Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
CTAD-CUMHURIYET TARIHI ARASTIRMALARI DERGISI, cilt.17, sa.33, ss.217-257, 2021 (ESCI)
Established as an important means of conveying the Republican revolutions to the people, the Community Centers started their activities on 19 February 1932 as a cultural branch of the Republican People's Party (RPP). The community centers and people rooms in Rize, Mapavri (Cayeli) and Pazar, which were opened as the second-period institutions after the 14 Community Centers opened in the first phase, have carried out important activities despite all the impossibilities. In this study, the activiries of community centers and people rooms in Rize and its districts, which were opened on 24 June 1932, are discussed. Although these activities aimed to achieve the envisaged modernization goals, it is seen in the documents we examined that they were not very successful due to some adverse conditions. Among the most important reasons for this, there are factors such as financial impossibilities, insufficient buildings for activities, shortage of members, lack of educated and relevant staff, and insufficient participation in activities. It should be said that another reason that lowered the success is the underdevelopment of the city in many ways and the high burden of the Community Center on this issue. The negative attitudes of some people hoping for self-interest, the presence of civil servants who did not want to serve, and the inability to replace the people leaving the board for various reasons prevented the activities of the community centers from being fully realized. Nevertheless, it was observed that they performed important functions starting from the 1932 till the 1950s, when they were closed, under the leadership of volunteer intellectuals in particular and with the support of the people's idea that always favored innovation. It should also be noted that they have made a great contribution to socio-cultural development in order to eliminate the backwardness of the people in the region for centuries.