G. A. BELOV. Utilization of the State Archive Fund of the U.S.S.R. in the Interests of Historical Science

The article examines the basic trends in the publishing activity of the Soviet archives in recent years and the plans mapped out in this sphere for the coming five years.

The author points out that upwards of 400 million valuable documentary materials on the history of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., half of them belonging to the Soviet period, are kept in the Soviet Union's archive depositories at the present time. All these documentary materials are placed at the disposal of research workers. In 1959 the number of researchers making extensive use of the archives reached approximately 32,000, as against 6,000 in 1955.

One of the most effective forms of drawing on the materials of the State Archive Fund of the U.S.S.R., the author writes, is the publication of documentary sources. In accordance with a long-range (1956 - 60) plan for the publication of documents and scientific-reference literature, 298 collections and over 70 scientific-reference works were published by the archives by May 1, 1960. The collections of documents embrace a wide range of subjects, including materials on the history of the working-class and peasant movement, the first Russian revolution of 1905 - 07, the activity of outstanding Russian generals and admirals, the history of the international proletarian solidarity, Soviet foreign policy, the country's industrialization, the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, etc. Of the total number of published collections, 181 are devoted to the history of Soviet society.

The article notes that the publishing activity of the U.S.S.R. state archives -will be extended still further in the coming five-year period. The Chief Archive Department of the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers has already drawn up a long-range plan of scientific-publication work in 1961 - 65, with particular attention being given to the preparation and publication of documentary materials on the history of Soviet society. In the next five-year period it is planned to prepare and put out, jointly with the CPSU Central Committee's Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Institute of History of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences and other Soviet scientific-research institutions, 640 collections, of which 446 will be devoted to the period following the October Revolution. A positive part in raising the scientific level of planned publications must be played by the Rules for the Publication of Documents Relating to the Soviet Period, worked out by the Chief Archive Department.

The author writes in conclusion that publication of the serial and one-volume collections envisaged by the plan will considerably extend the documentary base for the development of Soviet historical science and will contribute to the successful solution of the practical tasks of communist construction, primarily to the education of man of the new communist society.

V. B. KNYAZHINSKY. The Problem of Peaceful Coexistence and Bourgeois Falsification of European History

The article subjects to a critical analysis the treatment of the problem of relations between the capitalist and socialist states by bourgeois and Right-wing Socialist authors in the works on contemporary history of West-European countries and international relations in Europe.

The majority of the works under review were published in 1959 - 60. Their authors are American and West-European historians, sociologists and political leaders hostile to socialism. However, they are compelled to admit that under present conditions it is impossible to destroy the socialist countries by force of arms. Hence, they point to the need of establishing peaceful relations between the countries of Western Europe and their eastern neighbours and to the inevitability of the economic competition between differing social-economic systems. Nevertheless, the reactionary scientists, in the interests of imperialist policy, distort the very idea of peaceful coexistence and the trend of social development in capitalist Europe.

The author of the article exposes this falsification. Citing examples from the history of the Soviet Union's struggle for cooperation among all the European countries, he convincingly shows that peaceful coexistence has been the general line of Soviet foreign policy ever since the victory of the October Revolution. The Leninist principle of peaceful coexistence is also the underlying basis of the foreign policy of the other socialist states.

Drawing on his analysis of the present-day situation, the author shows that peaceful coexistence is also an objective necessity for the capitalist, particularly West-European, states, and reveals the reasons for the irresistible spread of this idea among ever wider sections of the population in Western Europe.

The article rebuffs the attempts of the falsifiers of history to give a distorted picture of the prospects of the peaceful competition between capitalism and socialism in Europe, exposes their slanderous stories about the socialist countries and their efforts to prove the possibility of "renovating" West-European capitalism. The author shows the futility of the efforts of the reactionary scientists to depict peaceful coexistence as a guarantee of the preservation of capitalist rule in Western Europe. Capitalism, with its intensifying and deepening contradictions, demonstrates ever more clearly its inability to satisfy the vital requirements of the peoples of Western Europe. The outstanding economic and cultural achievements of the Soviet Union and the People's Democracies, their unremitting efforts in behalf of peace exert an immense and ever-growing influence on the course of social development in Western Europe. The example of the socialist countries inspires the peoples of Western Europe in the fight for peace and democracy. The article emphasizes that this struggle inevitably overgrows into the struggle for socialism.

