Izba-Reading Room as a Rural Cultural Center in Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920-1930s

Abstract

The features of the emergence and functioning of reading rooms in the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920s-1930s are considered. The author analyzes the measures taken by the Soviet government, local cells of the Communist Party and Komsomol activists aimed at strengthening izba-reading rooms on the territory of the republic. The main problems of the organization and activities of izba-reading rooms are investigated in detail, attention is paid to various methods of work to attract the population to new forms of Soviet culture. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the study of the role and place of the izba-reading room in the regional cultural space will make an important contribution to the creation of a largescale objective picture of the cultural revolution that took place in the USSR in the 1920s1930s. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that a number of previously unpublished sources are put into circulation, collected directly for this study. This made it possible to highlight some details that previously could not be reflected in other works. As a result of the study, it was determined that the izbareading room, despite the difficulties that arose (weak resource base, a shortage of trained personnel, low qualifications of workers, cultural and linguistic differences, a wary attitude of the local population towards the events of the Soviet government) gradually managed to win the sympathy of the adult population and become a reference point of cultural and educational work in the village.

Keywords

• buryat-mongolian assr
• izba-reading room
• cultural policy
• leisure institution
• mass propaganda work