N. Y. BROMLEY. Living Standards in the U.S.S.R. (1950 - 1965)

The article describes the changes that have taken place in the living standard of the Soviet people in the past 15 years. It examines the level and structure of the popular consumption of foodstuffs and manufactured goods, the adjustment of wages and pensions to the benefit of different categories of the population, the improvement in housing conditions, the growth of real incomes, etc. The author analyzes the basic trends of the government policy in the field of raising national living standards, at the same time paying due attention to still existing shortcomings. The article illustrates the distribution of material benefits between diverse categories of the population in accordance with the amount of labour contributed to social production.

E. S. MARKARYAN, The Basic Principles of Comparative Historical Research

The article gives a general characteristic of the comparative method of historical research and stresses the incorrectness of its treatment merely as the sum-total of research methods, for it should be borne in mind that the comparative method of historical research organically embraces certain theoretical principles. Particular attention is devoted by the author to a close analysis of the comparative typological method, in which theoretical principles play an especially important part. "Horizontal" and "vertical" use of the comparative typological method is examined in connection with historical uniformity or diversity of phenomena under investigation. The "horizontal" comparison column summarizes structurally homogeneous_; (parallel) objects, the "vertical" column-structurally heterogeneous ones, which determines the qualitative distinction between the cognitive tasks of these two types of comparative typological analysis. That is why the author attaches paramount importance to the establishment of scientific criteria with the help of which it will be possible to determine the intrinsic nature, uniformity and equivalence of historical processes and systems.

O. L. WEINSTEIN. The Rise and Deveploment of Soviet Historical Science (1920's)

The article shows the special efforts made by V. I. Lenin and the Communist Party from the very first days of Soviet power to draw bourgeois intellectuals, notably specialists in the sphere of social sciences, into the process of socialist construction, to win them over to the side of Marxism. With a view to solving the latter task, extensive use was made of the method of discussions and scientific criticism of idealist conceptions in combination with such organizational measures as democratization of secondary and higher education, large-scale training of scientific personnel through post-graduate courses, reorganization of archives, libraries and museums, the establishment of new scientific research and educational institutions. The first tangible results, writes O. L. Weinstein, made themselves felt in mid-1920's: a Society of Marxist Historians was founded, there appeared Marxist works written, by scientists belonging to the old school, more attention was devoted to the critique of bourgeois historiography. The greater part of the measures in the field of historical research, the article points out, were carried out in those years under the leadership of M. N. Pokrovsky, a veteran Bolshevik and eminent Soviet historian.

A. M. GAK, V. A. KUZKO and I. S. POLYANSKY. The Soviet People's Fraternal Material Assistance to the Working People of Capitalist Countries (1917 - 1927)

Drawing on extensive factual material furnished by various Soviet archives and by the periodical press, - the authors show the generous material assistance rendered by the Soviet state to the working class of Germany, Britain, Japan and China in the first decade

following the October Revolution. The granting of material aid by the Soviet working people to their class brothers in other countries, the article stresses, was a vivid manifestation of the Soviet people's fulfilment of their internationalist duty.

G. V. FOKEYEV. Southwest Africa in the Postwar International Relations

The article examines the question of delivering Southwest Africa from the rule of the South African racialists, who have factually annexed it. The author graphically shows how in the course of the twenty postwar years this problem has been repeatedly raised in the United Nations without, however, finding its positive solution. This should be attributed in the main to the constant counteraction on the part of the leading imperialist powers, notably the United States and Britain, to the adoption of any effective sanctions against the racialists. Moreover, South Africa's apartheid policy was even supported and encouraged by the imperialists. A sharp struggle flared up in the U. N. between these imperialist powers and the socialist countries, as well as a number of newly-liberated states, who resolutely demanded the immediate expulsion of South African racialists from Southwest Africa and the inclusion of this territory in the U. N. trusteeship system representing, according to the U. N. Charter, the first step towards independence. Beginning with the early sixties, when a large group of newly- liberated African states appeared in the U. N. the alignment of forces in this international organization changed in favour of the anti-colonialist group of countries. In present-day conditions the imperialist states are compelled to camouflage their support of South African racialists. The liberation of Southwest Africa is an urgent problem whose solution depends on the Southwest African people's persevering effort to free themselves from the rule of South African racialists, on the firm determination of all freedom-loving nations to wipe out the remaining colonial regimes in Africa and every other part of the world.

P. G. SEMYONOV. The Socialist Nation and National Statehood in the U.S.S.R.

The article continues the discussion on the theoretical definition of a nation. The author's attention is focussed on the following question: can national statehood be regarded as an indication of a socialist nation? Unlike the authors of many earlier- published articles, he answers this question in the negative, substantiating his position by two considerations. First, the rise and development of national statehood among the peoples of the U.S.S.R. (and the Federation as a whole, for that matter) should be attributed, in the author's opinion, not to the multi-national character of the Soviet population as such, but to the existence in the country, up to the victory of the October Revolution, of the national question still awaiting its solution (national strife, unequal levels of the economic and cultural development of different nations, etc.). Second, the author believes that, in historical perspective, national statehood in the U.S.S.R. will disappear before the complete fusion of the Soviet nations. Viewed in this aspect, the existence of socialist nations is quite possible without their organization in national-state entities.

N. F. KOLESNITSKY. Certain General and Specific Features of Early Class Societies

The article continues the discussion on the "Asian mode of production." Examining the question of the early class formations, the author maintains that the slaveowning mode of production arose and developed only among certain peoples inhabiting temperate-climate zones, while in the case of all other peoples the disintegration of primitive-communal relations led to the development of feudalism. There was no antagonism between the slaveowning and feudal systems, and under appropriate conditions one easily passed into the other; in countries where the slaveowning system prevailed, the transition to feudalism was effected without deep-going revolutionary upheavals. A sizable part of the population was drawn into feudal relations through state-imposed duties; exploitation of the peasants by the state, as a rule, preceded their dependence on private patrimonial estates and in some cases continued to exist throughout the medieval period. The author draws the conclusion that there are no valid grounds for attributing the feudal system in the Eastern countries to the "Asian mode of production"; one can only speak of the specific features of feudalism in Asia.

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