Due to a changes made to the Olympic chart in 1969, it became mandatory for the organizing country to demonstrate various elements of its culture during the opening and closing ceremonies.While the Montréal ceremonies were simpler and more austere, Moscow's opening ceremony started a trend which changed the format of the ceremonies. Prior to 1976, Olympic opening ceremonies were truly "ceremonial", consisting of just the parade of nations and rituals associated with the official opening of the Games.The Cold War and the US-led boycot,the USSR authoritiez wanted to put on a spectacle to impress the rest of the world, so an high produced artistic performances were included after the protocolar elements finished. Since then, subsequent opening ceremonies had a high level artistic programs, and it is now seen as the main event of the Games.
Chariots of Fire: Parade of Greek chariots in the stadium, followed by red flags with the emblem of the Moscow Olympics on them. The song "Stadium of my Dreams" (Russian: Стадион моей мечты, Stadion moyey mechti) was heard.
Parade of nations. Greece enters first, the Soviet Union, as a host nation, last, per tradition. Other delegations enter in Cyrillic alphabetical order
Welcoming remarks by the chairman of the Moscow Olympic Organizing Committee "OCOG-80", Ignati Novikov.
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev opened the Olympic Games.
Handover of the Olympic flag by young athletes Stéphane Préfontaine and Sandra Henderson (1976 Summer Olympic Games last torchbearers) representing the Montreal City. Although,the mayor Jean Drapeau wished to attend, the US-led boycott was supported by the Canadian government which turned the trip to Moscow impossible. The flag was received by IOC President Killanin, who passed it to the First Secretary of the Moscow gorkom of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin.
Salyut 6 crew Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin sent their greetings to the Olympians and wished good luck to all in a live sound communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium. Pictures of them appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were broadcast at the stadium via the loud speakers.
Friendship of the Peoples dance suite. RIAN photo.
After the Salyut 6 crew greetings the cultural performances started under the theme of the Friendship of the Peoples.
Friendship of the Peoples: A dance suite featuring the traditional dances of the 15 Soviet republics. The Russian finale also featured troikas and a final performance by the performers from all the republics (to the tune of the Russian folk song Kalinka). The song "Wide Is My Motherland" (Широка страна моя родная, from the movie Circus) was also heard at the beginning and end of the suite.
Misha: Scores of performers donned as Misha, the Moscow Olympics mascot, dance in the stadium field.
Children's performance, beginning with a boys' pole horse performance, followed by a girls' doll performance. Gymnastic maneuvers were done by the performance in each part of the segment, which ended with the boys and girls mixed together, forming groups of "troikas", then leaving the scene.
Finale: Performers from throughout the opening ceremony re-entered the stadium as the Moscow Olympics' theme song "Moscow Gives the Start" (Старт даёт Москва, Start dayot Moskva) was sung, and would later exit again. Balloons were released. The card stunt at this time was showing the Moscow 1980 Olympic logo.
