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Abstract
This essay explores the symbolic role played by football in the Tito–Stalin Split (1948–1953). In particular, it examines the Yugoslav national team’s victory over the Soviet Union at the 1952 Olympics in Finland. It asks how Yugoslav sports administrators, athletes and the press negotiated the transition from a position of affectionate sporting emulation of the USSR, to one of hostile opposition. Both regimes paid close attention to international sporting competition and its potential propaganda benefits. Shedding light on an early intra-socialist rupture, this case deserves to be considered alongside better known instances of sporting conflict in the Cold War.
I would like to thank audiences in Cambridge, Glasgow and Tokyo, who offered constructive criticism on earlier versions of this essay. I am also grateful to Harry Blutstein, the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
Notes
1 Sport, Belgrade, 23 July 1952; Oslobođenje, Sarajevo, 23 July 1952.
2 Prozumenshchikov (Citation2010, p. 55) discusses Hungarian developments in this period. Yugoslavia’s triumph has also received limited attention (Dobrivojević & Miletić Citation2004, pp. 86–8; Andjelić Citation2014, pp. 113–14).
3 The 19 September 1945 issue contains multiple pages on contemporary sport in the Soviet Union.
4 Fiskultura, Belgrade, 8 August 1945.
5 Fiskultura, 5 December 1945. See also, Fiskultura, 23 December 1945.
6 Fiskultura, 5 December 1945.
7 Fiskultura, 23 December 1945.
8 Primorski vjesnik, Sušak, 2 and 7 August 1946.
9 Sport, 21 July 1952.
10 Kulla (Citation2012) compares Yugoslav and Finnish relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
11 Sport, 21 July 1952.
12 Mitić and Bobek, a Serb and a Croat respectively, were legends of the Yugoslav game during the early socialist period. The account of their Olympic experiences was eagerly awaited by the Yugoslav public and became a national bestseller (Zec & Paunović Citation2014, pp. 239–40); Sport, 14 August 1952.
13 The camp metaphor was also embraced by cartoonists in Croatia: Riječki list, Rijeka, 19 July 1952.
14 Sport, 19 July 1952.
15 Sport, 19 July 1952.
16 Partizan coach Antun Pogačnik was also the coach of the Yugoslav national team (Mitić & Bobek Citation1952, p. 7).
17 It is clear that relations between Hungarian athletes and the Soviet Union were also not at their best at the 1952 Olympics (Prozumenshchikov Citation2010, p. 55). Mitić and Bobek (Citation1952, p. 37) commented on the violence of the Hungary–Romania match, as well as Latyshev’s part in it, on their return to Yugoslavia.
18 Oslobođenje, 29 July 1952.
19 Sport, 17 July 1952.
20 News Chronicle, London, 23 July 1952.
21 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952.
22 Oslobođenje, 31 July 1952.
23 London’s unapologetically pro-Moscow Daily Worker (21 July 1952) also reported that the Soviet team had ‘won the hearts of all the spectators that packed the stadium’.
24 Otac na službenom putu, Emir Kusturica (director), 1985, Sarajevo, Television Sarajevo & Forum Film.
25 Otac na službenom putu, Emir Kusturica (director), 1985, Sarajevo, Television Sarajevo & Forum Film, at 21:19, 42:59, 1:51:17.
26 The defeat was not discussed until after Stalin’s death in 1953 (Edelman Citation1993, p. 106).
27 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952.
28 Oslobođenje, 25 July 1952.
29 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952.
30 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952.
31 Oslobođenje, 31 July 1952.
32 Sport, 23 July 1952.
33 Sport, 23 July 1952.
34 Sport, 23 July 1952.
35 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952; Sport, 23 July 1952.
36 Oslobođenje, 23 July 1952.
37 Dedijer recalls that the political situation surrounding the game meant that it even sparked interest among ‘those who hate soccer and consider it “the opiate of the masses”’ (Dedijer Citation1971, p. 306).
38 Riječki list, 13 August 1952.
39 Sport, 23 July 1952.
40 Sport, 23 July 1952.
41 Fiskultura, 23 December 1945.
42 Sport, 6 December 1952.
43 Oslobođenje, 25 July 1952. Though the thrust is accurate, the quote differs slightly from the original: ‘When the Dynamo team toured Britain, after the war, the Russians explained their success in terms of ideology. A man like Stanley Mathews was alleged to represent selfish and piratical private enterprise, whereas a truly great player like Boburov [sic] was the humble and selfless servant of a football Collective. If superior ideology explained the triumph of the Soviet Dynamo over Capitalist Arsenal, what explains the triumph of Jugoslavia over the Soviet? That question may well worry the propagandists in Moscow’, The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, London, 24 July 1952.
44 Riječki list, 9 August 1952.