Pretty moves: football in St. Petersburg

Today was a Sunday. While a few St. Petersburgians are rising up early to go to church, I’m waking up for a different reason: Zenit plays today. Some Russians go to services at the The Church of Christ on the Spilled Blood and pay their respects to Saint Paul or whomever, approximately 20,000 fans came out to their personal church, Petrogradsky Sport Centre and pay their respects to St Arshavin and St Tymoschuk, (patron saints of the penalty kick and the far left cross, respectively). I was one of those 20,000 who went to see their Russian version of the beautiful game, and left with a feeling that is only paralleled when I see Timbers matches back home.

Zenit is St. Petersburg’s one and only real football team. Created back in 1928 or so, and called “Stalinets”, they played so poorly their first decade that they decided to change their name as not to disgrace the name of Dear Leader with such mediocre football. The only factory that would sponsor them in the entire city was one called Zenit, and thus they have been called such ever since and still sport the same blue-light blue-white color scheme since their inception.

Back in the USSR, Zenit was decent, becoming champions once in 1984, but otherwise playing a second fiddle to the five Moscow teams. Yet in the past few years thanks to investment from Gazprom and unwavering fan support, Zenit has found themselves at the top of the table. And that’s where they were this Sunday afternoon, tied with their hated rivals Spartak Moscow, at 39 points and first place in the Rosstrakh Russian Premier League. However, Zenit wasn’t playing anyone very formidable today, only the 13^th place team from Khimki (a suburb of Moscow). Still, it was a nice afternoon and if Spartak lost their match to CSKA Moscow (the third place team), Zenit would securely be at the top of the table.

Taking the metro there is the first sense that you are entering a European football atmosphere: getting off at Sportivnaya, you look over across the platform and see just an empty track. The reason? In order to control unruly crowds, the outbound train and inbound train platforms are on different levels. Thus when the 3,000 Moscow fans come by metro from the train station, they don’t run into drunken Zenit fans from Staraya Derevnya or Chkalovskaya.

The atmosphere only increases once you reach street level, and see the sheer amount of military presence. While you see police and soldiers on the street all the time in the center of the city, today I caught sight of the elusive military elite of Russia: OMON. OMON cops were the Soviet Union’s answer to America’s SWAT teams, they are picked from the military, and only 1 in 5 are able to make it through the intense training. These are some scary folks, usually 6’ 4” and 280 pounds of muscle and a billy club. I counted about 20 trucks full of 40 OMON guys each, and added to the usual presence of DPS and MVD cops and riot police, I would estimate there to be about 2500 police around the stadium alone.

After buying some tickets off scalpers using my awesome Russian skills for 300 rubles each (about $12), me and my friends proceeded to enter the stadium, and got frisked by aforementioned OMON folks when we entered the grounds, again when we went through the turnstiles, and once more when we went into our section. These friskings are to ensure that we do not carry any contraband or weapons, as unfortunately, hooliganism is a rather large problem here. The only exception to this rule is the Zenit supporters section called “Nevsky Front”. They are a non-profit organization who actually bought out four entire sections (Sectors 12-16), and they alone control that part of the stadium. There it is mass chaos and bedlam as they raise giant flags and banners, and let marine flares and smoke bombs off whenever Zenit scores.

Before the beginning of every game the entire stadium stands and sings a song about the glories of Zenit (our city, our team, our pride, from all of us in Leningrad we stand tall and sing this song for you, our Zenit…etc), and then proceeds to stand for the next 90 minutes. Chants are flying everywhere, I learn a couple of new words I should probably never say, and then spot a single section of Khimki supporters surrounded by riot police with helmets and truncheons; 22,000 Zenit fans against 200 Khimki fans would not be a fair fight.

The game finally begins. For the first ten minutes we watch the action while participating in a call and response with the other end of the stadium, yelling out “Vperyod, za Piter!” (Forward, for Petersburg!) and in the 14^th minute a Khimki player goes down hard in the box; penalty kick. Even though Khimki is in 13^th place, they still can manage to put away a penalty kick, and the mighty Zenit is down 1:0. I’m starting to have my doubts. This was a week of upsets in the soccer world, with Russia beating England a mere few days before. Will the upsets continue? My fears are assuaged when in the 28^th minute Zenit neatly puts away another goal. The stadium goes crazy, I breathe a sigh of relief, and we are tied.

Twenty minutes later, when the whistle blew for the half I didn’t need to fear anything. Zenit was up 2:1 and looked firmly in control. The second half was just as intense, with Zenit putting away two more goals and then winding down the clock. Final score, Zenit 4 Khimki 1. Next match is the 25^th against Nuremburg for UEFA cup rounds, and it will be absolutely mental to watch.

In less than a week I’ll be headed out to Moscow and then starting my independent travel week, visiting Kiev and Krakow. It’ll be nice to get out to the west again.

Времени на время! (It's time for time!)

I actually wrote this last night, and debated about putting it up today or on Monday. I decided might as well give you all something to read over the weekend.

It’s a well conditioned reflex, almost Pavlovian. Every weekday from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, Russian families come back home from work, eat quickly, and once the clock reads 8:59, they reach for their TV dials and turn on Channel 1 for the official state news entitled “Vremya” (literally: Time). The program starts out the same way it always has for over 40 years, a 1960’s style clock ticking down the seconds to 9:00, wherein stylized CNN-esque dramatic music plays and then Ekaterina Andreevna, a rather severe but pretty looking anchorwoman, sits down and launches into a hour long Putin lovefest. Approximately half of the program is dedicated to what Vlad the Great did today. Tonight was no different, except there was a big “Ask the President” (it took up all of Vremya) presentation, wherein any one could call a toll free number and ask the president a question, and he would answer them on air. From what I could translate, Putin promised better pensions, more economic growth, and a need for a positive demographic change, all things that the Motherland desperately needs.

Russia is currently entering a demographic crisis. Its population is rapidly shrinking, last numbered at 122 million and having a negative birthrate for the eighth year in a row. To encourage a better birthrate the government gives a mother $10,000 for having two or more children. That’s for each child, and can only be redeemed to buy an apartment, provide higher education for the child once he/she grows up, or can be put toward the pension that she’ll go on once she turns 60. They at first gave straight cash, but discovered that those wily Russians would just spend it on alcohol and narcotics, and when the rubles ran dry, well, it was time to crank out another little Ilya or Zhenya. Rinse and repeat. Then of course is the highly lauded National Conception Day, which happened on September 12 this year. The Russian government set a date (June 12), and the mother of every baby that is born on that day can receive fabulous prizes such as new refrigerators, other appliances, or cash rewards.

Pensions are a big deal here. The average Russian woman’s age here is 37, with an absolute legion of babushka widows who are za pensii (on the pension). Putin has increased the pension by quite a bit, and thus he enjoys the support of pretty much all the babushkas.

Furthermore, as a former KGB man, Putin also enjoys the overwhelming support of the Russian military. With more and more military buildup and the Chechen conflict rarely reported on, military strength is starting to creep back toward Soviet levels. By no way are they able to take anyone on yet, but thanks to the high price of oil nowadays, Russia is raking in profits and some of those billions of rubles are going toward new toys for the military and better pay for the officers.

Almost all Russians like Putin, not for his actions, but for one reason: nationalism. Putin believes in putting Russia first, and many people saw him as a breath of fresh air after Yeltsin put almost all of Russia on the market to the highest bidder. For the first time in all of Russia’s history, it has an emerging middle class. The only people that don’t really like him are the modern-day intelligentsia, who see him as a threat to the emerging Russian democracy, one of the party opposition leaders referred to Putin as “having more power than the tsar and General Secretary of the Soviet Union”. However, the opposition parties cannot band together to form a strong enough front to go up against Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia, Putin’s political party), so Putin and ER are looking very strong going into the December parliamentary elections, and the February presidential elections. I have not seen any sort of political advertising for the upcoming elections, save for ER’s legions handing out pamphlets entitled “Putin’s Plan”, in which is outlines a multiple point plan “to make Russia and its citizens great once again”. I’ll have to bring one home to share; it’s a pretty slick piece of rhetoric.

Well, there’s the necessary boring dissertation on Russian politics. I promise not to bring the topic up again in depth. One can only take so much of it, and we are still 2 months away from the election date. As Ekaterina Andreevna always says at the end of her broadcasts: “That’s all the news we have, I wish you and yours a very successful day”!

Long Time No Blog

Sorry for a lack of updating. Been pretty busy here, with classes and touring (I spent an entire day touring the Russian musuem) and just meeting new people.

I took a well needed break from Russia last weekend to go visit the absolutely beautiful city of Tallinn, in the small Baltic country of Estonia. For those who don't know, I have some Estonian heritage and thus going back there was a big event.

Estonia is an amazing place. A country of only about 1.5 million people (about 40% of which live in Tallinn), they are a fiercely independent young population that are taking the rest of the world by storm, bringing consumers around the world new innovation in technology (these folks brought you Skype and Kazaa). Definitely one of the most forward thinking former Soviet republics. It was a nice change from the grey dirty feeling of Russia. People were young, happy, nice, and everything was rather clean, and well, rather western. Wonderful times.

Other than that, I am probably going to start working through the university as a English teacher for advanced Russian students. Basically all I do is sit at the front of the class and talk for three hours, and get paid the princely sum of 1600 rubles ($65 roughly) per session. It sounds nice. And on top of that, it rather easy for Westerners to get such jobs. They actually actively seek out American students because for some reason American English is preferable to the Queen's English. No idea why. But some people actually make a living off of this. One fellow I met while here will be living here for a year, teaching English for corporate businesses and students, and is able to live in a brand new apartment near the center and still pocket around $200 a week, for teaching English maybe 25 hours a week. Its a nice job for when you are young, I suppose.

New Western things that have arrived in Russia: Carl's Jr. has decided to open up four restaurants all throughout St. Petersburg, looking like if it just got transplanted from Santa Barbara (I go there to get change for my 1000 ruble notes because they dont yell at me like everywhere else). Also they have an equivalent to Costco here, called Lenta. Its open 24 hours, and sells everything imaginable. You buy a card for 1000 rubles (or just "borrow" one from whoever is behind you in the checkout line) and get the freshest products for the lowest price. Apparantly food products here first go to Lenta and other big stores, then once they pass a certain shelf date, they get sold to the second level supermarkets, and then after their shelf date expires, what is left is sold to the ubiquitous food kiosks all around the city. So most people try to avoid the kiosks for food, what you get is twice as expensive and probably at best two/three months old.

Football fever is here in Russia as well. The Euro 2008 qualifiers was held in Moscow, with Russia against England playing last night, and by some divine intervention, Russia won 2-1. Russia went absolutely nuts, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of people called in sick today to nurse their hangovers (not me! I went to school!) Also Zenit, the local side, is in prime position to win the Russian League cup, and are now playing in the second round of the UEFA cup against strong teams like Nuremburg and Everton. I'm hoping to make the match against Nuremburg, and probably the last regular season game. Pictures will be forthcoming. Its very hard to upload pictures here due to spotty internet connection, so I'll do what I can at an actual internet cafe.

Its strangely staying warm here, with temperatures hovering around 10 degrees celsius, and I am not bothered by the weather here too much at all.

This is a rather scattered post, but I'll make sure to make the next one a little more coherent and write it out beforehand. I have quite a few rants to post.

Until later this week or Monday...

Alex