant farming. In the X-XIII centuries, the fund of arable land increased significantly due to the uprooting of woodlands, the development of swamps and wastelands. Such works were possible only with the widespread use of iron and steel agricultural tools. The development of agriculture, cities, handicrafts, and trade created a material basis for more stable ethnic ties, and contributed to the formation of a territorial community of the future French nation. The social division of labor between handicrafts and agriculture, between town and country, has further expanded and strengthened internal economic ties. The development of production was accompanied by a gradual but steady decomposition of the subsistence economy. New elements were invading the generally sedentary life of feudal Europe, bringing about changes. On the basis of the growth of production, further division and cooperation of labor, commodity-money relations grew, and the importance of cities increased.

17 See, for example, Engels ' works on the history of the Peasant War in Germany in 1525 and his manuscripts of 1885-1888, devoted to the formation and development of nationalities in Europe and the formation of national states (K. Marx and F. Schulz). Engels, Soch., Vol. 7, 21).

18 See K. Ivanov and F. Engels on the role of the masses of the people in the formation of nations. "New and recent History", 1969, N 5.

19 K. Marx and F. Engels, Op. 21, p. 409.

20 See ibid., p. 410 et al.

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The liberation movements of the working masses have had a tremendous impact on the entire history of the French people. These movements contributed to their consolidation. Initially, peasant resistance developed mainly within individual seigniories, but later it became more widespread. In 997, a revolt broke out in Normandy, the impetus for which was the deprivation of the peasants ' right to free use of forests and waters. Brittany also became the scene of revolts in the X-XI centuries .21 "In the tenth century," French historians J. and C. Villars note, " a huge mass of peasants, deprived of property by the seigneurs, turned into serfs. This explains the early and acute character of the class struggle, which began very early and engulfed, albeit in a rudimentary form, the entire peasantry. This helps explain the strength of the revolutionary traditions that still make up one of the main features of the national character of the French"22 . A step forward in the consolidation process was the subsequent revolts of the "shepherds" in 1321, the Jacquerie (peasant war of 1358) and others. All these performances did not go through, as F. writes. Bruhat, " without a trace. They helped destroy serfdom. " 23
As the separation of handicrafts from agriculture became more and more intense, the growth of cities and the urban population, primarily artisans, took place. Social contradictions within cities were becoming more acute 24 . The urban elite was opposed by the bulk of artisans and small merchants who groaned under the weight of the tax burden. The struggle between the urban artisans and the emerging "pre-proletariat" became more and more closely linked, and often merged, with the struggle of the peasants. In 1356-1358, there were performances of Parisian artisans who merged with the Jacquerie. The end of the 14th century was marked by a series of spontaneous demonstrations by the urban poor.

The wars of liberation also contributed to the national consolidation of the French people. In the Middle Ages, the French fought a long battle with the English invaders, including the so-called Hundred Years ' War of 1337-1453. The struggle for independence caused the growth of patriotic self-awareness and unity of the masses, and brought forward many heroes, including the legendary Joan of Arc. Consolidation processes were also reflected in the gradual formation and development of the French national culture - language, literature, art, schools, and universities. The difference between the democratic stream of this culture, which was somehow connected with the working life and aspirations of the people (folklore, folk theater, literature, etc.), and the noble-clerical aristocratic current, the best representatives of which, however, also relied on the creativity of the people, often appeared covered by the religious shell characteristic of the Middle Ages. Already in the fourteenth century, the interests of the peasantry and the urban burghers partially coincide in the sphere of agrarian relations and peasant rights to land, which gradually developed at the end of the eighteenth century. created an opportunity to overthrow the entire feudal system 25 .

All these factors, and especially the class struggle, had a catalytic effect on the consolidation processes. The centralization of state power increased, the role of the army increased, and gradually

21 A.D. Lyublinskaya, D. P. Pritsker, and M. N. Kuzma. Essays on the history of France from ancient times to the end of the First World War. L. 1957, p. 44. See also "Soviet Historical Encyclopedia". Vol. 2, stb. 723.

22 J. and K. Villard. Formation of the French Nation, Moscow, 1957, p. 31.

23 J. Bruhat. History of the labor movement in France. T. I. M. 1953, p.45.

24 For more information, see: N. A. Sidorova. Anti-feudal movements in the cities of France in the second half of the XIV-beginning of the XV century. Moscow, 1960, p. 8.

25 See "History of France", Vol. I. M. 1972, p. 156.

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the extreme fragmentation characteristic of the early French Middle Ages was being eliminated. These changes, although they did not fundamentally alter the socio-economic content of the feudal formation, were already profound enough to give rise to a nation-state in which production and consumption were no longer confined within the borders of individual principalities or counties.

The emergence of centralized States accelerated the process of nation formation.

