B. S. ABALIKHIN, V. A. DUNAEVSKY. Marx and Engels as Historians of the War of 1812

The authors see their task in a comprehensive analysis of all works of Marx and Engels dealing with the war Russia waged against Napoleon in 1812. They investigate the sources used by the classics of Marxism and demonstrate that some conclusions were prompted exactly by the nature of sources. In their works Marx and Engels discussed various aspects of the war: the role of the people in routing the invader; the main stages of the armed struggle; some problems of the strategy and tactics of both sides; portraits of some military leaders involved in the war, and the impact the destruction of Napoleon's army in Russia had on the future of the European nations.

A. I. KOZLOV. "The Vendean Forces" in the Russian Revolutions

In the Russian revolutions of 1905 - 1907 and 1917 the working class and the peasantry were confronted not only by capitalism, but also by the monarchist "Vendean" forces supported by the remnants of feudalism. The Cossaks were their most organised and staunch detachment. Both the autocracy and bourgeoisie relied on the Cossaks as the most mobile and organised force during the 1905 - 1907 and 1917 revolutions. Lacking social homogeneity the Russian Vendee began to disintegrate under the influence of the working-class actions: the majority of the Cossaks withdrew their support from Kornilov. The triumph of Soviet power in the Cassak regions was facilitated by the neutrality of the Cossaks and their support of the Soviets.

B. A. ROZHKOV. The General Principles of Chartism

The author enters into polemics with those contemporary bourgeois historians who depict Chartism as a movement dependent on the bourgeoisie. He shows that it was an independent working-class movement and that precisely this factor made it an influential force. It drove the ruling class of Britain to the long overdue reforms in the interests of the people. The Chartist movement illustrates the fact that the working class can become a force capable of resolving its own tasks only through unification into a party independent of the bourgeoisie and confronting it.

I. V. GALKIN, A. S. MANYKIN, V. O. PECHATNOV. The Two-Party System in the US Political History

The article summarises the experience accumulated by the Soviet historians studying the history and the present state of the two-party system in the United States. The authors concentrate on such little-studied aspects as the causes which engendered this system and the factors ensuring its stability. They follow the evolution of its class functions throughout the process of capitalist development in the USA. Much space is given to the role the shifts in the parties play in the socio-economic and political life of the country.

J. HERRMANN. Social Structure of the German and Slavonic Tribes and Ethnic Groups Between the Rhine and the Oder in the 6th-11th Centuries

The discussion initiated by M. Sverdlov ("Voprosy istorii", 1985, No. 11) about the genesis of feudalism in Russia proved to be of interest to historians in other European countries as well since the Germans and the Slavs lived side by side and their development followed similar directions. The materials on the Germans and Western Slavs who lived between the Rhine and the Oder in the 6th-11th centuries studied by the author show that among them feuladism emerged in the 8th-9th centuries. With this in mind, Herrmann casts doubt on Froyanoy's hypothesis that the Eastern Slavs lingered at the pre-feudal stage of development up till the 12th century, the author objects the archaisation of the East Slavonic society.

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