What would the first thought if someone asked you to name what are the capital cities of the world that have many football clubs? London will surely cross your head for the first time with a myriad of clubs. Starting from clubs that occupy the top divisions such as Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, West Ham United, Fulham, Crystal Palace, to lower division clubs, such as Watford, Brentford, Milwall, and Queens Park Rangers.
Then the city of Rome which has a great duel which is summarized in the Derby Della Capitale which brings together AS Roma and Lazio. Or maybe you even think of the capital city of your beloved country, Jakarta, which used to have quite a number of clubs besides Persija, such as Persijatim, Persija Barat, Persitara, Pelita Jaya, and PSJS.
However, would you think of Moscow city? Little do you know that the Russian capital has a long history of exciting and fierce football competition which has split into five teams. Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow form the pentagon of football competition in the city. Five teams, one city.
It all started with Dynamo Moscow, the oldest football club in Russia. Rooted from the association of a number of local clubs in 1887, the name “Dynamo Moscow” was first used in 1923. The formation of this club could not be separated from a Dinamo sports community that was shaded by the secret intelligence authority and the Soviet government police, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti or KGB.
Until recently, the club was affiliated with the authorities and earned the nickname “lowly cop”, or even “trash” by low-level supporters.
Then came Spartak Moscow. A club that was born from among the union workers. The duel between the two clubs is called “The Oldest Russian Derby”. This club is often seen as mediocre, but carries the fighting spirit of the lower class. Symbolism of the people’s club fighting against the tyrannical system, like the gladiator slave “Spartacus” who led the revolt against Rome.
With the narrative of commoners vs rulers, the Spartak vs Dynamo relationship is indeed complex. High tension is always presented when the two teams meet each other and can even expand to the outside of the football field.
The story begins when Nikolai Starostin, the founder and football player of the Spartak team, and his three brothers were arrested in 1937. At that time they were arrested for allegedly applying bourgeois methods to Soviet sports. Even though it ended in freedom, they were always monitored by the law and charged with various cases in court which ultimately hampered Spartak’s performance.
Ultras Torpedo Moscow and 2018’s World Cup
Starostin was accused of plotting to assassinate Josep Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union at that time, so that he could turn the Soviets into a fascist state. Starostin and the Spartaks suspect that the accusation was masterminded by Lavrenty Beria, Dynamo’s leader and Stalin’s right hand man.
Spartak was deeply affected by the loss of their founder. They won only one league game in the 1940-50 decade against the Dynamo. After securing successive domestic leagues and cups in 1938 and 1939, they won the hearts of the people, but Spartak was destined to lose to the ruling political system.
But in the end, Nikolai Starostin and Spartak Moscow were able to laugh out loud. After being released from prison, Starostin returned to dreaming of Spartak in 1955 (continued until 1992). Not only that, Spartak’s increasingly successful performance was followed by a decline in Dynamo’s performance. The Spartak-Dynamo competition loses its significance in the football calendar.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Dynamo have never won a league title. They have never even won the Russian Premier League, a new competition formed in 1992, and were relegated from the top division for the first time in their history in 2016.
In contrast, Spartak have won the new league nine times. Some Dynamo fans refer to this phenomenon as the “Beria Curse”, in reference to their former honorary president Lavrentiy Beria. After Stalin’s death, Beria was executed for crimes against the Soviet people and it is believed that Dynamo’s downturn to this day is punishment for Beria’s past sins and all his propaganda.
Spartak, on the other hand, had turned from fear to strength. It seems that, in this case, the little guy wins.
Spartak is not the only football club affected by tyrannical rule. Another Moscow team has also suffered with the success of Dynamo, namely the Moscow Torpedo. Formed in 1924 from the auto industry community, the club began to enjoy success in the 1960s thanks to Eduard Streltsov, the Torpedo forward known as the “Russian Pelé”.
Considered the best field player Russia has produced, at that time Streltsov was sentenced to twelve years in the Gulag labor camp system. She was convicted of a controversial rape scandal when she was only 20 years old.
Many people feel the scandal that befell Streltsov is a fabrication. This is because the authorities cannot show evidence of the rape scandal. What’s more, the player rejected Dynamo Moscow’s contract and chose to stay at Torpedo.
Spartak and Dynamo, a Moscow team born on the same date
The story of Moscow city football is also inseparable from the presence of Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow. CSKA Moscow is one of the oldest Russian clubs after Dynamo (founded 1911). Like Dynamo, CSKA is closely linked with the authorities. In English, CSKA literally means “Army Sports Club”, as they were indeed the official team of the Soviet Army during the communist era. This club also formed a fierce competition with Spartak with the title “The Main Moscow Derby”.
Despite being very old, “The Army Men” were just beginning to emerge in the midst of the Dynamo-Spartak competition and enjoyed their moment of success in the Soviet Top League in the period 1946-51, where they won five league titles in six years.
The club then transformed into the biggest force of domestic football in the modern era. They were able to win the league six times in the 2003-2016 period and are consistent in the top flight and have regularly qualified for the Champions League or Europa League.
The next club, Lokomotiv Moscow, as the name suggests, was founded by a voluntary sports association among railroad workers owned by the Soviet Ministry of Transport. Lokomotiv rose to fame in 1951 when they were promoted to the Soviet Top League, amid competition and domination by Spartak and Dynamo.
This club is known to have a slightly different approach to the sport. While other Soviet clubs rarely played matches with foreign teams due to political tensions in the mid-1950s, Lokomotiv often played friendly matches against teams in Europe, Africa, Asia and even North America.
Lokomotiv, known as the “fifth wheel of the Moscow train”, after Dynamo, Spartak, Torpedo and CSKA, at the end of the 20th century, began to evolve from the weakest team to one of the top football teams in Russia. They won their first Russian Premier League in 2002 and then won it again two years later, thanks in large part to their manager, Yuri Semin. Yuri is an iconic figure of Moscow city football because in addition to serving as Lokomotiv’s coach, he has played for three capital clubs at once, namely Spartak, Dynamo and Lokomotiv. He is a symbol of courage because with fear he can freely cross from one team to another.
So after all this story, which is your favorite Moscow city club? Was it a representative team of the lower class, Spartak or perhaps the owner of the highest talent in Russian football, Torpedo? Is it Lokomotiv and CSKA who recently shone in the modern era? Or are you really Dynamo favorites?
All of them have a rich history to share and sometimes transcend sporting values. In Moscow, the battle for football supremacy will continue to burn. If history has taught us anything, whoever sits on the football throne of this capital city shouldn’t feel too comfortable, as power can keep on shifting over time.
ASL
