N.N. AZOVTSEV and A.K. SELYANICHEV. The Formation of the Worker and Peasant Red Army and Navy

The authors highlight the problem of demolishing the old military machine inherited from the prerevolutionary regime and replacing it by a new military organization after the victory of the October Revolution. The article analyzes the intensive search for ways and means of establishing a new army and navy and explains why February 23 is celebrated every year as a red-letter day marking the birth of the Soviet Armed Forces. The article illustrates the gradual process of building up the military strength and defence potential of our country after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace up to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) held at the beginning of 1919, whose decisions on the military questions consummated the organization of the Soviet Armed Forces. The rise and development of the new army and navy, the authors stress, proceeded in the difficult situation created by the mounting armed intervention and desperate resistance offered by the internal counter-revolution. The organization of the Red Army and Navy was a problem of the utmost urgency imperatively dictated by the need to defend the Socialist Homeland against the armed onslaught of the reactionary imperialist forces acting in close alliance with the Whiteguards - those sworn enemies of the revolution. The article brings out the leading role of the Communist Party and V. I. Lenin in organizing and guiding the Armed Forces of the young Soviet Republic.

E.M. ZHUKOV. Concerning the Assessment of the "Meiji-Revolution" (1867 - 1967)

The author points out that the hundredth anniversary of important historical events in Japan, which have come to be known as the "Meiji Revolution," has given rise to an acute ideological struggle among Japanese historians around the appraisal of these events. The ideologists of Japanese imperialism are endeavouring to exploit the "jubilee date" in furtherance of their chauvinistic, revanchist aims. The purpose of the sponsors of the "jubilee" is obviously to strengthen their ideological positions with the aid of a chauvinistic-monarchist interpretation of the process of converting Japan from a feudal, backward country into one of the leading industrial powers within a comparatively short historical period. The Japanese progressive forces are fully justified in exposing these reactionary attempts. The author dwells on the methodological aspect of the problem, pointing out that a genuinely scientific assessment of such a complex and internally contradictory nodal point in Japan's history as the events of 1867 - 1868 can be given only by strictly adhering to the Marxist principles of analyzing the historical process. The process of Japan's transition from feudalism to capitalism had a very definite progressive content, irrespective of the concrete forms in which this process was manifested. It was a matter of replacing one socio-economic formation by another, which resulted in the triumph of the capitalist relations of production. But it is equally obvious that there is no justification whatever for idealizing this important historical landmark, for Japan's capitalist development very soon manifested its profoundly anti-popular, reactionary features. The maturing of capitalism in Japan took place on the eve of its transition to the monopoly stage, and this circumstance laid a deep imprint on its entire appearance. Hence, any attempt to extoll and glorify the "Meiji Revolution" must be resolutely rebuffed.

E.Y. BOGUSH and A.K. VOROBYOVA. The Second Edition of Complete Works of Marx and Engels

The article contains general information on the most important features distinguishing the second 39-volume Russian edition of Marx' and Engels' Complete Works from the previous publication. Much attention is devoted by the authors to a detailed examination of the fundamental principle underlying the works of Marx and Engels-

their historism. The principle of historism was regarded by Marx and Engels as the most important element of a scientific approach to the solution of problems concerning the revolutionary transformation of human society. The authors dwell in detail on the literary heritage of Frederick Engels dating back to the period following Marx's death - the works written by Engels between 1883 and 1895. The six volumes embracing that period contain about 390 new works and letters by Engels, which did not figure in the first edition. Of particular interest is his extensive correspondence with prominent leaders of the socialist movement in Italy, France, Poland, Russia and other countries. The entire scientific and political activity carried on by Frederick Engels in the last years of his life was directed towards the solution of the pressing tasks of the socialist movement, towards the ideological and organizational consolidation of the socialist parties and their transformation into genuinely revolutionary Marxist parties of the working class. The all-round analysis of the numerous documents of Marx and Engels included in the second edition enables the authors to reveal the keen interest shown by the founders of scientific communism in Russia's political and social life, in the Russian revolutionary movement.

N.Y. KOLPINSKY. Marx's Struggle Against "Left Opportunism"

The purpose of this article is to disclose the essence of Marx's struggle against the anarchist ideology and "Left" sectarianism. The author did not set himself the task of giving a comprehensive analysis of the philosophical views held by one or another ideologist of anarchism, of disclosing their role in the development of social thought and in the revolutionary movement. The article graphically shows that beginning with the period when the outlook of the revolutionary proletariat came into being and in the process of struggle to combine it with the working-class movement, Marx consistently and effectively exposed revolutionary phrase-mongering, the idealistic essence and petty-bourgeois nature of the anarchist views, their intrinsic voluntarism and dogmatism. Particular attention is devoted by the author to Marx's struggle against Bakunism in the period of the First International. The article emphasizes the vast significance of Marx's struggle against "Left" opportunism and sectarianism for the continued development of the working-class movement in the contemporary period.

