Physical culture and sports in the service of the defense of the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War

Ideological divergence of the “left” in the second half of the twentieth century. In the new political conditions, the subjects of “leftist views” were no longer individual theorists, but entire directions of political thought, often representing the point of view of political

03/14/2013 at 16:23

The beginning of the 20th century was a time of sports breakthrough in Russia. Sport ceased to be fun for a select few and gradually reached the level of mass team competitions. True, Russia failed to become a full-fledged player in the international sports arena for a long time. The years of isolation have not passed without a trace.

What is most interesting is that this did not in any way affect the skill of our athletes. In Europe, they were worth their weight in gold because in some unimaginable way, skipping all the exhibition performances and “routine” competitions, they could suddenly appear at the World Championships and take first place on the podium. These photographs combined the spirit of pure sports fighting with the strictly ascetic atmosphere of the time.

No money to win

This was the case, for example, with European and world speed skating champion Nikolai Strunnikov. In 1908 and 1910, he easily won gold in world competitions. Abroad, he was called the “Russian miracle,” and in the invitation to the next world championship in 1912, representatives of the International Union wrote: “... Nikolai Strunnikov’s participation in these tournaments is expected with great interest and will be an honor to its organizers and participants.” But Strunnikov stayed at home: a modest employee did not find money to travel abroad.

Russian athletes did not participate in the 1896 Olympic Games for the same reason: there was no money to travel to Greece. They did not have enough money to participate in the next two Olympics.

For the first time, Russian athletes came to the 1908 Olympic Games in London. There were only five of them, and three of them immediately won medals: one gold and two silver.

Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin became the best in figure skating, and wrestlers N. Orlov and A. Petrov were second in their weight categories.

In 1912, 178 Russian athletes came to Stockholm for the V Olympic Games, but, contrary to the law of probability, the number of victories decreased in inverse proportion to the number of participants: our team took only 15th place in the unofficial medal standings. However, the great victories of Russian sports were just beginning...

The article was prepared based on site materials http://rus-biography.ru

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• Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev shouted: “Who aren’t you torturing? Everyone! Who is breathing freely near you? You are afraid to give us something, you are afraid of losing your power over us. We have always been your respectful sons, but you have no faith in us, and you have no faith in anyone or anything. You only believe in your power. What did she give you? The right to torture everyone! The beloved son threw accusations at his mother.

  “They beat me up for all sorts of trifles, almost every day,” Ivan Turgenev wrote in his diaries. The character of his mother, the rich and powerful landowner Varvara Petrovna, was legendary. But people who knew the family closely explained that a woman with such a difficult fate could not have had a meek disposition.

  Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva. A quarrelsome, ugly lady, nicknamed Saltychikha for her cruelty towards the serfs.

  At the same time, she is undoubtedly an extraordinary person, talented, educated... She was the first to recognize the literary talent of her middle son, Ivan Sergeevich. At the same time, she mercilessly punishes everyone who violated her rules: servants, sons... She knew languages, loved the theater, and kept diary entries all her life. Ivan Sergeevich read them after his mother’s death and exclaimed: “What a woman!.. May God forgive her everything... But what a life!”

• In March, in our “Interesting” section, we talk about outstanding women who we remember. Today we remember the women of Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. What is true from what we know about them, and what has been carried away by the years and distorted by time?

  Understanding Izryadnova, “love in Russian” with Reich, suicide of Benislavskaya, “golden head” Duncan and arrogant Tolstaya.

  He loved as he created, with all his soul, but he burned out just as quickly as he fell in love. Who were they - the main women in the poet’s life.

  - Many women loved me. And I myself have loved more than one. “Isn’t that why the dark force accustomed me to wine,” the poet writes in 1923.

Development of sports in Russia

Russian sport in the 19th century

Development of sports in Russia

Modern Russian sport has its origins in sports games and physical exercises, which were widespread in folk life. These include rounders, ball games, fist fighting, small towns, skiing, sleigh rides, and many other traditional activities. It is in the folk system of physical education, which was supplemented by hardening, that such Russian sports as swimming, rowing, horse riding, sailing and many others take their origins.

