Problems of Organizing the System of General Military Training in 1918-1920: Western Siberia and Olonetsk Province – a Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The article examines the problems of organizing the system of general military training and the development of physical culture and sports in 1918-1920 in Olonets province and the Western Siberia. The scale of the Russian state determined the different time frames for the creation of branches of the General Education on its territory, in connection with which the question of the identity of their functioning in different regions of the country is interesting. On the basis of legislative acts, archival and documentary sources, the authors reconstruct the activities of the provincial and district branches of the General Education on the organization of military training courses, on the creation of elementary sports facilities, on attracting young people to physical education and sports. The study focuses on the problems and difficulties of organizing this work in districts. Domestic historiography on the history of the organization of general military training in the Russian province is insignificant. Active research work on the development of physical culture and sports in 1918-1920 continues in modern Russia is going on, without losing its relevance to the present. The novelty of the research is determined by the introduction of previously unpublished sources into scientific circulation. For the first time, the authors attempted a comparative analysis to determine the tendency for the creation and operation of branches of the General Education on the example of two regions significantly remote from the center of the country – Western Siberia and Olonets province. The restoration of historical details on the organization of physical culture and sports in the years 1918-1920 on the ground: the creation of provincial and district branches of the Vsevobuch, financing, the opening of general military training courses and the development of physical culture and sports on the ground will help significantly complete the picture of the historical events of the Civil War in Western Siberia and in the Olonets province