0This article explores the complex and challenging development process of Kazakhstani sports during the years of the Great Patriotic War. In revealing the content of the topic, firstly, the pivotal policies of the Soviet Union, including Kazakhstan, in the field of physical culture and sports were identified. Secondly, several directions of restructuring were distinguished and analyzed, including general socio-political and physical culture-defense mass activities; work with youth and schoolchildren; the preparation of defense and public personnel, as well as GTO badge holders and their dedicated efforts; and the multifaceted activities carried out in hospitals, among others.
Thirdly, the active efforts of republican voluntary sports organizations (mainly «Spartak») during the wartime period were examined. Fourthly, the outcomes of primary and pre-military physical training in Kazakhstan’s secondary and higher educational institutions were evaluated. Fifthly, the role of Kazakhstan as a training center for mountain riflemen during the war and as a coaching school for Central Asian alpinists was assessed. Sixthly, the combat feats of Kazakhstani athletes on the battlefields were considered in detail.
It is known that even before the war, sports institutions of higher education had been established in the major cities of the RSFSR (for example, the Institute of Physical Education and Sports in Leningrad, and the State Central Institute of Physical Education in Moscow, which opened in 1918 and was awarded the Order of Lenin). Alongside these, departments of physical education operated in military colleges and pedagogical universities, contributing to the full functioning of this field.
Seventhly, attention was given to the difficulties caused by the weak material base of Kazakhstan’s sports system during the war (the lack of sports facilities, their poor equipment, and the shortage of qualified specialists). Eighthly, it was substantiated that the activities of Kazakhstani athletes during wartime were organized in two main directions: firstly, participation in various defense-related activities; and secondly, engagement in combat operations on the front lines.