O sport, you are peace!

In the Soviet years, my mother worked as a trainer in medical physical education. Sometimes she brought me to work. The gym was decorated with posters promoting Soviet sport. I filled a huge poster » O sport, you are peace!   » .   As a child, I could not relate these two concepts. Physical culture and sport in the USSR was attached very great importance. In the USSR, the factory of propaganda images and communist ideas worked very well, since propaganda was the basis of the Soviet state.

After the revolution, for the Bolsheviks, mass sport was a forge of cadres for the Red Army and the NKVD. The sportsman had to be able to throw a grenade, run in a gas mask, and also have knowledge on military topics and the basics of Soviet physical education.

The essence of the sport was not rivalry, but participation, developing a habit of collective action. Pseudo-sports festivals were organized, in which thousands of participants built figures from their bodies, shouting the names of Lenin and Stalin. The idea of ​​competition was modified and subordinated to the goal of building a totalitarian regime, and then became an instrument of the Cold War.

After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine gained state independence. Russia aggressively positions itself in the role of political and military hegemon among the states of the former USSR. The Kremlin continues to use the successful experience of Soviet propaganda in the field of sports.

Russian sport, as in the Soviet years, is focused only on victory. That is why today he was under the scrutiny of international authorities in connection with questions about doping.

The Olympic Games are a symbol of peaceful coexistence. But at the beginning of the Olympics came the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008. The Kremlin managed to end the war with diplomatic success.

In 2014, the Kremlin was actively preparing not only for the Olympics, but also for new aggression. The very day after the end of the Sochi Olympics, Russia launched an attack on the Crimea.

After that, armed separatist units, with the support of Russian troops, annexed part of the Donbass. During the hostilities, a significant part of the infrastructure of Donetsk and Lugansk regions was destroyed.

Most affected schools, sports facilities, gyms. During fierce battles, the enemy fired on them, because the military was located in large halls when they held the defense of settlements. There they were injured and died.

Visiting the military zone, I often go to schools, gyms. I remember that poster from my childhood, «Oh sport! You are the world!»

I see the destroyed or already restored premises, sandbags on the windows, traces of bullets on the walls, as well as the main witnesses of all this, children. A whole generation grows up during a terrible war that will forever remain in their memory.

I combined the Soviet propaganda posters and photographs of sports facilities, fragments, sites, structures in the military zone in the Donbass, which I shot over the course of several years.

2017-2020

 Soviet propaganda

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic), USSSR (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic); For unbreakable friendship, for new successful achievements».

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Do you want to be like this — train».

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: “All world records must be ours”.

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Athletes! Achieve high sports results. Fight for the sports side of your team. ”

 

Donetsk region. Gornyak 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Improve skiing skills. Learn to fight while skiing.»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Hello to my native Stalin; The physical culture parade is a powerful demonstration of the strength and invincibility of the Soviet people. ”

 

Lugansk region. Crimean 2019 / The inscription on the poster: «Raise the banner of sports honor of the USSR.»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «I will be an athlete.»

 

Donetsk region. Marinka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Young athletes. We will prepare a shift for the Olympians. ”

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Sports in the USSR — Sports of millions.»

 

Lugansk region. Schastie 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Long live the Soviet athletes.»

 

Donetsk region. Gornyak 2018 / The inscription on the poster: “Long live the All-Union Day of the Athlete.

 

Donetsk region. Krasnogorovka 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Youth go skating.»

 

Lugansk region. Crimean 2019 / The inscription on the poster: «Ready for work and defense.»

 

Donetsk region. Krasnogorovka 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «All world records must be ours.»

 

Donetsk region. Krasnogorovka 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Competition«.

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Raise up the banner of Soviet sport!»

 

Lugansk region. Schastie 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Sport is the ambassador of the world!»

 

Donetsk region 2018  / The inscription on the poster: «Physical education is the best way to defend the country».

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Sport in the USSR»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «O sport, you are peace!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Spartakiad. Moscow. August 1928»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «All-Union Athlete’s Day»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Ready to work and defense!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Sport is health, will and courage!»

 

Donetsk region. Maryinka 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «There are no finer clothes in the world than bronze of muscles and freshness of the skin!»

 

Lugansk region. Schastie 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «We will achieve new, sporting success!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Are you ready to pass the standards for the badge?; Ready for work and defense!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Youth take the baton! World records.»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR. A review of strength and skill.»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «At the start, millions!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Long live the Soviet athletes-combat reserve of the Red Army!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Glorious athletes of our country — May Day greetings!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «The whole world will be ours!»

 

Lugansk region. Schastie 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «A mighty sporting country!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «O sport, you are peace!»

 

Donetsk region. Gornyak 2018 / The inscription on the poster: “
Athletes fighting reserve of the Red Army! Take part in the most powerful cyclists in Moscow!»

 

Donetsk region. Gornyak 2018 / The inscription on the poster: “Physical education in the service of the defense of the USSR»

 

Lugansk region. Schastie 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «We are promoting mass physical education — we will improve working life! We give millions of advanced workers ready for work and defense!»

 

Lugansk region. Stanitsa Luganskay 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Physical education and sport among the masses of youth!»

 

Lugansk region. Zolotoe 2019 / The inscription on the poster: «Youth at the stadiums!»

 

Lugansk region. Zolotoe 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Get up for charging, you will not lag behind in work!»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Every sportsman should be a leader in labor and defense»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Ready for work and defense! All-Union Athlete’s Day!»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Sports and physical education are on a par with the main tasks in the country!»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «World records; Youth take the baton!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Collective farmer be a sportsman!»

 

Donetsk region 2018 / The inscription on the poster: «Homeland to you, our records!»

 

Lugansk region. Trehizbenka 2017 / The inscription on the poster: «Work, build and do not whine! We have a path to a new life! You may not be an athlete! But you must be an athlete!»

 

O sport, you are peace! You establish good, kind, friendly relations between nations. You are the source of noble, peaceful, friendly competition.
Pierre de Coubertin