M. I. SEMIRYAGA. Fascist Occupationist Order on the Temporarily Occupied Soviet Territories.

Having occupied a part of Soviet territory in 1941 and 1942 fascist Germans established there the so-called "new order". In the political aspect it meant bloody terror, arbitrariness and lawlessness for the local population; in the economic plunder of the national wealth; in the national sphere their aim was to kindle inter-national dissention and to eliminate national cultures; in the ideological sphere they wanted to undermine the moral and political unity of the Soviet people and to break their spirit. To reach their aims the occupationist forces resorted to most cruel forms of terror and violence. They organised numerous death camps where more than 10,000,000 perished, they tortured women and children. About 5,000,000 were driven to Germany to forced labour.

D. A. MAKEYEV. Soviet Russia's Foreign Trade with the Middle East Countries in 1917 - 1922.

The author draws on wide range of sources, including archival documents, to investigate the re-establishment of trade ties between the traditional trade partners and to bring out the content and nature of Soviet Russia's trade with the Middle East countries between 1917 and 1922. The author dwells on trade in the borderline areas, on trade fairs, on the activity of the Central Union of Cooperative Societies (Tsentrosouyz), the All-Russian Cooperative Society Ltd., of Soviet foreign trade delegations, of government and public bodies. He also pays much attention to Eastern merchants and trade organisations. Especial attention is paid to initiatives of the government and foreign trade bodies of the RSFSR and of business and public and political circles of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan to ensure stable trade ties. The author also notes that foreign trade was instrumental in establishing friendly political and economic relations between states, exposes the insolvency of bourgeois falsifications of the earlier period of the Soviet state's trade ties.

N. G. FILIPPOV. Scientific and Technical Societies of Pre-Revolutionary Russia.

The article contains a general description of the scientific and technical societies which existed between 1866 and 1916, shows main trends of their activity, reveals their role in solving major industrial, scientific, technological, cultural and educational problems and shows how prominent scientists participated in their work. It contributes to the scientific elaboration of the history of public organisations in the pre-revolutionary Russia.

E. I. FEDOSOVA. The 1826 Petersburg Protocol and French Diplomacy.

The author takes as her subject France's foreign policy during the Eastern Crisis of the 1820s caused by the 1821 national-liberation uprising in Greece. She demonstrates that European powers displayed complicated attitude to this event. French diplomacy is analysed in the context of signing the 1826 Petersburg Protocol on the Greek question and the 1827 London Treaty. The author notes the desire of France to work out an independent position on the Eastern Question and to regain its position as a great power.

M. A. BARG. The Place of the 17th Century in European History (Towards the Problem of the Beginning of the Modern Time).

Drawing extensively on rich factual material brought to the attention of researchers during the discussion of the so-called "crisis of the 17th century" the author has set out to establish the place of the 17th century in European history. He points to three aspects: the beginning of the primary accumulation process; the shifting of manufactories to the countryside; the shaping of the European capitalist market. All of them are typical of the manufactory period in the genesis of capitalism which was most pronounced in the 17th century. The Netherlands and the English bourgeois revolutions made the process irreversible. The crisis of the feudal society spread to other countries which, in the final analysis, spelled the victory of the bourgeois revolution on the European scale.

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