Abstract

This paper examines the role played by sport in the Ussr, based on Soviet, Russian and Western literature. From a close study of the importance given to sport by and from the very beginning of the Soviet regime, the paper then examines the evolution of the political and social importance attributed to physical education, particularly following the rise of Stalin in the late 1920s. Sport played an important role in Soviet mass culture during the Stalin dictatorship. First, the paper analyses the role of sport with a focus on key moments of its evolution and development. It then closely examines the story of the most important Soviet sports university, the State central Order of Lenin Institute of physical education (Gcolifk), whose history is a perfect representation of the dynamics characterising other Soviet sports universities and the broader evolution of physical education in the Ussr.