Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State
"Robert Edelman's densely informative Spartak Moscow is inevitably as much as the story of Nikolai Starostin as a history of the club whose legend he initiated and eventually epitomized. . . . Edelman earnestly addresses some perennial problems. How much genuine freedom of expression did the Soviet (male) citizen have, particularly under Stalin? Was supporting Spartak, with its inspirational, improvisatory style of play, a token of opposition-mindedness' Sensibly, Edelman gives qualified answers to this and many other big questions. . . . Edelman's account . . .finishes with an exemplary set of conclusions. To the end, Spartak Moscow manages to ride high, its legend as 'the people's club,' like the legacy of Starostin, faded but not forgotten."—Times Literary Supplement, 2 April 2010"Edelman homes in on the most popular Soviet sport—soccer—and the sport's most popular team—Spartak Moscow. The author traces Spartak's story from its working-class origins in prerevolutionary Moscow to the post-Soviet 1990s, but this is more than the history of a soccer team; it shows the many ways in which soccer and politics were 'joined at the hip' and how the team's transformations mirrored and even influenced a constantly changing society. The book succeeds as a history of Spartak, written in accessible prose, for which sports-minded general readers and soccer fans worldwide should be grateful. Beyond team history, serious students of Soviet social and cultural history will benefit from Edelman's prodigious research."—Library Journal, 15 November 2009"Fans of Spartak Moscow would have you believe that their club almost single-handedly defied the state machine. . . . Edelman's book is a heroic attempt to sift through the legend and arrive at . . . the truth. . . . With fascinating . . . descriptions of attending matches in 1930s Moscow . . . this is great work of research on a great club."—When Saturday Comes, April 2010"InSpartak Moscow, his new book about Russia's most illustrious soccer team, Robert Edelman tells some pretty funny stories about the ways in which Nikolai Starostin, long the man who ran Spartak, slipped and slid around the obstacles and dangers inherent in the country’s oppressive machinery by virtue of what he had to offer as a soccer coach. . . . Spartak’s colorful past provides Robert Edelman with plenty of tales of the team, the mere survival of which was testimony to the creativity of the man who ran it."—Only a Game, WBUR, 19 November 2009"This is an ambitious and very well-documented story, merging culture, identity and politics, ideology and the state with the history of Spartak, Moscow’s leading soccer team, reminding us that politics often has a sporting edge, and providing a sophisticated, subtle and nuanced analysis of the club’s relationship with the state as well as the fans’ relationship with the club. Edelman shows how Moscow soccer could simultaneously be a vehicle for conformity and also opposition, most obviously by showing how support for Spartak, the people’s team, contrasted with that for Moscow Dinamo, the secret police team. . . . Edelman examines developments from multiple perspectives, drawing on social, cultural, and political history, as well as aspects derived from the more recent interests in body culture."—Book Award Committee, North American Society for Sport History"Spartak was not merely the most popular team in the USSR, but perhaps the most popular semiautonomous institution in the state: the 'people's team,' as Robert Edelman calls it in this revealing and often funny microhistory."—Simon Kuper,London Review of Books, 10 June 2010"Once in a while, a study appears that justifies including the history of sport among those topics that warrant serious scholarly attention. Robert Edelman has written such a work. This history of Spartak football club offers a superb blend of social, institutional, and cultural history alongside a thoroughly fascinating account of the development of what Edelman justly describes as Russia's most popular team. . . . It is a splendid piece of investigative research that could only have been compiled by someone thoroughly enthralled with his subject over many years. Combining archival study with personal interviews and reviews of journalistic accounts, Edelman has produced a book of scholarly substance that is readable and, at times, highly entertaining."—Robert F. Baumann,Europe-Asia Studies"Robert Edelman has written a gem of a book. Letting his fine skills as a historian of the Soviet Union and Russia shine and bringing to bear his expertise about sports as a simultaneous vehicle for conformity and opposition, Edelman offers us a page turner not only about a Soviet and Russian soccer club but also about the lives of everyday people in this world about which we have actually known very little. This book is a wonderful read for anybody interested in culture and identity, well beyond the confines of Russia and soccer."—Andrei S. Markovits, University of Michigan, coauthor ofOffside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism"Today's savvy sports fan accepts that favorite games have a political dimension, without allowing that to deter from the thrill of competition. In this fascinating study of one of Moscow's preeminent soccer teams, Robert Edelman reminds that the opposite is also true, that politics has an athletic edge. Permitting fans, managers, and athletes to tell the history of their team, Spartak, Edelman provides unique insights into the USSR and Russia. Soccer fans no less than Russian specialists will enjoy this story."—Louise McReynolds, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author ofRussia at Play: Leisure Activities at the End of the Tsarist Era"InSpartak Moscow, Robert Edelman gives us a fine work of history and sport. More than merely a chronicle of a team or of Soviet soccer, this is a book about culture and politics, ideology and leisure, entertainment and the state. And it's a great story, well told."—Elliott Gorn, Brown University, author ofThe Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America