EDITORIAL: The Epoch-Making Significance of the October Revolution

The article stresses the vast historic significance of the approaching half-centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. This notable anniversary, which sums up the results of the great historic'road traversed by the Soviet people, is a fitting occasion for Soviet historians to assess the past and present development of mankind and to reveal the laws governing this development. The article highlights the achievements of Soviet historical science in the fifty years of Soviet power and dwells on the tasks confronting Soviet historians in the contemporary period.

T. T. TIMOFEYEV. The Great October Socialist Revolution and the International Working- Class Movement

The article graphically shows that the victorious socialist revolution in Russia signified the beginning of the world proletarian revolution and ushered in a new period of transition from capitalism to socialism. In the fifty years of its progressive development the international working-class movement passed through a number of concrete historical stages. The early years following the October Revolution (1918 - 1923) were marked by the powerful revolutionary manifestations of the European working class. The Communist International founded during that stage of the working-class movement helped the young Communist parties formed in many countries to formulate a correct political line and strengthen their ties with the masses. The second stage of the world working-class movement dating back to between-the-wars period was characterized by the further achievements of the Soviet and international working class-the Soviet Union's successes in socialist construction, the growing prestige of socialism on the international arena and the increasing consolidation of the new-type revolutionary proletarian parties standing at the head of the struggle waged by the broad popular masses against fascism and war, for national independence and social progress. Notwithstanding the grim ordeals of the second world war, the international working-class movement was able to score world-historic victories. Among its chief gains during the war years were the defeat of German fascism and Japanese militarism, the triumph of socialist revolutions in a number of European and Asian countries, the powerful upsurge of the national-liberation movement in Afro-Asian and Latin- American countries. A new stage in the development of the international revolutionary movement began in the 1950's-1960's. It is marked by the further change in the alignment of the world's class forces in favour of socialism. The international proletariat and its main creation-the socialist world system-have advanced to the forefront of contemporary social life. The results of the past half-century of struggle waged by the international working class, the growing strength and scope of the world revolutionary process convincingly' demonstrate the inevitability of the replacement of capitalism by socialism.

B. G. GAFUROV. Soviet Russia and the National-Liberation Struggle of the Peoples of the Middle East

The article highlights the influence exerted by the Great October Socialist Revolution on the development of the anti-imperialist movement in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and in the Arab countries of Iraq, Syria and Egypt. Analyzing the position af these countries during the first world war, the author exposes the colonialist policy followed by Anglo-French imperialism in its effort to suppress the liberation struggle which developed in this yart of the world under the impact of the October Revalution. The artisle brings ont the fundamental difference of Soviet Russia's policy towards the oppressed peoples of

the East from the imperialist policy and shows the immense revolutionizing influence of the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia and the Appeal to All Working Moslems of Russia and the East, which clearly formulated the underlying principles of Soviet policy in relation to Turkey, Iran and other Eastern countries. The Turkish people would have found it extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to win national freedom without the moral and political support of Soviet Russia; the assistance rendered by the Soviet state enabled Iran to consolidate political and economic independence; the Soviet government's material military and diplomatic assistance was instrumental in strengthening the internal and international position of Afghanistan and enabled the Afghan people to expel the British colonialists from their country. The Great October Revolution and the Soviet people's heroic struggle against the armed intervention launched by foreign imperialism inspired the peoples of Iraq, Syria and Egypt in their armed struggle, which subsequently resulted in their winning of political independence. The powerful influence of the October Revolution on the colonial and dependent nations of the East is regarded by the author as a permanently operating factor, which acquires increasing significance with the progressive disintegration of the colonial system.

JACQUES DUCLOS. The October Revolution and Its Impact on France

A new book by Jacques Duclos "Octobre 17 vu de France," devoted to the Great October Socialist Revolution, was recently published in France. This issue of our journal contains excerpts from this book. A noted historian and memoir-writer, the author vividly depicts the epoch-making events of 1917 in Russia and shows the powerful impact made by the October Revolution on the French working-class and Communist movement.

