Page 89 - Olympism in Socialism

between the work teams in qualifying for the
enterprise championships in various sports
events.

A CHAPTER OF SPORTS FRIENDSHIP
The multifaceted relations between the
sportsmen of the GDR and the USSR are part of
the friendship between the two peoples and of
their cooperation in all fields of social life — be it
politics and economy, science and culture or the
joint protection of the achievements of socialism.
Friendship in the field of sports can be traced
back to the days immediately after the Great
October Socialist Revolution of 1917 when
solidarity, friendship and cooperation developed
between the sportsmen of the young Soviet
Republic and German working-class sportsmen.
Following the smashing of German Hitlerite
fascism in 1945 these relations proved helpful in
the building of an anti-fascist and democratic
sports movement in the GDR as also in the joint
efforts for the international recognition of GDR
sports.
As early as in the first months of
rehabilitation after the Second World War the
Soviet friends gave every support to progressive
German sportsmen in activating sports life in the
spirit of peace and understanding among peoples.
The reactionary fascist sports organizations were
dissolved. Consistent headway was made towards
the development of physical culture and sports on
a democratic anti-fascist basis.
The joint reconstruction of the sports facilities
destroyed during the war, material assistance for
the first sports competitions and first sports
encounters at the local level marked the
beginning of the development of sports relations
after the end of the war.
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