Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1970. Editorial Board: Academician S. D. Skazkin, L. I. Gintsberg, G. N. Goroshkova, V. D. Yezhov. Vol. I. 510 p. Price 2 rubles. 15 kopecks. T. 2. 602 pages. Price 2 rubles 49 kopecks. Circulation 4500.

The peer-reviewed collective work prepared by the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences is the first systematic account of German history from the 16th century to the present day in Soviet literature .1 The need for such a publication is obvious, given the special interest that is caused by the history of Germany, and in our time-the history of the GDR and Germany. The need for such work is also determined by the fact that in bourgeois literature this topic has been and continues to be distorted, dictated by the desire to whitewash the reactionary forces that have brought so much evil to the German people and to many other peoples of the world. Work on the preparation of such a work was started under the guidance of the late Professor A. S. Yerusalimsky.

The team of authors 2 faced a difficult task. It was necessary to write a book that would take into account all the achievements of modern German studies and, with a relatively small volume, would systematically describe the course of the historical process over the course of almost five centuries. At the same time, it was necessary to reveal the laws of the country's development, to consider many issues, without covering which it is impossible to correctly understand the content of the German history of modern and modern times.

Did the authors complete this task? Mostly yes. Of course, the two-volume book is not a monographic study. It is largely of a popular science nature. But this is absolutely impossible

1 In the second half of the 1960s, historians of the GDR published a three-volume essay on the history of Germany from ancient times to the present (see the review by A. I. Boroznyak and I. L. Vasiliev: Voprosy Istorii, 1970, No. 10). This publication is somewhat larger than the peer-reviewed one in terms of volume and is also by its nature a popular scientific publication.

2 Two-volume authors ' collective: B. A. Aizin, A. A. Galkin, I. S. Galkin, L. I. Gintsberg, G. N. Goroshkova, D. S. Davidovich, Ya. S. Drabkin, V. S. Dyakin, V. P. Ierusalimsky, I. S. Kremer, I. M. Krivoguz, V. D. Kulbakin, M. I. Mikhailov, Yu. Ya. Moshkovskaya, N. E. Ovcharenko, G. L. Rozanov, M. I. Semiryaga, acad. S. D. Skazkin, M. M. Smirin.

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consider it a disadvantage of the publication. A research work that would cover all the problems and all the basic facts of such a vast historical period could not be contained in the limited scope of these two volumes.

The first volume opens with the chapter "On the threshold of a new time". It focuses on events related to the Reformation and the Peasant War, with special attention paid to the ideological processes that took place in that era. The next two chapters cover the least studied stages of German historical development in the Soviet literature - the 17th and 18th centuries. Bourgeois historians usually consider this period only from the point of view of the backwardness of the then German lands. Taking into account recent studies by Marxist scholars, primarily historians of the GDR, the authors convincingly showed that the economic backwardness of the German lands-a consequence of wars (primarily the Thirty Years ' War) and the fragmentation of the country-was successfully overcome: capitalist relations are gradually making their way. The book naturally pays special attention to the rise of Prussia and the growth of Prussian militarism; at the same time, it highlights the process of the formation of absolutism in other German lands - Bavaria, Württemberg, Mecklenburg, Saxony - which is marked in each of them by a significant peculiarity. Although the history of these lands is sparsely described in the book, the relevant sections are of natural interest.

The ideological life of Germany was very intense at that time, which was determined by the struggle of the advanced elements of the bourgeoisie for the unity of the country. The German Enlightenment, which culminated in the "Storm and Onslaught" movement, is one of the most glorious pages of German history, and it is quite justified that a special chapter should be devoted to this problem. The value of the latter lies primarily in the fact that it traces the stages of development of the German Enlightenment and very fully characterizes the two main lines within a single political movement - the moderate and the radical democratic. Here we consider the works of not only such major representatives of social thought of that period as Thomasius, Wolf, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, but also much less well-known, although very interesting thinkers (for example, Froelich and Ziegenhagen). - Every historian will also be interested in the section highlighted in the chapter (although, unfortunately, short) - "Enlightenment and historical science in Germany".

