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[PHYSICAL CULTURE IN THE EARLY USSR IN PHOTOS AND PHOTOMONTAGES] GOLIFK Photomontage Album

Item #2786

[1938]. 18 b/w prints. Most montages: 17,5x22,5 cm. Album: 23x30 cm. In velvet cloth. Leaves bumped, with foxing, album rubbed, with minor holes in cloth. Most prints are in very good condition. A long composition with portraits lost the central fragment (with some professors) – two side parts are preserved.

In particular, the lost fragment featured a photo of Elizarii Zelikson (1892–1964), head of the institute in 1926-1937. In 1937, E. Zelikson was removed from his position of director. He was accused of promoting rhythmic gymnastics, which was said to harm young women, and of speaking German with Kramer (a German student gymnast who had been labeled an “enemy of the people”), among other things. Zelikson was allowed to remain at the Department of History of Physical Culture, which he had founded. In 1949, Zelikson was arrested again, on charges of wrecking and cosmopolitanism, taking into account the 1937 accusations. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of his property, including his large specialized library and all of his scholarly works.

This early Soviet photomontage album was compiled upon the graduation of students enrolled at GOLIFK [State Order of Lenin Institute of Physical Culture named after P. F. Lesgaft] in 1936.

The history of this institute dates back to 1896 when Jewish Christian anatomist and pedagogue Peter Lesgaft (1837–1909) opened the Higher Scientific Courses for the Training of Female Instructors of Physical Education. These courses, like Lesgaft’s previous ones, were shut down for political reasons. After the Revolution, the institute became the State Institute of Physical Education and was named after Lesgaft in 1924. His ideas about hygiene, proper regime, and the role of outside games were actively used for the mass physical education of Soviet people.

The first print features a portrait of the founder, buildings of the Institute and a statue “Atheletes” which became the institute’s emblem in the Soviet era but was likely lost. The main building was located in the former mansion of Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, daughter of Emperor Alexander III; it was nationalized in 1917. Among six buildings, the latest was constructed under Stalin’s rule. Its photo shows pompous but funereal ornaments that appeared on the building after Kirov’s death.

After the graduation portraits, the album contains photomontage compositions dedicated to the various sports disciplines studied by the students: gymnastics, boxing, skiing, skating, rowing, track and field, football, volleyball, basketball, hockey, swimming, and rhythmic gymnastics. At the end, one composition is devoted to groups of students on excursions to other cities. Some compositions are more visually striking.

Price: $1,200.00