Simple brokers or creators? French communist sports leaders and the Eastern European sports model (1923-1991)

The "Cold War" context that polarized a large part of the world (but also each of the national societies) for nearly seven decades in the twentieth century did not spare physical and sporting activities, despite their apolitical aura. In France, for example, class struggle was extended to the sports fields in the early 1920s with the creation of the Federation sportive du travail (FST), an affiliate of Red Sport International (RSI) based in Moscow. Its replacement by the Federation sportive et gymnique du travail (FSGT) in 1934 following the reconciliation of the two main branches of the workers' movement-the communist and the "reformist" branches-also resulted in the replacement of the slogan "red sport" with that of "popular sport." International sporting ties were still forged, particularly with the other countries of the Eastern Bloc, and through various channels: occasional sports meetings, tours undertaken by athletes and sports leaders, long-term correspondence, but also the circulation of ideas and doctrinal texts. Unlike the superficial representation that presents the Soviet sphere of influence and the national communist parties within it as monolithic and vertical ensembles, this contribution proposes to show the reciprocity and complexity of human and ideal circulations in the sphere of the communist bloc. Based on a comparative analysis of the biographical trajectories of a number of "communist sports" leaders in France at different periods, we defend in particular the thesis that the evolution of the diplomatic and doctrinal positions of the organizations concerned (in particular the FSGT and the French Communist Party) did not simply stem from those of Moscow, but had a certain autonomy and even exercised a relative amount of influence on the East. Using a particular but paradigmatic case as an example, this text suggests that it was not just the leaders of international sports organizations who were involved in the internationalization of sport.