ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES OF SIMBIRSK PROVINCIAL BOOK DEPOSITORY TO PRESERVE THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF SIMBIRSK-ULYANOVSK VOLGA REGION IN THE 1920s (based on the materials of Simbirsk newspapers)

The year 2022 was declared as the year of cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia by the President of the Russian Federation. Objectively, this idea is relevant for the Middle Volga region, which has always been a multinational and, as a result, multicultural region. We consider the library to be one of the most important institutions preserving cultural traditions and historical and cultural monuments both on a national scale and in Russian regions. A rich history of Russian libraries has long attracted the attention of researchers of Russian culture. The focus of the author’s scientific interest in this article is the libraries of Simbirsk–Ulyanovsk Volga region, as a significant part of the Middle Volga region, in the territory of which a variety of peoples have lived from time immemorial (the Russians, the Chuvash, the Tatars, the Mari, the Mordvins, etc.). The first public libraries in the region appeared in the early XIX century. By 1917, many large book collections belonging to the Simbirsk nobility had been preserved in the region. Groundbreaking changes in socio-economic and political life in the country, which took place after the nationwide military victory of the Bolsheviks, led to serious changes in the cultural life of the Middle Volga region. So, in 1921, the Provincial Book Depository was established in Simbirsk, which later became one of the largest centers in the Volga region to preserve the richest cultural heritage of the peoples of the region. What kind of institution was it? How did it appear? The author explores the peculiarities of the process of the emergence and formation of Simbirsk provincial book depository. In the presented publication, the author actively uses Soviet newspapers published in Simbirsk after the end of the Civil War in Russia. Referring to the sources of the 1920s covering the events of those years, he tells about the little-known aspects in the activities of the Soviet culture new organization, in particular incoming new books and other valuable cultural materials. At the same time, the contacts of the book depository with Pushkin House (in the present – the Institute of Russian Literature under the Russian Academy of Sciences) in Petrograd are particularly noted. The article places emphasis on the role of such prominent bibliographers of the 1920s as N.N. Stolov, M.G. Medvedeva, M.D. Belyaev and A.S. Polyakov in the formation of the book depository in Simbirsk. Conclusions are drawn that the educated cultural institution primarily considered itself the heir of Karamzin and Goncharovskaya public libraries, which had a rich long-term history. Creation of the book depository undoubtedly gave a powerful impetus to the cultural, spiritual and scientific development of Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk Volga region in the 1920s, preservation of the cultural heritage of its peoples.