Spartak Moscow: The People’s Team in the Workers’ State

(Cornell University Press) Spartak Moscow chronicles the history of Spartak, a soccer team that emerged in Moscow and gained a huge popular following during the Soviet era. Twelve-time champion of the Soviet Elite League and eleven-time winner of the USSR Cup, Spartak actually spent much of its history in rivalry with Dinamo, the team of the secret police. The author argues that cheering for Spartak became a way for ordinary people to safely reject the fears and absurdities of high Stalinism, and shows how rowdy game days became moments of relative freedom in an otherwise conformist society. He tracks the team from its pre-revolutionary days through the post-Soviet period. Edelman is a professor of history at the University of California, San Diego. He also is the author of Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR .