Soviet Olympic Committee

The National Olympic Committee of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Национальный Олимпийский комитет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик – НОК СССР) was the government-funded organization representing the Soviet Union in the International Olympic Committee. The NOC USSR organized Soviet participation at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee recognized the NOC USSR on 7 May 1951 at the 45th session of the IOC. Until the 1950s, the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics because they considered them too "bourgeois". From then on, the country realised the propaganda value the Games possess and joined the Olympic movement.