Miller, BG

UCL Discovery

SLOVO, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Autumn 2013), 41-43.© School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 2013.Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society: Propaganda, Acculturation, andTransformation in the 1920s and 1930s. By SUSAN GRANT. Pp. 260. New York andLondon: Routledge, 2013. £ 85.00. Hardback. ISBN: 9780415806954.In this short volume, historian Susan Grant mounts an archive-based investigation intoearly Soviet sporting institutions and their programmes designed to generate massappreciation for and replication of physical culture’s ‘clean living’ ethos. Central to herapproach is an understanding of Soviet fizkul’tura as a ‘programme for identity’ and asan ‘important part of the overall struggle to impose socialist ideals on Soviet society’ (p.3). Using Régine Robin’s four-part model for analysing the acculturation process(cognitive, axiological, symbolic, practice), Grant examines the ways in which physicalculture served as a vital tool for creating the New Soviet Man during the 1920s and1930s. The first chapter briefly touches on the international fascination with the humanbody and physiology, which began in the late nineteenth century. The second chaptermoves on to consider the institutional organization of Soviet physical culture. The nextthree chapters examine the various ways in which authorities sought to engage certaingroups in fizkul’tura – targeting primarily youth, women, villages, and members of non-Russian nationalities. The remaining two chapters take up the final two stages ofRobin’s model by examining the manner in which authorities sought to symbolize andritualize the idealized body in celebrations, parades, and spartakiads (a socialistreimagining of the Olympics), as well as exploring existing problems on the ground.The institutional story told here echoes themes found in the histories of otherpost-revolutionary Soviet cultural institutions. During the 1920s, experimentally-inclined sporting bodies debated and largely failed to implement various schemes dueto competing interests and limited resources. Stalin’s consolidation of power resulted ina greater centralization of party-state authority over fizkul’tura organizations. By themid-1930s, fizkul’tura took on a more public character, as it left the factory gates andwalked onto the national stage via the establishment of volunteer societies, GTOqualifications, and other competitions. Despite this, physical culture programmesmaintained their flexibility, serving different ends when dealing with individual groupstargeted for modernization. Concerning youth, participation in sport sought to drawthis group away from ostensibly ‘hooligan’ activities and sublimate and channel sexualenergies. The mission changed slightly in regards to women. Instead of preventingmisbehaviour, these programmes sought to create strong and healthy bodies ready formotherhood, as well as ‘ensuring that they were physically capable of taking the newrole which the revolution had assigned to them’ (p. 72).Grant closely examines cultural artefacts, such as the texts of agit-plays (agitki)and folk rhymes (chastushki) preserved in Russian state archives, in order to study theways in which authorities attempted to attract worker and peasant audiences tophysical culture. These projects aimed not only to educate and inform, but also to serveas a vehicle for the remaking of individuals into idealized New Soviet Men and theforging of new identities. Yetas demonstrated in her chapters on youth, women, thevillage, and national republics, significant barriers existed to the practical42 REVIEWSimplementation of these programmes. Material deficits persisted throughout the 1920sand 1930s, rendering access to sporting equipment and suitable spaces off limits formost individuals. In the countryside, Grant argues that by the close of the 1930s,‘physical culture was not in a strong position’ as only fourteen percent of all fizkul’tura-related spending left major urban centres (p. 120). Even in the comparatively well-supplied urban centres of Moscow and Leningrad, participation remained less thanoptimal. Securing an adequate number of qualified and dedicated physical cultureinstructors also proved near impossible. The human element, according to Grant,played a significant role in turning the masses off of Soviet visions of physical culture.Many drank, smoked, and engaged in other unhealthy or ‘un-Soviet’ behaviours – thusproviding poor examples for emulation. Furthermore, women often complained thatthey felt embarrassed in front of male fizkul’tura instructors or feared improperadvances. Recruiting instructors from the ranks of non-Russian nationalities provedeven more laborious.Yet, this is not solely a story of failure to engage with the masses. Some urban,working-class women did take up physical culture, inspired by its liberating message.Athletic training and conditioning held the promise to free them from the exhaustingwork-birth cycle of peasant life. Grant also successfully demonstrates the elasticity ofphysical culture programmes, as authorities adapted in order to draw greater numbersinto their acculturation schemes. Pre-existing sporting traditions and games in thevillage or national republics such as lapta and gorodki were incorporated (at least in part)into Soviet physical culture programmes as a means of gradually acclimating themasses to revolutionary values concerning hygiene and bodily discipline.Other types of accommodations, however, presented authorities with anideological and moral quandary. Factory leaders doled out material rewards forparticipation in factory spartakiads – a practice temporarily successful for increasing thenumbers involved, but with serious costs. Payments of this type undermined thesupposed moral superiority of socialist sport and undercut distinctions between it andits capitalist counterpart. Even so, mass participation in demonstrations of this natureremained essential to the task at hand, as it served to ‘disseminate official ideals andconcepts of Soviet identity to the wider public’ (p. 128). In more extreme cases, thissituation generated a class of journeymen athletes, chasing the rouble between sportingsocieties as managers were eager to set ever-greater records. The desire to forge theNew Soviet Man through physical culture fell to a two-tier sporting system, privilegingelite athletes capable of remarkable performances.Grant’s impressive command of archival materials and secondary literatureresults in a thoroughly grounded and well-argued study and is recommended foradvanced students and researchers in Russian history, as well as the history of sport.BRANDON GRAY MILLERMichigan State University43 REVIEWSThis work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-No Derivatives CC-BY-NC-ND2.0 UK: England & Wales License. This license allows others to download this work and share it as long as credit isgiven. However, no changes may be made in any way and it may not be used commercially. To view a full copy ofthis license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street,Suite 900, Mountain View.

Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society: Propaganda, Acculturation, and

Transformation in the 1920s and 1930s. By SUSAN GRANT. Pp. 260. New York and

London: Routledge, 2013. £ 85.00. Hardback. ISBN: 9780415806954.

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1410329/1/41-43_Grant_Physical_Culture_-_Miller_Final.pdf

Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society: Propaganda, Acculturation, and Transformation in the 1920s and 1930s. By SUSAN GRANT. Pp. 260. New York and London: Routledge, 2013. £ 85.00. Hardback. ISBN: 9780415806954.

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