The organization of extracurricular physical cultural and sport mass work in higher institutional establishments (HIE) in Western Siberia (HIE of Tomsk, 1945-1991)

Physical culture in the period under review was an important element of educational process in universities and was characterized by the variety of forms. The main forms of extracurricular work included sections and sport mass activities. Sections in Siberian universities in the postwar period functioned at the level of sports organizations they belonged to. The number of sections in the first postwar years was not great, and the same was true as to the number of participants. Some visible stability in the work of sections appeared only in the early 1960s. Besides the university sports sections, sports youth schools were functioning founded to improve the quality of physical work among youth and to make the level of highly-qualified sportsmen more professional. Up to the mid-1950s the representatives of Siberian sports schools started to participate in the competitions at the state level. In 1957 the «Burevestnik» sports organization was founded and the training of highly-qualified sportsmen was transferred to it. With the foundation of sport-and-wellness camps in the 1950s the training of Siberian university sportsmen became an all-year-round activity. The material base of the camps was created mostly by the students and teachers of the universities sport departments. In 1962 a decree was issued on training 20-25% of the whole amount of university students to sports categories. It inspired the universities' sports departments and the «Burevestnik» sports organization to improve the work on training the sportsmen with categories. To make the level of qualified sportsmen higher priority kinds of sports were defined according to which children and youth groups were organized. The highly qualified coaches were involved in this process which resulted in the growth of constellations of high class sportsmen. At the universities many sports activities were held such as summer and winter all-around competitions, light athletic and ski crosses, competitions among the students living in the hostels. From the early 1960s diverse socialist competitions became widespread at Siberian universities. Thus, we can conclude that sports mass work in the system of higher education was a valuable and necessary addition to the process of sports education. The mass character of this process and the creative variety of its forms and methods influenced positively the growth of students in the physical culture movement.

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