Spartakiad initially was the name of an international sports event that the Soviet Union attempted to use to both oppose and supplement the Olympics.[1] (In Russian, there is a certain parallelism in the names: "Spartakiada" and "Olimpiada".) The name, derived from the name of the slave rebel leader, Spartacus,[2] was supposed to symbolize proletarian internationalism because Spartacus' revolt united slaves from diverse ethnic backgrounds within the Roman Empire. As a Classical figure, Spartacus also stood directly in contrast to the aristocratic nature of the Ancient Olympic Games on which the modern "capitalist" Olympics were, according to the Soviet hierarchy, supposedly based. The first Winter Spartakiad was held in February 1928 in Oslo, and the first Summer Spartakiad was held in August 1928 in Moscow.
In 1952 the Soviet Union decided to join the Olympic movement, and international Spartakiads ceased. However the term persisted for internal sports events in the Soviet Union of different levels, from local up to the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR (Спартакиада народов СССР, Spartakiada narodov SSSR[3]). The latter event was held twice in four years: Winter Spartakiad and Summer Spartakiad, with international participation. The first Soviet Spartakiad was held in 1956. These events were of huge importance for the Soviet sports. Everyone could participate in them - from ordinary people to top-level athletes. The number of participants, for example, in the 6th Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, was 90 million people (twice the number of athletes in the USSR in that time), including 8,300 Masters of Sports of the USSR. And in the 3rd Winter Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR took part 20 million people, including some 1,000 Masters of Sports of the USSR.[2] An importance of Winter and Summer Spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR may also be seen from the fact, that each of them was commemorated on a series of postage stamps, released in millions of copies (an example of such a stamp is pictured).[4]
There was also a "Youth Spartakiad". Still another Soviet sports event with this name, Spartakiad of Trade Unions (Спартакиада профсоюзов), survived in a number of post Soviet republics, such as Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
The name Spartakiáda was also used for a mass gymnastics display [1], [2], which was held every five years at the Strahov Stadium in Prague, Czechoslovakia, when the country was under Communist rule. The first event of this name was held, however, already in 1921, and its initiator Jiří Chaloupecký is credited as the inventor of the name.[5]
Six similar events were held in Albania during communist rule as well (in 1959, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, and 1989).[6][7]
In 1984, the Soviet Union organised the Friendship Games, aimed at countries which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics.