In 1927, in order to widely disseminate knowledge and skills, which are the basis for further training of citizens in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the country, a public structure was created, which received the specific name - the Society for Assistance to Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction. In abbreviated form - OSOAVIAHIM.
Creation of a new military sports organization
This military-patriotic organization did not appear from scratch - it was preceded by a number of structures also aimed at teaching young people under military service age, but each of them had a narrow focus, touching only a limited range of issues. Despite all their importance in strengthening the country's defense, in 1927, at the initiative of the People's Commissar of Defense K. E. Voroshilov, they were united into a single organization - OSOAVIAHIM. The decoding of the name given at the beginning of the article fully reflected the purpose of this newly formed structure. Its appearance, caused by another aggravation of the international situation, was very timely.
From the first days of its existence, OSOAVIAHIM of the USSR gained wide popularity among representatives of the most diverse age groups and social strata of the population. A year later, in its ranks, there were over two million people. Such a visual success of the undertaking was primarily ensured by the assistance provided by the party and Soviet organizations.
Widespread nationwide movement
Within the framework of this new national program, which covered the whole country, a network of training centers was established, organized on the basis of production enterprises, as well as educational and research and design organizations. Attending courses of orderlies, radio operators, or a shooting club has become a familiar and prestigious way for both young people and middle-aged people.
Strongholds were created everywhere in which high school students - tomorrow's soldiers - were given the opportunity to get acquainted with the basics of military affairs, learn to master various types of small arms, and also drive a car or tractor. At the end of the course, of course, subject to the successful passing of exams, graduates received certificates of orderlies, paratroopers, radio operators, as well as other specialists in demand in wartime. Each graduate also received the OSOAVIAHIM badge , approved in 1928 by a special government decree.
Accurate shooters of Marshal Voroshilov
As part of the training of future defenders of the Motherland, the OSOAVIAHIM leadership (the abbreviation is deciphered at the beginning of the article), in close cooperation with the People’s Health Commissariat, developed the subsequently widely known Ready for Labor and Defense (TRP) complex. It included a list of standards that determined the level of physical fitness of people of various age categories, the delivery of which was mandatory in those years.
Among other sports, this complex also included shooting that was so popular in those years. To make it even more popular in 1932, a decree of the government established the honorary badge Voroshilovsky shooter. He was awarded the persons who achieved the greatest success in this discipline, the most in demand in the event of hostilities.
Sports victory of Moscow shooters
Two years later, in Moscow, the holders of the badge were united into one of the country's first clubs of Voroshilov shooters and were honored to represent the Soviet Union at international competitions, in which shooters of one of the American amateur clubs also took part. Having defeated overseas athletes by a significant margin by points, Muscovites showed the result, which many newspapers of the world wrote about in those days.
Pilots and paratroopers - pupils of the Moscow club
Already in the early thirties, the primary organizations of OSOAVIAHIM appeared at most production enterprises in the country, sometimes developing activities of unprecedented scale. An example of this is the Moscow Aviation Plant. On its basis, social activists on-the-job production training for pilots and other aviation specialists.
If by that time almost every enterprise had a sports section or a shooting club, then pilot training brought the work of the primary organization of the plant to a whole new level. A parachutist club was also created there, of which both men and women were members. The history of world sports entered a record set in 1934 by its participant Nina Kameneva, who left the plane at an altitude of three thousand meters and opened the canopy of the parachute just two hundred meters to the ground.
Assistance in organizing a dog training service
It is known that in those same years, in order to assist the border troops of the country, as well as the police in Moscow, on the basis of the city organization OSOAVIAHIM, an exemplary Service Dog Breeding Club was created. His task was not so much training dogs intended for use in various types of guard and search services, but training novice dog handlers who expressed a desire to devote themselves to working with animals.
One of OSOAVIAHIM's brainchilds is the world-famous St. Petersburg Service Dog Breeding Club, which recently celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary. His achievements are hard to overestimate. It is enough to mention that it was in the city on the Neva that the club members first organized the now so popular world dog and dog championships of Europe and Europe.
OSOAWIAHIM's preparations for war
When the first hotbeds of a future world war broke out in Europe in 1939, and the threat of an attack on our country became quite obvious, along with the Armed Forces, OSOAVIAHIM conducted extensive preparations for it. Deciphering his abbreviation not without reason marks as a paramount task all-round assistance to the country's defense. In those years, the central council of the organization decided to reorganize the educational process and replace the study system with the creation of units, similar to those provided for in the army.
As a result of work carried out in the shortest possible time, in the two prewar years, only in the capital, about three thousand two hundred self-defense groups were trained that could take up a battle with a conditional enemy, and by the beginning of the war their number had increased to four thousand. In addition, more than 1,100 air defense and chemical defense posts were created, the personnel of which exceeded 700 thousand people. The indisputable merit of the employees of OSOAVIAHIM in Moscow and most of the major cities of the country is also the training of civilians in actions in the atmosphere of enemy air attacks.
Attempts to transform the former social structure
OSOAVIAHIM as a single organization lasted until 1948, after which, by a government decision, it was reorganized and divided into three independent societies, each of which limited its scope to a certain framework. So, the first of them specialized exclusively in the assistance of the army, the second in aviation, and the third in the navy.
However, this separation was ineffective, and in 1951 all three branches were merged again into a single structure, called DOSAAF and in many respects similar to the previous OSOAVIAHIM, the decoding of which abbreviation emphasized the internal unity of the country's Armed Forces aimed at its defense. Today, this structure has also been abolished, and its functions are transferred to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.