Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union

The Departmental Sports Societies (DSS) of the USSR (DSS-USSR) (Russian: Ведомственное спортивное общество (BCO) CCCP, Vedomstvennoye Sportivnoye Obshchestvo SSSR (VSO SSSR)) were only very few: A special sports society was "Spartak" that was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its youth wing Komsomol.

Following the Soviet Union expansion and occupation of neighboring territories Spartak was one of the sports societies that were established instantaneously along with Dynamo.

One of the most important features of VSS were Children and Youth Sport Schools (Russian: Детско-юношеские спортивные школы, ДЮСШ), which numbered 1,350 in the 1970s and 7,500 in 1987.

Already in the first half of 19th century sports schools, clubs, societies (sailing and rowing, fencing, swimming, ice skating, cycling, and others) appeared in Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and other cities of the Russian Empire.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia states that usually those sports clubs and unions were chartered and financed by representatives of the bourgeoisie and of the nobility, and that access to them for students and working youth "was extremely limited".

The society united the workers of local industries, communal economy, culture, automobile transportation, civil aviation, and others.

The formation of the kernel of the system was complete in the 1950s, when village VSS were established in all 16 of the then Soviet republics (including the Karelo-Finnish SSR until 1956).

Like Dynamo, SKA also carried a special status, as they represented the athletes in their military service duty in the Soviet Armed Forces.

The eight largest Trade Unions' VSS remained under VTsSPS leadership: Burevestnik, Vodnik, Zenit, Lokomotiv, Spartak, Trud, Urozhai, FiS (Russian: ФиС - физкультура и спорт; English: fitness and sports).

[3][4] On the basis of eight Trade Unions' VSS, one All-Union Volunteer Fitness and Sports Society of Trade Unions (Russian: Всесоюзное добровольное физкультурно-спортивное общество профсоюзов, ВДФСО профсоюзов, Vsesoyuznoe Dobrobolvolne Fiykultura-Sportivne Obshestvo Profsoyzhov, VDFSO Profsoyzhov) was created to serve as a unified organization encompassing athletes countrywide.

The SKA and Dynamo associations, which were composed of athletes in uniformed service in the armed forces and police, and the volunteer DOSAAF organization were under the direct supervision of the Ministries of Defense and Internal Affairs and were thus independent from the unions' sports societies.

Top Soviet athletes were funded by the state and trained full-time but were listed in different VSS what allowed them to retain their amateur status.

[5][6] That created a disbalance in the international sports,[7][8] and the IOC was prompted to drop outdated amateur rules and open the Olympics to all athletes, regardless of their status.