A. E. KUNINA. American Bourgeois Historiography on U.S. Policy Towards Soviet Russia in 1917 - 20

A. E. Kunina analyzes some of the recent works by American historians devoted to the early period of U.S. -Soviet relations (1917 - 20). The author makes an attempt to show how American bourgeois scientists falsify history in order to provide a "scientific basis" for the present aggressive U.S. policy. One of the latest methods resorted to for such falsification is the so-called "critical version," with the help of which American historians, under the pretext of criticizing official persons, distort the real U.S. policy towards Soviet Russia. Subjecting this method to a critical analysis, A. E. Kunina cites a number of documents confirming the U.S. government's hostile attitude towards the Soviet government and its attempts to torpedo the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty in 1918. The author exposes the myths invented by the apologists of U.S. imperialism with the aim of denying America's; leading role in the anti-Soviet intervention. The truth about America's aggressive policy towards the Soviet Republic leaves the coldwar ideologists no ground to stand on.

B. F. PORSHNEV. Political Relations Between East and West Europe in the Period of the Thirty Years' War

The article is the paper read by the author at the XI International Congress of Historical Science in Stockholm.

B. F. Porshnev treats certain aspects of international relations in the period of the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 48) as a concrete historical example showing the indissoluble connection of the history of West and East Europe and the artificiality of some historians! attempts to regard them as fully isolated from each other. In the 17th century all the states of Europe (and non-European states as well) formed a definite system of states. In the period under review this was manifested in their division into two large camps: the pro-Habsburg and anti-Habsburg alignments. Prior to the war, the West-European states opposed to the Habsburg "universalism" had sought contacts with the three powers of the "eastern barrier": Turkey, the Polish-Lithuanian state and Sweden. But rapprochement between the Polish-Lithuanian state under Sigismund III and the Habsburg camp enhanced the role of the Muscovite state in European politics. In the first half of the 17th century the Muscovite state had important differences with all the three members of the "eastern barrier," for they had temporarily acquired territories and population formerly belonging to Russia In that period the Muscovite state faced the task of regaining the Ukrainian and Byelorussian lands seized by the Polish-Lithuanian state, the central power of the "eastern barrier." Therefore, after the "troubled times" were over, especially in the period when the country was virtually ruled by Patriarch Filaret, the Muscovite state pursued a policy of rapprochement with both flanks of the "barrier," especially Sweden, for joint struggle against the Polish-Lithuanian state and its allies. Thus the Muscovite state proved to be an important factor in not only East-European, but also general European struggle against the Habsburg-Catholic camp, especially in the so-called Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War.

The close connection of the history of the Muscovite state and the genera! European historical process in the period reviewed in the article, came in for an attentive study comparatively quite recently, in the 'forties of the 20th century, by some Soviet, Swedish and German historians. The Swedish archives studied by D. Norrman and the Russian archives studied by the author yielded a wealth of new material relating to the subject, which was formerly unnoticed or under-estimated. Of special interest are documents from the Central Stale Archives of Ancient Acts belonging to the Muscovite state's foreign

relations bureau of the first half of the 17th century. B. F. Porshnev's facts are based primarily on these documents, which reflect the Muscovite state's relations with Sweden, Turkey, France, Holland, Britain, Denmark, the Polish-Lithuanian state, Transylvania, the Crimea, and other states, as well as with the Greco-Orthodox churches. Documents from Swedish, Austrian, French and other archives are also valuable.

The research conducted by B. F. Porshnev has revealed the closest connection between the "Swedish period" of the Thirty Years' War and the so-called Smolensk War of 1632 - 34. The acute class struggle which flared up in Russia at that time and which influenced the outcome of the war, had an indirect bearing on the general European political situation at the end of the "Swedish period" of the Thirty Years' War. There also came the collapse of the plans of uniting all the Protestant churches with the Orthodox church for the joint struggle against Catholicism. The author also proves that, in the "Franco-Swedish period" as well, the Muscovite state was an important factor in the general European political situation: the war ended in the conditions of a general upsurge of popular social movements in the West and East.