M.I. STISHOV. The Dissolution of the Petty-Bourgeois Parties in Russia After the Great October Revolution

The article traces the history of the dissolution of Russia's Right - and Left-wing Socialist-Revolutionary and Social-Democratic (Menshevik) parties. Drawing on V. I. Lenin's works in his analysis of the theoretical views of the petty-bourgeois parties and their political line in the revolution, the author reveals the insolvency of petty- bourgeois socialism and its anti-popular character in the conditions of the proletarian revolution, and indicates the concrete causes responsible for the complete ideological collapse of the petty-bourgeois parties. The concluding part of the article is devoted to the examination of the objective causes which enabled one political party-the Party of Communists-to assume leadership and become the guiding force of Soviet society, which historically determined the establisment of a one-party political system in the U.S.S.R. This was chiefly due to the fact, the article stresses, that all the other parties failed to stand the test of time and ceased to exist.

B. SHIRENDYB. Mongolia's Path to Socialism

The author paints a vivid picture of the triumph of the Mongolian People's Revolution in 1921 under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, as a result of which Mongolia achived genuine national independence and freedom. The Mongolian Revolution, furnishes a graphic example of the joint struggle of the working people of backward countries and the working class of industrially developed states against their common enemy-international imperialism. Mongolia's transition from feudalism to socialism without passing through the capitalist stage was made possible by the close alliance of the working class of Soviet Russia with Mongolia's cattle-breeders. The author singles out two main stages in the development of the Mongolian People's Revolution: the general democratic stage (from 1921 to 1940) and the socialist stage (1941 - 1961). In 1961 the country entered a new historical period-the period of consummating the building of socialism.

A.I. MARTYNOV. Tracing the Sources of the Pacific Pact

The article examines the military-political strategy of the Western Powers in the Pacific during the second half of the 1940's and early fifties, when a system of aggressive blocs and alliances was established in this geographical area under the aegis of the United States. The author clearly shows that the appearance of these blocs was determined by the mounting national-liberation movement of the Asian peoples and by the efforts of the imperialist powers to erect a barrier to the irresistible spread of the ideas of socialism. Owing to a number of causes examined in the article, it was only in the early fifties that the U.S.A. launched on a policy of knocking together military blocs in the Pacific, its chief aim being to form a broad anti-communist regional pact in this part of the world, with the military-political alliance of the U.S.A. and Britain's Pacific dominions, known as ANZUS, serving as its core. But these schemes were thwarted by the vigorous resistance of the leading Asian powers and the acute imperialist contradictions. The article sheds a revealing light on the backstage political manoeuvres resorted to by the United States and governements of Australia and New Zealand in their effort to establish the Pacific pact. The ANZUS and the U.S. military-political alliances with the Philippines and Japan, which were designed to serve as instruments of cold war policy in the Pacific, seriously endangered the peace and security of Asia.

M.I. ISAYEV. The Language and the Nation

The article carries on the discussion on the concept of nation. In his polemic with certain scientists the author stresses the important.part played by the language in defining the concept of nation as well as in the national development of different peoples. The article highlights the Soviet Union's achievements in the development of national languages. The general line along which the development of the languages of the various peoples and nationalities inhabiting the U.S.S.R. proceeds is bilingualism, which reflects the uniform process in national development the rapid progress and rapprochement of the Soviet nations. It is impossible to form a clear understanding of the part the language plays in the national development of different peoples unless the progressing bilingualism of the Soviet peoples is properly taken into account.

In conclusion the author stresses the following characteristic aspects of the language: first, it emerges and develops earlier than any other indication of a nation; second, it is more lasting and less variable; third, it serves as the chief means of communication between a given collective of men in all spheres of their life and activity.

V.N. NIKIFOROV. The Logic of Discussion and the Lefic in Discussion (the problem of the early class societies)

The article subjects to a critical analysis the main points of view put forward by a number of historians in recent years in the process of discussing the problem of the early class societies: the hypothetical theories of an "enslaving society", "mixed" feudal-slaveowning society, and feudalism in the ancient world. The author arrives at the conclusion that these hypotheses do not in any way contribute to the elucidation of the problem, and that the conception affirming the predominance of slaveownership relations in the aneient world (including the Ancient East) continues to remain the most logical one inasmuch as it essentially corresponds to the actual course of world history and accords with certain theoretical premises. At the same time the author holds that the discussion of this problem is undoubtedly useful, for it helps to remove the individual errors and shortcomings of this conception.

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