A. G. LATYSHEV. V. I. Lenin and the Swiss Labour Movement in 1914 - 1917

The article shows the distinctive features of the social, political and economic development of Switzerland on the eve and during the first world war, and traces the causes of the weakness of the working-class movement in the country and of the reformism of Swiss Social-Democracy. Drawing on extensive factual material, the author vividly describes the role played by V. L Lenin and by a small group of Bolsheviks working under his leadership in consolidating and radicalizing the Left wing of the Swiss working-class movement, highlighting the struggle waged by V. I. Lenin against the Centrist policy of Robert Grimm, a prominent leader of the Social-Democratic Party of Switzerland, and the significance of V. I. Lenin's efforts to educate the Swiss socialist youth in a revolutionary spirit. The author briefly surveys how this subject is reflected in Switzerland's historical literature and periodical press, at the same time criticizing a number of bourgeois and social-reformist authors for their attempts to present the problem in a distorted light.

A. M. SINITSYN. The Unflagging Concern for Neglected Children and Orphans in the U.S.S.R. During the Great Patriotic War

The article highlights the work done by the Communist Party, the Soviet government and millions of Soviet patriots in rendering assistance to children who became orphaned or lost touch with their parents during the Great Patriotic War so as to prevent child neglect and homelessness. Drawing on extensive documentary material, the author shows how children's homes were evacuated from the frontline areas and danger zones deep into the interior of the country, the unflagging concern displayed by the Soviet state and by the collectives of many industrial enterprises, state institutions, collective farms, diverse public organizations and Soviet citizens for thousands of neglected children and orphans. By 1945 some 6,000 children's homes were functioning in the country (or 4,340 more than on January 1, 1940), with upwards of 700,000 orphaned children maintained there at public expense. About 350,000 children who had lost their parents were adopted by working-class families. All in all, more than a million parentless children were saved in the U.S.S.R. during the second world war.

O. D. SOKOLOV. M. N. Pokrovsky - A Prominent Organizer of Scientific Research in the U.S.S.R.

The author makes an attempt to trace the main directions in which proceeded the creative activity of the eminent Marxist historian Academician M. N. Pokrovsky as an organizer of Soviet research in the sphere of science and pedagogics. For five years (1918 - 1922) M. N. Pokrovsky worked under V. I. Lenin's leadership; as a member of the Soviet government holding the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Public Education, M. N. Pokrovsky did much to secure the fulfilment of many responsible assignments given personally by Lenin.

M. N. Pokrovsky headed the State Research Council and the Academic Centre of the People's Commissariat of Public Education, actively shared in the work of a government-appointed commission for the radical reorganization of the system of higher education. He was entrusted with the responsible task of setting up such important scientific and pedagogical research institutions as the Communist Academy, the Institute of Communist Professorship, organizing Workers' Faculties and post-graduate studentship at higher educational establishments. As a permanent Chairman of the Presidium of the Communist Academy, M. N. Pokrovsky not only directed its activity but himself conducted extensive research work in the sphere of science and pedagogics.

M. N. Pokrovsky combined his extensive work in organizing science and training Marxist historians with socio-political activity, with irreconcilable struggle against bourgeois and nobiliary historiography. In his capacity of Chairman of the Society of Marxist Historians he worked hard to create among historians an atmosphere conducive to a free exchange of opinions, to foster creative discussions and encourage principled

criticism and self-criticism. He called on Soviet historians to concentrate their attention on the elaboration of urgent historical problems and helped them to master progressive methods and techniques of historical research.

E. D. CHERMENSKY. The Fourth State Duma and the Overthrow of the Tsarist Autocracy in Russia

The article re-examines the traditional thesis on the "conspiracies" hatched by the bourgeoisie and the tsarist autocracy on the eve of the second Russian revolution. Way back in the period of the first world war the leaders of the Progressive Bloc put forward the version that the ruling clique had deliberately provoked "internal disorders" and doomed Russia to certain defeat in order to have a legitimate basis for the conclusion of a separate peace. At the same time the bourgeois opposition spread the rumour that a "palace coup" was in the offing in an obvious attempt to scare the tsar and thus compel him to come to terms with the Duma bloc. The author is inclined to believe that both the autocracy and the bourgeoisie were enmeshed in unresolvable contradictions and could not get along without each other. And this is not surprising, for the semi-feudal autocracy, which had lost its principal mainstay in the shape of the patriarchal peasantry, could not remain in the saddle without the support of the bourgeoisie and without camouflaging the autocratic government with representative institutions. The bourgeoisie, for its part, feared the revolution much more than the reaction. It is precisely this circumstance that explained its irresistible urge for an amicable agreement with tsarism. That is why the ruling circles were in no hurry to dissolve the State Duma and alter the "fundamental laws," while the bourgeois opposition was in a state of indecision over a palace coup. Side by side with destroying the foundations of the tsarist regime, the second Russian revolution abolished the State Duma - the most essential element in the political system established on June 3, 1907.

Y. V. VLADIMIROV. Concerning Sino-Soviet Economic Relations in 1950 - 1966

The article is devoted to an examination of Soviet-Chinese economic relations in the period beginning with the conclusion, on February 14, 1950, of the Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, which ushered in broad and multiform inter-state relations between the U.S.S.R. and the C.P.R., and ending with the so-called 11th Plenum of the CC CPC (August 1966), at which the Maoist grouping, acting contrary to the fundamental interests of the peoples of the socialist community and, first and foremost, to the detriment of the national interests of the Chinese people themselves, conclusively formalized its anti-Soviet line as an official policy of the People's Republic of China, which led Soviet-Chinese relations as a whole to the brink of complete disruption. Drawing on his close analysis of documentary data, the author cites extensive factual material illustrating the aims, scope and significance of Soviet assistance to the C.P.R. in laying the foundations of socialism. The article refutes the fabrications of the Maoists and bourgeois falsifiers of history who are exerting every effort to misrepresent the real nature of Soviet-Chinese economic relations and play down the significance of the Soviet Union's economic assistance to China.

E. V. KOVALYOV. The Christian-Democrats and the Agrarian Reform in Chile

Following the Christian-Democrats' advent to power in 1964, Chile became the only Latin- American country in which a serious attempt was made to secure the continued existence of the bourgeois system not only on the basis of resorting to the state machine of suppression and violence but also through effecting a number of economic and social transformations designed to win over the masses to the side of the Christian-Democrats. The article examines the chief reforms carried out by the Chilean government during the presidency of Eduardo Frei, primarily the agrarian reform, which is a factor of paramount importance in the Demochristians' programme of modifying the traditional pattern of Chilean society. His detailed analysis of the appropriate legislation, the progress made in the practical implementation of the agrarian reform and the political struggle around it, enables the author to draw the conclusion that the agrarian reform did not change the pattern of production relations in Chilean agriculture because the Christian-Democrats did not rely on the masses in the struggle against the big landowners, although this struggle alone could lead to a decisive victory over the latifundists and help to carry the agrarian reform into practical effect. The article makes a point of stressing that the Demochristians' agrarian reform merely represents a further development and radicalization of the traditional policy of agrarian transformations pursued in Chile over the last thirty years.

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