Great Soviet Research Articles

The great October revolution and Soviet mathematics

The great October revolution and Soviet mathematics

Soviet Russia’s Bibliophiles and Their Foes: A Review Article

An article printed in 1970 in the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, of which several volumes are still to appear, defined bibliofil'stvo and bibliofiliia as the pursuit of collecting “rare and valuable publications.” The author of the entry, O. G. Lasunskii, had nothing but praise for the activity:In addition to its great value in enhancing the intellectual and spiritual growth of the collector (bibliophile) himself, bibliophilia also plays a significant social role. It promotes the assembling of significant collections of printed materials, the preservation of rare publications, of individual books noteworthy for the quality of their print, illustrations and bindings, as well as of books that contain autographs and markings by their former owners that are of historical and scholarly interest

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: A Translation of the Third Edition. Vol. 1

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: A Translation of the Third Edition. Vol. 1

The restoration of a Bell P-39Q Airacobra aircraft

On June17,1944 a formation of four - according to some sources five - Bell P-39Q fighter aircraft lost their bearings. The great Soviet offensive on the Karelian Isthmus was in progress and the weather was cloudy and rainy. The formation in which the Airacobra «26», the subject of this restoration report, flew got lost and split up. The Russian regiment to which the fighters were attached is not known but the higher command is thought to be the 2nd Leningrad Guards Fighter Corps (II Gv.IAK). One of the aircraft landed some six kilometres north-west of Jantama village at Syväri, another at Pätsinsuo in Ylä-Uuksu in Salmi parish, north-east of Lake Ladoga (P-39Q-15-BE, USAAF 44-2664, No. «26») and two at Pikkusuo in Marinkylä in lnkeroinen (P-39Q-20-BE, USAAF 44-3255 No. «25» and P-39Q-15.BE, USAAF 44-2092 No. «20»). The fighters were a part of the U.S. war material aid to the Soviet Union. An enormous number of Airacobras was delivered, in total 5 707 aircraft.

Nonalignment Si, Neutralism No

There are seventy states in the world that are not formally aligned with either of the great power alliance systems, Western or Soviet. With varying degrees of precision, each state defines its foreign policy in terms of its nonalignment. Some of these states additionally refer to their foreign policy in terms of neutralism, which they may often qualify in terms of such adjectives as “positive” or “dynamic” to indicate that they are not passive role players in world politics. Some ventures of neutralists into self-definition have resulted in considerable confusion. As an example may be cited V. K. Krishna Menon's description of India＇s policy:

The Theme of Sterility in Olesha's Envy

Iurii Olesha's Short Novel Envy (Zavist', 1927) has been greatly admired and even has some claim to be considered the “great Soviet novel.“Yet comparatively little has been written about Envy since the first flood of reviews and articles, many uncritical, appeared in the Soviet press between 1927 and 1933.Envy is a complex novel, sometimes described as expressionistic, written in a variety of styles and with many planes of meaning. Elements of realist, romanticist, and symbolist styles are present. Dreams, fantasies, and lies are introduced, often as reality. It is a work in which the author's ideological intentions are far from clear or unambiguous, a work deeply hedged with irony. And it is a work that can yield much to discerning analysis.

China's “New Economic Policy”—Transition or Beginning

Until a short time ago, it appeared that much of what was going on in China could be characterised by the cynical aphorismplus ça change plus c'est la même chose. Many things became manifest in the country that were reminiscent of themes centuries old. China had gone through two radical phases, one during the First Five-Year Plan period when the Chinese Communists tried to repeat the Soviet experience of industrialisation, and the second during the Great Leap Forward when they used their own mobilisational means to try to achieve economic break-through. The ninth Plenum in January 1961 called a dramatic halt to the extreme policies of the Great Leap Forward, and launched a period that bears strong similarities to the N.E.P. (New Economic Policy) period of the early 1920s in the Soviet Union. Many traditional patterns that were effaced during the years of radicalism began to reappear. There was talk of the need “to study very well traditional economic relationships.” It seemed that for a while the leadership had decided that only a truly voluntary response from below, and not coercion of any sort, could rescue China from the morass in which it found itself. But as of the time of the writing of this article, there are ominous signs that China may be approaching another “1928.” The Party drums are rolling once again, and the themes are not those of the N.E.P., but more like those which preceded the great Soviet collectivisation drive of 1928. During the last few years, the leadership made no attempt to hide the facts of China's poverty and isolation. But now a new note of defiance, of toughness has crept out. Where it will lead is hard to say.