"The tendency to create national states," writes Engels, "which is becoming more and more clear and conscious, is one of the most important levers of progress in the Middle Ages." 26 Absolutist monarchies in Western Europe represented a certain socio-economic community of the feudal type, were a machine of collective domination of feudal lords over peasants, designed to protect the interests of feudal lords from rebellious peasants and urban lower classes. The formation of" nationally formed states " in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries marked the beginning of the development of capitalist nations in the bosom of late feudalism. This process was characterized by two main contradictory trends. On the one hand, it was a time of broad popular anti-feudal movements, which at first expressed themselves in various forms of struggle, covered with a religious cover, and then rose to the level of open anti-feudal revolutions, as was the case in France. On the other hand, during the same period, the initial forms of capitalist production relations (the so-called initial accumulation, the development of manufacturing production, etc.) gradually matured within society, as exemplified in England.

In the eighteenth century, ideological trends emerged that reflected the interests of different classes opposed to feudalism, although they differed among themselves on very important issues. At the same time, the idea of the unity of the "third estate" emerged, which was most fully expressed in the famous pamphlet "What is the third estate?" by Abbe Sieyes, written on the eve of the bourgeois revolution of 1789. "So, what is the third estate? The whole nation, but a nation oppressed and constrained. What would it be without the privileged class? A whole nation, but a free and prosperous nation... It (the third estate) must know that today it actually represents the nation, whereas before it was only a shadow of it. " 27 This "extra-class" and "super-class " interpretation of the" third estate " and then of the nation later became a distinctive feature of bourgeois ideology. However, already in the course of the French bourgeois Revolution of the late eighteenth century, the illusory nature of this unity became clear. The highest stage in the development of the revolution was the Jacobin dictatorship, which, using Plebeian-peasant methods, broke feudalism, saved the country from interventionists, and ensured its national unity. In those conditions, both the Jacobin concepts and the slogan "Freedom, Equality and Fraternity" could not objectively go beyond bourgeois society, although they expressed the aspirations of the broad masses of the people, primarily the peasant and urban lower classes.

When evaluating the national and revolutionary movements of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, one cannot but see the enormous and ultimately decisive role of the masses of the people, especially the peasantry and urban plebeians. This was fully demonstrated by the French bourgeois Revolution of the eighteenth century. However, not a single bourgeois revolution, including

26 K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch. vol. 21, p. 410.

27 See J. and C. Villars. Op. ed., p. 154.

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The course and outcome of the French bourgeois Revolution of the late eighteenth century showed that the bourgeoisie could not realize the aspirations and hopes of the working people. It gradually went over to the side of the enemies of the revolution, and then put an end to it altogether, opening up a whole era of counter-revolutionary terror, cruelty, exploitation, national oppression and wars. Only the working class could become the real leader and leader of the People's liberation revolutions. But at that time, it was only in its infancy. This the Jacobins did not see, and could not see.

The process of the formation of the English nation had its own peculiarities, which was primarily explained by the specifics of the feudal system in this country, the preservation of a free rural community and a free peasantry here for a long period .28 At the beginning of the ninth century, several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united into one state. The Norman conquest of the second half of the eleventh century accelerated political centralization, helped complete feudalization, but caused a general deterioration in the situation of the peasantry and increased its exploitation. At the same time, England's connections with the continent, its foreign and domestic trade expanded, and cities grew rapidly. The conquest also led to the formation of two distinct ethnic units: the powerful and cohesive Norman aristocracy, which spoke a foreign language, and the politically impotent and disunited mass of the Anglo-Saxon population. By the end of the 12th century, the ethnic and linguistic differences between the conquerors and the indigenous population had largely erased. The spoken language was the London dialect, which was strongly influenced by French and Latin. In the XII-XV centuries, the linguistic and territorial community of the entire population was determined. A national market was formed with the center in London.

Already in the Middle Ages, as is well known, England had extensive trade relations with the countries of continental Europe, and the export of wool and woolen products was of particular importance. An increase in the demand for wool and the growth of commodity-money relations led to the" enclosure " of communal lands and the forcible removal of peasants from allotments, the destruction of their homes and entire villages, and the mass dispossession of the peasantry by feudal owners and proprietors. Peasants, urban artisans, and other unsettled people who had turned into poor and impoverished paupers rose up to fight (Robert Ket's revolts of 1549, etc.) against increased exploitation and tax oppression.

