Zemsky Rural Public Libraries of Kursk Province and their Readers (Late XIX — early XX Centuries)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation and development of zemsky rural folk libraries in the Kursk province in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The documents of the State archive of the Kursk region and materials published in the “Current school statistics” of the Kursk provincial zemstvo are analyzed. Information about the founders of free public libraries is presented. The factors that influenced the formation and development of libraries are identified. Attention is paid to the age and sex of the readers, their education and occupations, reading intensity, reading preferences and requests. The relevance of the study is due to the need to comprehend the social and cultural significance of the activities of zemsky rural libraries. The dynamics of growth in the number of rural folk libraries and their distribution by counties are traced. Attention is paid to the subject of books and authors, preferred by the villagers. It is concluded that thanks to the joint efforts of the zemstvo, public organizations, local intellectuals and the initiative of peasant communities, rural national libraries have become a viable social institution and played a significant role in introducing peasants to the book.

Keywords

• people’s library
• zemstvo
• kursk province
• peasantry
• reading