The Role of Libraries in Organizing and Conducting Leisure Activities for Children and Youth in the Stalingrad Region in the Period of 1945 through the early 1950-ies

The article examines the conditions, tasks and main trends of the libraries in the Stalingrad region in the post-war period (1945 — early 1950s). Materials of periodicals and local history publications, as well as reporting materials related to the work of libraries in the specified period serve as a sourse base for the study.

In the context of the revival of Stalingrad and the Stalingrad region, the priorities for the state and society were those aimed at restoring the socio-economic potential and the cultural sector. The author emphasizes that, in this development vector, an important aspect of the activities of cultural institutions was organization of leisure activities for children and youth.

Libraries of the region were among the first cultural organizations that began to open their doors after the battle of Stalingrad and the end of the Great Patriotic War, so they had to carry out extensive political, mass, cultural and educational work for the population, including children and youth.

In the wake of the devastation of the entire socio-cultural sphere and infrastructure of the city and the region, the poor resource base of educational and cultural institutions, it was important to create conditions for adaptation to peaceful circumstances, to counteract child homelessness, to unite the creative forces of young people and to increase their cultural and educational level. Urban and rural libraries, reading rooms and libraries at clubs become actively involved in solving socially significant problems through various forms, methods and means of organizing children’s and youth leisure and recreation.

For the first time in a long time, libraries began to organize holidays and recitals, open readings of fiction for schoolchildren, and meetings with visiting and local cultural figures for young people. The important place in the leisure of young people was given to self-education and improving the culture of reading, that emphasized the special importance of the library as a centre of knowledge and a model of preservation of cultural norms.

The author concludes that libraries have played a major role in the organization of leisure of children and youth, and their activities served as an important auxiliary resource of party cells and public organizations to restore the entire cultural sector of the city and region.

1. Bolotov N.A. Battle of Stalingrad: A Look after 70 Years, Stalingradskaya bitva v sud’bakh narodov: materialy Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. [The Battle of Stalingrad in the Destinies of Peoples: proceedings of the international scientific-practical conference]. Volgograd, Print Publ., 2013, pp. 27—34 (in Russ.).

2. Oreshkina T.N. State Financial Policy in the Field of Culture in Stalingrad and its Region in the Postwar Period (1946 — Early 1950s), Strezhen: annual. Volgograd, Izdatel’ Publ., 2010, issue 8, pp. 218—225 (in Russ.).

3. Bolotova E.Yu., Oreshkina T.N. Cultural Institutions of the Stalingrad Region in 1943—1950: Restoration and Development: monograph. Volgograd, Peremena Publ., 2014, 154 p. (in Russ.).

4. Raised from Ruins. Collection of Documents and Materials on the Restoration and Development of Volgograd (1943—1960). Volgograd, Knizhnoe Publ., 1962, 371 p. (in Russ.).

5. Khast D.A. (ed.) Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR of 15.08.1946 no. 533 “On Measures to Strengthen District and Rural Libraries”, Collection of Guidelines on Cultural and Educational Work. Moscow, Kul’turno-Prosvetitel’skoi Literatury Publ., 1948, 296 p. (in Russ.).

6. From the Resolution of the All-Russian Conference of Library Workers “On the Status and Tasks of Library Work”, March 29, 1948, Librarianship in the Russian Federation in the Postwar Period (June 1945—March 1953): documents and materials. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2005, part 1, 261 p. (in Russ.).

7. Merkuryeva V.S. Restoration of the System of State Educational Institutions in Stalingrad in 1943—1944, Actual Problems of National History: collected scientific works. Moscow, Planeta Publ., 2017, pp. 197—203 (in Russ.).

8. Lyushin S.P. The Labor Feat of Inhabitants of Volgograd. 1943—1962. Volgograd, Knizhnoe Publ., 1963, 226 p. (in Russ.).

9. Library Staff Meeting, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1951, April 8, p. 4 (in Russ.).

10. Agrinsky N.S. The Stalingrad Regional Party Organization in the Struggle for the Rise of the Cultural Level of Workers in the Period of the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951—1956), cand. hist. sci. diss. Stalingrad, 1959, 286 p. (in Russ.)

11. I n the Library of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1945, October 3, p. 3 (in Russ.).

12. A Lot of Joy to Children, Stalingradskaya pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1946, January 3, p. 3 (in Russ.).

13. In the Children’s Library, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1950, September 6, p. 4 (in Russ.).

14. Report on the Work of the M. Gorky Stalingrad Regional Library for 1946, Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Volgogradskoi oblasti (GAVO) [State Archive of the Volgograd Region], coll. R.-6244, aids 1, fol. 5, 42 p. (in Russ.),

15. Report on the Work of the M. Gorky Stalingrad Regional Library for 1947, Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Volgogradskoi oblasti (GAVO) [State Archive of the Volgograd Region], coll. R.-6244, aids 1, fol. 5, 42 p. (in Russ.).

16. Reader’s Conference, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1951, May 25, p. 4 (in Russ.).

17. Meeting of Poets, Stalingradskaya pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1951, June 27, p. 4 (in Russ.).

18. For Kolkhoz Community Centers and Village Reading Rooms, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1945, December 8, p. 1 (in Russ.).

19. Small Libraries in Tractor Brigades, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1947, August 10, p. 4 (in Russ.).

20. A Village Reading Room for the Spring Sowing, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1948, May 8, p. 2 (in Russ.).

21. Report on the Work of the M. Gorky Stalingrad Regional Library for 1949, Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Volgogradskoi oblasti (GAVO) [State Archive of the Volgograd Region], coll. R.-6244, aids 1, fol. 7, 83 p. (in Russ.).

22. Through the Cities and Villages of our Region. Personal Libraries of Workers, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1951, October 23, p. 4 (in Russ.).

23. In the District Library, Stalingradskaya Pravda [Stalingrad Truth], 1952, April 30, p. 2 (in Russ.).

24. Oreshkina T.N. Renewal of a Library Network in Stalingrad and its Region. 1943—1945, Bibliotekovedenie [Library and Information Science (Russia)], 2009, no. 1, pp. 107—111 (in Russ.).

25. Sitnikova T.V. Tartary’s Help in the Restoration of Stalingrad, Restoration of Stalingrad: The Motives of Labor Heroism as a Source of Patriotic Education of the Youth of the Hero City of Volgograd: Proceedings of the Scientific-Practical Videoconference of November 5, 2014. Volgograd, 2015, pp. 24—29 (in Russ.).

26. Report on the State of Cultural and Educational Work in the City of Stalingrad for the First Half of 1946, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii Volgogradskoi oblasti (TsDNIVO) [Documentation Center of the Modern History of the Volgograd Region], coll. 71, aids 6, fol. 54, 48 p. (in Russ.).

27. Main Performance Indicators of Libraries on 1/1 — 1952, Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Volgogradskoi oblasti (GAVO) [State Archive of the Volgograd Region], coll. R.-6244, aids 1, fol. 7, 83 p. (in Russ.).