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Annual Report of the Slavic Division for 1952

(For the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1952)

The Joint Committee on Slavic Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council, set up primarily for coordination of Slavic research in this country, adopted unanimously at its annual meeting on April 6, 1952, the following resolution:

Resolved: That the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies record its continuing interest in and full support of the work of the Slavic Division of the Library of Congress.

Ten days earlier, on March 27, 1952, Congressman Charles J. Kersten of Wisconsin had appeared as a voluntary witness before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch Appropriations for 1953. His testimony was also devoted to the activities of the Slavic Division. "Mr. Chairman," he said, "I wish to fully support the appropriations for the Slavic Division . . . presently overseen by Serge Yakobson. I understand that it is necessary for him to have a certain number of additional assistants in his work this coming year."

"In my opinion, every instrument of knowledge that we in the United States can use to further out understanding of the Slavic countries and particularly the Soviet Union is so important in the present conflict between the United States and the U.S.S.R. It would be penny-wise and pound-foolish and niggardly to deprive ourselves of expressed knowledge of sources of information that can be obtained through this agency."

"I have had good cooperation in dealings with the Slavic Division in getting information pertaining to Soviet Russia and other Communist-dominated countries, and I believe that this field should be increased and enforced in it operation."

Now what did the work of the Slavic Division amount to in fiscal 1952? What has it achieved? And how large was the staff available for carrying out the Division's operations?

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

Fiscal 1952 brought the realization of a number of important projects which were initiated, planned, and elaborated by the Slavic Division. The present emergency situation made their implementation particularly urgent.

Cyrillic Subject Union Catalog

The establishment of the Cyrillic Subject Union Catalog project in the Library of Congress in January 1952, to be completed in one year, can be traced back to a memorandum presented on February 27, 1951, by the Chief of the Slavic Division to the Director of the Reference Department and supported at the time by the present Chief of the project. The following opening paragraphs of the memorandum clearly defined the aim of the project:

"Since the government of the Soviet Union restricts the exportation of sensitive publications, it is imperative that the resources in the United States emanating from the U.S.S.R. be exploited to the maximum. This is possible only if there is an adequate subject guide to this material. At the present time the Library of Congress, which is the holder of the largest collection of Slavica in this country and the central depository for catalog cards of Slavic materials in other American libraries, has only one comprehensive Slavic catalog, viz., the Slavic Union Catalog, arranged exclusively by author. Thus, although it is a catalog of the Slavic collections throughout the country, it furnishes only partial control over these collections.

"In order to achieve full control, it is proposed that a Slavic union subject catalog be set up. The need for such a subject catalog is enhanced by the fact that the Soviet government has prohibited the exportation and even the distribution within the Soviet Union of the Soviet national bibliography "Knizhnaia Letopis'." Under the present circumstances research workers — both government and private — are unable to gain access to the large collections of Slavica in the United States simply because they do not know the names of the authors of the works in the various fields in which they are interested. The establishment of a Slavic subject catalog would provide them with the key to this vast wealth of information. . . ."

The incessant efforts to secure from various organizations (State Department, Rand Corporation, etc.) the necessary funds for the realization of this project, in which the Slavic Division had its share, were finally crowned with success in the winter of 1951. The Cyrillic Union Catalog in the Library of Congress — a project of national importance — is now well under way. It will, as was anticipated and pointed out in the above quoted memorandum,

"a) provide full control over the Slavic collections in the United States, and b) act as a substitute for the unavailable Soviet national bibliography, providing as a by-product a firm foundation for two operations: (1) the preparation of specialized bibliographies in the Slavic field, and (2) the most effective selection of source material for abstracting, digesting, and advanced research and intelligence work."

East European Accessions List

The East European Accessions List project, which began its formal existence on August 1, 1951, originated also in the Slavic Division.

In May 1951 the Chief of the Division suggested to the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies the desirability of the publication of a list of accessions from Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia), similar to the Monthly List of Russian Accessions issued by the Library of Congress since 1948. Upon advice of the Committee the Chief of the Division approached the National Committee for a Free Europe as a possible source of funds. As a result of these and later negotiations, the Library of Congress consented to undertake the publication of a current list of East European accessions, and the National Committee agreed to provide the necessary funds for the salaries of editorial assistants and typists. The Rockefeller Foundation granted the Library of Congress an additional sum of money for the purchase of equipment and the salary of an editor. The first issue of the List was released in the fall of 1951.

The Slavic Division had, however, no part in the practical implementation of the project until the time when the request of the Exchange and Gift Division, which is in charge of the project, for an expansion of the East European Accessions List was placed before the Bibliography and Publications Committee on April 11, 1952. At this time the Chief of the Slavic Division was able to point out certain shortcomings of the new publication which made him believe that the expansion of the List at that time would be a premature step. He restated this opinion in his testimony before two subcommittees of the B & P Committee on April 29 and again on May 23, 1952. The matter was finally referred for further discussion to a Special Committee on Eastern European Publications, which, as a result of several meetings in June 1952, approved a number of steps recommended by the Chief of the Division as necessary for the improvement of the List.

These and lengthy but most fruitful discussions of the reorganization of the Monthly List of Russian Accessions in the Special Committee on Eastern European Publications which took place from August to October, 1951, absorbed a rather considerable amount of the Chief's time. Since February 1952, the Chief of the Division has regularly attended a weekly meeting — under the chairmanship of the Director of the Processing Department — of the Supervisory Board of the Cyrillic Union Catalog and of the Monthly List of Russian Accessions. In addition, he has devoted several hours weekly to consultations with the Director of the Processing Department and the staff in charge of these operations. The attention given to these projects, though time-consuming, has yielded good results. The Cyrillic Subject Union Catalog, the reorganized Monthly List of Russian Accessions, and the East European Accessions List are at last providing government and scholarship with a set of bibliographical controls over materials and publications of utter importance.

Russian Newspapers Checklist

The program of establishing bibliographical control over the Soviet press was further enriched through the compilation by Dr. Paul L. Horecky of the Slavic Division and the release by the Library in April 1952 of the Preliminary Checklist of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian Newspapers Published since January 1, 1917, within the Present Boundaries of the USSR and Preserved in United States Libraries. The list was intended primarily as a tool for the assessment of the available newspaper holdings in the libraries of the United States and the selection of titles for microfilming of Russian newspapers, often printed on lowgrade paper and hence rapidly deteriorating. This project was sponsored by the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies and financed by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. About 750 titles of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian newspapers are entered in this 97-page list. The entries represent LC holdings, and to the extent to which bibliographical information was readily available in the Library of Congress, also newspaper files in other libraries in the United States. The Preliminary List is arranged alphabetically by place of publication and contains bibliographical data such as frequency of issuance, date of establishment, issuing body and changes in the location, title, frequency and sponsoring agency. The extent of the coverage is indicated by adjective ratings based on the percentage of the available holdings for each year.

The list was reproduced through multilith process; a limited number of copies made available for distribution to libraries, Government agencies, and other interested institutions was rapidly exhausted. The continuation of the project is contingent on the receipt of further instructions from the chairman of the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies, who is at present canvassing the various research groups working in the Russian field with regard to the Soviet newspapers which deserve to be microfilmed first. Upon receipt of this information the Slavic Division will undertake to make an exact survey of holdings of the selected titles, to calculate the costs involved in their microfilming, and to ascertain the interest and willingness of other libraries to share in these expenses.

There is, however, one point on which the Slavic Division needs guidance from the Library Administration. The information incorporated in the Preliminary Checklist was based exclusively on data available in the Library of Congress, which certainly did not reveal a complete and fully reliable picture of the holdings of Russian newspapers in the various United States libraries. In order to achieve a complete and final listing of these holdings, it would be advisable, provided this suggestion meets with the approval of the Library Administration, to send out this Preliminary Checklist to individual libraries for checking and bringing up to date. It is estimated that about 30 to 40 libraries which are known to have substantial holdings of Russian newspapers published since 1917 will be involved.

Although the Preliminary Checklist was originally conceived only as a by-product of the microfilming program, the encouraging response which it has encountered so far indicates that it serves already in its present form as a valuable research and bibliographical tool in Government agencies and research libraries alike. A copy of the list sent to the German author of the first scholarly publication on the Soviet press was acclaimed by him as "the first gesture of peace that has reached me from a country with which no formal peace has been concluded as yet."

A New Supply Source

A survey of research facilities available in the Slavic field in this country was on the agenda of the October meeting of the A.R.L. Committee on National Needs. Prior to this meeting, the Chief of the Slavic Division was asked to visit the New York Public Library, the Columbia University Library, the Yale University Library, and the Widener Library in order to ascertain the cataloging arrearages in the Slavic and East European fields. The highlight of this journey was the discovery of an hitherto untapped supply source in Europe which became in fiscal 1952 one of the Library's main procurement channels for materials printed in the USSR and other iron curtain countries.

Books for Japan

In fiscal 1952 the Slavic Division was not only preoccupied with securing access to the Soviet informational sources; the exploitation of the findings of American research based on these source materials was of equal interest to the Division.

Next to Germany, Japan has lately become the focal point of Soviet political activities. To counteract Soviet propaganda, the Rockefeller Foundation decided in the winter of 1951 to "aid Japanese scholars to obtain better-balanced collections of material and to develop studies of the U.S.S.R. which are realistic and objective rather than propagandistic." In December 1951 the Foundation requested the Library's assistance in presenting two Japanese libraries with sets of books for the promotion in Japan of such studies of the Soviet Union. The Slavic Division, having participated in the final stages of the negotiations with the Rockefeller Foundation and in the formulation of the program, was entrusted by the Librarian in March 1952 with the execution of the project. The task of the Slavic Division is to select a representative collection of monographs and periodicals on the Soviet Union published since 1941. It will include the more prominent publications printed in English in the United States and Great Britain, as well as the standard works in German and French. The collection will cover the humanities as well as the fields of political and social science. The selecting, purchasing, and shipping of the material to Japan is to be completed prior to December 31, 1952.

ACQUISITION OF MATERIALS

The formulation and, to some extent, even the implementation of an active procurement program in the field of Slavic and East European studies belonged to the most conspicuous activities of the Slavic Division in fiscal 1952. This was explicitly stated by the Acting Librarian of Congress, Mr. Verner W. Clapp, in his testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on March 26, 1952. He said, ". . . we need this Slavic Division to do the advanced reference, sir, in this very important field and also to ride hard on the acquisitions.

"These Slavic publications are very difficult of acquisition nowadays. One has to seek in a dozen places in order to be sure of getting one copy. This means a continuous checking of catalogs and more especially of what results from our exchange arrangements. We have to check over what comes from the Bulgarian Bibliographical Institute or what comes from the All-Lenin Library in Moscow to see what they are sending us actually, so that we can make up our lists and ask for things omitted. This is very important, sir."

In fact, over 77,200 titles of Slavic and East European publications were examined in the Slavic Division in fiscal 1952, and 17,763 recommendations were made. In carrying out this procurement program the Slavic Division worked in very close cooperation with the Order Division, and this common effort of the two Divisions has established the procurement of Slavic and East European materials on a truly global scale.

As has rightly been pointed out by the Acting Chief of the Order Division in his confidential memorandum prepared for the ARL meeting, on June 29, 1952, "the procurement of publications from the Soviet Union, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Albania imposes circumstances dissimilar from those we confront in our acquisitions from other areas of the world. Here we contend with the strictures and controls which these states have rigorously imposed on all phases of publishing and on the exportation of books and periodicals. New aspects of these controls may at any time effect us swiftly and drastically. Our acquisitions are thereby subject in large measure to the dictates of state-inspired controls and the effectiveness with which they are applied. There are other barriers and hindrances — actual and potential — in the form of Western European (and our own) regulations aimed at preventing the dissemination of materials deemed propaganda. Fiscal regulations, directed against these countries, can nullify our arrangements through our inability to consummate payment. Changes of political character, such as Soviet inspired pressures to coerce the German Democratic Republic, blockade attempts in Berlin, do represent serious threats to the present and future acquisition of publications. The absence of diplomatic representation in Bulgaria and Albania likewise imposes a considerable disadvantage. An assessment of publications procurement from the U.S.S.R. and the satellites must, therefore, be phrased in terms of the immediate present."

Rumanian publications were, for instance, obtained in Abyssinia. Soviet publications were traced and unearthed not only in Berlin, on the German-Soviet frontier, in Paris and other European book centers, but also in China, in Tokyo, in South and Southeast Asia, in Hong Kong, the Near East, and other remote places. Examination of the L.C. Hungarian collections by Dr. Béla T. Kardos, the Hungarian expert of the Slavic Division, has led to the organization of an extensive Hungarian procurement program and opening of new channels for acquisition of this type of materials. Preparation of a want list of Yugoslav publications for a dealer who visited Yugoslavia resulted in a marked strengthening of LC collections in this field. The survey of the Library's holdings of Czech and Polish periodicals undertaken by Dr. Horecky resulted in the acquisition of a considerable number of wanted serials in the fields of both the humanities and of technology. At present the Library is receiving monthly a total of 240 to 270 periodicals from the Soviet Union. It is noteworthy that out of the 20 "sensitive" titles which were removed from the Soviet export list for 1952 three periodicals are no longer published but fourteen are still reaching the Library and are available as before to the reader and student of Soviet affairs. Current subscriptions of periodicals from iron curtain countries were increased during the last fiscal year by 158 new magazines from Hungary, 40 from Czechoslovakia, 119 from Poland, 65 from Rumania, and by a tangible number of new titles from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.

The emphasis placed in fiscal 1952 on the intensification and acceleration of a procurement program in the area covered by the Slavic Division has thus materially contributed to the strengthening of the Library's position as the leading center not only for Slavic, but also non-Slavic East European studies, such as, for instance, Hungarian research, a field entirely ignored by other libraries and educational institutions in the United States.

Slavic materials can be found and secured not only abroad, but also in this country, and even right here in Washington, D.C. Of special importance in this respect is a recent arrangement between the Slavic Division and another Federal agency which will bring to the Library an impressive number of microfilms of Soviet titles housed in Washington but so far not represented in the Library's collection.

Upon recommendation of the Slavic Division the Library succeeded in acquiring in New York a collection of unpublished letters of Maxim Gorki, addressed to the Russian poet and literary critic Vladislav Khodasevich in the years 1922–25. These 32 letters reveal that Maxim Gorki, highly praised in Communist Russia as a revolutionary patriot and a staunch defender of the Soviets, was not always so enthusiastic about the regime as hitherto believed. The letters to Khodasevich show that during the twenties Gorki preferred to live outside the Soviet Union — in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. He was harassed by Soviet censorship; letters and manuscripts addressed to him either did not reach him at all or were delayed. He became embittered when his own journal, Beseda, was banned by the Moscow government, and he refused to contribute to Soviet journals. News from Soviet Russia depressed Gorki. The announcement of a list of books to be suppressed in Russia, which included works of Plato, Kant, Schopenhauer, Taine, Nietzsche, and Tolstoi, made him think of renouncing his Soviet citizenship. He referred to this act of the Soviet government as "spiritual vampirism" and "beastliness."

The Slavic Division was also able to give some attention to the exchange operations with libraries in the Soviet Union and other satellite countries. In the opinion of the Slavic Division the exchange receipts from these countries were not adequately scrutinized in the Exchange and Gift Division as to their qualitative value, so that only a quantitative criterion, derived from the number of pieces received, tended to become the yardstick of the success or failure of these exchange operations. With this in mind, an effort was made, with Dr. Adkinson's and Dr. Wagman's approval, to test the effectiveness of the Library's exchange arrangements with the Bulgarian Bibliographic Institute, which, judged only by the number of receipts, may have seemed a rather propitious transaction. For this purpose, Dr. Marin Pundeff, a Bulgarian expert, was assigned the task of compiling — independently from the LC intake of Bulgarian materials — a list of the more important Bulgarian 1949 and 1950 imprints. He submitted 235 monographic titles based on careful examination of the Bulgarian National Bibliography. This list was searched in February 1952 against the LC catalog with the cooperation of the Processing Department. The results of the search, referred to by Mr. Clapp in his above-mentioned testimony before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, speak for themselves. Although 14 months had lapsed since the publication of the last Bulgarian items in December, 1950, only 72 items representing 30.6 per cent of the more important 1949 and 1950 Bulgarian imprints, could be found in LC. Thus, the search bears out the conjecture that the Bulgarian Bibliographic Institute was dumping on LC large amounts of second and third rate publications and was withholding, deliberately or otherwise, a very substantial number of vital publications.

The results of this search, as submitted to the Library Administration, led to a review and revaluation of the Library's exchange operations with libraries and institutions behind the iron curtain. Among other matters it was decided to make greater use than before of LC want lists in securing East European material on an exchange basis. In line with these recommendations want lists of monographic literature and periodicals, as well as of the USSR Academy of Sciences publications, have been prepared in the Slavic Division for the use of the Exchange and Gift Division.

ORGANIZATION OF MATERIALS

The staff of the Slavic Division has not only labored to open and widen the access to the sources of information printed in the Soviet sphere, but has also contributed to the more efficient organization of this type of material. The Selection Officer and the Serial Record were assisted on a regular basis in establishing priorities for cataloging and bibliographical listing of Slavic and East European publications. Specialized assistance was further extended by the staff of the Division to the Subject Cataloging Division and the Descriptive Cataloging Division in carrying out their operations related to the Slavic and East European fields. Professional advice and aid were also rendered to the Music Division in assembling the Rachmaninoff exhibition and to the Exhibits Officer in his preparation of the UN exhibition on freedom of communications. Finally, bibliographic and reference work undertaken by the Division has stimulated the organization and maintenance in the Division of card files of English, French, and German publications dealing with the Soviet Union and other Slavic areas as well as with Albania, Hungary, and Rumania.

USE OF MATERIALS

An increased and still growing interest in the area covered by the Slavic Division has kept the staff busy answering a great variety of inquiries, attending to a stream of visitors to the Division, and providing occasionally translations of various documents from Slavic languages into English for Congressional and Government use. Reference aid was rendered during fiscal 1952 by the staff of the Slavic Division to a considerable number of Government agencies, such as the White House, Bureau of the Budget, U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Standards, National War College, Federal Civil Defense Administration, Office of Education, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, the National Research Council and the CIA.

Particular assistance in problems of Slavic research and exploitation of the Slavic and East European collections was further given to representatives of the press, to various research bodies such as the Rand Corporation, the National Committee for a Free Europe, the National Science Foundation, the Chekhov Publishing House, etc., and to well over thirty universities and colleges.

Among the more interesting reference services of the year the following few might be mentioned here. Reference guidance was sought by the Bureau of the Budget in connection with the computation of the estimated membership contribution by the Soviet Union to the United Nations. Information on the economic situation in the satellite countries, supplied to a staff writer of the Wall Street Journal, led to the publication in this newspaper of a survey of Czechoslovakia's economy. Reference guidance concerning the most significant source materials for the analysis and evaluation of Hungarian official statistical data, particularly in the fields of demography, domestic economics and transportation, was extended to the research staff of the Mid-European Studies Center of the National Committee for a Free Europe in connection with the preparation of a statistical yearbook for Eastern Europe. Counsel and recommendation of pertinent materials on organization and functioning of civil defense in the USSR were provided to the Federal Civil Defense Administration. Bibliographical assistance was further provided to the U.S. Office of Education in the preparation of a statement by a U.S. representative in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in rebuttal of a memorandum on the state of education in the Soviet Union submitted by the Soviet representative.

A special list of reference tools on the Soviet Union was compiled in aid of the research activities of a security Government agency. The Fresno State College in California was assisted in building up its collections on the geography of the Soviet Union. Finally, a reading list on history, education and labor conditions in the Soviet Union was prepared for use in a senior seminar at Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois. This is the text of the letter received from Mr. John V. G. Forbes, chairman of the Department of Political Science, in acknowledgment of the receipt of the list:

"On behalf of our students and myself, I want to thank you for the excellent reading list which you sent to us to be used in connection with our Senior Seminar in Historiography.

"Be sure that your help in this matter will be valuable to us this year and in years to come. Thank you again for this courtesy."

The Slavic Division has also actively participated in LC's bibliographic activities. The issuance of the Checklist of Russian postrevolutionary newspapers compiled and prepared in the Division has already been described in greater detail on pages 6–9.

An extensive bibliography devoted to the Lithuanian publications printed in the United States between 1875 and 1910 was compiled by Dr. Vaclovas Biržiška, attached to the Slavic Division as a consultant on Lithuanian collections. This bibliography is arranged chronologically. It consists of 1,366 entries and fills 220 pages. Its index of 61 pages lists in alphabetical order the titles of the publications as well as the names of the authors with biographical data. Dr. Biržiška has further written a detailed introduction to the bibliography analyzing its contents and the significance of the listed material. The bibliography with its introduction is unique in its way and should be of interest not only to people concerned solely with Lithuanian matters, but also to anyone interested in the role played by various nationality groups in the social and cultural history of the United States. It represents also a new source of information on American-Lithuanian political and cultural relations.

In fiscal 1952 the Chief of the Slavic Division has further been asked on a number of occasions to take part in the deliberations of the B & P Committee when Slavic topics were placed on the agenda, and the Committee has repeatedly referred to the Slavic Division bibliographical publications prepared in other parts of the Library for review, improvement and endorsement, such as, for instance, the List of Russian Abbreviations as well as the bibliographies on Soviet fuel and power resources, on Soviet geography, etc.

Dr. Epstein, who was place in charge of the various bibliographical projects gradually carried out by the staff of the Slavic Division, has also been consulted by Mr. Dorosh, Curator of the Slavic Room, with reference to an enlarged edition of his Guide to Soviet Bibliographies.

A few publications prepared by the members of the staff of the Slavic Division in connection with their official duties were also designed to facilitate the use of the Library's materials. A report on the Library's acquisitions during 1951 from Slavic countries other than the Soviet Union, prepared by Dr. Horecky, was published in the February 1952 issue of The Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions. Dr. Kardos and Dr. Horecky also contributed material and information to the survey of current national bibliographies to be published in the August 1952 issue of the same Journal.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Fiscal 1952 seems to have given to the Slavic Division, one of the youngest administrative units in the Reference Department, ample opportunity to strengthen its relations with various organizations and establishments at home and abroad.

Consultation and conferences concerning questions of Slavic research have taken place with foreign scholars and with officers of international organizations and foreign governments, such as representatives of the University of Leicester, England; Bavarian State Library, Munich; McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Foreign Book Exchange Bureau, Bad Godesberg, Germany; J. G. Herder/Institut, Marburg/Lahn, Germany; Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem; UN Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva; Japanese Foreign Office; embassies of Great Britain, China, and Italy.

Since vital Slavic research materials can be located and mobilized not only in the United States libraries but also in foreign depositories, the Slavic Division has suggested and promoted the microfilming of the catalog of Slavic periodicals deposited at the Westdeutsche Bibliothek at Marburg/Lahn. This group of materials is of particular value since it represents a large part of the once very extensive Slavic collections of the Prussian State Library in Berlin. Another source of information on Slavic research and publications proved to be the Helsinki University Library which prior to the revolution of 1917 was an obligatory depository for all Russian materials. Over 4,000 cards of duplicate titles of the Helsinki University Library have been examined by Dr. Epstein of the Slavic Division for the purpose of obtaining from Finland the items wanted by LC.

During fiscal 1952 the Slavic Division was repeatedly approached by the Intelligence Research Branch of the State Department with the idea of carrying out a cooperative research program. Projects were worked out and budgets established — notoriously a time-consuming operation — but with little tangible results, owing to the failure of the Department to secure the necessary funds for this operation. Still, under the terms of the Chinese emergency aid program, Mr. Di-Tsin Tsing is at present working on a report on the activities of the University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, a topic in which the State Department has shown a particular interest.

