Soviet policy on “high-performance sports” in the 1920s and 1930s
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2024-1-102-116
Abstract
The article affects an issue of the place and role of high-performance sports in the socio-political life of the USSR of the 1920s – 1930s. Creating the concept of sports development in the country, the Soviet leadership focused primarily on the issues of physical culture, which did not imply the presence of a competitive element in it. However, the development of Soviet sports in the period under review was extremely heterogeneous, and therefore the role of sports competitions was changing. The author analyzes those trans-formations using documents published by organizations that managed Soviet sports in the 1920s – 1930s and materials of the periodical press. Special attention is paid to the regulations of 1933–1934, which finally established the high-performance sports in Soviet society, their prerequisites, causes and results. The author comes to the conclusion that a sharp turn towards the development of high-achievement sports in the USSR in 1933–1934 led to the legitimization of sport as a profession and was associated with the implementation of certain foreign policy strategies, in particular, with the need to develop international relations with both proletarian and bourgeois forces in Europe against the background of the Nazi threat.
Keywords
history of sports,
sports in the USSR,
high-performance sports,
physical culture,
ACPC (VSFC),
sports periodicals
Supporting agencies: The reported study was carried out within the RSUH project “The History of Soviet everyday life: an up-to-date view of young historians” (“Student project research teams of RSUH” competition)
About the Author
N. B. Kopysov
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikolai B. Kopysov
6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
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Review
For citations:
Kopysov N.B. Soviet policy on “high-performance sports” in the 1920s and 1930s. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin Series "Political Science. History. International Relations". 2024;(1):102-116. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2024-1-102-116
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