The Sports Badge “ Fit For Work and Defence The Characteristics and Principles of Earning It on the Example of Sports Associations in Rzesz ó w Voivodship in 1953

In 1950, using the Soviet GTO badge as a model, the SPO (BSPO) sports badge was introduced in Poland. It was the basis of the contemporary physical culture system and a factor of promoting mass sport. The badge was divided into 4 degrees and the following age categories were established: the kid degree BSPO with the division into two categories: 1) girls and boys aged 11 to 12, and 2) aged 13 to 14, as well as the youth degree BSPO with one age category: 15 – 16. SPO included degrees 1 and 2 and two age categories: 1) 17 – 35, 2) 36 and above. The regulations of earning the badge were prepared, special committees were appointed, and the whole process was supervised by the Main Committee of Physical Culture (Główny Komitet Kultury Fizycznej – GKKF). Political authorities attached a lot of importance to possessing that badge, and mass earning of the SPO badge was a prior ity for the contemporary sports authorities. Schools, universities, the army, People’s Sports Teams and sports associations were obliged to conduct tests for the required standards for the SPO badge. This paper tries to answer the following questions: What criteria had to be met to be awarded the SPO and BSPO badge? and: How many badges were achieved in sports associations in Rzeszów Voivodship in 1953? A negative phenomenon of that period was a bureaucratic implementation of practical tasks, and in particular exaggerated scores in the plans of activities in mass sport, as well as mechanical transfer of Soviet patterns and experiences 39 .


Introduction
Right after the Second World War in the Polish physical culture some organizational solutions were used that referred to the pre-war times. In 1946 the State Office of Physical Education and Military Training (Państwowy Urząd Wychowania Fizycznego i Przysposobienia Wojskowego -PUWFiPW) was established, chaired by Tadeusz Kuchar, a sportsman renowned in the Second Polish Republic. It was a transitional period because in September 1949, based on the resolution of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party Central Committee (Biuro Polityczne KC PZPR) the Soviet model of physical culture was introduced 1 . On 30 December 1949, the Main Committee of Physical Culture (Główny Komitet Kultury Fizycznej -GKKF) was established, which from then on managed that area of life in Poland. According to Piotr Godlewski: 81 The establishment of the Main Committee of Physical Culture, whose aim was to create relatively favourable conditions for promoting the sports movement, ended the period of relative pluralism and independence in the Polish sports movement 2 .
In December 1950 all Polish sports associations were disbanded, and transformed, following the Soviet model, into sports sections of the committees of physical culture, and thus the sports movement lost its independence 3 .
The SPO badge was an element of propaganda of the contemporary authorities and one of the elements of copying the Soviet model of physical culture 4 . The significance attributed then to the badge for the development of physical culture is proven by the slogans under which it was propagated, for example: "Fit for work and defence -the motto of every citizen; the SPO badge -a test of physical culture in Poland; there is no sport without the SPO badge; Do you want to do sport? Achieve the SPO badge; Every Pole achieves SPO; The world of labour achieves SPO; SPO will help you to accomplish the 6-Year Plan; SPO will help you in work competition; By earning SPO you fight for peace; By earning SPO you win health, power to study, work and fight for peace; Mass achievement of SPO is our contribution to strengthening the power of the People's Republic of Poland -an important link in the world peace front" 5 . L. Szymański claims that the badge was: "The foundation of the Polish system of physical education and sport and its symbol […] modelled on the Soviet badge 'Gotow k Trudu i Oboronie SSSR' (GTO)" 6 . It should be emphasised that it was introduced not only in Poland but also in other countries of the socialist block. It had a similar name, in Hungary and Romania "Ready for Work and Defence", in Czechoslovakia "Ready for Work and Defence of the Country", in GDR "Ready for Work and Defence of Peace", in Cuba "Ready for Victory" 7 . To get to know Soviet models better, at the turn of 1951 and 1952 a delegation of Polish physical culture activists was sent to the USSR and had an opportunity to learn the methods applied in physical education and sport there 8 .
Historians studying the Polish physical culture after the Second World War agree that the SPO badge was the core of the contemporary physical education system and sport, and earning it was a factor of promoting mass sport. So far, no detailed characteristics of this interesting issue has been made. The problem which seems important not only to the researchers of the history of physical culture but also to theoreticians and practicians of physical education has not been tackled, even from the point of view of comparative studies. Since it played such an important role, it is worth, even for cognitive purposes, following carefully what level of difficulty was required to earn it.