Information U.S.S.R.

Edited and compiled by Robert Maxwell Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1962. Pp. xii + 982. Price £10. Approximately three quarters of this massive book is a translation of Volume 50 of the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia. The remaining quarter consists of Appendixes covering statistical data relating to the present national economy, details of establishments of higher learning, a bibliography of recent books on the U.S.S.R. published in English, information for firms wishing to trade with the U.S.S.R., a resume of the third program adopted at the 22nd Congress of the C.P.S.U., over 40 triple-columned pages of names referred to in the text and a subject index of similar length.

A Soviet View of the American Past: An Annotated Translation of the Section on American History in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

A Soviet View of the American Past: An Annotated Translation of the Section on American History in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

N. K. Krupskaya on Schools and Textbooks

In the first years of the Soviet power, the problem of a new content for education took its place on the order of business together with the problem of creating a new school system. A prominent place must be assigned to N. K. Krupskaya in resolving it. Unfortunately, the valuable didactic writings of the great Soviet educator still remain relatively unknown.

Some Observations on Membership Figures of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Until recently, it has been almost as difficult to obtain precise, comparable membership figures for the various major territorial units of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) as to obtain from published Soviet sources population statistics for the political-administrative areas of the USSR. Now both types of data are again available, though still not always as detailed as Soviet area students would like. The Soviet Union in the middle of 1956 resumed publication of population statistics.' These are only official estimates pending a new census to be taken throughout the USSR in January, 1959. Nevertheless, they are useful. In the latter part of 1957, for the first time in many years, information appeared on the exact number of Communists belonging to the republic party organizations of all fourteen national union republics.2 These data appeared in a somewhat unlikely source, in the Ezhegodnik Bol'shoi sovetskoi entsiklopedii, 1957 (1957 Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia)3 rather than in a Communist party

The Political Evolution of a Soviet Satellite: the Mongolian People's Republic

HE RECENT discussion over the admission of Outer Mongolia to the United Nations has evoked considerable new interest in the political evolution of that country from a semi-independent part of China into a Soviet satellite. Outer Mongolia, now called the Mongolian People's Republic, was the first of the Soviet satellite states to be classed as a democracy. The Soviet Army entered the country in 1921 and laid the military basis for the people's revolution which was engineered on Soviet soil. The history of the Mongolian People's Republic since that time has covered the longest span of years revealing how a country has been sovietized. The state is described by the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in the following manner:

What Should Follow from NATO?

international affairs convinced the people of the United States that the U.S.S.R. was not willing to play the role that had been assigned to members of the United Nations. The incident that constrained President Truman to announce his Turkish and Greek policy emphasized that fact. The conduct of the Soviet Union, characterized as cold war, so frightened and discouraged our allies in Europe that they felt that even with the aid of economic rehabilitation, they would be but food for the Soviet war machine sooner or later. A new instrument, it was felt, must be devised for their protection. It was understood that England and western Europe together had not the potential to stand off aggression from the great Soviet empire, and that the United States must join in any movement for that purpose. PURPOSE AND NATURE OF THE TREATY

Statistical Conceptions in the Soviet Union Examined from Generally Accepted Scientific Viewpoints

