Russia Is Restarting Stalin’s National Fitness Program
But the lock-step nature of the parades and stadium events, with uniformed young people forming a giant Soviet star on the playing field, revealed that there was always more to the games than just sports. The slogan of the GTO was “Your Motherland Calls for You to Be Ready for Work and Defense” and the program helped create the sense that the country was in a state of perpetual mobilization throughout the Cold War.