Kartashova Tatiana P.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Tomsk Museum of Local History, Tomsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Shrewd Charity: Petr Makushin, Ivan Sytin and Rural Libraries in the Tomsk Governorate in the Early 20th Century
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2018-2-8
In 1916, two booksellers and publishers, two enlighteners Ivan D. Sytin and Petr I. Makushin were congratulated by the whole country on the 50th anniversary of their publishing and social activity. Their fates largely overlapped, their business and warm friendship persisted for many years. Sytin’s publications were widely distributed in the Tomsk province. They sold well in bookstores, Tomsk libraries purchased them actively, and rural libraries of the Tomsk province would have them. Petr Makushin created a public organization called «Society for the Promotion of the Free Rural Libraries in Tomsk Governorate» to introduce books into village, which was established in 1901. During 1902–1919, the Society opened about 600 free public libraries. It was only in large towns that metropolitan book publishers could enter the Siberian book market on their own; promoting books in the Tomsk countryside was possible only through Petr Makushin and his Society for the Promotion. The library network in the Tomsk province arose due to the personal initiative and private investment. Petr Makushin succeeded in establishing strong ties with the central publishers, including Sytin’s firm, which allowed to reduce significantly book prices, receive discounts, installments, to attract investments from the center. 62 metropolitan firms participated in providing books for rural libraries, but contributions made by Ivan Sytin were the most impressive. State officials who governed Siberia in the absence of zemstvo in the region, practiced fiscal austerity that did not let establish libraries. Makushin succeeded in creating a regional model of library development at minimal cost, using and adapting the experience accumulated in European Russia to local conditions.
Publishing: 19/12/2018
How to cite: Kartashova T.P. Shrewd Charity: Petr Makushin, Ivan Sytin and Rural Libraries in the Tomsk Governorate in the Early 20th Century // Historical Courier, 2018, # 2. Article 8. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2018/ISTKURIER-2018-2-08.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2018
Keywords: book trade; сultural-enlightening society; free public library; Siberia; Tomsk province; Petr Ivanovich Makushin; Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin