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.