Penza Regional Organization of the "Znanie" Society in the 1960s-1980s: Lecturers, Primary Organizations, Lecture Propaganda

Abstract

The article deals with the quantitative and "qualitative" composition of the lecturers' staff of Penza regional organization of "Znanie" Society (by party affiliation — predominance of members and candidates for membership in the CPSU, Komsomol; by profession — most teachers, lecturers, Soviet-party workers, medical workers, etc.). We study the peculiarities of membership in the Society of its "foremost group" — scientists, teachers of regional institutes; in particular, the weak participation of representatives of technical departments, simultaneous "workload" in the work not only of the Society, but also of lecture groups, Marxism-Leninism University, etc.; we identify their activity indicators in the lecture work of the organization, which, as a rule, fell behind the republican ones. The tasks, quantitative dynamics, and composition of the Society's primary organizations in the region are characterized. Methodical sections, sections on branches of knowledge and scientific-methodical councils were directly engaged in educational and methodical support of lecture work and its organization, control over the content of lectures through reviewing, interaction with the Soviet-party and public structures. The educational function of the Society was carried out mainly through lecture propaganda. The number of lectures read by the members of the regional organization was increasing; the majority of them were social and political.