Main Directions of Historical Research in the 11th Five-Year Plan Period in the Light of the 26th CPSU Congress' Decisions.

The article singles out the main directions of historical research in the 11th five-year plan period: in-depth study of the theoretical problems of the world historical process and the general concept of world history and history of the USSR: history of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, and socialist and communist construction; history of national-democratic and socialist revolutions and the world socialist system; history of international relations and the foreign policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet state; the formation and development of socialist nations and national relations in the USSR; present-day national processes, problems of internationalism and ethnogenesis; development of international labour and liberation movements; economic, social and political problems of the newly liberated countries; history of pre-capitalist and capitalist socio-economic formation; history of socio- political thought and world culture, history of religion and atheism; contemporary ideological trends abroad, critique of bourgeois ideology, anti-Communism, reformism and revisionism.

ACADEMICIAN A. L. NAROCHNITSKY, L. N. NEZHINSKY. Topical Problems of the History of Soviet Foreign Policy and International Relations.

The authors analyse the main trends of Soviet research on the subject in the second half of the 1970s. Attention is focussed on the struggle of the USSR and other socialist countries for peace, international security and cooperation in the post-war period. The article also examines topical problems and priority tasks in this field stemming from the decisions of the 26th CPSU Congress.

A. I. KOZLOV, K. A. KHEMELEVSKY, L. A. ETENKO. Research in the History of the Struggle for Soviet Power in the Don and Northern Caucasus.

The article analyses the state of basic research in the history of the struggle for Soviet power in the South-East of European Russia, a vast region with many peculiarities in its socio-economic development and alignment of class forces. The authors reveal the shortcomings, defects and gaps in current research, and formulated tasks for the future. These include fundamental works dealing with the role of the different classes and social groups in the revolution and Civil War internationalist cooperation of the working people of the region in their struggle for Soviet power and the collapse of bourgeois nationalist ideology and policy.

A. I. PODGORNOVA. The 1921 - 1923 Book Publishing Reform in the RSFSR.

The author convincingly demonstrates that the change-over to the New Economic Policy necessitated measures to reform book publishing in the RSFSR. At the first stage, in 1921 - 1923, new and better forms of state ideological and political guidance of book publishing were developed. The first steps were taken in state planning and thematic specialisation (political literature, textbooks, etc.). The article describes how, in the situation created by the NEP, the state which hold the commanding positions, was able to promote, expand and improve book publishing These reforms were part of the cultural revolution and an important component of socialist construction.

A. A. PREOBRAZHENSKY. The Middle Volga Area and the Primary Settlement of Siberia (End of 16th to Mid-17th Century).

The article deals with a little-studied aspect of the primary settlement of Siberia. The author underlines the role played by the material and financial resources of the middle Volga area and especially by its population at a time when agriculture was only just beginning in areas beyond the Urals. The new archival materials on which the author draws shed light on the measures taken by the central authorities to develop Siberia: regular grain deliveries, financial assistance, etc. Besides abundance of new facts, the ar-

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tide gives us a fuller appraisal of the importance of Siberia's joining Russia even at those distant times. Siberia's economic ties with other regions helped its development within the framework of the Russian state.

A. D. LYUBLINSKAYA. The Social Psychology of the French Peasants in the 16th-18th Centuries.

The author took as her subject changes in the social psychology of the French peasants resulting from their territorial and social mobility and their changed relations with other classes and social groups which were due to the development of capitalism in France.

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