Affiliation:
1. Saint Petersburg State University
Abstract
The article discusses the development of the Leningrad sports newspaper Spartak in the context of the transformation of the Soviet physical culture and sports movement and the system of its profile periodicals in the 1930s under the influence of a complex of political, ideological, and economic factors. Spartak was one of the longest-running and most widespread sports publications of the pre-war period, but before that, the circumstances of its emergence, typological changes and termination were not the subject of researchers’ attention. The study analyzed the material of newspaper publications and materials of the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg and the Central State Institute of Physical Education. We explored the key events in the history of the newspaper, which were directly related to the process of restructuring the physical culture movement. Among those are the need for prompt coverage of the implementation of the TRP complex, the transition to centralized planning in the publishing sphere and participation in political campaigns to increase revolutionary vigilance, criticism and self-criticism in the press and among sports organizations. Based on a comparative analysis of archive data and newspaper publications, we identified the main stages in the development of the Spartak newspaper in the period from 1932 to 1939, as well as the reasons for typological changes, interruptions in the work of the editorial office and the closure of the newspaper in 1939. According to the author, the main factor that influenced the fate of the newspaper was its forced transition from economic independence to a subsidized position. It was due to the administrative reduction in circulation, which a few years later, due to the persecution of a number of leaders of the Soviet physical culture movement as ‘enemies of the people’, led to a crisis in the work of the publication, which was accused of patronizing ‘saboteurs and pests’.
Funder
Saint Petersburg State University
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