Although circumstances were somewhat different, the participation of athletes from what was then known as the Soviet Union was a hot topic as preparations were made for the London 1948 Games.

"The Olympic Games were no island of the blessed,” the official International Olympic Committee (IOC) history said of the period immediately after the Second World War,

It became known as the "Cold War" with tension between the West and the Soviet bloc behind what British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill had described as "an Iron Curtain,"

"This rivalry was also to be played out in surrogate battles in sports arenas all over the globe," the IOC history recorded.

In the autumn of 1945, Red Army soldiers had been invited to take part in a sports event held in Berlin's Olympic Stadium alongside American, British and French forces.

The Soviets withdrew with no explanation at short notice but there were other positive signs.

In November 1945, the Moscow Dynamo football team visited Britain where they attracted huge crowds and even greater curiosity.

Officially, 74,496 watched Dynamo draw 3-3 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but the actual attendance was probably much higher.

In Cardiff, the Russians were presented with miniature miners’ lamps by the Cardiff City players.

They beat Cardiff 10-1 in a match which cinema newsreels which called "football’s sensation of the year."

Before each match, Dynamo players presented bouquets of flowers to their opponents before it emerged that the club was affiliated to the "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" or NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB.

It was a connection that would have prevented their participation in any international sport in 2023. 

"Athletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot compete," IOC conditions stipulated in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yet even before 1945, there had been a willingness to accommodate Soviet athletes.

"I agree with you that the IOC should be represented in Russia which should also be a member of International sport federations," American IOC member Avery Brundage wrote to his British colleague Lord Aberdare.

"The great problem will be the question of Russia," IOC President Sigfrid Edstrom predicted to Brundage.

Edstrom also led World Athletics, then known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

He spoke Russian, and invited the Soviet athletics authorities to join in 1945 but received no reply.

"Our young athletes across Europe are crazy to have the Soviets participate," Edstrom claimed.

It was agreed that the Soviets would be allowed to take part in the 1946 European Athletics Championships in Oslo.

Although reports in the Western press suggested that the Soviets were weak in athletics, Yevgeniya Sechenova completed the 100 and 200 metres sprint double as they returned home with six gold medals.

A Soviet delegation also attended the European Athletics Congress held in Oslo at the same time.

Stanislawa Walasiewicz, winner of the women’s 100 metres at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles representing Poland and who later became an American citizen known as Stella Walsh, predicted great success for Soviet women athletes.

"They are the best trained and best equipped and I think they will clean up in the field events," Walsh said.

Officials remained concerned because it was reported that Soviet athletes had received monetary rewards.

Edstrom warned that if the practice continued, they would be "considered professional," and, therefore, ineligible to compete.

At the time, the Olympics only permitted amateur athletes.

"An amateur is one whose connection with sport is and has been solely for pleasure and for the physical mental or social benefits derived therefrom," the regulations stated.

"We have never given anyone any money for participating in sport," Alexei Chikin, head of the international section of the All Union Sports in Moscow, insisted.

"For one or many victories, nobody gets any money, but sometimes for an accumulation of victories, an athlete gets prizes in money and awards although this is not done regularly,"

When the IOC leadership, then known as the Executive Commission, met in Lausanne in September 1946, they discussed "workers sport in Russia".

Before appointing an IOC member in the Soviet Union, the IOC Executive members resolved to wait until individual  Soviet sports organisations had affiliated to their respective International Federations (IFs).

"IFs will be recommended to monitor very carefully the applications for admission sent to them from Russia," the official minutes said.

"It is indeed necessary that the Russian Federations abide by international regulations." 

Brundage himself sent a warning to Edstrom.

"I urge you to use the utmost care in dealing with the countries behind the Iron Curtain, as you say, we cannot refuse to recognise any country because of its political beliefs or because of the nature of its Government," Brundage wrote.

The Soviets had become members of the International Weightlifting Federation in 1946 and also sent competitors to the European Wrestling Championships the following year.

They also joined the International Basketball Federation and became members of FIFA.

Soon, Edstrom was succeeded as IAAF President by Lord Burghley, an influential IOC member and also London Olympic Organising Commitee Chairman.

"I extend to you a hearty welcome to our activities," Burghley cabled Moscow when the Soviet Athletics Federation was officially given recognition.

The main criteria for Olympic acceptance remained the establishment of a National Olympic Committee (NOC).

In 1947, Burghley visited Moscow to attend a "Festival of Physical Culture and Sport" where he spelled out the need for an NOC to officials.

General Michael Gromov of the Moscow Sports Association also paid a visit to the Olympic organisers in London where he had apparently quizzed the general secretary, Colonel Temple Percy Molesworth Bevan.

British officials remained coy about the exact nature of the visit and described it as a "social" call.

It was also widely reported that whenever the Soviets applied for membership of a Federation, they demanded a seat on the Board and the expulsion of Spain which they considered to be a "Fascist" nation.

This call was supported in an angry communique to the London Organising Committee by Romanian officials.

By 1948 there was already a Communist regime in Bucharest and they did not participate in London.

By the time the deadline for Olympic entries passed in June 1948 there had been still been no word from Moscow.

"We have done everything we can do," an IOC spokesman said.

"We even wrote some of our letters on a special typewriter with Russian characters."

In a curious post script, the British Embassy in Moscow reported the receipt of a "Most urgent" request for visas for 15 athletes to take part in the Olympics almost a week after the Games had begun. 

The request was turned down.

Although no Soviet competitors took part in the Games, Ambassador Georgy Zarubin was able to attend because tickets were offered to all diplomatic missions in London, including the Soviet legation.

"The Soviet Ambassador greatly appreciates the desire of the Organising Committee to place at his disposal two numbered seats in the stadium which he would accept with pleasure," a letter from the Embassy said.

"It is the desire of Mr Zarubin, that two seats be made available to him, if possible, at the following events, basketball , boxing and equestrian.

The same letter included an order for purchase of other series tickets for other sporting events, presumably for staff at the Soviet Embassy.

The return of Soviet athletes to the Olympic fold did not happen until 1952.

The situation was still tense because it had been a Soviet invasion in 1939 of Finland which had accelerated the postponement of the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Helsinki,

When they did arrive, officials insisted on a separate village for athletes from the Eastern bloc.

It remains a sporting irony that one of the greatest Soviet champions at that time should be long distance runner Vladimir Kuts, who followed his gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the 1954 European Championships in Bern with the distance double at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 by winning the 5,000m and 10,000m. 

Kuts had been born in the Ukraine.