P. A. ZHILIN. Corresponding Member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. Topical Problems of Research in the History of the Great Patriotic War

The article contains a brief historiographical analysis of research work being done in the Soviet Union into the history of the Great Patriotic War, examining the most important problems connected with the further study and generalization of the experience gained in defending the Soviet state in the years of World War II, and highlighting the liberating mission of the U.S.S.R. and its decisive role in the achievement of victory over the forces of world fascism. The author dwells on a number of scientific and methodological problems which are of great significance for a deeper study and generalization of the nation-wide character of the Great Patriotic War, its results and consequences, the importance of its lessons for the contemporary period.

M. I. KULICHENKO. The Socio-Economic Basis of Reciprocal Influence and Mutual Enrichment of National of Cultures in the Conditions of Developed Socialism

The article graphically shows that the process of building socialism tends to unite more closely the various nations and nationalities, bring their cultures closer together and form a single international culture. These processes become more pronounced in the conditions of mature socialism, when the task of evening out the levels of development attained by the different peoples, including the development levels in the sphere of culture, has been successfully solved in the main. The author notes the significant achievements made in studying these problems, at the same time stressing that their investigation is by no means exhausted. One of the most important aspects that has practically escaped the scientists' field of vision is the study of the influence exerted by economic relations, by material production on the spiritual life of men, on the peoples' interrelations in the sphere of culture. From the numerous questions of this theme the article singles out and analyzes the following: the increasing role played by the single national-economic complex in the life and development of every nation and nationality; steady deepening of the processes of internationalizing the life of the peoples and the growing impact made on these processes by the present-day scientific and technological revolution; the enhanced influence of the social-class factors, primarily the leading role of the working class, on the spiritual communion ofthe peoples; the significance of the existence of the Soviet peoples as a new historical community of men for the development and interaction of national cultures.

A. A. PREOBRAZHENSKY. The Evolution of Feudal Landownership in Russia from the 17th to the Early 19th Centuries

The article makes it abundantly clear that in the period from the 17th to the early 19th centuries there occurred multiform changes in the system of feudal landownership in Russia: its quantitative growth attended by its spread to new territories. The consolidation of absolutism was accompanied by the legal and factual merger of the landlord and patrimonial forms of landownership; vast landed estates became the alienable hereditary property of the gentry. Big feudal landownership of the latifundian type occupied the dominant position while broad segments of the "noble estate" mortgaged and sold their landed property more and more frequently. The land monopoly of the ruling class was partially infringed as lease operations, purchase and sale and other land transactions became widespread in the countryside. One of the channels through which landed estates passed into the hands of the rising bourgeoisie was industrial entrepreneurship. The development inevitably took a turn towards radically changing the system of private landownership by depriving it of its social- estate basis.

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V. D. KULBAKIN. Economic Relations with the Soviet Union and the Stand Taken by the Social Forces of Germany in 1929 - 1932

The article sheds light on Soviet-German relations and on the position adopted by the social forces of Germany in 1929 - 1932. Drawing on documentary sources and scientific investigations of Soviet and foreign historians and economists, the author paints a vivid picture of the struggle between two tendencies in the politics and public opinion of Germany on the question of Soviet-German relations during that period. The main conclusion drawn by the author is this: despite the periodic intensification of the anti-Soviet direction of the policy pursued by the governments of Germany during the last years of the Weimar Republic, the objective conditions of those years, the powerful movement of the masses for the development and strengthening of Soviet-German relations and the vocal demands of the country's business and industrial community interested in economic relations with the U.S.S.R., compelled the ruling circles of Germany to abandon their policy of renouncing Soviet-German co-operation. The experience of this co-operation testifies to the mutual advantage offered by normal relations between states irrespective of their social systems, to the need of strengthening these relations in the name of peace and international weapons in the period between 1965 and 1975, devoting particular attention to illustrating security.

N. K. ARBATOVA. Italy and the Problem of Halting the Spread of Nuclear Weapons

The article examines the evolution of Italy's policy on the non-proliferation of nuclear the internal struggle in Italy over the question of ratifying the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The author comes to the conclusion that the adoption of the law on ratification in 1975 was determined in large measure by the strengthening of the positions of the Left forces which were working consistently for Italy's accession to the Treaty. From the point of foreign policy, the most important factor in this respect was the positive influence of detente on limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.

A. A. FURSENKO. "Freedom" and "Human Rights" in the 18th-century American Revolution

The article is devoted to one of the basic problems of the American revolution, which has become the subject of heated debates between representatives of the different trends in U.S. bourgeois historiography. The author examines the question of "democracy" in the cities of New England during the colonial period, the impact of the mass movement on democratic changes in the course of the revolution, the character of the new legislation adopted by the States and of the Federal Constitution of 1787. The article clearly shows that the nature of the changes brought about by the American revolution was determined by the correlation of the class forces and by the historical peculiarities attending the development of the North American colonies of England. The "freedom" and "human rights" asserted in the course of the revolution were determined by the narrow bounds of bourgeois transformations which from the very outset were distinguished for their historical limited character.

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