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Abstract
This essay presents a socio-historical interpretation of sport-based resistance against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. It argues that the sphere of sport was never absolutely subordinated to the prevailing political order and it maintains that sport provided a space for expressions of resistance. Such resistance is not just evident in cases of large demonstrations during which Czech and Slovak sport celebrities reinforced public protests with grand symbolic and mass-mediated gestures. The same level of importance to opposition against the dominant power can be attributed to small everyday practices. Hence, while considering glorious acts of resistance and protest with a large-scale impact, the study simultaneously explores subtle and everyday subversive strategies that have appeared in public participation in sport. The study is based on a secondary analysis of documents and on semi-structured interviews with a number of representatives from the Czech sport movement.
Acknowledgements
The research was funded by the European Commission 6th Framework Marie Curie Excellence Grant MEXT-25008 ‘Sport and Social Capital in the European Union’ awarded to Dr Margaret Groeneveld and Bocconi University. I would like to thank Russell Field and Bruce Kidd for their insightful comments and critical remarks on the first draft of this essay.
Notes
1 CitationVačkář, ‘Nezkrácená verze rozhovoru s Čáslavskou’.
2 Emil Zátopek was politically active after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August of 1968 when he asked for the exclusion of the Soviet athletes from the upcoming Olympic Games in Mexico City. CitationGiuntini, Pugni chiusi, 70.
3 Vačkář, ‘Nezkrácená verze rozhovoru s Čáslavskou’.
4 Vačkář, ‘Nezkrácená verze rozhovoru s Čáslavskou’
5 CitationDe Certeau, Practice of Everyday Life.
6 CitationEdelman, Serious Fun.
7 CitationHollander and Einwohner, ‘Conceptualizing Resistance’; CitationMarada, Kultura protestu; CitationReed-Danahay, ‘Talking about Resistance’; CitationScott, Weapons of the Weak; CitationShaw, ‘Conceptualizing Resistance’; CitationSivaramakrishnan, ‘Some Intellectual Genealogies’.
8 The selection of three sport disciplines was primarily driven by the aims of a larger project ‘Sport and Social Capital in the European Union’. This project was realized as a multi-sited ethnographic study and was focused on sport governance and its social impact in four specific countries of the European Union (Denmark, France, Italy and the Czech Republic).
9 CitationRinehart, ‘Fists Flew’.
10 CitationOk, ‘The Political Significance’.
11 CitationMajumdar, ‘Cultural Resistance’.
12 CitationKeech, ‘Contest, Conflict and Resistance’.
13 CitationDuke, ‘Local Tradition’; CitationHorne, ‘The Politics of Sport’; CitationThomson and Soós, ‘Research Note Youth Sport’.
14 CitationBroad, ‘The Gendered Unapologetic’; CitationElling, de Knop and Knoppers, ‘Gay/Lesbian Sport Clubs’; CitationIannotta and Kane, ‘Sexual Stories’.
15 CitationJamison, ‘The Sandgate Handicap Riot’.
16 CitationPelak, ‘Negotiating Gender/Race/Class Constraints’.
17 CitationDonnelly, ‘Resistance Through Sports’.
18 CitationWilliams, ‘Sport, Hegemony’.
19 CitationGilchrist and Ravenscroft, ‘The (Sub)politics of Sport’.
20 CitationLennartz, ‘Olympic Boycotts’.
21 CitationConversi, ‘Immigration and Statelessness’.
22 CitationEdelman, ‘A Small Way of Saying “No”’.
23 Rinehart, ‘Fists Flew’.
24 CitationEdelman, Serious Fun, 24.
25 CitationEdelman, Serious Fun, 16.
26 CitationMarada, Kultura protestu; CitationThorne, ‘Ideologies and Realities’.
27 ČSTV – Czechoslovak Association of Physical Education, the only officially recognized state-driven umbrella association.
