Military Instruction and Military Physical Training of Students in Western Siberia as Part of the Pre-War Soviet Culture (1939-1941)

The study analyzes the militarization of the physical culture sphere in the late 1930s - early 1940s and the interaction of various institutions in organizing and expanding military instruction, military physical training and ideological and patriotic preparation in Western Siberia as integral parts of the pre-war Soviet culture. The most significant regulations and events are analyzed based on regional archival material and periodicals. The study showed that in the pre-war years the USSR implemented a set of measures to radically change the system of military physical training of students and the country's population as a whole. The most significant actions for the restructuring of the military and physical training system of students were: the government decision of 1939 on the organization of military training and physical education groups as part of the RSFSR Narkompros (the Narkomproses of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics and regional educational departments), which included educational and methodological guidance of the military and physical training of students and youth; the creation of a special directorate for pre-conscription training in the People's Commissariat of Defence and an inspectorial apparatus for basic and pre-conscription military training in the local bodies of military administration at the beginning of 1940; the resolution of the RSFSR Sovnarkom of 1941 on measures to develop physical education and sports in the RSFSR. Military training of students in all educational institutions of Western Siberia was organized as early as in 1939. The sphere of physical culture occupied one of the key positions in the formation of the ideologically and physically prepared defender of the motherland. Volunteer sport unions, the Komsomol, Osoaviakhim, trade unions and others provided substantial assistance to the military and physical culture committees in organizing military physical training. In the pre-war years, Western Siberia, like the USSR, massively introduced military technical and applied sports, organized paramilitary skiing and hiking fro the conscripted youth. Parachuting, passing the standards for "GTO" [Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR], "Voroshilov Sharpshooter", "Ready for Air and Chemical Defense" and other defense badges were very popular among the population. In 1939 Novosibirsk Oblast had five times more holders of defense badges among the conscripted youth than in 1938. Thus, the system of military and physical training of students in Western Siberia in the pre-war years worked quite efficiently: the training became part of the culture of Soviet citizens; the state and party bodies and public organizations interacted comprehensively on the issue. Such public organizations as the Komsomol and Osoaviakhim made a significant contribution to the patriotic and military physical training of the young generation.

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