Professor, PhD V.N. Zuev¹   
Professor, PhD P.G. Smirnov^2
1Tyumen State University, Tyumen
²Tyumen State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Tyumen

Keywords: legal documents, decree, order, defensibility and working capacity of population, militarization, physical education.

Introduction. One of the means of studying and modernizing the legislative and normative framework is to analyze a series of successive historical documents, which laid the foundation for the current legislative and normative framework regulating the activity of the Russian physical culture and sports complex “Ready for Labor and Defence” (GTO). 

Every historical period is marked by strategic resolutions taken across the country determining the long-term fitness program development prospects [1, 3].  

Objective of the study was to provide a historical analysis of legislative and normative framework in the context of the GTO complex development for the period from 1918 to 1931.

Materials and methods. The scope of investigation comprises an analysis of complex social, economic and political processes that took place in the new socialist state of the SFSR for the period from 1918 to 1931.  

Results and discussion. In terms of national physical culture development, the leading role of the parties and government was implemented in legislative and normative framework. The introduction of a new socialist system and its further modernization had formed the actual conditions and environment for all-round physical development of the nation. We have considered the fact that the issue of succession is a specific and consistent aspect of a historical process. Every new stage in the process of historical social development includes the potentially productive outcomes of the previous historical period which promise positive effects in the new historical terms.  

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the previously formed system of the Russian sports movement regulation was abolished and the sports complex development temporarily stopped functioning. However, the early SFSR required the professionally instructed and combat-effective army, which presupposed the appropriate physical training system. The new government introduced a series of normative and executive documents on the issues of physical culture development. In 1918, the All-Union Central Executive Committee adopted a decree “On Compulsory Military Training”, which stated that men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 would be taking in-service military and physical training courses. The major contribution to issuing of the decree was made by the Chief Administration of Universal Military Training that was the first government authority to reestablish national sports and introduce the new legislative and normative framework. Military training instructors were athletes (the best skiers, gymnasts, ice-skaters) who shared their skills and experience with young pre-draftees and eventually became the chairmen of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture. Specialized departments were established within the local military commissariats for the purposes of physical training organization all over the SFSR. On July 2, 1919, the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defence issued a decree on “Organization of Ski Infantry Units”, signed by V.I. Lenin, which turned out to be instrumental within the Universal Military Training system in the field of physical culture and sports.

The Soviet government worked towards the all-round physical development of the younger generation. In 1920, the State Central Institute of Physical Education (SCIPE) was established (Resolution of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars of 1 December 1920). These and the subsequent resolutions of government authorities had formed the basis for the Soviet physical education system. The government and social structures were introduced in the field of physical culture that aimed at building defensibility and working capacity of population.   

The establishment of the Soviet physical education system started with introduction of the government regulatory bodies that functioned by the vertical subordination principle. The ascendancy of the Communist ideology within the Russian sports movement was promoted since the state foundation day; the long-term working capacity maintenance of population and reaching the high level of national defensibility were among its priorities.

Politicization and subordination of sports organizations to ideological purposes were the dominant tendency in the development of physical culture movement. The previous positive experience and government structure were heavily criticized as outdated vestiges of the bourgeois culture and regarded as an extraneous and negative paradox. Needless to say that the idea of fighting the violence of bourgeoisie, as well as the disregard for the succession principles eventually led to the revisionist interpretation of the sport theory and criticism of the past experience [2, 4, 6, 7].

Negative attitude towards sport as a competition for top achievements was formed and spread among the working-class sport organizations and associations. Teamwork and joint collaboration became the number one priority by contrast to individual competitions that used to occur before. Anti-bourgeois mottos came into use: “Down with bourgeois gyms, equipment and sport! Proletarian workout will rise!” Sport facilities, gyms and stadiums were to be redesigned into workshops, in which the workers were supposed to do applied exercises improving professional skills and movements. A group of scientists руфвув by V.A. Zikmund recognized sport as a significant means of physical education, yet denied sport specialization and considered proletarian sports to be the type of recreational activities and warm-up paving the way for labour and work.

The publications by N.I. Podvoyskiy (“Kind of Physical Culture the USSR Proletariat is in Need of”, “Working Class, Sun, Fresh Air and Water”, “Physical Culture of Proletariat in the USSR”, “On population Health Improvement”, “The Role of Sports”, etc.) revealed the Soviet physical education system development prospects [1, 3, 7, 8].

In 1923 and 1924, the sports events were held under the following slogans introduced in publications by N.A. Semashko: “Physical culture day and night”, “No sports healthcare, no Soviet physical culture”, “Sports development as a gateway to mass physical culture”.

In the 1920s, the development of physical culture and sports was multidirectional and comprised the fields of sport medicine, proletarian physical culture, scouting, physical education based on the national and bourgeois ideas promoted by bourgeoisie supporters, etc.

