N. I. MATYUSHKIN. The Solution of the National Question in the U.S.S.R.

The author makes an attempt to sum up certain results achieved by the Communist Party during the 50 years of Soviet power, to bring out the deep-going changes that have taken place in the life of the Soviet peoples as a result of the complete victory of socialism in the U.S.S.R., to characterize the main trends in the development of national relations in the period of communist construction. The author discloses the international character of the Great October Socialist Revolution, analyzes the essence and significance of its historic achievements in the solution of the national question, the development and consolidation of these achievements in the process of socialist construction, and reveals the basic content of the process of the further rapprochement of socialist nations in the period of communist construction. Particular attention is devoted in the article to the gradual elimination of the consequences of the bourgeois- landlord policy and to the establishment of factual equality between the Soviet peoples and nationalities; the formation of socialist nations and the establishment of friendly relations between them; socialist development of the former backward peoples without going through the capitalist stage; educating the masses in the spirit of socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism at the present stage. In conclusion the author highlights the international significance of the Leninist national policy and of the Soviet Union's experience in solving the national question.

G. A. KHIDOYATOV. Geoffrey Wheeler Rewrites the History of Soviet Central Asia

The article focusses attention on the persistent efforts made in recent years by certain British historians to give a tendentious appraisal of the history of Soviet Central Asia. The author exposes the unseemly role played in this respect by the journal Central Asian Review and its editor, Colonel Geoffrey Wheeler.

The article devotes particular attention to Geoffrey Wheeler's book "Modern History of Soviet Central Asia." The author makes a point of stressing that the chief aim of this work is to give a distorted idea of contemporary Soviet historiography devoted to the socialist republics of Central Asia.

The article cites authentic facts from Soviet and foreign literature, which graphically show the utter groundlessness of Geoffrey Wheeler?s highly tendentious assertions and the futility of his efforts to pose as an unbiassed and objective interpreter of the history of Central Asia.

At the same time G. A. Khidoyatov discloses the political roots of the literature that has taken upon itself the unenviable task of falsifying and distorting the socialist transformations in the Soviet Central Asian Republics, emphasizing that its spread in recent years must be chiefly attributed to the rise of the national-liberation movement in Afro-Asian and Latin-American countries and to the ideological struggle waged by the advocates of neo-colonialism against this movement.

R. L. RUDNITSKAYA. New Materials Illustrating the Contacts Maintained by the "Kolokol" ("Tocsin") Magazine and M. A. Bakunin with the Finnish National-Liberation Movement

The article is based on the new archive documents found in the Swedish Royal Library and the Swedish Foreign Ministry archives. The materials kept in the Swedish Royal Library have been borrowed from Emile von Quanten?s personal correspondence and contain letters by M. A. Bakunin, A. I. Herzen, A. A. Herzen, N. P. Ogarev and by the Polish emigrant Zygmund Jordan. The documents date back to the period 1862 - 1863.

The new letters by A. I. Herzen and his son, N. P. Ogarev, M. A. Bakunin and Zygmund Jordan to the Finnish emigrant, political leader and publicist Emile von Quanten disclose the history of the "Kolokol?s" relations with the Finnish emigrants in Sweden. They substantially enrich the documentary sources illustrating the attitude of the Russian revolutionary democrats towards Finland and the mounting democratic movement for Finland's national independence.

V. V. MAVRODIN. Soviet Historiography of the Ancient Russian State

The Marxist-Leninist methodology of historical research, V. V. Mavrodin notes in his article, has enabled our scientists not only critically to re-examine the extensive literature devoted to the problem but to make a new approach to the problem of sources. Soviet historians have overstepped the bounds of research based exclusively on written sources. Soviet historiography of the Kiev Rus is based on extensive data furnished by archeology, anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, toponymics, hydronymics, folklore, numismatics, sphragistics, etc. Entirely new sources and types of sources (birch-bark deeds) have been discovered. Steps have been taken to put out a scientific edition of the "Russian Truth," chronicles and records. Soviet historical science made an outstanding achievement by scientifically substantiating the feudal nature of the Kiev Rus and the ancient Russian state. Research in the development of the productive forces by the Eastern Slavs made it possible to disclose the roots of ancient Russian statehood. The ancient Russian state came into being as a result of the historical development of the Eastern Slav society, as well as of a number of non-Slav tribes and nationalities of Eastern Europe. While not denying the presence of the Normans in Rus, Soviet researchers by no means regard them as the founders of the ancient Russian state. In conclusion V. V. Mavrodin makes a point of stressing that Soviet historiography has put forward and solved the problem of the ancient Russian nationality as a new ethnic formation of the Eastern Slavs. The article defines the place and significance of the Kiev Rus in East-European and world history.

V. N. VINOGRADOV. Two Messages of Rumanian Social-Democrats to Revolutionary Russia

The article examines the Rumanian Socialists? two messages to the Russian revolution dated June and December 1917. These documents testify to the close cooperation between revolutionaries of the two countries, which was further strengthened after the October Revolution. The author links his analysis of the material with the situation that had taken shape in Rumania, showing the close attention with which the Rumanian Left Socialists studied the experience of the revolutionary developments in Russia, fully realizing their exceptional value in overcoming the reformist views of the leadership of the Second International. The exchange between revolutionaries of the two countries was not confined to ideas, for in the stormy days of the October Revolution there existed close interaction between the pen and the bayonet as weapons of equal power. The Rumanian revolutionaries dedicated all their strength to the cause of the Russian revolution, regarding it as a prelude to the revolution in their own country and counting on the support and assistance of the Russian proletariat. The article brings out certain weaknesses of the Rumanian revolutionary movement, attributing them both to the complex alignment of the class forces in the country and to the unsufficient theoretical grounding of the proletarian leaders.

Y. L. BESSMERTNY. The Present and Study of the Middle Ages

What are the factors determining the necessity of studying any historical problems; this is actually the principal question taken up by the author. A possibility to use the results of studying any historical theme for a better comprehension of the social problems of the present should be considered the first and foremost of these factors. The evolution of society and the changing demands of the class served by the historian necessarily alter the aspects of studying the past scientifically. Taking into consideration these ever changing demands of the present and basing himself upon a constantly renewed system of methods and forms of cognition the Marxist historian can and must incessantly reveal new sides of the phenomena of the past as the physicist is incessantly delving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the structure of matter. A clear instance of this may be presented by studies of the West-European early Middle Ages. Though the epoch has been studied for centuries, the number of scientific problems whose research may be of considerable social interest is very great. As an example, the author considers in his article several problems, including such as history of town; interconnection of ethnic and political development; evolution of human personality; arts in the early Middle Ages; typology of early feudal societies. The author contemplates some new ways to interpret these problems, and shows what in each of them may interest not only historians, but wider circles of our contemporaries as well.

V. A. KUMANEV. Certain Aspects of Research in the Soviet Cultural Revolution

The assertions of certain scientists that the cultural revolution is a phenomenon intrinsic to every formation are regarded by the author as absolutely untenable. The cultural revolution is characteristic only of We era of transition from capitalism to socialism and communism and represents the greatest upheaval in the spiritual life of society, distinguished for its profound content and momentous social significance, This revolutionary process is marked by the creation of a qualitatively new type of socialist culture; the working masses, supported and encouraged by the people's government, not only gain a deep knowledge of spiritual values but actively contribute their own share in order to enrich and multiply these values. The cultural revolution in the broad sense is a phenomenon embracing the two phases of communism. In the process of its development the cultural revolution passes through the following principal stages: the first stage, connoted with the solution of the main tasks arising in the period of socialist construction, and the second, concluding stage marked by the rise and development of the new culture of communism - the highest stage in mankind?s cultural advancement. The central task of the cultural revolution, according to V. A. Kumanev, is the moulding of a highly educated and harmoniously developed personality,the shaping of communist conciousness and lofty moral principles in all members of society.

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