O. I. KUROCHKINA. The Struggle of the Comintern Under V. I. Lenin's Leadership to Win Over the Masses and Achieve Labour Unity

March 1969 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Third, Communist International which was founded in March 1919 on the initiative and with the most active and direct participation of Lenin, in conditions of the victory of the socialist revolution in Russia and the powerful upsurge of the world revolutionary movement.

Drawing on V. I. Lenin's works and official documents of the Communist International, the author tries to show how this authoritative organization of the world proletariat; in the period between its first and fourth congresses (1919 - 1922), was carrying into practical effect Lenin's ideas on the need of winning over the masses, rallying the ranks of the working class and all working people in a common front of struggle for labour's vital interests, for peace, democracy and socialism. The author brings out the sum and substance of the tactic of a united front, the forms and methods of achieving it, the danger presented to labour unity by the Right and especially the "Left" deviations. The united front tactic evolved by the Comintern and its subsequent development vividly reflected the creative application and further elaboration of the basic propositions of Marxism-Leninism. The glorious traditions of the Comintern and its indefatigable efforts to achieve closer unity of the working people both on a national and international scale continue to exist in our day, finding their living embodiment in the militant movement of the Communist parties, in their struggle for peace, national independence, democracy and socialism.

V. D. MOCHALOV. V. I. Lenin and the Appearance of Marxism in Russia

In all his works devoted to the elaboration of the Bolshevik strategy and tactics V. I. Lenin comes forward as a prominent historian of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, as an historian of Bolshevism. Among other things, V. I. Lenin was a historiographer of the Emancipation of Labour - the first Marxist group in Russia. The most outstanding representative of this group was G. V. Plekhanov who was the first to formulate in his early works the programmatic principles of Russian revolutionary Social-Democracy and to express his unshakable fidelity to the Marxist dialectical method. In the mid-1890's Lenin's works ushered in a new stage in the development of Marxism. As a result of applying Marxism in its integral and complete form to a country like Russia, whose oppressed classes had accumulated a vast store of revolutionary energy, V. I. Lenin immensely enriched Marxism not only in the sphere of general theory-philosophy and political economy, but also in the theory of the Social-Democratic movement as such. The emergence of Marxism in Russia in the eighties and nineties of the last century comprised a whole historical period marked by the complete ideological defeat of Narodism which barred the way to the spread of scientific socialism in Russia. The radical turn of Russian social thought from Narodism to Marxism was the main condition for ideologically preparing the proletariat for the role of hegemon of the popular revolution maturing in Russia.

V. A. LYUBISHEVA. Re-establishment of the Archive of V. I. Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and of the Labour and Defence Council

The archive of V. I. Lenin originated as a result of the great proletarian leader's day-to-day work as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, in the process of exercising direct leadership of the country's political and economic life, and was kept in his Secretariat. One part of this archive consisting of Lenin's manuscripts, articles, reports and notes has been included in Complete Works and various symposiums. This

part of the archive is now kept in a special fund of V. I. Lenin's documentary materials (Fund No. 2). The second part comprising documents submitted to Lenin but without any notations by him was subsequently collected in a special fund under the heading "V. I Lenin's Secretariat" (Fund No. 5) and is still insufficiently known to historians. The painstaking research work carried out by the Central Party Archive of the CPSU Central Committee's Institute of Marxism-Leninism on the second part of V. I. Lenin's archive has made it possible to shed light on the history of concentrating Lenin's documentary heritage for the entire Soviet period. It is precisely this aspect that the author of the article under review tries to highlight.

S, L, TIKHVINSKY. The "Self-Strengthening" Policy of China's Ruling Circles and Its Ignominious Failure (1860 - 1895)

In the early sixties of the 19th century the Chin rulers of China proclaimed a policy of "self-strengthening" and made an attempt to enhance their rule over the popular masses of the empire by means of introducing partial reforms of the state and military-administrative apparatus and reorganizing China's naval and military forces according to Western models. The author singles out three major periods in the "self-strengthening" policy: 1) 1860's - 1870's when paramount importance was attached by the ruling circles to the quickest possible suppression of the peasant wars and uprisings of the non-Han nationalities inhabiting the Chinese empire; 2) 1870 - 1885-a period marked by growing rivalry for stronger influence on the Chin rulers between the Hunan and Anhwei feudal-landlord cliques which began to engage in commercial and industrial activity; 3) 1885 - 1894, when, following the defeat in the war with France, the socalled Peiyang grouping of Li Hung-chang consolidated its power. The catastrophic defeat inflicted on the Chinese army and navy by Japan, a young imperialist power, resulted in the ignominious failure of the "self-strengthening" policy which had proved incapable of enhancing the country's sovereignty and making the position of the Chin dynasty more stable and secure.

