All-Union competitions of student papers in social sciences are increasingly recognized by university youth. They promote students ' deeper study and assimilation of Marxist-Leninist theory and scientific method, as well as their involvement in the promotion of the knowledge they have acquired. This was most clearly and convincingly reflected in the III All - Union Competition of student works on problems of social sciences, the history of the Komsomol and the international Youth movement, held during 1969-1970, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin. The results of this competition were summed up by the All - Union Scientific Student Conference held on October 28-30, 1970 in Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of V. I. Lenin.

The most important feature of the III All-Union Competition, in contrast to the first two competitions that preceded it, was its mass participation: 713,391 students participated in it, which is four times more than in the second (182951 students), and eight and a half times more than in the first (85,421 students) competitions. The number of participants in the competition increased due to the inclusion of students of non-humanitarian universities and faculties, who made up almost 60% of the total number of participants in the competition, students of military academies and cadets of higher military schools, as well as foreign citizens studying in the Soviet Union. Students of evening and correspondence departments, as well as independent branches, departments and faculties took a greater part in the competition than in the first two "contests". The Third All-Union Competition was also distinguished by the fact that in the process of its preparation and holding, an increase in the socio-political activity of its participants was manifested, who made reports and lectures to workers, fellow students, schoolchildren and other audiences. They read more than 205 thousand lectures and reports. The student works submitted for the competition were distinguished by the depth of content and good design of the scientific apparatus. This shows the process of further improving the quality of students ' preparation of competitive works.

A significant majority of the contest entries were devoted to current topics, covering a wide range of issues and problems. The methodological basis for their writing was the works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, Documents of the CPSU and the Soviet Government. Local local lore and archival material, results of specific sociological research and statistical data are widely used in competitive works. A number of works contain conclusions and practical recommendations for improving the activities of Komsomol and business organizations. About 80% of all submitted works are related to the study of the theoretical heritage, life and work of V. I. Lenin. All this suggests that all-Union competitions of student papers in social sciences are becoming one of the most important and effective forms of ideological and educational work with university youth.

Like any new form that is still being tested, it requires careful study. This, in particular, should be facilitated by an analysis of the subject matter and content of student papers submitted to the competition, which is the main purpose of this review. For analysis, we have taken the works submitted to the History section of the CPSU. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that in this section, in fact, work on

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the history of the CPSU, and the history of the USSR, and universal history. Of the 515 entries submitted to the section, which make up about a third of all submitted for the All-Union round of this competition, there were 316 on the history of the CPSU, 142 on the history of the USSR, and 57 on general history. All these works are very closely related in their topics, and this division is somewhat conditional. It is therefore advisable to subdivide them thematically.

The largest share is occupied by the Lenin theme (376 works). Since almost all the contest entries concerned Lenin's works, his ratings and instructions on the topics chosen by the authors, it can be assumed that Lenin's theme dominates in the student works submitted to the competition. Another thematic group consisted of works on individual problems of history; there are about 120 of them. Then we should single out a group of works that reveal proletarian internationalism and its manifestation in the activities of the CPSU, the Soviet state and the Soviet people. Formally, only 20 works can be attributed to this group, but in fact their number is much higher, because the works that consider this problem from the point of view of Lenin's themes are assigned to the first group. And finally, a small group of works consists of personalities. A special feature of all these thematic groups, with the exception of the last one, is the abundance of issues and problems raised in the competition papers.

This is confirmed by the diversity of the main problem areas in the group of works on the Lenin theme. If the problem of V. I. Lenin's life and activity, the individual aspects of his biography (character traits, work style, stay in various places of our country and abroad, etc.) is represented by 65 works, and Lenin's contribution to military theory, history and organization of the Soviet Armed Forces and their combat operations is represented by 30 works, then such a problem as Leninism and the practical implementation of its basic principles and provisions covers the largest number of works - 253, which is almost 70% of all works on Leninist topics. We should also mention the fact that among the competitive student works there are essays on historiography and source studies that analyze Lenin's works in this regard. There are only 16 such works, which, of course, is not enough. Finally, 12 works are devoted to V. I. Lenin's struggle against opportunism, revisionism and bourgeois ideology. These problem areas and their correlation clearly demonstrate the great interest of students in studying and assimilating Lenin's theoretical heritage.

If you analyze the content of at least some student papers, you can make sure that many of them are written at a fairly high theoretical level, are convincingly reasoned and indicate some of the skills of their authors in research work. O. V. Dorofeev dedicated his work "V. I. Lenin in Riga" to a specific event in the life of Vladimir Ilyich: his arrival in Riga in 1900. This essay was awarded the highest award of the competition - a diploma of the first degree. The author showed how scrupulously every word of eyewitnesses and archival documents is analyzed to accurately identify Lenin's places. Each discovery leads to the fact that the newly identified places of V. I. Lenin's stay in Riga are marked with memorial plaques. The high assessment of O. V. Dorofeev's work will be especially noteworthy if we take into account that the author is a first-year student of the evening department of a technical university. E. V. Nikitin submitted to the competition the work " At the beginning of the Great Road (from the Samara period of V. I. Lenin's life and activity. 1889-1893)", which goes beyond the usual idea of an abstract even for a student of a humanitarian university. The author considers the indicated years of V. I.'s life and activity. Lenin in four aspects: mastering the teachings of K. Marx and F. Engels; application of Marxism to the study of the socio-economic system of Russia; participation in Samara revolutionary circles, work as an assistant to a juror in the Samara District Court. The abstract is original, written on a large, thoroughly studied range of sources, including four funds of the Central Administration of the IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU. The author has developed a strong knowledge of history, philosophy, and political economy.

