The Cold War Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev (d. 1971) and Leonid Brezhnev (d. 1982), between
1953 and 1982, continued with Vladimir Lenin’s (d. 1924) and Joseph Stalin’s (d. 1953) physical
culture policy designed to create healthier citizen-workers and soldiers. The underlying concept was
to construct a communist society. In the process, the Soviet and sports cultures played a role in
integrating the different ethnic groups into the multinational Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev
(Communist Party leader from 1964 to 1982) consolidated and expanded the Soviet sports system,
albeit in a changing historical context. Our paper firstly, describes the concept of Soviet modernity
and physical culture. Secondly, in the context of Brezhnev’s tenure, we investigate the development
of the modern sports infrastructure in Tashkent, and the numerical growth of the ordinary and the elite
sportspeople in Uzbekistan. Thirdly, to explain what this meant to the everyday Central Asian, we
have incorporated their oral histories into our study. This inclusion of the people’s memories will
provide us with a bottom-up perspective of Soviet sport, and enrich our understanding of the ordinary
citizen’s relationship with the Soviet Union’s sports culture.