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The first symposium in our country on the social problems of cities was held this year at the Institute of the International Workers' Movement of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the theme "Urbanization and the Working Class in the Face of the Scientific and Technical Revolution." The symposium was sponsored by the Scientific Council on Applied Social Research Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences and by the Institute. Approximately 250 persons, to whom a number of papers were presented for discussion, participated in the symposium. These papers discussed theoretical and methodological problems of urbanization, the findings of urbanization studies in the USSR, in capitalist countries, and in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March of this year Komsomolskaya Pravda, the daily paper of the Young Communist League, announced the launching of a new discussion club, life and i. Within a few days a handbill was distributed throughout Leningrad's plants, institutes and youth hostels, inviting the young people of the city to participate in a discussion to be held at noon the following Sunday in the Hall of Columns of the Pedagogical Institute clubrooms. The April 5th issue of the paper reprinted the handbill (see page 24) and reported the meeting. We present the proceedings slightly abridged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa, world-renowned physicist, often turns to themes that at first glance seem far removed from the sphere of his basic scientific interests. He is the author of numerous articles and papers on problems of the development of science and the organization of scientific work (see, for example, the collection of his articles, Theory, Experimentation, and Practice [Teoriia, eksperiment, praktika], published by "Znanie" Publishing House in 1966). Many have read with interest his remarkable recollections of Rutherford, published in Novy mir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We receive many letters from readers in response to materials we have published. However, the editors' mail has perhaps never previously brought such anxious and excited letters as in its discussion of the problems of the founding and strengthening of families. A number of the responses have been published, but the pages of the paper could not carry them all. Hundreds of human documents have remained unpublished. It would have been too bad to bury them in the files. So many thoughts, offers of advice, and recommendations of the very greatest interest would have been lost: The editors consequently decided to turn to sociologists to ask them to analyze the readers' letters. G. Oshanin took an active part in writing the program and processing the letters. Today we publish the results of that piece of sociological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first data on the sense that might be termed cutaneous optical appeared in the Russian scholarly literature at the end of the 19th century. (10) A Tambov physician, A. I. Khovrin, studied a patient who read ordinary printed and written text with her fingers and was able to identify colors of papers and fabrics in the same way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In American bourgeois historiography the problem of the "frontier" had had special treatment in the researches of the so-called midwestern school, founded by Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932). The arguments raging around his name and ideas continue to this day. Articles are written on him; reviews, papers and communications are written on the basis of his writings; scholarly discussions are held in his honor; special volumes of essays published, etc. (1) We are quite justified in saying that Turner is among the best-known, most influential and popular historians of the USA. (2) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Alfred Ayer's article, philosophy is sharply counterposed to science, is denied the status of a science. This is the leitmotif of his entire paper. Moreover, the defense of this conception is characteristic of many representatives of neopositivism who go along with Ayer. However, Ayer has certain distinctive ideas of his own, which require critical analysis. Fundamental among them is his acknowledgment of the extremely general character of the concepts and principles with which philosophy, as distinct from the special sciences, operates. This universality which is the distinguishing characteristic of philosophy is then transformed into an argument against the recognition of philosophy as a science. In replying to Ayer we shall attempt to demonstrate that his acknowledgment by no means necessitates the elimination of philosophy from the list of the sciences, but merely emphasizes its distinctive, that is, its general character, in contrast to all other sciences, which are particular in nature. This is the theme of the present article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

.. I read the Moscow papers carefully, but I cannot pretend I understood everything. I remembered how Bonnet and Chamberlain used to dream that Hitler would march on the Ukraine; the Soviet-Nazi Pact had been dictated by necessity. The drble de guerre [phoney war] and the persecution of (French) communists proved that Daladier had no real intention of fighting Hitler. Nonetheless Molotov's phrase about "the nearsighted anti-fascists" cut deep. That was the winter when I first needed a pair of glasses; but I wasn't ready to consider myself "nearsighted": my memories of the Spanish War were still fresh; fascism remained for me the main enemy. I was profoundly shaken by Stalin's telegram to Ribbentrop which spoke of a friendship cemented by blood that had been shed. I must have reread that telegram a dozen times, and although I believed in Stalin's genius as a statesman I was boiling. This was blasphemy1 How was it possible to equate the blood of Red Army soldiers with the blood of Nazis? And how to forget the rivers of blood drawn by the fascists in Spain, in Czechoslovakia, in Poland, in Germany itself? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortly after my return to Moscow that time, the paper gave me a ticket to a meeting of Stakhanovite shock workers. I arrived an hour ahead of time, but the Kremlin's big hall was already filled. People talked quietly among themselves, no one left his seat. This was wholly unlike the noisy meetings in the crowded smoke-filled halls of Paris. I asked my neighbors where Stakhanov himself was sitting and whether they could point out Krivonosov, Izotov, the Vinogradovs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most comprehensive technical description of the first manned space flight to date appeared in the Soviet press (all papers) on April 25. It discusses the design of the spaceship Vostok, medical-biological problems of manned space flight, the method of selecting cosmonauts and the actual flight on April 12, 1961. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the July 1, 1960 issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda, its Kiev correspondent reported the formation of a "music patrol" which some of the conservatory students had created in order to help raise the level of performance among the city's dance hall and restaurant bands specializing in jazz and other light music. The article elicited voluble comments pro and con, including some sharp attacks on the whole idea. The editors involved a ranking composer and musician, Y. Milyutin, in the controversy. His contribution ("On the Roots of 'Lilies of the Valley,' 'The Lipsi' and Good Jazz"), together with the letter that had triggered it, was printed in the September 22 issue. More correspondence followed. Eventually, on December 25, the paper printed a sampling of the responses that had come in together with the conclusions it was able to draw from the whole discussion. We reprint the three articles in digest form. (Komsomolskaya Pravda, July 1, September 22, December 25, 1960.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I spent several miserable weeks in Paris: each day I relayed to Izvestia the communiqu6s from Spain appearing in the French newspapers, I kept going to the Spanish embassy, I helped the fist volunteers make their way to Barcelona. I only remained in Paris because I could get no answer from the home office as to whether or not I might leave for Spain as a war correspondent. Again and again I was given the laconic, mysterious answer, W e are deciding the matter." I still did not wholly know the meaning of that magical verb, I lost my temper, and finally I felt I could not wait any longer. One day the paper called my Paris apartment to inquire why I had stopped wiring them, and Liuba answered: "Didn't you know? He's in Spain." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note reports on the papers to be delivered at a joint conference of Soviet and British historians in Moscow. ["Anglo-Soviet Conference of Historians in Moscow," Voprosy Istorii, 1960, No. 6.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]