The session at Columbia was attended by two regular officers of the United States Army, Major Frank L. Hayne and Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Joseph A. Michela. Their attendance was made possible by the efforts of Colonel Burnett, officer in charge of the Military Attache Service, who, having served several terms as United States Military Attache in Japan, insisted that officers assigned to such posts as Moscow and Tokyo have a speaking and reading knowledge of the local language. This had been the case of Colonel Philip Faymonville, the first Army man to be sent to Moscow after the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. In a sense, it was almost the beginning of serious language work by the United States Armed Services. Both Hayne and Michela later were military attaches in Moscow, although Hayne was transferred to Finland during the Soviet-Finnish War. Michela remained in Moscow during the greater part of the War and participated in the removal of the capital to Kuybyshev when the Germans approached Moscow in the summer of 1941. At Columbia, these officers had special courses during a two year period. In the second year they were joined by Captain Ivan Yeaton, who had previously served during World War I in the Siberian Expedition under General Graves. Other officers were later added to the group but as World War II approached, the entire project was transferred to Harvard University. The thirties also witnessed the beginning of a systematic interest in Russian studies by the American Council of Learned Societies. This group had previously considered the need for developing studies in specialized fields and had approached foundations to secure money for limited projects. It had been successful in fostering work in Chinese and in completing at least a preliminary survey of American resources in the field. It then turned its attention to Russian and established a committee to study the general status of Russian studies. Professor Cross was secretary of this important committee for several years. Through the activities of the American Council, coordination of work by the various universities and colleges, was accomplished. This was but the beginning of a process which was to be greatly intensified during the War. In the thirties, the University of Wisconsin began to offer courses in Polish. Elaborately planned, Professor Joseph Birkenmeyer from the University of Krakow was invited to direct the work. Unfortunately, he returned to Poland just on the eve of World War II, but the work was continued successfully.[37] The department at Wisconsin was established primarily through the influence of the Polish population of the state.