Thus, the new revolutionary system of so called ‘proletarian physical culture’ affected the organization of physical education within educational institutions. The Sokol training program was introduced in schools; it was based on workouts and exercises developed by specialists in physical education who denied the meaning and principles of sports [2, 3, 5]. The criticism of the previous sport theory and the aggressive proletarian ideology had formed a new legislative and normative framework, which later evolved into the foundation for the GTO sport complex.

At the same time, it was a fresh approach to physical culture movement from the class point of view, since it ranked sports together with such concepts as patriotism and responsibility for the prospects of revolution. Physical culture movement comprised the introduction of Olympic competitions; the regional Olympic committees, as well as sport organizations were reestablished; attempts were made not only to regain connections with the International Olympic Committee, but also to take part in the 1920 Summer Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium [8].

On June 27, 1923, the All-Union Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) of the RSFSR issued a decree on establishment of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture as a standing committee to VTsIK and local government authorities in order to confront the issue of physical culture movement organization. The Supreme Council of Physical Culture was entrusted with coordination and integration of legal, scientific and organizational activities within various departments, organizations and associations aimed at physical education and development of the working people. It is important to note that the Supreme Council of Physical Culture of the RSFSR and other republics managed the physical culture and sports sector in its jurisdiction indirectly, through provisions and consultations for certain government institutions endowed with the required regulatory powers. To some extent, the fact had been setting back the progress of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture, since the management process lacked operational efficiency; not all government bodies were competent at dealing with the issues of physical education and sports, which resulted in inconsistent and arbitrary amendment procedures [1, 3, 7]. 

In terms of national physical culture development, the leading role of the parties and government of the RSFSR was implemented in the following thirteen legislative and normative documents (Table 1).

Table 1. Legislative and normative framework of the RSFSR (USSR) in the context of the GTO complex development for the period from 1918 to 1931.

The absence of integrity and sufficient conception in the physical culture and sports system precluded the effective and dynamic development of the physical culture movement. It was necessary to resolve the controversies over specifics and methods of sport organizations activities and to form the pattern of further development of the new physical education system. In order to confront this issue, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Soviet Union issued the resolution “On party’s objectives in the physical culture and sports sector”, adopted July 13, 1925, which stated that the growth of the physical culture movement, involving increasingly more people, and its great significance required thorough attention of the party authorities; regulatory arrangements should had been implemented through legislative and normative framework.

The legal and normative documents stated that physical culture “was to be considered in the context of physical education and recreation, as well as a part of cultural, practical and pre-military training of the young generation”. It was specified that physical culture should comprise not only gymnastics, sports and sports-based games, but also public and personal hygiene, occupational and workplace hygiene, optimal work/rest regimen, etc.

The national physical culture movement was subjected to parallelism and controversy in the organizational aspect, specifically among the trade unions and Komsomol organizations. In 1928, the participants of the Eight Congress of the Communist Youth Union confirmed that the weak point in the physical culture system was the management structure of the physical culture movement.

The act of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) “On physical culture movement” of September 23, 1929, declared that the results of the promotional activities were unsatisfactory (deficient involvement of the working class people, tendency for competition, lack of coordination between departments, etc.), and took a resolution to enhance and centralize the government control for the purposes of controversy resolution and parallelism elimination in sports organization; to establish the All-Union Council of Physical Culture as a standing committee to the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR and the government body managing sports movement [1, 7].

The document stated that “the only way to effectively develop the physical culture movement is to intensify, centralize the government control and to motivate more working class people for joining the movement”.

The conducted study proved that the strategic resolutions of the government authorities, implemented through the legislative and normative framework, were made in order to determine the most important and advantageous aspects of development for the early SFSR, which included: militarization, building defensibility and preparing the population for homeland defense, developing the working capacity of population through the means of physical culture.

Conclusions:                                     

• The Soviet physical education system was based on the class approach, politicization and ideologization, which resulted in the new government’s criticism of the positive past experiences of the Russian Empire in the field of physical culture and sports; 
• during the first several years, the Soviet government had established the environment for introduction of the normative physical culture requirements; defensibility and working capacity of the population were among its priorities; 
• the activities of the government bodies managing the sports movement and introducing legal documents had launched the development of the national sports sector, which have been dynamically improved during the following periods up to the present day;
• the introduction of the GTO sport complex in 1931 contributed to the physical culture development, so that the educational system, being based on normative standards, became complex, systematic, purpose-oriented.

References

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Corresponding author: zuev_sport72@mail.ru

Abstract

The paper concerns the problem of evolutionary development of the regulatory framework, elaborated by public authorities of the RSFSR-USSR in the period of 1918­1931 investigated using the method of multivariate analysis. The regulatory framework served as a prerequisite to the creation of the "Ready for Labor and Defence (GTO)" sports complex. There was studied the process of formation of the new state in terms of modernization of the sports movement, focused on physical training in order to ensure the country's defence and improve the working capacity of the population by means of physical culture. The main trends in the development of the physical culture movement at the national level were defined, including its ideological orientation on the development of mass physical culture and sport in the early years of the Soviet period.