The presence of works on the military-theoretical and organizational role of V. I. Lenin shows the diversity of interests of students. This is evidenced by the writings

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Yu. G. Verbitsky "V. I. Lenin-the great Proletarian commander", V. M. Krasnikov " V. I. Lenin's struggle for the creation of a regular Red Army at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b)", V. Yu. Korablev "V. I. Lenin and the political workers of the Red Army", etc. The main attention is paid to the activities of V. I. Lenin on the creation of the Red Army and its leadership during the Civil War. There are also works, the authors of which are very original trying to consider various aspects of the policy of the Soviet state in the field of strengthening the defense capability of our Homeland. The works of V. A. Luchnikov " V. I. Lenin on the development of heavy industry and its role in strengthening the defense capability of the socialist state "and O. G. Sukhopyatkin" V. I. Lenin on the economic foundations of the military power of the socialist state " deservedly received high awards. Considerable attention was paid by students to such an exciting problem of our time as the problem of war and peace.

The students showed great interest in Lenin's theoretical heritage and the activities of the party and the Soviet Government to implement Lenin's plans. This is evidenced by the content of most of the contest entries. Let us mention some of them: M. F. Antonyuk "Development of activity and consolidation of Bolshevik organizations in Ukraine on the basis of V. I. Lenin's April theses", L. I. Arustamova "V. I. Lenin and socialist transformations in the everyday life of the collective farm peasantry of the Azerbaijan SSR", P. A. Bykov "V. I. Lenin on the hegemony of the proletariat in the first Russian Revolution", L. A. Bykov " V. I. Lenin on the Hegemony of the proletariat in the M. Orgina "V. I. Lenin on the development of the productive forces of the North of Russia", S. Kozhakhmetova "V. I. Lenin and the development of public education in Kazakhstan", S. F. Vlasov "V. I. Lenin on the Cultural Revolution as a pattern of building socialism and communism", A.V. Vozhenkov "The struggle of the working people of the Urals for the implementation of Lenin's plan for building socialism" A. I. Nemoy "V. I. Lenin on the creation of the material and technical base of agriculture", V. V. Savinykh "V. I. Lenin on German imperialism and modern imperialism of the Federal Republic of Germany" many others. Their topics are very relevant in political and scientific relations. Thus, M. F. Antonyuk, based on the material of numerous sources, revealed the activities of the Ukrainian Bolsheviks in March-April 1917, doing this against the background of all-Russian events and a critical analysis of modern bourgeois, opportunist and revisionist perversions. At the same time, the author showed not only her ability to observe, but also to correctly evaluate the activities of party organizations, which was especially evident in the first part of the abstract.

Students also studied Lenin's theoretical heritage in terms of historiography and source studies. Works of the first kind (there are four of them) are devoted to the disclosure of Lenin's contribution to historical science, the activities of V. I. Lenin as a historian. As you know, this problem is insufficiently studied and currently attracts close attention of Soviet historians. The vast majority of their research is familiar to the authors of the competition papers and is used by them when writing their research papers. However, the complexity and complexity of the problem, gaps in theoretical knowledge and poor use of scientific analysis methods affected the quality of the submitted papers. However, it is impossible to belittle the importance of students ' attempts to understand this area of V. I. Lenin's activity. The source study aspect is represented by 12 works, among which there are some that are worthy of special attention in terms of their ideological and theoretical level, the depth of disclosure of the topic. It is characteristic that in most cases the authors of these works are students of non-historical faculties. Thus, K. Baranov, a student of the Faculty of Economics of the Azerbaijan Institute of National Economy, wrote an essay "The role of personal correspondence of V. I. Putin". Levin in the study of his ideological heritage" is an original and interesting work that has a certain cognitive value. The epistolary legacy of V. I. Lenin - an inexhaustible source of his thoughts and ideas-is concentrated in ten volumes of the Complete Works of V. I. Lenin. E. K. Baranov's achievement was that he made an attempt, and quite successfully, to show the most important ideas contained in Lenin's epistolary documents.

The group of student works devoted to the disclosure of individual problems of history is represented by a variety of topics, problems and directions. So, in the essay by A. Pashikov " From the history of land and water reform in the Tejensky district

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Turkmen SSR (1926-1927)" archival materials and documents were used, which indicate a new approach to solving vital problems for Turkmen farmers. In this approach, the author concludes, the inner meaning of the October Revolution was revealed, namely: all transformations in the vast territory of the country should be carried out for the benefit of the working people. Interesting works were presented at the competition by Yu. A. Proskurin, N. I. Alymova, S. F. Zagoruiko and others. All of them received high marks and received awards.

845 teachers of departments and faculties of social sciences of leading universities of Moscow were engaged in reviewing student papers at the final All-Union round. Among the reviewers are 43 professors, doctors of sciences and 743 associate professors, candidates of sciences. The review was closed. All works that received unsatisfactory ratings were reviewed twice, and most of them received excellent ratings. This was done to avoid subjectivism when evaluating the quality of student papers.

Speaking about the positive experience of all-Union competitions in social sciences as a new effective form of ideological and political education of students, it is impossible to ignore some of the negative aspects that have manifested themselves in the process of conducting them. Some of the works submitted for the third round of the III All-Union Competition were rated unsatisfactory by reviewers. How could these works have made it to the third round of the competition? Obviously, in the previous two rounds, the requirements were underestimated when evaluating them. There were also such phenomena as compilation, insufficiently accurate design of the scientific apparatus and work plan, weak disclosure of some questions raised in the works, and the presence of stylistic errors. It is clear that these and other shortcomings do not reduce the importance of the competition. Further holding of such events is certainly necessary. Therefore, it is absolutely correct to make the all-Union competitions of student papers in social sciences a tradition. When preparing for the next IV competition, it is important to take into account both the positive and negative aspects of the organization of the previous competition. This will help to increase its educational role.

P. A. Nosov, A. I. Tokarev

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