Music and Time Annotation << Back Musical culture of Astrakhan by the beginning of the XX century E.A. Soboleva The article is devoted to the history of Astrakhan musical culture, in the development of which the public organization "Imperial Russian musical society" (IRMS) played a huge role in the late XIX – early XX centuries. Its Astrakhan branch appeared in 1891 on the initiative of A.G. Rubinstein. The music organization immediately declared itself, setting itself the task of spreading music education and developing musical culture in the Astrakhan region. Opening music classes, and later a music school (one of the first in the Volga region), attracting the poor to music education, developing folk culture, creating musical groups, staging Opera performances, organizing concerts (including tours), and charitable activities – this is an incomplete list of activities of the musical society. The analysis of archival material (reports on the activities of the IRMS and the regional press) allows us to conclude about the productive functionality of the Astrakhan branch of the IRMS, which, having existed for just over 25 years, gave a powerful impetus to the subsequent development of Astrakhan's musical culture in the Soviet period. Keyword: IRMS, music culture, music criticism, music society, music art, concert, public. Pp. 10-17.