The Library of the Higher Engineering and Technical School of the Navy at the Beginning and During the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

The relevance of the article lies in the poor knowledge of the activities of the school’s library during the war years and in filling in the gaps in this area. The purpose of the article is to review the work of the library of the Higher Engineering Technical College of the Navy during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Special attention is paid to the period of evacuation in the city of Yaroslavl in 1941–1944. The main directions of the library’s activities in evacuation are identified: information support for educational, methodological, scientific and party-political work of the school. The library also fulfilled the tasks of the center for the promotion of political and military-defense knowledge, closely linked its activities with the most pressing issues of strengthening the country’s defense capability and organizing the defeat of the enemy. The content of mass-political and individual work of libraries with readers has radically changed – one of the central places has been occupied by the promotion of socio-political literature. Librarians widely promoted the works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism about the art of war, on strategy and tactics, on proletarian internationalism and on the role of the masses in history. Exhibitions were organized in libraries, thematic lists were compiled, and literature reviews were conducted. The practical value of the article is as a basis for further study of the activities of the library and its staff during the war.