E. B. GHENKINA. V. I. Lenin and the New Economic Policy

A series of new Lenin documents and historical sources enabled the author to highlight in greater detail the history of Soviet Russia's transition to the new economic policy in 1921.

The opening part of the article contains a comprehensive analysis of V. I. Lenin's position on the peasant question, as expressed in his numerous speeches and statements at the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in December 1920. Much attention is devoted by the author to the discussion which developed in the Congress faction of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the measures of strengthening agriculture and raising farm output, as well as to the conclusions in the sphere of changing the country's economic policy which were drawn by V. I. Lenin immediately after the Congress of Soviets.

The author cites new facts and documents which throw additional light on the history of the preparation by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of a decision on the transition to the new economic policy (January- February 1921) and show the further development of Lenin's views concerning the fundamental tasks and the basic content of the new economic policy at the Tenth Party Congress and in the subsequent period.

The concluding part of the article is devoted to the outstanding role played by the transition to the new economic policy in the Marxist education of rank-and-file Party members and in overcoming erroneous, voluntarist views in the sphere of economic policy, which became fairly widespread in the period of "war communism."

Academician M. N. TIKHOMIROV. The Origin of Book-Printing in Russia

M. N. Tikhomirov briefly surveys the so-called trial publications preceding the "Apostle," whose appearance in 1564 officially opened the history of Russian book- printing. Much attention is devoted in the article to the basic factors which stimulated the development of book-printing in Russia. Among these factors particular importance is attached by M. N. Tikhomirov to the striving of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities to utilize the power of the printed word in their political interests. The author associates the development of book-printing in Russia with the general changes in the European social and political life, with major 15th - and 16th- century geographical discoveries and diverse cultural influences, among which M. N. Tikhomirov singles out Polish, German and especially South Slavonic.

The author examines in great detail the fate of the first Russian printers and tells of their disciples and followers. The development of book-printing in Russia at the close of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries is viewed against a broad historical background.

N. V. MANSVETOV. Cementing the Bonds of Friendship Among the Socialist Nations and the Emergence of the International Community of the Peoples of the U.S.S.R.

The article highlights the history of the practical implementation of the Leninist programme on the national question in the U.S.S.R. Drawing on concrete factual material, the author graphically shows how the fraternal assistance of the advanced socialist nations, first and foremost the working class of these nations, enabled the socially and economically backward peoples to effect the transition to socialism, by- passing the capitalist stage of development.

N. V. Mansvetov emphasizes that in their practical solution of the national question, the Communist Party and the Soviet government duly considered the specific features of the social system prevailing among the backward peoples. In the process of socialist

construction the survivals of the obsolete social system were gradually eliminated in the backward national areas and their peoples were converted into socialist nations. Rapid industrialization of the outlying national districts, agricultural collectivization, the vastly increased commodity circulation, the creation of modern transport and communication facilities, the swift development and growth of economic and cultural centres - all this put an end to the former isolation and aloofness of individual national areas, helped to establish firm economic relations between diverse population groups and created stable economic community-the most important distinctive feature of the nation. The article points out that with the victory of socialism the Soviet nations became homogeneous in their social and class structure.

In the process of establishing the material and technical basis of communism, the author points out, extensive introduction of the latest scientific and technological achievements in industrial and agricultural production ensures an uninterrupted rise in the cultural and technical level of the working class, collective-farm peasantry and intellectuals, thereby contributing to the gradual effacement of essential distinctions between town and country, to the elimination of distinctions between classes, which tends to enhance the social homogeneity of different nations and foster general communist traits in all Soviet nations.

The article also dwells on the fundamental changes that have taken place in people's world outlook, morals, customs and traditions. The author shows the role played by the Russian language in bringing the socialist nations and their distinctive cultures closer together. The article points out that the process of welding the Soviet nations into one close-knit family is accompanied by significant qualitative changes: there arise many common traits in the spiritual appearance and psychology of Soviet people. In conclusion the author stresses that the establishment of closer political, economic and social bonds between different nations in the period of full-scale building of communism creates the prerequisites for their subsequent fusion into one fraternal and friendly family.

I. D. KOVALCHENKO and V. A. USTINOV. The Application of Electronic Computing Machines in Historical Science

The article contains a detailed analysis of the experiment connected with the arrangement and processing by an electronic computing machine of six peasant farmhold inventories for 1828 - 1860, belonging to one of the landlord estates in Nizhegorodsk Gubernia. The readers of the article are acquainted with the work carried out by the researcher and the computing centre in the field of coding the data, drawing up programme assignments, formulating problem algorisms, compiling appropriate programming systems, etc., as well as with algorisms and programming systems themselves. Considerable attention is devoted to illustrating the effectiveness of applying electronic computing machines for the processing of mass historico- statistical sources and the methods of mathematical statistics used in analyzing the data obtained.

V. PETROV. Britain's Foreign Service Reform and Its Social Consequences

The article is devoted to Britain's foreign service reform of 1943, which contemporary bourgeois scientists are endeavouring to represent as a turning point in the history of British diplomacy, alleging that it marks the beginning of "new" diplomacy "representative of the whole nation."

