As I was reading the site of the ultra supporters of FC Zalgiris Vilnius, especially the "History" section, I thought -- why not make this accessible to non-Lithuanians?
So here it is -- a thread about the birth and development of football fan movement in Lithuania, which is connected to the most legendary and traditional club, FC Zalgiris Vilnius.
I'll be taking the history of it from the Lithuanian site piece by piece, and put it over here in English.
The site itself is located at:
http://pietu4.ten.lt/
There are some nice pictures, and of course stuff in Lithuanian, if you can read it.
"Pietu 4" -- means "Southern Sector 4", the legendary stand of Zalgiris Stadium in Vilnius, where all the hardcore-supporters of Zalgiris gather. They're not the most peaceful bunch, but they've been the most faithful football fans in Lithuania ever.
Right now, the club is experiencing a cruel decline and total mis-management, but the fans are still there.
ORIGINS
The origins of the whole movement could be considered the massive processions of football fans in the late 70s. In 1977, as the Soviet Union was celebrating 60 years of the "Great October Revolution", the Communist leaders of Lithuania were shaken by massive demonstrations of people after football matches in Vilnius. This was not similar to peaceful small demonstrations of political dissidents popping up here ant there -- in those post-football events, there were clashes with the militia, broken cars, etc. Though it was directly caused by the play of Zalgiris, this was rather national than purely sports movement. Even the collaborative press of that time mentioned "national slogans" in their accounts of the events. Quite understandably, the Soviet authorities, having amassed security and militia forces from Lithuania and even from "brotherly republics", quickly put the movement down.
Maybe such origins were the reason that in the future, the Green & White movement was very politicised and dominated by patriotic nationalistic ideas.
Around the year 1980, the first green & white flags appeared in the stadium. Legends have it that the first flag was sewn and brought to the stadium by a guy from Antakalnis (a district of Vilnius -- Skroblas) with a nickname Mao. Although the authorities conducted a relentless fight against the flag-holders, there were more and more of them in the stands.
1982, the year of Zalgiris beating its way into the top echelon of Soviet football, coincided with the wave of punk movement in Lithuania. The Lithuanian version of the punk of that time was a stark contrast to the Western analogue. They were united only by the idea of protest. But while in the West this meant anarcho-communist protest against the traditions (including nationalism), in Lithuania this constituted exactly the national protest against the Communist occupants. A Lithuanian punk of that time associated his freedom with the freedom of his nation. His ideal was not anarchy, but the independent State of Lithuania. This was the typical Lithuanian ability to adapt Western freedom ideas of youth movements to the national freedom fight.
One of the elements of life of Lithuanian youth at that time was going to the stadium. Every game by Zalgiris carried with itself actions against the Russian occupants. At that time, even shouting "Lietuva!" (Lithuania) in the stadium was a protest action requiring courage - not putting you into prison, but causing lots of problems, such as expulsion from all institutions of education, etc.
The support of that time was based only on the chanting of some slogans: "Zalgiris!"; "Ivarti!" - literally meaning "Goal", that is "We want a goal"; "Eina!" -- literally "It goes forward", spurring the team to attack; as well as the dissident "Lietuva!". It also included the singing of national songs.
In spite of the efforts of security and militia, demonstrations, involving thousands of participants, spread like a fire around Vilnius after each Zalgiris game.
In that year, the first fans of an opposing team visited Vilnius. It's not clear to what extent those guys from Riga were ultras -- most probably, they were just simple peaceful football fans or collectioners of game programmes and memorabilia. Anyway, they were beaten up, putting the head of one of them between the bars of the fence, surrounding the stadium.
The real ultras of opposing teams appeared in Vilnius in 1983, when Zalgiris was already in the top division of USSR.
So here it is -- a thread about the birth and development of football fan movement in Lithuania, which is connected to the most legendary and traditional club, FC Zalgiris Vilnius.
I'll be taking the history of it from the Lithuanian site piece by piece, and put it over here in English.
The site itself is located at:
http://pietu4.ten.lt/
There are some nice pictures, and of course stuff in Lithuanian, if you can read it.
"Pietu 4" -- means "Southern Sector 4", the legendary stand of Zalgiris Stadium in Vilnius, where all the hardcore-supporters of Zalgiris gather. They're not the most peaceful bunch, but they've been the most faithful football fans in Lithuania ever.
Right now, the club is experiencing a cruel decline and total mis-management, but the fans are still there.
ORIGINS
The origins of the whole movement could be considered the massive processions of football fans in the late 70s. In 1977, as the Soviet Union was celebrating 60 years of the "Great October Revolution", the Communist leaders of Lithuania were shaken by massive demonstrations of people after football matches in Vilnius. This was not similar to peaceful small demonstrations of political dissidents popping up here ant there -- in those post-football events, there were clashes with the militia, broken cars, etc. Though it was directly caused by the play of Zalgiris, this was rather national than purely sports movement. Even the collaborative press of that time mentioned "national slogans" in their accounts of the events. Quite understandably, the Soviet authorities, having amassed security and militia forces from Lithuania and even from "brotherly republics", quickly put the movement down.
Maybe such origins were the reason that in the future, the Green & White movement was very politicised and dominated by patriotic nationalistic ideas.
Around the year 1980, the first green & white flags appeared in the stadium. Legends have it that the first flag was sewn and brought to the stadium by a guy from Antakalnis (a district of Vilnius -- Skroblas) with a nickname Mao. Although the authorities conducted a relentless fight against the flag-holders, there were more and more of them in the stands.
1982, the year of Zalgiris beating its way into the top echelon of Soviet football, coincided with the wave of punk movement in Lithuania. The Lithuanian version of the punk of that time was a stark contrast to the Western analogue. They were united only by the idea of protest. But while in the West this meant anarcho-communist protest against the traditions (including nationalism), in Lithuania this constituted exactly the national protest against the Communist occupants. A Lithuanian punk of that time associated his freedom with the freedom of his nation. His ideal was not anarchy, but the independent State of Lithuania. This was the typical Lithuanian ability to adapt Western freedom ideas of youth movements to the national freedom fight.
One of the elements of life of Lithuanian youth at that time was going to the stadium. Every game by Zalgiris carried with itself actions against the Russian occupants. At that time, even shouting "Lietuva!" (Lithuania) in the stadium was a protest action requiring courage - not putting you into prison, but causing lots of problems, such as expulsion from all institutions of education, etc.
The support of that time was based only on the chanting of some slogans: "Zalgiris!"; "Ivarti!" - literally meaning "Goal", that is "We want a goal"; "Eina!" -- literally "It goes forward", spurring the team to attack; as well as the dissident "Lietuva!". It also included the singing of national songs.
In spite of the efforts of security and militia, demonstrations, involving thousands of participants, spread like a fire around Vilnius after each Zalgiris game.
In that year, the first fans of an opposing team visited Vilnius. It's not clear to what extent those guys from Riga were ultras -- most probably, they were just simple peaceful football fans or collectioners of game programmes and memorabilia. Anyway, they were beaten up, putting the head of one of them between the bars of the fence, surrounding the stadium.
The real ultras of opposing teams appeared in Vilnius in 1983, when Zalgiris was already in the top division of USSR.