The libraries of Tyumen and their role in the organization of intellectual leisure for citizens (1941–1945)

The article examines the role of reading and various forms of library services as an integral part of the intellectual leisure of adults and children in Tyumen during the Great Patriotic War. The main methods of the study were bibliographic and archival search, traditional methods of historiography and document analysis – historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological – and their interpretation. The article, based on the works of its predecessors, is based on documentary sources. The most popular were documents stored in the archives of Tyumen and Omsk, many of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as materials from the local periodical press (the newspapers Omskaya Pravda, Tyumenskaya Pravda, Krasnoye Znamya). The material and technical base of libraries that had developed by 1941, changes in the organization of their work with the beginning of the war, difficulties that employees of city and departmental libraries overcame, and changes in personnel were identified. The diversity of activities of libraries in a rear city under extreme war conditions is shown, and objective and subjective factors that influenced them are revealed. The influence of the formation of the Tyumen Region in 1944 on the cultural life of the city, including the activities of libraries, is analyzed. A conclusion is made about the importance of libraries in organizing the intellectual leisure of Tyumen residents, as well as about the inclusion of part of the city's population in literary creativity. The factual data obtained will contribute to a more complete reconstruction of the daily life of the population of Tyumen during the war and a better understanding of the factors that helped Tyumen residents overcome the hardships of wartime and bring the Victory closer.