Sport development in Soviet Russia and the USSR
From the first years of Soviet power, the Communist Party and the Soviet Government paid great attention to the development of physical culture. Already in 1918-1919, military sports clubs, the first educational institutions for physical education began to be created, competitions were held. In 1920, there were about 1,500 sports clubs in Soviet Russia, in which more than 140 thousand people regularly played sports, which was almost three times the number of people who played sports in pre-revolutionary Russia. At the same time, about 1.5 million. a person was engaged in physical training in numerous organizations of the all—Teacher training (general military training of citizens of the USSR, conducted in 1918- 1923).
In the Soviet Union, great attention was paid to the development of physical culture and sports. The decision of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Russian Communist Party (b) of July 13, 1925, emphasized the role of sports competitions as one of the important means of involving the masses in physical education and identifying achievements, both individual and collective.
Millions of school-age children living in urban centers spent their summer holidays in pioneer camps every year. In 1925, the All-Union Sanatorium Pioneer camp Artek was established in Crimea, where thousands of pioneers and schoolchildren from all republics and regions of the Soviet Union rested and played sports all year round. Art education houses for children, music schools and colleges, and children's sports schools were organized for children. Sports schools for children have been opened in many cities. Physical education events were also widely held in numerous pre-school institutions, in recreation areas for workers and in medical institutions
In a resolution dated December 27, 1948, the Central Committee of the All—Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) indicated that the main tasks in the field of physical education are the deployment of a mass physical education movement in the country, improving the level of sports skills and, on this basis, the conquest by Soviet athletes of the world championship in the most important sports. Evidence of the great importance attached in the USSR to high achievements in sports was the establishment in 1934. honorary titles Honored Master of Sports and Master of Sports, which were awarded to the most outstanding athletes of the country, and awarding gold medals to the winners of the USSR sports championships and athletes who set all-Union records.
In the Soviet Union, large funds were allocated annually for the construction and equipment of sports facilities, holding mass competitions and training personnel and specialists in physical culture and sports. There were no well-maintained stadiums in pre-revolutionary Russia. "The largest stadiums were built in the USSR: the Kirov Stadium in Leningrad (over 80 thousand spectators), the Dynamo stadiums in Moscow (54,500 seats) and in Kiev (about 70 thousand seats); large landscaped stadiums with stands for more than 10 thousand spectators were built in many cities. Tens of thousands of various sports facilities have been built at the expense of trade unions, enterprises, public education bodies and collective farms. In Moscow, in Luzhniki, the largest sports complex in Europe was built (1956), the territory of which occupied 177 hectares; and the stands of the central stadium of this complex accommodated 103 thousand spectators." (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, The State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 40, 1957, p. 331).
The Soviets were involved in systematic sports, which was widely used as an important means of healthy, cultural recreation and was not an end in itself for Soviet people, but a means of comprehensive physical development, preparing them for work and defending the Motherland. Numerous physical culture collectives at enterprises, institutions, and educational institutions united hundreds of thousands of athletes, being the main organizational units of sports voluntary societies. Sports competitions contributed to the education of athletes such qualities as perseverance, the will to win, courage, self-control, a sense of friendship and camaraderie, love for the Motherland, and also contributed to the promotion of physical culture.
The Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 became one of the most important events not only in sports, but also in political life. "On July 19, the XXII Olympic Games were officially opened in Moscow. Athletes from 81 countries took part. 45 states led by the United States are boycotting them because of the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan" (Tikhomirov A.E. Chronicle of the USSR (1961-1991). LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2012, p. 42). Many athletes from Western countries came to the Olympics despite the official position of their governments. The USSR impressed the participants with the scale of preparation for the Games and the high level of their holding. The Olympics turned out to be successful for Soviet sports. "Soviet athletes won 80 gold, 69 silver and 46 bronze awards" (Chronicle of Russia. XX century. A.P. Karelin, P.P. Cherkasov, A.V. Shubin, etc. Moscow. Slovo, 2002, p. 872). On August 3, the closing ceremony of the XXII Summer Olympic Games took place in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. To the song of A. Pakhmutova "Goodbye, our affectionate Misha", an inflatable bear Misha, the emblem of the Games, rose into the sky above the Central Sports Arena in the rays of the spotlights. Many spectators cried. The Olympic Games-80 was recognized as one of the most striking events of cultural life and the Olympic movement.