In the XVI-XVII centuries in England there was a strengthening of the royal power, which stood guard over the interests of the "new nobility", who profited from "fencing", as well as the emerging but not yet strong politically and economically bourgeoisie. The English bourgeois Revolution of the seventeenth century broke the resistance of the old feudal nobility, the Church, and royal absolutism. Being moderate in its democratic consequences, it served to the advantage of the" new nobility " and the strengthened bourgeoisie. The movement of the masses of the people who advocated the deepening of the revolution, in particular for a democratic solution of the agrarian question, was severely suppressed. With the victory of the English bourgeois Revolution of the seventeenth century, which consolidated the dominance of the capitalist mode of production in England, the process of forming the English nation was largely completed.

28 See: D. R. Green. History of the English people. Tt. 1-4. M. 1891-1892, J. Trevelyan. Social History of England, M. 1959; M. Briggs, P. Jordan. Economic History of England. L. 1960.

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The formation of the nation in Germany was significantly different from similar processes in France and England. One of the major obstacles to the creation of a national state in Germany was the "Holy Roman Empire"that had been preserved since the Middle Ages29 . Economic ties between different parts of the country were weak, which prevented the creation of a single internal market; there was also no common economic center like Paris and London. Strong political fragmentation hindered economic development and exacerbated social contradictions. "While in England and France," Engels wrote, "the rise of trade and industry led to the unification of interests throughout the country and thereby to political centralization, in Germany this process only led to the grouping of interests in provinces, around purely local centers, and therefore to political fragmentation..." 30
In Germany, too, the growth of cities, the expansion of world trade relations, and the development of internal commodity-money relations were accompanied by a sharpening of class contradictions. 31 The high point of the class struggle, an important moment in the national destinies of the country, was the Great Peasant War of 1524-1525, which resulted in a mass popular movement that spread to most of German territory and threatened to overthrow the foundations of the feudal system. It was a heroic era in German history. "The German people," wrote Engels, " also have their own revolutionary tradition. There was a time when Germany put forward personalities who could be ranked alongside the best revolutionary figures in other countries, when the German people showed such self-control and developed such energy that, in a centralized nation, would have led to the most brilliant results. " 32
In his work" The Peasant War in Germany in 1525 " and other works, Engels showed that during this period the revolutionary peasant masses and the urban lower classes were fighting under the banner of a national and socio-anti-feudal struggle, although still covered with a religious cover. Engels, studying the concrete material, came to the following conclusions: a) the German peasantry was at that time "as national" as the nobility or burghers, in contrast to the princes, large feudal lords and reactionary clergy, who advocated feudal fragmentation within the "Holy Roman Empire", in other words, acted contrary to national interests In Germany; b) in the concrete alignment of class forces, the peasantry was objectively and subjectively the main driving force of the revolution and the national unification movement; c) but in that era the victory of the peasantry could not ultimately lead to anything other than the establishment of the bourgeois system, but in its most progressive, anti-feudal and national form (d) the victory of the Peasant War proved impossible at that time because of the fragmentation and dispersion of the German peasantry, the betrayal of national interests by the burghers who came to an agreement with the princes, and also because of the weakness of those circles of the small-scale nobility who initially went with the peasants; (e) the defeat of the Peasant War slowed down the further maturation of the German nation,

29 In Germany, as noted by F. According to Engels, " the conditions necessary for national centralization ...did not exist at all or were in a rudimentary state." Engels, Soch. Vol. 7, p. 394.

30 K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., Vol. 7, pp. 347-348.

31 M: M. Smirin. Germany of the Reformation era and the Great Peasant War, Moscow, 1962, p. 35.

32 K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., Vol. 7, p. 345.

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it removed it for three centuries from the list of politically active nations in Europe.

As is well known, national consolidation was not achieved in Germany not only in the sixteenth century, but also much later-as a result of the revolution of 1848-1849. In the course of it, a new force appeared on the scene of the political struggle in the person of the proletariat. In fear of it and peasant unrest, the German bourgeoisie again, as in 1525, made a counter-revolutionary deal with the feudal aristocracy and the Junkers, thus making it impossible to unite the country on a democratic basis. Only in 1871, the representative of the Prussian Junkers, O. Bismarck, in alliance with the big German bourgeoisie, carried out the unification of Germany around Prussia with "iron and blood".

Let us now trace the history of the formation of Slavic nationalities and nations. Slavs are the most numerous group of peoples in Europe, united by a common origin, proximity of languages and historical destinies. In the works of B. D. Grekov, B. A. Rybakov, M. N. Tikhomirov, L. V. Cherepnin and other Soviet historians, the first stages and general laws of the formation of Russian, Ukrainian and some other Slavic nationalities and nations are studied on the basis of a rich material, including the latest data from archeology, linguistics, and the history of material culture.

The Old Russian state of the IX-XII centuries emerged as an early feudal state. Its appearance was preceded by a long development, which went in the direction of socio-ethnic unity .33 Slavic and other tribes that united within the framework of the Old Russian state, knew developed arable agriculture with the use of ploughs and draught power of animals, tryokhpillya, relatively developed cattle breeding, crafts that had already separated from agriculture, had cities (Kiev, Novgorod, Smolensk, Chernihiv, Polotsk and others) that were centers of crafts, trade, etc. administration 34 . It was a society where tribal relations existed only as a relic.

As noted by B. A. Rybakov, in the X-XI centuries. in the vast territory of Ancient Russia, there was already a single culture, common economic ties within the feudal economy ,as well as a single language with dialects. 35 "The history of the Old Russian state," emphasizes B. D. Grekov, " is not the history of Ukraine, not the history of Belarus, not the history of Great Russia. This is the history of the state that made it possible for Ukraine, Belarus, and Great Russia to mature and grow."36 One of the greatest experts on the history of the formation of East Slavic languages, F. P. Filin, writes: "Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian are brother languages that have the same ancestor-Old Russian (East Slavic). The Old Russian language was formed in the VII-VIII centuries on the basis of numerous dialects of the oldest Common Slavic (Proto-Slavic) language, the historical origins of which go back to ancient times " 37 .

The formation of the Old Russian ethnos took place in the struggle against feudal disunity. This is evidenced by the "Word of Igor's Regiment", which sang the unity of the Russian land. "The unknown author of Slovo, undoubtedly an advanced man of his time, raised high the banner of the national unification of the Russian people, knowing full well that it contained the salvation and prosperity of the Russian state and political system.-

33 B. D. Grekov. Kievan Rus', Moscow, 1953, p. 25.

34 M. N. Tikhomirov. Drevnerusskiye goroda [Ancient Russian Cities], Moscow, 1946, p. 38.

35 See B. A. Rybakov. Ancient Russia. Tales. Epics. Chronicles.

36 B. D. Grekov. Kievan Rus, p. 11.

37 F. P. Filin. The origin of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, L. 1972, p. 650.

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38, and the chronicles of the XI-XVI centuries repeatedly expressed the requirements for the observance of national interests 39 . But, like many other peoples, the comparative weakness and instability of early feudal economic ties led to the disintegration of the Old Russian ethnic community in the XII-XIII centuries. Due to internal circumstances, and then the prolonged Tatar-Mongol yoke and invasions from the West, there was a temporary political separation, which did not mean, however, a complete break in the previously established ethnic ties. "Even in the period of feudal fragmentation," V. V. Vinogradov notes, " when local and territorial dialects claimed the role of state and business languages of individual principalities, oral folk poetry and its language acted as a great cultural and unifying force, as a factor of national cohesion. It was in the depths of oral folk art that the foundation of the future national language was laid. Folk poetry styles (especially epics, historical songs, fairy tales, proverbs) were alien to local, regional exclusivity. They developed as an all-Russian folk-poetic language. " 40
The raids of steppe nomadic tribes, as well as the Tatar-Mongol yoke (XIII-XV centuries), fell with all their weight primarily on the broad masses of the people (destruction, looting, tribute). A significant part of the princes, boyars, merchants and church servants found a common language with the Mongol conquerors relatively quickly. Another part supported the national aspirations of the people. V. I. Lenin noted that "the Mongol yoke is a historical fact, undoubtedly connected with the national question" (but, as he emphasized, not in the sense that is meant in this concept in Europe of the XX century)41 . During the era of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, "a vigorous process of forming a strong national state was going on among the Russian principalities." 42 The masses of the people played a particularly important role in the formation and strengthening of the Russian nation and the Russian multinational State. As L. V. Cherepnin pointed out, the main driving force behind the formation of the Russian nation was the broad masses of the working peasantry and the commercial and craft population of cities, who were objectively interested in overcoming feudal fragmentation. Certain sections of the feudal lords also played an objectively progressive role in the struggle to eliminate political fragmentation .43 The expansion of arable land, the settlement of wastelands and clearing of forest areas for arable land, the growth of crafts and cities in the XIV-XV centuries created material prerequisites for the centralization of the state.

The Russian nation grew out of the Russian nationality. This process has gone through a number of stages. As in Western Europe, the Russian nation and other nations that now inhabit the Soviet Union have developed a territorial community, language, economic ties, culture, etc.over many centuries.

The Old Russian language, which was spoken in the X-XII centuries in Kiev, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, and other places of the Old Russian state, was the product of creativity of all strata of the people. The territory of the Russian nationality and nation was formed over many centuries. It is known that the beginning of the Russian advance to the north, in the Trans-Urals, by-

38 A. I. Efimov. Istoriya russkogo literaturnogo yazyka [History of the Russian Literary Language], Moscow, 1955, p. 61.

39 D. S. Likhachev. National self-consciousness of Ancient Russia, Moscow, l. 1945, p. 115.

40 V. V. Vinogradov. The Great Russian Language, Moscow, 1945, p. 100.

41 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 30, p. 350.