Research methods and problems
The author of this paper, by using the method of the analysis of literature, press and archive documents, as well as the comparative method, attempts to answer the following questions: What criteria had to be met to achieve the SPO and BSPO badges?, How many badges were achieved in sports associations in Rzeszów Voivodship in 1953?

Findings and discussion
In the years 1950-1956 in addition to the Main Committee of Physical Culture with its regional branches, also state administration bodies were responsible for physical culture, namely: 1) the Ministry of Education, 2) the Ministry of Higher Schools, 3) the Ministry of Health, 4) the Ministry of National Defence, 5) the Ministry of Public Security, 6) Central Vocational Training Office. Moreover, social organizations, such as: 1) Central Council of Trade Unions (Centralna Rada Związków Zawodowych), 2) Farmers Self-Help Association (Związek Samopomocy Chłopskiej), 3) University Sports Association of Poland (Akademickie Zrzeszenie Sportowe), 4) Gwardia Sports Association, 5) Central Military Sports Club (Centralny Wojskowy Klub Sportowy) 9 . The greatest role in promoting mass sport was played by the Central Council of Trade Unions, which managed the works of Sports Associations and the basic links of sports movement, namely sports clubs which operated at employment establishments associated by the industry membership. Sports Associations were an organizer of numerous professional and mass sport events. Within the latter, sports spartakiads were organized, as well as earning the SPO badge which was established in 1950. In the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 17 April 1950 on the SPO badge we can read that it is introduced: To emphasise the serious role of physical education and sport in improving health and to ensure comprehensive physical development of the citizens and preparing them to efficient work and defence of the People's Republic of Poland 10 .
As it was mentioned before, the SPO badge was the core of the physical education system in People's Poland. It was assumed to educate "young people who will be healthy physically and morally, young people who are able to perform a great task of building socialism and bring it to a victorious end, who, when necessary, are able to defend the country against the evil attempts of enemies" 11 . As we can see, the approach with a high ideological level was applied to the activity of earning the badges, and the ideological patronage over the action was assumed by the Union of Polish Youth (Związek Młodzieży Polskiej -ZMP) 12 .
The badge was divided into four degrees: 1) kid degree -for children aged 11 to 14; 2) youth degree -for teenagers aged 15 to 18; 3) 1st degree -for people above 19 years old; 4) 2nd degree upon the achievement of the 1st degree. The kid degree and the youth degree badge were called "Be Fit for Work and Defence" (BSPO). The Main Committee of Physical Culture was responsible for the preparation of the regulations and for the supervision of the organization of accomplishing the required tasks for the discussed badge, and the Ministry of Health was supposed to provide healthcare for the applicants 13 .
Two years later, with the Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 746 of 10 September 1952, corrections were made concerning the age categories. The kid degree for the ages 11-14 was left, the youth degree was called "adolescent" for the age range 15-16. Also, the 1st degree and the 2nd degree were changed, and were applicable for those aged above 17 14 .
The regulations of the badge were very extended, and to perform some tasks it was necessary to build an obstacle course. Two committees had to be appointed: the SPO committee and the SPO supervisory committee. SPO committees were appointed in schools, sports clubs, holiday houses, at camps and summer camps, at sports organizations, etc. On the other hand, SPO supervisory committees were appointed in municipal, district, poviat and voivodship physical culture committees and in the Main Committee of Physical Culture. The SPO committees could be composed of physical education teachers, instructors, activists, sports section referees, graduates of courses for SPO organizers, commanders of scout troops 10

85
The following types of badges were introduced: bronze with the BSPO sign for the kid degree (photo 1), silver with the BSPO sign for the adolescent degree (photo 2), silver for the 1st degree with the SPO sign (photo 4), and golden with the SPO sign for the 2nd degree (photo 4). Moreover, for BSPO kid degree and adolescent degree, as well as for the 2nd degree the SPO badge with the sign with honours, which aimed at motivating for further work on oneself.
To conduct tests for the discussed badge, the following age categories were established: for kid degree BSPO the division into two categories -1) girls and boys aged 11-12 and 2) for the age range 13-14. Adolescent degree BSPO had one age category, 15 to 16. 1st and 2nd degree SPO had two age categories: 1) 17-35 years old and 2) 36 and above 16 . The number of requirements necessary to pass the test depended on the age and the badge degree. For example, for the kid degree BSPO it was 8, and for the other ones it was 12 requirements. Obligatory exercises for children included: gymnastics, 2.5 km march, swimming, running long jump, running high jump, palant ball throw, team games (dodgeball, palant, handball, volleyball). For the remaining degrees of the badge the set of obligatory exercises included, for example for the age range 15-16: gymnastics, obstacle course (100 m girls, 150 m boys), swimming, march (5 km girls, 8 km boys), run (500 m girls, 1000 m boys). Obligatory requirements also included an exam checking the theoretical knowledge on the organization of physical culture in People's Poland and the basic knowledge about health protection. Selectable requirements included, starting from the age of 15, shooting (air gun, sporting shotgun, military Mosin's riffle), exercises improving the basic motor abilities: strength, speed, stamina, agility and courage. The exercises were combined into five groups, of which the exercising person was to choose one exercise from each group: 1) exercises forming speed (short run, skating, cycling or short-distance swimming); 2) weight training (discus, javelin, hammer throw, throwing a grenade, shot put or weightlifting); 3) endurance activities (runs, swimming, long-distance cycling, basketball or handball, rowing race, hiking trips, kayak trips, rowing, skiing or cycling trips); 4) agility-forming exercises (long jump, high jump, pole vault, triple jump, downhill skiing or acrobatic exercises) 17 ; 5) courage-building exercises (walking on a balance beam, leapfrog vaulting, ski jumps or trampoline jumps, sailing, horse riding or motorcycling) 18 .   As it was already signalled, young people aged 15 and above had to pass 12 required tasks, including 5 obligatory ones, namely gymnastics, obstacle course, swimming, march (5 km girls, 8 km boys), run (500 m girls, 1000 m boys). The other requirements were selectable exercises, including shooting (air gun, sporting shotgun, military Mosin's riffle) or archery 19 .
A very difficult stage to overcome in the right time, as it seems, was an obstacle course which was a part of the obligatory set of exercises for the adolescent degree, 15-16 years old. The track of 100 m for girls and 150 m for boys had 5 obstacles for girls and 8 for boys arranged in the following order: 1) wire entanglements (to crawl), 2) a balance beam, 3) a hedge, 4) a fence of 170 or 220 cm in height, 5) a perch fence, 6) a ditch to jump over, 7) a ditch to jump into, go out along the ramp and throw a grenade, 8) a mannequin to be stabbed with a rifle. The construction of the track and the technique of overcoming obstacles was described in detail by Władysław Wiro-Kiro in a GKKF publication 20 .
All institutions which were responsible for physical education, sport and recreation were obliged to perform the required SPO tests. As it was emphasised, the contemporary authorities attached great importance to earning the discussed badge because, as they wrote: it's a badge of People's Poland's patriots. Earning it, encouraging others and organizing help in earning it is the contribution of a sportsperson towards the national front of fight for peace and the completion of the 6-Year Plan 21 .
Just how important it was for the communist regime is proven by the fact that the first SPO badge with honours was accepted by President Bolesław Bierut 22 . No wonder that children and youth were taught to sing songs about it, and the chorus of one of them said "Run and swim, play the ball, row and build up your will, the power of your hands. You must be brave, you must be cheerful, fit for work and defence" 23 .
Older citizens undertook to earn the SPO on the occasions of various state celebrations. Such declarations, occurred, among others, on the occasion of 1st May (Polish Labour Day) under the slogan Together on the playing field, together to fight for peace and 6-Year Plan. People undertook to promote physical culture, increase the ideological level of the sports movement, improve sports results, earn SPO badges, exceed the planned tasks in popularizing sport 24 . For example, on the occasion of the Independence Day, as it was called then, falling to 22 July, "Nowiny Rzeszowskie", the organ of the United Workers' Party, on 20 July, 1950 informed that the members of Spójnia Trade Sports Club to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the Polish Committee of National Liberation undertook to work on improving fitness. "Fully understanding that only a healthy citizen may be prepared to build socialism in People's Poland […]" 25 . It was undertook that each member of Spójnia Sports Club until September would earn the SPO badge. Moreover, the decision was taken to promote it among members of sports clubs of Spójnia association and conduct preparatory trainings with all the members. Moreover, Stal Company Sports Club and Rzeszów Ogniwo Company Sports Club were challenged to compete for the badges 26 . The quoted newspaper of 4 July 1950, under the headline Fit for Work and Defence, informed: Sportspeople will commemorate the National Day of the Rebirth of Poland. On 22 July mass actions will take place all over Poland in which it will be possible to complete tasks required for SPO in athletics and swimming 27 .
