Paper short abstract:

In the 1930's youth in Latvian 4H movement were invited to collect and send folklore materials to the Archives of Latvian Folklore. These materials contain a wide range of folklore genres and shows how interested the youth were in collecting folklore materials.

Paper long abstract:

The 4H movement as a rural youth organization was established in the 19th century in the USA. In Latvia this organization was established in the 1929 and flourished in the middle of 1930's during the authoritarian regime. During this time nationalism was embraced in Latvia and Latvian 4H was part of this ideology. The organization was terminated in the Soviet times, but was renewed at the end of the 20th century.

In the 1930's youth in Latvian 4H movement were invited to collect and send folklore materials to the Archives of Latvian Folklore. Before this in the 1920's and 1930's the school children were also invited to send in folklore materials, but since it often was connected to the lessons in many cases this was mandatory. Although for the Latvian 4H the invitation came with a questioner about specific genres, the answers were voluntary.

The research of these materials shows how many young people from this organization were taking part in collecting folklore, what folklore genres the youth were most interested in, what are other expressions that they chose to put in these materials. In this paper I will discuss not only the folklore materials collected by Latvian 4H but also the changes in one organization in different political regimes.