Promotion of agricultural knowledge by the Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the All-Union society for the dissemination of political and scientific knowledge in 1949-1954

The purpose of the study is to review the activities of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Branch of the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge (hereinafter - the Regional Branch of the Society) to promote agricultural knowledge in 1949-1954. The main source of the study is the management reports of the Regional Branch of the Society collected in the archive fund П-2068 of the State Archives of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The paper discusses the problems of minor coverage of lectures by students on agricultural topics, the insufficient involvement of the members of the Society and the agricultural section in lecture propaganda, the interaction of the Regional Branch of the Society with its structural divisions and the Regional Department of Agriculture for Coordination of Lecture Propaganda. The importance of disseminating the agricultural knowledge to develop the agro-industrial complex of the country and the region was conveyed to the Society by the policy decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in September 1953. Despite the directives of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Regional Branch of the Society failed to improve radically the promotion of agricultural knowledge during the period under investigation. The author concluded that the reason for this was the shortage of qualified personnel in the Society, the financial disinterest of collective farms, state farms, and machine and tractor stations in conducting lectures, competition between the Regional Branch of the Society and the Regional Department of Agriculture. The decision of the Board of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Branch of the Society as of March 23, 1954 became a milestone in the activities of the Regional Branch of the Society setting it new tasks. In 1949-1954, the Regional Branch of the Society managed to form an organizational, scientific and methodological base for the further development of its system of lecture propaganda of agricultural knowledge.