English and french subtitles available. This is a soviet propaganda movie showing a competition in Moscow in 1953 between Hungary, Czechoclosvakia and USSR. It was translated in french to be used in France. It was part of Michel Nouchy’s collection. He was the last 16mm movie seller in France and stopped his activity in 2001. This is a very interesting footage because it shows a turning point of USSR’s and world’s figure skating history. The soviet regimen stopped sending their athletes to internationals competition after 1917. They officially asked the Olympic movement for their recognition in 1951. They made their decision known on the April, 23rd 1951 ; barely two weeks before the 1951 Congress and were accepted by 31 yes votes and 2 abstainers. Right after, another vote to accept the USSR Olympic Committee as a member happened and the results were as follow : 24 Yes, 5 No and 5 abstainers for a total of 34 voters. USSR then took part in the Olympics for the first time at the 1952 Summer Games. The next step were the Winter sports. This competition is probably one of the earliest and few competitions held in USSR. They invited their “friends” to compete and have an opportunity to measure they level against internationals competitors. It was the first stepping stone to come back to the elite international figure skating level. Then Belenkaia and Moskvin were sent to the 1955 Europeans to know if they would be able to compete against the other European skaters. Some USSR skaters and officials went to the 1956 Games to watch the world best skaters too and brought back movies. This showed the USSR’s skaters they weren’t far from their future competitors elements-wise even though they were clearly behind them in term of presentation, glide and polish. Another competition like this one was held in 1956 : USSR invited Czechoslovakian skaters. 01:31 Tatiana Likhareva, student at the CSKA Moscow. She is Konstantin Likharev’s daughter. He was a skating teacher and started training Tatiana at 5 years old. At twelve she received the “Master of Sports” title. She is the 1954 and 1955 USSR nationals champion. 02:16 Edouard Pliner from Sverdlovsk. 03:08 Sona Balunova & Miroslav Balun. 1950-1955 nationals champions. 05:02 Evgenia Bogdanova from Moscow. She is the 1958 USSR nationals champion. 06:17 Jarmila Königova from Czechoslovakia. She placed 17th at 1952 Europeans and 17th at 1958 Worlds. 08:20 Marianne & László Nagy from Hungary. 1950 & 1955 European champions. 1952 & 1956 Olympic bronze medalist. 1950, 1953 and 1955 world bronze medalists. 11:10 Irina Golovkhiapova from CSKA Moscow. 12:20 Eszter Jurek in green and Marianne Nade in red from Hungary. Eszter Jurek placed 22th at 1952 Europeans, 17th at 1953 Europeans and 18th at 1953 Worlds. 15th at 1955 Europeans, 11th at 1957 Europeans. She also competed in pairs with Miklós Kuharovicz and placed 8th at 1957 and 1958 Europeans, 11th at 1958 Worlds. Lidia Guerassimova & Yuri Kisselev from Leningrad They are the 1954 & 1955 USSR national champions. First soviets skaters to enter an ISU championships with Belenkaia & Moskvin for pairs and Valentin Zakharov, Lev Mikhailov and Igor Persiantsev for men at 1956 Europeans. The team was decided at 1955 nationals , held in spring. The results were : 1st Garassimova & Kisseliov, 2nd Belenkaia & Moskvin, 3rd (tie) Bakusheva & Zhuk and Belousova & Protopopov. All the teams were training in Piotr Orlov’s group in Léningrad by nationals. He would have these words after the competition : “Look at Leningrad school : we won all the medals ! Time has come to open a window on Europe”. Orlov was a former Fedor Datline's student, he too studied Panin’s easy gliding theories and was teached by Xsenia César. Right after the war, he lived in Czechoslovakia and met there the Austrians skaters released from Nazis, learning the Austrian teaching system. 17:05 Jindra Kramperova from Czechoslovakia. She placed 14th at 1956 Europeans, 15th at 1956 Worlds, 8th at 1957 Europeans, 5th at 1958 Europeans and 17th at 1958 Worlds.

• published: 05 Oct 2014
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