Y. Y. ABOLTIN. The Unflagging Efforts Made by the U.S.S.R. to Limit the Production and Prohibit the Use of Nuclear Weapons

The author makes a point of stressing that from the very appearance of nuclear weapons the Soviet government, fully aware of the deadly menace with which they are fraught for the whole of mankind, has been exerting every effort to prohibit their manufacture and employment. Under the influence of the policy of peace underviatingly pursued by the Soviet Union, the other countries of the socialist community and the progressive forces the world over it has become possible gradually to secure the conclusion of a number of international treaties and Soviet-American agreements which to a certain extent hold back and restrict the manufacture and spread of nuclear weapons. The article underscores the fact that the marked relaxation of world tensions achieved in recent years has substantially improved the international climate and created favourable prerequisites and well-justified hopes for the continued improvement of international relations and restriction of nuclear armaments.

A. I. KRUSHANOV. The Headway Made in Organizing Historical Research in the Far East

The, article generalizes the experience accumulated by Soviet scientists in tackling the problems of history, archeology and ethnography of the peoples inhabiting the Soviet Far East and the adjacent Asian territories. The author closely examines the structure of the research institutions engaged in studying the historical process in the Far East from the epoch of primitive communal relations to developed socialist society, highlights the main trends in the research work carried on by historians, archeologists and ethnographers, and reviews the activity of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences' Far Eastern Research Centre in the field of compiling collective generalizing works of nation-wide significance. Considerable attention is devoted in the article to the training 'of fresh contingents of historians, archeologists and ethnographers in the Far East over the period 1946 - 1975. The data cited by the author on the development of historical science in the Soviet Far East enable one to understand the complexity of the task facing Soviet researchers in recreating the past history of this extensive zone and duly appreciate the exceptional importance and urgency of the themes pertaining to the Far East.

I. F. UGAROV. The Formation and Social Composition of the Moscow Proletariat on the Eve of the Revolution of 1905 - 1907

The article graphically shows that it was predominantly the ruined peasantry of the Moscow Region and the neighbouring provinces that provided the social base for replenishing the ranks of the working class in Moscow and Moscow Province at the turn of the 20th century. The author's comprehensive analysis of the factual data pertaining to that period enables him to draw the conclusion that on the eve of the revolution of 1905 - 1907 the absolute majority of the factory workers in Moscow and Moscow Province severed all connections with agriculture and became hereditary proletarians. The article makes a point of stressing such peculiarities of the industrial pattern of Moscow and Moscow Province as the absolute predominance of the textile industry, the high degree of its concentration and location in the rural areas of Moscow Province.

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N. A. HALFIN. The Society for the Promotion of Russian Industry and Commerce and Central Asia

The article gives a detailed characteristic of the organization and functioning of one of the biggest associations of employers in Russia established for the express purpose of promoting trade with Central Asia and using the latter as a purveyor of raw materials, which existed for half a century (from 1867 to 1917). The author examines the correlation of interests of government and employer circles in this plane, as well as some economic and political aspects of the problem.

F. D. VOLKOV. The Great October Socialist Revolution and the British Working Class

The article graphically illustrates the support given by the British working class to the young Soviet Republic in its struggle against the combined forces of the internal counter-revolution and foreign armed intervention. The powerful upsurge of the working-class movement in Britain in 1919 - 1920 and, in particular, the movement of solidarity with the Russian workers and peasants launched under the slogan of "Hands Off Soviet Russia!", the formation of the National Committee of this movement and of the Councils of Action in Britain in 1920 helped to thwart the sinister plans of organizing overt and covert intervention against the Soviet Republic. On the other hand, the impact of the October Revolution, the help and advice offered by V. I. Lenin played an immense role in the formation of the Communist Party of Britain in 1920.

A. Y. SHEVELENKO. The Experience Gained by the Popular Masses of Europe in the Sphere of Productive Labour Between the 6th and 10th Centuries

The author of the article makes an attempt to generalize the latest data on the development of the productive forces in Europe during the early medieval period. The article gives a brief characteristic of the different methods of land cultivation, agricultural crops and animal husbandry, shows the advances made in the sphere of handicraft production and the role played by the borrowing of technical improvements and the sharing of production experience. The labour habits acquired by the peasantry-the main class in the epoch of early feudalism-were gradually becoming a component part of the whole complex of productive forces which contributed to the development and consolidation of the feudal formation.

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