Sport served many purposes in the Soviet Union, as it has in most modern societies. This study examines the relationship between state-sponsored imperatives for citizens to engage in sport and exercise and cultural norms in the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev years, 1953-1964. It also examines the attempted creation of a class of people who exhibited proletarian engagement with work, but also possessed bourgeois cultural tastes. A variety of visual and text-based primary sources from Russian-language magazines and poster campaigns were analyzed for their tone, content, and cultural signifiers. The sources yielded a view of Soviet society in which the government under Khrushchev was actively attempting to create a socialist middle class who possessed a proletarian work ethic, but also were well-versed in bourgeois culture and taste, heightening contradictions stemming from Stalin’s implementation of the Big Deal. The Cold War informed a great many of these cultural imperatives, and Khrushchev’s stated goal from 1956 onward was to directly compete with the United States through cultural means rather than via full-on military conflict. This work also folds in elements of class and gender history, examining the methods by which the Khrushchev government used sport and fitness to impose gender-normative roles onto the working class.
","abstract_html":"<p>Sport served many purposes in the Soviet Union, as it has in most modern societies. This study examines the relationship between state-sponsored imperatives for citizens to engage in sport and exercise and cultural norms in the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev years, 1953-1964. It also examines the attempted creation of a class of people who exhibited proletarian engagement with work, but also possessed bourgeois cultural tastes. A variety of visual and text-based primary sources from Russian-language magazines and poster campaigns were analyzed for their tone, content, and cultural signifiers. The sources yielded a view of Soviet society in which the government under Khrushchev was actively attempting to create a socialist middle class who possessed a proletarian work ethic, but also were well-versed in bourgeois culture and taste, heightening contradictions stemming from Stalin’s implementation of the Big Deal. The Cold War informed a great many of these cultural imperatives, and Khrushchev’s stated goal from 1956 onward was to directly compete with the United States through cultural means rather than via full-on military conflict. This work also folds in elements of class and gender history, examining the methods by which the Khrushchev government used sport and fitness to impose gender-normative roles onto the working class.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Jennings, James Henry"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Roxanne Easley","Jason Knirck","Dan Herman"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:37:54Z","subjects":["USSR","Khrushchev","Sport","Culture","Visual Analysis","Gender","Cultural History","European History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1505","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Roxanne Easley","Jason Knirck","Dan Herman"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Jennings, James Henry"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2026-06-07T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["USSR","Khrushchev","Sport","Culture","Visual Analysis","Gender","Cultural History","European History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1505"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Sport served many purposes in the Soviet Union, as it has in most modern societies. This study examines the relationship between state-sponsored imperatives for citizens to engage in sport and exercise and cultural norms in the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev years, 1953-1964. It also examines the attempted creation of a class of people who exhibited proletarian engagement with work, but also possessed bourgeois cultural tastes. A variety of visual and text-based primary sources from Russian-language magazines and poster campaigns were analyzed for their tone, content, and cultural signifiers. The sources yielded a view of Soviet society in which the government under Khrushchev was actively attempting to create a socialist middle class who possessed a proletarian work ethic, but also were well-versed in bourgeois culture and taste, heightening contradictions stemming from Stalin’s implementation of the Big Deal. The Cold War informed a great many of these cultural imperatives, and Khrushchev’s stated goal from 1956 onward was to directly compete with the United States through cultural means rather than via full-on military conflict. This work also folds in elements of class and gender history, examining the methods by which the Khrushchev government used sport and fitness to impose gender-normative roles onto the working class.
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