Title: English version of introduction and remarks from the seventh supplement to the first edition of the General catalogue of variable stars, by B.V. Kukarkin, P.P. Parenago, I. Efremov, and P.N. Kholopov, Moscow, 1955 ... and from the eighth supplement to the first edition of the General catalogue of variable stars, by B.V. Kukarkin, P.P. Parenago, I. Efremov, and P.N. Kholopov, Moscow, 1956 ...