Spartakiads – The Politics and Aesthetics of Physical Culture in Communist Czechoslovakia (Václav Havel) - Softcover

Roubal, Petr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8024638517 ISBN 13: 9788024638515

Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University, 2020

Synopsis

Every five years from 1955 to 1985, mass Czechoslovak gymnastic demonstrations and sporting parades called Spartakiads were held to mark the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia. Featuring hundreds of thousands of male and female performers of all ages and held in the world’s largest stadium―a space built expressly for this purpose―the synchronized and unified movements of the Czech citizenry embodied, quite literally, the idealized Socialist people: a powerful yet pliant force directed by the regime. In this book, Petr Roubal explores the political, social, and aesthetical dimensions of these mass physical demonstrations, with a particular focus on their roots in the völkisch nationalism of the German Turner movement and the Czech Sokol gymnastic tradition. Roubal draws on extensive interviews and archival research to investigate the many facets of this sporting tradition, from the reactions of ordinary, non-political gymnasts who appropriated and challenged official rituals to the organizational demands of the Spartakiads, such as the incredible finances involved and the knowledge and skills required from hundreds of former Sokol officials. Featuring an abundance of archival photographs, Spartakiad takes a new approach to Communist history by opening a window onto the mentality and mundanity behind the Iron Curtain.

About this title

About the Authors

Petr Roubal is a senior research fellow in the Institute of Contemporary History at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Daniel Morgan is a translator with two decades of experience translating from Czech.

Edition details

• Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8024638517
• ISBN 13: 9788024638515
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350