The most important body of party-political work in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War were front-line, district, army and divisional newspapers, which played an important role in patriotic upbringing and military, political and cultural education of personnel. The historiography of the role of the military periodical press during the war years is represented by a large number of publications, however, the analysis of newspapers published during this period, presented on the pages of other periodicals contemporary to them, has not been revealed by historians, which determines the scientific novelty of this article. The goal of this paper is to analyze the coverage of the publication of such newspapers on the pages of the journal “Agitator and Propagandist of the Red Army”. To achieve it, a continuous review of the issues of the 1941–1945 journal was carried out. The study showed that during the war years the magazine published several dozen articles on military newspapers. The main aspects for which the publication of newspapers was presented and analyzed in the magazine were revealed: 1) the organizational work of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army in the leadership of the military periodical; 2) tasks, positive examples and shortcomings of the military periodical press in the initial period of the war; 3) the importance of party political work; 4) the significance of district newspapers; 5) the role of military commanders in newspapers; 6) propaganda of the work experience of agitators; 7) the work of editorial boards of newspapers with letters from military commanders; 8) training and education of personnel for the military periodical press; 9) forms and methods of working with newspapers, etc. This study expands the idea of military periodicals during the Great Patriotic War.

The article is devoted to the history of library science during the Great Patriotic War. The study reconstructs the development of domestic library science during the war years (June 1941 - May 1945) based on analysis of dissertations and scientific events. Particular attention is paid to the history of the preparation and analysis of V. A. Artisevich’s report at a scientific conference held in December 1942 in the Scientific Library at the Saratov State University. The report was devoted to the development of Soviet library science and the thesis of M. I. Slukhovskiy, who laid the foundations of the history of librarianship as a scientific discipline. On the one hand, there was a reduction in research in the field of library science and practice, its reorientation to solving applied problems in the interests of the front. On the other hand, there was an appeal to fundamental problems, the solution of which laid the foundations for the subsequent development of library science and made it possible to preserve the library science scientific schools that emerged in the late 1930s. The theoretical significance of the article lies in expanding the understanding of the history of library science during the war years, its role and place in the development of Soviet library science, and the practical significance lies in updating the educational role of the history of domestic library science. 

The purpose of the article is to summarize the materials reflecting the activities of the Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation during the Great Patriotic War. The scientific novelty of the work based on unique archival materials. The study comprehensively analyzed the work of the Military Publishing House “Voenizdat” during the war. The main directions of the restructuring of the publishing house’s work before and during 1941–1945 are considered. The article analyzed the organizational measures that contributed to an increase in the production of military literature: strengthening planning and control activities; the creation of rear and front-line departments. Statistical indicators of the production of military-related books are given. The thematic and typological composition of the literature published by the Military Publishing House in 1941–1945 is characterized. For the first time, examples of the labor feat of the publishing house’s employees during the war years are given. It is concluded that during the Great Patriotic War, the publishing house of the Ministry of Defense was not only a significant information agency and one of the leading publishing houses in the country, but also an important tool for the operational and propaganda work of the political and military leadership of the USSR. 

During the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, despite the most difficult conditions caused by the struggle against a strong aggressor, there was active book publishing. In the proposed article, the author examines the collection of books published in 1941–1945. The Military Publishing House of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Defense, the State Publishing House of Political Literature and other publishing houses, now stored in the collections of the Information Center for Historical Studies – the Military Historical Library of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The books and brochures are divided into thematic groups in the article, which reflected the priorities in book publishing during the war years (publication of normative documents, recommendations to soldiers and Army Forces Command, analysis of the war experience and a story about individual, most successful operations of the Red Army, historical and patriotic materials, etc.). The article also provides information about some of the most striking publications, authors of publications, and editors. 

The purpose of this study is to analyze the contribution of academic science and library institutions of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic to meeting the needs of the front and rear during the Great Patriotic War. The focus is on the activities of the Tajik branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the A. Firdousi State Public Library and the Central Scientific Library of the Tajik branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the tasks of which were reoriented in accordance with the tasks of wartime. Particular attention is paid to the forms of participation of libraries in patriotic education, mobilization and educational work among the population and soldiers of the Red Army, the preservation and dissemination of scientific knowledge, as well as ensuring the scientific and medical activities of evacuated institutions. It was established that in an environment of limited resources, science and library organizations of Tajikistan made a significant contribution to the victory and created a reserve for post-war scientific development. The results of the study clarify the role of the humanitarian and scientific infrastructure of the Tajik SSR in the general context of the intellectual front of the Great Patriotic War. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of these processes based on a wide range of bibliographic and historiographic sources. 

Historical documents help to reconstruct many historical events and processes. Effectiveness and value of historical research largely depends on the quantity and quality of these documents. Among historical documents, publications from the partisan region of 1941–1944 hold a special place. Some of them are preserved in the collections of the Pskov Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Valentin Yakovlevich Kurbatov. The article reveals the fact that the partisan movement in the territory of the modern Pskov region had its own distinctive features. The study identifies the main stages, explores the nature of this movement, characterizes the combination of objective and subjective factors that influenced the form and content of partisan and underground publications, and determines the place and role of leaflets and newspapers in the context of war and German occupation for the population of occupied territories and the personnel of partisan units. It examines the peculiarities of the presentation form, style, language, and material selection of partisan publications, showcasing the diversity of propaganda efforts by partisans and underground fighters. Data on the number of newspapers, print runs, volume, and content are also presented, along with conclusions about the significance of the partisan press as an integral part of organizing the resistance movement behind the front lines. The publication of this material aims to introduce into research practice a previously unexplored part of the documentary heritage of the partisan movement from 1941 to 1945. 

The article presents the project and publications "Reading Newspaper Lines with Your Heart" of the National Library of Belarus, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders and the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, created on the basis of the BSSR (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) newspapers of 1944-1945. The project and publications in a weekly or twice a week chronicle present a panorama of the events of the military operations of the Red Army and the partisan movement of the final stages of the Great Patriotic War, the revival of all sectors of the economy. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that newspapers, as a reliable source, participate in the modern information war against the falsification of history. Publications based on them contribute to the popularization of reliable knowledge and patriotic education of the younger generation. The purpose of the article is to give a brief description of the project and provide examples of publications on the liberation of Belarus, the restoration of various aspects of peaceful life. The objectives of the article are to show, using newspaper publications as an example, the bright moments of the liberation of the BSSR, the restoration of agriculture, logging, public and housing stock, and to cite publications about the Russian Orthodox Church and the Cherkasov movement. The daily military and labor feat of the Soviet people can be read among the lines of newspaper publications. 

The hero of this article is A. A. Smirnov (Treplev) (1864–1943), famous Volga writer, public figure and bibliophile of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was a friend of M. Gorky and L. N. Andreyev, N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky and many other writers, artists, etc. The last years of A. A. Smirnov (Treplev)’s life were spent in Kuibyshev-Samara, where he evacuated from Moscow at the beginning of the war and passed away in 1943. The article also focuses on the history of the writer’s archive, discovered by the staff of the M. Gorky Kuibyshev Museum in the early post-war years, which became the basis for a new exhibition at this museum. An appendix includes preserved letters from A. A. Smirnov (Treplev) written during the war in Kuibyshev to his relatives in Moscow and Tashkent. 

The study reveals various aspects of the activities of military libraries during the Great Patriotic War. It does not lose its relevance allowing us to use this experience in similar modern conditions. In addition, the results of such studies supplement information about the history of individual military libraries and the development of domestic military librarianship in general. The goal of the article is to publish the Leningrad Military Library Report sent by its Head, Captain N. Ya. Sirotenko to Colonel [M. A.] Karpov, Deputy Chief for Political Affairs at the Headquarters of the Leningrad Front on October 5, 1943. During the war and the siege of Leningrad, the library continued to operate and provide its services. The document is devoted to daily operational challenges as well as it vividly characterizes the content and working conditions of employees during the Great Patriotic War.The everyday, businesslike tone of the report contrasts with the tense, sometimes tragic atmosphere, in which librarians used to work during the siege. It testifies to the daily mobilization of all the spiritual and physical strength of the defenders of Leningrad. The report is kept in the archive of the Information Center for Historical Studies – the Military Historical Library of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The full text is published for the first time. 

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. 

Review of the collection of documents: " ‘I Survived for You’. Letters from Senior Lieutenant F. S. Merkuryev. 1941-1944". Edited by E. N. Savenko. Novosibirsk: SPSTL SB RAS, 2025. 284 p