Y. P. PETROV. CPSU - Organiser and Leader in Victories Scored by the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War.

The article treats of the more important aspects of the Party's direction of the struggle waged by the Soviet people against the enemy in World War Two. A total of one million one hundred thousand communists, i. e. one third of the membership, were transferred in the first six months of the war from their peacetime jobs in the national economy to the Red Army and Navy. With the outbreak of the war the Party was confronted with the most formidable problem of shifting the industries to the East. In less than six months, in conditions of war a whole industral power in effect was shifted several hundred kilometres eastward. The Volga Region, Ural and Siberia were transformed into the nation's armory. From early in 1942 a steady growth of munitions production was registered. This made it possible to re-equip the Red Army by the end of the same year and to provide it with new weapons and materiel.

The author has shown the shift in the balance of forces on the Soviet-German front. Whereas in the beginning of the war the nazis enjoyed a two-fold superiority in manpower and materiel over the Soviet forces, by 1945 it was the Red Army that had a two-fold superiority in respect to numerical strength, a three-fold superiority in artillery, a five to two superiority in tanks and a more than seven-fold superiority in aircraft.

The article characterises the more important phases of the war. The Battle at Moscow foiled the plan of war of nazi Germany. After defeating the enemy at Stalingrad the Red Army assumed a general offensive. In autumn 1944 the Army completed the liberation of the entire Soviet territory from the invader. The USSR and its Army played a decisive role in delivering many of the European peoples from nazi slavery. The Red Army routed the nearly million strong Kwantung Army in a matter of a few days. It was the main striking land force of militarist Japan. This defeat predetermined Japan's surrender.

The victory in the Great Patriotic War revealed to the world the might of the world's first socialist power and its greatness.

M. V. ZAKHAROV. Marshal of the Soviet Union. Pages from the History of the Soviet Armed Forces on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War (1939 - 1941).

In those years the author was Assistant Chief of General Staff and Chief of Staff, Frontier Odessa Military Area. He describes in the article the way in which a number of key problems bearing on the development of the USSR Armed Forces and on preparation of the forces for repelling the nazi aggressor were solved. Proceeding from a wealth of documents and personal reminiscences M. V. Zakharov treats of several cardinal aspects that characterised the work of the General Staff from summer 1939 till the first few weeks following the nazi attack on the USSR. Among these were strengthening the Soviet western frontiers in conditions of World War Two which had already begun (liberation of the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia, construction of fortified areas), expansion of the defence industries and progress in military equipment, training of higher military personnel and reorganisation of troop control, work of Headquarters, Odessa Military Area, in the early days of the war on the Soviet Rumanian frontier.

A. M. VASILEVSKI. Marshal of the Soviet Union. Apropos of Leadership in the Armed Struggle During the Great Patriotic War.

During the war A. M. Vasilevski was Chief of Operations Division, General Staff; Representative of Supreme Command GHQ; front commander; Chief of General Staff and Member of GHQ. In his article the author covers: 1) the causes of the setbacks suffered by the Red Army in the early period of the war; 2) the main lines of work of the State Committee for Defence headed by J. V. Stalin; 3) the work of GHQ during the Battle at Moscow in winter 1941, the Kharkov Operation in May 1942 and the Battle of Kursk in summer 1943; 4) the methods of work of J. V. Stalin as Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the whole and also in connection with the Kerch Operation in May 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad in autumn 1942 and the drawing up of new manuals and regulations; 5) the main lines of work of the General Staff as a whole, during its reorganisation after the

outbreak of the war, during the defensive battles fought in summer-autumn 1941 and in connection with the training of staff workers for the fighting fronts (army groups). The author characterises separately his own work at the General Staff and of his predecessor B. M. Shaposhnikov and his successor A. I. Antonov and a few other high ranking staff officers.

A. I. NEDOREZOV. Czechoslovakia During the Years of Revolution and Socialist Upbuilding.

The article treats of the key moments in complex social development in Czechoslovakia during the 1945 - 1970 period, the essence and results of the socio- economic changes and socialist upbuilding. In analysing the policy pursued by the different classes and social groups making up Czechoslovak society the author shows that in the first three years after the war the bourgeoisie and its political parties tried to stem the developing I revolution. In doing so they even resorted to methods of antistate conspiracy Though defeated in February 1948 the antisocialist forces undertook another attempt twenty years later to subvert the foundations of socialism in the country. However this time too they suffered failure. The achievements secured in socialist upbuilding and the guarantee of Czechoslovakia's security by the might of the entire socialist camp offer favourable prospects for the peaceful constructive work of the peoples of the country.

V. I. DASHICHEV. Character of Military and Economic Preparations Undertaken by Nazi Germany for World War Two (1933 - 1939).

Proceeding from a study of documents of nazi political and military leaders the article deals with the specific features and purposeful military and economic preparation of German fascism for World War Two. The author has focussed his attention on the way the predatory plans and strategy of nazi Germany were coordinated with its military and economic efforts. The article reveals the adventurist character of the military and economic planning of the nazi leaders. All the military and economic preparations of nazi Germany keyed to the principles of Blitzkrieg" warfare. A series of "lightning wars" was designed to expand the raw material and production base of Germany's war economy and to create the military and economic conditions for an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. The author has shown that the thesis of the bourgeois historians and economists about Germany failing to use her potentialities to the utmost for economic preparation for the last war is totally unsound..

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