Y. S. DAVYDOV, N. K. FIGUROVSKAYA. The Development of Agrarian- Industrial Integration in the U.S.S.R.

The article analyzes the process of development of economic links between industry and agriculture in the U.S.S.R. Much importance is attached by the authors to the history of setting up agro-industrial complexes at the close of the 1920's and in the early 1930's and to establishing the causes of their failure. Particular attention is devoted in the article to characterizing the objective prerequisites of deepening the agrarian-industrial synthesis in developed socialist society and to analyzing the process of optimization of the national-economic agrarian-industrial complex in present-day conditions. The authors acquaint the reader with the contemporary forms of agrarian-industrial integration and emphasize the role the latter is expected to play in heightening the economic effectiveness of social production under socialism.

V. A. DYAKOV. Leo Tolstoy on the Laws Governing the Historical Process, the Role of the Individual and the Masses in History

The article characterizes the main features of the philosophy of history expounded by Leo Tolstoy, its ideological sources and reflection in his novel "War and Peace". The author compares the historical views of the eminent Russian writer with the methodological precepts followed by individual trends of Russian historiography in the fifties and sixties of the 19th century, i. e., during the period when the famous work was conceived and produced. At the same time the article discloses the interconnection of the outhor's position and the evaluation of the novel by public opinion of those years with the historical situation and socio-political collisions in the epoch marked by the downfall of serfdom in Russia.

M. B. SVERDLOV. The Genesis of Feudal Landownership in Ancient Rus

The article examines the character of landownership in Ancient Rus. The author believes that supreme landownership of the feudal state dates back to the supreme right of a tribe to own the inhabited territory and that in the feudal society it was an expression of supreme monopoly property in land exercised by the ruling class of feudal lords. Parallel with the landed property of the big, middie and small feudal lords there existed non-privileged property of the free peasants, which occupied the lowest place in the system of feudal landownership. Within the framework of the feudal domain it became either a possession or a tenure. The system of feudal landownership in Ancient Rus is characterized by the author as monopolistic, hierarchic and conventional.

E. V. GUTNOVA. Limited Monarchy and the Peasantry in Western Europe in the 13th - 15th Centuries

The article examines the peasant policy pursued by the feudal states of the limited monarchy type in Western Europe - a subject that has so far been inadequately studied by historians. The author's attention is focussed on three main aspects of the problem: the attitude of the state of this type to the process of liberating the peasants from personal

стр. 221

dependence, to the phenomena of the feudal reaction in the 13th - 15th centuries and the fiscal policy of the limited monarchies with regard to the peasantry. This approach to the subject helps to bring out the tendencies in the limited monarchies' peasant policy that are common for Western Europe as well as certain distinctions in the peasant policy of a feudal state in different countries. The author shows that the state centralization process, which found expression in the gradual shaping of a constitutional monarchy, tended to offer, particularly in its earlier stages, certain advantages to the peasantry as well, but was accomplished to a considerable extent at the expense of this class of the feudal society.

I. D. KOVALCHENKO. Modelling of Historical Phenomena and Processes

The article examines the possibilities of constructing formalized, mathematical models of historical phenomena and processes, the principles of modelling and the types of models used by historians. Generalizing the experience gained in building historical models, the author demonstrates the effectiveness of building factual measuring models, the possibility of applying counter-factual alternative models in historical research, at the same time showing the inadmissibility of constructing subjective-imitational models of historical phenomena and processes.

Permanent link to this publication: