V.N. VINOGRADOV. Rumania in International Relations (November 1917 - November 1918)

Drawing on extensive documentary material, the author analyzes the foreign policy manoeuvres resorted to by Rumania's ruling element in the concluding stage of the first world war. In August 1916 Rumania entered the war on the side of the Entente powers, having secured a treaty granting Rumania not only Austro-Hungarian territories with predominantly Rumanian population, but also a number of "alien" lands. Following Soviet Russia's withdrawal from the war there remained practically no hope of carrying out this treaty. Thereupon Rumania's oligarchy decided to "compensate" itself in a different way. Taking advantage of the difficulties experienced by the young Soviet state, it organized a perfidious attack on the Russian troops returning from the Rumanian front. This was subsequently followed by the seizure of Bessarabia. The imperialists of Germany and her allies, with whom the Rumanian government signed an armistice way back in late November 1917, regarded members of the Rumanian Cabinet as their allies in organizing and carrying out an armed intervention against Soviet Russia, which, however, did not prevent them from taking advantage of the withdrawal of Rumanian troops from the Western front and imposing on Rumania the shackling Bucharest peace in 1918. In the autumn of that same year, when the outcome of the war had already been decided, the Rumanian rulers once again threw in their lot with the Entente powers, hoping in this way to secure recognition of the 1916 treaty by the Allies. But their attempts to achieve this at the Peace Congress in Paris ended in failure. Being the result of deep-going historical processes, Transylvania's reunion with Rumania in December 1918 can in no way be attributed to the diplomatic efforts of J. Bratianu and his colleagues.

I.M. KRASNOV. U. S. Bourgeois Historiography on Soviet-American Relations in 1917 - 1933

Drawing on a wide range of American and Soviet sources, the author makes a critical analysis of the different interpretations, most widespread in American bourgeois historiography, of the history of Soviet-American relations in the period of non-recognition of the U.S.S.R. by the government of the U.S.A. (November 1917 - November 1933). The article cites extensive factual data testifying to the utter groundlessness of the arguments used by American bourgeois authors to justify the U.S. government's imperialist policy in relation to the Soviet Union and convincingly showing that America's ruling circles were fully responsible for the abnormal relations prevailing between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. in 1917 - 1933. The Soviet government, for its part, worked steadfastly and consistently throughout these sixteen years for normalization of Soviet-American relations. The article contains many interesting and hitherto unknown facts shedding new light on the stand taken by the U.S. ruling element in the question of the anti- Soviet armed intervention and blockade in the years of the civil war, in the effort to strangle the young Soviet state.

A.P. KORELIN. Zubatov's Attempts to Implant "Police Socialism" in Russia

The article is devoted to one of the peculiar problems in the internal policy of the Russian autocracy at the turn of the century. This was a period when the ruling circles of Russia were feverishly trying to find effective ways and means of combating the mounting revolutionary movement. One of the projects to this end was put forward by S. V. Zubatov, chief of the Moscow Security Police Department. His proposals envisaged the establishment of legally functioning pro-government working-class organizations with police agents playing a conspicuous part in organizing and directing their activities. With the aid of these organizations Zubatov intended to divert the workers

from politics and direct their movement into the narrow channels of struggle for purely economic demands. This tactic of struggle against the revolutionary movement, which is generally known as Russian or Zubatov-type "police socialism", was employed by the police in Moscow, Minsk and Odessa. The article traces the factual history of Zubatov's treacherous tactic, showing the causes of its temporary success and ignominious collapse.

L.S. VASILYEV. Confucianism in China

The author discloses the role played by Confucianism in the history and culture of the Chinese people. Having originated as an antidote to the tottering moral foundations and patriarchal traditions of the tribal system, and having counterposed "the wise canons of the Golden Age" of bygone days to contemporaneity, the Confucian doctrine formulated and introduced a set of ethical and social standards whose sum and substance consisted in the cult of the ancestors and elders, moral self-perfection, etc. On their advent to power during the reign of the Han dynasty, the Confucians soon became zealous defenders of the centralized bureaucratic system of government. The Confucian doctrine was modernized and adapted to serve the needs of the empire. Synthesized with legism, the new Confucianism of the Han type acquired distinctive features of dogmatism and scholasticism. Unconditional submission to sages and scholastic repetition of ancient behests and commandments recorded in classical books acquired paramount significance. There arose the cult of officials who could read Confucian books and govern the country with their aid by following the ancestors' behests. The conservative stagnation of society was the inevitable result of its orientation on the past. The maintenance and perpetuation of the existing order-such was the chief aim of Confucianism which became the official ideology of medieval China.

