I. J. BEDNYAK, A. M. DUBIMSKY. The Soviet Union's Contribution to the Defeat of Militarist Japan

The authors examine the causes that prompted the Soviet Union in 1945 to open hostilities against militarist Japan - that faithful ally of nazi Germany. The U.S.S.R. not only fulfilled its commitments to the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition assumed by the leaders of three allied powers at their conferences in Teheran (1943) and Yalta (1945), but also performed its liberating mission with regard to the peoples of East and Southeast Asia. The military action undertaken by the Soviet Union in 1945 was of immense significance for China which had been subjected to Japanese aggression since 1931. The assistance rendered by the Soviet Union to the people of China in 1945 proved of vast importance as a factor contributing to the triumph of the Chinese revolution. In this connection the authors touch on the question concerning the present position of China's Maoist leadership which has taken the path of great-power chauvinism and hegemonism.

M. A. VYLTSAN. The Principal Stages in the Development of the Material and Technical Basis of Soviet Agriculture

Drawing on numerous historical publications and a wide range of other sources, the author makes an attempt to trace the stage-by-stage process of uninterrupted development of the material and technical basis of Soviet agriculture from the first steps in the field of technically reconstructing agriculture taken in the 1920's to the consistent policy of comprehensively mechanizing all branches of agricultural production being effected in our days. The author comes to the conclusion that the restructuring of agriculture along socialist lines resulted in the creation of an entirely new material and technical basis of agriculture and made it possible to effect a transition from hand-operated and horse-drawn machines and implements to a system of highly efficient up-to-date machines and tractor-drawn farm implements. Considerable attention is devoted in the article to examining the most important socio-economic results and benefits accruing from all-round mechanization of the basic labour processes in crop farming and livestock breeding.

P. A. ZAIONCHKOVSKY. The Provincial Administration in Russia on the Eve of the Crimean War

The article closely examines the structure and activity of the provincial administration in Russia during the crisis of the feudal system in the mid-19th century. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author traces the social origin, property status, age, education and professional training of provincial governors and vice-governors, chairmen of the courts of exchequer, directors of state property departments, public prosecutors and presidents of criminal and civil courts.

V. V. SOGRIN. The U. S. War of Independence and Its Ideological Sources

The article highlights the development of the ideology of the anti-British movement in North America from 1764 to 1776. The author traces its connection with the progressive social thought in Western Europe in the 17th-18th centuries. The moderate, the radical and the revolutionary trends stood out most saliently in the ideology of the patriotic movement. The proponents of the moderate trend did not go beyond the demand that the colonists be represented in the British parliament (James Otis) or exempted from the heavy burden of taxation imposed by the metropolitan country (John Dickinson). In contradistinction to this, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and other prominent radicals,

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who succeeded in substantially enhancing their influence among the patriots in the first half of the 1770's, put forward the task of winning political autonomy for the North American provinces. But the most important work of formulating the revolutionary doctrine was done by Thomas Paine, who proclaimed the struggle for independence and for the republican ideals to be the chief aim of the patriotic movement.

M. A. BARG. The Comparative Historical Study of the Bourgeois Revolutions of the 16th-18th Centuries

The problem of applying the comparative historical method in studying the bourgeois revolutions of the 16th-18th centuries has now advanced to the foreground of historiography. The method that has become firmly rooted in Western historiography in recent years is based on the synchronous approach to the investigation of the above-mentioned problem, which leads to a comparison of the crises that do not lend themselves to comparison by their very nature, such as inter-formation revolutions, the riots and disturbances flaring up within the framework of one or another formation. etc. The author proposes the method of examining each of the three bourgeois revolutions of that period embracing the whole of Europe (the Reformation and the Peasants' War in Germany in the 16th century, the English Revolution of the mid-17th century and the French Revolution of the end of the 18th century) stage by stage. This will make it possible to bring out the distinctive features of each of these revolutions and at the same time to disclose the general laws intrinsic to all of them.

G. F. KIM. Maoism and the National-Liberation Movement

The article analyzes the policy pursued by the People's Republic of China in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the aim of imposing its hegemony on the peoples of these continents. Particular attention is devoted by the author to a close examination of the Maoists' activity in the developing countries spearheaded against the Soviet Union which works steadfastly and consistently to strengthen the national sovereignty and to promote the social progress of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The article makes it abundantly clear that the Maoists' actions are basically aimed at undermining the alliance of the national-liberation movement with the socialist world system. To achieve this purpose the Maoists are entering into blocs with the most reactionary forces and ultra-Left adventuristic elements within the developing countries.

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