1.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
2.
FC Dynamo Kyiv
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Football Club Dynamo Kyiv is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kiev. Founded in 1927 as part of the Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the plays in the Ukrainian Premier League. Their home is the 70,050 capacity Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, since 1936, Dynamo has spent its entire history in the top league of Soviet and later Ukrainian football. Its most successful periods are associated with Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who coached the team during three stints, leading them to domestic and European titles. Dynamo Kyiv became the only Soviet club that managed to overcome the total hegemony of Moscow-based clubs in the Soviet Top League, the Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Kyiv rivalry became the most exciting football rivalry in the Soviet Union that almost completely eclipsed the Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Moscow rivalry. Since late 1960s, the club has participated in the UEFA continental competitions almost every year and it is the first Soviet football club that started to participate in the UEFA European competitions since 1965. Over its history, Dynamo Kyiv has won 28 national titles,20 national cup competitions, along with Dinamo Tbilisi, they were the only two Soviet clubs that succeeded in the UEFA competitions. The first team of Dynamo became a team for the Soviet Union national football team in the 1970–1980s. The two stars on the clubs crest each signify ten domestic titles the club has won, on 13 May 1927 the statute of the Kievan Proletarian Sport Society Dynamo was officially registered by the special commission in affairs of public organizations and unions of the Kiev district. The All-Union sport society of Dynamo itself was just earlier formed in 1923 on the initiative of the Felix Dzerzhinsky, under the banner of Dynamo gathered the representatives of the GPU, the best footballers of which defended the honors of the Trade Union club Sovtorgsluzhashchie. It was then when by the initiative of Semen Zapadny, chief of the Kiev GPU and his deputy, Serhiy Barminsky, started to form the team not only out of regular chekists, but also footballers of other clubs in the city. All the footballers were part of the consolidated city team or the city champions. The newly created team played its first official game on July 1,1928 against a local consolidated city team while visiting Bila Tserkva, already on the fifth minute the Dynamo-men opened the score in the game, however at the end the club lost it 1–2. On 15 July, the Bila Tserkva newspaper Radyanska Nyva put it in such words, as the club gained more experience and played on a regular basis, it started to fill the stadium with spectators with both the club and football in general gaining popularity in Soviet Ukraine. During the Soviet era, the club was one of the main rivals and its ability to challenge the dominance of the Moscow clubs in Soviet football, and frequently defeat them to win the Soviet championship, was a matter of national pride for Ukraine. Leaders of the Ukrainian SSR unofficially regarded the club as their team and provided it with generous support. In 1936, the first Soviet Championship was played, and Dynamo Kyiv was one of the pioneers of the newly formed league, the clubs early successes were however limited to a second-place finish in 1936 and third place in 1937. In the 1941 season, the only played nine matches as World War II interrupted league play
3.
FC Dynamo Moscow
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FC Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Khimki, Moscow Oblast, currently playing in the Russian Football National League. Despite this, it has never won the modern Russian Premier League title, during the Soviet era, it was affiliated with the MVD and with the KGB and was a part of Dynamo sports society. Chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus NKVD, Lavrentiy Beria, was a patron of the club until his downfall, from 10 April 2009 the VTB Bank has been the owner of Dynamo after acquiring a 74% share in the club. Boris Rotenberg Sr. was chairman until he resigned on 17 July 2015, on 29 December 2016, Dynamo Sports Society agreed to buy VTB Bank shares back for 1 ruble. Dynamos traditional colours are blue and white and their crest consists of a blue letter D, written in a traditional cursive style on a white background, with Moscow written below it, partially covering a football underneath. The clubs motto is Power in Motion, initially proposed by Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian author, Dynamo Moscow has its roots in the club Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva founded as a factory team in 1887. The team was renamed OKS Moskva in 1906 and won a series of Moscow league championships from 1910 to 1914. After the Russian Revolution, the club found itself under the authority of the Interior Ministry and its head Felix Dzerzhinsky, chief of the Cheka. The club was renamed Dynamo Moscow in 1923 but was referred to disparagingly as garbage. Dynamo won the first two Soviet Championships in 1936 and 1937, a Soviet Cup in 1937, and another pair of titles in 1940 and 1945. They were also the first Soviet club to tour the West when it played a series of friendlies in the United Kingdom in 1945, complete unknowns to the British, the Soviet players first drew 3–3 against Chelsea and then defeated Cardiff City 1–10. They defeated an Arsenal side reinforced with Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and they drew 2–2 against Scottish side Rangers. They continued to be a side at home after World War II. Dynamo captured another five championships between 1949 and 1959, as well as their second Soviet Cup in 1953, honours were harder to come by after that time. The club continued to some success in the Soviet Cup. Even so, Dynamos 11 national titles make it the countrys third-most decorated side behind Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamos greatest achievement in Europe was in the 1971–72 European Cup Winners Cup, where they reached the Final at Camp Nou in Barcelona, losing 3–2 to Rangers. This was the first time a Russian side had reached a final in a European competition, at the end of the 2008 season, Dynamo finished third, qualifying for the 2009–10 Champions League preliminary round. On 29 July 2009, Dynamo recorded a 0–1 away win against Celtic at Celtic Park, which gave them a strong advantage going into the second leg
4.