V. D. BLAVATSKY. Historical Development and Role of the Ancient States of the Northern Black Sea Region

The article presents a concise characteristic of the main trends of development of the ancient states of the northern Black Sea Region. It reflects all the most important conclusions on the history and archaeology of the northern Black Sea region of the period of antiquity, reached by Soviet historical science.

The author points out that, before the settlement of the Hellenes on the northern Pontic coast, the local population, which consisted of various tribes, had passed a complicated path of historical development. The 7th century B. C. saw the establishment of regular trade contacts between Greek merchants and the North-Pontic population. This led to the appearance of temporary and later permanent commercial centres (emporiums). In the 6th century B. C. Hellenic polises began to appear in the northern Black Sea region. Since then one can observe a certain parallelism in the historical development of the Mediterranean countries and the centres of antiquity situated on the northern Pontic coast, complicated by local, at times considerable specific features. These specific features of the historical development of the northern Pontic states were largely determined by their permanent contacts with the "barbarous world," which was in a state of constant change in the period of antiquity.

The article points to the important part played by local elements in the history of Bosporus. In the 4th century B. C. the latter became a Greco-Sindo-Maeotian state. The close economic contacts of Bosporus with the local tribes greatly promoted its economic and cultural advancement in the 4th century B. C. After the destruction of many North-Pontic cities at the end of the 2nd and in the 1st centuries B. C. the role of Hellenized barbarians, especially the Sarmatians, grew notably; they took an active part in populating the newly restored cities.

The author characterizes the role of the northern Black Sea region in the development of Hellenic culture and comes to the conclusion that the North-Ponic centres enabled Greek science to obtain information on extensive northern and north-eastern countries. This not only enriched it with new data, but also made it possible for Hellenic scientists to advance a number of new problems.

Y. I. KIRYANOV. The Influence Exerted by the First World War on the Numerical Strength and Composition of Workers in Russia

The article examines the changes in the number and composition of workers in Russia's southern industrial area on the very eve of the bourgeois-democratic revolution of February 1917-a problem inadequately reflected in Soviet historical literature. Drawing on numerous publications and archive materials, the author makes new calculations based on annual average data on the number of workers, whereas previous computations were based on statistical data for the end of the year and could not give an altogether accurate picture.

High concentration and turnover of the labour force were the features characteristic of Russia's southern industry. In 1913, 99.6 per cent of workers were engaged in production at the southern metallurgical enterprises employing over 500 men, and 91.1 per cent in the Donbas coalmining industry. At individual metallurgical plants the annual turnover of workers on the eve of the war reached 60 per cent of the total number employed. Part of the workers maintained close ties with agriculture and many of them left for the countryside to work as farm hands. In connection with the war a considerable number of workers were drafted into the army. By the autumn of 1916, for instance, the number of mobilized work ers in several iron and steel mills arneunted to 32 - 47 per cent of the total work force employed on July 1, 1914. From 1913 to 1916 the general average monthly numerical strength of the work force in the south of Russia changed as follows: in the coal-mining

and metallurgical industries it increased 41.1 per cent and 40.1 per cent respectively, while in the iron-ore industry it declined by more than 3 per cent. The composition of the labour force likewise changed considerably. The employers made extensive use of the labour of war prisoners (on March 1, 1917, they accounted for 26.4 per cent of the work force in the coal industry and for 27.4 per cent in the metallurgical industry; in the iron-ore industry they constituted 59. 1 per cent on January, 1, 1917). The war years witnessed a big influx of women and juveniles intoindustry. Many kulaks, noblemen and other elements likewise flocked to industrial enterprises in an effort to obtain a deferment from mobilization. As a result of this the composition of the labour force became less proletarian in character and the percentage of skilled workers diminished. The concentration of the labour force was also affected by the war. In the metallurgical industry the number of workers in the giant iron and steel mills (employing over 10,000 men) increased. At the same time the coal industry saw a decrease in the concentration of the work force (in 1915, only 70 per cent of the total number of workers were engaged in production at the enterprises employing 500 men).

The author draws the conclusion that the changes in the composition of the labour force in Russia's southern industrial area during the first world war were much deeper than in the Petrograd and Moscow industrial areas. This circumstance is largely responsible for a definite "lag" of the labour movement in the southern area compared with Petrograd.

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