Abstract
During the Soviet period, sport served different political functions, and in contemporary Russia, it was particularly invested by patriotic discourse, becoming an important political resource. It is simultaneously used to restore the power of the Russian state at the international level, to create a feeling of national unity, as well as to re-mobilise citizens around a practice and values that still hold popular support. First, we will examine the contentious potential of Russian football. We will show that it involves conformist dimensions, but that it is also able to supersede the official functions imposed by the authoritarian state. Second, we will look at the role of football as a mirror and a catalyst for social and political tensions. Here, we will see how football rivalries concurrently reflect the tensions specific to the Soviet period and the complex Russian federalism, as well as mirror the political and economic reconfigurations of post-Soviet Russia. Finally, we will explore how football can become a theatre of identitary predication, by trying to explain the presence of nationalism in Russian football fandom.
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Gloriozova, E. (2018). Russia. In: De Waele, JM., Gibril, S., Gloriozova, E., Spaaij, R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78777-0_14
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