Soviet Historians? New Frontiers

The editorial examines the main tasks and trends of research activity by the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences? independent institutes recently founded by decision of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences and specializing in the history of the U.S.S.R. and universal history.

V. V. GORBUNOV. Lenin and the Problem Continuity in the Process of Formation of of Socialist Culture

The author analyzes the general Leninist conception of the problem of cultural heritage in connection with other important Marxist ideas on culture and in the light of Lenin?s pronouncements dating back to the pre-revolutionary period and to the early years of Soviet government. The article examines the philosophical, economic, methodological and general political aspects of the problem of cultural heritage and highlights V. I. Lenin?s struggle against the erroneous stand taken by Proletcult* on questions of cultural development.

K. A. GAFUROVA. V. I. Lenin and Certain Distinctive Features of Building Socialism in the Soviet Central Asian Republics

The building of socialism by the peoples of Central Asia had its distinctive feauteres determined by the prevailing mode of production, the level of social and economic development attained in the pre- revolutionary period, the class structure and national traditions. Drawing on the achevements of Soviet historiography in the sphere of history of the Soviet Central Asian Republics and Kazakhstan, the author examines the specific features attending the process of political and economic development and the cultural revolution in Soviet Asia. The article shows the exceptional importance attached to these problems by V. I. Lenin.

The peoples of Soviet Central Asia were the first in the history of the Eastern countries to embark on the road of socialist construction without passing through the capitalist stage of development. Relying on the fraternal assistance of the Russian and other Soviet peoples, the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen, Kirghiz, Kazakhs and Kara-Kalpaks in the shortest possible historical period have made giant strides from backwardness to progress in all spheres of life. The fact that the Communist Party and the Soviet state were undeviatingly guided in their activity by the Leninist national policy was a cardinal condition for the advancement of the peoples of Soviet Central Asia along the road to socialism.

V. J. GROSUL. Russia?s Constitutional Policy in the Balkans

The author examines the policy pursued by the tsarist government in the Balkans throughout the 19th century, pointing to the connection existing between the reforms carried out under the guidance of the Russian government on Ionian Islands (1803), in Moldavia and Walachia (1831 - 1832) and in Bulgaria (1879). The article dwells in detail

* A cultural and educational organization which arose in September 1917 as an independent workers? organization. After the October Revolution Proletcult continued to insist on independence, thus setting itself in opposition to the proletarian state. This led to the infiltration of bourgeois intellectuals, who began to exert a decisive influence on Proletcult. Its members actually denied the cultural legacy of the past, neglected cultural and educational work among the masses, isolated themselves from the life and aimed at setting up a special "proletarian culture." Proletcult organizations had their heyday in 1919. In the early 1920?s they began to decline, ceasing to exist in 1932.

on the impact the reforms effected in Moldavia and Walachia had on the reform movement in Bulgaria.

The author traces the causes which prompted the tsarist government not only to carry out reforms far beyond the borders of its own country but even to introduce there the very constitution it refused to bestow on Russia (if we disregard its feeble substitute in the shape of the Manifesto proclaimed on October 17, 1905). Russia?s constitutional policy in the Balkans was one of the levers with the aid of which the tsarist government tried to strengthen its positions on the peninsula. To implement this policy the government was compelled to enlist civil servants primarily from among the Liberals.

The reforms carried out in the Balkans played a positive role in the development of the Balkan countries but at the same time they had a tangible impact on Russia, contributing to the revival of constitutional sentiments among the people.

M. S. IVANOV. Present-Day Iran: The Road of Social and Economic

The article examines the important changes in the social, economic and cultural life of present-day Iran. The author closely analyzes the measures carried out in Iran in recent years with the aim of eliminating the country?s age-old economic backwardness: the land reform, the establishment of new, modern branches of industry, a series of measures to promote public education and health services to the population, change the status of women and introduce reforms in other spheres of social life. The article shows that the agrarian and other reforms are chiefly aimed at directing the country?s economic development, agricultural production and social life along the capitalist path.

B. A. KAMENETSKY. The Formation of Absolutist Ideology in 16th-Century England and Its Specific Features

The author of the article criticizes the widespread conception in Anglo-American bourgeois historiography, which denies the existence in 16th-century England of absolutism and its ideology by alleging that from time immemorial democratic traditions were firmly established in that country. The article clearly shows that the absolutist practice of the Tudor monarchy was accompanied by the gradual development of subservient absolutist political ideology reflecting the specific features of English absolutism distinguishing it from its continental counterpart. In contradistinction to bourgeois historians of political thought, the term "absolutist ideology" is interpreted by the author to mean not so much direct pronouncements proclaiming the monarch?s sovereignty and prerogatives as the sum- total of ideas and views on the structure of the social and political system expressing the real interests of the feudal state functioning in conditions of progressive disintegration of feudalism and the rise of capitalism.

M. N. SOKOLOVA. Concerning the Existence of a Pre-Feudal Period in Western Europe

The article examines the question of the pre-feudal (protofeudal) period in the history of human society - a period closely linked with our ideas on the socio-economic formations. This is a question of singling out, parallel with the five principal formations, intermediate periods lying outside the formations. The historians who pronounce in favour of singling out the pre-feudal period mark the existence of the latter among all the peoples of Western Europe and many nations of Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Such an approach to the problem, in the author's view, gives rise to a number of general methodological objections. The article stresses that the multiplicity of economic forms observed in the so-called "pre-feudal" period is typical of the early stage of every socio-economic formation. The singling out of the pre-feudal period, the fragmentation of the historical process according to the "vertical of time" is fraught with the danger of severing the dialectical unity and interconnection of phenomena. In the given instance (England of the 5th-early 11th centuries) it is not a case of a special pre-feudal period but of the initial phase of the feudal formation: the development of social relations proceeded towards the formation and consolidation of feudal relationships, some indications of which can be traced back to the appearance of the earliest-known independent Anglo- Saxon kingdoms.

Publisher:

Permanent link for scientific papers (for citations):

Found source (search robot):

Comments: