Supplying the population of the Urals with literature during the Great Patriotic War

The paper analyses how the Party and the State governed the process of supply working people with literary works of ideological and political content during the Great Patriotic War. On the example of activities of government bodies of the Urals, the paper proves that the policy of the Party in this sphere was an objective necessity in extreme conditions of the war. Despite contradictions caused by the active use of political control and ideological pressure, this policy of the Party helped to mobilize the masses for the struggle against German Nazi invaders. The author’s attention focuses on the production activities of book publishers operating in all five regions and two republics of the Urals. The paper notes that after a certain decline in the output of publications caused by the need for military restructuring of the publishing business, there was a clear trend towards their quantitative growth. The paper analyzes the process of bringing books to the mass reader: it describes activities of the system of libraries turned into agitation and propaganda centers, shows the work of bookstores focused on the distribution of books with mobilization and patriotic content. The paper concludes that literature effectively regulated by the Party-State structures, both in content and in organizational terms, was the most important factor that ensured the consolidation of the society struggling with external aggression.