People’s Houses as Centers of Cultural and Educational Work on the Eve of the Revolution and the First Years of Soviet Power (Based on the Western Region of Russia)

Abstract

The article deals the process of creating people’s houses as centers of educational and cultural work for the adult population in the provinces (at the beginning of the 20th century and the first years of Soviet Power). The research is based on
 archival sources The article considers the role of the public, government and party structure representatives in the organization of out-of-school education. It is noted that indi-
 vidual landowners, representatives of zemstvo, organizers of cooperatives are initiators of people’s houses creation in the pre-revolutionary period. They could use cer-
 tain financial resources for that purpose. The author notes that in the early years of Soviet Power, the workers themselves played a special role in organizing various local cultural and educational institutions. They themselves, without any instructions
 from above, participated in prepairing and conducting mass cultural and propaganda events. Subsequently, the element of spontaneous organization of people’s houses gradually began to be replaced by planned work under the control of local
 party and Soviet governing authorities. The article shows the dynamics of growth in the number of people’s houses
 and other cultural institutions of the Western region of the RSFSR in the 1918–1921s. The author cites data according to which in the middle of 1921 there were 235 people’s houses in the Smolensk Governorate alone. Libraries, reading rooms, drama, art, music studios and various clubs worked there