Dear friends of NSC and especially Helen and Michael Lucas, allow me to congratulate you on behalf of all the readers of the French Edition of NSC and also in my own name, on the occasion of the 86^th Anniversary of the "Hands Off Russia Committee" and the 13th Anniversary of Northstar Compass.

The last page of the NSC August edition will be the front page of the NSC French Edition – this gives a perfect image of the impact of your work which is prodigious. We can see the link between these two Anniversaries; the 86^th Anniversary of the "Hands Off Russia Committee" and the 13^th Anniversary of "Northstar Compass", the organ of the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People. These anniversaries give evidence of lots of courage on your part, during all these years, to face all those who wanted to stop your activities. The best proof is that the organization "Canadian Friends of Soviet People" was practically the only one all over the world that succeeded to survive after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Needless to add, that you played and are playing a significant role in the fight against anti-communism, against all of the smear campaigns of the fanatics, and against all revisionists.

You are part of the powerful and consistent anti-imperialist force. That is why in many of your activities you had to face the brutality of imperialism’s anti-communist obsession and personal physical attacks. With the fall of the Soviet Union and Socialism, the anti-communist propaganda took on another face, and is becoming more and more insidious and subtle.

Many people believe that Socialism is dead. I wonder as to why Imperialism is fighting a dead body, why is it so important for all these enemies to continue to fight "Stalinism" even fifty years after its death?

In all of your publications, you give us an opportunity of an answer, spreading the truth about history of the rise and fall of socialism in the former Soviet Union and in the erstwhile socialist countries. Northstar Compass is important "partly because it explains how it happened, but primarily because we must get it right when our turn comes" – as was explained by Ernie Trory in his book "How Did It Happen?"

All of us here wish you good health, so that you can go on with your great work. I take this opportunity to congratulate too all those who support and help you in your work - during all those years. In our greetings, we must not forget to thank the Society of Carpatho-Russian Canadians for all of their help.

Again, with all my best greetings!

Dr. Adelard Paquin
Editor of NSC French Edition
Member of the Executive Committee of International Council