On January 28th, 1956, the 75th anniversary of Fedor Dostoevsky's death, the world of literature honored his memory. The occasion suggested to me the idea of reconstructing the history of the production of The Brothers Karamazov at the Moscow Art Theater, in 1911. For a number of years I was closely connected with this theatrical institution as executive assistant to Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, director and co-founder with Constantine Stanislavsky of the Art Theater, and this memoir is based on my conversations with him in addition to my personal recollections of the play.

The study of East Central European history, treated as a separate field, is not yet firmly established at American colleges and universities. Although World War II and its aftermath have revealed the importance of East Central Europe and led to serious study df this neglected area, the subject is taught in a limited number of institutions in the United States. Only two or three schools have organized centers of East Central European affairs, where the history of the region is studied in conjunction with its politics, economics, geography and sociology. The Program on East Central Europe at Columbia University is in its early stages, and the Institute of East European Studies at Indiana University is also a relatively novel experiment.

From about 1930 to 1950 linguistic work in the Soviet Union was dominated by the officially recognized theories and practices of the so-called Marr "school." For the most part, any but minor deviations from the theoretical foundations established by Nikolaj Ja. Marr (1865-1934) were severely suppressed. In 1950, however, Stalin officially repudiated Marr's theories and disbanded the group of linguists who had followed in his footsteps.

A pioneer publication in the creation of a popular literature, the Intermediary had a large circulation in Russia in the early nineties. It was founded for the dissemination of Tolstoy's stories among the people and has left its mark on literary history as the one successful practical application of Tolstoy's ideological views. But the total execution of this brilliant and original enterprise has only been revealed since the appearance of the eighty-fifth and eighty-sixth volumes of the Tolstoy Jubilee Edition which consist of some 200 hitherto unpublished letters dealing primarily with Intermediary concerns which Tolstoy wrote to Vladimir Chertkov between 1883 and 1889.

Within a small circle of student friends at Moscow University in the 1830's—a group of young men immersed in German literature and philosophy—one can find the early beginnings of nearly all the trends, movements and schools which developed in Russian intellectual life of the nineteenth century. The roster of those who were in regular contact with one another as members of the circle or who directly felt its influence includes Belinskij, Bakunin, and Granovskij, Ja. M. Neverov, who became active in the field of education, V. P. Botkin, remembered for his magnificent correspondence with Belinskij, the "peasant" poet A. V. Kol'cov, whom Stankevich brought into Russian literature, Konstantin Aksakov, later the most extravagant of the Slavophiles, M. N. Katkov, and for a brief period at the end of the decade, the novelist Turgenev.

A tradition of political interest and cultural relations between Russia and the Balkan Slavs existed during the reign of the tsars. Montenegro was not only protected but also subsidized by Russia, and Petar Petrović Njegoš, the ruler of that small country, sang in his works of the friendship of the Russians and the other Slavs. When Russia aimed at expansion in the Balkans, she turned her attention toward Bulgaria. The Slavophiles in the middle of the nineteenth century granted scholarships to Bulgarian youth to study in Russia, particularly in Odessa, and several of them became revolutionary writers of the pre-liberation period.

In the study and exegesis of the works of older Asian classical poets and writers the Soviets have made concentrated efforts to publish Marxian interpretations of the literature in a way which will be harmonious with Soviet ideology.

A case in point is Mir Ali Shir Nevai, (1440-1501), who is regarded by Turcologists throughout the world as one of the most important writers influencing the development of Turkic literature and Turkic literary languages. He lived and wrote most of his life in Herat, then the intellectual center and capital of the Timurid dynasty in what is now part of Afghanistan, Iran, and Soviet Central Asia.

Leo Tolstoy did not lack admirers in Finland around the turn of the last century. His literary genius captivated many Finns who likened his words to "windows opening into heaven." Others found solace in his religious teachings. " I do not know what might have happened to me in the end," confessed one of them, "if I had not unexpectedly discovered this powerful friend, who emancipated my spirit, banished from my soul all timidity, all fear, all misgiving." Literary and religious rebels, in particular, never doubted that "only once in a millennium does there emerge a person of such gifts of mind and heart."

The present study is intended as an over-all view of teaching and research in the Slavic and East European Field. Almost ten years had elapsed since Coleman's third survey, published in 1948, and the need for a new study became increasingly apparent. The writer's survey was begun during the academic year 1954-1955, and certain phases of the investigation continued until the present. During 1954-1955 questionnaires were sent to all the 183 American and Canadian institutions reported as teaching Russian by the Modern Language Association of America. The list, compiled as the result of a survey, appeared in the September, 1954, issue of Publications of the Modern Language Association (LXIX, 29-30).