A little help, please.

[voltaireontoast.livejournal.com]

Hey hey there.

I'm currently studying A level Russian, in all it's glory, and we're doing coursework. The topic I've gone and picked is 'What role did sport play in Soviet Society?', so I was wondering if anyone had any information that might help me. Articles they could link me to, books to recommend or, if they're Russian, anything they'd like to say on the subject.

I'd especially like something on

a) The 1980 Moscow Olympics
b) The role of sport in propaganda
c) Football in the Soviet Union
d) Sport and the general public in Russia. (How did normal people do sport? Did they? Sport in schools, that type of thing)

Here's the important part, though. I'm only allowed to use sources IN RUSSIAN. So they would be preferable. I can read English sources for background, but I'm not allowed to put them in the bibliography. And I need some Russian sources to go in there. (don't worry about it being complex Russian, I'm allowed help in translating them)

I would also do this post in Russian, but my Russian's pretty awful and it's a nightmare trying to type it on a Roman alphabet keyboard.

Спасибо!

X-posted to soviet__union and russia_love

Comments

[ex-oru427.livejournal.com]

Про Олимпиаду в поисковой системе много: http://www.yandex.ru/yandsearch?text=%EE%EB%E8%EC%EF%E8%E0%E4%E0+1980&tbf=1
собственно ещё попробуйте посмотреть в русской википедии - http://ru.wikipedia.org
и пожалуйста, упомяните каким-нибудь образом, что современная Россия претендует на Зимнюю Олимпиаду 2014 в городе Сочи (Sochi-2014)
На сайте http://sochi2014.com/ есть информация, думаю про олимпиаду 1980 там тоже есть.

[oryx_and_crake]

Thank you for your contribution but please note that the working language of this community is English.

[ex-oru427.livejournal.com]

oh, sorry:)

culture, politics and sports

[snaike.livejournal.com]

When my parents were young (in 1960-70ies), it was extremely popular to do such sports as tourism, alpinism, yachting etc. Especially tourism and alpinism were connected to so-called "bards" songs (бардовские песни Юрия Визбора, Булата Окуджавы, Владимира Высоцкого, Новеллы Матвеевой и т.д.)
So in case you are interested in culturological aspect of sports in the USSR, you may develop this topic.

Do not forget to mention Russian hockey and figure skating, they were really popular in 1970-ies and later.
For example, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 hockey matches between the USSR and Cz. became extremely important in political sense
http://www.svoboda.org/ll/sport/0505/ll.051705-1.asp - see in the last passage
http://www.1sport.com.ua/news/?n_id=3994&sess_name=4f57fade1d74508282ecb8ced71b8d5d - some words about a widely known hockey match in 1968

What is more, as far as I remember, hockey was the favorite sport of Brezhnev, and figure skating was the favorite one of his wife ;)

Figure skating was very often broadcasted on TV, and (as my parents told me) "there was nothing else /interesting/ to see but the figure skating".

As for the Olympiade, you may find smth here:
http://80.ruz.net/

Good luck! :)

[oryx_and_crake]

The professional sport was big because it was one more way for the Soviet regime to prove its excellency over the capitalist countries (think Olympic Games, hockey etc.) However Soviet people en mass did not do much sports. Schoolchildren did though - the phys.ed. was in the curriculum for all grades - and the university students in the first years, too. Also, in winter skating rinks were made outdoors in the residential areas, so the kids got out and played hockey or skated a lot. In summer, football. Not so much for the adults - the busy city life where it normally took one about an hour one-way to commute to work (in the cities), at least an hour daily to purchase groceries, an hour to cook dinner, handwashing and mending clothes... not much time left for any other kind of sports activity. Yes, weekend hiking was popular among the intelligentsia, but this was few and far between. Not a very popular pastime among the masses. Some people took jogging but they were a rarity, and in general the awareness of sport, diet and health issues among people was minimal.

[branwen.livejournal.com]

Was tennis popular back then in Russia? My boyfriend (who grew up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) played tennis as a kid, with his father and in school.

[oryx_and_crake]

I remember playing table tennis at school. I am not so sure about "big" tennis but it is possible. However, I think that Uzbekistan's climate is much more favourable for tennis than Russian as it is (or was) mainly an outdoor sport.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Tennis was rather popular, but mostly on amateur level -- I couldn't remember any big pro names of that time, totally unlike now. But even on that level it was mostly sport of the higher levels of society: gear was kind of expensive, and tennis courts weren't standing in everyone's courtyard like hockey boxes were and still are.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Badminton was more popular. It could have been played almost anywhere and the gear was affordable (at least of domestic make, which was pretty awful, but still playable). You could have seen it being played in pretty much every двор, at least in my native Kiev it was so.