The author shows that Britain's diplomatic service has historically evolved as an important component part of the state machine. Owing to a number of historical peculiarities attending the development of British capitalism, Britain's diplomacy for a long period was concerned solely with problems of inter-governmental political relations and was the exclusive domain and privilege of the upper strata of landed aristocracy.

The 1943 reform, the author writes, was basically aimed at adapting the diplomatic apparatus to the interests of the monopolies which, in conditions of the general crisis of capitalism, tend to bring the government apparatus under their tight control. In place of four services-diplomatic, consular, commercial-diplomatic and information- isolated from one another and operating independently, a single, uniform service was established, which eminently suited the interests of the British monopoly bourgeoisie and was designed to further its imperialist aspirations.

The article graphically shows that in the past two decades British diplomacy has not undergone any substantial changes. To all intents and purposes, the 1943 reform was a peculiar means of redistributing diplomatic posts in the foreign service in favour of the big bourgeoisie. Emphasizing the existence of extensive personal ties between Britain's diplomatic top crust and the monopolies, the author convincingly shows that the leaders of the Foreign Office are drawn into the mechanism of those monopolies which яге vitally interested in foreign expansion. In conclusion the author points cut that, as regards the political aspect of the matter, Britain's foreign service today continues to remain one of the most conservative government institutions in the country.

E. I. POPOVA. America's Isolationism and the Establishment of the Versailles-Washington System

The aim of this article is to trace the social basis of the isolationist trend which originated at the beginning of the 1920's. Analyzing the positions of the various groups which came out against the Versailles and Washington treaties under the pretext of renouncing alliances with Europe, the author notes that one of these was headed by a grouping of the ruling class intimately bound up with monopoly interests (Senator Lodge and his supporters). Another group included mass and democratic organizations-unions and parties which in 1922 merged to form a "progressive movement," as well as a number of more moderate groupings like the Congress "Agrarian Bloc," liberal women's organizations, emigre fraternities, etc.; in U.S. Congress the position of these groupings was championed by a bloc of "Intransigents," in which Senator William E. Borah and Robert M. La Follette played a prominent part. Although the organizational principles of this grouping, like those of the first, were not clearly defined, it can nevertheless be assumed that it relied chiefly on the farmers, the urban petty and middle bourgeoisie and liberal intelligentsia. The author emphasizes the great numerical strength and considerable political influence of the so-called "middle classes" in America in the 1920's.

Closely analyzing the attitude of the "Lodgists" and "Intransigents" towards the League of Nations, the disarmament question and other problems, the author comes to the conclusion that in rejecting cooperation with Europe primarily for reasons of British rivalry, the "Lodgists" essentially continued their line of aspiring to "world leadership," differing with the followers of President Wilson only on tactical questions. The "Intransigents," on the contrary, favoured isolationism because they were sincerely anxious to avoid being involved in wars and conflicts; they were motivated by a desire to concentrate their efforts on implementing internal reforms and curbing the monopolies. The article also examines the attitude of the "Lodgists" and "Intransigents" towards Soviet Russia and towards colonialism.

A. R. KORSUNSKY. Certain Aspects of the Revolutionary Transition from the Slave-Owning System to Feudalism in Western Europe

Soviet historiography is unanimous in the opinion that the supersession of the slave- owning system by feudalism in Western Europe assumed the form of social revolution. The wealth of factual material accumulated by historical science permits the assumption that the given social revolution embraced a whole historical epoch marked by interaction of the processes taking place within Roman society in the later stages of its development, on the one hand, and within Barbarian society, on the other.

In Roman slave-owning society the contradiction between the productive forces and relations of production was developing in a specific form. At a definite stage of its development the system of slavery became an obstacle to continued growth of production and brought about a profound crisis of the slave-owning mode of production. In the later stages of its development Roman society underwent certain changes in the economic sphere (expansion of small-commodity production, the growing number of liberated slaves attached to the land and the rapid development of the tenant-farming system) which, however, did not yet result in the emergence of the feudal formation. The revolutionary class as the vehicle of the new mode of production was still nonexistent in ancient society. The exploited masses in Rome waged a stubborn struggle against the dominant class and the state, but were not in a position to carry out by their own forces a political revolution resulting in fundamental social transformations. Simultaneously with the crisis of the slave- owning system in Roman society, the development of the German and other Barbarian tribes bordering on the Roman Empire was marked by the process of disintegration of the primitive-communal system, attended by social differentiation and the birth of statehood. As a result of the Barbarian conquest the Roman slave- owning state, which by that time had already lost its broad social support, was destroyed in the West. This marked the beginning of a social revolution. But the old relations of production were not immediately replaced by new and more progressive ones. The labour of free commune members began to play a dominant role in the economy of the territories occupied by the Barbarians. The feudal form of ownership, the new antagonistic classes and the feudal state arose and developed only in the process of the continuing social revolution.

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