馬克思主義者對民族現象和民族問題的論述,是有別于自由主義民族理論的重要理論體系。從歷史唯物主義而不是唯心主義視角探析家庭、氏族、部落、族體(nationality)乃至民族、國家的源起與未來,是馬克思主義者有別于自由主義者的認識論特點;將民族問題納入無產階級革命這一總問題進行思考,是馬克思主義者的實踐論特點。然而馬克思主義者的民族觀并不是自發形成,而是隨著西歐強權政治對族體問題、民族矛盾的蓄意挑撥和渲染,隨著民族觀念的傳播,在揭穿敵人陰謀、糾正錯誤思想中逐漸形成的。本文通過回溯18世紀以來民族觀念從西歐向中東歐的傳播過程,以及馬克思主義創始人對民族問題的回應與闡發,展示了馬克思恩格斯有關民族的思想觀點。

Marxism is an important school in the research field of the ethnic-national issues, which differs widely from the Liberal school. Discussing the origin and future of family, clan, tribe, nationality, nation, and state from a materialistic perspective rather than an idealistic one is the epistemological characteristic that marks the Marxists out from the Liberals; and considering the ethnic-national issues under the general issue of proletarian revolution constitutes the characteristic of Marxist theory of practice. Nonetheless, the Marxist ideas about nation, which were not spontaneously shaped, were developed gradually in a context that the European power politics drove a wedge and exaggerated hostility among nationalities, and along with the spreading of the national concept that exposed the conspiracies of the regional hegemonic powers and corrected the wrong ideas. This paper is intended to demonstrate the ideas and viewpoints of Marx and Engels on nation by recalling the spreading process of the national concept from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the explanations and responses by the founders of Marxism to the ethnic-national issues.