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S. V. Akopov С. В. Акопов
The Symbols of Sochi 2014: the Skyline of New Russian Political § Identity
CQ » Q_
5= Символы Сочи-2014: новые горизонты российской
| политической идентичности
о Akopov Sergey Vladimirovich Акопов Сергей Владимирович
а
North-West Institute of Management — branch of the Северо-Западный институт управления — филиал
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and РАНХиГС (Санкт-Петербург)
Public Administration (Saint-Petersburg) Кафедра политологии
Chair of Political Science Кандидат политических наук, доцент
PhD on Political Science, Associate Professor [email protected]
KEY WORDS
Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Russian Federation, national identity, symbolic policy КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА
зимние Олимпийские игры 2014 r. в Сочи, Российская Федерация, национальная идентичность, символическая политика
ABSTRACT
The article provides a study of the symbolic policies of the Russian Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee. We explore how do Sochi 2014 visual images and verbal texts represent the symbolic policy of a new Russian political identity and what is this new political identity about? The facts considered during the analysis undertaken in this paper can be interpreted as evidence in favor of the conclusion that Russia is moving towards constructing a less nationalist-based and more flexible and open political identity.
РЕФЕРАТ
Статья посвящена анализу символической политики, проводимой Организационным комитетом XXII Олимпийских зимних игр в г. Сочи. Исследуется то, как зрительные образы и вербальные тексты раскрывают символическую политику строительства новой российской политической идентичности и что представляют собой элементы этой новой политической идентичности. Рассмотренные в ходе анализа факты свидетельствуют в пользу вывода о том, что Россия движется в направлении построения менее националистической по своему характеру и более гибкой и открытой политической идентичности.
The article provides a study of the symbolic policies of the Russian Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee with regard to the following questions: How do Sochi 2014 visual images and verbal texts represent the symbolic policy of a new Russian political identity? Is this policy different from the USSR's policy during the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980, and, if so, wherein lies the difference? What is this new symbolic policy about?
The official Sochi 2014 brand encompasses the following: "an embodiment of peaceful, productive dialogue between peoples"; a "commitment to the continued support for the universal ideals of the entire Olympic Movement"; and "trust and cooperation between cultures and nations"1.
1 See Sochi 2014 brand at the official web site of 2014 Winter Olympic Games: http://sochi2014. com/en/games/brand. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
Among the people appointed as official ambassadors of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, there are many who are widely recognized beyond the borders of the Russian Federation, such as Dima Bilan (a pop singer who won the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest) and Natalia Vodianova (a Russian model). Others look more like transnational intellectuals: Yuri Vyazemsky (a writer, polyglot, and professor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations) and Valery Gergiev (the artistic director and manager of the Marinsky Theater, and the organizer of numerous international music festivals). Another official ambassador is Igor Butman, a world-famous jazz musician, suggesting that the old Soviet slogan, "today you like jazz; tomorrow you will betray your country", seems to have been abandoned1. Another difference from the Soviet era is that the Russian Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee is not afraid of selecting Russian celebrities who temporarily or permanently prefer to reside outside Russia as its ambassadors; for instance, Alexander Ovechkin is a former professional hockey player in the NHL, while Natalia Vodianova currently lives with her family in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the Russian Olympic Committee found it appropriate to entrust Ovechkin and Vodianova with leading roles during the presentation of the Sochi 2014 team at the closing ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Games. This would have been impossible under the ideology of the 1980 Summer Games held in Moscow.
The transnational character of the Sochi Olympics can also be witnessed in the names given to the future Sochi Olympics venues. For example there are Russian names such as the Sliding Center Sanki (sleigh), the Shayba (puck) Arena, the Bolshoi Ice Palace (a reminder of the Bolshoi Theatre). However, there is also the Cross-country Ski & Biathlon Center named "Laura" alongside the traditional Russian names. Moreover, the Sochi Olympic Stadium, the place which will
1 In Russian it sounds like 'Segodnja on ljubit dzhaz, a zavtra Rodinu prodast!'; See 'Segodnja on ljubit dzhaz, a zavtra Rodinu prodast!' in 'Pravda', April 22, 1956, p. 1.
hold the Opening Ceremony and other main o events was originally going to be called The ^ Faberge Easter Egg. However, the organiz- ^ ing committee later dropped this idea and decided to replace it with the name Fisht. g Mount Fisht is an icy peak located in the L-western Caucasus Mountains in the Russian o Republic of Adygea. The Fisht Olympic Sta- o dium will be situated in the Olympic Park so < that spectators will have a magnificent view ^ both of mountain peaks in the north and of x the Black Sea in the south (a unique feature 2 of the Sochi 2014 landscape). A translucent i-polycarbonate roof will be used to give the ^ building an appearance of snowy peaks, m ensuring that it sits in harmony with the landscape of the Imeretinskaya Valley2 and the Caucasus Mountains. Fisht will also be one of the host stadiums of the 2018 Football World Cup. One can argue that in the case of Fisht being preferred to the The Faberge Easter Egg, an environmental idea has won over a national one.
