The condition of the Baltic Fleet libraries during the first years of the soviet power (based on the materials of the Russian State Naval Archives)

The Bolshevik propaganda was successful among the lower ranks of Russian Empire’s Navy largely due to either inaction or insufficiently active work of the official bodies responsible for morale building. Considering their predecessors’ mistakes, the early Soviet leaders paid very close attention to political agitation and propaganda in the Russian Republic’s Armed Forces from their first days. The article deals with the operation of naval libraries in the context of morale building activities in the Baltic Fleet during 1918–24.