Peace(less) Race and other cycling races in post-war Poland
World War II changed both the political situation and the sports landscape in Europe. The communist authorities of the Eastern part of the continent relatively quickly noticed the political potential of sport and attempted appropriating it and using it for achieving their particularist goals.
Sport competition was perfect for propaganda, because, as a culturally ritualised form of a struggle (Lorenz 1974), it created a dichotomic system and category of a rival. One of the disciplines that was supposed to achieve these tasks was cycling, whose popularity was big and still on the rise. In this discipline, a capable and harmonious collective of people, that was very important in the socialist system, played a significant role; against this backdrop, slogans of peace, friendship, and brotherhood of nations could be emphasised. This discipline had simple rules, and the huge area where races took place increased the range of propagandist influence (Pasko, 2008).
The most popular and prestigious cycling race in Europe was the Tour de France, which originated at the beginning of the 20th century. Along with Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, they constituted a group of three great races and set a benchmark for this discipline. The Peace Race (Wyścig Pokoju) became the Eastern response to the Tour de France. The principal difference between the races was the status of contenders. As opposed to Western races, Peace Race was exclusively for amateurs, because athletes in the countries of the Eastern Bloc officially had amateur status (Godlewski 2006; Wojtaszyn 2011). This fact was gladly used in propaganda, by emphasising differences between true sports lovers in the East and Western professionals, who allegedly were motivated to compete solely by a desire for profit. However, this attitude did not preclude from treating the athletes as government-funded professionals domestically. Expenses for competitive sports had been considerable since the beginning and then began to surpass expenses for many important social areas of life (Wojtaszyn 2011).
The early days of the Peace Race were very modest and lacked the prestige it would gain in the future. It was initiated by journalists of principal daily papers of Poland and Czechoslovakia—press organs of communist parties—Rude Pravo and Głos Ludu (the latter was soon renamed Trybuna Ludu) and cycling federations of both countries. The first edition, called “International Cycling Race Warsaw – Prague – Warsaw” (the “Peace Race” name debuted in 1950), started on the symbolic day of 1 May 1948 and consisted of two separate races: from Warsaw to Prague and from Prague to Warsaw. Almost one hundred cyclists representing Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Hungary (along with a group of spectators-guests from Albania) participated in this race (Tuszyński 1989).
Stages running through Lower Silesia were a very important part of the race from the very beginning. Starting and finishing lines of individual stages were in Wrocław, and difficult mountain stages took place in the Sudeten Mountains.
In 1952, the cycling federation of East Germany and “Neues Deutschland,” the press organ of Socialist Unity Party of Germany, joined the ranks of the organisers. For over 30 subsequent years since then, the race took place on the Warsaw – Berlin – Prague route, starting in one of these cities every year. In 1985 and 1986, another co-organiser came along: the Soviet cycling federation and a press organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “Prawda”. Owing to that, the 1985 race took place in Moscow, too.
The 1986 edition was particularly interesting. On the night of 25-26 April, a reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, and the race was scheduled to start in Kiev, less than 100 kilometres from the disaster area. Most groups from Western countries and Romania, fearing for the contenders’ health, immediately opted out of the race (the only exceptions were France and Finland). The same was considered by the Polish cyclists, who were preparing to the race in Wrocław at that time. Ultimately, after negotiations with the management and under strong pressure of the authorities, the Polish crew headed to Kiev with their own supplies, protective clothes, and Geiger counters and participated in the race (Siwińska 2024; Szurkowski et al. 2019). The start in Ukraine had a political and propagandist meaning: it was supposed to prove that the Chernobyl malfunction did not pose a danger and any concerns were only fuelled by Western “imperialistic” media (Szurkowski et al. 2019).
Sport in Polish People’s Republic was primarily supposed to provide a propagandist influence. It was not any different with the Peace Race. It was a huge mass event, which attracted crowds in every town passed by the cyclists. Finishes of individual stages, often organised at stadiums, usually drew tens of thousands of people. According to Artur Pasko, the Peace Race was a peculiar phenomenon attracting attention of the vast majority of the Polish people, even those who usually were not interested in sports (Pasko 2009). May editions of journals-organisers with news about the race were the most covetable by readers. Since the very beginning, the motivation behind the date of the race was not sports, but politics: 1 May – Labour Day, 9 May – Victory in Europe Day. The same criteria decided about the route of the race. It was supposed to be attractive in a technical sense, but at the same time allowed foreign visitors (especially representatives of amateur crews from Western countries) to get familiar with the newest “achievements of socialism” (Ferenc 2008). The ideological context of the Peace Race was very clear and unambiguous: it was praise for peace, international friendship, and socialism. Contenders themselves were used to achieve propagandist goals; they would meet party secretaries and take part in laying of wreaths at monuments and celebrations of the Labour Day.
In the background of the political events and propaganda, a fierce competition took place, whose echoes, in an exaggerated and deformed shape, would reach the public opinion. Polish fans gossiped about allegedly backstage reports of clashes between feuding contenders, e.g. Poles and East Germans, Czechs and Russians. The famous bicycle pomp fight between Stanisław Królak and one of Russian cyclists was taken at face value. Artur Pasko has proved that it was a mere myth, not rooted in reality, though (Pasko 2009). However, examples implying that the assumptions of Polish cycling supporters were not just figments of imagination can be found among memories of participants of these events. The fierce rivalry between contenders from Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and the USSR often transgressed the rules of fair play. Polish cyclists were supposed to co-operate with their neighbours form East Germany against the coalition of crews from the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the USSR, whereas tensions between Tadeusz Mytnik and one of the Soviet cyclists during one of the stages allegedly led to both cyclists crashing twice (Pasko 2008).
