Spartakiads

How strongly did the Spartakiads from 1955 to 1985 follow the tradition of Sokol meetings? To what extent was participation voluntary and how popular were they overall? Were they a celebration of communist ideology? These questions are also answered in the book Czechoslovak Spartakiads by Petr Roubal from the Institute for Contemporary History of the CAS. And his answers are surprising, especially to the reader who has not fully experienced that time and does not understand what glamour there can be in a mass exercise in a crowd of peers. < br> In his readable book, the author aptly combines theoretical considerations of gender transformations, carnival culture, and rites of passage with detailed information about the extent to which these pageants increased the national birth rate or how some young children ignored the communal performances and preferred to play with sand