Rugby Union in The Soviet Union - Governing Bodies and Administration

Governing Bodies and Administration

Like almost everything else in the USSR, rugby was ultimately answerable to the Soviet government, albeit through a number of different channels. Officially, the Rugby Federation of the USSR (RFUSSR; sometimes translated as the "Rugby Union of the Soviet Union") was the top governing body of Soviet rugby and centrally controlled. However, as a Soviet organisation, it was in fact part of a complex web of administrations, bureaucracies and so on, and linked to the Soviet government rather than being an independent body on the lines of the major rugby nations. The RFUSSR was answerable to, and funded by the USSR Committee on Physical Culture and Sport which was the umbrella organisation for all Soviet sport, and this in turn was attached to the USSR Council of Ministers.

In reality, Soviet rugby operated under two or three different systems, which more or less ran in parallel, and only one of which was directly related to rugby:

• Central rugby administration: The RFUSSR operated throughout the USSR. This in turn was made up of fifteen national rugby unions for each of the republics (SSRs).
• SSR sports administration: Each of the fifteen national rugby unions was not only part of the RFUSSR, but were also part of the Sports Committee of its respective SSR, which dealt with various sports at a local level. Each national republic was also further subdivided into an urban and a rural sports society.
• Institutional affiliations: The majority of Soviet rugby clubs were part of non-rugby bodies, in addition to the RFUSSR. These included certain trade unions, multi-sport clubs, colleges/universities or military bodies, which also operated throughout the state. There were some thirty six sports societies in the Soviet Union, and all but two were run by trade unions. Each of these "vertical" general sports bodies were run by the USSR Committee on Physical Culture and Sport, which was above the RFUSSR.

Lastly, there was the CSKA (Central Army Sports Club), which administered rugby in garrisons throughout the Soviet Union and was centrally rather than nationally controlled. For children, there were the Sports schools (ДЮСШ), but these tended to concentrate more on Olympic sports, and neglected rugby.

Equipment and amenities came from the state's Glavsportprom, and the state sports publishing agency was Sovetsky Sport. Dinamo was the biggest sports manufacturer, and had many retail sports shops; its profits were ploughed back into the organisation.

The RFUSSR was founded in 1936, and re-established in 1968, the Rugby Federation of the USSR was founded. Over the years, the various rugby unions of each of the SSRs were set up - most of the national governing bodies of the Soviet successor states can trace themselves back to these.

In the latter years of the USSR, Soviet rugby also affiliated to two international bodies. In 1975, the RFUSSR became a member of FIRA-AER, which was then the largest rugby governing body in the world. This was followed, just over a decade later by membership of the International Rugby Football Board.