42 B. D. Grekov, A. Y. Yakubovsky. The Golden Horde and its Fall, Moscow, 1950, p. 232, etc.

43 See L. V. Cherepnin. Obrazovanie Russkogo tsentralizirovannogo gosudarstva v XIV-XV vekakh [Formation of the Russian centralized state in the XIV-XV centuries].

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they were laid by Novgorodians in the XI century. With the formation of the Russian centralized state, it also includes Siberia. As early as the sixteenth century, the Russians reached the Yenisei, and in the first half of the seventeenth century, the Pacific coast. The development of vast territories of Siberia was an outstanding feat of the Russian people. The main role in this case was played by industrial people and peasants who fled to Siberia from serfdom in search of a "free life". The historical identity of Siberia and the Russian Far East was determined by the work of the working masses - first of all, the peasants and working people who developed these lands. Working Russian people, and, above all, peasants, brought higher forms of economy and culture to numerous local peoples and tribes.

The history of our country thus shows once again how huge and ultimately decisive a role the masses of the people played in the consolidation processes. "Being the most numerous part of the population of feudal Russia," wrote B. D. Grekov, " the peasantry for a very long time was the main producer of material goods. A Russian peasant with his axe and plough brought the vast expanses of the Eastern European plain into a cultural state and managed to transfer his labor skills to the Urals, to distant Asia. A peasant with weapons in his hands defended his native land in the fight against numerous enemies and earned the glory of invincible. The peasant, despite the very unfavorable conditions in which he lived for centuries, gave his country hundreds of great people in the field of science, art and literature. " 44 The formation of the Russian state and the national character of the Russian people were also influenced, of course, by external factors. Thus, the struggle against foreign invaders, during which the fate of Russia was decided, was deeply embedded in the consciousness of the people, contributing to the development and strengthening of their patriotic feelings. This was reflected in the historical monuments and heroic traditions of the Russian people, which later played a significant role in the Great Patriotic War.

Consolidation processes in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the early stages were characterized by the movement of huge social and ethnic strata of the population, which accelerated the transition from tribal unions to higher ethnic communities and state formations. Thus, the Ghana Empire (III-XIII centuries) was formed in Africa on the basis of the predominance of the Soninke ethnic group, the Mali Empire (XI-XVI centuries) - the Mandingo group, the Gao Empire (IX-XVII centuries) - the Songhai group, etc. Ethiopia - Amhara, on the Gold Coast - Ashanti, in Nigeria-Yoruba, in the Congo-baluba 45 . Consequently, the peoples of Africa before the arrival of European colonizers were at various stages of social development. Some already had states dominated by early feudal or developed feudal relations; others were still undergoing the disintegration of the primitive communal system and the formation of a class society. The forms of socio-ethnic communities were also not the same. Gradually, kindred tribes were united into ethnic groups through intermediary links, and processes of ethnic mixing, consolidation, and assimilation took place, taking place in the struggle of unifying and separating tendencies. In the XVI - XVIII centuries, when the process of uterine development of capitalist nations was going on in Western Europe, the feudal states of North Africa

44 B. D. Grekov. A brief sketch of the history of the Russian peasantry. Moscow, 1958, p. 24.

45 See The Anti-Imperialist Revolution in Africa, Moscow, 1967, pp. 42-43.

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And Asia, which still seemed very powerful and rich, was in fact in a state of internal crisis .46
As a result of the Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, one of the largest states in the history of mankind emerged - the Arab Caliphate, which included territories from Spain and Morocco in the west to the Amu Darya and Indus valleys in the east, from Sudan and Zanzibar in the south to Asia Minor and Transcaucasia in the north. In the course of interaction between the Arabs and the peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, and Southwestern Europe conquered by them, a rich medieval Arab culture developed in the seventh and tenth centuries. As a result of the strengthening of feudal centrifugal forces, the growth of liberation movements of the conquered peoples and the conquering campaigns of the Turks, the Arab Caliphate collapsed. But Arab culture, the Arabic language and Islam continued to have a very strong impact on the development of the peoples of Asia and Africa for centuries. In the process of complex centuries-old interaction between the local population and the Arabs, the development of the Arab national ethnic community itself, with its culture, religion, and language, continued. In the course of the struggle, first with the Turkish invaders, and then with the British, French and Italian colonialists, the ideas of Arab unity grew and strengthened .47
On the site of the disintegrated by the beginning of the XIII century. The Arab Caliphate and in the 15th century. The Byzantine Empire in the XIV-XV centuries. the Turkish Empire emerged. Turkic nomads, who came from the steppes of Central and Central Asia through Iran and Iraq to Asia Minor, assimilated its population over time. The Turkic tribes united under the leadership of the Ottoman Turks and created a military-feudal Ottoman Empire, under the yoke of which the countries located from the borders of Iran in the east to the Maghreb in the west, from the Arabian Peninsula in the south to the Danube Valley in the north fell. The Turkish nation began to form in the XI-XIII centuries. on the basis of mixing part of the local population of Anatolia with the Turkic nomadic pastoral tribes. Merging with the local sedentary population (Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, etc.), the Turks assimilated it largely by language, while at the same time largely adopting the skills of farming, cultural features and moving to sedentarism.

