Propaganda content in the Polish sports press of the 1950s

Abstract

The article describes main forms of socialist propaganda in polish sports press of the 1950’s decade. As the analysis shows, sports magazines, despite their apparent thematic distance from political issues, had become tools of social impact. The main force of influence was concentrated in texts created typically for propaganda purposes, but also texts devoted to sports competitions (i.e. reports) contained political components. The most important manifestations of propaganda in the sports press were the mixing of sport with politics, promoting Soviet training and tactical patterns, over-emphasizing successes, informing about the socialist commitments made by athletes on public holidays, as well as criticizing social and political conditions in capitalist countries.