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[SOVIET SPORT] Mastera sporta i rekordy [i.e. Masters of Sports and Records]

Ratov, P.

Moscow: Fizkul’tura i turizm, 1934. Item #1602

112 pp.: ill. 17x12,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Tears of spine with fragment lost, covers partly detached from block, few tears of last pages, otherwise very good and clean internally.
First edition. Very rare. Cover design was created by E. Konvalevskii and A. Ladin. A cover photomontage is dedicated to competitive running, the first of 14 kinds of sport displayed in this book. Pictures are provided by photographers S. Krasinskii and I. Figurov. Unlike this edition, the second one (1935) came out with a drawn design.
This reference book witnessed the beginning of All-Union sport statistics. The Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR was established in 1935 and then the title Master of Sports of the USSR was formed.
The compiler, Pavel Ratov (1896-1959) was a Soviet athlete participating in discus throwing and pentathlon, a judge of the all-Union category (1934), Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1946). In this edition, Ratov compares pre-revolutionary Russian, contemporary Soviet and foreign records. The work comprises results in athletics, GTO сombined track and field events, swimming, cycling, weight lifting, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, shooting, skating, skiing, as well as football, tennis, hockey. If results were difficult to present in numbers, the compiler gave results of 1933 competitions. Thus, schemes of the Moscow and Leningrad Tennis championships among men and women were published. A visual section features photographs of Soviet masters of sports.

Worldcat doesn’t track this edition.

Price: $450.00