The Sports Clubs of the Armed Forces, Physical Culture and Sports Association of the Soviet Armed Forces (russian: спортивные клубы Армии �КА} ''sportivnye kluby Armiy, SKA''; russian: Физкультурно-спортивное объединение Вооружённых Сил СССР, ''Fizkulturno-sportivnoe obyedinenie Vooruzhonnykh Sil SSSR''), also called the Sports Clubs of the Soviet Ministry of Defense or simply Armed Forces or Army were a system of departmental sports clubs and one of the largest sports societies in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

. Established at first within officers' clubs of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

, after the Second World War they were reformed into sports clubs for all ranks in the armed forces. All the sports clubs were supervised by the Sports Committee of the Ministry of Defence of the USSR and the sports committees of

military district Military districts (also called military regions) are formations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and ...

s and naval fleets, with each district and fleet having its own club. The army clubs were often abbreviated as SKA and previously as SKVO and DO. The largest club was located in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, CSKA Moscow ("C" standing for Central). The military sports clubs had an opportunity to enlist all top athletes of a country due to the mandatory conscription policies in force then. Alongside the SKA teams in the Soviet Army, each service branch of the Armed Forces maintained service-wide clubs, with component teams coming under district or fleet club supervision. Following the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, there was an acute competitiveness in all types of sports (i.e. football, ice hockey, basketball, etc.) between the Soviet Armed Forces Sports Association clubs and the clubs of the

Dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundat ...

representing Soviet security forces ( MVD and KGB).

Regional multi-sport clubs

* CSKA Moscow ("central" ainclub of the army) ** football section as PFC CSKA in Soviet Top League ** ice hockey section as HC CSKA in Soviet Higher League * VVS Moscow (smaller Moscow club of the Air Forces) ** football section ** basketball section, won the 1951–52 Soviet Top League in basketball * SKA Leningrad **

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

section * Rostov-on-Don ( football) * Khabarovsk (

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

) * Yekaterinburg (

) * SKA Kiev, converted to the Central Sports Club of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ** football section, contributed to appearance of FC Arsenal Kyiv, disbanded in 2009 * SKA Odessa, converted to the

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern sho ...

city's sport club in 1992 ** football section, merged with FC Chornomorets Odesa * SKA Lvov, disbanded ** football section, moved to Drohobych and transformed into FC Halychyna Drohobych * SKA Alma-Ata, disbanded ** basketball section, moved to

Samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers, with a population ...

and merged with a local club into CSK VVS Samara

Medal recipients of the Armed Forces sports society at Olympics

City represented and sports discipline are given in parentheses.

Summer Olympics

1952 Summer Olympics

Yuriy Lituyev Yuriy Nikolaevich Lituyev (russian: Юрий Николаевич Литуев) (April 11, 1925 – March 2, 2000) was a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles. He trained in Leningrad and later in Moscow at the Arme ...

(

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, athletics) # Boris Tokarev (

, athletics) # Anatoly Konev (

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

) # Aleksandr Moiseyev (

) # Arkady Vorobyov ( Sverdlovsk, weightlifting) * Dmytro Leonkin,

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...

(

, ''gymnastics'') * Dmytro Leonkin,

(

, ''gymnastics'')

1956 Summer Olympics

(

, athletics) #

Yevgeniy Maskinskov Yevgeny Ivanovich Maskinskov (russian: link=no, Евгений Иванович Маскинсков) (19 December 1930 – 25 January 1985) was a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 50 kilometre walk. He trained at the Armed Forces s ...

(

Saransk Saransk (russian: Саранск, p=sɐˈransk; mdf, Саранск ошсь, Saransk oš; myv, Саран ош, Saran oš) is the capital city of the Republic of Mordovia, Russia, as well as its financial and economic centre. It is located i ...

, athletics) #

Semyon Rzhishchin Semyon Ivanovich Rzhishchin (russian: Семен Иванович Ржищин) (15 February 1933 - 27 December 1986) was a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 3000 metre steeple chase. He was born in Ryazan Oblast and trained in Moscow ...

