S. I. YAKUBOVSKAYA. The Role of the Soviet Union in the Development of Soviet Nations and Nationalities (1922 - 1928).

The formation of the USSR-a voluntary state union of the equal in rights and sovereign nationshad opened broad prospects for all-round development and cooperation of all nations and nationalities. The article reviews the Soviet State activities in 1922 - 1928, directed at the consolidations and development of a national statehood of peoples, as well as at the overcoming of their economic and cultural backwardness inherited from tsarism. Consistently fulfilling the Leninist national policy, party and Soviet bodies offered all necessary facilities for the development of all nations and nationalities; it was one of the most decisive factors in the process of unity of working people of all nations on the basis of proletarian internationalism.

P. S. MSTISLAVSKY. Present Stage of Development of the Soviet Economy.

On the basis of materials of 1940 - 1971 the article analyses the changes in standards and structure of production, in productive forces and labour equipment, in proportions of reproduction on an expanded scale, in quality of production, in structure of social property and in class composition of population in the USSR. The author points out at a high level of utilization of labour resources, views changes in the system of planning and management of the national economy, in the use of commodity-money relations, as well as in the system of payment and organization of labour. The article draws a special attention to the development of harmonious and friendly relations as well as social and cultural drawing closer together classes, social groups, nations and nationalities. The author analyses the following regularities in the process of improving of living standards of the Soviet people that takes place nowadays: precipitation of the rate of growth of real incomes, obliterating differences between urban and rural living conditions, rapid development of social consumption funds, bettering of living standards of groups of population with moderate means, improvement of dietary structure of the people, sharp rise in providing with consumer goods, rapid development of service facilities, switchover to the universal secondary education, better social care for children, the flowering of culture of all Soviet nations and nationalities.

E. WINTER. The Vatican's Attitude to the Soviet Union.

The article examines the basic propositions set forth by the author in Volume Three of his fundamental work "Russia and Papacy."

E. Winter's attention is focussed on the Vatican's attitude to Soviet Russia for the period since the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution to our days. Drawing on a wealth of factual material, the author shows how and under what circumstances the policy pursued by the Vatican for over half a century gradually underwent an evolution from open hostility and engineering a crusade against the USSR to normalizing relations with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

The author also underlines that it is only the Vatican's tactics that undergoes changes according to circumstances that take place; as far as its strategy, it remains unchanged.

E. V. GUTNOVA. Eugeny Alexeievich Kosminsky.

The article characterizes scientific and pedagogical activities as well as of scientific heritage of Academician E. A. Kosminsky, one of the most prominent Soviet historians of elder generation and a well-known medievalist (1866 - 1959). Analysing the contribution of the prominent scientist to the working out of history of medieval England, historiography of the Middle Ages, the Marxist- Leninist conceptions of the Middle Ages history as a whole, the author shows the significance of E. A. Kosminsky's works for a .present

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stage of development of Soviet medievalistics; the author also views research methods and creative style of this prominent scholar and enlightner.

M. A. BARG. Problems of Methodology in Contemporary Bourgeois Historiography.

The article observes the influence of such phenomena as social and political changes taking place in the post-war world, and success of the Marxist historical science, as well as progress outlined in the post-war period in linguistics, economy, psychology-contiguous "sciences about man" on bourgeois historiography. After a universally recognized bankruptcy of the neo-Kantian methodology in history, bourgeois historiography resorted to empiric sociology - in search of a new methodological orientation. The latter, in its turn, being in the same need of an integral historiosophic theory, turned to historiography looking for "a way" to overcome a statical character which prevails in this science-that of a structural-functional picture of the world. However, the author writes, while following this path, bourgeois historiography will meet only with new disappointments. The analysis of attempts of bourgeois historians to overcome methodological crisis in bourgeois historical science makes it possible to reveal the trend and essence of the tendencies characteristic of modern development in historical science in Western countries.

Zh. P. PAKH. Corvee and Hired Labour in the Hungarian Domain Country Estate, 16 - 17th centuries.

The author writes that in the first half of the 16th century various forms of hired labour were used along with corvee in Hungarian country estates. However, beginning from the 60 - 70-ies of the 16th century hired labour was being rapidly forced out by corvee labour. As the result of the so- called revolution of prices, a considerable devaluation which embraced Hungary as well after 1560 - 1570, led to a rapid depreciation of peasant money conscription. This latter was the leading form of pheudal land-rent. These circumstances made land-owners compensate the reduction of their money income with natural rent forms, first of all with a considerable increase of labour rent. The revolution of prices, which incited the use of hired labour in capitalist tenants' leaseholds in England, had a quite opposite effect on the development of the same process in Hungarian country estates, in particular, and in the Central and the Eastern Europe as a whole. The consolidation of the system of hereditary serfdom in these areas in the first half of the 17th century had become an obstacle in the way of the development of hired labour.

N. M. MESHCHERYAKOVA. To the Condition of British Proletariat at an Early Stage of Capitalism.

The author considers the effect of the Law of Settlement of 1662 on the conditions of developing proletariat. This Law had been in force in Britain for more than a century. The article shows an attempt to find an answer to the principal question of historiography of this period: how to combine the needs of capitalism in mobility of labouring population with the settlement of workers and paupers ordered by the above-mentioned Law. The analysis of Quarter Sessions Records showed that the Law ensured an effective system of control over the great mass of expropriated people. The Law met also the employers' demands for manpower. In the interests of bourgeoisie the system of certificates permitted the migration of workers and paupers. The Law of Settlement had an extremely baneful effect on the conditions of proletarians. They were deprived of the right to choose freely a place of residence and a job, and to look for better working conditions. The author comes to a conclusion that the Law of Settlement was a striking demonstration of non-economic compulsion, since it was necessary for young British bourgeoisie at the stage of early capitalism.

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