G. A. DEBORIN. Historic Lessons of the Great Patriotic War
The article is devoted to the twentieth anniversary of the great victory achieved by the freedom- loving peoples over nazi Germany in hard-fought battles. The author points out that this victory has gone down in world history as one of its most important landmarks. The results of the war have been and continue to be of vital significance for every country and every people of the world.
The article vividly shows how tragically the situation developed for the Soviet people in the early period of the war. The sudden perfidious attack launched by 190 enemy divisions forced the Red Army to retreat and surrender to the enemy a considerable part of the Soviet territory with large economic resources and a sizable proportion of the population. However, the progress and outcome of the war, the author notes, confirmed the historical invincibility of socialism, its immense advantages over capitalism, the futility of the imperialists' military ventures.
G. A. Deborin stresses that the Soviet-German Front constituted the main front of the second world war. The author writes that the Soviet people's unparalleled heroism in the Great Patriotic War. which constituted a motive force in the achievement of victory, assumed a truly mass character. By staunchly defending their homeland the Soviet people were at the same time performing their internationalist duty. They fought in the name of socialism, for the sake of delivering mankind from the threat of enslavement by the fascist aggressors.
In conclusion G. A. Deborin emphasizes that the victory of the freedom-loving nations in the second world war, in the achievement of which the decisive role belonged to the Soviet people, brought about fundamental changes in the international situation in favour of democracy and socialism, in favour of national and social emancipation of the working people.
E. B. GENKINA. The Leninist Methods of Drawing Intellectuals Into the Process of Socialist Construction
The article is devoted to a detailed examination of the Leninist methods of drawing the old, bourgeois intelligentsia into the process of socialist construction and to the generalization of individual aspects of the Leninist experience in the field of work among the intelligentsia on the concrete material furnished by V. I. Lenin's state activity in the early years of peaceful socialist construction (1921 - 1922).
The author's attention is focussed on the forms and methods of morally winning over the intelligentsia to the side of the proletariat.
The first part of the article is devoted to illustrating the significance of V. I. Lenin's personal contacts with the most prominent representatives of the old intelligentsia in the field of science and technology, to Lenin's correspondence with them, to his unflagging concern for improving the working conditions and living standards of scientific research personnel, to the forms of his leadership of the entire work in the sphere of scientific and cultural development.
A special section of the article is devoted to an examination of the Leninist methods of enlisting prominent scientists and engineers in the solution of cardinal national-economic problems. The article also highlights the Leninist attitude towards the old bourgeois scientists who were concentrated in those years in the country's higher educational establishments and research institutions, his methods of guiding the work of higher schools, his struggle against the persecution and baiting of the old specialists.
In conclusion the author cites examples illustrating the Leninist policy in the sphere of culture and art.
I. M. MAISKY. Britain and the Soviet-Finnish War
The author, who was Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain for many years, examines in his reminiscences Britain's foreign policy in the autumn and winter of 1939 - 1940. He clearly reveals the motives which prompted the British ruling element systematically to aggravate Anglo-Soviet relations at that period.
The article cites numerous examples to show how on the eve of the second world war the British government, far from striving for an honest alliance with the U.S.S.R. and activizing the struggle against Germany after the entry of Britain and France in the war, concentrated its efforts on directing the nazi aggressor Eastward, on provoking a clash between the U.S.S.R. and Germany. The erroneousness of the British government's foreign policy line at that period was recognized by such prominent political leaders of Britain as Churchill, Cripps, Butler and others.
The author stresses that at the close of 1939 the ruling circles of Britain (and France) were not averse to "refighting" the war, i. e., to substituting the war against Germany by forming an alliance with her for the war against the U.S.S.R. It is precisely in this light that one must regard the British ruling element's reaction to the Soviet-Finnish conflict. The Soviet-Finnish conflict was used by the ruling circles of Britain and other Western powers for launching a clamorous campaign of slander against the U.S.S.R. with the express purpose of preparing the British people and world public opinion for war against the U.S.S.R.
L. V. CHEREPNIN. Leo Tolstoy's Historical Views
Analyzing Leo Tolstoy's views on the historical process, the author of the article points out that the great Russian writer arrived at an understanding of the role of the people as the driving force of the historical process. He drew extensively on historical data for his criticism of the political system based on the exploitation of the popular masses, voicing his passionate protest against wage slavery, against the colonial system and imperialist wars so ruinous for the peoples. But the writer's views on history were thoroughly imbued with idealism and fatalism. Tolstoy dreamed of a new society without violence, exploitation, national and racial enmity, a" society in which all people would be provided with land and enjoy the benefits of freedom. But the writer condemned the revolutionary path of struggle for the reorganization of social relations.
Leo Tolstoy, writes Cherepnin, painted vivid portraits of a number of historical personalities. He exposed Napoleon by depicting him as "an insignificant and pitiful weapon of history," and highly appreciated Kutuzov as a "supreme leader of the popular war." In studying the character of Nicholas I the writer tried to understand "the psychology of despotism." Tolstoy's sympathies were wholly on the side of the Decembrists, but he pointed out that their movement was historically doomed.