At the state level, the most noticeable transformations in the development and establishment of Russian sports are associated with the name of Peter I. It was at this time that secular educational institutions were opened in the country, whose task was to train qualified personnel for the developing industry of Russia. Among the first such institutions were the Moscow School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences, the Maritime Academy, the Gluck Secondary School, the Gentry Cadet Corps, etc. Physical education was introduced as one of the compulsory disciplines in these educational institutions. The main academic disciplines within the framework of physical education are gymnastics, sword art, rowing, dancing, sailing, pistol shooting, etc. Mastery of these sports was considered necessary to prepare young people of the nobility for military officer service.

Russian sport in the 19th century

At the beginning of the 19th century, the development of sports in Russia received an additional incentive due to the emergence of private sports institutions in the country for representatives of the Russian aristocracy. Various textbooks are published devoted to mastering the techniques of fencing, swimming, shooting and other sports. Special sports facilities are being built - arenas, shooting ranges, hippodromes. Competitions are held between members of sports societies and clubs, the organization and development of which is actively promoted by leading figures in the country. The first specialized magazines appeared, focused on disseminating the ideas of sports. In particular, these are “Hunter” (1887), “Cyclist” (1895), “Sport” (1900) and other periodicals dedicated to Russian sports (by 1915 there were already more than three dozen of them).

Prominent Russian thinkers, representatives of science and art publicly speak out and promote the development of sports in Russia, advocating for physical education as an obligatory component of the formation of a harmonious personality. Thus, A. Herzen writes: “It’s too much to despise the body, it’s too much to joke with it! It will crush your entire vigorous mind like a callus and, to the laughter of your proud spirit, will prove its dependence on a narrow boot.” It is complemented by V. Belinsky, believing that “the development of health and strength of the body corresponds to the development of mental abilities and the acquisition of knowledge.”

Towards the end of the 19th century, sports organizations with a more democratic orientation appeared. Russian sport became accessible not only to members of the nobility, but also to students, office workers, and the intelligentsia of that time. Thus, a Russian gymnastics society opens in Moscow, a Kraevsky weightlifting club in St. Petersburg, a Moscow amateur cyclists club, etc. The country's leading figures actively participate in the work of international sports organizations. In particular, in 1894, General A. Butovsky became a member of the International Olympic Committee and took an active part in the preparation of the First Olympic Congress and the First Olympics in Greece. For this work, Butovsky receives the Golden Commander's Cross - the highest award, which was awarded to only one other member of the IOC - the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin.

During the same period of time, such types of modern Russian sports as skiing and speed skating became widespread and reached a new qualitative level. Figure skating, football and bandy, boxing, and athletics are actively developing.

Meetings between domestic athletes and representatives of foreign sports also played a significant role in the development of sports in Russia. Russian wrestlers, fencers, rowers, weightlifters, cyclists, and speed skaters demonstrated success in international competitions. Thus, speed skater Alexander Panshin in 1888 received the title of the strongest speed walker in the world, racer Dyakov became the winner of the English Open Championship among cyclists in 1896. In 1899 in Milan, the Russian weightlifter Eliseev, a student of Kraevsky, won the international weight lifting competition and received a gold medal. Wrestlers Poddubny, Zaikin and Shemyakin also stand out in the Russian and world sports arena for their achievements.

Achievements of Russian sports at the beginning of the 20th century

Since the first half of the 20th century, sports have become widespread among students. At the government level, the country has allowed the organization of sports clubs for physical exercise in higher education institutions. In large cities such as Tomsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, student sports leagues are appearing, which gives another impetus to the development of sports in Russia. These are mainly fencing, gymnastics, strength wrestling, rowing, swimming, athletics, speed skating and skiing.

