Development of physical culture and sports in the Soviet Far East in the pre-war years

Based on historical facts extracted from the documents of the state archives of the Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, the article examines the main aspects of the development of physical culture and sports in the Far East in the pre-war years. It is established that before the war began, work was carried out throughout the country, including the far Eastern region, to educate healthy, physically strong citizens who were ready not only to work hard, but also to stand up for the socialist Fatherland if necessary. One of the main directions of physical culture and sports work was the “Ready for work and defense" (RWD) complex, which was a state system of program and evaluation standards and requirements for physical fitness of men and women aged 16 to 35-40 years. It was revealed that planned tasks for passing RWD norms were sent from Moscow to the region, and reporting and monitoring of their implementation were systematically carried out. Since 1939, militarization has increased in physical culture and sports work - the main attention has been paid to the development of military-applied sports (shooting, generate throwing, hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting, overcoming obstacle courses, military-oriented pedestrian and ski crossings). In conclusion, the article summarizes that the development of physical education and sports was purely pragmatic in providing the Red Army with combat-ready reinforcement.