The History of the Formation and Development of Physical Culture Among the Worker-Peasant Youth of Western Siberia in the 1920s

Abstract

The article deals with the formation of the Soviet system of physical culture in the 1920s. In this socially important area, goal setting depends on a lot of factors, the most significant are the political and socio-economic conditions of the society development. Engaging the working people in physical culture created preconditions for improving their health conditions and physical qualities, increasing labor productivity, engaging in the country's public and political life and introducing them to a new culture. One of the first attempts to regulate the physical training of working people was a physical education program for workers and peasants in Siberia, drawn up in the summer of 1923. It defined age limits, physical training criteria, PE facilities and forms of organization. The 1924 "Physical Education Programs for Organizing the Youth Physical Culture" project in Siberia outlined the principles for building up physical education for proletarian youth, defined recommended sports and declared a goal - to achieve maximum productivity. In addition to PE councils, the worker-peasant youth involvement in physical training was assigned to the Komsomol committees. Leisure activities was supposed to be concentrated at the Komsomol clubs, there were 35 of them in the region in January 1925. To maximize the Komsomol outreach of young people at activity clubs, members of the organization created youth sections (YS), whose main objectives were propaganda, organization of socially adequate entertainment and recreation for young people. The main forms of physical culture activities for YS were massive and club (walks, physical culture evenings, sports events, action-oriented and gymnastic games). The need to integrate the demands and interests of working youth was considered at the XIV Party Congress in Dec. 1925 and at the VII Congress of the Komsomol. The organization of the leisure time for young people under the Komsomol leadership was supposed to increase political influence on this category of citizens and exclude the possibility of nonconformity. The Komsomol and trade unions provided all possible assistance to PE councils in expanding physical education programs for working youth in cities and villages, but its volume was small and measures taken did not yield significant results. At that stage, it was important to attract the attention of the youth to physical education and to form a positive attitude towards this activity. The author concludes that the 1920s became a period of the physical culture formation as part of the new time culture in the worker-peasant environment of Western Siberia. The multifunctionality of the sphere, its great utilitarian importance, with an acute shortage of subject matter experts and minimal opportunities for PE councils, involved the non-core structures - the Komsomol and trade unions - in the organization of physical culture formation; their participation was essential for physical culture expansion.