P.V. VOLOBUYEV and L.S. GAPONENKO. The Working Class of Russia the Hege mon of the Socialist Revolution

The authors make an attempt to generalize the rich theoretical experience accumulated by Soviet historians investigating the role of the Russian proletariat as the hegemon of the October Revolution. In the conditions obtaining in Russia - one of the most petty-bourgeois countries in Europe where the proletariat was numerically small - the working class could achieve victory only by forming an alliance with other democratic forces and providing them with firm political leadership. The chief ally of the proletariat in the revolution was the poorest peasantry - the most numerous and revolutionary section of the petty-bourgeois toiling masses standing closest to the proletariat. The authors convincingly show that in its struggle for power in the political stage of the revolution the proletariat managed to win the support of the entire peasantry.

The article comprehensively describes the principal stages passed by the proletariat in its preparations to assume leadership of the socialist revolution in 1917 as well as the chief forms and methods it applied in exercising ideological and political leadership of the non-proletarian labouring masses who were fighting for peace, land, bread and national freedom. Much attention is devoted by the authors to highlighting the role and place of the Bolshevik Party in the system of the hegemony of the proletariat. Without the Bolshevik Party's leadership the Russian proletariat would have been unable to perform its mission of hegemon of the revolution. The character and degree of influence exerted by the revolutionary proletariat on the broad popular masses were determined, first and foremost, by the magnetic power and viability of the slogans and ideas put forward by the Bolshevik Party in 1917, on the eve of the October Revolution. Firmly supported by the vast majority of the population and led by the Bolsheviks, the proletariat secured a substantial superiority of forces over the bourgeoisie and overthrew its domination in October 1917. This signified practical realization of the idea of hegemony.

A.Y. MANUSEVICH. The Great October Socialist Revolution and the Formation of New States in Europe in 1917 - 1918

The article highlights the acute ideological and political struggle going on in historiography over the question concerning the establishment of new states in Europe in 1917 - 1918. Contemporary bourgeois historiography, while devoting much attention to this problem, completely ignores the Great October Socialist Revolution and the policy of the Soviet government. The emergence of new states in Europe is regarded by the overwhelming majority of bourgeois scientists as a devolopment directly resulting from the policy followed by the Western Powers. Within the framework of this conception the Great October Socialist Revolution appears merely as a destructive factor. Yet prior to the triumph of the revolution in Russia not a single Western government ever raised the question of liberating the oppressed nations. In contradistinction to the speculative constructions of bourgeois historians, Marxist- Leninist historiography has evolved a scientific conception of the formation of a number of new states in Europe in 1917 - 1918. The chief element in this conception is a close analysis of the real causes responsible for the emergence of new independent states. This analysis incontrovertibly proves that the independence of Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia was the result of a protracted revolutionary struggle waged by the peoples of these countries for their liberation, that this struggle culminated in the overthrow of alien rule only as a result of the radical changes in the entire international situation brought about by the victory of the October- Revolution.

S.S. IVASHKIN. The Role of the Soviet Working Class in the Socialist Transformation of Agriculture in Kazakhstan (1918 - 1958)

The article is devoted to the role of the working class in the socialist transformation and development of agriculture in Kazakhstan over the forty years 1918 - 1958. Drawing on extensive factual material, the author examines the principal forms of assistance rendered by the working class, through state-owned and public organizations, to the peasant farmers and nomad cattle-breeders of Kazakhstan, showing how this assistance changed its forms depending on one or another specific historical period. The article highlights the role played by the working class in establishing the material and technical basis of agriculture, in carrying out socialist transformations and promoting cultural development in the Kazakh countryside.

P.S. PETROV. Publication of V.I. Lenin's Works in the U.S.A. (1917 - 1919)

The article shows the ideological impact made by V. I. Lenin's works on the labour, socialist and liberal movement in the U.S.A. Beginning with the spring of 1917 the name of Lenin began to appear more and more frequently in the American press along with mumerous reports and comments on his position reflecting the programme of the Bolshevik Party on problems of war and peace, the development of the revolution and the Bolsheviks' attitude to the Provisional Government. But in the very first days following the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution the American people began to evince a particularly keen interest in the revolutionary events unfolding in Russia. Many works by Lenin and his close associates, official documents of the Soviet government disclosing the significance and development of the October Revolution began to reach America, piercing the thick fog of lies, misinformation and outright slander spread by bourgeois propaganda. Since these materials were in great demand, America's Left-wing Socialist organizations published them in their newspapers, magazines and publishing houses. In the first two years of Soviet government not less than 50 articles, theoretical studies, interviews, talks, letters, appeals, messages, statements and other works by Lenin and numerous decisions and decrees of the Soviet government drafted by Lenin were translated into English and other languages and published in America, where they were read by thousands of Socialists, workers and other sections of the population. V. I. Lenin's works significantly contributed to the ideological development of the revolutionary forces in the U.S.A. and paved the way for the appearance of the Communist Party in the United States.