However, although it was difficult for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Committee to avoid the temptation of calling The Ski Jumping Center "RusSki Gorki"3, the change towards a more transnational-oriented naming of sporting arenas remains clear when compared to the Soviet symbolic policy of the Moscow 1980 Games. In 1980, many titles for Olympic sporting arenas still bore the names of old Bolshevik leaders or its ideological organizations, such as the Central Red Army Stadium (CSKA), Central Lenin Stadium, and the Young Pioneer's Arena.
Since the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Games cannot be assessed before 2014, the presentation of the Sochi 2014 team at the Closing Ceremony at Vancouver 2010 must instead be analyzed. Every step in the eight-minute ceremony was purely symbolic and delivered a set of significant meanings and messages to the international community. The passing of the Olympic flag was followed by a display of the expected traditional Rus-
2 From 'Imereti', a region in Western Georgia.
3 The Sochi 2014 Olympic Games official web site: http://www.sochi2014.com/games/places/ objects/mountain. Retrieved August 11, 2012.
o sian national symbols and images: the Troika, ^ the Red Square, the Kremlin, Saint Basil's ^ Cathedral, the music of Tchaikovsky, the 1937 sculpture "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman", g the 1964 Monument to the Conquerors of Space, and dancers from the three largest
0 Russian ballet theaters who were intended § to represent unity and diversity. To reflect < the mosaic of the modern Russian identity, c the Russian ballet performers wore special x costumes representing different aspects of 2 Russia's history and culture: folk Russia, I- imperial Russia, and the memory of the Great
1 Patriotic War (WWII).
However, the Russian Sochi 2014 presentation in Vancouver also underscored that Russian identity would remain incomplete if it was based solely on its old, traditional features. Thus, among the unexpected symbols illustrating the goals set for the construction of a new Russian identity were a ballerina on a snowboard, ballet dancers in costumes symbolizing nano-technologies, and the opera singer Maria Guleghina performing an aria from Borodin's Prince Igor in a Firebird costume while standing on a rotating sphere symbolizing innovative Russian science. All of these individual representations were accompanied by Sviridov's "Time, Forward!" suite, which was symbolic in every respect.
Consequently, an interesting feature of the Sochi 2014 brand is its commitment "to use the digital revolution to help young people experience sport for the first time with a view to active participation and long term engagement with sport and Olympism"1, which can be seen as a message to Russians born after perestroika. The Sochi 2014.RU official logo fits well with the recently announced innovative scientific projects launched by the Russian government (for example, Internet education and communication, and the Skolkovo innovation center)2. The construction and
1 See Sochi 2014 brand at The Sochi 2014 Olympic Games official web site: http://sochi2014. com/en/games/brand. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
2 The Skolkovo Innovation Center (also Russian
Silicon Valley in Skolkovo) is a planned high technology business area being built at Skolkovo near Moscow, Russia. The project was announced
promotion of the new attractive image of "high-tech Russia" hopes to grasp the attention of young people inside and outside the country and has the potential to be a factor in additional political mobilization. In other words, the ideology of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games can be seen as a tool for the incorporation of new generations of Russians into the Russian public sphere and social life.
Among the important mechanisms of political mobilization is the Sochi volunteers program. According to the Sochi 2014 volunteers official website (vol.sochi2014.com), there was an extremely high level of interest in the program for mass-recruitment of volunteers from the moment it was launched; in the first few days no less than 10,000 applications were received. Overall, the number of people who wanted to become volunteers for the Games in Sochi reached 55,000 by March 2012, with young people between the ages of 17 and 22 showing the greatest level of involvement. The applicants come from diverse geographical locations, with the Krasnodar region holding almost 8,000 applications more than any other region. Moscow and the Moscow Region hold second place concerning the number of applications submitted, with more than 5,100 applications, and St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region are in third place, with nearly 3,100 applications3. Total of 150 000 applications were received by February 1, 2013. The recruitment of volunteers finishes March 1, 2013.
Nevertheless, volunteer practices are less widespread in Russia than in many Western countries; hence, volunteering at the Sochi Games will be the unique experience which both encourages many young Russians to learn foreign languages and prompts them to actively participate in public life. At the same time, learning and practicing foreign languages as well as socializing in the international environment can be a fruitful social experience
on 12 November 2009 by then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
3 See 'The Sochi 2014 volunteers will help International sports stars' http://vol.sochi2014. com/about/facts/ Retrieved May 14, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
in making young people's identities more open to the international.
