This powerful photograph illustrates the characteristic visual language of interwar Russia. It also reflects the zeitgeist of physical culture and the use of powerful photography after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Soviet regime placed such a high value on physical fitness that it developed into a veritable cult of the healthy body. The emphasis on sports and gymnastics was not only intended to keep the population healthy but also to ensure its preparedness for labor and defense. In the era of Socialist Realism the ideological goal was the creation of a new "Soviet person" with healthy bodies and smiling faces. [Susan Tumarkin Goodman: Avant-Garde and After. Photography in the Early Soviet Union, 2015]

Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. The name, derived from the name of the slave rebel leader, Spartacus, was intended to symbolize proletarian internationalism. [Serge Plantureux]

Soviet photographers were not only in the vanguard of style and technological innovation but also radical in their integration of art and politics.
Igor Kotelnikov was an avant-garde photographer in the Soviet Union. His style is reminiscent of the modernist work of Alexander Rodchenko and Max Penson.

Provenance: Lebedev Archive stamp on the reverse of the vintage silver gelatin print. Vladimir Lebedev was a painter.

ca. 22,7 x 16,7 cm