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg
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Football Club Zenit, also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg, is a Russian football club from the city of Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925, the plays in the Russian Premier League. Zenit were the 2007,2010, 2011–12 and 2014–15 champions of the Russian Premier League, Zenits history is tightly connected with the political history of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The players of local teams were amateurs and loosely associated with each other. At the same time, several football clubs were founded in Saint Petersburg. Players membership was unofficial and very loose, however, sometimes allowing the players to play for several different teams during the same season. The club was renamed several times and its owners and leaders were under pressure for many decades. The origins of Zenit date back to the beginning of the 20th century to several teams in Saint Petersburg that were playing locally. The oldest documented predecessor of Zenit was the team Murzinka, founded in 1914, which played in the Obukhovsky stadium from 1914 until 1924, when the team came to be known as Bolshevik. The team and stadium survived the drama of World War I, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, in 1925, another predecessor team of Zenit was formed, of workers from the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod, they were called the Stalinets in the 1930s. Historians documented that both teams of Zenit were playing independently until their official merger at the end of 1939. The Stalinets were not the team named Zenit that took part in the 1938 USSR championship. The current name of FC Zenit was registered in 1936, three years before the Stalinets merged with it, FC Zenit was ordered to take in members of the Stalinets metallurgical workers team after the end of the 1939 season. Zenit won their first honours in 1944, claiming the war-time USSR Cup after defeating CSKA Moscow in the well-attended final, the club was always adored in Leningrad, but was not able to make much of a significant impact in the Soviet League. Composer Dmitry Shostakovich and film star Kirill Lavrov were well known as ardent supporters of Zenit, Zenit won the bronze medal in 1980, also reaching the Soviet Cup Final and winning the Soviet League title in 1984. In 1985, Zenit beat the Soviet Cup holder in the Soviet Super Cup, the LOMO optical plant took up the ownership of the team after the war. In 1990, FC Zenit were re-registered as an independent city-owned professional club, after being relegated in the first year of the Russian League, Zenit returned to the top flight in 1996 and has been decent since. They claimed the 1999 Russian Cup, finished third in the League in 2001, made the Cup final in 2002, became the runners-up in the Premier League, in December 2005, Gazprom took a controlling stake in the club
5.
Russia national football team
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The Russia national football team represents Russia in association football and is controlled by the Russian Football Union, the governing body for football in Russia. Russias home grounds are Otkrytie Arena, Luzhniki Stadium and Lokomotiv Stadium, Russia qualified for three World Cups, and they have automatically qualified for 2018 as hosts. They have also qualified for five European Championships, led by manager Pavel Sadyrin, Russia were in Group 5 for the qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup which consisted of Greece, Iceland, Hungary and Luxembourg. The suspension of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reduced the group to five teams, Russia eventually qualified alongside Greece with six wins and two draws. Russia went to the USA to start a new era of Russian football as an independent country, in the final tournament, Russia was drawn into group B with Cameroon, Sweden, and Brazil. This was considered a group with Russia having limited chances of qualifying for the second round. In their first two games Russia lost 2–0 to Brazil and 3–1 to Sweden, teetering on elimination, Russia defeated Cameroon 6–1 with Oleg Salenko scoring record five goals in a single match. Russia was eliminated from the tournament with three points from one win and two losses, Sadyrin was later sacked following what was a poor performance. After Sadyrin was sacked, Oleg Romantsev was appointed coach to lead Russia to Euro 96, Romantsev was expected to qualify Russia for the final tournament and perform well. In his squad he selected many players from the 1994 FIFA World Cup such as Viktor Onopko, Aleksandr Mostovoi, Vladimir Beschastnykh, and Valery Karpin. During qualifying, Russia overcame Scotland, Greece, Finland, San Marino, in the final tournament Russia was in Group C with Germany, Czech Republic, and Italy. Group C was considered the group of death with Russia dubbed the weakest team, Russias last game against the Czech Republic ended 3–3. Germany and Czech Republic went on to meet in the final, in the qualifying stage Russia was in Group 5 with Bulgaria, Israel, Cyprus, and Luxembourg. Russia and Bulgaria were considered the two contenders to qualify from the group with Israel considered a minor threat. Russia began the campaign with two victories against Cyprus and Luxembourg and two draws against Israel and Cyprus and they continued with victories against Luxembourg and Israel. Russia suffered their only defeat of the campaign with a 1–0 loss to Bulgaria and they ended the campaign with a 4–2 victory in the return game over Bulgaria and qualify for the play-off spot. In the play-offs, Russia was drawn with Italy, in the first leg Russia drew 1–1. In the away leg, Russia were defeated 1–0 and failed to qualify for the World Cup, after failing to qualify for the World Cup in France, Russia were determined to qualify for the UEFA Euro 2000 co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands
