A large group of friendly, sympathetic people gathered Sunday, November 11, at the Krylov school for Russian children in Hanson Park, on the Northwest Side of Chicago, to celebrate the first anniversary of the school.

The school has twenty-two children. All made a good beginning in their Russian studies during the first year of their school work. The whole entertainment part of the evening was carried out by the children themselves. They recited Russian poetry, sang Russian songs, and danced Russian dances dressed in Russian costumes.

Chief speakers of the evening were Dr. [A.I.] Nedzelnitzky; S. Volodkin, chairman of the Krylov school; and Bernov, chairman of the Bunin school. All three speakers emphasized the importance of Russian schools in America for the continuity of the Russian group here as a racial unit. G. Volos, 2representing the Russian Independent Mutual Aid Society, also made a brief speech, in which he outlined the gains and benefits the Russian youth may derive from attending Russian schools. He also pointed out the necessity of having a Russian high school, and later, perhaps, a Russian college.

Several months ago, the Krylov school passed through a crisis. Three stooges of the local Communist leaders who wormed their way into the Krylov Society tried hard to bring the Krylov school under the control of the Communists by demanding that the Krylov school join the Russian Communist School Federation in Chicago. This Federation maintains a number of Russian grammar schools in Chicago, which openly teach children the doctrine of Communism. When their efforts of lining up the Krylov school with other Communist-operated Russian schools under the guardianship of the Communist party became a total failure, the Communists opened their own Russian school in the same neighborhood. Now they are engaged in a desperate struggle against the Krylov school and the Krylov Society as a whole.

The speakers appealed to Russian parents and to all Russian people in Chicago and vicinity to support the Russian schools maintained by the Russian Independent Mutual Aid Society as the true outposts of Russian learning and culture, free from the influence of the church and of the Communist party. Every enlightened Russian today knows that indeed there is little difference between the church and the Communist party. They both demand submission. In the case of the church, you must bow before the gods of heaven, while the Communist party forces you to bow and lie prone before the earthly gods--the red tyrants of the Communist party, or the black devils of the Nazi or the Fascist party.

We have been heartened, however, by seeing a large crowd of the Russian people at the Krylov school celebration, and by their obvious sincere approval of the true Russian attitude toward the Russian group-life in America and to conditions in Russia, as characterized and defined by the speakers.

We are fully convinced that our independent Russian schools in America, built 4as they are on the solid foundation of Russian nationalism, Russian culture and patriotism, will survive the Communist assaults, and the tendency to speedy Americanization now prevailing among the Russian-American youth. Our independent schools for Russian children will actually multiply in number and will flourish wherever there is a group of Russian people.