The national teams of Russia and Poland have already been knocked out of Euro-2012. It is a pity, of course, for they wanted to win brilliant victories and avoid bitter defeats. But it is the strongest that wins in sport. The only question is how to react to inevitable defeats. Once, in the 1950s, Yugoslavia, quite a strong team at the time, suffered a crushing defeat. Its coach said at the post-match press conference: “We have lost, but we will march forward.” His words only confirmed the well-known maxim that there can be no wins without losses. It is the philosophy of progress.
All high-ranking sport functionaries keep repeating, like a mantra, that sport is above politics. And when Europe heard calls to boycott the Ukrainian part of Euro-2012, UEFA categorically refused to do so because it did not want to let politics into sport. In formal terms, the European federation was right. All the more so that high-profile politicians never came to Ukraine and it would have been just mindless to deny fans this pleasure. Besides, the world experience of boycotting major sport events like this is absolutely negative.
Western countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, while the USSR and Warsaw Pact states did the same to the 1984 Olympics. All they succeeded in was to deal a blow to the sporting career of some prominent athletes who could not take part in a prestigious competition. Therefore, it is really no use mixing sport and politics. Yet interference of politics into sport is a hard fact.
When the Soviet team lost to Yugoslavia in the first round of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, the best friend of Soviet sportsmen, Comrade Stalin, asked his inner circle not without irritation what is usually done to a military unit that disgraced itself on the battlefield. The disgrace was that the Soviets were beaten by a “revisionist” country led by what the Soviet propaganda dubbed the Tito-Kardel-Rankovic clique. As Stalin was told that the national team was based on the TsDSA [Central Club of the Soviet Army. – Ed.] club, although in reality there were only four players of this club in the national team, he instructed that the club’s squad be disbanded and its manager Boris Arkadiev be stripped of the honorary title of Meritorious Master of Sport. If they had lost to somebody else, there would have been no terrible consequences. This is politics in sport at its most spectacular.
All the events in Warsaw, a brawl between Polish and Russian fans, an absolutely different attitude to the defeat of their team, are a reflection of not only fundamentally different mentalities, but also the politics that dominate in the two countries.
It is not strange at all that fans had a fistfight in Poland. Sad as it may sound, it would have been strange if everything had passed calmly and peacefully. We see here a recurrence of the chronic Russian imperial malady. In the minds of very many citizens of the neighboring country, Poland is a historical enemy which became independent by decree of fate and due to unfavorable (for Russia) circumstances. And Comrade Molotov’s phrase about an “ugly creature” of the Treaty of Versailles was not an exercise of political expediency but a true reflection of the psychological condition of a greater part of Russian society. And nothing has changed in the Russian mentality since October 1939, when this phrase was said at a USSR Supreme Soviet session. There is an undying desire to redress a historical injustice, change the current situation, and revive a great empire within the limits of 1917 at the very least.
Poland also bears historical grudges against its neighbors, although these are more and more being relegated to the past. The current policy is to seek reconciliation rather than politicize things. But, as quite the opposite is occurring in Russia, the response is predictable. Reconciliation is only possible if both sides wish it. A one-way movement won’t do.
All the aforesaid is a historical factor, while there is also a current one.
Why is the defeat of the national team considered as world-weariness and national shame in Russia? By contrast, the Polish public took quite a sober attitude to a similar event – it is sad, and that’s that.
There are several causes of this. Firstly, all this occurred on and immediately after June 12, Russia Day. The old Soviet habit of attaching a special meaning to dates (although it is just a calendar date) not only surfaces from time to time but is actively cultivated. Russia must win on such a historic day – there is no other option. But, in reality, other options do exist. This is why the press, the Internet, and all the other sources of information incited the fans. The authorities, too, did their bit. They never stopped flinging, directly or indirectly, the idea that Russia must take revenge on the soccer pitch for the past insults and show itself at its best. But they did not succeed, and all the negative imperial energy resulted in the well-known events.
Secondly, Russia has long had nothing to be proud of. Why does the Great Patriotic War and victory in it still remain as something special in the injured mindset of not only the populace, but also the government? Because only the flight of Yury Gagarin can be considered a great achievement over all the past years. But even this needs some explanations. They failed to fly to the Moon and can boast of no world-level gains. As the Ancient Greek poet Simonides of Ceos said: to be happy, one must have a glorious fatherland. The problem is right here. Hence is excessive aggressiveness and attempts to lay the blame for their failures on others. It is not an exclusively Russian feature – many do so, but in Russia this assumes a hypertrophic form.
Poland does have things to be proud of. What was a rank-and-file communist country formerly is now a member (in no way the last one) of Europe. It is a serious and prestigious country whose opinion is heeded and taken into account. And ordinary people, too, live far better at least in comparison with some of the neighbors.