M.A. VARSHAVCHIK. The Historical Source and the Logic of Historical Research

The examination of the historical source from the viewpoint of the logic of scientific research permits to define more precisely its place and significance at every stage of historical research, from the formulation of the problem and accumulation of factual scientific knowledge to the final conclusions and generalizations. At the same time, this approach makes it possible to clarify two important problems of source research-the very concept of historical source and the concept of the conjunction of facts required for authentic conclusions. A source can be briefly defined as a direct reflection of the real historical process expressed in a definite abstract form (written, material, oral, etc.), a relic of the past directly reflecting real historical phenomena through the prism of the social relations and views of men appearing as the authors of sources. It is important to stress in this connection immediate character of reflection of events is the main distinguishing feature of the source.

The conjunction of facts required for authentic conclusions should be regarded as a conjunction of scientific facts, that is, the whole complex of carefully verified, generalized and typified factual knowledge accumulated on the basis of sources. This totality of scientific facts can be obtained from the optimal volume of information provided by sources. Such an extensive volume of information can be obtained in the process of practical research by drawing on the newly-evolved methods of information intrinsic to historical science, on the principles of selection of historical sources, including both all-round and partial (selective, monographic, etc.) examination of the latter.

P.I. PUCHKOV. A Brief Analysis of the Ethnic Situation in Oceania

The article continues the theoretical discussion on the concept of nation. The author examines the basic elements of the ethnic situation-the national composition of the population inhabiting a given country or geographical area, the dynamics (determined by ethnic and demographic processes) of an ethnic structure, the character of the settlement of different peoples within the bounds of a given territory and contacts between them, the level of ethnic self-consciousness of the peoples, interrelations between the peoples and nationalities inhabiting a given country, the national policy of different states, religious structure of the population, national and language problems, etc.

Characterizing the ethnic structure of Oceania on the basis of a close analysis of statistical, literary and other sources, the author makes an approximate assessment of the numerical strength of the population inhabiting this area. The article examines the types of the ethnic entities represented in Oceania, putting forward the idea that the existing system of typology is imperfect and requires further elaboration: it is essential to single

out not only the basic types but also the subtypes. Much attention is devoted to problems of ethno-demography and the ethnic processes. An attempt is made to examine the internal structure of the ethnic processes. In surveying the level of ethnic self-consciousness of the different peoples inhabiting Oceania, particular emphasis is laid on the frequently observed duality of self-consciousness which is characteristic of areas with intensively developing ethnic processes. The article also examines the influence exerted on ethnic unity by such factors as the long-established interrelations between peoples, religious homogeneity (or heterogeneity) of the population, and the progressive solution of diverse ethnic and language problems.

S.I. KUZNETSOVA and I.A. KHODOSH. Problems of Improving Information in the Sphere of Social Sciences

Demonstrating the lag of scientific information in the sphere of the social sciences behind present-day requirements, the authors prove that the way out of this situation resulting from the "information explosion" in the postwar period lies in establishing a uniform centralized system of information embracing the entire world literature devoted to the social sciences. With this aim in view the U.S.S.R Academy of Sciences is conducting preparations for the organization of an Institute of Information on Social Sciences based on the U.S.S.R Academy of Sciences' Fundamental Library of Social Sciences-the country's biggest specialized library in this field. It is contemplated that the new information centre will concentrate on complementing and scientifically processing Soviet and foreign materials relating to social sciences. The first stage of information will consist in complete bibliographical processing of books and journals: the results of this work will be summarized in bibliographical journals and information card indexes put out monthly. The second stage of information will embrace reviews, translations and reference materials and will find reflection in periodically published industrial and country-wide reviews, thematical collections of reviews and translations, etc. The third stage will embrace scientific-analytical surveys of literature devoted to the main problems and spheres of social sciences and to individual countries and regions of the world, provision of information material for social prognostication and modelling, etc. Simultaneously with this the new Institute is expected to devote much attention to scientific research and methodological work in the sphere of social science information.

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