Libraries and librarians of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) agendas in Mazovia region in the years 1949-1954 in the light of the documents of Central Committee of Polish Workers’ Party and Warsaw Voivodship PUWP Committee

Abstract

The article presents situation of the libraries of municipal and local PUWP committees of Warsaw Voivodship (according to then administrative division of a country) as well as their infl uence on reading behaviour of party members. Presentation is based on different kind of documents of Central Committee of Polish Workers’ Party (kept in Central Archives of Modern Records 295/VII/84, 295/X/35) and Warsaw Voivodship PUWP Committee (kept in State Archives Documentation Personal and Remuneration, 1734). Preserved documents, which are directly connected with discussed libraries are dated from the period 1946-1954. The network of Polish Workers Party’s (PWP) libraries was created from the year 1946 onward. The library of the Central Committee of PWP was established as the fi rst one as soon as in February 1945. After the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) was started PWP’s Central Committee library and local PWP’s libraries were merged into PUWP’s structures. In the year 1949 they were ascribed to the adequate levels of Centres for Party Propaganda. There were 25 such libraries operating in Warsaw Voivodship. According to preserved documents these libraries brought a rather small contribution to upgrading the readership level neither of local party activist nor of ordinary party members. It might be argued that the aversion against libraries and reading, specifi cally on the commune and district levels, derived from low readership level of the party activists could have transformed onto functioning of party and public libraries. The attitude of local party activists caused many ostensible activities of authorities in the field of reading development.