M. P. KIM, Corresponding Member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. V. I. Lenin's Contribution to the Further Development of the Marxist Teaching on Classes and Parties

The article examines the major aspects of Lenin's teaching on classes and parties, disclosing its significance for the theory and practice of communism. For the first time in historical literature the author substantiates the idea that political parties in the full sense of this term arose in the era of bourgeois revolutions, that they were practically nonexistent in the pre-capitalist period.

The author's attention is focussed on analysis of the Marxist-Leninist thesis on the liberating mnssion of the proletariat and its Communist vanguard, on the worker-and- peasant alliance as an indispensable condition for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and for the socialist rejuvenation of society. The author brings out the profound meaning of V. I. Lenin's thesis that the dictatorship of the proletariat can be achieved only through the Communist Party. The article makes a point of stressing that irrespective of whether there exists only one party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat or whether the latter' is based on the functioning of several parties, the leadership exercised by the Communist Party is of decisive importance for the achievement of socialist aims.

A conspicuous place is devoted in the article to the changes in the class and party structure of society in connection with the latter's transition from capitalism to socialism. The author also examines the laws governing the replacement of class antagonisms by a policy of peace and cooperation between the two friendly socialist classes of workers and peasants in the process of transition from capitalism to socialism.

A. M. BLINOV. The Centrobalt

The article highlights the history of the establishment and revolutionary activity of the Centrobalt (the Central Committee of the Baltic Navy), which guided the revolutionary struggle of the Baltic seamen in 1917 - 1918. Drawing on newly discovered archive documents, the author shows the complex process of formation of this committee, the efforts of the Navy Command to bring it under its influence, the struggle between the revolutionary and reactionary forces in the Navy around the Centrobalt, its basic rights and functions. The author vividly tells how under the Bolsheviks' leadership the Centrobalt was transformed into an authoritative revolutionary organization in the Baltic, which carried out a series of measures to democratize the Navy and mobilize the seamen for the struggle against the counter- revolutionary forces. The Centrobalt ordered the dispatch to Petrograd of battleships and revolutionary sailors who took an active part, jointly with the workers and soldiers of the capital, in the armed uprising of October 1917, in suppressing the counter-revolutionary revolt organized by Kerensky and Krasnov, in defending the gains of the revolution in the early years of Soviet power. The Centrobalt also played a conspicuous part in establishing the Workers' and Peasants' Red Navy. The ten- month period of Centrobalt activity reflects the tense struggle in the Baltic Navy from 1917 to the opening months of 1918.

N. M. MOLEVA. The Moscow Artists' Guild in the 17th-18th Centuries

The article represents the first attempt to examine the nature of the professional association of Russian artists in the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries. Refuting the widespread conception about the absence in Russia of any guilds for iconpainters and artists during that period, the author conclusively proves on the basis of available documentary materials the existence of an artists' association based on guild principles, whose branches in the various cities were largely independent and autonomous in character but maintained mutual connections on a country-wide scale. The article analyzes the legal position of the artists as compared with the rest of the urban population, their average property status, character of property, taxation and social composition. There existed an essential difference between the Russian and West-European guilds as regards their practical forms of fulfilling orders, the Russian artists adhering to the "artel principle" presupposing

voluntary association of artists widely differing in their level of qualification and skill, as well as the apprenticeship institution distinguished for its more social character. The absence of any contract obligations enabled the apprentices freely to leave one master and hire themselves out to another.

The principles evolved in the course of the 17th century formed the basis of the guilds organized in 1721 under the municipal councils, and a quarter of a century later led to the formation of a country-wide professional artists' association headed by the Building Chancellery.

J. N. SHCHAPOV. The Church and the Formation o! Statehood in Ancient Rus

The article examines certain questions concerning the role of the Christian church organization in the development and strengthening of the ancient Russian state. Having emerged in Russia at the close of the 10th century in conditions marked by the existence of the early class society and an organized state system, the church in the course of the 11th-12th centuries penetrated deep into the life of the country and had an active share in the performance of a number of cardinal functions of the feudal state. The early church in ancient Rus is characterized by several distinctive features. On the one hand, it was weak politically and closely connected with the rule of the feudal princes; on the other hand, it was vested with broad judicial powers, its jurisdiction extending practically to every part of the country.

The author attributes the political weakness of the ancient Russian church in the 11th and the first half of the 12th centuries to its inadequate economic basis and its economic dependence on the ruling prince, who allocated to the church only one-tenth of his incomes. The landed property of the church made its appearance at the end of the 11th century. Subsequently it began to grow, gradually altering the economic position of the church itself. The jurisdiction of the Russian church was extremely wide, extending as it did to diverse aspects of family and conjugal relations as well as to internal church affairs, which were of little interest to the feudal princes inasmuch as they presented no threat to nascent class domination. The church laid its hand on these spheres of public law which traditionally belonged to communal organizations, and converted them into spheres of feudal church law.

Z. P. IVANOVA. Certain Problems of the Present-Day Scientific and Technological Revolution in the Capitalist Countries

The author makes a point of stressing in her article that Marxist historians fundamentally differ from Western bourgeois scientists in their assessment of the essence of the present-day scientific and technological revolution and the role it plays In the process of social development. Proceeding from the same facts of development of the contemporary scientific and technological revolution, Marxist historians and bourgeois scientists give them a diametrically opposite appraisal and draw opposite social and political conclusions from them. The article describes in detail the Marxist treatment of diverse problems of the contemporary scientific and technological revolution and subjects to critkism a number of bourgeois technocratic theories, notably the "convergence" theory. Allround analysis of the social and economic consequences engendered by the scientific and technological revolution in conditions of capitalism warrants the conclusion that in assessing the sum and substance of the present-day scientific and technological revolution and its significance in the development of society it is necessary to proceednot only from negative social consequences, but also from recognition of its immense potentialities which must facilitate the process of transition from capitalism to socialism. By accelerating the development of the productive forces of capitalist society without at the same time eliminating its parasitism and decay, the scientific and technological revolution contributes to the maturing of objective and subjective factors of the socialist revolution, brings nearer the clay of the downfall of capitalism and makes for more rapid establishment of the material and technical basis of socialism and communism.

A. N. MERTZALOV. The Second World War as Reflected by Contemporary West-German Conservative Historians and Memoir Writers

The article traces the origin and development of West-German conservative historical and memoir literature on the second world war, bringing out the features that distinguish this literature from the other trends in reactionary historiography, the peculiarities of the methodology and methods employed by diverse bourgeois authors, their political views and

conceptions on the history of the war, the leading groups of conservative historians, the contents of the major works produced by H. G. Dahms, P. Carell and other prominent representatives of the conservative trend.

The author of the article comes to the conclusion that owing to their anti-Communist stand and methodological limitations, the conservative historians are unable to solve the main problems of the history of World War II - its genesis, decisive battles and the factors that contributed to the defeat of nazism, notwithstanding certain attempts to improve their methods and critically re-examine the historical sources on which their works are chiefly based.

V. I. RUTENBURG. The Italian and World Renaissance

Drawing on the comparative historical method of research, the author traces the general and specific features of the economy, social structure and culture of the various regions and individual countries of the world. He stresses that in the past two decades the Renaissance problem has been examined in many historical and literary research works precisely along these lines: many contemporary historians and writers are closely studying the humanistic trend in Russian literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Renaissance elements in Russia in the 15th- 16th centuries, pre- Renaissance motives in Russian art and literature of the 14th-15th centuries, the Renaissance in 15th-century Central Asia, 11th-13th-century Georgia, 9th-13th- century Armenia, Iran and India, 8th-12th-century Arab countries, 8th-16th-century China. Italy of the 14 th-16th centuries, where, on the basis of early capitalist relations, there appeared the illustrious Renaissance culture and the anti-feudal humanistic world outlook, which were characterized by Frederick Engels as the greatest progressive upheaval, has been generally recognized and accepted as a model in appraising these phenomena.

The author draws the conclusion that the specific conditions of development of the various regions and individual countries of the world testify to the distinctive peculiarities of their history and civilization which, as a rule, in the period under examination (8th-16th centuries) attains the level of medieval urban culture and not of prebourgeois, Renaissance culture. The study of some of the elements in the culture of different countries, which bear a close resemblance to those of the Renaissance period, can prove fruitful only if research is strictly based on genuine historical principles.

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