The history of handball in Russia

Handball as one kind of sport games appeared in Russia in the beginning of XX century (approximately 1909).In the early period of 1909).In the early period of the development of this game in Russia both kinds of the game were cultivated 11X11 and 7X7 The main centers of the development of handball in Russia until the end of 40-s were Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov on Don, Krasnodar and other cities of Russian Federation. The growing of the popularity of the game, rising of its authority, in center as well as in periphery, required united organizational and methodical center. And such center was created. In 1955 the All-union section (federation) of handball was created. Regulation of the sport public organization was adopted, and that was the beginning of the wide development of handball in our country. By the beginning of 60-s the choice between two kinds of handball 11X11 and 7X7 was completely decided to 7X7At this period thanks to the active and purposeful work of handball society the first centers of handball for the preparing of young sportsmen started to open. The first center for the preparing future Olympic and World was "Start" in Rostov-na-Donu. Then Children-Youth Sport schools were opened in Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Leningrad, Krasnodar, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk and in Far East. Such specialized centers for preparing young sportsmen were more than 100 in Russia. The best of them got the status of specialized sport schools of Olympic reserve. Opening of sport schools of Olympic reserve was very important for preparing sportsmen of high level. These sportsmen became the reserve of masters’ team and the national teams of the country. Sport preparation in this schools got young sportsmen at the age of 10 and 17 years old in accordance with special program.

By the moment of appearing on the international arena Russian handball players kept a decent sport potential and became a serious concurrence for club and country teams from different countries, where handball 7X7 started to develop much earlier.

The first Handball World Championship 7X7 among male teams was held in Germany in 1938 and among female teams in 1957 in Yugoslavia.

Our national teams joined the struggle for the name of the strongest team in the world in 60-s. Women national team won the 6th place in 1962, and male team won 5th place in 1964.

During these years there were 14 world championships among women and 16 among men. The name of the strongest team of the world was won by different national teams in different years.