On 2 December 1950, on the initiative of the Regional Board of Gwardia Sports Association, a ceremonial assembly was arranged in Rzeszów, combined with awarding SPO badges to the first winners. Among them there were people who belonged to the Gwardia Sports Association: Bać, Błaszczyk, Borkowski, Bryza, Czubatyński, Dobrowolski, Józef Dyląg, Dzierwa, Fabiszewski, Fetter, Fijołek, Gernad, Grzeskiewicz, Jurkiewicz, Kawa, Z. Klaczkowski, Konarski, Kubera, Janina Kucharska, Zuzanna Matuła, Matys, Wł. Miąsik, Paderewski, Pączek, Przybylski, Rajchel, Różycki, Matylda Wnęk. They all received the certificate and SPO badges from the Chair of the Regional Committee of Physical Culture in Rzeszów, Bartosiewicz. The BSPO badge was also awarded to a group representing School Sports Clubs: Jadwiga Hostyńska, Henryk Mazurek, Lucjan Piertraszek, Zofia Puc and Zygmunt Raczek. The 1st degree SPO badge was also presented. This badge was awarded to representatives of the Polish Army, Kazimierz Gilewicz and Zygmunt Palacz, Stefan Bochaczyk from the Union of Polish Youth, Marian Paczkowski from Słocina People's Sports Team and Władysław Fąfara from Związkowiec Strzyżów. The main item on the agenda was reading out an occasional resolution by one of the awarded women, which fully renders the atmosphere of that time. It is worth quoting in full: We, the winners of the SPO badge of Gwardia Sports Association and other associations, gathered at the assembly commemorating the Month of Developing the Polish-Soviet Friendship and fight for peace, assure the Chair of the Regional Committee of Physical Culture and the representatives of our authorities that the SPO badges which will decorate our chests, will become a stimulus to further intense work at the section of physical education. We shall make every effort so that in 1951 all members of sports associations can earn SPO badges. We shall fight for better results at work and in sport, thus contributing 90 Agnieszka MIRKIEWICZ to the deed of fight for peace. Today's sports celebration is a great achievement of our working class of the People's Government, which gives a lot of care to physical education and sport 28 .
"Nowiny Rzeszowskie" of 4 June 1951 informed about the First All Poland's Spartkiad of Sports Associations planned in Warsaw on 9-16 September. The event was supposed to motivate thousands of members of the aforementioned associations participating in poviat and regional qualifiers. The aim of the spartakiad was to promote sport and achieving sports classes and SPO badges. The contemporary propaganda gave also more lofty goals which were to focus on: "preparing the society for the completion of the 6-Year Plan, improving the defensive capability of the country and fight for peace" 29 . The spartakiad programme comprised 9 sport disciplines which were included in SPO badge, namely: boxing, gymnastics, cycling, basketball, athletics, swimming, volleyball, sport shooting and an obstacle course. The condition of the participation in the competition was having the SPO badge and "the winning team will be the one whose content of all year's work was the SPO badge" 30 . In "Nowiny Rzeszowskie" of 3 September 1951 there is a coverage from the preparatory camp for athletes of Stal Sports Association before the mentioned spartakiad in Warsaw, organized in Stalowa Wola. In addition to trainings, competitors conducted the achievement of SPO and BSPO badges together with coaches and activists. In total, 120 people participated in them, school children and workers of local establishments 31 .
However, the First All Poland's Spartakiad of Sports Associations was a failure for competitors from Rzeszów Voivodship. A journalist, Zbigniew Rybak wrote that Rzeszów Voivodship was at the tail end, therefore, sports activists have to pay closer attention to talented youth which by earning SPO badges can be found and then guided, especially in athletic teams. When placing a bet on mass character of sport one should not forget about professional sport and sports facilities of which there is a shortage in Rzeszów 32 .
Mass earning of the SPO badge was a priority for sports authorities. We can follow how it was implemented by Sports Associations of Rzeszów Voivodship in 1953 by analysing archive documents. In the State Archive in Rzeszów there are summary reports on SPO and BSPO from the mentioned year, prepared by District Boards of Sports Associations operating in Rzeszów Voivodship. The associations included: 1) Budowlani Sports Association -Trade Union of Construction Workers; 2) Górnik Sports Association -Trade Union of Miners; 28 Ibidem,No. 334,p. 3. A similar assembly during which the first SPO badges were awarded was held in Cracow also to celebrate the Month of Developing the Polish-Soviet Friendship. " Przekrój" 1950, No. 297, p. 15. 29 Ibidem, 1951, No. 153, p. 5. 30 Ibidem. 31 "Nowiny Rzeszowskie" 1951  A summary report sheet prepared according to specimen 1 was obligatory for all District Boards. It also included the number of the required tests completed in obligatory exercises and selectable ones. For example, Budowlani Sports Association completed 312 tests, and Stal Sports Association completed 19 554. The biggest number of badges was earned by the workers of Kolejarz Sports Association, and the smallest number by Włókniarz Sports Association. In total, in 1953 sports associations in Rzeszów Voivodship earned 4 449 badges, of which 358 were 2nd degree badges, and 154 were BSPO badges.