The events connected with the influence of the Great French Bourgeois Revolution and the Napoleonic conquests on Germany are described in detail in the volume. The events in France, as shown in chapter 5, were not the cause, but only the impetus for mass popular demonstrations in Germany at the end of the XVIII-beginning of the XIX century. In reality, they were caused by internal factors, the crisis of the feudal system. Based on the new data, the author highlights the course of the liberation struggle of the German people against the Napoleonic yoke, for the success of which the victory of Russia over Napoleon was crucial. The section on German classical philosophy, literature and art of the early 19th century is interesting.

In the 20s and 40s of the 19th century, as the volume notes, the economic development of the German lands clearly accelerated, although it was held back by the fetters of feudal fragmentation. Chapter 6 traces in detail the first steps of the German working class, the process of the emergence and development of its first organizations - the Union of the Outcasts, the Union of the Just, and finally the Union of Communists - and the ideological struggle in these organizations. In this chapter, readers meet two of the greatest thinkers - the sons of the German people, the proletarian revolutionaries Karl Marx and Fr. By Engels. However, other aspects of domestic political history are less well covered, and nothing is said about the foreign policy relations of the German lands. One of the central places in the volume is occupied by the description of the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1848-1849. The corresponding chapter draws on the work of the founders of Marxism on this subject, numerous sources and the latest literature. It shows the role of the German working class in the revolution, clearly outlines the insufficient level of its class consciousness at that time, the indecision of the petty and the treacherous policy of the big bourgeoisie. The chapter rightly emphasizes the great significance of the revolution of 1848-1849, despite its defeat, for the further historical destinies of Germany.

If the issues related to this revolution are being worked out quite intensively in the Marxist, including the Soviet one

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However, the problems related to the next two decades, up to the unification of the country "from above", have not yet been sufficiently studied. Therefore, Chapters 8 and 9, which show the complex and contradictory nature of the country's development in the 50s and 60s of the XIX century, are of particular interest. Chapter 8 examines the immediate consequences of the defeat of the revolution, provides numerous facts about the triumph of reaction in the German lands, especially in Prussia, and shows the establishment of the Prussian path of development of capitalism in agriculture. In the center of the presentation is the struggle between supporters of the small-German and great-German ways of unification of the country. This presentation proves conclusively that neither path corresponded to the interests of the German people; only the path advocated by Karl Marx and Fr. The path of the revolutionary struggle for a united democratic republic. The chapter traces the evolution of German liberalism and details the course of the constitutional conflict in Prussia that culminated in Bismarck's rise to power. A special section is devoted to the creation of the "General German Workers 'Union"; it clearly describes the historical place of Lassalle and Lassallianism, reveals both Lassalle's contribution to the development of the German labor movement and the great damage caused to this movement by his teachings.

It should be noted that the two-volume book was published at a time when West German bourgeois historians were celebrating the centenary of the "founding of the Reich". The chapter on this topic (Chapter 9), based on the latest materials and interpreting it from a Marxist perspective, will help refute the tendentious perversions of reactionary figures of historical science in Germany about the essence of the Bismarckian unification of Germany.

The final five chapters of the volume are devoted to the history of the Kaiser's Reich. The first of them shows the causes and course of the rapid economic development of Germany in the 70s-80s of the XIX century, the formation of monopoly capital, the formation of Junker-bourgeois imperialism. The chapter contains much that is new in covering such key points of domestic political life as the Kulturkampf and the development of the labor movement after the creation of the Eisenach party and the establishment of Marxism in it. Studies conducted by historians of the USSR and the GDR made it possible to show in detail the special reactionary nature of Bismarck's policy from the late 70s of the XIX century, which was most clearly characterized by the "exclusive law" against socialists. Much attention is paid in this volume to the struggle of the German working class against the reactionary law and to the role of Karl Marx and Fr. Engels in this struggle, which ended in the political collapse of Bismarck and his resignation. In the next chapter, the Caprivi government's social maneuvering is analyzed in detail, and the true goals of the so-called new deal are revealed. The "policy of rallying" the ruling classes of the Reich, their attack on the interests of the working people, the intensified struggle of the proletariat against reaction - such is the subject of this chapter, which devotes much space to describing the processes that took place in the working-class movement after the abolition of the "exclusive law". A certain disadvantage is the fluency with which the question of the growth of militarism in Germany in the 90s of the last century is presented.

