Soviet physical culture was a soft power tool used to create healthy and
patriotic citizen-soldiers and help modernise the urban Soviet Union: one key
strand of this was modern sports. Josef Stalin (Communist Party leader from
1925 to 1953) imposed the physical culture and sports culture on society and
had it institutionalised. Moreover, except for policy revisions, the institutions
of his sports model continued until the mid-1980s. This paper will investigate
the impact of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (established 1925,
hereafter Communist Party) through sport in Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist
Republic (hereafter Uzbekistan). Critically reading selected Cold War and
contemporary studies, we explore the acculturation and integration role of the
Soviet sports culture in multicultural Uzbekistan from 1925 to 1952. In this
interdisciplinary paper, we ask: What was the impact of Soviet sports in
Uzbekistan? How and why did Lenin and Stalin reposition folk sports in society?
The themes examined include the concept of Soviet sports, folk sports, and the
development and impact of modern sports culture.