28 CitationRound Table, ‘Kulatý Stůl’, 738.
29 CitationShaw, ‘Conceptualizing Resistance’.
30 Hollander and Einwohner, ‘Conceptualizing Resistance’.
31 CitationBudd, ‘Capitalism, Sport and Resistance’.
32 This section is based on the paper ‘Sport as Resistance: “Ice Hockey Protests” in Czechoslovakia in Citation1969s’ presented at the XIth International CESH-Congress in Vienna in 2006 and published in the proceedings of the event. See CitationNumerato, ‘Sport as Resistance’,
33 In fact, the invasion was effected under the Russian captainship, but the army was comprised of soldiers from five countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact: the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. CitationBalík et al., ‘Politický systém českých zemí 1848–1989’, 140.
34 The term ‘temporary’ is used here in the same way that it was used in expressions of key political actors.
35 CitationFelcman, ‘Počátky ostré etapy normalizace’, 52; CitationWilliams, The Prague Spring; CitationAgnew, The Czechs, 269.
36 The tension of the games and their political significance was already anticipated before they started. In fact, some Czech journalists, particularly those from dailies such as the Reportér, Svobodné slovo, Mladá fronta, Zemědělské noviny and Práce were later accused in the official statement of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia of provoking tension and negative emotion in connection with the game. Citation Rudé právo , ‘Ještě k hokejovému zápasu ČSSR-SSSR’, 13.
37 CitationPacina, ‘Hokejová pomsta za okupaci’, 32.
38 L. Brostrom, ‘Cold as Ice: The Triumph in 1969: Seven Months after Russia Invaded, Tension Filled Stockholm Arena’. The Prague Post, April 22, 2004)
39 Národní muzeum exhibition, ‘…a přijely tanky. 1968’, Prague, 2008.
40 M. Jenšík and T. Večeřa, ‘Jak na Rusy? Rozhodit je’. Mladá fronta Dnes, February 15, 2008, Sport, 32.
41 CitationPelletier, ‘Czechoslovakian Victory’; Jokisipilä, ‘Cold War on Ice’.
42 This was the nickname of the Soviet Union's team referring to its domination in international games, which had lasted for years.
43 Notwithstanding the victory against the Soviet Union, the Czechoslovak team came away from Stockholm with the bronze medal, since it lost twice against Sweden and even if it reached the same number of points as did both Sweden and the Soviet Union, the better score determined that the World Cup was awarded to the Soviet team and the silver medal to the Swedish players. CitationIIHF, ‘Nothing Equals the Rivalry of the Spring of 69’, 2.
44 According to some estimates, there were about 2,000 people gathered at Prague's Wenceslas Square. CitationCasper, ‘The Ice Hockey Crisis of 1969’.
45 Národní muzeum, ‘…a přijely tanky. 1968’.
46 Agnew, The Czechs, 269; Citation Rudé právo , ‘Ministerstvo vnitra ČSR k událostem z 28. a 29. března’, 1–2.
47 Casper, ‘The Ice Hockey Crisis of 1969’.
48 The pile of cobblestones had been brought in front of the Aeroflot office only the night before the match happened. See Pacina, ‘Hokejová pomsta za okupaci’; Casper, ‘The Ice Hockey Crisis of 1969’.
49 Citation Rudé právo , ‘Vláda ČSR k událostem v noci ze dna 28. na 29. března 1969’, 1–2.
50 Rudé právo, ‘Ještě k hokejovému zápasu ČSSR-SSSR’, 13.
51 Agnew, ‘The Czechs’.
52 These activities, among others, included attempts at emigration or public criticism of communism. CitationMacků, Utajené stránky hokejové historie, 2.
53 CitationDěkanovský, Sport, média a mýty, 156.
54 CitationRoubal, ‘Politics of Gymnastics’, 6.
55 CitationUhlíř and Waic, Sokol proti totalitě 1938–1952.
56 CitationVašíčková, ‘Sokolské hnutí’.
57 CitationVašíčková, ‘Sokolské hnutí’
58 CitationBäumeltová, ‘Jednota Sokol Bern’.
59 CitationČSJ, 100 let jachtingu 1893–1993, 41; CitationSedlák, ‘Historie golfu v Českých zemích’.
60 ČSJ, 100 let jachtingu 1893–1993, 41.
61 ČSJ, 100 let jachtingu 1893–1993, 41
62 CitationNumerato, ‘Revisiting Weber's Concept’.
63 The trophy has not actually been awarded since 1950, most probably in order to prevent accusations of political provocation. Sedlák, Historie golfu v Českých zemích'.