Public political organizations' activity on preparing the population of the Far East to defend the country during the Great Patriotic War

The article deals with the public political organizations’ activity on preparing the population of the Far East to defend the country during the Great Patriotic War. The special attention is paid to the activity of the Far Eastern branches of the General Compulsory Education Organization (Vseobuch), the Society of Assistance to Defense and Aviation-Chemical Construction of the USSR (OSOAVIAKhIM), to the public organizations involved in the people’s mass sanitary training programs in 1934-1967 held by the USSR Red Cross and Red Crescent Union, physical training in general educational, professional and sports organizations of the USSR (GTO) and the primary all-Union physical education complex “Ready for labor and defense” of the USSR (BGTO). The article outlines and analyzes the basic trends of the party and Soviet authorities’ activity in the field of improving the defense and physical training and sports sphere in the Far East region, their achievements and drawbacks.