Militarization of physical culture and sports in the 1920s: Methods of organization and results

The military reform of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in 1924–1925 was aimed at improving leadership and improving the quality of training of command personnel, creating a new system for recruiting the Armed Forces, and organizing a coherent system for military service by the country's citizens. Physical education organizations were tasked with militarizing physical culture and sports and solving the problem of military physical training of pre-conscription youth. Based on materials from the central and regional periodicals of the pre-war period, the article presents the methods and forms of militarization in the European North of the Soviet Union. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the work is the first to analyze the problems of the development of physical education and sports in the light of the policy of militarization in the northern regions of the country. The author proves that in the 1920s this direction was at the initial stage of its development, limited to agitation and propaganda among the population and holding demonstration sports competitions in certain sports.