One of the most important aspects of the history of Germany during the Kaiser's Empire was its entry into the international arena. In the corresponding chapter, based on the latest materials, the functioning of the Bismarckian system of unions is considered in detail. The main place here is occupied by the analysis of German-Russian relations during the period of Bismarck's foreign policy activity. The book traces the objective reasons for the change in Germany's foreign policy orientation in the 90-ies of the XIX century. and the driving forces of the development of "world politics". The impact of the transition to broad expansion on all aspects of the country's economic and political life at the beginning of the XX century. covered in chapter 13. Noting the particular aggressiveness of German imperialism, the authors trace in detail its preparation for the war for the redivision of the world. One aspect of this preparation was the cultivation by the ruling classes of opportunism and revisionism in the Social-Democratic Party. Considering the evolution of the SPD towards opportunism, the authors also highlight the struggle of representatives of the left-wing current of the party for revolutionary methods, the influence of the Russian revolution of 1905-1907 on the German labor movement.

In recent years, much has been done in the field of studying the history of Germany.

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the First World War; it is worth noting in this regard the three-volume 3 (and other works) of GDR scientists, as well as the research of the West German historian F. A. Kropotkin. Fischer and his associates. These works are widely used in the corresponding chapter of the two-volume book, where the presentation is brought to October 1917. Here the role of Germany in unleashing the war and the aggressive plans of German imperialism are revealed. Describing the course of military operations that seemed to be successful for Germany, the authors seek to show the inevitability of its defeat, which was determined by the adventurous aggressive program of the German monopolies. With good reason, much attention is paid to the development of the working-class movement during the war years, to exposing the treachery of the leaders of German social-democracy and showing the course of the revolutionary struggle, to creating the Spartak group and strengthening it under the influence of the revolutionary events of 1917 in Russia.

Although the modern history of Germany spans only five decades in length, it is so full of historical events that it is quite justified to separate it into a separate volume. The second volume is even larger in volume than the first, and yet it cannot be said that the authors had the opportunity to present the material less compactly than in previous periods. On the contrary, the disadvantage of some chapters of the volume can be considered a forced patter, which they had to resort to in an attempt to fit the material into the limited volume of the book.

The volume opens with a chapter that explores the fundamental issues of the November Revolution in Germany based on valuable archival materials. Here the reasons that determined the bourgeois - democratic character of the revolution are described in detail, and its results are shown. A special section is devoted to the most important event in the history of the German labor movement - the creation of the Communist Party of Germany. Unfortunately, the history of the Bavarian Soviet Republic is very briefly covered.

"In the fire of class battles (1919-1923)" is the title of the next chapter, which examines the turbulent period of German history from the November Revolution to the defeat of the Hamburg Uprising. It describes the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles for Germany, the attacks of reaction, and the stubborn struggle of the revolutionary forces for national and social liberation, whose important milestones were the national strike against the Kappa-Lutwitz putsch and the events of 1923. The problems of foreign policy are covered, albeit somewhat cursorily. The chapter shows the objective reasons that pushed Germany-against the will of its ruling circles - to move closer to Soviet Russia, which led to the conclusion of the Rapallo Treaty in 1922.

During the period of partial stabilization of capitalism that followed the revolutionary crisis of 1923, the economic power of German imperialism was revived. The corresponding chapter analyzes the driving forces of the German economic recovery and the reasons for its particular exposure to market conditions; examines the contradictions and struggles in the bourgeois camp, which resulted in frequent changes of government. Central to this is the history of the workers ' movement, which was split by the leaders of the SPD, and the KKE's struggle for unity of action of the working class, which culminated in a significant success - a mass campaign for the alienation of the property of the princes.

A number of chapters are devoted to the tragic period in the history of Germany - the period of the onset of fascism, the establishment of a bloody dictatorship and the unleashing of Nazi aggression. Revealing the scale and consequences of the economic crisis of 1929-1932, which led to a sharp increase in the fascist threat, the authors expose the policy of the ruling circles of Germany, which focused on the most reactionary forces. At the same time, they show the struggle between separate groups of German monopoly capital. The volume focuses on the anti-fascist movement led by the KKE. It seems reasonable to conclude that thanks to the efforts of the KKE and the anti-fascist movement as a whole, a turning point was reached in the course of the class struggle in the country in the autumn of 1932. The ruling circles called the Nazis to power not because the latter continued to strengthen their positions, but on the contrary - in order to protect the fascist party from collapse.

