Manfred Zeller

Das sowjetische Fieber: Fußballfans im poststalinistischen Vielvolkerreich - Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society Manfred Zeller

What did the citizens of the Soviet Union identify with? Where did the societal faultlines lie? Did mass demonstrations effectively de-stabilize Soviet order? How did informal groups come into being within a society based on uniformity? What impact did new media and new forms of interconnectivity have on the development of a multinational Soviet society? What remained after the end of the Soviet Union? Using Soviet soccer teams from Moscow (Spartak, Dynamo, ZSKA) and Kiev (Dynamo) as examples, Manfred Zeller tells a story of community and enmity in the post-Stalinist multinational empire. This brilliant monograph exposes the complex loyalties that governed group identities and explains phenomena like the love-hate relationship between Kiev and Moscow. 'Moscow against Kiev' in Soviet times wasn't a question of war and peace, but in soccer it was already a feeling of 'us against them' and a question of victory or defeat in the complex multinational setting of the region. Zeller's book is an important contribution to the research of Soviet pop culture after Stalin as well as to contemporary debates on antagonism in the post-Soviet world.