The Presidential Library recalled famous "Library Campaign"

At the webinar “Marking the 90th Anniversary of the “Library Campaign” Presidential Library’s specialists traced the entire history of librarianship in our country, from the era of Peter I to modern times. But the main emphasis was placed on events relating to the 20s of the last century.

Almost immediately after the 1917 revolution, the Soviet government gave librarianship a status of high national importance. By the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of December 30, 1917, the spouse of Vladimir Lenin, N. K. Krupskaya, was appointed by the government commissioner for out-of-school education. It was she who for many years led the construction of libraries in the country. Under her leadership the first policy documents in this area was developed. Krupskaya edited several journals that are available in the Presidential Library's electronic collections: “The Red Librarian”, “Public Education”, “People’s Teacher”, “Assistance to Self-Education”, “Communist Education” and others.

In the first years of Soviet power, the government organized the nationalization of book wealth. This concerned the libraries of former royal dignitaries, book collections of noblemen and landowners, libraries of the abolished central and local institutions.

In July 1918 in Moscow, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On the Protection of Libraries and Book Stores of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic”. According to the adopted document “all libraries of liquidated and evacuated state institutions, as well as libraries of individual societies... are located in the RSFSR under the protection and under the registration of the People’s Commissariat of Education”.

Great importance in the development of Soviet library science played congresses and conferences. Here it is worth mentioning the All-Russian Congress of Library Workers of the Red Army and Navy of October 15-24, 1920, the works of which are available in the collections of the Presidential Library.

The Presidential Library’s collections feature interesting materials related to the First Library Congress of the RSFSR, which was held in July 1924. For example, Leonid Trotsky’s speech “Leninism and Library Work”, the photograph “Delegation of Librarians of Leningrad at the 1st Library Congress of the RSFSR” and others. Thanks to the documents of the First Library Congress of the RSFSR, it is also possible to draw a conclusion about the interests of the readers of that period.

Finally, a major milestone in this area was the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of October 30, 1929 “On Improving Library Work”. It marked the beginning of a major cultural and educational campaign, known as the "Library Campaign". Its main slogans were “Not one who has learned to read is outside the library!” And “A Book - to People!”.  

In Decree of 1929, the party recognized the state of library affairs as unsatisfactory and listed measures to “resolutely restructure library work in accordance with increasing positive value” and “turn libraries into cultural centers that actively promote the mobilization of the masses to fulfill the 5th plan for socialist construction”.

Party organizations, trade unions, the drug agencies of the Union republics were recommended to expand the network of libraries and improve their material situation by attracting workers to library construction. Studying documents from that period, one can even find a collection of articles on how to deal with library criminals who tear out villages and ruin books in other ways.

The Library Campaign peaked by mid-1930 and led to a number of positive changes. For example, mobile libraries (here you can mention the book of 1923 by E. Okulova “On the work of mobile libraries with a general reader” from the Presidential Library’s collections), mass propaganda of literature, book distribution (delivery of books directly at the place of residence or work) and excess reading rooms. According to N. K. Krupskaya, it was the library and reading room that was the ideal prototype of the future library. At some point their number reached 100 thousand.

By the beginning of the 1930s, the number of libraries in the country increased by more than 3.5 times compared with the pre-revolutionary period, and the book collection - by 10 times. In general, it was a rewarding experience, if not without the flaws inherent in any big undertaking.

Moreover, the webinar was also addressed by the associate professor of the Department of Library Science and Theory of Reading at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, Viktor Orlov. He spoke about the pre-revolutionary roots of librarianship in Russia.

And only with the founding by Peter I of the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1714, one can count the history of librarianship in Russia ...

The participants of the webinar were the centers of remote access to the resources of the Presidential Library. The electronic collections of the Presidential Library today number more than 770 thousand items.  

At the end of the webinar, the new collection “The Presidential Library: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” marking 10th anniversary of the institution, was announced.