Sports in the life of Polish state police officers in 1921 - 1939. (on the example of volyn voivodeship)

Abstract

The state police was a constituent part of the internal affairs bodies in the Second Polish Republic. This institution united three corps: general, investigative (criminal) and political. Its territorial organization corresponded to the administrative division of the state. District (voivodeship) administrations, county administrations, commissariats and precincts (posts) functioned under the leadership of the Main Directorate of the State Police in Warsaw. Since 1919, the above-mentioned state armed body of the executive power began its activities on the territory of Volyn as well, which during the interwar period was part of the newly revived Polish state as Volyn Voivodeship. The everyday life of police officers consisted of service and a private life. An important role was given to physical education, which helped law enforcement officers rest from the performance of professional duties, and at the same time made the body strong and contributed to a better working capacity. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to study individual manifestations of the sports life of Polish state police officers in 1919 – 1939 (on the example of the Volyn Voivodeship). The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and specially historical research methods, including problem-chronological, synchronous, diachronic, comparative historical and the others. The scientific novelty is that the authors tried, on the basis of unpublished archival materials, to highlight certain manifestations of the sports life of Polish state police officers in 1919 – 1939 (on the example of Volyn Voivodeship). The Conclusions. In the first decade of the interwar twenty years, the sports life of Volyn police officers was not distinguished by activity and was limited mainly to football matches, athletics and shooting. At the end of the 1920s, police sports clubs appeared in various towns of the Volyn Voivodeship (Lutsk, Rivne, Zdolbuniv (“Zoriia”), Kovel (“Turiia”), Kremenets (“Horyn”)). Such clubs consisted of sections according to sports (football, hockey, shooting, boxing, etc.). As a rule, police sports clubs had their own statutes that regulated their activities. Such an institution was headed by a board consisting of a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. The highest body of the club was the general assembly.

The first sports competitions of policemen in Volyn took place at the end of July of 1928 in Lutsk under the protectorate of Volyn Voivode Henryk Józewski. In June of 1933, sports competitions organized by the efforts of the local police sports club took place in Rivne. The following year, cycling competitions were held in the voivodeship centre. Volyn police officers also took part in national competitions in Warsaw, where they also demonstrated quite high results.