Y. M. GAMRETSKY, M. A. RUBACH and N. I. SUPRUNENKO, Corresponding Member, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian S.S.R. The Establishment of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

The article examines the socio-economic prerequisites and historical inevitability of the socialist revolution in the Ukraine, the efforts of the Ukrainian Bolshevik organizations to win over the majority of the Ukrainian working masses. It is graphically shown that the Bolshevik Party headed by V. I. Lenin was able to win the sympathies of the Ukrainian workers and peasants by its irreconcilable struggle against the Russian bourgeoisie and landowners. The victory of the Great October Revolution granted the Ukrainian people the right to political self-determination, to the establishment of their own republic.

The authors convincingly show that the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed the Ukraine a Soviet Republic, expressed the urge of the broad Ukrainian masses to deliver themselves from oppression by overthrowing the exploiting classes and to establish a sovereign Ukrainian Soviet state. The military defeat of the nationalist Central Rada was preceded by its political defeat, by the catastrophic decline of its prestige and influence among the masses who learned from their own political experience that the Ukrainian nationalists were defending the capitalist system The victory of the socialist revolution delivered the Ukraine from the yoke of the capitalists and landlords and created the necessary conditions for an unprecedented development of its productive forces, for the building of a socialist society, for the rapid progress of Ukrainian socialist national culture.

S. O. SCHMIDT. Certain Aspects of Research in the Agrarian History of 16th-century Russia

The article examines a number of methodological and methodical problems connected with research in the agrarian history of 16th-century Russia. The author briefly surveys the latest historical works devoted to this subject and characterizes the available historical sources, pointing out that only a few, and in many cases casual, sources have been preserved, which, moreover, are marked by extremely uneven geographical and chronological distribution. This especially applies to sources characterizing different-type possessions and landed estates. When comparing the data furnished by such sources, it is necessary strictly to determine the degree of their typicality, the possibilities they offer for a comparative study and extension of these observations to other parts of the country, other types of estates and other periods of the 16th century. Particular attention is devoted by the author to the problem of "general" and "specific" in the agrarian history of 16th-century Russia. Russia's agrarian history in the 16th century is veiwed in comparison with developments in the agrarian history of the preceding and subsequent centuries, as well as with the various phenomena in the agrarian history of other countries. The author formulates the immediate tasks of research in the sphere of agrarian-history and proposes a number of organizational measures facilitating the achievement of these tasks.

A. N. KRASILNIKOV. The Soviet Union's Struggle Against Colonialism and Its Falsification by Bourgeois Ideologists

The article is devoted to an analysis of the methods resorted to by bourgeois historiography in its efforts to present in a highly tendentious and distorted light the Soviet Union's struggle against colonialism. The author exposes the most widespread allegation concerning the supposedly "aggressive" intentions harboured by the Soviet Union against Afro-Asian and Latin-American countries, graphically showing the futility of the attempts made by unscrupulous bourgeois ideologists to attribute the rapid development of the national-liberation movement and the steady weakening of the positions of the colonial powers on all continents after the second world war to Soviet interference in

the internal affairs of other countries. The article effectively exposes the persistent attempts of bourgeois ideologists to distort the aims and purposes of the assistance rendered by the Soviet Union to the peoples of developing and dependent countries in their struggle against imperialist aggression, against the export of counter-revolution to these countries. The article is based not only on extensive factual data, foreign policy documents and materials furnished by the CPSU and the Soviet government, but also on the pronouncements and opinions expressed by many sober-minded representatives of bourgeois historiography who sincerely desire to gain a clear understanding of the Leninist principles underlying Soviet foreign policy and of the complex international problems of our time.

