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Expertly interweaving political and sports history, The Story of Rugby Union in Communist Romania tells of how rugby flourished in communist Romania and examines why the sport became so integral to Romania's national agenda and ideology. Indeed, organised around the military and the police, rugby became so central to the regime's image that during the dismal 1980s, when ordinary people could barely find enough to eat and were denied basic services, rugby players ate well, trained constantly, and achieved notable international victories.

But the military arrangement of the sport would have a direct and unique impact on the fall of the regime. On Christmas day in 1989, violence erupted in Bucharest as civilians rose up against, and overthrew, Nicolae Ceausescu's communist dictatorship. Several prominent Romanian rugby players, including national captain Florica Murariu, died in the fighting. As Brendan Humphreys reveals, these men did not die protecting the repressive regime as so often believed; rather, they were instrumental to the success of the revolution.

The first in-depth study of rugby union and politics in communist Romania, this book places the role of sport in democracy and dictatorship in dialogue with its Cold War context and is therefore a vital resource for scholars of the Cold War, as well as historians of sport and of Eastern Europe.