Rugby union in the Soviet Union
[1] Still, an early championship in 1960 gives an idea of the sheer scale of Soviet rugby: one hundred teams from over thirty cities took part.As David Lane writes in the Politics and Society in the USSR: These Palaces of Culture were run by trade unions, who both financed them, and also took any revenue raised from them in matches etc.[8] The extreme climate of the former USSR remains a problem in many regions, with winter sometimes being a split season, or the game of snow rugby being played.[13] Over the years, the various rugby unions of each of the SSRs were set up - most of the national governing bodies of the Soviet successor states can trace themselves back to these.[17] Given the vast area of the USSR, and its complex and turbulent history, it seems more likely that rugby had multiple introductions and reintroductions to various regions completely independent of one another.For example, it seems that rugby was introduced to Georgia independently of its introduction to Russia, and moreover, the game bears a distinct resemblance to a pre-existing Georgian folk sport known as lelo.[18] They favoured: The Hygienists did not like team sports, but preferred athletics, swimming and rowing - as long as they were solo events against the clock, or one's previous best.[18] Moreover, they excluded PE from schools, and by extension team sports, arguing that "the existence of physical education teachers is a sign of pedagogical illiteracy.For example, in 1926, the Ukrainian Party Central Committee passed a resolution in which they expressed the hope that: Although nominally a proletkul'tist, the first Soviet People's Commissar of Enlightenment responsible for culture and education, Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (Анатолий Васильевич Луначарский - 1875-1933) had other ideas.[22] GTO ("Gotov k trudu i oborone") - Ready for defence and labour - was the name of the national fitness programme, which was established in 1931.[mostly untrue, but would have suffered persecution] Soviet teams once more began to be formed in the late 1950s,[23] and the game underwent a renaissance, thanks to the efforts of B.M.He is still alive and living in Marseilles, he was interviewed on French radio on the occasion of Georgia playing France in the 2007 Rugby World Cup.[13][28] The decade was a golden age for, with a large number of new teams being set up in many parts of the Soviet Union, including areas such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.[1] A school for coaches was opened during this period, and physical training colleges throughout the USSR introduced lectures on rugby union as part of their courses.[34] In 1977, James Riordan was able to predict, At the time, this was not bad prognostication; however, political and economic factors within the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s ensured this was not to be.The former All Black scrum half Chris Laidlaw, writing at the end of the 1970s, saw rugby as a positive force in east-west relations at the time: Chris Laidlaw writing of the open secret of shamateurism in Soviet sport said: A notable Russian player of the 1980s was Igor Mironov who played for the Barbarians several times during the period.[39] The USSR supposedly turned down its invitation to the 1987 Rugby World Cup, because of its distaste for the apartheid regime of South Africa.[17] Chris Thau says that France approached the USSR before 1987 on the issue, and that the Soviets said that they would be happy to participate if South Africa was not invited.[7] He admitted that a more holistic approach was needed: Crawley RFC was due to tour Russia in early 1980s, and had both raised funds, and gained approval from the Soviet Embassy.A running joke in French rugby circles ran that FIRA's nightmare was to have "Yugoslavia playing Bulgaria refereed by a Soviet."[40] Some members of the Soviet Union were also veterans at this point - for example, Igor Mironov, Roman Khairulin and Alexander Tikonov had all been playing at international level for over a decade.[43] The collapse of the Soviet Union was a severe blow to rugby in the region,[2] which resulted in the removal of state subsidies, and forced many of the smaller clubs to dissolve or start afresh.Georgia was one of the few places with a large number of clubs remaining, partly because it had become popular there, and its league was based in a relatively compact area.The RWC itself took place in October and November 1991, around two months after the unsuccessful coup d'état attempt against Gorbachev, which is often seen as being the end of the Soviet Union.Russia remains to date the next most successful team after Georgia, participating in the 2011 Rugby World Cup; however, the rest of the former USSR has not fared so well.Although rugby league in England had traditionally played on its working class credentials, in the Soviet Union it had been seen as a bourgeois pursuit, due to its links with business through professionalism.For example, the Dinamo clubs were sponsored and financed by the KGB, but no one could say that openly that some athletes were full-time shamateurs, and received bonuses for winning including dollars.[5] There were frequently unofficial bonuses, and some people could be Masters of Sport for life, meaning that they would receive pay long after their retirement.
1. Armenia , 2. Azerbaijan , 3. Belarus ,
4. Estonia , 5. Georgia , 6. Kazakhstan ,
7. Kyrgyzstan , 8. Latvia , 9. Lithuania ,
10. Moldova , 11. Russia , 12. Tajikistan ,
13. Turkmenistan , 14. Ukraine ,
15. Uzbekistan
Soviet UnionMoscowRugby World CupEuropean Nations CupRugby World Cup SevensIRB Sevens World SeriesSoviet Championship (rugby)Soviet Cup (rugby)Rugby unionGeorgian SSRRussian SFSRSiberiaKrasnoyarskAlma-AtaKazakh SSRUkrainian SSRByelorussian SSRLeningradSouthern RussiaKrasnodarGeorgiansUSSR sidePalaces of CultureRed ArmyVoluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet UnionkopecksRC Lokomotiv Moscowrugby leagueLokomotivVoluntary Sports Societyrail transportTrade Unionsthe fall of the Iron CurtainBurevestnikSpartakVodnikDinamo/DynamoDynamo PenzaDinamo TbilisiTrudovye Rezervy/Labour reservesTrud KrasnoyarskSoviet Championshipsnow rugbypermafrostSoviet Central AsiaSports schoolsFIRA-AERInternational Rugby Football BoardPeople's CommissarAnatoly LunacharskyMentonWilliam Webb Ellisdevastating Civil Wara number of faminesGreat Purgelelo burtiAbkhaziabuzkashiRugby footballRussian EmpireRussian Revolutionassociation footballrugby was introduced to Georgiarowingtennisgymnasticsproletarian culturecommunismSpartakiadprostitutionSovietAnatoly Vasilyevich LunacharskyboxingProletkultKremlin Wall NecropolisCivil WarcosmopolitanismCzechoslovakiaRhys WilliamsLlanelliArmenianMarseillesFrance2007 Rugby World CupTbilisiMoldaviaSoviet international team200 Soviet Masters of SportB.P. GavrilovI.I. KiziriiaRhymney RFCbadmintongrass hockeymotor racingEastern BlocAll BlackChris LaidlawRomaniaYugoslaviaHungaryIron CurtainRumanianRussiansBarbariansGreat Soviet Encyclopediaperestroika1987 Rugby World CupapartheidSouth AfricaToulouseCrawley RFCRugby Football UnionBulgariascrum-halfRevolutions of 1989Post-Soviet statesArmeniaAzerbaijanBelarusEstoniaGeorgiaKazakhstanKyrgyzstanLatviaLithuaniaMoldova