The chapter "The Years of the Fascist Dictatorship" traces in detail the activities of the Hitlerite rulers aimed at strengthening the fascist system, militarizing the economy, and preparing for diplomatic aggression.-

3 "Deutschland im ersten Weltkrieg". Bd. 1 - 3. B. 1968 - 1969.

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sive acts of the Nazis. It describes the extremely difficult conditions of the anti-fascists ' activity, but at the same time it convincingly showed that the opponents of the Hitlerite regime never stopped fighting. The authors provide evidence that during the fascist dictatorship, the development of state-monopoly capitalism entered a new stage. But, unfortunately, the chapter does not reveal the essence of this stage with the necessary clarity, nor does it comprehend the important restructuring in the structure of monopoly capital, which was expressed by the transition of key positions in the economy to the administration of the "four-year plan".

As you know, the Nazis managed to fool a large part of the German people with the help of propaganda. Therefore, the authors ' close attention to this problem is fully justified. In a special chapter devoted to this topic, the reactionary nature of Nazi ideology and its hostility to science are revealed, the official purpose of various elements of this ideology is shown, and the reasons for the influence of Fascist propaganda on various segments of the population are clarified. We only have to regret that the chapter does not fit well enough into the book. It is, in particular, poorly connected with the next chapter, which outlines the situation of Nazi Germany during the years of the Second World War unleashed by it. There is a lot of space here, and this is quite natural, devoted to the presentation of the course of military operations on the war fronts, and first of all on the most important of the fronts - the Soviet-German one. Along with this, the chapter highlights the internal terrorist policy of the fascist government, shows the origin and rise of the resistance movement to the Fascist invaders in the occupied countries and its development in Hitler's Germany itself. A special section is dedicated to the National Committee "Free Germany". The chapter gives a clear description of the July 20, 1944 plot and reveals the pattern of the collapse of German fascism.

One of the largest chapters in the volume deals with the extremely important period-1945-1949, when after the collapse of the fascist regime, radically different ways of further historical development of East and West Germany were determined. The authors thoroughly showed the profound democratic transformations and the victory of the anti-fascist-democratic forces in eastern Germany, the restoration of the omnipotence of monopolies and the strengthening of the position of reaction in its western part, the course of the Western powers and the reactionary forces of West Germany towards the creation of a separate state. The historical significance of the formation of the SED and its activities in the following years, as well as the coverage of the mass democratic movement in West Germany, is given due place in the presentation. In the next chapter, the process of the formation of the GDR, the strengthening of the anti-fascist-democratic system in the young republic of German workers, and the transition to the construction of socialism are examined in great detail. It shows how the mass popular initiative of the GDR workers was developed in the restoration and development of the national economy of the republic, and vividly describes the successful implementation of the first five-year plan.

The West German state developed along a different path. Two chapters are devoted to its history, which examines the economic upswing of the 50s in Germany, reveals its true causes, the undivided management of monopolistic capital in the country, and the reactionary and aggressive course of the Adenauer government. Much attention is rightly paid to the characterization of the course towards the remilitarization of Germany, the role of Bonn in NATO, and economic expansion in the German foreign policy system. At the same time, the author traces the development of the anti-militarist and democratic movement in West Germany, examines its various stages and forms, and convincingly shows the failure of the adventurist "power policy" pursued by the CDU/CSU governments for 20 years.

The last chapter of the two - volume book, "The GDR - an outpost of peace and Socialism in Europe", tells about the successful development of the GDR along the path of building socialism. The authors revealed the historical merits of the SED in rallying and mobilizing the broad masses of working people of the GDR to fight for the victory of socialism.

Some of the book's shortcomings have already been discussed above. It should also be noted that it contains little historiographical material, which is also necessary for a popular scientific work. Unfortunately, the second volume (starting in 1945) deals only in passing with the development of German culture, and the relevant material is not allocated in special sections, as was done for previous periods.

In a brief conclusion, the authors underline-

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They point out that although German history in modern and modern times has developed along a complex and tortuous path, and although the forces of war and reaction in Germany have caused enormous damage to all of humanity, in the end, the historical results and the increasingly clear prospects inspire "confidence in the imminent victory of the forces of peace and democracy throughout German soil" (p. 538).. The great merit of the authors of the two-volume book is that they convincingly confirm this conclusion on a huge amount of factual material.

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