Polish Library of the Roman Catholic parish in Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in the light of preserved sources

Abstract

The article is devoted to the destiny of Polish books that were collected in library of the Roman Catholic parish in Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Collecting polish books in the parish was common activity at that time, as Yekaterinodar priests were basically Poles or at least spoke Polish. So did the majority of the parishioners. The opening of the public library of Roman Catholic parish (1898) was an important event as well as the opening of the reading room of the Roman Catholic community that supported poor people. The collection counted 630 books by 1907. Many of those books were given to the library by parishioners. The books were written in Polish, Russian and other languages. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) the book collection of the library became the foundation for Polish Public Library of Krasnodar, which was situated in the Roman Catholic parish as well as the Polish labor school. By 1923 the number of books reached 680. After a while some of the books were taken to the community center „Nacmien” [na- tional minorities] which task was to teach national minorities politic and culture. Such task could be implemented when Marxist books were added to the rest of the library collection. After The Great Purge the Roman Catholic parish and „Nacmien” were eliminated as well as the majority of Polish books. However some of them were taken to the Krasnodar Regional Pushkin Library and are still kept there.