Issues of corruption, violence, and racism hang like ominous storm clouds in the lead up to the Russia 2018, but beauty persists. Joel Slagle writes about Russian football and its place in wider culture.
One of the most defining moments in Russian history came about because of holy ground. As the story goes, the ancient Russian king, Vladimir wanted to unite his diverse kingdom with a single religion. So, he received emissaries from the faiths neighboring his kingdom. He rejected Islam outright because of its prohibition of alcohol, and he took the Jewish Diaspora as proof of the inefficacy of Judaism. The messengers from Orthodox Christianity, however, told him of the splendor of the Hagia Sophia and not knowing whether they were in heaven or on earth. The majesty of the great cathedral of Constantinople appealed to Vladimir’s sense of grandeur, and he and his kingdom were baptized into the faith.
To walk into an Orthodox church is to enter a different, heavenly realm. I experienced this at the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Veliky Novgorod. St. Sophia is the oldest continuously functioning building in Russia. Upon entering, a thousand years of history were conjured up in the candlelit interior; the atmosphere was thick with the memories of worshipers, soldiers, princes, and archbishops throughout the centuries.
Football’s poet laureate, Eduardo Galeano describes the stadium as an almost sacred space: “Have you ever entered an empty stadium? Try it. Stand in the middle of the field and listen. There is nothing less empty than an empty stadium. There is nothing less mute than stands bereft of spectators.” The ghosts of the past linger on the terraces. It is holy ground. The tension, collective expectation, and the greatness of the occasion sanctify the concrete.