From 1954, in specialised press, namely "Kultura Fizyczna" or "Wychowanie Fizyczne w Szkole" there were articles presenting remarks on further development of the SPO (BSPO) badge, there were also attempts to improve it by adjust-ing the number of requirements to age groups 34 . Aleksander Gutowski was the first to address the problem. When discussing structural shortcomings of the badge he presented his new project of the badge as a proposal to be discussed. It was interesting, particularly as for age groups and strength exercises 35 . A lot of criticism for the BSPO badge was expressed by Stanisław Giza. In "Wychowanie Fizyczne w Szkole" he criticized excessive requirements, for example, rather difficult gymnastic tests, marches, jumps and throws. Instead of an obstacle course he proposed field athletics exercises, at the same time calling weightlifting a misunderstanding. The regulations valid at that time had been corrected once and the model had a lot of errors. In spite of the fact that SPO and BSPO copied the Soviet badge, the author said, comparing both regulations, that "our sportspeople were set much higher requirements" 36 . The most insightful characteristics considering numerous critical remarks was conducted by Roman Trześniewski in his article entitled "In the Discussion Over the Improvement of SPO and BSPO badges we Should Participate Broadly". As a member of the SPO Control Committee at the Main Committee of Physical Culture he had good orientation in issues related to the badge which, as he wrote, "instead of strengthening its position and winning supporters, is clearly losing its importance" 37 . He mentioned four most important reasons (adding that there are more) which brought about, as he called it, the depopularization of the badge. Firstly, top-down planning, that is setting the number of badges to be earned by schools, employment establishments, organizations, sports associations, etc. It contributed to the situation in which organizers seeking to achieve the biggest possible number of badges actually did not pay any attention to achieving it in a proper way. Secondly, the manner of earning the badge by completing special performance tests was very boring and monotonous. Thirdly, another reason which indirectly influenced the interest in the badge was bureaucratic reporting, documents the organizers had to complete. Fourthly, the regulations were extended and unclear. Moreover, the division into age groups and performance requirements raised objections. He claimed that they should be developed better. "High and difficult requirements," he wrote, "discourage participants, whereas low ones evoke contempt, lack of respect to the regulations and the whole badge, which is observed particularly among children and teenagers" 38 .

Many years later a similar opinion about the badge was expressed by Feliks
Kędziorek, a physical culture activist in Socialist Poland, who admitted that: A negative phenomenon of that period was a bureaucratic implementation of practical tasks, and in particular exaggerated scores in the plans of activities in mass sport, as well as mechanical transfer of Soviet patterns and experiences 39 . On the basis of that discussion in 1956 the SPO and BSPO regulations were changed, a lot of requirements which were unpopular were crossed out, namely: water jumps, horse riding, weightlifting, ski jumps, fencing, rowing. Medium runs were reduced to 500 m for girls and women and 1000 m for boys and men, as well as marches. Due to the general shortage of equipment, obstacle course was liquidated, and swimming was obligatory only in the places where there were conditions to perform the required tests 40 .

Conclusions
Today it is hard to compare the SPO badge to contemporary physical fitness tests, firstly because it included military tests. At present, similar ones can be observed only in drill areas of uniformed services. Apart from the lofty slogans to which communist authorities linked the SPO badge, we must say that on the one hand it activated a lot of Poles 41 , forced them to work on themselves, to physical training, which in the period after the war devastating people and occupation was extremely important. On the other hand, the performance test glorified by the authorities taught young people to kill, especially the 8th test of the obstacle course, so-called mannequins, indicated that. In the run or march one had to make a long stub with the rifle to the first one, hit the second one with the rifle butt, and perform the short stab at a short distance. Moreover, the throw with a grenade and shooting must also be included in military tests. It was a good thing that in 1956, as it was mentioned before, the regulations were changed and a lot of requirements were reduced, including the obstacle course. Finally, on 5 May 1958 the resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 131 cancelled the SPO badge and authorized the Main Committee of Physical Education to establish a new one 42 .
On the same day the Head of the Main Committee of Physical Education be means of the Resolution No. 28 introduced: the State Badge of Physical Fitness (Państwowa Odznaka Sprawności Fizycznej -POSF) and the Youth Badge of Physical Fitness -MOSF 43 . It was a new system checking physical fitness, which survived until 1974 when the Common Sports Badge (Powszechna Odznaka Sportowa -POS) was introduced.