S. N. SMIRNOV. Historical Approach to Interpreting the Essence of the Present-Day Scientific and Technological Revolution

The author analyzes the processes connected with the development, interrelation and interaction of science and technology at different historical stages, his chief purpose being to highlight the different types of scientific and technological revolutions which occurred in the past, to disclose the historical laws governing the interconnection between science and technology. On the basis of generalizing these laws the article formulates the conception of the scientific and technological revolution as a specific phenomenon of historical development appearing as a peculiar manifestation (under definite historical conditions) of the most general objective laws governing the correlation of scientific and technological progress with social progress. The chief element of this conception is the formulation of the fundamental feature of the scientific and technological revolution, founded on a close study of historical laws governing the correlation of science and technology as an objective basis for organically merging revolutions in science and technology into a single torrent of the scientific and technological revolution.

L. E. BULMAGA. Scientific and Technological Progress in the Agriculture of the Moldavian S.S.R.

Drawing on the materials of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic for the period 1959 - 1970, the author highlights the main directions of scientific and technological progress in the agricultural production of the U.S.S.R. The article focusses attention on a number of important economic and social changes in socialist agriculture, in the life of the Soviet countryside brought about by scientific and technological progress. The author arrives at the conclusion that this forms the basis for far-reaching changes in the character and content of agricultural labour, which is increasingly being transformed into a variety of industrial labour, and provides the groundwork for the constant improvement and perfection of the entire system of the socialist relations of production in the countryside.

A. A. SHEVYAROV. The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the U.S.S.R. and the Countries of Central and Southeastern Europe

The article describes the steadfast efforts made by the Soviet government to normalize relations with Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Albania, analyzes the class motives that prompted the ruling circles of these countries to turn down the repeated

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proposals to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union all the way down to the year 1934, sheds light on the struggle waged by the Soviet state for peace and security in Europe in the period of the nazis' advent to power in Germany. The normalization of relations with the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe, the author writes in conclusion, signified a victory for the Soviet Union's peaceable policy and a defeat for the reactionary forces not only in these countries but in the leading European powers which determined the political line of the capitalist world in relation to the Soviet state.

N. N. BOLKHOVITINOV. Russian-American Trade Relations During the U. S. War of Independence

Drawing on a number of newly-discovered archive records and other materials, the article traces the development of trade contacts between Russia and America over the period 1763 - 1783. The author cites documentary records of the first voyages made by Russian ships across the Atlantic Ocean. Of considerable interest are materials on the declaration by Russia of an armed neutrality in 1780 and the attitude of the Continental Congress and of such outstanding American statesmen as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to this political move. The article dwells in detail on the prospects of developing trade between Russia and the U. S. A., notably by analyzing the works of D. M. Ladygin and C. Snell which were published in Russia in 1783 and illustrated the advantages offered by commercial relations with the U.S.A.

F. I. KOZHEVNIKOV, V. A. MAZOV. Scientific and Technological Progress and Certain Problems of International Law

The article examines a number of problems relating to the development of international law under the impact of scientific and technological progress in such areas of interstate co-operation as exploration and use of nuclear energy, outer space, the world ocean and the sea-bed, protection of the human environment and the use of the mass media. The authors focus attention on the basic legal aspects of international relations in these relatively new spheres of co-operation between states belonging to different social systems. The article is based on the practical experience of inter-state co-operation in these fields over the past ten years.

A. N. CHISTOZVONOV. The Genesis of Capitalism and Its Reflection in the European Regional-Type Peasant Movements in the 16th-18th Centuries

The article makes a close study of the different types of influence exerted by the development of the simple commodity economy as well as by the genesis of capitalism on the class struggle of the European peasantry. In England, France and the Netherlands - countries belonging to the West-European region - the irreversible character of the development of capitalism gradually drew the peasantry closer to the bourgeoisie in the struggle against feudalism and absolutism, which finally assumed the form of bourgeois revolutions of the manufactory period. In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe where the forces of the feudal reaction gained the upper hand already by the close of the 15th and the first quarter of the 16th centuries and where the "second edition of serfdom" began to take root, the isolated peasant uprisings at best achieved successes of a predominantly local character. More or less similar in character were the peasant

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risings in the Italian provinces and in Spain. In the Scandinavian region with its retarded and "uncompleted" development of feudalism (Sweden, Norway, Finland) the peasant uprisings in the 16th-18th centuries were not. infrequently spearheaded against the longdrawn-out feudalization process. The bourgeoisie in these countries was not distinguished by the revolutionary spirit that was intrinsic to its West- European counterpart. Owing to all these factors the general process of development acquired rather an evolutionary character, which had its impact on the class struggle of the Scandinavian peasantry.

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