Public Libraries in the Russian Empire: A Study on the Expansion of Readership after the Great Reforms Cover Image

ロシア帝国の公共図書館 ―― 「大改革」後ロシア社会における読者層拡大の検証 ――
Public Libraries in the Russian Empire: A Study on the Expansion of Readership after the Great Reforms

Author(s): Yukiko Tatsumi
Subject(s): History
Published by: Slavic Research Center

Summary/Abstract: In Russia, the printing press began to develop rapidly during the era of the Great Reforms under the reign of Aleksandr II (1855–1881). At the same time, readership expanded, implying not only a rise in the number of readers but also a change in the readership structure. A. I. Reitblat analyzed this changing readership structure in his Ot Bovy k Bal’montu (Moscow, 1991), in which he divided readers into three groups: (1) intellectual readers (scholars, students, and intelligentsia) who read voluminous academic journals and polite literature; (2) semi-intellectual readers (merchants, middle and lower class officials, servants, intellectual workers, etc.) who read illustrated journals and popular novels; and (3) village readers (peasants and migrant workers) who read religious books, educational pamphlets, and lubki (booklets with illustrations and short texts on wood blocks or copper plates). His study provides important insight, particularly related to the inadequately studied Russian readership in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, his study has two shortcomings: One is that his scheme is too static to demonstrate the emergence of new readers and the accompanying change in the readership structure, and the other is that he relates each group of readers to one particular printing medium too clearly. This paper aims to resolve these problems and further explore the readership analysis of the period after the Great Reforms.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 55
  • Page Range: 249-272
  • Page Count: 24
  • Language: Japanese