The unification of Asia Minor under the rule of the Ottoman Sultan and the transformation of Istanbul into the largest administrative, commercial, political and cultural center contributed to the strengthening of ties between certain regions of Turkey and the growth of commodity-money relations. At the end of the XV-first half of the XVI century. A Turkish nation has already formed with its own territory, language, and a certain economic and cultural community. Beginning in the 1930s, as capitalism developed, this nation gradually became a nation. This process was relatively slow, and the development of bourgeois relations began first in non-Muslim ethnic communities subordinate to the Turks. The Ottoman Empire itself ultimately brought only economic and social stagnation and decline to the conquered peoples. Turkish rule delayed for several centuries the development of a number of Arab peoples and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula48 .

For Iran, which was pushed back centuries by the invasion in the XIII - XIV centuries by the hordes of Genghis Khan and his successors, who destroyed not only trade and numerous cities, but also the most complex

46 See: "Peoples of Africa", Moscow, 1954; " Africa. Encyclopedic reference book", Vol. I. M. 1963, pp. 59-67.

47 See: V. B. Lutsky. The problem of Arab unity. "Soviet Ethnography", 1957, N 1; "Peredneaziatskiy etnograficheskiy sbornik", Vol. I. Moscow, 1958.

48 See: A. F. Miller. A brief history of Turkey, Moscow, 1948. Essays on the modern history of Turkey, Moscow, 1948.

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the irrigation network, the end of the XVI - first half of the XVII century. were the period of the end of nomad rule and a new rise in the feudal economy of the country. The tendency towards the spread of private feudal property was stimulated by the general growth of productive forces, the development of commodity - money relations, the revival of trade and economic growth. In the hands of representatives of the new privileged strata, among which was the merchant class, significant funds were concentrated, not only invested in trade and usury, but also used to buy land plots or develop (with the help of irrigation) uncultivated land. Cities are rapidly starting to grow, and handicraft production is developing. Due to the specific nature of its historical development, Iran was characterized by a large diversity of its population, which consisted of many nationalities and tribes (Persians, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Lurs, Bakhtiars, Balochs). Being for many centuries on the paths of intensive movement of peoples and repeatedly subjected to foreign invasions, Iran experienced a wide variety of influences that left their mark on the processes of ethnogenesis. Therefore, the mixing and assimilation of local ethnic communities was very slow there. By the middle of the 19th century, national consolidation was most advanced among the Persians and Azerbaijanis living in the most economically developed regions of the country49 .

Unlike Turkey and Iran, the feudal system in Afghanistan was formed relatively late. The process of decomposition of the primitive communal system among the Afghans began to manifest itself noticeably from the XIII century, but it differs, however, in significant unevenness among individual tribes. The development of feudalism, the elimination of communal ownership of land and its replacement by private ownership continued in some of them in the XIX and even in the XX century. By the 18th century, the consolidation of the Pashtuns, the core of the Afghan tribes, into a nation was completed. This was facilitated by the centuries-old struggle that the Afghans waged with the Mongol Iranian feudal lords. A nationally formed state in Afghanistan, founded by feudal lords, was formed only in the middle of the XIX century. The development of the Afghan ethnic community was influenced by the cultural and economic influence of neighboring peoples (Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Indians).50
In India, the 16th and 17th centuries were the period of expansion of the Mughal State , the last major empire in pre-colonial Hindustan. Although State ownership of land continued to play an important role here, private feudal ownership also developed significantly. Feudal exploitation increased on both private and public lands. The community organization remained, but acquired a number of new features. It not only regulated the division of labor in the countryside between farmers and artisans and ensured the collection of taxes, but also began to interfere with the land use of its members as the lowest unit of the tax apparatus. Property differentiation increasingly penetrated the community and disintegrated it. Commodity production of fabrics grew rapidly. An extensive handicraft periphery was formed around the urban centers. Small towns with their surrounding settlements were grouped around a large city, forming a kind of economic district. Connections between individual districts and major cities were strengthened. Thus, the prerequisites were laid for the creation of an internal market within the state or, at least, cereals-

49 See: K. Smirnov. The Persians. Ethnographic sketch of the history of Persia. Tiflis, 1917; I. P. Petrushevsky. Essays on the history of feudal relations in Azerbaijan and Armenia in the XVI-XIX centuries, L. 1949; "History of Azerbaijan", vol. 2. Baku. 1960.

50 See: "Peoples of the Near East", Moscow, 1957; "Soviet Historical Encyclopedia", Vol. 1. Moscow, 1961, stb. 956.

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administrative regions. However, the process of division of labor and growth of the domestic market has been uneven in India. On the basis of the development of commodity handicraft production in the XVII-XVIII centuries, new economic forms of labor organization appeared in the depths of the feudal economy, which can be considered as the "rudiments of capitalist relations". "India at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries was approaching the period of the beginning of the manufacturing stage of the development of capitalism in the depths of the country's feudal economy as a whole. However, the growing bourgeois elements have not yet faced the necessity of revolution and the conquest of power, either economically or politically."51
At the same time, in India, within the framework of late feudal relations, there were prerequisites for the formation of nations from nationalities that were quite close to each other in their social and cultural life. "This is evidenced by the more or less simultaneous spread of anti-feudal movements that are religiously reformist in their social essence among all the peoples of India. As the contradictions between the oppressed feudal lords and the oppressed peasants, artisans and merchants grew, sectarian movements became more and more acute."52 Such processes were quite intensive in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Bengal, where the population partially converted to Islam. Bengal was already in the middle of the eighteenth century an area of developed feudalism, where the general Bengal market was being formed and other conditions were maturing for the transition to a higher type of ethnic community. 53
The process of forming national communities in Indonesia was very unique and complex, which was explained by the huge diversity of the ethnic composition of the population, which included many nationalities and tribes with large differences in the levels of socio-economic development, territorial fragmentation, and the presence of different languages and dialects. But even here, by the time of the arrival of European colonialists, there was a clear tendency to create large centralized feudal states, expand and strengthen economic ties between individual regions .54
In Asia, on the eve of their colonial conquest, as in Western Europe, religious forms of opposition to the feudal system emerged. This indicates that the peoples of Asia were developing in the same direction as the European peoples. In India, the anti-feudal ideology was mainly expressed in the form of teachings that combined the ideas of Hindu and Muslim heresies and were directly directed against feudal class status and feudal privileges (Bhakti, early Sikhism, etc.). In the Ottoman Empire, where orthodox Sunnism was the official feudal ideology, Shiism remained the ideological banner of the peasants and merchants who rebelled against the oppression of the Turkish rulers. handicraft people of the cities of Asia Minor.

At the turn of the Middle Ages and Modern times, the expansion of Western European states to other continents began, and over the next three centuries gradually led to the colonial enslavement of most of the countries of Asia, Africa and America, including those that surpassed European states in population, natural resources, and sometimes went ahead in a number of areas of culture.

51 A.M. Chicherov. Economic development of India before the English Conquest, Moscow, 1965, pp. 256-257.

52 A.M. Dyakov. The National Question in Modern India, Moscow, 1963, p. 27.

53 See Yu. V. Gankovsky. Peoples of Pakistan (main stages of ethnic history), Moscow, 1964, p. 167.

54 See: "Peoples of South-East Asia", Moscow, 1966. "Soviet Historical Encyclopedia", vol. 5. Moscow, 1964, stb. 916.

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The general reason why the countries of the East were the object of colonial expansion is the uneven historical development of different countries and regions. In this case, it manifested itself in the fact that Western Europe entered the path of capitalist development earlier than Asia and Africa. By the beginning of European colonization, the countries of Asia and Africa were at various stages of economic and social development: from primitive communal to developed feudal. In general, these countries and peoples followed the same paths of historical development as Western European ones. But this normal development was interrupted by colonial expansion. Therefore, Marxist historians resolutely reject the concepts of bourgeois ideologists about the inevitability of the East's subordination to the West, any attempts to portray the peoples of the East as passive and "unhistorical" in nature, or to talk about any superiority of the "dynamic Western spirit" over the "contemplative" Eastern nature or Christianity over the religions of the East.

On the eve of the colonial conquest, many States in Asia and Africa were undergoing profound changes. Social shifts, as well as wars and migrations, have led, as on other continents, to the mixing of populations belonging to different ethnic communities. Blood relations were replaced by territorial ones, ethnic groups were formed, and tribal relations were still preserved, although in a transformed form, as a relic. There was a process of forming more stable pre-bourgeois national communities. The further growth of the social division of labor and the creation of an internal national market contributed to the formation of feudal-absolutist and feudal - bourgeois national or multinational states. In principle, all this signified an equally major shift in consolidation processes, as Engels wrote about it in relation to the nationally formed states of Europe at the end of the 15th century, or as Lenin assessed it when talking about the creation of a Russian centralized state in the 17th century. At the same time, both Engels and Lenin had in mind a qualitatively new stage of consolidation, when the state is characterized by a real merger of previously loosely connected regions or principalities, and when one can already speak of "national ties in the proper sense of the word"55 .