In 1901, a football league was founded in St. Petersburg - this event marked the beginning of football cups in Russia. Further, football clubs appear in many other Russian cities - Orekhovo-Zuev, Moscow, Riga, Kiev, Odessa, Tiflis, Tver, Kharkov. In 1911, the Russian Olympic Committee was created in the country. Two years later, in 1913, the Office of the Chief Observer of the Physical Development of the Population of the Russian Empire, which was established on the initiative of Nicholas II to guide the development of sports in Russia. In addition, in 1914, a special public organization was created - the Provisional Council for the Physical Development of the Population. This Council included prominent teachers and public figures, representatives of the largest Russian sports societies and clubs, officials of various ministries and departments.

In total, by 1914, Russia had about 800 sports clubs and societies, uniting more than 50 thousand athletes. The country hosts sporting competitions, including the Russian Championship. Russian athletes also take part in international sports competitions, European and world championships, and the Olympic Games. It was during this period of time that the names of such outstanding athletes as N. Panin-Kolomenkin, V. Ippolitov, N. Strunnikov, N. Orlov, A. Petrov, S. Eliseev, I. Poddubny, P. Isakov, P. .Bogatyrev and many, many others.

» Strelka Magazine explored the history of the physical education movement in Russia over the past hundred years.

1930s. Participants of the all-Union sports complex “Ready for Labor and Defense” (GTO complex) / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock Photo

Hundreds of races are held in Russia every year; in big cities, dozens of sections are opened for various sports - from yoga in the park or on hammocks to strange sports like lacrosse or squash; Even the GTO complex has been renewed. Just seven or eight years ago, such a situation would have been difficult to imagine. At the same time, if you examine the history of the physical education movement in the USSR and Russia, you can see that each round of development was accompanied by a new ideology.

At various periods in the history of the USSR, sport performed many functions: at first it was considered a hobby of the elite, then it was used to train workers, and subsequently for training the military. Physical education was part of government policy and often became an important tool for shaping the image of the ideal worker abroad. In modern Russia, a unique situation has arisen when the passion for physical education comes, first of all, from enthusiasts, and not from the state. Are there any common features in the history of mass sports in the USSR and Russia?

Beginning of the 20th century: the emergence of mass sports

British philosopher Mike O'Mahoney connects the emergence of interest in sports in Russia with the image of the “new man,” which is most clearly illustrated by the example of the revolutionary Rakhmetov from Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” 1864. He was driven by the desire to go beyond the limitations of the bourgeoisie, to break the current system, and therefore he tempered his body and spirit through numerous physical activities (it even went as far as sleeping on nails). At the same time, when it comes to physical activity at that time, it means ordinary everyday activities: for example, dragging heavy objects and long walks. This is due to the lack of methods that could help a person engage in physical education.

Playing croquet at P.N.'s dacha Konovalova. Early 20th century / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock Photo

Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 20th century, an ideal foundation was created for the education of human physical nature. Returning from a European business trip, Peter Lesgaft (the founder of the scientific system of physical education. - Ed.) was firmly convinced of the need for daily gymnastics among the young population and in 1896 he became the founder of the first special educational institution in Russia for the training of sports teachers, which is still in operation today. day .

And yet, before the 1917 revolution, mass sports were not so popular in the country. Separate sports clubs and societies were created, but they were of an elitist nature; the common man had no access to them. Like the fencing and horse riding courses of Alexander Bestuzhev - they were attended only by officers of the highest ranks who could find time for such entertainment. There is a paradox in this - the image of Rakhmetov runs counter to the hobbies of the bourgeoisie.

Allen Guttman’s work “From Ritual to Sport” states that at the beginning of the 20th century, communists viewed sport precisely as a manifestation of bourgeois morals - the exclusive privilege of this class, which must be destroyed. However, the socialist idea was transformed thanks to Vladimir Lenin, an avid athlete (he said that a real revolutionary “should have muscles, not a rag”), and after the October Revolution, at the 1920 congress, sport was proclaimed an important part of the communist system.

