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Sports Success Helps Renew Patriotism in Russia
By ANDREW OSBORN
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In Moscow, fans cheered the Russian soccer team,
which later lost to Spain. (Associated Press)
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MOSCOW -- Russia's most frenzied outpouring of sports-related
patriotic fervor since the Soviet collapse was abruptly cut short in the
early hours of Friday morning after Spain knocked the country out of the
European soccer championships. But the largely spontaneous public enthusiasm
for the team's success highlights growing patriotic feeling among ordinary
Russians, an emotion that hasn't been so publicly aired for decades.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians took to the streets to celebrate as
their team won a pair of surprise victories. Half a million people thronged
Moscow after Russia beat Holland, honking their car horns, waving flags
and chanting "Rossiya!" (Russia). In Siberia, some 10,000 people
packed into one town square in the middle of the night to watch Spain
end their team's winning streak.
The country hadn't seen so many people take to the streets in such an
emotional mood since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961
and since Soviet hard-liners attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev
in 1991, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote. "It has given
people a new understanding of our own possibilities."
Though soccer elicits mass demonstrations and hysteria across Europe,
such an outpouring is unusual here. Patriotism was a cornerstone of the
Soviet Union, but when the Communist state ceased to exist and a newly
independent Russia lurched from crisis to crisis, Russians weren't sure
what there was to be patriotic about. For years, the Russian national
anthem was wordless.
But as Russia's oil-fired economy has rebounded in recent years, the Kremlin
has sought to rekindle a sense of pride by offering a new identity that
draws on the country's Czarist and Soviet history. It has also instituted
new patriotic holidays, reinstated the once-discarded Soviet national
anthem (with different words), brought back showy military parades and
pursued a more assertive foreign policy.
After years of national self-doubt, the drive has found fertile ground
among millions of Russians. A string of international sports successes
have helped crystallize public emotion.
"We haven't won for a long time," said Denis Volkov, an expert
at the Levada polling center in Moscow.
One flag maker, Biar, said its sales had quadrupled month on month to
about 100,000 items. A spokeswoman said it had never seen a sales surge
of that magnitude before. Levada's Mr. Volkov said that while it lasted,
the success had engendered mixed feelings. The tournament helped people
feel like they were part of Europe, he said, while stirring more chauvinistic
Soviet-era feelings, too.
"The old stereotype is that it's not just a victory," he said.
"But that we showed the West."
President Dmitry Medvedev has tried to cast a recent string of sporting
successes as evidence that the country is enjoying an economic and social
revival thanks to his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, now prime minister.
This year, Russia has won the world ice-hockey championships, a Russian
triumphed in the Eurovision song contest, a Russian club won the prestigious
UEFA soccer trophy and the national soccer team got further, in greater
style, in Euro 2008 than anyone predicted. After the hockey win, Mr. Medvedev
joined the dots. "The president emphasized that the victories achieved
by us in soccer, hockey and other types of sports were made possible by
the country's recent successful development," a spokesperson told
Russia's Interfax news agency.
Part of Russia's football revival appears to stem from its energy-fueled
wealth. OAO Gazprom owns one of its most-successful teams, while billionaire
Roman Abramovich has spent heavily on developing the national soccer team.
That money has bought foreign expertise. Guus Hiddink, Russia's manager,
is Dutch, a fact that hasn't excluded him from the patriotic upswing.
Russian media have reported grateful citizens naming children and zoo
animals after him.
The Wall Street
Journal, June 28, 2008
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