Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union

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The Voluntary Sports Societies (VSS) of the USSR (Russian: Добровольные спортивные общества (ДСО) СССР, Dobrobolvolnye Sportivye Obshestva SSSR (DSO SSSR)) were the main structural parts of the universal sports and physical education (fitness) system, that existed in the USSR between 1935 and 1991. The word "voluntary" in the Soviet system carried special meaning indicating that those societies were not "departmental" and had nothing to do with a free will.

The Departmental Sports Societies (DSS) of the USSR (DSS-USSR) (Russian: Ведомственное спортивное общество (BCO) CCCP, Vedomstvennoye Sportivnoye Obshchestvo SSSR (VSO SSSR)) were only very few:

• Dinamo
• Voluntary society in support of Army, Aviation, and Fleet (DOSAAF)
• Armed Forces sports societies (CSKA, SKA, VO, DKA, DO, others).

A special sports society was "Spartak" that was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its youth wing Komsomol. The Spartak sports society was mimicking a voluntary sports society claiming its heritage from the trade unions of either "industrial cooperation" or food suppliers. Following the Soviet Union expansion and occupation of neighboring territories Spartak was one of the sports societies that were established instantaneously along with Dynamo.

The VSS united sporting people, offering hiking, mountaineering, boating, and various other sports. Their goals were to develop mass physical culture and sports and to provide facilities and conditions for sports training and improvement in athletes' skills. Most of the VSS were governed by trade Unions and often were closely associated with a certain ministry (aircraft industry, food workers, tractor industry, KGB, Red Army, Soviet Air Force), with industries being state-funded. Twenty five million athletes were members of such societies in 1970.

One of the most important features of VSS were Children and Youth Sport Schools (Russian: Детско-юношеские спортивные школы, ДЮСШ), which numbered 1,350 in the 1970s and 7,500 in 1987. Later some of them were reformed into more elite Olympic reserve schools. There were also specialized sport clubs, groups of improvement athletes' skills, etc. More than 50,000 trainers and instructors worked there in these institutions.