Children's Music Schools of Middle Volga in the 50s – 60s of the XX Century

Relevance. In the Russian Federation at the present stage, a number of problems in the educational sphere are not resolved, in particular, at the level of institutions of additional education of children and adults. Progressive changes in this area can help study and further implementation in the practice of the experience of previous generations. The purpose of this article consists in the historical reconstruction of the characteristics of the organization and functioning of children's music schools of the Middle Volga region in the 1950s – 1960s. The objectives of the study: to analyze the regulatory legal acts in the field of domestic education as a whole and musical education for the 1950s – 1960s in general, in particular; explore published and unpublished materials containing information on the peculiarities of organizing educational activities and the educational process in children's Middle Volga Schools in the 1950s – 1960s; to identify the effectiveness of the functioning of children's music schools of the Middle Volga region in the 1950s – 1960s. Materials and methodology. Source research base includes published materials (regulatory legal acts, collec-tions of documents, scientific works) and archives materials. The paper used scientific methods characteristic of his-torical research: historical and genetic, comparative historical and other. Results. The study showed that in the 1950s – 1960s, an educational and educational process was carried out at high levels of the Middle Volga region at a high level. The study of published sources and archival documents made it possible to reveal the effectiveness of the functioning of children's music schools in the 1950s – 1960s. Conclusion. The results of the study may act as a basis for further studying the problem of organizing and de-veloping music and educational institutions in Russia and serve as an improvement in the system of musical education in certain regions of the country at the present stage, taking into account historical experience.