1920-1930s: sport as a supplier of labor reserves

Lenin's initiative was that physical education should become a mechanism for preparing for work, as well as for armed defense (this idea was realized later). The communists were obsessed with the idea of ​​creating the ideal working man. (It’s worth remembering the history of the Doctor’s sausage in 1936: there is a legend that Anastas Mikoyan specially developed a semi-finished product that would replace all meals for a person.) And sport was suitable for this.

The first images of the Russian football club Spartak. 1922 “Moscow Sports Club of the Krasnopresnensky District” (“MKS”) / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock Photo

At this time, sports clubs began to be created in factories, societies, and also by ordinary enthusiasts in the USSR - in 1922, the Moscow Sports Circle was created, which later grew into Spartak. In 1928, the first All-Union Spartakiad was held, which included a series of competitions in honor of the celebration of the first five-year plan. It is interesting that the Spartakiad emphasized the originality of Soviet sports: if the world hosted the Olympics, created around ancient traditions and the gods of Olympus, then the ideological core of the Spartakiad was the story of Spartak, a slave who rebelled against the elite. Now we can judge that at this time mass sports were experiencing their heyday, because the events of World War II and Stalin’s rule significantly changed the course and image of athletes.

1930-1950s: physical education as preparation for war

To understand the ideology in the field of physical education and sports at this time, it is necessary to again turn to the legacy of the founder of the physical education university, Peter Lesgaft. The techniques he discovered at the Central Military Gymnastics School in Aldershot and the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich were expressed in a combination of the drill training of European soldiers and the gymnastic exercises that they performed.

Leningrad, 1930s. During physical training classes at the Higher Naval School named after. Frunze / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock Photo

In addition, at the Third All-Russian Congress of the Russian Communist Youth Union in 1920, a resolution was adopted that stated: “At the moment, physical education also pursues directly practical goals: training youth<...>to the armed defense of the socialist fatherland." At the height of the civil war, the military training system created by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in 1918 - Vsevobuch (universal military training) - was of great importance. The young Red Army needed personnel, and Vsevobuch began to attract more and more young people into its ranks. The militarization of sports was also reflected in the holding of a sports parade in 1919. However, after the victory in the Civil War, Vsevobuch was discontinued in 1923, but was resumed during the Second World War.

By this time, the popularity of physical education and its military direction were expressed in the creation of the GTO (Ready for Labor and Defense) complex - the first to receive an award for fulfilling the requirements of the complex were representatives of the military department - graduates of the Military Academy. Frunze. And with the beginning of the war, the training system began to be of decisive importance for the state - an honest resident of the USSR could stand out with a GTO badge and confirm his status and loyalty to the communist course, and his main motivation for playing sports was precisely this.

1950-1980s: the ideal athlete as confirmation of the status of the USSR abroad

Physical education programs of the early Soviet years proclaimed the mass participation of the Soviet people in sports. Why such goals were set is another question, but one cannot deny the fact that the authorities did everything to popularize sports: they held parades, physical education festivals, football matches were held even in besieged Leningrad.

Olympics in Helsinki, 1952 / photo: Ullstein bild / Vostock-photo

Presentation of awards, women's shot put. from left to right: Klavdiya Tochenova (USSR, bronze), Galina Zybina (USSR, gold), Marianna Werner (GDR, silver) / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock Photo

In 1952, Soviet athletes went to the Olympics in Helsinki for the first time and succeeded. According to Mike O'Mahoney, the authorities led by Stalin deliberately sabotaged the trip to the 1948 Games in order to better prepare and establish themselves as a superpower at the Olympics. With the victory in Finland and the resonance it created, it became clear that sport was becoming a serious argument on the world stage, and therefore the party allocated more funds to the development of talented athletes and encouraged less mass sports activities.

Since the 1960s, when the standard of living in the USSR increased and there were more ways to spend leisure time (including the opportunity to watch competitions on TV), physical education began to lose its importance for ordinary people and fade into the shadows. However, this could not be said based on the successes of the Soviet team: the sports elite achieved success at the next three Olympics, and the Soviet leadership began to work on obtaining the right to hold competitions in the capital. There were not enough votes to support the application for 1976, but by 1980 the right to host the Games was still obtained. The Olympics contributed to the construction of numerous sports facilities and provoked a short-term increase in public interest in mass sports. However, many facilities were inaccessible to ordinary citizens. The news about the boycott of the Moscow Olympics by the United States and 55 other countries only confirmed that professional sports are an instrument of big politics, where there is no place for mass sports.

Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya at the Helsinki Olympics, 1952 / photo: Ullstein bild / Vostock-photo

1980-2000s: physical education in oblivion

Perestroika and the transition to a market economy allowed many teams, mainly football, to start earning at least some money on a private basis. They began to enter into contracts with outfitters, place advertisements on uniforms, and travel to foreign tournaments and competitions. Many athletes began to move abroad in search of more money and a better training system. But the increase in turnover of sports clubs did not help mass sports in any way: in 1988, the USSR won the Olympics in Seoul, and since then the new state has not reached such heights, although it remained among the elite.

At a physical education lesson at an industrial technical school. Zaporozhye / photo: Profusion Stock / Vostock photo

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, sports clubs, schools, and sections began to disappear. The reform to reduce their number in the USSR played a cruel joke on Russia, since along with the closure of schools, training methods began to be destroyed, and those that remained did not meet world standards. Until the 2000s, the lack of sections and the difficult economic situation led to the disappearance of mass sports with rare exceptions. Marginal groups of radical fans also stood apart, who periodically joined organized crime groups and acted as a fighting force for bandits.

2000-2010s: revival of mass sports

With the rise in living standards, mass sports began to develop. The successes of sports clubs and local victories at the Olympics still popularized sports in Russia. The archaic nature of the Soviet system began to survive, not least thanks to enthusiasts who formed sports communities without municipal and state participation. Although already many private sports clubs began to receive significant budget subsidies and benefits, and state-owned companies began to replenish the capital of some. During this period, various sports communities and the personal motivation of each person were of great importance.

Alexandra Boyarskaya, founder of the Nike running club in Gorky Park, creative consultant at Nike

What happened in the country is a sufficient explanation for what is happening with sports now. In the 1990s, no one thought about running, except for those who were always in the know and for whom it was already a habit or part of the family routine. Then the culture of education in sports disappeared. After the arrival of Sergei Kapkov (from 2011 to 2013 - head of the Moscow Department of Culture - Ed.) and the reform of parks, public spaces became more friendly. The marketing activity of Nike, and then other big brands, provoked an increase in interest in running and mass sports as a business, and over the past six years the number of mass competitions, proper running schools for adults and other sports activities has increased tenfold.

If we talk about Moscow, this was facilitated by a short period of revival and Europeanization of society, when we began to adapt Western values ​​(health, sports). Now there is a crisis: those who previously traveled a lot, bought expensive memberships to sports clubs, tried extreme sports, are starting to go in for sports on their own, because this is a more budget-friendly way to spend leisure time.

Vladimir Nishukov, researcher in the philosophy and sociology of sports and editor of the Russian edition of Allen Guttman’s book “From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports”

If we trace the genealogy of sports, we will see that the distinction between professional and amateur is initially drawn not by biological bodies, but by social bodies. At the end of the 19th - first third of the 20th centuries, when the main sports institutions were taking shape, only representatives of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy, the leisure class, could afford to engage in amateur sports. The worker had neither the time nor the means for this. The sport of the proletarian is professional sport, where he can get money not for working at the machine, but for running on the field. And initially, snobbery and patronizing attitude did not go from professionals to amateurs, but in the opposite direction. Thus, for a long time only amateurs could take part in the Olympic Games, and many sports leagues, albeit nominally, remained amateur. In the minds of the forefathers of modern sports, primarily Pierre de Coubertin (the initiator of the creation of the modern Olympic Games - Ed.), an athlete is an aristocrat, not a worker. Hence, as Pierre Bourdieu wrote, any definition of sport (and it usually fixes amateur status) is its political definition.

