Originally posted by Chairboy
Boroda, I assume that in the workers paradise there is no need for non-essential activities like sports that serve merely to pull productive members of society away from their Sovkhozes?
There was no "professional sport" in USSR.

Imagine major Tretyak actually commanding an infantry batallion

But seriously, many sportsmen were indeed amateurs, really working somewhere for money, and only got some bonuses for sports, like better flats.
It's hard to explain how it was in USSR.