I. I. MINTS. The First Power Crisis in Russia in April 1917

This article by I. I. Mints is devoted to one of the stages in the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia in 1917 - the so-called April crisis. It was in April 1917 that the Russian bourgeoisie made its first attempt to solve the question of power irrevocably in its favour, to put an end to the dual power. I. I. Mints shows how the bourgeois leaders and Ministers of the Provisional Government secretly plotted against the people, how they tried to provoke the masses and incite them to organize a political manifestation, their idea being to drown the popular rising in blood and establish the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The article dwells in detail on the move made by Milyukov, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government, in informing the Allies that the whole people desired to continue the world war until a decisive victory was achieved and that the Provisional Government intended fully to observe the obligations undertaken towards its allies. The author shows the reaction this statement ("Milyukov's note") evoked among the compromising Soviets which supported the Provisional Government, and the storm of protest and indignation it aroused among the mass of workers and soldiers. I. I. Mints traces the progress of events between April 18 and 22, in the course of which the masses clearly and emphatically demonstrated their lack of confidence in the Provisional Government, and convincingly shows that this government was able to remain in power only as a result of the compromising and opportunist policy followed by the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary leadership of the Soviets. In conclusion the author points out that the April crisis, the bourgeoisie's abortive conspiracy against the people prompted the Bolsheviks to accelerate the formation of their political army and contributed to the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into the socialist revolution.

A. S. SYCHOVA. How Unemployment Was Eliminated in the U.S.S.R.

The article analyzes the process of eliminating unemployment in the U.S.S.R., which was completed by the close of 1931. Drawing on concrete historical material, the author shows how the process of socialist industrialization and agricultural collectivization was attended by the gradual transition from the distribution of manpower through the Labour Exchanges to the planning of the country's manpower resources. The article shows the extensive financial and other assistance rendered by the Soviet government to the working people who temporarily remained without jobs.

The article cites numerous facts which graphically show that with the victory of the socialist sector in the Soviet national economy a series of organizational measures were effected with the aim of eliminating unemployment in the U.S.S.R. Consistently carried out under the leadership of the People's Commissariats of Labour of the U.S.S.R. and the Union Republics, these measures were chiefly directed towards organizing large-scale professional training of unskilled workers, young people and women and providing them with permanent guaranteed jobs.

L. V. CHEREPNIN. Alexander Blok and History

Studying the biography of the outstanding Russian poet and tracing the formation of his historical views, L. V. Cherepnin points out that Alexander Blok's interest in history was inherited from his parents and was further developed in the years he spent at St. Petersburg University. A conspicuous part in the formation of his views was

played by the revolution of 1905, though it was regarded by the poet as a purely spontaneous development. The historical theme of two Russias-autocratic and revolutionary - was beginning to loom ever larger in the poet's mind. He pondered over the problem of relations between the intellectuals and the people. He wrote a cycle of poems entitled "The Battle of Kulikovo," in which the historical theme of the Russian people's fight for independence was given a contemporary political ring.

The revolution of February 1917 was viewed by the poet as a major historical event, though he was far removed from scientifically appreciating its significance. Working in the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry set up by the Provisional Government to investigate the activities of the tsarist officials, Blok writes a poem devoted to the overthrow of the autocracy.

Blok welcomed the October Revolution and condemned those representatives of the Russian intelligentsia who refused to support it. During that period the poet's creative effort was concentrated on the important theme of "the collapse of humanism." Under the impact of the revolutionary events in Russia he begins to display heightened interest in the Great French Revolution, in the political history of ancient Rome, etc. He actively shares in the work of the Commission for the Recreation of Historical Pictures, which was founded on the initiative of Maxim Gorky with the aim of assisting Soviet theatres and cinematography, thereby contributing to the dissemination of historical knowledge.

Notwithstanding the highly contradictory character of his world outlook, the author writes in conclusion, Alexander Blok presents a shining example of patriotic writer who dedicated his talent to the cause of the revolution.

I. I. ZHIGALOV. Great Britain and the Common Market (1961 - 1963)

The political struggle which developed in Great Britain around the plans to join the Common Market in 1961 - 1963 was the central issue of the country's internal life, which brought into conflict the interests of diverse classes and segments of British society. It was also one of the crucial problems around which a sharp struggle developed during the general parliamentary elections in 1966. The article gives a problematic and concrete historical analysis of the attitude to the Common Market of the country's political parties, parliamentary and business circles, national and industrial trade unions, influential public organizations, groups and trends. British workers, office employees and broad sections of the petty and middle bourgeoisie took an active part in the mounting struggle against Britain's entry into the Common Market. A significant contribution to this struggle was made by the Communist Party of Great Britain - the only political party in the country which consistently opposed the anti-national policy of the Macmillan government and put forward a democratic alternative to the Common Market.

The article points out that the Macmillan government's decision to join the Common Market was the logical outcome of the "integration" policy pursued by the British ruling element. The ignominious failure of this policy demonstrated still more glaringly the utter bankruptcy of the Conservative Party and largely contributed to its defeat in the 1964 parliamentary elections, which signified a step forward in the development of the country's political life.

A. I. NEUSYKHIN. The Pre-Feudal Period as a Transitional Stage of Development from the Tribal to the Early Feudal System

The article is devoted to an analysis of the specific character of the social system of ancient Germanic tribes in the stage of transition from the tribal system to early feudalism. The author shows the surviving indications of the communal system: freedom of the basic mass of tribesmen; their positive equality of rights (the identity of their rights and duties in relation to the commune, to the tribe and towards each other); the combination of individual and family ownership of a plot of cultivated land with the supreme communal ownership of the entire cultivable land and with the right of each free tribesman to use the non-distributed tracts of land, which constitutes a real production basis of positive freedom; the existence of the household commune formed by a big family of three generations, which is already in the process of disintegrating into small individual families. The emerging elements of the genesis of feudalism consist in the growing property and social differentiation among free tribesmen. The tribe's division into different social strata according to nobility, freedom and semi-freedom does not yet develop into the process of class-formation; the existence of the tribe is based on the labour of free members of the commune; a social group living exclusively by exploiting the labour of other groups has not yet arisen within the tribe.

The existence of a social system of this type is regarded by the author as a specific transitional period, which he proposes to call "pre-feudal" or "protofeudal," thereby, trying to emphasize that the end of that period was already marked by the gradual emergence of the prerequisites of feudalism. Stressing that this concept is not purely chronological but phasic in character, the author points to the varying duration of that period among different Germanic tribes. The beginning of the "pre-feudal" period, in the author's opinion, coincides with the formation of large tribal unions by the Germanic peoples in the 4th - 5th centuries.

V. I. KOZLOV. The Concept of Nation: Certain Theoretical Problems

This article, which continues the discussion of certain theoretical aspects of the concept of nation, examines the possibility of applying to the concept of nation the community of psychic make-up, the community of culture and the community of national self-consciousness. The author analyzes the appropriate views and opinions put forward in the published articles and dwells on the most essential problems that have not yet received adequate attention. A conspicuous place is given in the article to the problem of correlation of the national, political and economic community, which is analyzed by drawing on concrete examples of the formation of nations in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe as well as in certain countries of other continents.

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