Contenu du sommaire

Paul Dumont, The Moscow-Ankara axis. The Turco-Soviet relations front 1919 to 1922. Forced to face the imperialistic policy of the Powers of the Entente, the resistance movement of Anatolia and the Soviet Republic appear as "natural allies" condemned to come to an agreement. However, it is only after long negotiations that the memorable "Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood" of the 16th March 1921 could finally be signed. In particular, this text settled the problem of Transcaucasian territories which for nearly two years constituted the principal apple of discord between the Bolsheviks and the Kemalist Turkey. Although the representatives of both parties involved have finally succeeded to come to an agreement on a modus vivendi, the Turco-Soviet relations remained overshadowed by reciprocal nervosity and distrust until the end of the War of Independence. On the eve of the Lausanne conference, the Komintern let it believed that once the war is finished, the Turkish workers' class will take up the struggle against the "caste government of Ankara". Nevertheless, four years of war against the same enemy had created between Turkey and the Soviet Republic a certain community of interests. In November 1922, Karl Radek addressing the Turkish proletariate will exhort it to support the "just revendications of the national liberation movement".

Aileen Kelly, "What is real is rational" : The political philosophy of B. N. Chicherin. B. N. Chicherin is generally regarded as one of the foremost theoreticians of Russian liberalism; but there is a wide area of disagreement among historians as to the precise nature of his liberalism and the reasons for his extreme political isolation. The present study attempts to refute the most common view of Chicherin — namely, as a moderate liberal who sought a middle path in a country polarised into extremes of right and left. Through an analysis of Chicherin's doctrine of "liberal conservatism" it is argued that Chicherin cannot be regarded as a liberal at all: the conception of liberty which he developed in the immediate post-reform period on the basis of a doctrinaire right-wing Hegelianism was incompatible with all forms of liberalism, including Hegel's, and ultimately provided an ideological justification for absolute rule.

Maksudov, Demographic losses of the population of USSR, 1918-1958. On basis of statistics published in USSR and a critical study of sources, the author reckons the demographic losses of the Soviet population during the period of 1918-1958. He examines the circumstances which at different stages have altered the normal course of the evolution (civil war, collectivisation, repressions of 1926 to 1938, Second World War and the subsequent movements).

Charles J. Halperin, Tverian political thought in the fifteenth century. The pokhval'noe slovo (word of praise) to Grand Prince Boris Aleksandrovich of Tver' attributed to the monk Foma has not been correctly interpreted as an expression of Tverian political thought in the fifteenth century. First, although it does discuss the Council of Florence, it never accuses the Greeks of apostasy, and therefore its use of Byzantine Imperial epithets and titulature do not constitute an attempted translatio imperio such as is found in the Muscovite tales of the Council, or later in the theory of Moscow-the Third Rome. Secondly, Foma's careful usage suggests that the Muscovite monopoly of the myth of the Russian Land had not been broken by Muscovy's civil war, and that the more provincial concept of the Tverian Land is used by Foma in its stead. Such "land" (zemli) terminology in Old Russian political thought has not been sufficiently studied.

Catherine Genty, Between History and Myth : E. D. Polivanov, 1891-1938. This article endeavours to present the whole life and activity of E. D. Polivanov (1891-1938), a rare example of fusion between theoretical research and action. Polyglot and linguist of great value, Polivanov rallied October and then engaged himself in the "battle of alphabets". He especially protested at a very early date and with great strength against the Marrist imposture. Attached to Russian formalism, he brings an important contribution to the development of works of modern ars poetica. He makes such a strong impression upon his contemporaries that, a myth whilst still alive, he reaches the status of a "literary character" as a hero of two novels.