The author further says that Tolstoy tried to combine the principle of historism with the viability and expressiveness of characters. He demanded of every historian a faithful depiction of events and characters. He was anxious to learn every minor detail of the events described and investigated a vast number of diverse sources, critically verifying and comparing them.
In conclusion L. V. Cherepnin stresses that Tolstoy lived and worked in a period of historical change. Side by side with strong aspects in his philosophy and creative work, there are also certain weak points which, according to V. I. Lenin, are typical "only of a naive, patriarchal peasant, not of a highly educated and erudite writer."
B. N. TOPORNIN. The Development of the Czechoslovak State in the Period of Socialist Construction
The article is devoted to the twentieth anniversary of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In the opening part of the article the author points out that the development of the Czechoslovak state in the period of socialist construction proceeded on the basis of the general laws governing the transition from capitalism to socialism. The dictatorship of the working class, which triumphed in the Republic finally and completely after the working people's victory over the forces of reaction in February 1948, was an indispensable stage on Czechoslovakia's path to socialism and communism. At the same time, B. N. Topornin stresses, it ensured the triumph of the socialist relations of production, which now hold undivided sway both in town and country.
The article further, shows how in the course of Czechoslovakia's advance along the road of socialism there occurred important changes both in the content and forms of activity of working- class dictatorship, whose historic mission in the country is not yet completed. The functions characteristic of a state of the entire people are steadily developing, while those characteristic exclusively of working-class dictatorship are gradually dimin-
ishing. The functions of the socialist state in the sphere of economic organization, culture and education have been developing at a particularly rapid pace. The functions connected with mutual cooperation of countries belonging to the world socialist system are likewise developing successfully. These aspects found their vivid reflection in the 1960 Constitution. In recent years the basic rights and functions of the National Assembly, the Slovak National Council, the National Committees and other elective state bodies in Czechoslovakia have grown substantially. The article graphically shows that the period of socialist construction is marked by the increasing importance acquired by the guiding and directing role of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in the country's social development. Consistently promoting the Leninist standards and principles of Party life, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia is gradually undergoing the process of transformation and developing into a party of the whole people.
E. V. DOBROTIN. Unemployment in the U.S.A. and the Policy of the Right-Wing Trade Union Leaders (1955 - 1963)
E. V. Dobrotin shows that the struggle against chronic mass unemployment has become one of the major problems facing the American labour movement in recent years. One of the basic factors responsible for the systematic growth of unemployment is automation. Despite this obvious fact, the Right-wing trade union leaders follow in the wake of bourgeois propaganda, regarding automation as "another industrial revolution" and pursuing a policy of extending cooperation with capital.
The author points out that the workers demand the adoption of an effective programme for combating unemployment, including guarantees against layoffs, reducing working hours without depressing wages, concrete measures against the further intensification of labour and tangible improvement of the unemployment benefits system. Under the workers' pressure, E. V. Dobrotin writes, the Right-wing trade union leaders are compelled to put forward the same demands, but actually they are exerting every effort to sabotage their practical implementation. Instead, they draw up diverse schemes providing for "participation in profits," for the establishment of joint worker-employer committees with the aim of peacefully settling the disputes, and for other forms of cooperation, excluding strikes. The article shows how the AFL-CIO leaders seize at every conceivable pretext to renounce the struggle for carrying into practical effect their proclaimed goal of establishing a 35-hour work-week. The maintenance of high economic development rates, the article mephasizes, is regarded by Right-wing trade union leaders as the most effective way of reducing unemployment. To achieve this they propose more active go- government intervention in the economy as well as a series of practical measures to raise the purchasing power of the population. Notwithstanding the relatively high rate of economic growth in 1962 - 1964, E. V. Dobrotin writes in conclusion, unemployment in the U.S.A. continues to remain at a high level.
S. N. ARTANOVSKY. The Problem of Historical Unity of Cultures and Their Mutual Influences in Modern Bourgeois Ethnology.
This paper is an attempt by a philosopher to find a Marxist approach to the problem of unity and plurality of cultures. It presents an analysis of various points of view held by contemporary Western scholars - e. g. the thesis of "the psychic unity of mankind." While trying to show that many of these doctrines are incompatible with ethnological facts and with modern scholarship, the author gives a Marxist interpretation of the problem. In his view the historical unity of cultures is based on (1) the unity of sociological laws, operating in all human societies, (2) cultural contacts between the peoples of the world, leading to the creation of multinational cultural syncretisms. Commenting on J. Watson's and A. J. Hallowell's recent articles on acculturation, the author believes the historical and psychological approaches to be the main trends in the American acculturation theory. The purely psychological interpretation is rejected by the author of this paper, who considers the cultural contacts to be an objective socio-historical process, beginning in the upper paleolithic and gathering its strength and momentum up to our days.
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