Abstract: The upbringing of the younger generation as one of the urgent socio-cultural problems of mankind described in the works of thinkers of Antiquity, the Renaissance and Enlightenment by foreign and domestic authors of the 19th-20th centuries. In the paradigm of the upbringing of the younger generation the emphasis is on a comprehensively developed personality that embodies the unity of the spiritual, intellectual and physical principles. The subject of research is the ideas of physical education of the younger generation, reflected in the storylines of the works of art of the Russian literature classics. The purpose of the study is to actualize the ideas of physical education reflected in the works of Russian classics of the 19th – early 20th centuries, in the context of the problem of harmonious personal development. The used methodology of the interdisciplinary approach determines the inclusion in the study of an analysis of examples from the works of L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, I. A. Bunin, A. I. Kuprin, G. I. Uspensky, V. V. Nabokov, etc. illustrating the reflection of the phenomenon of physical culture and sports in Russian literature. The author concludes that the texts of works of art reflect an understanding of the positive impact of physical education and sports on the comprehensive harmonious development of the individual, and therefore the experience of the past can be considered as positive. In educational institutions of prerevolutionary Russia, as well as in noble families, the issues of physical education and the development of the younger generation were of great importance in the formation of the need for a healthy lifestyle, active leisure, and health promotion.

Abstract: The relevance of research is connected with non-inclusion of lexeme "sport" as culture component in the passport of scientific specialty 24.00.01 "The theory and cultural history" that has caused the appeal to researches of the domestic and foreign culturologists, philosophers, historians connected with identification of sociocultural component of sport. In article the role and the place of sport in cultural life of Russia at turn of the 19-20th centuries come to light. Object of research - specifics of the Russian sport as sociocultural phenomenon of the pre-revolutionary period. The methodology of the system and axiological approaches used in research, causes inclusion of the examples illustrating reflection of phenomenon of sport in literary works. The main conclusions of the conducted research are the following: The historical retrospective has allowed to reveal the conditions and factors which have exerted impact on genesis and development of amateur and professional sport: many classes, coexistence of traditions of elite and national culture, the outlined democratization of society, introduction of occupations physical culture and sport in programs of educational institutions, influence of the ideas of Olympism and the developing international sports movement. The interest of the nobility and intellectuals in the Western European culture, existence of appliances and free time have caused origin of the gentlemen's sport which has become form of active and respectable leisure and transformed at boundary of the 19-20th centuries of amateur. Development of the market relations has exerted impact on formation of the professional sport which had utilitarian functions and gained development in mass culture. Correlation of the kinds of sport (amateur, military and applied, professional) presented in cultural space of Russia at the turn of the 19th -20th centuries with theories of origin of sport allows to explain current trends sport development variety as the phenomena of mass culture.