Abstract
Czechoslovak Spartakiads, organized periodically in the years 1955-1985 were an unique phenomenon that combined mass gymnastics performances with an event with the features of a community ritual, propaganda action and a wide range of cultural and recreational events. Despite the fact that the Spartakiads were primarily to serve as a symbolic representation of the happy life of the broad social masses in socialist society, they also functioned as a ritual of remembrance.
This ritual officially referred to the anniversaries of the liberation of the Czechoslovak lands from Nazi occupation by the Red Army. In a broader sense, it was also meant to be a symbolic commemoration of the emergence of a socialist state as such - a kind of "country's birthday" (as we can read in promotional publications from the era).
In official representations of events we can also observe attempts to set the Spartakiad in a specific historical context - in connection with the history of the state, the history of Czechoslovak physical culture (it should be remembered that gymnastic movements in Czechoslovakia had a long tradition and a position of an important "lieu de mémoire" in collective memory) and history of so-called class war. These attempts can be interpreted as an example of the use of historical references in the formation of basic narratives within the historical policy of the era.
The main topic of the contribution is the role of the Czechoslovak Spartakiads as an official ritual of remembrance in socialist Czechoslovakia. We primarily focus on the following issues: - how the formule of the Spartakiads and its cultural representations related to their official connection with the anniversary of liberation; - in which way the event referred to the post-war history of the Czechoslovak state; - what was its relation to the generally understood state historical policy; - in which way the Spartakiads achieved the function of a ritual of remembrance.