A. V. SMIRNOV. The Growth of the Cultural and Technical Level of the Soviet Working Class in the Period of Developed Socialism

The author singles out the main groups of problems which have already been solved or are still awaiting solution. A conspicuous place is devoted in the article to historiographic questions. The author substantiates the inclusion in the concept "cultural and technical level" of indications characterizing the moral and political traits of the working class, at the same time graphically illustrating how scientific and technological progress influences the composition of the working class. The article clearly shows that professions based on the application of mechanized or automated labour are acquiring ever-increasing significance in the key branches of the national economy. Accompanied by a steady growth of the general-education level of the workers, this process stimulates their labour activity and heightens their social consciousness.

V. I. DURNOVTSEV, V. E. ILLERITSKY, V. A. MURAVYOV. The Results and Prospects of Publishing the Historiographical Yearbook of the U.S.S.R.

In 1965 - 1966 two collections of articles were published under the title "History and Historians". In 1970 this publication was transformed into an historiographical yearbook and began to appear under the title of "The History of Historical Science," thus becoming the official organ of the Research Council of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences' Department of History. The article examines the part played by the Yearbook in promoting historiographic research, analyzes its structure, composition and the contents of published historiographic materials devoted to the history of the U.S.S.R. and the history of other countries. The authors make a number of proposals and suggestions aimed at improving the Yearbook and the methods of its compilation, widening the range of problems it tackles, extending the publication of materials on the history of historical science and promoting the Yearbook's contacts with historiographical scientific research centres and the higher school.

I. V. KOZMENKO. Russian Diplomacy in the Struggle to Ensure the Autonomy and Security of Southern Bulgaria (1878 - 1879)

Drawing on archive materials as well as on a wide range of Russian and British documentary publications, the periodical press and literature, the author highlights the difficult struggle waged by the Russian delegation in the European Commission on Eastern Rumelia from September 1878 to April 1879 against the attempts of Western diplomacy to restore the power of the Turkish administration, to capture the financial resources of Southern Bulgaria and to impose a statute restricting the rights of the local population. The article shows the strenuous efforts made by Russian diplomacy to secure factual deletion from the 1878 Berlin Treaty of the clauses providing for the possibility of stationing Turkish troops in Southern Bulgaria and to defeat the British plan envisaging a joint occupation of the latter following the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Y. V. EMELYANOV. The U.S. Congress and Revolutionary Cuba

Drawing on his close study of the U.S. Congressional records, the author traces the progress of Congress debates on the Cuban question, which reflect the differences existing between the various groups within the U.S. ruling circles and the evolution of U.S. policy towards Cuba. The discussion of the different variants of American policy in the Senate and the House of Representatives revealed the existence in the U.S. Congress of a group of realistic-minded politicians who clearly realized the futility of the U.S. Administration's anti-Cuban policy and from the very outset were fully aware of the need to recognize the fact of the revolutionary changes effected in Cuba. At the same time other Congressmen, complying with the will of the monopolies which had made big investments in the economy of pre-revolutionary Cuba, the military- industrial circles and counter-revolutionary emigres, took the initiative in organizing hostile acts against Cuba and openly demonstrated their vigorous opposition to any normalization of relations with it.

Permanent link to this publication: