Non-political propaganda directions of the Stalingrad (Volgograd) regional branch of the All-Union Society "Znanie" (1948-1980)

Abstract

The object of the study is the non-political propaganda of the Volgograd (Stalingrad) branch of the All-Union Society "Znanie" (Knowledge) during the Soviet period of the organization's existence (1948 - to the end of the 1980s). The subject of the study was such areas of work of the regional branch of the society "Knowledge" as propaganda in the field of education, pedagogy, disease control, healthy lifestyle. The source base for this study was archival documents of the Center for Documentation of the Modern History of the Volgograd region (CDNIVO), namely, minutes of meetings of the organizing committee of the regional branch, annual reports on the main activities of the regional branch, minutes of the work of various sections within the department, minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the Board of the regional branch, minutes of meetings of the Plenum of the Board of the regional branch, lecture plans, etc. These documents are of particular value, since today they are the only sources that cover the work of the Volgograd branch of the All-Union Society "Znanie". The principles of historicism, subjectivism, and system analysis of regional archival sources of the Center for Documentation of the Modern History of the Volgograd Region were applied in the methodology of the work. The novelty lies in the fact that for the first time an analysis of the work of the regional office is being carried out, especially since the narrower and non-core areas of work of the Znanie society are affected. The results of the study allow us to conclude that the Volgograd regional branch of the Znanie Society has implemented quite important tasks in matters of education, disease prevention, organization of cultural leisure for city residents, for this the society used various methods of work: parent lectures, radio lectures, national universities, meeting evenings, printing articles in periodicals, etc. Attention to the sections of pedagogy and psychology, medical knowledge, literature and art increased. The audience coverage of the above sections also grew, thousands of residents of the city passively or actively participated in the life of these sections.