TABLE TENNIS IN THE USSR IN PRE-WAR TIMES: THE BEGINNING OF THE WAY

The paper analyzes the questions of the organization of sports competitions, play-offs, friendly matches and table tennis championships. The special attention is given to the problems of the development of this kind of sport in the USSR. Of interest is the discussion that broke out on the pages of the journal «Red Sport» about the usefulness of ping-pong for Soviet physical culture. The policy of militarization in the sphere of physical culture and sport, absence of material and technical basis, sport halls, shortage of specialists in the beginning of 1930-s has considerably slowed down distribution and development of table tennis in the country.