Urozhai

one of the USSR’s largest republic-wide voluntary sports societies. Urozhai organizes physical-culture, sports, and touring activities for kolkhozniks, workers, and employees of sovkhozes and other enterprises, as well as for students at agricultural and cooperative educational institutions located in agricultural areas of the RSFSR. The society was founded in 1950 and as of 1976 included 31,400 physical-culture groups with a total of 5.2 million members. It organizes activities in approximately 50 sports, including national sports.

In 1975, Urozhai had 365 stadiums, 1,300 gymnasiums, 1,200 shooting ranges, 26,800 soccer fields, 6,500 hockey fields, 139,000 athletic fields, 670 ski stations, 46 swimming pools, 855 sports and health camps, approximately 50 hunting and fishing lodges, 187 children’s and young people’s sports schools, and 17 Olympic training bases.

Between 1971 and 1975, 5.5 million recipients of the badge Ready for Labor and Defense of the USSR and more than 6 million athletes with amateur sports ratings were trained by Urozhai. In 1975 the society trained approximately 200 masters of sport of the USSR and 700 candidates for the title. Urozhai employs approximately 596,000 volunteer instructors and coaches, approximately 400,000 sports officials, and more than 14,000 physical-culture and sports staff workers.

Numerous athletes trained by Urozhai have on several occasions won championships and prizes in the Olympic Games and world, European, and Soviet competitions. They include A. Z. Aliev, R. N. Ashuraliev, A. V. Ignat’ev, G. I. Kulakova, V. N. Nevzorov, E. V. Petushkova, V. P. Rochev, and R. P. Smetanina.