The system of pre-conscription training of young people for military service in the USSR in the 1930s (on the materials of the Ulyanovsk region)

The article is devoted to the analysis of forms and methods of pre-conscription training of Soviet youth in the 1930s. Based on the analysis of the legal framework, the main requirements for pre-conscription training and the mechanisms for its implementation are noted. On the base of archival materials, the author shows that the pre-conscription training of Ulyanovsk youth was successful in three main areas: the work of military training centers and military training camps, military-political education through the organization of reports, lectures, conversations with young people, control over physical condition and health of pre-conscripts. The author concludes that the quality of military training of Ulyanovsk youth was influenced by the material and technical base: the unusability of some of the weapons that were in military training centers, the lack of premises for conducting classes negatively affected the training. Political and educational work was carried out on the base of military training centers and by the forces of party and Komsomol organizations. In general, pre-conscription training solved a number of problems: training of literate, physically hardy conscripts who possessed the knowledge, skills and abilities in military affairs.