Leningrad magazine “Spartak” as one of the leading sports publications of the USSR in the 1920–1930s.

For citation: Alekseev K. Leningrad magazine “Spartak” as one of the leading sports publications of the USSR in the 1920–1930s. // Mediascope. 2023. 1. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2780

© Konstantin A. Alekseev

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Chair of History of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg, Russia), cheslav83@gmail.com

Abstract

The article discusses the formation and development of the Leningrad sports magazine "Spartak" as one of the key publications on physical culture and sports in the USSR in the 1920s-1930s. The paper sets the task to describe and explain the key moments in the history of the Spartak magazine, to clarify the circumstances of its appearance and development. An attempt is also being made to objectively assess the place of publication in the system of physical culture and sports press and its significance for the development of sports in Leningrad and the USSR as a whole. In the conditions of poor knowledge of the topic, the key method of work was a comparative analysis of two types of sources: publications of the journal itself and materials from the archives of St. Petersburg. It is concluded that the development of the Leningrad magazine "Spartak" took place in parallel and in close connection with the development of the entire Soviet physical culture and sports movement, and its history shows well that this development was not a linear, smooth and consistent process. Throughout the 1920s, the ideology, organizational forms and methods of Soviet physical culture have not yet been settled down, and in these conditions the journal covered the life of not only Leningrad and the Leningrad Region (while remaining the only physical culture and sports periodical in the region), but the entire USSR. "Spartak", along with the central Moscow publications, claimed a leading role in the physical culture movement.

Keywords: physical education, sports, sports periodicals, publishing, sports magazine

Notes

Andreev A. (1929) Nakaz chitatelya [Reader's injunction]. Spartak 21: 6. (In Russian)

Panov A. (1929) Spartakovskoy tribune fizkul’turnyi privet [Sports greetings to Spartak tribune]. Spartak 21: 2. (In Russian)

Chudinov I.G. (ed.) (1957) Osnovnye postanovleniya, prikazy i instruktsii po voprosam fizkul’tury i sporta. 1917–1957 [Basic resolutions, orders and instructions on the issues of physical culture and sports]. Moscow. P. 17. (In Russian)

CSA SPb [Central State Archive of St. Petersburg]. Fund 4301. Inventory 1. File 3391. Sheet 120. (In Russian).

CSA SPb. F. 4301. Inv. 1. File. 3391. Sh. 85, 92, 120. (In Russian)

CSA SPb. F. 8. Inv. 1. File 2811. Sh. 8. (In Russian)

CSAHPD SPb [Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg]. F. 601. Inv. 1. File 358. Sh. 14. (In Russian)

CSAHPD SPb. F. 601. Inv. 1. File 558. Sh. 15. (In Russian)

CSAHPD SPb. F. 601. Inv. 1. File 558. Sh. 7. (In Russian)

CSAHPD SPb. F. 601. Inv. 1. File 661. Sh. 5. (In Russian)

CSALA SPb [Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg]. F. 33. Inv. 1. File 199. Sh. 11, 15. (In Russian)

Peysin I. (1929) Stranichka proshlogo [A page of the past]. Spartak 21: 5. (In Russian)

Semashko N. “Fizkul’tura dybom” [“Physical culture stands on end”] (1925) Krasnyi Sport 6: 1. (In Russian)

Ne revizuyte resheniy TsK VKP(b) [Do not revise the decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b)] (1930) Spartak 22: 2. (In Russian)

Pis’mo iz redaktsii [Editorial letter] (1931) Spartak 1: 1. (In Russian)

Plenum postanovil [The plenary decided] (1931) Spartak 9 (77): 3. (In Russian)

Redaktsiyam “Fizkul’tura i sport” i “Fizicheskaya kul’tura” [To the editorials "Physical culture and sport" and "Physical culture"] (1931) Spartak 49–50: 2. (In Russian)

RSASPH [Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History]. F. 537. Inv. 1. File 116. Sh. 156. (In Russian)

Sobetskiy M. (1924) O pechati po fizicheskoy kul’ture [Press on physical culture]. Spartak 2: 42. (In Russian)

Spartak. 1931. No. 65. (In Russian)

Stenograficheskiy doklad t. Panova na Plenume LGSFK ot 27 oktyabrya s. g. ob itogakh letney raboty i o zadachakh na zimniy period [Verbatim report by Comrade Panov at the Plenary of the LGSFK dated October 27 on the results of summer work and tasks for the winter period] (1926) Informatsionnyi byulleten’ Leningradskogo gubernskogo soveta fizicheskoy kul’tury. Leningrad. P. 30. (In Russian)

Zavtrashniy den’ protiv vcherashnego вчерашнего [Tomorrow versus yesterday] (1929) Spartak 6: 1. (In Russian)

Zhivoy. Mertvets [Alive. Deadman] (1927) Spartak 21: 6. (In Russian)

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