A 1969 situation was a symptomatic example of political controversies connected to the Peace Race. After the Warsaw Pact army quashed the Prague Spring, the Czechoslovakian crew did not join the race, and the organisers only managed to include a stretch of 112 kilometres in Czechoslovakia in the race. Despite the increased security, many incidents were reported, e.g. scattering sharp objects on the roads, anti-communist inscriptions, and hostile behaviour of fans (Pasko 2008).
Notwithstanding the propagandist context, the Peace Race gained significant prestige and became the most important cycling race for amateurs in the world. Succeeding in the Peace Race allowed Western amateurs to sign profitable professional contracts many times and provided Eastern contenders with high earnings and significant popularity (Filipiuk 2018). Four-time winner of the race Ryszard Szurkowski claimed that his successes brought him Europe-wide popularity. He would also add that it was the best-organised race he had ever had a chance to observe (Szurkowski, Wyrzykowski 1983). According to some specialists, the Peace Race led to the success of the Polish cycling, which would never have achieved such a high sport level if not for this event (Pasko 2008).
The political watershed in the Western Bloc countries started a gradual demise of the Peace Race. Professionalisation of cycling in Eastern Europe caused a decline in interest in the amateur race. The lack of interest caused, in turn, fewer possibilities of wooing sponsors and financial difficulties in organising the event. After various attempts at modifying and reanimating the race (e.g. extending the route to the western part of Germany and Austria, holding selected stages in Brussels to celebrate extending the European Union), the Peace Race has ultimately ceased to exist in 2006.
The importance of the Peace Race in Poland was taken over time by Tour de Pologne. This modified and reactivated cycling race had a significantly longer tradition than the Peace Race, as it originated before World War II; the first edition was held in 1928 and it was officially called “The 1st Cycling Race around Poland.” Important figures of contemporary politics who were involved in the organisation of the race reflected on its importance: President Ignacy Mościcki was the honorary patron, and Marshal Józef Piłsudski was the chairman of the Committee of Honour (Tour de Pologne 2024). The next four editions took place in 1929, 1933, 1937, and 1939, respectively.
In the postwar period, Tour de Pologne was held in the shadow of the Peace Race, which was favoured by the state authorities (Tour de Pologne 2024). Admittedly, it had been reactivated before: it had happened already in 1947 thanks to the initiative of a group of journalists, the Polish cycling federation, and the “Czytelnik” publishing house, but it never came close to gaining that status despite its international nature. The prestige and importance did not start gradually growing until the first Polish professional cyclist and medallist at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Czesław Lang, took over the organisation of the race and elevated it to the professional status. In 2005, Tour de Pologne, as the only race in Central and Eastern Europe, as per the International Cycling Union’s decision, was included in the elite UCI Pro Tour, joining the best cycling races in the world (Tour de Pologne 2024). Since then, it has been attracting top cyclists in the world and it has been broadcast to Poland, Germany, France, and other European countries.
On 12 August 2024, the 81st edition of Tour de Pologne will begin with the Wrocław – Karpacz stage. The race is planned to start near Centennial Hall, where the official, public presentation of individual crews and all the cyclists participating in the race will take place on 11 August.
We would also like to remind that you can pre-order WUWr’s latest book entitled Piłka nożna na celowniku polityki (eng. Football in the crosshairs of politics), edited by Professor Dariusz Wojtaszyn. More: https://uwr.edu.pl/en/mondays-with-wuwr-18/
More about the race: https://www.tourdepologne.pl/en/history/
Article by prof. Dariusz Wojtaszyn – historian and political scientist, professor at the Department of Contemporary History and head of the Research Laboratory for the History of German and European Sport at the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies at the University of Wrocław.
Translated by Jakub Dziubek (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
________________________________________
Works cited:
Ferenc Jakub, Sport w służbie polityki. Wyścig Pokoju 1948-1989, Warszawa 2008.
Filipiuk Artur, 70 lat temu rozpoczął się pierwszy kolarski Wyścig Pokoju, „Dzieje.pl” 30.04.2018, https://dzieje.pl/rozmaitosci/70-lat-temu-rozpoczal-sie-pierwszy-kolarski-wyscig-pokoju (accessed: 7.08.2024).
Godlewski Piotr, Sport w Polsce na tle politycznej rzeczywistości lat 1944–1956, Poznań 2006.
Lorenz Konrad, Tak zwane zło, Warszawa 1974.
Pasko Artur, Wyścig Pokoju – kontrowersyjne dziedzictwo, w: Dziedzictwo komunizmu w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, pod red. Joanny Sadowskiej, Białystok 2008.
Pasko Artur, Wyścig Pokoju w dokumentach władz partyjnych i państwowych 1948-1980, Kraków 2009.
Siwińska Irena, Wyścig Pokoju po katastrofie, „Przystanek Historia”, 22.05.2024, https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/teksty/107200,Wyscig-Pokoju-po-katastrofie.html (accessed: 7.08.2024).
Szurkowski Ryszard, Wyrzykowski Krzysztof, Być liderem, Warszawa 1983.
Szurkowski Ryszard, Wyrzykowski Krzysztof, Wolnicki Kamil, Wyścig. Autobiografia. Kraków 2019.
Tour de Pologne, Dekady Historii, „Tourdepologne.pl”, https://www.tourdepologne.pl/historia/ (accessed: 8.08.2024).
Tuszyński Bogdan, Wyścig Pokoju 1948-1988, Warszawa 1989.
Wojtaszyn Dariusz, Sport w cieniu polityki. Instrumentalizacja sportu w NRD, Wrocław 2011.
