Samiske nasjonale idretter i russisk Sápmi: proletarisert, militarisert og pedagogisert

Abstract

The article follows the genealogy of what is referred to as “Sami national sports” in the Murmansk region from the establishment of Bolshevik power in the early 1920s to the present day. It highlights three periods (the 1920s and 1930s, characterised by the transformation of traditional play into Soviet forms of physical activity), the 1970s and the 1980s when national sports were revitalised in Russian Sápmi; and the period from 2013 to the present when the authorities put new life into the national types of sport through a number of decrees, guidelines and measures. All three periods are characterised by a pronounced political need for national consolidation and confrontation with an external enemy. The article concludes that the national types of sports have been a successful political instrument in the hands of the authorities.