A. Yu. SKVORTSOVA. The Role of Workers in Creating the Local Soviet State Apparatus (November 1917 - November 1918)

The author looks at the forms of proletarian participation in establishing local organs of Soviet state power, in defining their structure and functions. He draws on autobiographies of members of the gubernia, town and uezd Soviet executive committees to analyse social makeup of local state bodies, the share of workers and the social image of a most active stratum in them, and their role in shaping the Soviet state apparatus in the countryside.

V. A. KUCHKIN. The Lay of Igor's Host and Relations Between Princes in the 1060s

The author traces the deciphering of a fragment of the poem depicting Vseslav, the prince of Polotsk. The poem recounts actual facts pertaining to relations between Vseslav of Polotsk and sons of Yaroslav the Wise. This fragment, investigated in the context of the 1068 - 1069 events, acquires a concrete-historical significance and becomes a substantiation of the adopted dating of this memorial of Old Russian culture.

ACADEMICIAN S. L. TIKHVINSKY. Contemporary Historiography of Sun Yatsen Abroad

The article analyses books and articles published abroad in recent years which are typical for the main historiography trends on Sun Yatsen. What is most characteristic of researches of the period dealt with in the article (the 1970s-first half of the 1980s) is actualisation and politisation of studies, their direct dependence on foreign-policy orientations of Western rulers. It is especially graphically illustrated by an increased interest in Sun Yatsen's attitude to the Soviet Union and also in his foreign-policy concepts.

S. P. PEREGUDOV. Political Shifts on British Isles (early 1970s-first of the 1980s)

The author traces shifts in the political alignment of forces in Great Britain which have taken place since the early 1970s. He analyses the socio-economic background of shifts on the British political scene and also transformations in both the Liberal and Conservative parties. Much space is given to the development of the Social Democratic Party and its alliance with the Liberals. The conclusion is that the two-party system in Great Britain is currently experiencing a crisis alleviated by the inter-party electoral system.

M. B. SVERDLOV. Urgent Problems of Studying the Genesis of Feudalism in Old Rus

Old Rus was a subject of intensive studies prior to the October 1917 Revolution in Russia. The idea of feudalism and its components changes as the Russian historiography progressed from the noble-bourgeois treatment of social phenomena to the Marxist one. Soviet historians side with Boris Grekov in their interpretation of the Old Rus' feudal nature although one can encounter opinions on its slaveholding of prefeudal nature. Soviet historians elaborate Grekov's conception and make it more precise and I. Froyanov's attempts to revise it are regarded by the author as inconsistent.

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