During the 1920’s those American universities most interested in Slavic subjects developed rather independently. In the field of history, there were few real innovations. During the twenties, and especially during the period of the New Economic Policy in the USSR, a few young men were able, on fellowships from various institutions, to study in the Soviet universities and familiarize themselves with conditions there. Among these men we may mention two important scholars of the present time: Professor Philip Mosely of the American Council of Foreign Relations, formerly of Columbia University, and Professor Geroid T. Robinson of Columbia. Other men similarly visited other Slavic lands for varying periods. Their studies have been an application of the accepted method of historical research to the history of the Slavic countries by men who were as well trained in Slavic as earlier generations had been in French and German. The situation was different in the field of language, literature and culture, in the general sense of the word, for these subjects had been very largely ignored in the earlier periods except in those institutions where Slavic departments had been established. Even the masterpieces of Russian literature had been handled purely on the basis of translations, with few efforts to equate them with the general life of Russia. This had produced the jaundiced view of Russian literature satirized by Stephen Leacock of McGill University. In fact during a large part of the period between the wars, one of the largest groups of students of Slavic literature were persons who had no desire to learn the language or to read Slavic literature in the original. They were merely interested in including Russian in courses of comparative literature, or they were instructors obliged to treat some of the Russian masterpieces in translation. This broad cultural need was met in different ways by the various Slavic departments. Thus, during these years, the department at the University of California, under Professor George Rapall Noyes, decidedly stressed the development of translation, and courses in which a knowledge of Russian was not primarily required. The department grew steadily but largely maintained its original staff supplemented by visiting lecturers. This policy continued until the eve of World War II. During most of this time Professor Noyes did not make any special effort to establish contacts with the Slavic groups on the Pacific coast.