19 August 1980* (St 224/7) Olympic successes

Secretariat Resolution. Send report to communist and workers’ parties in socialist countries about success of the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow (8 pp). [R 19 August 1980, St 224/7] Excerpts.

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[page one of eight]

No St 227/7, 19 August 1980

Top Secret
SPECIAL FILE

RESOLUTION
of the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee

Information for the central committees of the Communist and Workers’ parties of socialist countries about the results of the 22nd Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow

Limit to an exchange of views.

Results of vote:

Adopted at the meeting of the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat, 19 August 1980
Central Committee Secretaries, Comrades:

Kirilenko- for
Gorbachev – for
Kapitonov – for
Dolgikh – for
Zimyanin – for

Excerpts to: Comrades Rusakov, Zamyatin, Tyazhelnikov

[page two]

Workers of all Lands, Unite!

COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION. CENTRAL COMMITTEE

[Text along left-hand margin]
Return to CPSU Central Committee (General Department, sector 2)
within 15 days of receipt (Central Committee Resolution No 12/4, 17 June 1976)

Top Secret

No St 224/7, 19 August 1980

Excerpt from item 7 of Minutes No. 224 of the Central Committee Secretariat

Information for the central committees
of the Communist and Workers’ parties of socialist countries
about the results of the 22nd Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow

Limit to an exchange of views.

SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Sent to Comrades Rusakov, Zamyatin, Tyazhelnikov

[page four]

Secret

To the CPSU Central Committee

Information for the central committees
of the Communist and Workers’ parties of socialist countries
about the results of the 22nd Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow

The Central Committee Departments think it would be expedient to inform the central committees of the Communist and Workers’ parties of socialist countries
about the results of the 22nd Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow.

A draft Central Committee Resolution is attached.

Head of the Foreign Political Propaganda Department, L. Zamyatin

Deputy Head of the Department for Relations with Communist and Workers’ Parties of Socialist countries, O. Rakhmanin

Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department, M. Gramov

13 August 1980

No 7D-145

[page five – Resolution;
pages six to eight – letter to Soviet ambassadors in 12 socialist countries]

[page six]

Secret
Attachment

SOFIA, WARSAW, PRAGUE, BUDAPEST, BERLIN, HAVANA,
HANOI, VIENTIANE, ULAN BATOR, BUCHAREST, BELGRADE, PYONGYANG

SOVIET AMBASSADOR

[…]

The 22nd Summer Olympic Games, held for the first time in a socialist country, showed the world the actual capability and achievements of developed socialism, the advantages of the socialist way of life, of our socialist democracy,  our political solidarity, and the ideological unity of socialist society. […]

[page seven]

[…] A general assessment shows that the idea of a boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games, which the US administration and certain of its allies tried to impose on others, has failed. National sports delegations from 81 countries, a total of more than 8,300 individuals, took part in the Games. 3,500 honorary guests and official persons, and 200,000 tourists came from 72 countries to watch the Games. The competition was attended by about 5 million spectators. […]

The Olympic Games in Moscow drew wide attention in the world. 5,529 media organisations were accredited to cover the Games, of which 3,500 came from abroad. TV reports about the Games were transmitted to all the continents of the world, and were watched each day by more than 1.5 billion viewers.

[page eight]

[…] We can say that overall we managed to deflect the anti-Olympic and anti-Soviet wave of Western propaganda and break the ‘information blockade’ surrounding the Games. … Many Western journalists at first did not spare their efforts to find ‘negative materials’ but soon were forced to talk about the punctual organisation of the competitions, the first-class state of the sports facilities, the responsive nature of the Soviet information services, and so on.

It was also noted that among those who came to the USSR with a preconceived attitude to socialist reality the overwhelming majority of participants and guests at the Olympics subsequently gave a sharp rebuttal to the slanderous fabrications of bourgeois propaganda.

[…]

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NOTES

General

1. Notes and additions by translator and editor are bracketed, thus [ ];
2. Text added by hand is indicated in italic script;
3. when a handwritten phrase, figure or word has been added
to a previously typed document it is indicated by underlined italic script.

Translation, JC