Contenu du sommaire

Michel Aucouturier, The "leninism" in the Soviet literary assessment. Although Lenin was one of the Russian Marxist publicists who had never dealt directly with the specific problems of art and literary creation, he is considered by the Marxist literary critics of the USSR as the true founder of their school of thought. Until 1930, the title belonged to Plehanov and to his followers, in particular to Pereverzev, later denounced for "vulgar sociologism ". In fact the texts of Lenin on Tolstoi and on the party press — to which as from 1930 were added the notions of "reflection" and of "chosen position" — supplied their author with a theoretical justification of a literature subordinated to the party and the State. The "leninism", insofar as literary assessment is concerned, is in fact a manifestation of the theory of Stalinism.

Jutta Scherrer, The intelligentsia, religion, and revolution: first manifestations of Christian socialism in Russia, 1905-1907. It is doubtful whether one can speak of "Christian socialism" in Russia if one refers to the examples offered by Switzerland, Germany, and England. Nevertheless, within the context of the revolution of 1905, there appear in Russia different ideological currents and various groups inspired by Christian and social, sometimes even by socialist considerations. The present article examines the very first manifestations of these currents, which found a comparatively moderate expression in the "Brotherhood of Adepts of renovation of Church". This group that comprised members of the intelligentsia and of the progressive clergy demanded total independence of the Church as regards the State, hence a genuine relationship of the Church and the political, social and cultural world, interrupted for many centuries by its officialdom and submission to the State. A second group "The Christian Brotherhood of struggle" was more representative of the religious problems of the intelligentsia and defended much more radical positions. Its founders, Ern and Svencickii, declared war on capitalism, a war in which it was supposed to be the duty of all Christians to participate. Their ultimate object was to establish a social Christian community as a substitute to the State. (The article will be continued in CMRS, XVIII, 1.)

William Bruce Lincoln, The ministers of Alexander II: A survey of their backgrounds and service careers. To be sure, there were a number of outward similarities between the ministers of Alexander II and his father Nicholas I, but there were significant differences as well. Alexander's ministers had a considerably higher level of education than was the case with his father's ministerial appointees, and, perhaps most important, Alexander's appointees included a significant percentage of men who had risen to high rank because of technical or administrative expertise. Yet, even if the type of men appointed to head Russia's ministries under Alexander II had changed, the nature of autocracy, and the over-all functioning of the bureaucracy, remained much the same as in the past and, in the end, these factors served to limit the effectiveness of the men whom Alexander appointed to ministerial positions. As a result, even though Alexander's ministers were better equipped by education and training to deal with the problems which Russia confronted, the nature of the system in which they were obliged to function, as well as the nature of their earlier experiences in the state service, limited their effectiveness in dealing with the many crises which Russia faced during the 1860's and 1870's.

Matei Cazacu and Kéram Kévonian, The fall of Caffa in 1475 in the light of new documents. The fall of Caffa, in June 1475, and the implantation of Ottomans in Crimea are already known — with some gaps it is true — through different texts of the time. Several new or hitherto unknown documents allow to re-examine these events — of which they do not give all the desired details — in the light of the testimony of the principal protagonists: the Genoese, the Turks, the Tartars and the Armenians. These are on the one hand the last instructions given in Genoa to the consul of Caffa, a Feth-nâme describing the campaign of the Great Ottoman Vizir and a petition of the khan of Crimea, his prisoner; and on the other hand, different Armenian contemporary or later texts: mentions, extracts of chronicles or of colophons, "The history of the natives of Ani dwelling in Caffa", and the "Threnody of the metropolis of Caffa".