Improvement of the system of physical culture and sports in Karelia in the second half of the 1920s

The history of the development of physical culture and sports in the USSR dates back to 1918. Modern researchers have already published a significant number of documents and studies on different periods of our historical past, addressing both the creation of the state system in general and the development of the physical culture movement in certain regions. The relevance of studying the history of physical culture and sports is due to close attention to current public health issues and the development of mass sports in the modern society. The article examines the improvement of the system of physical culture and sports in Karelia in 1925-1929. These years saw the intensive activities of the Karelian Council of Physical Culture and the Council of Trade Unions aimed at organizing sports clubs and competitions, introducing new kinds of sports to the local population, forming national teams for participation in all-union competitions. The methodology of the study is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, which allows us to consider the processes of development of physical culture and sports in the region from specific historical perspectives and take into greater consideration the historical and modern socio-cultural contexts. The novelty of the research is determined by the introduction of previously unpublished sources into scientific circulation. The source base for writing the work was the collection of the National Archives of the Republic of Karelia on the Council of Physical Culture under the Executive Committee of the Kem’ District Council (F. R-852), as well as other various published and unpublished documents. The article uses legislative acts, materials of the republican periodical press, in particular the Karelskaya Kommuna and Krasnaya Karelia newspapers. So far, there has been no studies on the history of the development of physical culture and sports in Karelia in the second half of the 1920s. The previously published materials are fragmentary and full of facts without any relevant analysis and commentary. This paper is the first to use legislative acts, archival documents, and other documentary materials in order to analyze the activities of the Republican Council of Physical Culture and the Council of Trade Unions aimed to improve the physical culture and sports movement in Karelia in 1925-1929. The paper concludes on the creation of a system of physical culture and sports in the republic, despite serious problems with its organization.