Moscow Diary: Team spirit

Euro 2008 has raised Russian patriotism to fever pitch, the BBC's James Rodgers reports. His diary is published fortnightly.

MIND THOSE SCISSORS

Russia's new national pride is on show at Euro 2008

"Nineteen eighty-eight. That was the last time."

Some things you can take almost anywhere in the world. I have conversations about football in the barber shop in Moscow similar to the ones I used to have growing up in Manchester.

The barber was edgy with anticipation this week. The year 1988 is the last time that Russia - then still the Soviet Union - reached for glory on the international football stage.

The football fan's use of the first person plural "We won," "We got to the final", etc hides the fact that "we" now means something very different from what it did two decades ago. Russia may still be the world's biggest country by surface area. It's a lot smaller than the USSR: both geographically and in terms of international influence.

But as it seeks to regain some of the latter, it is encouraged by sporting success.

Last month, Russia won the Ice Hockey World Championship. Zenit St Petersburg won the Uefa Cup. I should probably add victory in the Eurovision song contest.

This sense of national pride is further enhanced by the staging of a successful Champions' League final, and landing the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

NATIONAL PRIDE

Russia (in white) was humiliated by Spain in Innsbruck

The 4-1 defeat by Spain has rather deflated the mood, of course. The commentator on Russian TV did his best to cheer up the audience by reminding them that Italy had lost heavily in their first match, too - and with words like "hope" and "believe".

That sense of quasi-religious fervour was evident in the build-up.

Russian TV's 24-hour news channel played and replayed the highlights of the 1988 European final against the Netherlands. The colours in the TV pictures looked a bit faded. The shorts were bit shorter than they would be now. Ruud Gullit's hair was longer. True, the USSR lost, but they were there. The four letters are written across the shirts of the Soviet team.

Three years later, the country they represented ceased to exist. Much of its athletic strength dissipated too.

The replays were about more than a sense of sporting occasion to come.

If Russia still manages to do well in the tournament, it will add to the country's growing sense of self-confidence.

In our chat, the barber had the last word.

I'm half-English, and half-Scottish. Neither team made it to Euro 2008.

Russia is one of those countries where the idea of British and English are largely interchangeable. In the circumstances, it seemed too difficult to explain to the barber I was only half-English.

"And you?" he said (using "you" in the same way he used "we" when talking about Russia).

"Nineteen sixty-six - and that was that," he said, referring to the only time England won the World Cup.

At least Russia still has the chance to make 2008 a big year.

PRECIOUS HOLIDAYS

Moscow's business boom does not violate cherished days off

Although Moscow is a 24-hour city these days, not everything works round-the-clock.

As elsewhere, you'll struggle to find a bank, a lawyer, or a government office working at the weekend.

Not last Saturday. Russia loves to juggle working and non-working days. The idea is to avoid the horrific prospect of having to go back to work after only a single day off.

This Thursday is a public holiday, so everyone was supposed to turn up for work on Saturday, so they could have this Friday off.

Opinion polls suggest that a lot of Russians are pretty confused about what they're supposed to be celebrating. "Russia Day" marks the anniversary of Russia declaring sovereignty in 1990, as the Soviet era neared its end.

I can understand how the Baltic States can be considered independent from Moscow. Russia's claim is less obvious.

Still, the long weekends that come from the creative approach to tinkering with the working week mean that Russia is in one sense the worker's paradise the USSR claimed it wanted to be.

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Your comments:

The pride is something Russians need. Sport and international competition is the one arena where there is real unity in the country, and so it's good for them in face of the general apathy towards most other public elements of life here.
Mike, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Just a thought, but isn't it a bit hypocritical to be complaining about the unrecognised differences between British and English, and then turn around and claim that Russians and Soviets are the same thing?
Eric, Kharkov, Ukraine