Peasant home book collections. Cultural circumstances of home book collections and memorabilia in the community of Zabłudów from the end of the 19th century

Abstract

The article presents development of reading needs in a peasant community of Zabłudów, Białostockie region, since the second half of the 19^th and in the 20^thcenturies. The author, regardless deficiencies in source material and literature concerning these topics, describes reading interests of the peasants, how they collected printings and other types of documents, and developed germs of future home book collections. He characterises role and function of a book in a peasant community in the context of Russian Empire, its anti-Polish politics of russification, high illiteracy in the Białostockie region, and multi-ethnicity of the community of Zabłudów. The author explored home book collections, amounting from a few to a several dozen of books in the villages: Zwierki, Protasy, Łubniki, FolwarkiMałe, Rafałówka, Krynickie, Halickie and Zajezierce. Next to these books, he also referred in his studies to peasant diaries and literary texts, as well as personally gathered information, relations and memories of the peasants, concerning books, book collections, and reading. It enabled him to describe peasant home book collections in Poland and their reception.