Organizational and legal regulation of the development of mass sports in Russia in 1917-1945

The article is devoted to the analysis of the history of organizational and legal development of mass sports in Russia in the post-revolutionary period and before the Great Patriotic War. The relevance of this issue is due to the fact that in recent years the development of mass sports in Russia remains one of the priorities of domestic policy. Some aspects of state policy in the field of mass sports in the post-revolutionary period can be useful in our days. It is revealed that the development of mass sports as a system was a complex process of differentiation and integration of public sports organizations. The stages of overcoming organizational fragmentation, forming club and territorial structure of circles of physical culture were historically determined in this process; as well as the transition to the production principle of the organization of sports movement, that is to the establishment of collectives of physical culture and their further incorporation in the system of voluntary sports societies.