READING AS A «SERIOUS» LEISURE ACTIVITY OF RURAL TEACHERS OF HALYCHYNA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY

Abstract

The leisure time of rural teachers in Halychyna in Soviet times has been studied, taking into account the main conditions that determined it. It was found that the socio-economic actuality of Soviet reality, living in rural areas, traits of teacher's labor, cultural traditions of society and its intellectual inquiry, and personal aspirations or preferences were the governing conditions for the formation of teachers’ leisure time. Special attention was paid to reading as a way of spending teachers’ free time after their professional, family, or household responsibilities. Oral-historical narratives recorded with former teachers in the villages of Lviv and Ternopil regions, unpublished cases of the departments of Soviet education of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regional archives, and published documents of the Soviet period are analyzed. The «serious» teachers’ leisure pastime is stated – it is reading art books and Soviet periodicals, watching movies in rural clubs, participating, and most often organization of themed holidays, evenings, and concerts. It is concluded that the boundaries between teachers' free time and their professional, family, or household responsibilities are blurred. The leisure time of teachers was «professionalized», put it otherwise it acquired the features of a «supplement» to work and preparation for it. The choice of possibilities for its holding depended on their professional activities and their social «loads». It is proved that the construct of «leisure time» was one of the Soviet social policy and social engineering elements. Soviet social engineering aimed not only to guide, control, or intimidate people by using a variety of approaches but also to fill their free time most effectively. Soviet social engineering embodied the concept of «culture» with its ideological content in the formation of the Soviet «lifestyle». One of the common practices of «culture» was reading. Keywords reading, leisure time, Soviet period, teachers, Halychyna, everyday life.