(

, athletics) # Boris Tokarev (

, athletics) # Viktor Tsybulenko ( Kiev, athletics) # Vladimir Safronov ( Chita, boxing) # Arkady Vorobyov ( Sverdlovsk, weightlifting) *

Ivan Deriuhin Ivan Konstantinovich Deriuhin ( uk, Іван Костянтинович Дерюгін, russian: Ива́н Константи́нович Дерю́гин; 25 November 1928 – 10 January 1996) was a Soviet modern pentathlon, modern pentath ...

, Kiev * Vitali Romanenko, Poltava Oblast

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

# Gusman Kosanov ( Kishinev, athletics) #

(

, athletics) # Viktor Tsybulenko ( Kiev, athletics) # Yury Vlasov (

, weightlifting) # Arkady Vorobyov ( Sverdlovsk, weightlifting) * Margarita Nikolaeva,

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrat ...

* Ivan Bohdan,

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

1964 Summer Olympics

# Oleg Fyodoseyev (

, athletics) # Gusman Kosanov ( Alma-Ata, athletics) # Edvin Ozolin (

, athletics) # Oleg Grigoryev (

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

) # Stanislav Stepashkin (

) # Volodymyr Morozov ( Krasnovodsk,

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other ac ...

) # Grigory Kriss ( Kiev,

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

) #

Oleg Stepanov Oleg Sergeevich Stepanov (russian: Олег Серге́евич Степанов, 10 December 1939 – 27 February 2010) was a sambo and judo competitor. Domestically he was mostly known for sambo, which was a very popular sport in the Soviet U ...

(

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

) # Yury Vlasov (

, weightlifting) # Leonid Zhabotinsky (

, weightlifting)

1968 Summer Olympics

# Hennadiy Bleznitsov ( Kharkov, athletics) # Galina Bukharina (

, athletics) # Romuald Klim (

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

, athletics) # Jānis Lūsis (

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

, athletics) # Volodymyr Morozov ( Kiev,

) # Valery Yardy (

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...

) # Grigory Kriss ( Kiev,

) # Viktor Sidyak ( Lvov,

) #

Eduard Vinokurov Eduard Teodorovich Vinokurov (russian: Эдуард Теодорович Винокуров; October 30, 1942 – February 10, 2010) was a Soviet Union, Soviet Russians, Russian Olympic champion and world champion sabre fencing, fencer. Early an ...

(Leningrad,

) # Leonid Zhabotinsky ( Kiev, weightlifting)

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972 ...

Nadezhda Besfamilnaya Nadezhda Viktorovna Besfamilnaya (russian: Надежда Викторовна Бесфамильная) (born 27 December 1950) is a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 100 metres. Besfamilnaya trained at the Armed Forces sports socie ...

(

, athletics) # Galina Bukharina (

, athletics) # Jānis Lūsis (

, athletics) #

Veniamin Soldatenko Veniamin Vasilievich Soldatenko (russian: Вениамин Васильевич Солдатенко, born 4 January 1939) is a retired Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 50 km walk. He acquired Kazakhstani citizenship after the dissoluti ...

( Alma-Ata, athletics) # Sergei Belov (

) # Ivan Edeshko (

) # Alzhan Zharmukhamedov (

) # Vyacheslav Lemeshev (

) # Volodymyr Morozov ( Kiev,

) # Valery Yardy ( Cheboksary,

) # Grigory Kriss ( Kiev,

) # Viktor Sidyak (

) # Gennadiy Tsygankov (

) #

(Leningrad,

)

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

# Lidiya Alfeyeva (

, athletics) # Vera Anisimova (

, athletics) # Jānis Lūsis (

, athletics) # Sergei Belov (

) # Ivan Edeshko (

) # Alzhan Zharmukhamedov (

) # Viktor Sidyak (

) # Yevgeni Chernyshov (

, handball) # Gennadiy Tsygankov (

) # Vladimir Bure (

, swimming) #

Oleg Moliboga Oleg Alekseyevich Moliboga (russian: Олег Алексеевич Молибога, ua, Олег Олексійович Молибога; 27 February 1953 – 9 June 2022) was a Soviet volleyball player and Russian volleyball coach. Born in Dni ...

