Ideological attitudes of Lithuanian bibliophilia and its organizational structure in the soviet period

In the period 1970–1975, on the initiative of the same R. Šalūga, a Vilnius book friends’ club was functioning, combining bibliophilic and cultural-cognitive activities. In the second stage of bibliophilia development, an important role fell to the Voluntary Society of Book Friends of Lithuanian SSR, established in 1974. The latter was perceived by its founders as a mass public bibliophilic organization. The Society was later criticized for bureaucracy and artificiality of its activities; nevertheless, it is important to accentuate that it was this society that capacitated legal activities of the book friends’ club from 1975. Rather often book friends’ clubs were used as means for cultural matters. Due to the fragmentary coverage of the activities of such clubs and shortage of their archives it is difficult to say at the moment how many book friends’ clubs, apart from the Vilnius Mažvydas and Plungė Daukantas clubs, were (or if they ever were) of bibliophilic profile. The activity of the two latter clubs, were not equal, either. It was impacted by both external (cultural politics carried on by the Soviet regime in Lithuania) and internal factors (who was a chairperson, affinity of members’ interests, etc.). Those clubs played an important role in the history of Lithuanian bibliophilia, and they are the only ones that continue their activities since the Soviet time up to now