O.I. CHISTYAKOV. The Formation of the R. S.F.S.R. as a Federal State (1917 - 1922)

The R.S.F.S.R. was the first socialist federal state in human history. Having come into being as a unitary state, Soviet Russia was soon transformed into a federal state. Drawing on a close analysis of the concrete historical situation, the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted Lenin's Declaration of Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People and proclaimed the Russian Soviet Republic a federation. The practical formation of the Russian Federation, the establishment of its first autonomous republics began soon after the Congress. The article shows the specific features of this first stage in the development of the Russian Federation, the results of which were summed up by the Republic's Constitution adopted in July 1918.

The second stage in the development of the Russian Federation, which coincided with the Civil War period, is likewise marked by important distinctive features. This period witnessed the establishment of many autonomous republics, territories, regions and areas within the Russian Federation, the enhanced leadership of the process of development of national statehood by central Party and government bodies, the consistent implementation of the national-territorial principle in the formation of autonomous national entities and the emergence of new forms of autonomy.

The formation of the Russian Federation was completed in 1922. In the early postwar years practically all the peoples of Russia were granted autonomy, with the territory of each autonomous entity strictly delineated, its state mechanism formed and its legal status stabilized. Essentially speaking, it was during that period that the Russian Federation acquired the form it continues to retain in our days.

B.F. FEDOTOV. Little-Known Sources Relating to the Period of the Civil War and Foreign Military Intervention in the U.S.S.R.

The article examines four groups of little-known sources disclosing the attempts made by British, French, American, Rumanian and other foreign interventionists in 1917 - 1920 to implant in Soviet Russia puppet Whiteguard governments and utilize them for the furtherance of their sinister plans of strangling the young Soviet Republic. Analyzing the minutes of sessions and meetings held by Whiteguard "governments" as well as the latter's correspondence, the author traces the foreign interventionist's interference in the formation of Whiteguard "governments" in Russia's Northern provinces (N. Chaikovsky, E. Miller) and Northwestern territories (Yudenich), and highlights the convocation by diplomatic representatives of the Entente powers of a conference at Jassy in November 1918, to which prominent spokesmen of Russia's bourgeois-conservative and conciliatory groupings were invited. The aim of this conference, according to one of the sources, was to muster the counter-revolutionary forces for the struggle against the Soviet Republic. Of much interest in this connection are the materials contained in Admiral Kolchak's "Diary," which graphically show that prior to his arrogating to himself the role of "supreme ruler of Russia." Kolchak had offered his services first to the United States and then to Britain, and had actually entered British military service. The question concerning the formation in Siberia of Whiteguard

"government" headed by Kolchak had been predetermined more that seven months before the Omsk putsch of November 1918, which enabled Kolchak to seize power in Siberia.

V.T. PASHUTO. Professor Stokl Reflects on the Lessons of History

The latest works of Professor Gunter Stokl, the well-known West-German Ostfor-' scher, are indicative of the complexity of his position. On the one hand, he continues to cling to his anti-communist doctrine, trying to discover in Russia's history certain features alienating it from the past history of Europe with a view to creating on their basis a false genealogy of the Great October Socialist Revolution and elaborate an anti-Soviet scheme of the Soviet Union's contemporary history. On the other hand, he condemns the undisguised apologists of revanchism, rejects the Hallstein doctrine and appeals for broader cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and the socialist countries. Professor Stokl's efforts to remain neutral in the tense struggle between the forces of peace and socialism and the camp of revanchism and neofascism warrant the conclusion that he has apparently forgotten the fate of the liberal historiography of the Weimar period. How it ended is a matter of common knowledge.

L.I. REISNER and G. K. SHIROKOV. The Prehistory of State Planning in India

Drawing on their close analysis of numerous documents and sources dating back to the period immediately preceding the proclamation of India's independence, the authors trace the appearance of the first ideas and concepts of planning in that country. The prehistory of planning in India enables one to gain a deeper understanding of the origin and mechanism of the present system of planning in India and other developing countries. Their comprehensive study of the activity carried on by the Planning Commission of the Indian National Congress and of such important documents as the Bombay, Gandhi and Praja plans brings the authors to the conclusion that certain underlying principles of the policy of planning (the specific role of the state, industrialization, control and restriction of private, notably foreign, capital accumulation, etc.) were formulated in India long before independence. In choosing the methods of transforming the social and economic structure inherited from the colonial period, India's experts in the theory of planning were opposed to the revolutionary breakup of the old system of social relations, pronouncing in favour of their gradual remodelling through reforms. This was a vivid manifestation of the narrow-mindedness of the national bourgeoisie in its approach to the solution of India's social and economic problems.

A.B. LETNEV. The Problem of African Parties in Bourgeois Africanistics

The article is devoted to a critical analysis of the latest works produced by a number of Western Africanists making research in Africa's national political parties. Tracing the origin of African parties, the author subjects to criticism the viewpoint shared by many bourgeois historians, according to which Africa's political parties are not the result of the social processes taking place in the African countries themselves but a product of the bourgeois parliamentary system prevailing in the metropolitan countries. The article substantiates the need of displaying a class approach to any party (including African parties) and graphically proves the utter groundlessness of classifying the African parties and analyzing their activity on the basis of other, allegedly supra-class criteria applied by bourgeois historians and sociologists. The opinion of bourgeois scientists is counterposed by the viewpoint of Marxist Africanists explaining the causes responsible for the emergence of the one-party system in Africa and disclosing the class essence of this system.

A.S. GROSSMAN. The Berlin-Rome "Axis" and the Outbreak of World War II

The article graphically shows that the outbreak of the second world war directly affected the pattern of German-Italian relations. Although outwardly marked by friend-

ship and close alliance, these relations seriously deteriorated in the gttturnn of 1939 owing to Italy's refusal to join Hitler Germany following the latter's attack on Poland. But the attempts of Italy's ruling element to steer an independent foreign policy dismally failed. Numerous German, Italian, British and American diplomatic documents and press reports graphically confirm that Italy's decision to proclaim itself a "nonbelligerent power" was met With profound resentment by the nazi leaders who accused Italy's rulers of "treachery." In the economic sphere too serious differences arose between the "axis" partners during that period. Owing to the German-Italian differences, the military pact between the two "axis" powers proved ineffectual in the early period of World War II, all the more so since the "phony war" with its clearly expressed anti-Soviet direction was at its height. Only in the subsequent period, when Italy, scared by the prospect of Germany routing the Western Powers single-handed and becoming the undivided ruler of Europe, declared war on Britain and France, did the military pact between the "axis" powers become more effective. Thus one more step was made by the fascist coalition towards its ignominious collapse.

I.N. KHLOPIN. Segmentation in the History of Primitive Society

The article analyzes the impact of population growth on the development of human society, focussing attention on the phenomenon of segmentation - peculiar method of preserving human society both in individual social organisms (clan, tribe) and on the whole. The author puts forward the thesis on social segmentations in the process of which there invariably emerge qualitatively new social organisms. Thus, the first social segmentation leads to the formation of the tribe, as a result of which society advances towards the patriarchal relations. The second social segmentation leads, on the one hand, to the formation of peoples characterized by the predominance of the cattle-breeding form of productive economy, and, on the other, to the emergence of the early class- states of the Near East type. At the same time, this sagmentation is an indispensable prerequisite for the social division of labour which was defined by Engels as the first large-scale social division of labour.

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