In the pre-bourgeois national ethnic communities of Asia and Africa, social heterogeneity and acute class contradictions were already evident at an early stage. These communities were not yet characterized by stable and strong economic ties. In a number of states (for example, in India), class, caste, and religious divisions continued to prevail. Pre-bourgeois national ethnic communities emerged on these continents in the process of long-term economic development, accompanied by a deepening of the social division of labor. However, these communities were still based on the feudal mode of production or on the original capitalist economic forms. Feudal relations of production, which arose on the basis of the disintegration of the tribal system and slavery and prevailed in most countries of Asia and Africa on the eve of the colonial conquests, gave a certain scope to the development of productive forces. The social division of labor - the separation of handicrafts from agriculture-changed the conditions of existence of peasants and townspeople and led to more and more profound social changes, affecting the development of national ethnic communities.

Let us now turn to the consolidation processes that took place on the American continent after its discovery by Europeans. To this

55 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 1, p. 153.

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By this time, some local Indian tribes had already begun to move from the tribal primitive communal system described by the American scientist L. Morgan and scientifically analyzed by Engels in his work "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" to a class society. By the time of the beginning of European colonization in America, there were already highly developed civilizations and early class states, among which the Aztec and Inca empires stand out. The culture of agriculture in these states was no lower than in Europe at that time, and grandiose building structures are among the largest buildings of that time. The cultural influence of the Incas and Aztecs was widespread among the tribes that inhabited the American continent. All this was swept away by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, and the Native American population in many areas was almost completely exterminated .56
The process of forming the existing American nations began later, in the conditions of enslavement of the local population by European conquerors. Colonization was accompanied, on the one hand, by the extermination or displacement of the local population to uninhabitable areas, and on the other, by a significant mixing of peoples. The next stage of nation consolidation occurred here in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the American colonies were fighting against their European mother countries. The British colonies in North America won their independence in the 70s-80s of the XVIII century. Other countries of the continent gained independence as a result of the anti-colonial revolutions of the XIX century.

The population of the western hemisphere consisted of three large groups: Indians, Negroes, and Whites. After destroying and partially enslaving the Indians, the Whites imported millions of black slaves from Africa to the American continent. Since the discovery of America, tens of millions of Europeans have also moved there. The clear boundaries between the three population groups identified have begun to disappear in a number of countries on the continent. There was a complex process of erasing ethnic differences within the groups of both white and Black populations, which indicated a process of national consolidation on a new basis. Historically, the first bourgeois nation in the western hemisphere was the American one. The War of Independence led to the emergence of the United States as an independent state. The American nation absorbed and assimilated significant emigration flows that flowed into the United States from various countries of the world. "The particularly favorable conditions for the development of capitalism in America and the particular rapidity of this development," Lenin noted,"have made it possible that nowhere else in the world are vast national differences so quickly and so radically ground up as here into a single 'American' nation. " 57
Let's sum up some results. Human communities, beginning with the most ancient more or less disparate collectives, were in continuous progressive development, and despite all its slowness, zigzags and contradictions, it went in the direction of increasing consolidation. With the growth of productive forces, material and spiritual culture, and after the division of society into classes and during the acute class struggle, great historical changes took place everywhere. At a certain, already relatively high stage of socio-economic development, disparate communities that were previously united

56 W. Foster. The Decline of World Capitalism, Moscow, 1951, p. 47.

57 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 30, p. 355.

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they form fragile formations, enter more and more stable associations, acquire such specific features as a common language, territory, even if at first relative, but already quite clearly visible connection of economic life, similar everyday and moral foundations, and features of psychology. The pre-bourgeois national and ethnic communities that emerged in the absolutist national and multinational States continued to develop during the period of late feudalism. The initial capitalist economic forms and social ties were maturing, which gradually changed the socio-economic face, internal way of life, territorial distribution, mental makeup and culture of pre-bourgeois national communities. These communities were gradually transformed into capitalist nations. This process has developed unevenly. The Aborigines of Australia, for example, remained at the stage of a pre-class society with early forms of appropriating economy. Many peoples of the Earth did not know capitalist forms.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, many nationalities of the Soviet Union developed on the basis of a radical transformation of social relations directly into socialist nations or nationalities, which are now an equal integral part of the new historical community of people - the Soviet people. The formation of the socialist system opened the way for the progressive development of backward peoples to socialism, bypassing the stage of capitalism or developed capitalism. The understanding of these modern phenomena, which are widely covered in the literature, is facilitated and supported by the study of consolidation processes at earlier stages of world history.

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