Tuesday, June 24, 2008
It was a wild, sleepless night in Russia, following the national football team's 3-1 win over the Netherlands and its advance to the Euro 2008 semi-finals. In the streets of Moscow, some 500,000 fans celebrated this unexpected victory - and similar euphoria engulfed most Russian cities as well.
LJ user vero4ka described (RUS) the scene in Moscow on the night of June 21-22:
Moscow is naked, drunk, all covered in broken glass; figures "3" and "1" have been [snatched away] from all currency exchange displays [...].
[...]
[Tverskaya St.] is cordoned off, girls are lying on car hoods and roofs, people are attacking empty garbage and dump trucks, getting inside, beating on them, screaming; all guys are naked, some of them have beautiful bodies; girls at the sidewalks take their t-shirts off and walk around topless; everyone is impossibly happy, carrying each other on the shoulders, kissing, running to hug with strangers and drivers of the cars passing by; nothing like this has ever happened before, traffic rules are gone to hell, a road hysteria has begun; everyone's singing anthems, [Aleksandr Pushkin monument at Pushkin Sq.] is wearing a fan's scarf, a whole bunch of folks with flags is on [Vladimir Mayakovsky monument at Triumphalnaya Sq.]; if we, God forbid, win this [championship], there'll be a revolution - people will just flood into Kremlin, carry out the tiny, drunk [president Dmitry Medvedev], and carry in someone else, all in a totally casual manner; in the morning we'll wake up in a different country.
What else are we capable of celebrating so universally? The New Year's? May Day? I'm 22, and this is the first time I see my own people going nuts from delight; not a single person standing aside, not even street cleaners and [migrant workers]; hard to believe this is my city, feels like someone is shooting a movie. [...]
LJ user maximkalinov posted photos of the celebration in the Russian city of Tver; the title of his post (RUS) is "Football Revolution."
LJ user mnog spent the night photographing fans in downtown Moscow. The result is this post with over a hundred photos - and over a hundred comments (RUS) to it, some of which are translated below:
trendybrandy:
Damn, there are churki [a derogatory term for non-Slavs] on every second picture! What a [horror] taking place in Moscow. And so many churki when it's a Russian team that's won. What's gonna happen in the streets if they will be celebrating something of their own?! It's gonna be total [mess] [...]. Moscow is no longer Russian ... and this is Russia's capital. [...]
mnog:
There are plenty of ethnic groups in any megapolis. With views like these, you should live in a village.
***
kolengro:
And after something like this they dare ban gay pride parades?
***
algulya:
You're a courageous person, I wouldn't risk going out and taking pictures.
***
nice_scream:
There were loads of cool chicks, by the way )))))
In the morning, LJ user kotjus_sova took a few pictures of the aftermath of the celebrations and posted them in the moya_moskva (My Moscow) LJ community: 10:30 AM on Sunday, Shipilovskaya St. in Moscow, lots of broken beer bottle glass.
One reader asked (RUS): "What happened? A beer truck accident?"
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