Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskās strādnieku partijas paju sabiedrība “Nākotnes kultūra” (1926–1934)

In order to spread social democratic ideas in society and raise the consciousness of the workers, in the fall of 1926, the joint-stock company “Nākotnes kultūra” (Culture of the Future) was founded by the Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (LSDSP). Its task was to publish and print books and periodicals, as well as operate in the book trade. Among the founders of the company were prominent social democrats such as poet Jānis Pliekšāns (Rainis), educators Kārlis Dēķens and Roberts Bīlmanis, and publicist Kristaps Eliass. The activity of the widely conceived company was limited to publishing and printing strongly left-wing political literature, which largely determined the organisation’s fate during the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis (1934–1940). The joint-stock company was liquidated, and a large part of its published works was banned. The study aims to determine the organisation’s contribution not only to the enrichment of political literature but also to the Latvian book publishing industry in general. To identify and analyse the company’s production from various points of view, the typical bibliographical method of book science was used’ The analysis of company documents, which are kept in the Latvian State Historical Archives of the National Archives of Latvia, makes it possible to assess the aims and strategy of the organisation, to compare the original intentions with the achieved results, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the company in achieving the intended goal. The joint-stock company’s activities were planned based on party members’ interest in distributing and reading political literature. However, the company did not have a professional management to ensure targeted and systematic recruitment of authors and selection of manuscripts, to provide attractive visual design of printed works and a sustainable network of distributors (including colporteurs) outside Riga. Without the necessary income to develop publishing, the number of new publications had to be reduced after only a few years of operation, and from 1932 to 1934, the company was active only in book and press printing, taking over the LSDSP printing house “Nākotne” (Future).