THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Playing to Win: A Political History of the Moscow Olympic Games, 1975- 1980 Simon Patrick Young Doctor of Philosophy March 2015 This Thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of the University of Winchester. THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FOR THESIS Playing to Win: A Political History of the Moscow Olympic Games, 1975- 1980 Simon Patrick Young Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Doctor of Philosophy March 2015 This thesis uses archival evidence to construct the first full-length political history of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games in the English language. It explains how the idea for this event appeared on the Soviet policy agenda in the years 1951-74, before examining some of the main contours of the USSR’s preparations for and orchestration of the Olympiad in the years 1975-80. These include economic and security measures, diplomatic and promotional efforts in the international arena, and internal propaganda and sport campaigns carried out by various agencies of the Soviet state. The overarching discussion centres on the political purposes underlying the XXII Games and the ways in which the idiosyncrasies of the communist system impacted on their administration. It thereby considers the importance of 1980 for the first time from the perspective of Soviet political history, in contrast to previous analyses which largely focused on the significance of the Western boycott of the event for historians’ understanding of American politics and/or international relations. It is revealed how the Olympics became the single most ambitious operation ever undertaken by the USSR to enhance its soft power in the Cold War international arena, whilst at home they were integrated into various long-standing domestic policies aimed at maintaining the legitimacy and stability of the Soviet system. In addition, the study considers the implications arising from this history of the Olympic project for historians’ overarching interpretation of the Brezhnev era (1964-82) in which it unfolded. Departing from the current scholarly focus on the social history of this period, the thesis analyses the various elements of the Games’ preparations and orchestration to offer both a challenge to the conventional interpretation of Brezhnev-era foreign policy goals, and an original critique of the dominant ‘stagnation’ paradigm as it has been applied to explain domestic political developments in the 1970s. The thesis concludes by considering some potential new departures for future research into the political history of the Brezhnev period. 2 List of Contents Abstract..............................................................................................................................2 List of Tables.......................................................................................................................4 Declaration and Copyright Statement.................................................................................5 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................6 Introduction........................................................................................................................7 Overview.............................................................................................................................7 Historiography and Context................................................................................................7 Originality and the Approach to Studying the Games.......................................................18 The Source Base................................................................................................................21 Structure of the Thesis......................................................................................................23 1.) The Genesis of the Olympics........................................................................................28 Olympic Sport, Hosting International Events, and Ideological Struggle............................29 The Soviet Leadership’s Attitude Towards the Olympics Project......................................37 The Olympic Bids...............................................................................................................47 Postscript: Brezhnev’s Last-Minute Doubts......................................................................57 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................62 2.) Economic Contours of the Olympics.............................................................................65 The Olympics’ Bureaucracy...............................................................................................66 The Economic Programme, 1975-80.................................................................................69 Problems of the Economic Programme.............................................................................82 Olympic Finances..............................................................................................................90 The Olympics as a Commercial Venture............................................................................96 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................103 3.) The Soviet Security Services and the Olympics...........................................................105 The Games as a Security Threat......................................................................................106 The Security Operation, 1976-1980................................................................................112 Aftermath........................................................................................................................139 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................141 4.) The Olympics and Soviet Foreign Policy.....................................................................144 Olympic Diplomacy, 1975-79..........................................................................................145 The Scale of Olympics Propaganda, 1975-79..................................................................157 The Content of Olympics Propaganda.............................................................................163 Western Criticism and Soviet ‘Counter-Propaganda’......................................................170 Diplomacy and Propaganda After Afghanistan...............................................................175 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................183 5.) The Olympics and Domestic Soviet Politics................................................................186 The Olympics versus BAM...............................................................................................186 The Scale of the Domestic Propaganda Campaign..........................................................190 The Content of Domestic Olympics Propaganda.............................................................197 The Olympic Sports Programme.....................................................................................216 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................222 Conclusion......................................................................................................................225 Understanding 1980 as an Individual Event....................................................................225 The Olympics and the Historiography of the Brezhnev Era.............................................230 Appendix I: Chronology of Events, 1951-81.....................................................................250 Appendix II: List of Archival Documents and Other Primary Sources...............................253 Bibliography....................................................................................................................267 3 List of Tables Table One. Aggregate Security Personnel Figures by Organisation, Moscow 1980.............122 Table Two. Security Personnel by Location, Moscow 1980…………………………………….………...125 4 Declaration and Copyright Statement No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work. Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. 5 Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my three supervisors, Natalya Chernyshova, Chris Aldous and Neil Curtin, for tirelessly reading through my unjustifiably long chapter drafts, pointing out where I was going wrong and nudging me in the right direction on a number of crucial issues, and of course helping to deal with the never-ending stream of bureaucratic