The distinction fades over time. On the one hand, sport, due to ideologization and international significance, becomes a “sport of the highest achievements.” The sports superpowers of the 20th century, in principle, cannot pit insufficiently trained athletes against each other, and over time, all Olympic amateurs become de facto professionals. In the USSR, professionals were formally amateurs playing for their organizations: the army (CSKA), the police (Dynamo), and so on.

On the other hand, “school sports” are beginning to become very popular in the United States. Especially the team sports competitions of various universities and colleges, where players - nominal students - often begin to pay fees higher than in professional leagues. It also blurs the distinction between professionals and amateurs.

In recent years, the professional has been associated specifically with elite sports, while the amateur has become a secondary figure - that is, their roles have radically changed in culture. And here we come to a new problem. This strange cultural inversion can also be interpreted as a kind of dialectical turn, because today we find ourselves in a situation where amateurs again gain an advantage, but of a completely new kind. As you know, professionals are monitored by a lot of supervisory authorities. And soon, through the use of doping, an amateur will be able to surpass the results of a professional.

It is obvious that the number of athletes in Russia has increased. And here the question arises: why? The simplest explanation is an increase in living standards. Is there an ideological component to today's boom in sports and sports-related hobbies? Of course, politicians have been using sports for almost a hundred years to mobilize the masses and attract supporters - here is the mini-football club of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and the far-right mixed martial arts tournament White Rex, and dozens of other examples. But rather, we need to talk not about ideology in the Marxist sense, but about ideology in the understanding of Slavoj Zizek. You can hear that people go to the gym to relieve stress, calm down, and stop thinking. Sport, therefore, can be interpreted as a tool of ideology that does everything to prevent a person from leaving his comfort zone.

Text: Ilya Inozemtsev

The history of the development of modern sport in the form in which we know it now takes its starting point at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. It was during this period that the intensive development of those sports that are currently the most popular both in Russia and abroad begins. Here are just a few of them.

Weightlifting.

V. Kraevsky is rightfully considered the “father” of this sport in Russia, who in 1885 founded the St. Petersburg circle of amateur weightlifters, numbering about 70 people. Initially and until the 30s of the 20th century, weightlifting united three areas - weight lifting, Greco-Roman wrestling and boxing, which in modern sports stand out as independent sports.

Unfortunately, almost all photos are not Russian(

Skating.

In 1877, in St. Petersburg, on the initiative of V. Sreznevsky, the Society of Skating Fans was founded. Trainings and competitions were held both in speed running on cognacs and in figure skating.

A little more than ten years later, in 1887, the first speed skating championship was held in Moscow over a distance of 3 versts (3,200 m), which attracted a colossal number of spectators - more than one and a half thousand people, which was an amazing phenomenon for that time. The undisputed winner of the championship was N. Panshin.

Cycling.

Modern cycling began to make its way into Russia in the 1890s. It was then that about 50 cycling clubs were actively created in different cities of our country, one after another. In 1894, the first multi-day race in the Russian Empire took place. In 1896, the domestic cyclist M. Dyakonov won four out of five distances at the open championship in England, for which he received the popular status of “king of cyclists.”

Skiing.

In modern sports, this is one of the most important and diverse sports areas, which takes its origins in 1895, with the opening of the MKL (Moscow Ski Club). In 1910, the first All-Russian cross-country skiing championship was held at a distance of 30 miles, the winner of which was P. Bychkov.

Football.

Without football today it is difficult to imagine modern sport - both abroad and in Russia. Russian football took its first steps as an independent sport at the end of the 19th century, when football clubs appeared in large cities.

In 1908, the All-Russian Football Union was created, after which All-Russian tournaments began to be actively held. After the 1917 revolution, no other sport could compete in popularity with football. It was at this time that the strongest football teams were formed and developed in our country, which very soon became serious participants in international cups and championships.