Thirdly, the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s third term coincided with protest marches – of course, masterminded and funded by the US State Department because the Kremlin’s propaganda is just unable to think of something else. But the point is that too many people took to the Moscow streets, which formed a negative background of sorts. It was extremely necessary to find a bright spot in this dark streak, and a victory of the national soccer team in a prestigious international competition might have helped many people to overcome pessimism and convinced them that things are not so bad. An early elimination from the competition seems to be casting a shadow on the authorities as a whole – they, as usual, failed to deliver the goods. But the inherent Soviet-style paternalism, when the state is responsible for everything, is now ricocheting onto the government. There clearly is a good reason to flash out righteous indignation. And Poland and the Polish just happened to be at hand. It is strange that the Americans were not customarily blamed for all this. Their shady schemes remained unneeded, for some reason. But this is not the end of the affair – we may as well hear about this soon.
Unfortunately, the abovementioned events are not isolated or accidental. When Ukraine and France were playing at the Donetsk stadium, one could hear some people chant “Russia!” So the “Polish” scuffles can repeat at any moment. We must be prepared for this. If the imperial malady is not being cured, it assumes increasingly heavy forms and reflects, first of all, on the closest neighbors.
TO THE POINT
A British citizen apologizes to the Ukrainians on behalf of the entire Britain
A Member of the Order of the British Empire for defending human rights in Central and Eastern Europe, Clare Dimyon, has not seen manifestations of racism in Ukraine. Clare Dimyon said this on 18 June at a meeting with Kharkiv City Mayor Hennadii Kernes, UNIAN reports. The human rights activist has noted that the 2012 European Football Championship has become a feast of unity for all its participants and guests. “When I was coming to you, I had certain prejudices, but now they are gone. As a citizen of England I want to apologize on behalf of the whole Britain. This is not a trifle, this is a serious question to which we should respond. It is a matter of honor for Great Britain and of me personally as an Englishwoman. I saw in Ukraine the Africans, the Asians, who feel perfectly comfortable here. And the Dutch, who spent their time at Euro-2012, express a desire to return to your city. All of this suggests that we can be patriotic without humiliating other nations,” she underlined. She added that she had traveled to all countries of Central and Eastern Europe, except for the Republic of Belarus, but “never and nowhere saw such a good, frank and hospitable attitude to the guests of the country like in Ukraine.” Dimyon also noted that in Kharkiv she was surprised by polite law-enforcers and a clean metro.
COMMENTARIES
Andrzej SZEPTYCKI, analyst of the Institute of International Relations at the University of Warsaw:
“There are three opinions in the Polish society concerning the defeat of our team. The first one is very traditional for the Polish football: we do not have good football in Poland, we cannot play football, just a catastrophe, as usual.
“Another idea is that we lost but played three good matches. A lot of people came to stadiums or fan zones to watch those matches and just have a good time. It was a good period for all people.
“The third opinion is that our football players lost but we are hosting Euro and we should continue working to hold the championship with dignity so that everything goes well. After the European championship is finished, we will be able to continue reflecting over the situation in our football.
“As for the conflict between the Russian and Polish fans, it was a minor incident. The state, secret services and politician elites took it as a cause for discussion. However, for the Polish society in general it was not a tragedy or Polish-Russian ‘war.’ Any society and any group of fans might have hooligans and provokers.”
Lev GUDKOV, director of Levada Center in Moscow:
“In general, this defeat did not impress ordinary people that much. However, it was extremely important for groups of people having strong feelings about their national identity such as young people both in province and big cities. Accordingly, aggression increased and they supported fans’ tricks in Warsaw. However, according to any poll, for most people it is not important. They sympathized but only few people dared to support football fans. In all probability, people condemn displays of disorder and aggression towards other football fans and want the police to control such actions more.
“These are complexes of national inferiority generating some sickly displays of Russian nationalism: deficient self-respect and national dignity. They push first of all the youth and less successful groups of people to transfer their unrealized expectations to football, etc. Sport is the area for the national self-actualization. That is why all the events related to possibilities of self-actualization and national victory are much brighter and more expressive.
“To some extent, the authorities encourage such forms of national self-actualization. On the other hand, the authorities of the state are afraid of disorders and any mass social and fans’ displays. These protest actions quickly annex social problems and feeling of unjust social order. They quickly grow into anti-governmental actions as it happened in Moscow in December 2010 in Manezhnaya Square (and not only there) when 15,000 football fans protested against unjust and corrupt police and judiciary in Russia. They were supported in other 13 or 14 Russian cities.
“On the one hand, the authorities greenlight the propaganda of the sport nationalism. On the other hand, they want to limit it and severely control since they are afraid that the sport nationalism might grow into a social or national protests or something of this kind.”
By Ihor SAMOKYSH, The Day
