Ph.D., Associate Professor S.A. Pronin¹
National State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft, St. Petersburg

Keywords: Vadim Konstantinovich Bal'sevich, journal "Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury", organizational issues of sports science.

In February 1989, Ph.D. [1], Dr.Hab. [2], Professor Vadim Bal'sevich, was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Teoriya i Praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury”. Being successful as a leader of the complex scientific group of the USSR’s picked track-and-field team for more than 10 years, he had more than once tackled the most complex tasks, but the ones he faced in his new capacity were far more challenging.

In July 1989 M.V. Gramov, the Chairman of the USSR State Committee for physical culture and sports, was not re-confirmed in his position by the I Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR due to his “poor knowledge of the subject”. Nikolai Rusak, former M.V. Gramov’s First Deputy, was elected to that position. That man, the legend of the national physical culture and sports movement, became, in fact, not only the last “Minister of Sports” of the USSR, but also the last official of such a high rank to regard the national sport science as a holistic systemic formation.

On 26 December 1991 the USSR ceased to exist. The national sports, including sport science, were exposed to, figuratively speaking, the Moloch of political regime changes. The consequences of this process were aggravated by the ensuing transition to the market economy in the form of a ‘shock therapy’.

The attitude of the state leadership of the newly created Russia, which was headed by B.N. Yeltsin, towards the social policy sphere was characterized by sophisticated pharisaism. This was most vividly demonstrated in the sector of physical culture and sport. On the one hand, decrees were signed, laws were adopted and far-reaching promises were given. On the other hand, those were left without any financial support [3]. Moreover, the leaders of the national physical culture and sports movement started to come and go. Thus, over the period from 1991 to 1999 they succeeded one another six times (V.N. Machuga, V.S. Sysoev, Yu.M. Portnov, Sh.A. Tarpishchev, L.V. Tyagachev, B.V. Ivanyuzhenkov). Each of them, individually, was a good specialist in specific area of physical culture and sport. However, that flickering of them all was rather reminiscent of a sort of a theatre of the absurd rather than a carefully designed governmental policy. At that time the national physical culture and sports movement had a big problem [5].

The sports science, which had already been financed by a leftover principle, was actually left on the verge of survival. The subsidies paid to scientific research institutions were reduced to a minimum. Their staff decreased many times. After the XXIV Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 the complex scientific groups of all picked teams were dissolved. In the early 90s the total number of the annual scientific conferences dedicated to physical culture and sports issues, which were held in the Russian Federation, was as low as ten [4]. The information support of the entire section actually ceased.

A critical situation arose in 1992. The journals “Nauchno-sportivny vestnik” (“Science and Sports Herald”), “Sportivnye igry” (“Sports Games”) and “Sport za rubezhom” (“International Sport”) ceased to be published. In order to survive all the leading physical culture and sports editions started publishing double and even triple issues.

The journal “Teoriya i Praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury” was on the verge of extinction, when the editorial board of the journal, headed by V.K. Bal'sevich, rose to the challenge posed to it by the life itself. Everyone understood that the Journal, which had become a national cultural asset by that time, was in need of rescue. This was accomplished largely due to the assistance rendered by the rector of Moscow Institute of Physical Culture (GCOLIFK), Valeriy Vladimirovich Kuzin (1963—2006). He provided the office space to the editorial staff and allocated funds for the organization of production. The only issue of the Journal in 1992 was published in the Institute’s printshop.

There were two main ways to the survival of the Journal. The first was to increase the number of subscribers, but it was rather difficult to persuade the governmental agencies to subscribe to the Journal, to say nothing of the common people who were hardly able to make ends meet. Nevertheless, certain steps were taken to resolve this problem in that the array of the most conspicuous elements of the Journal format, its sections, was enlarged. Their number had grown almost three times.

The second way was to attract investors. A state enterprise was founded based on the Journal editorial board’s resources. V.K. Bal'sevich, using his organizational skills, managed to find the businesses which would invest into the financial resources into the development of that enterprise. That not only helped finance the production cycle of the journal “Teoriya i Praktika fizicheskoy kul'tury”, but also to start issuing a new periodical in 1996, that of the journal “Fizicheskaya kul'tura: vospitanie, obrazovanie, trenirovka”.

References

1. Bal'sevich, V.K. Issledovanie osnovnykh parametrov dvizheniy v bege na skorost' i nekotorye puti sovershenstvovaniya v tekhnike begunov na korotkie distantsii: avtoref. dis. … kand. ped. nauk (Study of the basic movement characteristics in speed running and ways to improve sprint technique) / V.K. Bal'sevich. – Moscow: [s.n.], 1965. – 23 P.
2. Bal'sevich, V.K. Issledovanie lokomotornoy funktsii v postnatal'nom ontogeneze cheloveka (5–65 let): avtoref. dis. … dokt. biolog. nauk (Study of locomotor function in postnatal ontogenesis in man (5-65 years): abstract of doctoral thesis (Biol.) / V.K. Bal'sevich. – Moscow: [s.n.], 1971. – 38 P.
3. Kuzin, V.V. Vozmozhnosti finansirovaniya sporta za shchet igornogo biznesa (Possibilities of financing sports at expense of gambling industry) / V.K. Kuzin, M.I. Zolotov, M.E. Kutepov // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kul'tury. – 1999. – № 4. – P. 2–5.
4. Pronin, S.A. Dvadtsaty vek rossiyskoy nauki o fizicheskoy kul'ture i sporte: Kn. 3. (1985–1999 gg.): bibliogr. ukazatel' (Twentieth Century of Russian science of physical culture and sport: Book 3. (1985-1999.): Reference) / Lesgaft National State University. – St. Petersburg: Olimp–SPb, 2010. – 276 P.
5. Tsaturova, K.A. Fizicheskaya kul'tura v postsovetskoy Rossii // Istoriya fizicheskoy kul'tury v Rossii (Physical Culture in the Post-Soviet Russia // History of Physical Culture in Russia). – Nizhny Novgorod, 2001. – [§] 6.3. – pp. 116–125.

Corresponding author: pro-555@mail.ru