A tale of two cities – St. Petersburg and Moscow – the rivalry between Zenit and major teams from Moscow is a fiery one fuelled by history, passion and pride.
Moscow and St. Petersburg have long been entwined in the annals of Russian history. From the Siege of Leningrad to the October revolution, the city of St. Petersburg has played host to some of the most titanic displays of Russian spirit and ideal in living memory. Over 600km to the south, Moscow has been the stage of Russia’s greatest displays of victory, power and strength, from Stalin through to Putin. The people of Petersburg like to think of themselves as the zenith of cosmopolitanism, strides ahead of the more rigid curve the capital boasts in terms of nightlife, culture and the arts. It is Russia’s second city, created by Peter the Great to be ‘the window to Europe’ and leans towards the west in many more ways than simply geography. Muscovites consider themselves more authentic than their northern counterparts, residing in a city whose skyline is shaped by Red Square and the Kremlin and embedded in Western thought as the quintessential imprint of Russia.
This rivalry runs deep into football.When teams from both St. Petersburg and Moscow meet on the football pitch, the clashes are every bit as rich with passion that they carve themselves into the country’s football history.
It can be argued that the biggest derbies are contested exclusively by Moscow clubs. Russia’s rich vein of history flows into capital’s football clubs and their formation, substance and ethos are reflected in their inception. The ‘people’s team’ Spartak were for example sponsored by a trade union at some point in their history, while they were also supported by the Komsomol – the youth division of the Soviet Communist Party until Stalin’s Great Purges. Lokomotiv, as its name suggests, comprised the elite players on the Moscow railways junction and were created as the ‘Club of the October Revolution’. CSKA and Dynamo were borne from military and police recreational teams and Torpedo was the brainchild of automotive plant workers.
Their diverse backgrounds are stories of unity and ultimately escape, of solidarity and finding solace in another world above the steam cloud of a chugging train and beyond the clank of a machine, a baton, a gun. Each fixture was a meeting of like-minded men but from different sides of the track and for decades Moscow was the epicentre of football, just as it had reckoned itself as the centre of Russia.
But in recent times there has been a bee at the Muscovite banquet and domestic titles have swapped between the two cities more times than the title of ‘capital city’. Zenit St. Petersburg are invariably seen as the major threat to Moscow domination. They have consistently competed on and off the pitch to deprive the capital of the league title and have managed to do so four times in the last eight years, an unprecedented period of success.
Zenit’s lavish spending on stars such as (L-R) Hulk, Witsel and Danny in recent years has intensified their long standing rivalry with Moscow clubs
Formed themselves as the result of a merger of predecessor teams named The Stalinets and Bolshevik, Zenit were renamed when Joseph Stalin made them part of the military industry and transferred them to the Zenit Sports Society in 1939. However, fans of Moscow teams believe that any such history has long since dissipated. They claim that due to their ownership by Gazprom, Zenit has been transformed into a corporate behemoth that consumes playing talent to manufacture success. Zenit boast big name players such as Hulk, Javi Garcia, Garay and Witsel; those plucked from the capital Danny and Sasha Kerzhakov; big name managerial acquisitions; and European success meaning that they enviably enjoy European attention. Their wealth has undoubtedly raised the Zenit profile and consequently the feeling of acrimony from Moscow.
Russia’s vastness means that the similarities between any two sets of fans don’t wander beyond anything other than nationality. In many cases radically different history and ideals clash, pride is intensified and what’s at stake can be thoroughly accentuated. This is nowhere more apparent than between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Zenit, as a must, continue to be the wedge driven between Moscow and footballing success.
Zenit and Spartak currently sit 4th and 3rd in the league respectively with only a point to separate them. However, when the two teams take to the field on Saturday, Zenit will be fully aware that what separates the two sides is far greater and that victory is much more than just three points.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT – Zenit’s greatest victories over Moscow sides
Moscow’s clubs have often enjoyed a steady stream of domestic and cup success throughout football history in Russia and their dominance has been almost perennial. Zenit St. Petersburg are one of only a handful of teams to have ended the cycle of silverware being passed through Muscovite hands. Here are the top three occasions when the underdog has prevailed and Zenit have taken the trophy north at the expense of one of the capital’s top clubs.
1944 USSR Cup
The fifth USSR Cup was contested between July and August 1944. The first Cup since football was abandoned in 1939 due to the outbreak of World War II, it had only ever been won by teams from Moscow with two wins for Spartak and one apiece for Lokomotiv and Dynamo. Zenit had contested the last final as Stalinets Leningrad but had been beaten 3-1 in the final by holders Spartak. Renamed Zenit Leningrad, the blue-white-sky-blues beat Dynamo’s reserve side and then the Dynamo first team on the way to the final held at Dynamo Stadium, Moscow on August 27, 1944. Coached by Konstantin Lemeshev, Zenit beat CSKA on home turf with goals from Boris Chuchelov and Sergey Salnikov in a 2:1 win that meant Zenit became the first team from outside of Moscow to win the trophy. The victory restored pride in a city ravaged by bombing and starvation and alleviated from Nazi stranglehold only months before.
1999 Russian Cup
The USSR Cup was dissolved in 1992, another victim of the sharp change in political discourse, and replaced by the Russian Cup. For Zenit, the change in name brought no change in fortune and by 1999 they still hadn’t won their country’s cup competition since their first and only triumph
Zenit celebrate winning the 1999 Russian Cup
in 1944, 55 years previously. After barely threatening a charge in that time aside from a final appearance in 1984, the year they won their first league title and the Russian Super Cup, Zenit finally made a third final bow having beaten CSKA in the semis. The date was 26th May 1999 and the stage was once again set in Moscow at the now famous Luzhniki Stadium. Managed by former player Anatoly Davydov, Zenit lined up this time against Dynamo. Success this time didn’t come easily. A goal down at half time, a second half brace from Alexander Panov in the space of three minutes and another from Ukrainian Roman Maksimyuk clinched the cup to make Zenit the first winners from outside Moscow and the last team of that century to win the trophy, again on Moscow turf.
2007 Russian Premier League
Since the formation of the Russian Premier League in 1992 up until 2007, with the exception of FC Alania Vladikavkaz, every Russian league title had been won by a team from Moscow. The men from the Caucasus had won the title in 1995 to be the only break in a 15 year chain in which the title had changed hands only between Lokomotiv, CSKA and Spartak. Over the course of the season, Zenit had played a Moscow side ten times and won only half of them. None of that mattered when Zenit’s Czech left back Radek Sirl netted the only goal of the game against FC Saturn in Ramenskoye, a suburb of Moscow on November 11. The goal meant Zenit won their first Russian Premier League and only the team’s second league title since 1984. It would be six years before a Moscow team was to win the title again.
________________________________________________________________________________
Follow Daniel on Twitter: @DannyWArmstrong