Academician A. A. GUBER. The Thirteenth World Congress of Historical Sciences in Moscow (certain results and prospects)

Contributed by the President of the International Committee on Historical Sciences, this article characterizes the proceedings of the Thirteenth World Congress of Historical Sciences and highlights the features that distinguish it from the preceding congresses of this kind. The author points out that the Moscow Congress has fully justified the expectations of historians and can well be regarded as a major development in historical science. The Congress debates and discussions furnished another vivid confirmation of the irreconcilable character of the ideological and methodological principles expounded by Marxist historians and by anti-Marxists, but at the same time there distinctly emerged the possibility of scientists belonging to diametrically opposite trends conducting joint research in concrete historical problems, fruitfully exchanging their experience in the methods of investigation they apply, notably the employment of most up-to-date mathematical methods. At the same time, the experience of the Thirteenth Congress convincingly demonstrated the need of further improving the organization of international congresses: the International Committee on Historical Sciences must formulate the "main" themes in good time with a view to ensuring closer coordination and homogeneity of the relevant communications, working out general recommendations on the papers submitted by the various national committees and leaving the congress agenda open to all branches of historical science, including auxiliary and subordinate branches.

V. V. GORBUNOV. The Popular Masses and the Formation of Socialist Culture

The author analyzes the Marxist-Leninist propositions on the decisive role of the popular masses in the historical process of the rise and development of culture, graphically showing how this general and law-governed sociological feature manifests itself in an antagonistic class society and under socialism. The article critically examines diverse bourgeois conceptions on the exclusive character of culture and devotes chief attention to illustrating the role and place assigned to the popular masses in the formation and development of socialist culture. The author cites concrete examples to characterize the most effective ways and means of drawing the working masses into the process of cultural development. The article sheds light on the cultural and educational work carried on by the Communist Party, on the efforts made by the Soviet state to wipe out illiteracy, promote public education, introduce democratic principles in the system of higher learning and train the new Soviet intelligentsia recruited from the ranks of the working class and the peasantry.

A. GAIGALAITE and E. GRISHKUNAITE. The Progress of Historical Science in Soviet Lithuania

The article reviews the development of historical sciences in Soviet Lithuania during the last three decades (1940 - 1970). The authors highlight the principal trends of research, examine some of the major works devoted to the history of the Lithuanian S.S.R. and survey the collections of documents published in the republic. At the same time the article lists some of the insufficiently studied problems relating to the history of the Lithuanian people, to which Soviet historians must devote paramount attention.

D. A. AVDUSIN. The History of the Novgorod Discoveries

One of the sensational developments of the latter half of the 20th century are the discoveries made in Great Novgorod, which include a new type of written sources on the history of the Russian medieval period in the shape of birch-bark records. The article vividly describes the history of the Novgorod archeological expedition and the important contribution made by every one of its participants to the joint effort to re- create the ancient history of Novgorod. The author gives a detailed account of the archeological excavations carried out in Novgorod and graphically shows how their results altered the old conceptions of this major centre of ancient Rus.

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L. I. ARAPOVA and K. I. RUDELSON. A New Stage in the Development of Soviet Archeography

The first part of the article highlights the achievements registered by Soviet archeography during the past fifteen years and characterizes the most important publications in this field, devoting particular attention to research works specially published to mark the 50th anniversary of Soviet power and the centenary of the birth of V. I. Lenin. The authors also analyze a number of scientific works in which problems of the theory and methods of Soviet archeography are given further creative elaboration.

The concluding part of the article is devoted to an analysis of the theoretical and methodological problems of Soviet archeography, which find then" concentrated expression in the "Regulations Governing the Publication of Historical Documents in the U.S.S.R." (Moscow, 1969). The authors focuss their attention on problems which require further investigation, attaching particular importance to the need of improving the forms of drawing documentary information into the sphere of science through the introduction of cybernetic methods in archeography.

L. M. GATAULLINA. From Feudalism and Colonial Slavery to Socialism

In 1921 a victorious popular revolution was carried out in Mongolia under the leadership of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Relying on the fraternal assistance of the Soviet Union, the MPRP led the Mongolian people along the road of socialism. In the course of the revolution the domination of the feudal lords and foreign capitalists was abolished, the state sector was established in the country's economy and the national-democratic state was consolidated. Having launched on the full-scale building of socialism, the Mongolian people are successfully coping with such complex tasks as socialist industrialization, collectivization of agriculture and further extension and deepening of the cultural revolution. The article generalizes the experience of Mongolia's advance to socialism along the non-capitalist path of development, brings out the most important intrinsic features and national peculiarities of this process in the specific conditions obtaining in Mongolia and stresses the significance of the Soviet Union's all-round assistance for accelerating the rate of socialist construction in the Mongolian People's Republic.

W. GOSTYNSKA. The Policy of the Polish Ruling Element and the Entente's Anti-Soviet Plans in 1919

From the very first days following the re-establishment of the Polish state, the ruling bourgeois-landlord element of that country adopted an openly hostile policy towards Soviet Russia despite the Soviet government's repeated proposals to establish friendly, good-neighbour relations. Taking advantage of the difficult position prevailing in the Soviet Republics, they started military operations with the aim of seizing Lithuania, Byelorussia and the Ukraine. Poland figured prominently in the Entente powers' sinister schemes of launching armed intervention against Soviet Russia. Being unable to render effective military assistance to the Whiteguard counter-revolutionaries with their own forces in January-February 1919, the Allies decided to use Poland for the attainment of this aim. Thus, the annexationist plans of the Polish ruling element coincided with the anti-Soviet schemes harboured by the Entente powers. It was the working masses of Poland that offered the most consistent and resolute opposition to their country's participation in the armed intervention against Soviet Russia.

G. L. BONDAREVSKY. The Yemeni Peoples' Liberation Struggle at the Close of the 19th Century and British Colonial Policy

Drawing on documentary materials and historical records found in British and Indian archives, the author traces the re-conquest of the Yemen by Turkey in 1871 - 1872, examines the methods applied by the Turkish aggressors in their colonial policy and highlights the main stages of the Yemeni peoples' struggle for liberation, notably the national uprisings of 1891 - 1892, 1894 - 1895 and 1898 - 1899. The available documentary and factual material enables the author to disclose the peculiarities of the feudal type of nationalism practised by the Yemeni tribal aristocracy and expose its attempts to come to terms with the Turkish invaders and later with the British colonialists. Side by side with devoting considerable attention to the internal history of the Yemen, the author shows the main stages and distinctive features of British colonial policy in South Arabia at the close of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The dismemberment of the Yemen is viewed by the author as a direct result of the compact made by the British and Turkish invaders.

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