Keywords
Soviet football
sports press
football caricature
fan culture
football players
stadiums
How to Cite
Abstract
In accordance with the ideological doctrine of the USSR, sport was intended to showcase the accomplishments of the socialist system and the Soviet model of physical education both on the international stage and within the union. The means of information were specialized sports publications, sports sections in socio-political magazines and newspapers, radio and television, where various reports, features and sports news were regularly broadcast. The main Belarusian republican sports publication was “Fizkulturnik Byelorussii” (“Physical culturist of Byelorussia”). Drawing on material published in the newspaper, the research presents an analysis of the Belarusian Soviet press as a source for the history of local football. Covering the period from the early 1950s, when the newspaper was founded and Soviet athletes became constant participants in all international competitions, to the late 1980s, when, under the conditions of the “Perestroika” and “Glasnost” policies, the mass media underwent a transition from the Soviet ideological paradigm to topics aimed at the mass consumer. The article analyzes written and visual sources on the history of football in the Byelorussian SSR, published by the newspaper “Fizkulturnik Byelorussii”, and traces topics that were most reflected on the pages of the periodical in the 1950s–1980s.
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