36                                 Philip E. Mosley

For some of the donors, extremely hard-pressed by advancing
years, illness or need, the Archive provides a very modest token
compensation for the great services they have rendered in preserv¬
ing, cataloguing and commenting on their collections. In some
cases, of course, the Archive has failed to acquire very valuable
collections because its slender budget did not permit it to offer a
well deserved compensation of slightly more than token size.

The rapid growth of the Archive of Russian and East European
History and Culture, since it was established in July, 1951, has been
due primarily to the high reputation which it has won among all
sections of Russians scattered throughout the free world. By its
meticulous handling of each collection—whether it consists of a
single brief memorandum or fragment, or of many thousands of
pages of letters or memoirs—it has gained the confidence of all
parts of the emigration, from convinced monarchists to disillusioned
Communists.

Each day's mail brings both inquiries and materials from many
countries of the free world, as people devoted to preserving for
future generations the records of Russian life and culture decide to
entrust their valued papers, often preserved at great sacrifice and
through several catastrophes, to a reliable and -well-run repository,
free of all political pressures or biases and dedicated to the objective
search for truth.