N.G. DUMOVA. Little-Known Materials on the History of the Kornilov Revolt

The purpose of this article is to enrich historical science with a number of materials illustrating the pre-history and history of the Kornilov revolt. These materials, which have been inadequately used in special literature, contain reports submitted by Constitutional-Democrat Ministers to the Moscow Committee of their party, reminiscences of active participants in the plot, personal correspondence of a number of individuals who subsequently fled from Russia to swell the ranks of Whiteguard emigres. The factual data obtained from these sources has enabled the author to draw the conclusion that General Denikin grossly falsified historical events by claiming that the counter-revolutionary military plot was first devised in June 1917. Actually, way back in April 1917 the monarchist-minded officers began to draw up plans for strangling the revolution. Early in June a number of Constitutional-Democrat leaders were drawn into the plot and in July the conspiracy was joined by the head of the Provisional Government Kerensky. An important part in engineering the revolt was played by the Officers' League and by the political organization of the big bourgeoisie called the Republican Centre. The former undertook to settle the military questions; the latter assumed responsibility for the financial and propaganda aspects. At first Vice-Admiral Kolchak was chosen for the role of dictator but he soon left for the Far East and the choice fell on General Kornilov. The further preparation of the plot was effected by maintaining close daily contact between the Kornilovites, Kerensky, church dignitaries and Constitutional-Democrat leaders. Early in August they reached an amicable agreement on the establishment of a military dictatorship and the distribution of government posts. On August 26 Kerensky became aware that his services were no longer needed, that the Kornilovites merely regarded him as "the Moor who had done his .duty." Fighting desperately to retain the post of Prime Minister, Kerensky went to the length of breaking with Kornilov. The subsequent public exposure of General Korni-lov's sinister plans and the resolute rebuff they encountered from the popular masses headed by the Bolshevik Party thwarted the whole plot.

A.P. LEVANDOVSKY. Concerning the Emergence and Disintegration of Nationalities in the Medieval Period (the Franks)

Proceeding from Marxist-Leninist methodology, the author makes an attempt to establish the typical features of nationality as an ethnic community following the tribe and preceding the nation. The Frank nationality, which serves as the object of analysis, originated in the 5th century and vanished in the second half of the 9th century, thereby sharing the fate of the Prankish Empire. Tracing the historical development of the Frank nationality in the course of the policy of conquests and aggrandizement followed by the Frank kings and emperors in the 6th-9th centuries, the author dwells on the place and role of the Franks and their ethnic territory among other peoples and regions incorporated in the Frankish state, as well as on changes occurring in the Frank nationality itself during that period. The article examines in detail, from the viewpoint of its ethnic content, the Verdun Treaty of 843, which marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire. Thus, taking the Frankish nationality as an example, the author traces the path traversed in the early Middle Ages by an ethnic community which, though assimilated by other, more stable nationalities, nevertheless was able to play its part in the subsequent consolidation of these nationalities in the process of their transformation into nations.

A.P. KAZDAN. The Historian's Path of Research

The article dwells on the technique of historical research-the process of obtaining information by the historian. Singling out three types of information-bibliographical, factographical and methodological, the author, consciously limiting his research to the history of Byzantium, emphatically stresses the need for the introduction and keeping of bibliographical card indexes, pointing out that the latter should be kept not ad hoc, in adaptation to one or another particular theme, but systematically, and must cover a far broader field of investigation than the specific theme within the researcher's purview. He considers it more expedient to put down all the essential elements of every historical source on separate cards than to make a synopsis, his argumentation in favour of this view being that, first, keeping a card index makes it easier to relieve the thought of the a priori logic suggested by the source; second, the cards possess greater mobility; third, the possibility of bequeathing the card indexes to succeeding generations and of arranging collective card indexes.

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