V. I. KUZMIN. History's First Experiment in Socialist Industrialization

The author traces the historic conditions which determined the economic policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet state in the period of industrialization, brings out the socialist essence of the industrial transformations effected in the U.S.S.R. and discloses the general and specific features of the Soviet experience in the field of industrialization. Particular attention in the article is devoted to the rates and proportions of the Soviet Union's economic development in 1926 - 1937. In 1929 - 1932 there occurred a sharp change in basic national-economic proportions, with particular accent on the priority development of heavy industry, notably engineering. The author shows the historical conditions and causes necessitating this turning point in the development of industrialization.

The article examines in detail how the problem of accumulation was solved at the different stages of industrialization. Making the best possible use of the advantages latent in the planned socialist economy, the Soviet staite, contending with incredible difficulties and relying exclusively on its own forces, succeeded in accumulating vast financial resources and allocating them for industrial development. The article shows that the policy of industrialization, which demanded temporary sacrifices and hardships on the part of the Soviet people for the sake of saving the country and ensuring the triumph of socialism, was wholeheartedly approved and supported by the overwhelming majority of the working class and collective-farm peasantry.

G. V. SHARAPOV. The Solution of the Agrarian Question in the U.S.S.R.

The author makes an attempt to highlight the socio-economic development of the Soviet countryside in the process of socialist and communist construction. The author analyzes the agrarian transformations effected in the country in the early years of Soviet power, the preparation and carrying out of agricultural collectivization in the U.S.S.R. The article emphasizes that the socialist changes in agriculture were effected with the active support of the broad peasant masses, who saw in the collective farms a reliable protection against kulak exploitation and a correct path towards advancing the peasants' material well-being. The author cites concrete examples illustrating the Soviet people's efforts to secure a steep rise in all branches of agricultural production in the postwar period. The article examines the decisions adopted by the CPSU Central Committee at its plenary meeting in March 1966 and shows their vast significance for the further development of agriculture. The author cites extensive factual material illustrating how these decisions are being carried into practical effect and how they contribute to the steady rise of the cultural level and material prosperity of the collective-farm peasantry.

A. A. AKHTAMZIAN. The Principal Stages of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917 - 1967

The article examines the major developments and principal stages in the history of the Soviet Union's foreign policy over the past half-century. In the opening part of the arjticle the author briefly surveys the scientific theoretical foundations and the Leninist principles of international politics proclaimed in the first foreign policy documents of the Soviet state.

Proceeding from the events of epoch-making significance, the author singles out two stages in the history of Soviet foreign policy: from the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution to the second world war, and from the Soviet Union's historic victory in the Great Patriotic War to our days. The first stage (1917 - 1945) is characterized as a period of foreign-policy struggle to consolidate the position of the socialist state and ensure favourable conditions for laying the foundations of socialism. The author shows the consistent and self-sacrificing struggle of the Soviet Union - the only socialist state at that stage-against imperialism and colonialism. The second stage (1945 - 1967) is marked by radical changes in international relations, by the formation of the socialist world system and its conversion into the decisive factor of our time, by the breakdowr of the imperialist colonial system and the active participation of dozens of new national states in international affairs. The article shows the consistent efforts of Soviet foreign policy to realize its fundamental principles of socialist internationalism in relations with the socialist states and the peoples fighting against imperialism, of promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence in relations with capitalist states.

I. N. KORKUNOV, N. L. LUSHINA, L. S. SEMYONOVA and V. P. SERGEYEV. The Great October Revolution and the Socialist World System

The article stresses the international significance of the Great October Revolution and the experience of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. for the countries that have adopted the socialist path. By creatively applying this experience in the specific conditions obtaining in their countries, the nations comprising the socialist world system are simultaneously enriching it and making their distinctive contribution to the theory and practice of the socialist revolution, to the creation of a new social system. Concrete peculiarities in the sphere of struggle for the conquest of power by the working class, the forms and methods of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat, nationalization of private property, socialist reorganization of agriculture, etc., have found their manifestation in these countries within the framework of the general laws of Marxism-Leninism. Much attention is devoted in the article to the distinctive features of creating and developing the material and technical basis of socialism in industry and agriculture, as well as to the perfection of the forms and methods of economic cooperation between the socialist countries. The author also dwells on the problem of strengthening the unity and solidarity of the socialist world system on the basis of proletarian internationalism.

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