It is quite natural that the study of history in Latvia could not be established on a firm scientific basis before Latvia achieved its independence. As soon as the Latvian State University was founded in 1919, historical and archaeological departments were established in it. Young scientists were trained by their elder colleagues in all auxiliary sciences, such as paleography, diplomatics, sphragistics, numismatics, etc. A Committee for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments was created, which established in the vicinity of Riga an open-air museum, where certain ethnographically rare farm buildings, old wooden chapels, and other architectural antiques were placed. Other archaeological items not transferable to the open-air museum were taken over by the Committee and proclaimed of national importance, such as old Latvian burial pits and tombs, ritual oak trees, certain old Latvian castle mounds, ruins of castles of Latvian rulers of the early medieval era (such as: Tervete, Bauska, Koknese, Gercike), and numerous ruins of castles of the Prince-archbishop and the Livonian Order of the Terra Mariana (1207-1562).

In the tumultous years that preceded the first and second World War, Zsigmond Moricz was the Hungarian writer whose approach to the problems of his country was significant because of his realistic attitude and method. Moricz had realistic predecessors, such as Lajos Tolnai, Sandor Brody, Zoltan Thury. But their works were trial balloons of literary realism. Zsigmond Moricz was the first Hungarian writer who, like Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser in America, de- A'oted his narrative talent to the presentation of individual and collective inconsistencies and sadistic realities caused by a particular social structure. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, and poems. As a poet he was inferior; even as a playwright his works are second-rate compared with his novels and short stories.

Now that the Red Army has driven the last fascist aggressors from our country, the time has come to think of the restoration of those fine monuments of art and antiquity which the German vandals outraged in malicious frenzy. Some few items have already been restored. Of various other monuments which astonished the world by their perfection, nothing is left but their foundations, but we can and must recreate at any cost whatever has in any degree survived. The world has never before witnessed a restoration task of such grandiose dimensions as confronts our country in the next decades.

In its aims, the theory and practice of the modern scientific restoration of artistic monuments is considerably different from the practice of the mid-nineteenth century.

The future of Soviet foreign trade in general as well as that of the Baltic trade has become the subject-matter of lively discussion. There are optimists who expect that Soviet Baltic trade will reach huge proportions in the approaching new world. But there are also pessimists who are not so optimistic concerning the extent of that trade.

Similar uncertainty concerning the proportions of Soviet Baltic trade prevailed after the First World War. It may be recalled, for instance, that what may be called an optimistic expectancy regarding Soviet Baltic trade goes back to the years 1918-1920 when, as in our day, large turnovers of Soviet transit trade with the newly established Baltic countries were expected. The Soviet Union supported this expectancy both by words and by deeds.

This directory is the result of an inquiry ably undertaken by Dr. Arthur Prudden Coleman, of Columbia University, at the request of the Committee on Slavic Studies, American Council of Learned Societies, and with the encouragement of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dr. Coleman's compilation shows that, of some 150 institutions of collegiate level in the United States which offer courses dealing with the East European area, 81 also present instruction in Russian and 12 provide training in Polish.

It is obvious from this survey that, apart from the relatively few institutions which have manifested an interest of several decades' standing in the Slavic world, this currently increased attention to the Slavic area is due primarily to recent political events, the impact of World War II, experience in the methods of language-teaching popularized by the A. S. T. program, and the cultural advance of the USSR.

There are now close to three quarters of a million Americans of Slovak origin who were born across the ocean. Together with their American-born first and second generation sons and daughters, they represent a distinctive element in American national life.

Escaping in the ‘80's of the last century from oppression under the Hungarian rule, which tried to denationalize and magyarize the whole Slovak country, they never had any ideological conflict with American tradition and the American way of life. Quite the contrary. Here in America they have realized their human cultural and political rights, and have been able not only to progress individually and as a group but also to help their Slovak brethren in the shadow of the Tatra Mountains to gain their national freedom and the democratic privileges they enjoyed in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

A comprehensive treatment of the teaching of Ukrainian might well begin with the statement that there are approximately two hundred schools in the United States devoted almost exclusively to this project. In addition there are many schools in which Ukrainian is merely another subject of study. The latter group consists of grammar schools, high schools, and institutions of higher learning.

Although the number of pupils in some of these schools is comparatively small (in some cases less than fifty), and sometimes the whole school is staffed with only one teacher, there is nevertheless an active interest in their promotion, and their attainments are most gratifying. The results are certain — the Ukrainian language is being learned even in obviously pauperized schools by the most direct methods. The children learn to speak Ukrainian; they learn to read and to write the language, and they often delve deeply into literature, history, and the arts.

Mr. Robert J. Hall, JR.'S observations, published under the title, "Progress and Reaction in Modern Language Teaching," in the Summer 1945 issue of the A.A.U.P. Bulletin are a belated post mortem of the defunct and buried A.S.T.P. program, and would not call for any remarks on the part of well-informed teachers and linguists, were it not for the fact that the Bulletin, by printing them, gave them a prominence which might be misinterpreted by the uninitiated.

Modern and other language teachers in this country have not labored for sixty years to give the profession a certain dignity, to be now urged to seek models for teaching cultural backgrounds, especially as regards the Mediterranean civilization, in Bantu, Tagalog, Menominee, Navajo, Eskimo and Chibcha linguistics, taught in Pidgin or Basic English. It may be that in music, singing, and dancing the prevailing trends hark back to the jungle (jangal = forest primeval), Mickey Mouse, and Jos6 Carioca, but unless the whole of the United States is to be transformed into a phonematic Hollywood scenario, no serious language teacher will even try to excavate the antediluvian tablets on which the notes of the A.S.T.P. rumba were written.