Sport in the USSR

Sport in the USSR PDF

Author: Mike O'Mahony

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2006-06-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1861895526

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Sports played a vital role in the social and cultural life of the former Soviet Union. The Soviet state sponsored countless programs to promote sporting activities, even constructing a new term, fizkultura, to describe sports culture. With Sport in the USSR, Mike O’Mahony asserts that the popular image of fizkultura was as dependent on its presentation as it was on its actual practice. Images of vigorous Soviet sportsmen and women were constantly evoked in literature, film, and folk songs; they frequently appeared on the badges and medals of various work associations and even on plates and teapots. Several major artists, in fact, made their careers out of vivid representations of sports. O’Mahony further examines the role that fizkultura played in the formulation of the novyi chelovek, or Soviet New Person, arguing that these images of the sporting life not only promoted the existence of this national being but also articulated the process of transformation that could bring him or her into existence. Fizkultura, O’Mahony claims,became a civic duty alongside state labor drives and military service. Sport in the USSR is a fascinating addition to current debates in the fields of sociology, popular culture, and Russian history.

Sport in the Soviet Union

Sport in the Soviet Union PDF

Author: Victor

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-10-22

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1483155919

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Sport in the Soviet Union, Second Revised Edition focuses on the development of sports in the Soviet Union, particularly noting the sport programs and contributions of sports organizations in the development of sports in the country. The manuscript first offers information on the historical background of sports in the Soviet Union, including contemporary organizations of Soviet sports and sports for children. The text then discusses various sports played in the country. These include soccer, rugby, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis, table tennis, and badminton. The text also underscores the involvement of Soviets in other sports, such as badminton, skating, gymnastics, track and field, hockey, judo, and fencing. The Soviets excelled in more strenuous sports, such as weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, mountaineering, and cycling. The book also notes that Soviets are also interested in water sports, such as water polo, yachting, rowing, canoeing, swimming, and diving. The book also offers information on the medal tally of the Soviet Union in different Olympic Games. The manuscript is a vital reference for readers and sports enthusiasts wanting to explore the development of sports in the Soviet Union.

Sport in the USSR

Sport in the USSR PDF

Author: Mike O'Mahony

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2006-06-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781861892676

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Sport played a vital role within the social and cultural life of the Soviet Union. The Soviet State sponsored countless programmes to promote sporting activities, and even constructed a new term, fizkultura, to describe sports culture. In Sport in the USSR, Mike O'Mahony asserts that the popular image of fizkultura was as dependent on presentation as it was on actual practice. Images of vigorous Soviet sportsmen and women were evoked in literature, film and popular songs, and adorned stamps and domestic objects, as well as badges and medals. Some major artists even forged their entire careers from representations of sport." "Sport in the USSR explores physical and visual culture from the early years of the Soviet Union to its collapse. It is a fascinating addition to the current debates in the fields of sociology, visual culture and Soviet history."--BOOK JACKET.

 PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9780521212847

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Sport and Society in the Soviet Union

Sport and Society in the Soviet Union PDF

Author: Manfred Zeller

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1786725312

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Following Stalin's death in 1953, association football clubs, as well as the informal supporter groups and communities which developed around them, were an important way for the diverse citizens of the multinational Soviet Union to express, negotiate and develop their identities, both on individual and collective levels. Manfred Zeller draws on extensive original research in Russian and Ukrainian archives, as well as interviews with spectators, 'hardcore ultras' and hooligans from the Caucasus to Central Asia, to shed new light onto this phenomenon covering the period from the height of Stalin's terror (the 1930s) to the Soviet Union's collapse (1991). Across events as diverse as the Soviet Union's footballing triumph over the German world champions in 1955 and the Luzhniki stadium disaster in 1982, Zeller explores the ways in which people, against the backdrop of totalitarianism, articulated feelings of alienation and fostered a sense of community through sport. In the process, he provides a unique 'bottom-up' reappraisal of Soviet history, culture and politics, as seen through the eyes of supporters and spectators. This is an important contribution to research on Soviet culture after Stalin, the history of sport and contemporary debates on antagonism in the post-Soviet world.

Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society

Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society PDF

Author: Susan Grant

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 041580695X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

From its very inception the Soviet state valued the merits and benefits of physical culture, which included not only sport but also health, hygiene, education, labour and defence. Physical culture propaganda was directed at the Soviet population, and even more particularly at young people, women and peasants, with the aim of transforming them into ideal citizens. By using physical culture and sport to assess social, cultural and political developments within the Soviet Union, this book provides a new addition to the historiography of the 1920s and 1930s as well as to general sports history studies.

Serious Fun

Serious Fun PDF

Author: Robert Edelman

Publisher:

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"The Big Red Machine," an assemblyline of sober, unsmiling Olympic champions--this was the image that dominated Western thinking about Soviet sports. But for Soviet citizens the experience of watching sports in the USSR was always very different. Soviet spectators paid comparatively little attention to most Olympic sports. They flocked instead to the games they really wanted to watch, rooted for teams and heroes of their own choosing, and carried on with a rowdiness typical of sportsfans everywhere. The Communist state sought to use sports and other forms of mass culture to instill values of discipline, order, health, and culture. The fans, however, just wanted to have fun. Official Soviet ideology was never able to control or comprehend the regressed and pleasure-seeking component not only of spectator sport but of all popular culture. In Serious Fun, Robert Edelman provides the first history of any aspect of Soviet sports, covering the most popular spectator attractions from 1917 up to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Edelman has used the highly candid sports press, memoirs, instruction books, team yearbooks, and press guides and supplmented them with Soviet television broadcasts and interviews with players, coaches, team officials, television bureaucrats, journalists, and fans to detail how spectator sport withstood the power of the state and became a sphere of life that allowed citizens to resist, deflect, and even modify the actions of the authorities. Focusing on the most popular sports of soccer, hockey, and basketball, Edelman discusses the dominant teams and the biggest stars: the international competitive successes as well as the many failures. He covers a variety of topics familiar to Western sports fans including professionalism, fan violence, corruption, political meddling, the sports press, television, and the effect of big money on competition. More than just a sports book, Serious Fun takes us deep into the social fabric of Soviet life. Edelman shows how the Big Red machine so visible in international competition was much like the giant steel mills and dams of which the Soviets boasted. These were the achievements of a state that put production above all else, but spectator sport was part of a long-suffering consumer sector that the industrial giant would never satisfy. This volume will bring a broader, richer understanding of Soviet life not only to students of popular culture and Russian history but to sports fans everywhere.