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Nikolai Andrianov, Olympic Hero

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For many years, Collet's socialist bookshop on Tottenham Court Road, London was somewhere I went to find little treasures of Soviet gymnastics.  It was a subject that was sparsely, often very cynically treated by the British press, and it is hard to explain how ridiculously valuable every last jewel of information seemed.  I read more than I could buy, but remember the thrill of finding my first copies of Sport in the USSR.  And there were, occasionally, books and booklets, too. 

I stumbled across this little biography of Nikolai Andrianov when sorting through some books and papers recently.  I love the look of it, the use of black and white photography, the presentation of Andrianov as a man of the people, the arty farty shots of the chalked up hands, the Olympic champion exhausted in a pile of foam.  It was 95p, not much then or now, but worth a whole lot more to me, always. 

I have a new camera, ready for my trip to Moscow later this spring, and tried it out, taking a few photographs of the book.  I'm not a very good photographer, but I did want to share my moment of nostalgia.  'Sports are, first and foremost, competition.  But this doesn't mean all means are good to beat your rivals.  Soviet sportsmen live by fair play' reads a comment on the back cover, reminding me that this publication is, fundamentally, a tool of promotion for the Soviet state.  But, then again, Andrianov was the perfect role model.

Published by Raduga,1979
He reminds me a little bit of Denis Ablyazin in this cheeky shot.
Hands, chalk, grips, gold medals

Just a small proportion of the Andrianov medal booty



Hard at work with coach Nikolai Tolkachev

With the love of his life, Liubov Burda-Andrianova


Just an ordinary man : preparing salad for dinner

Future talent - with the future World Champion, Yuri Korolev, right


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  1. Anonymous27 March 2013 at 19:53

    The last second picture... the awkward moment when boys are more elegant than certain girls hahaha! LOL now I'm just trolling.

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  2. Peter G. Shilston27 March 2013 at 19:54

    I remember the bookshop well, and also this particular series of booklets on the gymnasts. I still have the one on Nelli Kim! The shop also supplied me with "Soviet Gymnastics Stars" by Vladimir Golubev (1979); an excellent book. Furthermore, they kept sending me, for years and years, copies of "Soviet Weekly", until sometime in the Gorbachev era it dawned on them that I had never paid a subscription, and the supply stopped!

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  3. Queen Elizabeth29 March 2013 at 11:37

    I have a copy of Soviet Gymnastics Stars too; but purchased from Ebay recently - it was too much for my pocket back in the 1980s. But I remember seeing it on the shelf in Collets. There was just the one copy; perhaps the same one that you have now?

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