A NUMBER of the conceptual premises upon which statistical science and practice have long been based have recently been attacked and discarded as harmful to statistical development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It seems incumbent upon statisticians in other countries to study the Soviet theses, to determine the extent to which differences are real and not merely semantic, and to take issue with those appear to undermine the structure of upon which their own work is founded. The present paper is intended as a preliminary analysis of this kind and its conclusions should be regarded as tentative. The Soviet attack, in the writer's opinion, can best be interpreted as a new phase of the ancient conflict between dogma and science. The dogmas upon which it leans have the essential characteristics of those in a revealed religion. Pretending to be scientific, these dogmas are actually anti-scientific in spirit and in the consequences which would follow their general acceptance. They are part of a new orthodoxy which seeks to impose revelation and arbitrary theological dictates upon the reason and the scientific judgments of men. Freedom of and expression are incompatible with theocracy and they are debarred from Soviet statistical doctrine. In order to support this interpretation I must describe the recent promulgation of Soviet statistical doctrine in some detail. This occurred during a two day Conference on Methodology at the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR in Moscow on February 20-2I, I950. A summary record has been published and appears in translation in the official journals of some other countries.' Soviet leaders have previously pronounced orthodox doctrines in art and literature, economics, biology, and in other scientific fields. I am among those who felt there was reason to hope tllat as an important tool for scientific analysis, statistics could escape such a doctrinal imposition. This hope has been unfounded. The conference was opened by the Chief of the Central Statistical Administration, Mr. V. N. Starovskiy. He explained that harmful bourgeois influences and anti-Marxist distortion in Soviet statistical science and literature hamper its development. He identified the main obstacle to the development of statistical science as the formal mathematics school of thought which considers statistics (to be) a universal science for the study of nature and society based ultimately on the mathematical law of large numbers and not on MarxistLeninist theory. A report on the correct theoretical basis of statistics was then given by Mr. V. A. Sobol of Mr. Starovskiy's staff. Statistics, said Mr. Sobol, is a social science, whose tasks and theoretical foundation are formulated in the works of Lenin and Stalin. Its tasks are to aid in the building of a communist society. Its theoretical foundation rests upon historical materialism and (communist) political economy. Incorrect views, which insidiously lean upon the theory of probability, have been expressed by such writers as Academician V. S. Nemchinov, who supported the chromosome theory of heredity at the 6 August I948 session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Among others tainted with heresy were Mr. I. Yu. Pisarev (also of Mr. Starovskiy's staff) who was the author of the article on Statistics in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Following Sobol's report, according to the record. there was lively discussion. Most of *A paper contributed to the Twenty-Seventh Session of the International Statistical Institute and published here with permission of the Institute and the Indian National Committee for the International Statistical Conferences of 195'. See, e.g., Vestnik Statistiki, c. I, 1950 (publication of the Central Statistical Office of the Ukrainian S.S.R.); and Statisticky Zpravodaj, Rocnik XIII, I5 rijna 1950, Cislo 809, pp. 253-69 (Statistical Bulletin published by the State Statistical Office of Czechoslovakia).

Statistical Conceptions in the Soviet Union Examined from Generally Accepted Scientific Viewpoints

A NUMBER of the conceptual premises upon which statistical science and practice have long been based have recently been attacked and discarded as harmful to statistical development in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It seems incumbent upon statisticians in other countries to study the Soviet theses, to determine the extent to which differences are real and not merely semantic, and to take issue with those appear to undermine the structure of upon which their own work is founded. The present paper is intended as a preliminary analysis of this kind and its conclusions should be regarded as tentative. The Soviet attack, in the writer's opinion, can best be interpreted as a new phase of the ancient conflict between dogma and science. The dogmas upon which it leans have the essential characteristics of those in a revealed religion. Pretending to be scientific, these dogmas are actually anti-scientific in spirit and in the consequences which would follow their general acceptance. They are part of a new orthodoxy which seeks to impose revelation and arbitrary theological dictates upon the reason and the scientific judgments of men. Freedom of and expression are incompatible with theocracy and they are debarred from Soviet statistical doctrine. In order to support this interpretation I must describe the recent promulgation of Soviet statistical doctrine in some detail. This occurred during a two day Conference on Methodology at the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR in Moscow on February 20-2I, I950. A summary record has been published and appears in translation in the official journals of some other countries.' Soviet leaders have previously pronounced orthodox doctrines in art and literature, economics, biology, and in other scientific fields. I am among those who felt there was reason to hope tllat as an important tool for scientific analysis, statistics could escape such a doctrinal imposition. This hope has been unfounded. The conference was opened by the Chief of the Central Statistical Administration, Mr. V. N. Starovskiy. He explained that harmful bourgeois influences and anti-Marxist distortion in Soviet statistical science and literature hamper its development. He identified the main obstacle to the development of statistical science as the formal mathematics school of thought which considers statistics (to be) a universal science for the study of nature and society based ultimately on the mathematical law of large numbers and not on MarxistLeninist theory. A report on the correct theoretical basis of statistics was then given by Mr. V. A. Sobol of Mr. Starovskiy's staff. Statistics, said Mr. Sobol, is a social science, whose tasks and theoretical foundation are formulated in the works of Lenin and Stalin. Its tasks are to aid in the building of a communist society. Its theoretical foundation rests upon historical materialism and (communist) political economy. Incorrect views, which insidiously lean upon the theory of probability, have been expressed by such writers as Academician V. S. Nemchinov, who supported the chromosome theory of heredity at the 6 August I948 session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Among others tainted with heresy were Mr. I. Yu. Pisarev (also of Mr. Starovskiy's staff) who was the author of the article on Statistics in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Following Sobol's report, according to the record. there was lively discussion. Most of *A paper contributed to the Twenty-Seventh Session of the International Statistical Institute and published here with permission of the Institute and the Indian National Committee for the International Statistical Conferences of 195'. See, e.g., Vestnik Statistiki, c. I, 1950 (publication of the Central Statistical Office of the Ukrainian S.S.R.); and Statisticky Zpravodaj, Rocnik XIII, I5 rijna 1950, Cislo 809, pp. 253-69 (Statistical Bulletin published by the State Statistical Office of Czechoslovakia).

