The Kirov Central Park of Culture and Leisure in Leningrad as a Part of New Cultural Policy in the USSR in 1932-1941.

The research is dedicated to the Kirov Central Park of Culture and Leisure in Leningrad as a new Soviet cultural and recreational space in the context of changes in Soviet cultural policy in the 1930s. The formation of a new Soviet space on the territory of parks of culture and recreation in the 1920s-1930s is a unique example of how cultural practices are introduced and changed at critical epochs. The newly created parks became a place for cultural and educational activities due to the large area for its implementation, as well as due to the presence of natural conditions that allowed the development of physical training activities. Leningrad Park differed from other parks in that it was located on the territory with a long Imperial past. The process of Sovietization of this space was actively manifested through the incorporation of objects of the Imperial period into the space and activities of the Kirov Central Park and the introduction of new cultural practices that changed during the period analyzed in this paper. Therefore research questions are: how cultural practices were transformed in the early Soviet period and how the symbolic space of the Park was transformed through these practices during the 1930s. An essential part of the research is given to the analysis of archival sources (financial reports, reports on mass work, explanatory notes). It is divided into two strategies: analysis of the transformation of the material appearance of the Park and its functions. Other chapters consist of a literature review of cultural and leisure policy to identify new trends as a result of cultural policy development. Historiography is related to the theoretical and interdisciplinary field of cultural history and historical urbanism. This research highlights that the process of Sovietization of the space of the Kirov Central Park is quite complicated and complex, which shows examples of successful integration of new cultural practices. However, at the same time, the symbolic recoding of the pre-revolutionary past did not occur ultimately.