P. A. ALEXANDROV. The Development of Soviet Agriculture in the Period Between the 23rd and 24th CPSU Congresses

The article examines the most important results of the activity carried on by the CPSU and the Soviet people aimed at expanding agricultural production during the past five- year-plan period. The author shows that the practical implementation of the comprehensive programme of economic and social measures mapped out by the 23rd CPSU Congress and the plenary meetings of the Party's Central Committee contributed to a substantial increase in the output of grain, cotton, meat, milk and other products of crop farming and livestock breeding. The period under review has been marked by the strengthening of the economy of the collective and state farms, and has witnessed the carrying out of important measures in providing the material and technical basis and economically stimulating agricultural production. All this has brought about significant changes in the life of the rural toilers, as reflected in the tangible improvement of their material well-being and cultural level, in the altered social make-up and psychology of the peasant, in the gradual effacement of essential distinctions still existing in the conditions of life and labour in town and country, in the enhanced alliance of the working class and the collective-farm peasantry and further consolidation of the economic power of the Soviet state.

N. G. GEORGIEVA. Illegal Printing of Leaflets in Russia at the End of the 19^th and the Beginning of the 20th Centuries

The author characterizes the criteria for singling out printed leaflets as a special complex of sources and the methods of studying the illegal printing of leaflets by drawing on existing sources. The article analyzes the principal indications of printed leaflets permitting to work out a uniform definition of this type of sources, describes the card-index method of ascertaining published leaflets, elucidates such essential elements of their study by existing sources as establishing the date of publication and authenticity. Particular importance is attached to the question of typological composition of the complex of illegally printed leaflets, the methods of investigating the authenticity and scientific-historical value of the information contained in the given type of sources.

M. V. NECHKINA. The First Research Work Produced by V. O. Klyuchevsky

The article makes a detailed analysis of the "Tales About the Moscow State as Told by Foreign Visitors"- the first research work written by V. O. Klyuchevsky at the time of his graduation from Moscow University and intended as theses for his scientific degree. The young historian's dissertation contained a great many new facts and a number of interesting considerations. The article shows that in the process of examining the eyewitness accounts of foreign visitors about the Moscow state in the 15th-17th centuries, V. O. Klyuchevsky encountered a multitude of general problems pertaining to Russian history, and his attitude to these problems enables one to form a clear idea of his conception. Klyuchevsky's interest in these problems is clearly reflected in his subsequent creative work.

P. A. SHISHKIN. The Present-Day Scientific-Technological Revolution and the American Working Class

The article traces the consequences of the contemporary scientific-technological revolution for the American working class and other groups of wage earners. The author examines the following questions: the character of the structural changes in different classes and social groups, the place and role of the working class in the structure of modern capitalist society, the problem of employment, the specific features of the strike struggle, and trade union activity. The article brings out the utter insolvency of the bourgeois

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theories concerning the "deradicalization" of the working class and its "dissolution" in the so-called middle class. The author cites concrete examples which graphically show that in conditions of state-monopoly capitalism the scientific-technological revolution further widens and accentuates the existing contradictions and engenders still deeper and more acute social antagonisms, thereby greatly enhancing the role of the working class as the leading force in the struggle against the omnipotence of the monopolies.

I. I. KOVALENKO. Non-Governmental Organizations in the History of International Relations

The author dwells on the genesis and evolution of one of the forms of international intercourse-the numerous international non-governmental organizations. Their extensive spread since the middle of the 19th century was a graphic manifestation of the process of internationalization of mankind's scientific, technological, social and political activity. The altered social content of international relations under the impact of deep-going revolutionary changes, the struggle of different classes and various political forces for the right to use international non-governmental organizations in furtherance of their narrow interests determined the evolution of their role in the world arena and continue to determine their significance today. The author comes to the conclusion that the further development of these organizations is indissolubly linked with the strengthening of the positions of the forces of socialism and democracy in their historic confrontation with the imperialist and reactionary forces.

M. A. POLTAVSKY. The Future of Austria in the Policy of the U.S.A. and Britain in 1941 - 1945

Reactionary bourgeois historiography grossly falsifies the policy followed by the U. S. A. and Britain in the Austrian question in 1941 - 1945, depicting the United States and Great Britain as staunch champions of Austria's interests. A close analysis of numerous documents published by the U. S. State Department as well as of a number of other publications enables the author to show with sufficient clarity that the U.S.A. and Britain persistently worked to achieve a kind of organization in postwar Europe as would completely rule out the re-establishment of independent Austria. Seeking to prevent the consolidation of popular government, the U.S.A. and Britain stubbornly refused to reconcile themselves to the fact that the Provisional Government formed in Austria in 1945 included representatives of the Communist Party. Having signed the Potsdam agreements which authorized the Soviet Union to use German assets in Eastern Austria, they at once adopted the tactic of hampering the fulfilment of these decisions to the detriment of both the U.S.S.R. and Austria. Against the background of this imperialist policy the liberating mission performed by the Soviet Union in Austria stands out in still bolder relief.

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