The development of Soviet historical science over the past five years has been fruitfully influenced by the ideas of the XXIII Congress of the CPSU and the high demands that the party places on all social sciences. Among the latter, an important place is occupied by the study of the complex and diverse history of modern and modern times. In one article, it is not possible to give an exhaustive description of all the research carried out in this area over the past five years1. The authors see their task in trying to show the most important directions in this work, identify fundamental shifts in the subject, emphasize the importance of some promising types of historical research that have developed in recent years, and also put forward some proposals for the further development of research in this branch of historical science. In this article, the authors do not concern such sections as Slavic studies, modern and modern history of the countries of the East, Africa, and Latin America. The most important party documents published after the XXIII Congress of the CPSU2, as well as documents of the world Communist movement3 containing generalizations of the main principles of social development were used as a basis for specialists in the history of modern and modern times to study the historical process and generalize historical experience, deduce certain patterns based on the analysis of the real course of history , and trace the specific mechanism of action of the already known laws of social development. modern processes. The nature of the problems facing historical science is associated with the sharply increased interest in theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of historical sciences.- 1 A detailed and systematic review of publications on modern and contemporary history is contained in the collection published for the XIII International Congress of Historical Sciences ("Works of Soviet Historians for 1965 - 1969", Moscow 1970). 2 "On preparations for ... Read more