Koltashev A.N. The Tendencies in Cultural Constructions in Gornyi Altai in the 1920s-1930s

Abstract: The article is focused on the question of the cultural transformation and development of Gornyi Altai during the first years of Soviet rule. The subject of inquiry is the government’s direction in cultural constructions and policies in the cultural-educational sphere of Gornyi Altai in the 1920s-1930s. The research object is the process of cultural development in Gornyi Altai. Particular attention is dedicated to the examination of archival material, which reflects the many problems faced in the cultural sphere and which were not talked about by Soviet scholars. The aim of this work is to study the tendencies in Gornyi Altai’s cultural development during the first 20 years of Soviet rule. In achieving this the author pays special attention to the cultural policies of the government as a whole, and of the Siberian and local administrations in particular. The main research method used is the systematic one. The study is also based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, entirety and interrelation between the whole and the particular. The article’s main conclusion: if at the beginning of the 1920s the number of cultural institutions was insignificant, when work in the cultural sphere was not common due to the disastrous consequences of the civil war and the war against banditism, then in the consequent decades more effort was directed at cultural development and increasing the network of cultural institutions. The author succeeded in identifying that the significant attention dedicated to cultural institutions from party authorities is explained primarily by their serious ideological and mobilizing importance. However, despite this, the majority of cultural institutions depended on local budgets which were very scarce. The author’s original contribution to the study of this topic lies in his analysis of various data. In the course of research the author established that in implementing cultural-educational objectives in Gornyi Altai, like in the rest of the country, an active establishment of a network of cultural institutions was undertaken during the studied period: people’s houses, clubs, libraries, reading rooms, museums. Considering the geographical and social specifics of Gornyi Altai, this region also created its own unique cultural and educational institutions, which did not exist elsewhere. The novelty of the conducted study lies in the fact that it undertook for the first time a complex analysis of a little-studied research topic in the history of the establishment and development of cultural institutions in Gornyi Altai, examening the development of cultural institutions in this region in the context of the occurring social and economic processes.

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