Hundreds of joyful people embraced each other; they gathered together in the squares, they shouted loud greetings to one another… that was the scene in St Petersburg the night after FC Zenit won the UEFA Cup. A reporter from Interfax was there whilst all of this was going on. People from all over the city converged on the main avenue, Nevsky Prospekt. When night fell (it was late, for the “Northern Capital” is in the time of twilight evenings), a salute was fired to celebrate the victory, and the fans continued their celebrations as it was fired. Petersburgers gathered in groups on the thoroughfares, passed around beers, and patriotically ate koryushki (smelts), a food considered a very symbol of the city by its residents.
However, all of this passed without practically any profanities, crudities, or aggressive shouts. This was a night where the people of Petersburg gathered en masse without crimes or unpleasant incidents. Our correspondent reports that they live in the same neighbourhood as a family of dipsomaniacs, and they count on being “ragged on” by them daily. However, on this night, they did not give out the traditional scandal. The members of this family were caught up in the universal merriment; they mingled with their neighbours, and kissed one another. Can you believe it? They went to bed quietly, without a peep, without the customary fight!
In one of the apartment buildings, some of the fans were stuck in an elevator that stopped in the shaft. It took rescuers two hours to get them out, but, whilst they were waiting for the emergency team, the neighbours passed beer and smokes to those stuck through the hatch of the elevator and kept their spirits up. The old-timers said that the only times that such a spirit of glad togetherness and genuine happiness was seen in “the City on the Neva” was when the Nazi blockade of the city was broken and on the first Victory Day, 9 May 1945.
Today, the spontaneous festival continues. You see people of all ages from teens to grizzled grey-hairs sauntering about the city painted in the FC Zenit colours, bearing the FC Zenit banner, and having as many tokens of the team about them as they can. Amongst the happy revellers was 85-year-old Baroness Margarita Konten de Roman, whom our correspondent found emerging from the shops with a banner in one hand and a stein of beer in the other. Around her neck was a scarf in the FC Zenit colours and she wore a cap with the symbol of her beloved team on her head. As she waved the team colours, she yelled, “Happiness to you!” (s prazdnikom vas! in the original) This evening, Margarita Aleksandrovna, along with her friends, is going to set up a table in the courtyard and invite all the neighbours over to share her happiness over the victory of her beloved St Petersburg footballers.
15 May 2008
Interfax-Religion
Voices from Russia 
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