Spartakiad

Template:Short description Template:Infobox recurring event Template:Other Template:Use dmy dates The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union.<ref name="Riordan">Template:Cite book</ref> Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc countries.<ref name="Carr">Template:Cite journal</ref> The games were organised by Red Sport International.

BackgroundEdit

Template:More The Soviet Union attempted to use Spartakiads to both oppose and supplement the Olympics.<ref>Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR Template:Webarchive. Robert Edelman, pg 149</ref> In Russian, there is a certain parallelism in the names: "Spartakiada" and "Olimpiada". The name, derived from the name of the slave rebel leader, Spartacus,<ref name=GSE>Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, volume 24 (part 1), p. 286, Moscow, Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya publisher, 1976</ref> was intended to symbolize proletarian internationalism. As a classical figure, Spartacus also stood directly in contrast to the aristocratic nature of the Ancient Olympic Games on which the modern "capitalist" Olympics were based. The first Winter Spartakiad was held in February 1928 in Oslo, and the first Summer Spartakiad was held in August 1928 in Moscow.

The first Spartakiads in the USSR took place in 1923 within formations of the Red Army and the Spartak Physical Culture organization in Petrograd.<ref name="soviet_encyclopedia">Spartakiad at Great Soviet Encyclopedia</ref> The Moscow Spartakiad in 1928 was also known as the All-Union Spartakiad.<ref name="soviet_encyclopedia" /> From the start of the 1930s in the Soviet Union, spartakiads of trade unions and the Dynamo physical culture sports society took place.<ref name="soviet_encyclopedia" /> In the 1950s, spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR, DOSAAF of the USSR, all-Union Spartakiads of students, international Spartakiads of "friendly armies of socialist and developing countries", and others were introduced.<ref name="soviet_encyclopedia" />

List of SpartakiadsEdit

Summer

1928 – Moscow
1931 – Berlin

Winter

1928 – Oslo
1936 – Oslo

After World War IIEdit

Soviet UnionEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In 1952, the Soviet Union decided to join the Olympic movement, and international Spartakiads ceased, but the term continued to exist for internal sports events in the Soviet Union of different levels, from local up to the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR (Template:Langx<ref>Template:Langx; Template:Langx; Template:Langx</ref>). The latter event was held twice in four years: Winter Spartakiad and Summer Spartakiad.

The first Soviet Spartakiad was held in 1956. According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the number of participants in the 6th Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR was 90 million people (twice the number of athletes in the USSR in that time), including 8,300 Masters of Sports of the USSR, and 20 million in the 3rd Winter Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, including some 1,000 Masters of Sports of the USSR.<ref name=GSE /> These numbers however have been frequently called into question due to the low reliability and ideological bias of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Winter and Summer Spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR were each commemorated on a series of postage stamps, released in millions of copies.<ref>Catalogue of Postage Stamps of the USSR 1918–1974, "Soyuzpechat" Central Philatelic Agency (CPA) of the Ministry of Communications of the USSR publisher, Moscow, 1976.</ref> Until 1975, all summer finals were held in Moscow, later in other cities throughout the Soviet Union (though most events were still held in Moscow). The winter editions' finals were often held in Sverdlovsk.

CzechoslovakiaEdit

Template:See also The name Spartakiáda was also used for a mass gymnastics display,<ref>Template:Citation Template:Cbignore</ref> which was held every five years at the Strahov Stadium in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The first event of this name was held, however, already in 1921, and its initiator Jiří František Chaloupecký is credited as the inventor of the name.<ref>Rozhlas.cz – Jak vzniklo slovo "spartakiáda"</ref>

AlbaniaEdit

Template:See also Six similar events were held in Albania during communist rule as well (in 1959, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, and 1989).<ref>http://www.iliriadaportal.com/opinion-f34/lindja-zhdukja-dhe-rilindja-e-olimpizmit-shqiptar-t1669.htm Template:Dead link</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

OtherEdit

In 1984, the Soviet Union organised the Friendship Games, aimed at countries which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

KÙPELE CENTRAL, avant-garde film by Sabine Maier (MACHFELD) dealing on the Spartakiad.

Template:Multi-sport events