The Olympic Games, the Soviet Sports Bureaucracy, and the Cold War, 1952-1980
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RED SPORT, RED TAPE: THE OLYMPIC GAMES, THE SOVIET SPORTS BUREAUCRACY, AND THE COLD WAR, 1952-1980 Jenifer Parks A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Donald J. Raleigh Louise McReynolds Chad Bryant Jeffrey W. Jones David M. Griffiths ©2009 Jenifer Parks ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT JENIFER PARKS: Red Sport, Red Tape: The Olympic Games, the Soviet Sports Bureaucracy, and the Cold War, 1952-1980 (Under the direction of Donald J. Raleigh) Based on archival sources only accessible since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, this dissertation is the first historical analysis of the Soviet sports bureaucracy spanning the period from the USSR’s Olympic debut in 1952 on the eve of Stalin’s death through the 1980 Games held in Moscow. Since their entrance into the Olympic Games, Soviet athletes have been a dominant force in the world sporting community. This dissertation finds that behind the high-profile performances of Soviet elite athletes, a legion of sports bureaucrats worked within both the Soviet party-state bureaucracy and international sports organizations to increase Soviet chances of success and make Soviet administrators a respected voice in international sports. Challenging fundamental ideas about how sport should be governed, these communist bureaucrats carved out an unexpected place for themselves and for other representatives of the socialist world. Moreover, the USSR became a driving force behind the evolution of the Olympic Games and changing priorities in Olympic philosophy, spearheading major expansions in membership, sports outreach to the developing world, and women's sports. Capitalizing on shared values between communist and Olympic ideals, Soviet sports representatives helped make spreading peace and friendship through sport a top priority of the Olympic Movement. iii Back home in the USSR, the activities of sports administrators illuminate how decisions were made within the Soviet party-state. As architects of Soviet initiatives in international sports, sports bureaucrats recommended policy and exerted significant influence within the Soviet Union. Although valued for their expertise on sporting matters, the personal ties they established with international sports leaders, and their knowledge of the internal politics of international sporting federations, their decision- making authority remained circumscribed by the extent to which their proposals found support from top Communist Party leaders. Through a combination of ideological drive, political savvy, and professional pragmatism, Soviet representatives realized Soviet propaganda and foreign policy goals in international sports and cultivated the friendly side of Soviet power during the Cold War. State administrators on all levels displayed activism and ingenuity, but their efforts remained limited by the authoritarian, hierarchical governing style of the top leadership. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number of people and organizations I wish to thank, without whom I would not completed this project. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor Don Raleigh, whose support, encouragement, and critiques were essential. Other members of my committee, Louise McReynolds, Chad Bryant, Jeff Jones, and David Griffiths also provided crucial feedback and suggestions. Robert Edelman provided me with his encouragement, expertise, and Russian contacts for which I am very grateful. Other faculty members at UNC have also been enthusiastic supporters of my work, especially Lloyd Kramer and Jerma Jackson. Eleanora Magomedova in the Slavic Literature and Languages Department helped me bring my language skills up to snuff. Violent Lentz made sure all my paperwork was turned in on time and that all my graduation requirements were fulfilled. During my graduate career, I have benefitted immensely from intellectual interchange with my fellow graduate students at UNC, as well as many friends and colleagues I met while researching. In particular I would like to thank my "partner," Marko Dumancic for always asking the most challenging questions and guiding my way through the Moscow archives. I would like to thank all my fellow Russianists at UNC— Jon Wallace, Sharon Kowalsky, Rosa Magnusdottir, Marko Dumancic, Mike Paulauskas, Emily Baran, Gleb Turpinsky, Nick Ganson, Jack Langer, Adrianne Jacobs, Edward Geist, Aaron Hale-Dorral, Dan Giblin, Mary Mellon, and Andrew Ringlee—who have offered valuable advice and camaraderie to me over the years. Members of my writing v group, Philipp Stelzel and Tom Goldstein, read drafts of several chapters and offered their constructive criticism and suggestions for which I'm very grateful. Several organizations provided funding for my research. At UNC, the University Center for International Studies (now Global Initiatives) awarded me pre-dissertation funding in 2005, a Mowry grant from the History Department provided summer funding for research in the United States, and a Doris C. Quinn fellowship from the History Department in 2008-09 allowed me to complete the writing of my dissertation. The Olympic Studies Center at the International Olympic Committee Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland provided me with a Postgraduate Research Grant to comb the IOC archives. I would especially like to express my appreciation to Ruth Beck-Perrenoud, Nuria Puig and all the archivists and support staff at the OSC for their help navigating the IOC holdings. My research in Moscow was funded by a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship, and I would like to thank Ed Roslof and the staff at the Russian Fulbright office for their in-country administrative support. In Moscow, many individuals helped me navigate the Russian archives and libraries. Irina Markovna Bykhovskaia at the Central State University of Physical Culture and Sport not only arranged for me to visit the university library and museum archives, but welcomed me into her home and her guidance and friendship have been very important to me. The curator and staff at the sports university museum allowed me access to their small but rich collection of documents. I would like to thank the staff at GARF, RGANI, and RGASPI for their professionalism. I am especially grateful to the reading room managers, Nina Ivanovna Abdulaeva at GARF and Liudmila Ivanovna Stepanich at RGANI, who were especially generous with their time and energy. vi Research in Moscow was much more enjoyable and productive because of weekly "meetings" at Bilingua, conversations in the GARF cafeteria, and other social gatherings with a remarkable cohort of scholars. I thank Martin Beisswenger, Liudmila Novikova, Jennifer Amos, Daniel Berman, Christine Evans, Nicole Eaton, Susan and Steve Smith- Peter, Allison K. Smith, Betsy Jones Hemenway, and Paula Michaels for their friendship and support. My landlord in Moscow, Mikhail Kristoff, provided a wonderful apartment in the center of Moscow and happily negotiated internet access and other utility issues during my stay. Back home in Chapel Hill, I have benefitted from the friendship, camaraderie, and intellectual discussions with friends and colleagues too numerous to name. Portions of chapter 1 were previously published in "Verbal Gymnastics: Sports, Bureaucracy, and the Soviet Union's Entrance into the Olympic Games, 1946-1952," in Stephen Wagg and David Andrews, eds., East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 27-44 and have been reprinted here by permission of Taylor & Francis Books (UK). Other portions of the dissertation were presented at the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, the AAASS, and the UNC History Departmental Research Colloquium. I'm grateful for all the comments and feedback I received from participants in those events. Thanks to my parents John and Sharon Parks and my sister Elizabeth, who have always encouraged me to excel in all my endeavors. Finally, I can't express how much the love and support of my husband, Scot Ninnemann, have meant to me. This dissertation quite literally would never have been written without him. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter......................................................................................................................Page INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 Historiography, Method and Theory...................................................................6 Sources..............................................................................................................14 Organization......................................................................................................16 1. VERBAL GYMNASTICS: THE SOVIET UNION ENTERS THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT........................................................18 The Soviet Union and the Olympics before World War II...............................19 Postwar Organization of Sports ........................................................................28 "A Most Embarrassing Controversy:" Amateurism and Anxiety in the IOC............................................................................................30 "If You Are Not Ready:" Internal Retreat and the Need for Total Victory......................................................................................35 "Who Do We Know in Russia?" The Soviet Union Joins the Olympic Family ..........................................................................................45