In response to another request addressed by the State Department to the Library Administration for participation in a broadcast program directed to foreign countries and devoted to the latest developments in various Federal agencies, the Chief of the Division prepared and recorded a script in Russian on the Library's acquisition of the letters of Maxim Gorki (see above p. 14), which was transmitted twice to the Soviet Union on the Voice of America program.

A private organization, the National Committee for a Free Europe, is at present examining a research program recommended by the Slavic Division. The program envisages the study of postwar changes in the organization and planning of scientific life in various countries of Eastern Europe. If approved, the program will be of great practical value in the implementation of the procurement and exchange operations of the Library in this area.

Further liaison between LC and the world of learning was maintained by the Chief of the Division, who served in fiscal 1952 on the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council and the newly established Committee on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union of the American Political Science Association, of which Dr. Epstein is also a member. The Division was represented by its Chief at the 66th annual meeting of the American Historical Association at New York City. He also served on the Subcommittee on Industrial Security of the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security.

PERSONNEL

It is obvious that the regular staff of the Slavic Division, could not tackle the multitude of special projects and programs described in the preceding pages while attending at the same time to the Division's ordinary functions and duties. A new GS-12 position, to which Dr. Fritz T. Epstein was appointed on February 21, 1952, was added in fiscal 1952 to the staff of the Division. Yet the staff of the Division consisted at the end of the fiscal year of only four regular positions, those of the Chief of the Division, the U.S.S.R. and East European Specialist (on a part-time basis), the Slavic Research Analyst, and the Research Assistant and Secretary of the Division. The Director of the Reference Department has recognized the seriousness of the situation. In order to enable the Division to carry out the special tasks assigned to it, a GS-9 bibliographer (Mrs. N. Bednar) was detailed to the Division on March 17, 1952 by the Air Information Division. A temporary position of an Exchange Assistant (at present occupied by Mrs. Y. Eliot) is shared by the Slavic Division with the Exchange and Gift Division as of May 26, 1952. Further, special Consultants were attached to the Division. From November 15, 1951 until March 31, 1952, Dr. Vaclovas Biržiška was associated with the Division as Consultant on Lithuanian Collections. On October 8, 1951, Dr. Bé T. Kardos joined the Division on a part-time basis as Consultant on Hungarian materials. His contract was first extended for four months and then again for two months. The contracts for Dr. Marin Pundeff and Dr. Bohumil Vosnjak could not be renewed in fiscal 1952 because of lack of funds. For the same reason the fields of Rumanian, Albanian, and Polish studies lacked special representation on the staff of the Division. The arrangement reached by the Slavic Division with The Research Program on the USSR, sponsored by the Ford Foundation, regarding the assignment of an Ukrainian scholar to the Slavic Division did not materialize, since the prospective candidate for the job was finally unable to leave New York for personal reasons. On April 15, 1952, Mr. Di-Tsin Tsing, a grantee under the Chinese emergency program of the State Department, was placed for the period of six months under the administrative jurisdiction of the Division.

PROFESSIONAL STAFF ACTIVITIES

Regular duties and special assignments made if impossible for the staff of the Slavic Division to devote much time to pure research and scholastic activities. Nevertheless, some work was also done in this direction and a few contributions by its members appeared in print during fiscal 1952. Dr. Yakobson wrote an introduction to a monograph by Dr. Alexis Vucinich on Soviet economic institutions, which appeared as a part of the Hoover Institute Studies. His introduction to the Gorki-Khodasevich correspondence will appear in the forthcoming volume of the Harvard Slavic Studies. He has also delivered during fiscal 1952 lectures at the American University, Washington, D.C. Dr. Epstein was for part of his time Director of Research of the War Documentation Project, administered by the Bureau of Applied Social Research of Columbia University. Dr. Horecky prepared several book reviews which appeared in the American Political Science Review and in Notes, journal of the Music Library Association. Finally, Dr. Kardos wrote weekly scripts for Radio Free Europe to be broadcast from Munich to Hungary and contributed articles to the Hungarian emigre publication Új Magyar Út on problems of a Danubian Federation, as well as literary and philosophical essays to Magyarok Útja. He is also the author of the section on foreign trade in the East European Statistical Handbook to be published by the National Committee for a Free Europe.

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