It was 1896 when the first Olympics of the modern era were held in Athens: four years later, Russia, at the time the Russian Empire, participated for the first time. The coexistence did not last: with the October Revolution of 1917 and the founding of the Soviet Union, Soviet athletes stopped participating in the Olympics.
But this does not mean that they did not have their own high-level sporting competition, on the contrary: in 1928 the “Spartachiads” were inaugurated, a sporting event wanted, organized and financed by the USSR, which took place in Moscow from 11 to 23 August of that year.
What are the Spartachiads and why did the USSR create them
The decision to create the Spartachiads is the subject of conflicting theories: according to some sources it is the result of the exclusion from the Olympics; according to others it was an internal decision, generated by the contestation of the “aristocratic” nature of the Olympics.
Precisely from a protest perspective, the name of the competitions was inspired by the famous gladiator Spartacus, who in the 1st century BC had led the slaves in revolt against the Roman Republic. For quite obvious reasons, he had become a symbol of proletarian internationalism and the victory of the class struggle among the communists.
The 1928 edition of the “Red Olympics”
After a first test in 1923, the first winter Spartachiade was scheduled by the RSI – Red Sports International in February 1928 in Oslo, while the first summer Spartachiade was held in August 1928 in Moscow. It is interesting to note that the Spartakiads were the first to propose winter sports, which would only be included in the Olympics in 1924.
There were five Spartachiads from 1928 to 1937: during the Second World War the competitions were suspended.
After the war, the USSR began to participate in the Olympics again: the presence of Soviet athletes at the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 was recorded, also to ease the tensions of the Cold War. In six of its nine appearances at the Summer Olympic Games, the Soviet team ranked first in total number of gold medals won (and second three times), becoming the leading contender to the United States’ dominance of the Summer Games. In the winter games, the team ranked first in gold medals seven times and second twice.
Meanwhile, the Spartakiads became an internal manifestation, taking on the name “Spartakiads of the Peoples of the Soviet Union”.
From 1952 to 1992 the athletes participated under the flag of the Soviet Union, and since the dissolution of the USSR they were part of the “Unified Team”. Russia began participating again in 1994 and until 2018, when it was excluded after accusations of state doping (which was followed by the ban for the invasion of Ukraine). To date, some Russian athletes compete as guests of the International Olympic Committee.