A. N. CHISTOZVONOV. The Genesis of Absolutism: Certain Aspects of the Problem

The article contains a brief historiographic introduction characterizing the state of research into the problem of absolutism in Soviet historiography and pointing to the existence of essential differences in the treatment of the historical peculiarities and factors which gave rise to absolute monarchy. The existing definitions are marked by their highly contradictory character and, in a number of cases, run counter to historical facts. This is explained by the following reasons: on the one hand, they are excessively sociological in character; on the other, their formulation is based not on a complex examination of the problems of absolutism but on singling out and generalizing its individual, albeit very important, aspects. For one thing, no importance is attached to such essential aspects as the external and internal political situation, the struggle within the feudal class, the development of political and legal institutions, etc. The author proposes to examine the problem of absolutism as a componen part of the global problem of the genesis of capitalism in Europe in all its complexity and mulitiformity, giving due consideration both to direct and reflected influences, to the forms engendered by spontaneous bourgeois development and to the reception and adaptation of the forms engendered by this development by the feudal reactionary forces with the aim of defending the basis of feudalism. This provides the basis for defining absolutism in general, as well as for defining two of its principal types which essentially differ from each other. The key to the proper understanding of the problem of absolutism, in the author's view, should be sought not in evolving a one-sided universal formula applicable to all cases but in elaborating a complex conception with a certain degree of differentiation of diverse criteria and definitions.

M. A. KISSEL. Critical Philsophy of History in Great Britain.

The development of British historicism is connected with two eminen figures: F. H. Bradley and R. G. Collingwood. Bradley's "Presuppositions of critical history" was the first historical manifestation of the theoretical position of historicism. Collingwood's "The Idea of History" is the most mature expression of the same position including and combining the theses of different philosophical origin from W. Dilthey, B. Croce and neo-Kantians. Collingwoods's theoretical failure appears to be the necessary consequence of his idealistic prejudices and philosophical eclecticism. But the positive significance of this line of thought consists in posing some important problems concerning the peculiarities of historical thought and its method, the verification of historical propositions and epistemo-logical basis of history as a science. These problems must be (and partially are) resolved by Marxist-Leninist theoretical thought.

K. S. SABIROV and V. M. ZAICHENKO. The Community of Psychic Make- Up as an Essential Indication of a Nation

The article continues the discussion of the basic problems involved in the theoretical definition of the concept of nation. The authors' attention is focussed on defining the real content of the spiritual characteristic of a nation. They critically examine the views of those participants in the discussion who maintain that "the community of the psychic make-up of a nation" cannot be regarded as a basic indication of a nation. The article closely analyzes the correlation of such concepts as "the psychic make-up of a nation" and "the spiritual make-up of a nation", "the psychic make-up of a nation" and "national character", national peculiarities and international psychic community of nations, class features and national elements, etc. The authors disclose the multiformity of concepts comprising the community of the psychic make-up of a nation.

N. I. PAVLENKO. Concerning the History of the Zemski Sobor ("Assembly of the Country") in the 16th Century

The article discusses certain genera! problems of the formation in Russia of a representative social-estate monarchy in the 16th century. The author's attention, however, is chiefly devoted to a critical analysis of the arguments put forward by certain Soviet historians to substantiate the view that a large number of the Zernski Sobors were convoked in the Russian state during the 16th century.

Russian historiography of the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods gives a lucid and, in the author's opinion, essentially correct definition of the Zemski Sobor as an institution consisting of the boyar duma, the council of the Church hierarchy and representatives of the zemstvo (gentry and townsfolk). Proceeding from this criterion, Russian historians generally agreed that three (or four, according to certain authors) Zemski Sobors were convoked in the 16th century. .In the recent period, however, information was published about 12 new Zemski Sobors, and there appeared a tendency to regard any meeting called by the government to discuss different issues as a Zemski Sobor.

A close analysis of the arguments and sources concerning the convocation of the newly discovered Zemski Sobors has enabled N. I. Pavlenko to draw the conclusion that in the majority of cases these arguments are untenable. Only in a few cases they have the significance of a working hypothesis which requires more convincing argumentation for its recognition as an historical fact.

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