Memory Politics in Soviet Propaganda System in 1960s — Early 1980s: Case of Libraries in Novosibirsk Region

This article examines the propaganda activities of urban and rural public libraries in the Novosibirsk region within the context of state memory policy during the Soviet era, specifically from the 1960s to the early 1980s. It identifies the political-ideological, socio-cultural, and material conditions and factors that influenced these activities. The study delineates the forms and methods employed by library staff, highlighting key historical symbols utilized in their work and elucidating their meanings. Grounded in the field of Memory Studies, this research relies on administrative documents that reflect the operations of public mass libraries in the Novosibirsk region. The findings indicate that during the studied period, these libraries centrally, actively, and extensively disseminated the Soviet commemorative metanarrative through a variety of propaganda forms and methods. However, by the 1970s, a previously high level of reader interest in recurring library commemorations diminished, reflecting a broader ideological crisis. The article positively assesses the libraries’ efforts in developing local historical studies and fostering readers’ interest in local history, as well as facilitating public discussions that contributed to a more nuanced collective memory among regional residents and a degree of democratization in their perspectives.

1. Bespalchenko, A. S. (2023). Formation of exhibition and excursion activities in the Imperial Public Library. Bulletin of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, 1: 144-149. (In Russ.).

2. Bordyugov, G. A. (2010). October. Stalin. Victory. The Cult of Anniversaries in the Space of Memory. (Historical Policy and the Policy of Memory in the USSR, RF and CIS): Moscow: AIRO-XXI, 256 p. ISBN 978-5-91022-132-5. (In Russ.).

3. Bushmakov, A. V. (2019). “May the unprecedented feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War live forever!”: the memory of the war and Soviet historical policy in 1965—1980, 3: Cultural Code. P. 26-35. (In Russ.).

4. Donovan, V-S. (2015). «How Well Do You Know Your Krai?»: The Kraevedenie Revival and Patriotic Politics in Late-Khrushchev Era Russia. Slavic Review, 75(3): 464-483.

5. Glazkov, M. N. (2020). State policy of centralization of the mass library network in the USSR 1974-1982. Bulletin of the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, 3(95): 172- 188. (In Russ.).

6. Inexhaustible source: librarianship in Novonikolaevsk-Novosibirsk. (2006). In: History of the city. Novonikolaevsk-Novosibirsk: historical essays, 2. Novosibirsk: Historical Heritage of Siberia. 509-532. (In Russ.).

7. Koposov, N. E. (2011). High-security memory. History and Politics in Russia: Moscow: New Literary Review. 315 p. ISBN 978-5-86793-851-2. (In Russ.).

8. Krasilnikova, E. I., Gromova, O. A. (2021). Memorial space of small towns of the Novosibirsk region in historical dynamics (the second half of the 19th-20th centuries). Omsk Scientific Bulletin. (Societies. History. Modernity), 6(4): 9-16. DOI: 10.25206/2542-0488-2021-6-4-9-16. (In Russ.).

9. Libraries of Novosibirsk Region: mid-20th — early 21st century. (2009). Novosibirsk: NGONB. 247 p. (In Russ.).

10. Lyapkova, A. O. (2013). The evolution of forms of mass and group services in rural libraries in the twentieth and first decades of the 21st century. (on the example of rural libraries in the Kozhevnikovsky district of the Tomsk region). Bulletin of Tomsk State University. Cultural studies and art criticism, 4(12): 59-66. (In Russ.).

11. Mikheeva, G. N. (2023). Historical foundations of the educational activities of the Russian National Library. Bulletin of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, 1(54): 164-171. (In Russ.).

12. Posadskov, L. A. (ed.). (2006). Essays on the history of book culture in Siberia and the Far East. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 535 p. ISBN 978- 5-94560-096-2. (In Russ.).

13. Ryzhenko, V. G. (2021). Local transformations of museum «places of memory» in post-Soviet conditions: historiographical notes and direct observations. Bulletin of Samara University. History, pedagogy, philology, 27(1): 23-31. (In Russ.).

14. Varganova, G. V. (2021). Public Library as an institute for the preservation and transmission of social memory. Library and cultural space of the region: (on the 45th anniversary of the Department of Library and Documentary Information Technologies). Perm: Perm State Institute of Culture. P. 71-77. (In Russ.).

15. Yarmolich, F. K. (2021). Popularization of books and reading culture in the Soviet city in the 1950s and 1960s. University news. North-caucasian region. Social sciences series, 2: 83-86. DOI: 10.18522/2687-0770-2021-2-83-86. (In Russ.).