MOSCOW AND THE OLYMPIC FLAME OF DIVIDED GERMANY (POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE 1972 OLYMPICS IN MUNICH)

Abstract

The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was one of the key points in the history of sports during the Cold War. The existence of two states belonging to the opposing military-political blocs on the German soil led to particular complex political games around the Olympics. Based on new archival sources from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, the article analyses the attitude of the Soviet political and sports leadership to the nomination of Munich as the capital of the Olympic Games. In the USSR, and especially in the GDR, where the elites were still more politically instrumentalizing sports, they were unhappy with this candidacy. However, all appeals from political and sports officials of East Germany to the Soviet party, government and sports leaders, aimed at opposing the Federal Republic of Germany in the sports sphere, were largely ignored diplomatically. The Soviet Union, especially after the victory of the coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the FDP at the elections in West Germany, was interested in establishing and strengthening relations with the FRG and other Western countries. The current international situation prompted the Soviet leadership to seek a balance of interests in the field of sports policy in relations with the GDR and the FRG. In order to achieve detente in relations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact organization, the Soviet leadership was able to sacrifice some “principles” and pursue a realistic compromise policy in the field of international sports of the highest achievements.