“Shagi / Steps” the Journal of the SASH

SHAGI/STEPS 7(1)

Keywords: oral history, Olympic Games 1980, “The People’s History of Russia”, memories, collective memory, memory studies, narrative strategies

Abstract: The 22th Summer Olympic Games took place in Moscow in 1980. For their fortieth anniversary in 2020 many publications appeared in the mass media. In media discourse Olympics-80 is treated as an international event that was important in the history of sports. Personal stories from interviews with professional athletes are sometimes used to illustrate this position, while the opinions of ordinary city residents are voiced much less often. The aim of the work was to compare the forms of memories transmission and assessment of what took place, depending on the degree of involvement in the event by the recalling person. To highlight the modes of telling about the past, the psychological (V. V. Nourkova) classification of the positions of the recalling subject in relation to the historical event (Participant, Witness, Contemporary and Successor) was used. As the analysis of the texts has shown, in the memory of Muscovites who were not directly connected to the organization of the Olympics, it is basically an event that changed the city (in consumption practices, through the appearance of new urban objects). In all of these cases the storytellers concentrate not on the external event series (the schedule and the results of the competitions, etc.), but on the personally experienced Olympiad time or space (recounted via feelings).

To cite this article: Petrova, N. S. (2021). Olympic Games recounted via feelings (based on materials of the project “The People’s History of Russia”). Shagi/Steps, 7(1), 136–150. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2021-7-1-136-150.