( Dnepropetrovsk,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

) #

(Leningrad,

)

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

# Yevgeni Chernyshov (

, handball) # Anatoli Fedyukin (

, handball) *

, Dnipropetrovsk

1988 Summer Olympics

# Dmitry Bilozerchev (

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

) # Hennadiy Avdyeyenko (

, athletics)

Olympians of the Unified Team

1992 Summer Olympics

* Timur Taimazov ( Med 2

, ''weightlifting'')

Winter Olympics

1956 Winter Olympics

# Fyodor Terentyev (

, cross-country skiing) # Nikolay Gusakov (

, Nordic combined)

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Valle ...

# Vladimir Melanin ( Kirov,

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

) # Gennady Vaganov (

, cross-country skiing) # Nikolay Gusakov (

, Nordic combined)

1964 Winter Olympics

# Vladimir Melanin ( Kirov,

) # Rita Achkina (

, cross-country skiing) #

Yevdokiya Mekshilo Yevdokiya Panteleyevna Mekshilo (russian: Евдокия Пантелеевна Мекшило) (23 March 1931 – 16 January 2013) was a female Soviet cross-country skier who competed in the 1960s for Armed Forces sports society. At the 196 ...

(

, cross-country skiing) # Gennady Vaganov (

, cross-country skiing) # Nikolay Gusakov (

, Nordic combined) #

Nikolay Kiselyov Nikolay Kiselyov may refer to: * Nikolay Kiselyov (soldier) (1913–1974), Russian soldier, known for rescuing over 200 Jews from the Nazis during World War II * Nikolay Kiselyov (athlete) (1939–2005), Russian Nordic combined skier, silver medali ...

(

, Nordic combined)

1968 Winter Olympics

# Rita Achkina (

, cross-country skiing) # Vladimir Voronkov (

, cross-country skiing) # Vladimir Belussov (

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, although it was not until 1 ...

, ski jumping)

1972 Winter Olympics

# Vladimir Voronkov (

, cross-country skiing) # Irina Rodnina (

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympics, 1908 Olympics ...

) # Alexei Ulanov (

)

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Winterspiele, french: XIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 ( bar, Innschbruck 1976, label= Austro-Bavarian), was a ...

Zinaida Amosova Zinaida Stepanovna Amosova (russian: Зинаида Степановна Амосова) (born 12 January 1950 in Krupskaya kolkhoz, Talaz District, Dzhambul Oblast, Kazakh SSR) is a former Soviet cross-country skier who competed from 1976 to ...

( Novosibirsk, cross-country skiing) #

Nikolay Bazhukov Nikolay Serafimovich Bazhukov (russian: Николай Серафимович Бажуков) (born July 23, 1953 in Troitsko-Pechorsk, Komi ASSR) is a Soviet/Russian cross-country skier who competed from 1976 to 1980. He won the 15 ...

( Syktyvkar, cross-country skiing) # Sergey Savelyev (

, cross-country skiing) # Irina Rodnina (

) #

Valery Muratov Valery Alekseyevich Muratov (russian: Вале́рий Алексе́евич Мура́тов, born 1 May 1946 in Kolomna) is a former ice speed skater from the USSR, who represented his native country in three consecutive Winter Olympics, star ...

( Kolomna, speed skating)

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games ( Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки иг� ...

1988 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 57 , athletes = 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) , events = 46 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) , opening = February 13, 1988 , closing = February 28, 1988 , opened_by = Governor General Jeanne Sauvé , cauldron ...

* Vyacheslav Bykov (

)

Overall Olympic performance by the society

In the following table for team events number of team representatives, who received medals are counted, not "one medal for one team", as usual.

Summer Olympics

Winter Olympics

Sources

Bibliography

* - for tables and lists on 1952-1976 Olympics

External links

Official website

Sport committee of friendly armies
{{Sports Societies of the Soviet Union Sport societies in the Soviet Union Military sports clubs Multi-sport clubs in Russia

Regional multi-sport clubs

Medal recipients of the Armed Forces sports society at Olympics

Summer Olympics

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972 ...

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

Olympians of the Unified Team

Winter Olympics

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Valle ...

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Winterspiele, french: XIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 ( bar, Innschbruck 1976, label= Austro-Bavarian), was a ...

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games ( Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки иг� ...

1988 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 57 , athletes = 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) , events = 46 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) , opening = February 13, 1988 , closing = February 28, 1988 , opened_by = Governor General Jeanne Sauvé , cauldron ...

Overall Olympic performance by the society

Summer Olympics

Winter Olympics

See also

Sources

Bibliography

External links