Origin and Development of the State All-Union Publishing House “Fizkultura i Sport” in the 1930s

Section: History of Journalism

The article discusses one of the key stages in the formation of the all-Union state publishing house Physical Culture and Sport (or Physical Culture and Tourism, as it was called for most of the 1930s), which played a crucial role in creating the original system of Soviet physical education. The reasons and circumstances of the publishing house under study joining the Association of State Book and Magazine Publishing Houses of RSFSR (OGIZ) in 1931, as well as leaving it in 1938, are investigated. All transformations were carried out with the aim of systematic development and improvement of the publishing house, which had to meet the growing needs of actively developing Soviet physical culture. Based on a comparative analysis of data from archival documents contained in the State Archives of the Russian Federation and publications of central periodicals on physical culture and sports, the author of the article proposes that, despite the steady demand for printed materials on physical culture and sports, the structural transformations that the publishing house experienced were not able to solve its chronic problems throughout the decade. Among these constant problems were, first of all, dependence on the supply of paper, a lack of their own printing house and a shortage of qualified editorial personnel. Despite the reforms undertaken by the governing agencies, activities under centralized planning did not bring the required results: the volume and circulation of the sports press remained at the level of 1930 and lagged noticeably behind the growth of sports and sports movement in the USSR.

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To cite this article: Alekseev K.A. (2023) Vozniknovenie i razvitie gosudarstvennogo vsesoyuznogo izdatel'stva «Fizkul'tura i sport» v 1930-e gg. [Origin and Development of the State All-Union Publishing House “Fizkultura i Sport” in the 1930s]. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika 2: 91–124. DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.2.2023.91124