The greatest objection which the teachers seem to have to soviet activities is the question of sacred pictures and religious observances.  The chapel of the school has been closed, but in each room from the corner still hangs the Ikon and at the heads of many of the girls’ beds there are still small pictures of the Virgin, much to the disgust of the representatives of the Soviet Government, who in many cases are Jewish, and in practically all cases have renounced any religious connection.  Recently the Soviet Party has announced the fact that they as a party are not hostile to any religion, but intend to remain neutral on the subject.  The attitude of the commissars apparently is that required religious observances should not be permitted in public institutions, and doubtless some of the inspectors have gone further than was necessary in prohibiting any symbol of the religion which probably most of the children still nominally adhere to.

The second institution I visited, which had been taken over from the old government, was an orphan asylum with some 600 children mostly under 10.  It was frightfully crowded, in many places rather dirty, with frequently bad odors from unclean toilets.  In one little room some 20 small boys were sleeping and eating, and I found one child of 2 who was not able to walk and was eating in the bed in which he slept.

Ventilation was bad, linen not very clean, a general feeling of repression present, slovenly employees, and, in general, an atmosphere of inefficiency and failure to develop a home spirit which one still finds in some of the worst institutions in America.  The instructor who showed me this home realized its horrors, and said that the Government intended to move the children into more adequate quarters as soon as conditions permitted.  In summer the children are all taken to the country.  In this institution all the older children go out to public schools and there have been no cases of smallpox or typhus in spite of the epidemics the city has had this winter.  Forty children were in the hospital with minor complaints.  About 10 per cent of the children are usually ill.

The school for feeble-minded occupies a large apartment house and the children are divided into groups of 10 under the direction of two teachers, each group developing home life in one of the large apartments.  There is emphasis on handwork.  Printing presses, a bookbinding establishment, and woodworking tools are provided.  Music and art appreciation are given much time, and some of the work done is very beautiful.  This school is largely the result of the efforts of the Soviet Government.  Careful records are kept of the children and simple test material has been devised to develop in the more backward children elementary reactions regarding size, shape, form, and color.  The greatest difficulty is the impossibility of securing trained workers either for the shops or for the special pedagogical problems of the school.