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OCTOBER 3/2007 WHEN THE DOUBLE-HEADED EAGLE PUMPS IRON: SPORT AND SOCIETY IN RUSSIA Guest Editors: Sandra Budy und Manfred Zeller (Hamburg) editorial Sport in Contemporary Russia – the Expression of a Way of Living 2 analysis Sport and Lifestyle 3 Olga Chepurnaya (St. Petersburg) portrait Fitness, Russian style 9 Tim B. Peters (Moscow) analysis To the Away Game by Dog Sleigh – Football Fans in Russia 11 Manfred Zeller (Hamburg) video ‘Contact’ – a Video Project by Dmitry Vilensky (St. Petersburg) 16 kultura. Russian cultural review is published under the supervision of Professor Wolfgang Eichwede, director of the Research Centre for East European Studies at Bremen University. Editorial board: Hartmute Trepper M.A., Dr. Isabelle de Keghel (until June 2006), Guest Editors Technical editor: Matthias Neumann The views expressed in the review are merely the opinions of the authors. The printing or other use of the articles is possible with the permission of the editorial board. We would like to thank the Gerda Henkel Foundation for their kind support. © 2007 Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, Bremen Forschungsstelle Osteuropa | Publikationsreferat | Klagenfurter Str. 3 | 28359 Bremen tel. +49 421 218-3302 or -3257 | fax +49 421 218-3269 mailto: [email protected] | Internet: www.forschungsstelle-osteuropa.de Forschungsstelle Osteuropa OCTOBER 3/2007 SPORT IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA – THE EXPRESSION OF A WAY OF LIVING editorial At fi rst glance, the choice of sport as a subject for more diverse and appealing, but is only available an issue of kultura might seem puzzling. Howev- for those who can afford it. er, the phrase ‘physical culture’ illustrates the close Not every sports enthusiast actually takes part in connection between sport and culture. Modern sport. Spectator sport has been around as long as sport has shaped social life for more than 100 years. participation sport. Even in the early days of the Both participation and spectator sports refl ect so- Soviet Union, football fi lled the stadiums. cial processes and cultural conventions. The cur- Therefore, the second part of this issue concen- rent issue of kultura seeks to investigate this phe- trates on the fans rather than active athletes. Man- nomenon more closely from both sides. fred Zeller, a historian from Hamburg, provides In the Soviet Union, participation sport was an el- insight into the subculture of today’s fans in Rus- ement of the socialist way of life. According to the sia and traces its historical traditions. In the eyes Soviet ideology, fi zkultura (physical culture) was of the media, contemporary fan culture is domi- the key to cultivating a well-rounded character nated by organised groups of potentially violent with a socialist ethos: it was a means of promot- fans. However, fan culture is subject to repeated ing health and effi ciency so that the citizen could generational change, which makes it far more di- serve the motherland, both through his or her phys- verse than is fi rst apparent. ical labour and readiness to defend the nation, and At the centre of the video project ‘Contact’ by the provided a deterrent against vices such as excessive St. Petersburg new media artist Dmitry Vilensky alcohol consumption. As in all other areas of life, is the collision between the police and fans at the the state controlled the organisation of the sport- stadium turnstiles. Vilensky is interested in images ing movement. Fizkultura and sport were propa- of the masses and conveying state surveillance. gated as mass phenomena; collective sport pro- Whether one is talking about participation or spec- grammes, often in the form of gymnastics exer- tator sport, whether one takes part actively or pas- cises, were compulsory not only in the schools and sively, sport is always an expression of a way of universities, but also at the workplace. life. Since Perestroika, a rapid transformation has tak- en place. Privately organised leisure activities have replaced state-monopolised compulsory exercise. ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS: Sport has acquired a voluntary character. Olga Sandra Budy and Manfred Zeller are research as- Chepurnaya, a specialist in cultural studies from sociates on the DFG (German Research Founda- St. Petersburg, examines this development in Rus- tion) project ‘A Social History of Sport and Phys- sian sport from the 1980s to the present. Her anal- ical Culture in the Soviet Union’ in the Depart- ysis is complemented by Tim Bernd Peters’s de- ment for Eastern European History at the Helmut scription of his experiences at a fi tness studio in Schmidt University, Hamburg. his chosen city of residence, Moscow. Both con- Sandra Budy is writing a doctoral thesis on sports tributions emphasise that an overwhelmingly ur- journalism and photography. ban middle class expresses its attitude towards life Manfred Zeller is undertaking a PhD on fan cul- via leisure sport activity. Sport may have become ture in the Soviet Union. 2 OCTOBER 3/2007 SPORT AND LIFESTYLE Olga Chepurnaya analysis Over the last twenty years, sport has undergone fundamental changes in Russian society. Where once it was a social institution tied to the dominant ideology, it has become a part of the leisure economy. It has gone through the process of commercialisation and has created structures and fashions specifi c to different social classes. For many people in Russia, it has become a part of their lifestyle which demon- strates their social status and success. MASS SPORT IN THE SOVIET UNION to confi rm this principle: millions of Soviet citi- In the 1980s, the social functions and organisation- zens regularly took part in sporting activities; the al forms of Soviet sport changed radically. Up un- majority of school-children and students earned til that point, it had been instrumentalised and con- the GTO sports badge1; a third of the population trolled by the state and had followed the rules of the participated in the Spartakyads (sporting competi- planned economy. As in all the other branches of tions) which took place every three months; facto- the Soviet economy, sport, along with its ‘materi- ry workers and civil servants did gymnastics eve- al basis’, the athletes themselves, their records and ry day at their workplaces. mass sport were instruments of the state and were Today we know that only 8% of men and 2% of centrally planned and directed from above. women regularly took part in sporting activities, Sport fell under the planning and record-keeping and that only a third of all school-children and stu- authority of various state departments. However, dents met the requirements for the sporting badge. the leaders of the country, and their representatives Schools, technical colleges and universities were in the regions and localities, did not simply organ- dominated by an atmosphere hostile to sport; al- ise the sports programmes and events or decide though it was a compulsory subject, it had the high- which athletes took part in them; they also man- est truancy rate. The gyms were poorly equipped aged the results, victories and records. and the training programmes monotonous. In sport the state followed the principle of ‘we know best what is good for the people’. Since the SPORT DURING PERESTROIKA beginnings of the Soviet Union, sport was seen as In 1981 serious efforts were undertaken to bring a means of raising strong, healthy and disciplined sport to the Soviet youth. The government ordered citizens who would be more useful and effective in that the country’s 7,500 special sports schools both the defence of their country and in the work- should be opened to all children and not just the place. In many communist countries, the integra- highly talented. This policy was opposed by the tion of sport into the system of social planning was trainers, who had to demonstrate the results of their the prerequisite for their international sporting suc- work in the form of competition victories. In a fur- cess and recognition. Alongside socialist countries, ther step, the state swimming baths, sports halls, so-called developing countries also put sport to the stadiums and ice rinks were opened to the general service of social change. In such a system it was public. Visitors now had to pay. This latter measure impossible for commercialised mass sport to be- was intended to win support for the new policies come part of the culture of leisure. among the managers of the sports complexes. Soviet policy continually emphasised the primacy of mass sport over outstanding achievement and 1 GTO: an organisation which promoted sporting activities in order to create a population capable of defending the over the years presented statistics which claimed country. 3 OCTOBER 3/2007 analysis The granting of offi cial approval to the fi rst ‘co- was easier to evade the attention of the authorities. operatives’ (the precursors to private companies) Many clubs were defi ned by their tight bonds of in 1987 led to the creation of non-state sport clubs membership and offered free training, albeit only and fi tness or health centres. The main reason for for certain groups, for example to boys from a cer- this governmental policy was the young people’s tain quarter. It was not uncommon for these clubs to obvious lack of interest in the offi cial youth organ- have links to criminal gangs. One of the nationally isations; over the fi rst half of 1980, the Young Pio- best well-known unoffi cial organisations originat- neers and the Komsomol lost more than 6 million ed in the Moscow hinterlands of Lyubertsy. members. During this period, un- offi cial and illegal sport clubs sprang up, espe- cially clubs with train- ing equipment and ka- rate clubs. Given its re- cent initiatives, the state did not want to, or could not, prohibit the clubs; instead, it legalised them by changing the law.