OSOAVIAKhIM
1927 Poster: "Have you signed up for Osoaviachim?"
Abbreviation for Obschestvo sodeistviya oborone, aviatsii i khimicheskomu stroitel’stvu (The Society for Facilitating Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction), the name of a mass volunteer organization in the USSR from 1927 to1948. The agency organized mass education in physical culture and training in shooting, gliding, making model aircraft, paratrooper jumping, flying airplanes, air and chemical defense, etc. Beginning in 1940, it organized mass military training of the population to prepare for the danger of Nazi attack.