Bringing youth up in brave and patriotic spirit by means of sports with the set of standards «Be ready to work and defend your homeland» (GTO standards) since 1917 to the 1940-ies

The paper considered the Set of Standards for sportive and physical training curricula called « Ready to Work and Defend my Homeland (the USSR)» (GTO standards) has played the crucial part in the Soviet physical training movement since 1917 to the 1940-ies. In the period prior to the Great Patriotic War the nation had required millions of strong and brave citizens that entailed necessity to set up an integrated physical training strategy meeting new requirements for physical training movement’ advancement. The Set «Ready to Work and Defend my Homeland» (GTO standards) enjoyed widespread popularity among the population of the Soviet country. In 1931, 24 thousand athletes were awarded with the GTO badges, while 465 thousand people in 1932, and 835 thousand people in 1933. By the mid-1930-ies, the number of GTO badge-holders had reached 1.2 million people. At the beginning of 1941, the country totaled more than 62 thousand physical training groups (amateur sports teams), including more than 5 million non-professional athletes; and the number of those having passed the ‘1st level GTO’ contest had exceeded 6 million people, as for the ‘2nd level GTO’ requirements, more than 100 thousand people had met them. Millions of Soviet athletes, their coaches and instructors at the physical training institutes completed the Red Army ranks; skier or reconnaissance battalions or guerrilla bands were raised out of these people, they became good snipers or paratroopers. Experience has shown that militarizing mass sports in the 1920-to-1930-ies have not been useless measure, and the defence-applicable purpose of the latter (especially introducing the GTO standards curricula) as well.