Present Status of "The Great Soviet World Atlas" in the United States

Present Status of "The Great Soviet World Atlas" in the United States

IV. The Rôle of Congress and Public Opinion in Formulating Foreign Policy

There is a popular expectation in the United States that the peace settlement of the major United Nations will be as effectively and loyally executed by the United States as by Great Britain and Soviet Russia. This over-confidence of the American people in the prowess of their President is partly due to: (1) the successful conduct of the war, (2) the popular credence placed in the Chief Executive as national leader in time of war, (3) the immense personal prestige of President Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and (4) the belief that, in case the November election should bring the Republican party into control of the White House, Governor Dewey would continue with vigor the Rooseveltian policy of full participation and leadership on the part of the United States.A warning that the American Senate might shatter this peace settlement was sounded by Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg and Robert A. Taft and other somewhat isolation-minded Republicans in September, 1943, in the Mackinac Declaration. The “constitutionalism” proposed by this declaration meant nothing else than that the peace settlement must be in the form of a treaty which would require the consent of two-thirds of the members of the American Senate. Senators Vandenberg and Taft controlled the resolutions committee of the Republican national convention in July, 1944, with the result that the Republican platform concluded its proposal regarding the peace settlement with the following pronouncement: “Pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, any treaty or agreement to attain such [international] aims made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”

The Fate of the Baltic Nations

IN THE recent stormy years and perhaps even more so in recent months, the future of the three Baltic Republics, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, has been causing deep concern to those dealing with and responsible for the establishment of international peace, lasting friendly relations, and collaboration at the end of this war between the great western democracies, on one side, and the great Soviet totalitarian State, on the other. A serious difference of both a political and ideological nature exists between the English speaking democracies and the Soviet Union on this vexed question, as America and Great Britain have refused to recognize the annexation of the three Baltic republics by Soviet Russia. The three Baltic peoples, the Lithuanians, the Latvians, and the Estonians had been completely forgotten by the outside world, and were only brought to the attention of the present generation through the upheaval of 1914-1918. They took their place on the new map of Europe as fully recognized independent national entities in 19181920. While the Allied and Associated Powers were slow in deciding, after 1918, whether or not to recognize the three new republics, Soviet Russia acted immediately and put into operation Lenin's doctrine of self-determination of peoples, establishing full reciprocal diplomatic, consular, and commercial relations with them. Full de jure recognition by the Allies came later. Before Soviet Russia was forced into this war by Hitler's unprovoked attack, she had come to an understanding with Germany by which Germany recognized Soviet Russia's annexation of the Baltic States and the eastern part of Poland, while Soviet Russia recognized Germany's incorporation of Memel into the Reich and the annexation of the remaining part of Poland.

Translation of the Great Soviet World Atlas

Translation of the Great Soviet World Atlas

Russian Policy in 1911-12

HE second series of the great Soviet publication on Russian foreign policy, 1878-1917, has now been inaugurated with the appearance of _ ATolumes XVIII and XIX.1 Of the third series, which made its debut in 1931, ten volumes, in thirteen parts, have been published, covering the period from January 14, 1914, to April 13, 1916; further volumes are to carry this great task of editing to November 7, 1917. A part of the third series has also appeared in German. The first series is to embrace the period 1878-1900. Meanwhile, the second series, which is to deal with the years 1900-1914, instead of 1904-14, as originally announced, has begun to appear. With twentyfour volumes planned for the second series alone, it is a safe prediction that the Soviet publication will eventually surpass even Die 9rosse Polittk in size and detail. Volumes XVIII and XIX of the new series cover the twelve months from May 14, 1911, to May 13, 1912. They contain 1,763 documents; of them, 414, or nearly 24 per cent, have been published previously105 each in Siebert's Entente diplomacy and the world and in the Orange Book on Persia, 74 in Krawny arkAiv, 63 in Materialy po istorii franko-russkikh otrzoshenit, 42 in Stieve's Der diplomatwshe Schriftwechsel Izwolskis, and a scattering elsewhere. Despite this limitation and despite the fact that German, English, French, Austrian, and Serbian documents are already available for this period, the