The study of the development of the socialist culture of the Soviet peoples at the present stage is an important task of historical science. In recent years, the historiography of Russian culture has been enriched by many works covering both general theoretical and specific historical aspects of the topic 1 . However, many actual problems of cultural construction of the last decade are still insufficiently reflected in the literature. Among them, we can mention the issues of raising the culture of the peoples of the Volga and Kama regions-Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurts, Mari, Komi - Permyaks during this period. General historical works and some special works have already highlighted some aspects of the cultural revolution and the formation and development of socialist culture among these peoples .2 The purpose of this article is to show the changes that occur in the socialist national cultures of Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Mordovia, Chuvashia, Udmurtia, Mari ASSR and Komi - Permyak Okrug during the construction of communism. Today, about ten million representatives of indigenous peoples live in the Volga-Kama region, including Tatars-4968 thousand, Bashkirs-989 thousand, Chuvash-1470 thousand, Mordvins-1285 thousand, Udmurts-625 thousand, Mari-504 thousand, Komm-Permyaks-144 thousand, as well as significant groups of the Russian population and other nationalities.
Soviet cultural development in the Volga Kama region began in the conditions of the economic and cultural backwardness inherited from tsarism by the majority of the population of this area, numerous patriarchal-feudal and even ancestral remnants. Mari people had only 16% male literacy, 2% female literacy, and Chuvash literacy.
1 "Development of Socialist culture in the Union Republics", Moscow, 1962; "Construction of Communism and problems of culture", Moscow, 1966;" Communism and Culture", Moscow, 1966;" Essays on the historiography of Soviet Society", Moscow, 1965.
2 See "History of the Tatar AS ...
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