The prime consideration underlying the "self-strengthening" policy was to fortify the Chin regime with the aim of combating and suppressing popular manifestations; the carrying out of partial reforms was likewise closely linked with the struggle of individual regional groupings of Chinese feudal lords for a greater measure of influence in the government and for gaining access to state and private sources of enrichment.

Drawing on numerous official Chinese documents and materials, the author convincingly shows the profoundly reactionary, anti-popular character of the "self-strengthening" policy which hampered the development of private capitalist enterprise and the formation of a national bourgeoisie in China. In conclusion the author compares the "self-strengthening" policy with the Tanzimat in Turkey, Tagi-Khan's reforms in Iran and restoration of the Meiji in Japan.

A. E. IOFFE. The Soviet Union's International Scientific and Cultural Contacts (1917 - 1932)

The author analyzes the basic forms of the Soviet Union's international exchange in the scientific and cultural spheres during the first 15 years since the establishment of the Soviet state. His close study of a wide range of Soviet and foreign sources (both published and archive) has enabled the author to highlight the development and results of the cultural ties maintained by the U.S.S.R. with many European, Asian and Latin-American countries. Beginning with mid - 1920's the organization of international contacts was directed in the U.S.S.R. by the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and by some 40 organizations for the promotion of cultural cooperation with the Soviet Union in other countries. Contacts between Soviet and foreign scientists were maintained in the form of reciprocal visits, participation in congresses and symposiums, and the founding of special organizations for scientific cooperation. In the sphere of literature cooperation found expression in a lively exchange of books, numerous translations, friendly reciprocal visits of writers, poets and playwrights. Theatrical contacts were reflected in extensive foreign tours undertaken by a number of leading Moscow theatres, in the performances and concerts given in the U.S.S.R. by Japanese and German companies, in reciprocal concert tours by prominent musicians. Another important sphere of cultural cooperation was cinematography, where systematic film exchanges were practised. The multiform, equal and mutually advantageous cultural exchange, the author writes in conclusion, importantly contributed to the effort to improve and normalize the international situation, and helped to promote universal peace end international cooperation.

A. I. OSADCHAYA. The Question of Peace at the Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets

The article examines an important question which has been inadequately reflected in historical literature-the struggle for the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk peace which developed around the foreign policy line of the Council of People's Commissars and the Bolshevik Party at the Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets. The acute character of this struggle was determined by the specific features of the moment which necessitated the Party's transition to the new foreign policy and which made it the target of furious attacks by the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. The situation was further aggravated by the formation of a "Left" group within the Bolshevik Party's Central Committee and by the growing vacillations in the Soviets among the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, with whom the Bolsheviks had formed a government bloc shortly before the Congress. The author shows how in these difficult conditions the Bolshevik faction at the Congress managed to neutralize the waverings of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, thereby preventing their collusion with the Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries who were impelling the country to the dangerous path of "revolutionary" war. The Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets warmly supported and approved Lenin's policy on the question of war and peace.

N. D. SMIRNOVA. The Seizure of Albania by Fascist Italy in 1939

Towards the close of the 1930's, when the aggressive designs of the fascist powers became more pronounced, the "Albanian problem" acquired paramount importance for Italy's fascist rulers. The Western bloc's connivance at the aggressive proclivities and expansionist ambitions of the "Axis" powers ultimately created a situatipn directly threatening Albania's independence and thereby jeopardizing the unstable system of equilibrium in the Balkans.

Drawing on a wide range of documents (including a number of hitherto unpublished ones), memoir literature and historical researches, the author traces the history of Italo-Yugoslav bargaining over Albania, the development of Halo-Albanian relations, the preparation for and completion of the occupation of Albania in April 1939. The imperialist diplomacy of the European capitalist countries is counterposed to the internationalist policy consistently followed by the Soviet Union. Abandoned to the mercy of fate by their venal rulers, the Albanian people found support and sympathy among the working people of Europe, first and foremost among the people and government of the Soviet Union.

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