Spartakiads were giant, usually international sporting events, usually organized in the Soviet Union. The first Soviet event was the August 1928 Summer Spartakiad in Moscow (also referred to as the All-Union Spartakiad). Here's a wonderful postcard celebrating the event, designed by Gustav Klutsis, who did a whole series of posters for the event that I urge you to Google. They're beautiful examples of Soviet avant-garde photo montage.
Now here's the funny thing. We all know the very handsome stamps issued for the Spartakiad in 1935. Except there was no Spartakiad in 1935, there was a Winter Spartakiad in 1936 in Oslo, Norway. But the 1928 Spartakiad did leave one philatelic trace:
While most pre-war Special Event postmarks are fairly easy to find, thanks to those pesky philatelists, this postmark seems to be a rarity. This is the only one I've ever seen.
