2012 Issue №12

English-Russian state-to-state relations in the second half of the 19th/ beginning of the 20th century are distinguished by complex character and dramatic shifts from cooperation to confrontation and vice versa. Different circumstances and factors, including the level of trade and economic contacts, affected the condition of English-Russian relations. The author analyses the principal stages of the evolution of trade and economic contacts between Great Britain and Russia from the Crimean war to the agreement of 1907 and identifies their role and influence on the political English-Russian relations of that period.

This article considers the vicissitudes of the Lithuanian — RSFSR negotiations in Moscow in the spring-summer of 1920. The author analyses the circumstances of the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty between Lithuania and Soviet Russia on July 12, 1920 and focuses on the international response to it. The author pays special attention to the question of the character of Lithuania’s neutrality in the Soviet-Polish war in August-September 1920.

This article analyzes the origins of the contemporary conflict generating Polish-Lithuanian relations. The authors consider the features of the Polonization of Lithuania and ensuing Russification in the second half of the 19th century, the problems of Polish-Russian relations during the interbellum (1918—1939) and the period of the post-war development of the two states. The authors come to a conclusion that the modern conflict between Poland and Lithuania has a historical and national basis and its rapid resolution, despite common political objectives, can hardly be expected.

This article focuses on the formation and implementation of the programmе of development of US fleet during World War II for providing military and economic support to the anti-Hitler coalition — Great Britain and the USSR. The author considers the most typical projects of marine transport vessels built at US shipyards, the main routes of travel from the USA and Great Britain to the USSR in the framework of the end-lease programme.