Library Special Collections |
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Ukrainian Council for Physical Culture |
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Scope: 1946-1948 |
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History The Ukrainian Council for Physical Culture (Rada fizychnoi kultury, or RFK) was founded by Ukrainian refugees in postwar Germany in November 1945. This organization coordinated over 50 Ukrainian sports clubs that had arisen in the DP camps. These sports clubs organized teams in track-and-field, volleyball, basketball, swimming, skiing, table tennis, boxing, hiking, chess, and in soccer, by far the most popular sport, with 29 clubs in the US zone of Germany alone. Both men and women were involved in the organized games and athletic competitions organized by the RFK, with women participating mostly in track-and-field, volleyball, table tennis, and skiing. The RFK also promoted sports by introducing a standard test for a physical fitness badge; accredited referees and judges; and organized an association and courses for them, as well as an instructors' school in Mittenwald and skiing, volleyball, and basketball training camps. On the initiative of the RFK the International Committee of Political
Refugees held a DP Olympiad in June-November 1948 in Nuremberg. Ukrainian
teams took first place in soccer, men's volleyball, the men's 400
m. relay, and heavyweight boxing. The council also organized competitions
among Ukrainian sports clubs, between Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian
clubs, and occasional contests against non-DP clubs or military units
. After the mass emigration of refugees from Germany, the RFK ceased
its activities in 1950. It was headed by A. Lukiianenko (1945-46),
V. Blavatskyi (1946-47), I. Krasnyk (1947-48), and S. Kikta (1948-50). |
This
album includes photographs of the various Ukrainian DP sports clubs
in Germany that were overseen by the Ukrainian Council for Physical
Culture. Sports clubs represented include those from DP camps in
Augsburg, Aschaffenburg, Mittenwald, Neu-Ulm, Bayreuth, Waiern, Ettlingen,
Regensburg, Ellwangen, Bamberg, Karlsruhe, Berchtesgaden, and Rottenburg.
The photographs show teams in track-and-field, volleyball, soccer,
boxing, and basketball, as well as athletic competitions in these
sports and others, such as swimming, skiing, table tennis, boxing,
and chess. The majority of the photographs were taken during the
1948 DP Olympiad, and during inter-league competitions between Ukrainian
sports clubs from 1947 to 1948.  |
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