Overall, the facts considered during the analysis undertaken in this paper can be interpreted as evidence in favor of the conclusion that Russia is moving towards constructing a more innovative and less nationalist-based identity. In particular, the people appointed official ambassadors to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, the names given to the future Sochi Olympics venues, and the narratives and performativity of the presentation of Sochi 2014 team during the Closing Ceremony at Vancouver 2010 support this conclusion. However, until the official opening of the Games on 7 February 2014, only speculations can be made. Although, one way to assess the future is to place the Sochi 2014 Games within a broader context, viewing it as one link in a chain of global sporting events organized in Russia, namely, the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan and the 2018 Football World Cup. The symbols of the 2018 Football World Cup are not yet known, but in 2010 Russia won the right to host the event over a Spain/Portugal bid (which came second) and a Belgium/Netherlands bid (which placed third), speaking volumes of the positive international image and influence of Russia among the FIFA Executive Committee members, 13 (against 9) of whom voted in favor of Russia. "Never has the World Cup been held in Russia or Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world has been waiting for a long time. So I'm a happy president when we talk about the development of football," remarked Joseph Blatter (current President of Fédération Internationale de Football Association), noting that the FIFA committee had decided to "go to new lands" [5].
The slogan of London 2012 was "Inspire a generation"; Vancouver 2010's was "With glowing hearts"; Beijing 2008's was "One world, one dream"; Turin 2006's was "Passion lives here"; Athens 2004's was "Welcome home". On 24 September 2012, 500 days before the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Games, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee also revealed its slogan: "Hot.Cool.Yours.". The last word
in the slogan symbolizes personal involve- o ment and shows that while the Games are a g large-scale national project, everybody can ^ share both in the victories at the Games and in the sense of pride they bring. The g president of the Sochi 2014 Organizing L-Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, noted, o "The slogan of the Winter Games in my opinion, very successfully captures < the diversity of Russia's national character, ^ and the very personal nature of the Games. x The Sochi 2014 slogan demonstrates that 2 it is impossible not to participate, watch, i-experience and be proud because this is ^ Your Games"1. The motto of the Kazan 2013 ° Summer Universiade is "U are the world", which has two meanings: "You are the world' and 'Universiade is the World"2.
Overall, the atmosphere of the Sochi 2014 Olympics is very different from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which was boycotted by sixty-five countries in response to the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. Today, it is symbolic that the organizing committees of both the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan and the Sochi 2014 Games have chosen slogans aimed at giving the Games a more personal touch ("Hot.Cool. Yours.") — a big change for Russian ideology, which was long oriented towards collectivism. The latter can be regarded as visual signs of a new Russian political identity; however, even more important is that there seems to be a noteworthy claim made by the Russian government towards a shift from the traditional top-down ideological architecture towards the opposite design for the Sochi 2014 Games. This tendency towards the construction of more individual-based, situational, and fluid identities fits the concepts of "cosmopolitan nationalism" [3, p. 187], "transnationalism" [1, p. 259-260] and "transversality" [4, p. 15], which all oppose political philosophy of the "clash of civilizations" [2].
1 Sochi 2014 Reveals its Slogan, 25 September 2012, http://www.sochi2014.com/en/ media/news/59607/. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
2 Symbols of the 27th World University Summer Games in Kazan. http://kazan2013.ru/en/about_ universiade. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
о Notes
со
о 1. Bourne, Randolph. The Radical Will: Selected Writing, 1911-1918. New York, 1991.
< 2. Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity. New York. ^ 2004.
g 3. Guibernau, Montserrat. 2010. The Identity of Nations. Polity, Cambridge.
L 4. Kolesnikov, Anatoly S. 'Formation of World Philosophy under Post-globalization'. In Philosophical q dialogue of cultures: Russia - East - West. Saint-Petersburg, 2011.
cq 5. Longman, Jere. 'Russia and Qatar Win World Cup Bids'. New York Times. December 2, 2010. m http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/sports/soccer/03worldcup.html?_r=2&hp&; Retrieved
< October 15, 2012.
2 Литература
X 1. Bourne, Randolph. The Radical Will: Selected Writing, 1911-1918. New York, 1991. § 2. Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity. New York. i= 2004.
3. Guibernau, Montserrat. 2010. The Identity of Nations. Polity, Cambridge.
4. Колесников А. С. Становление мировой философии в условиях постглобализации // Диалог философских культур: Россия—Восток—Запад. СПб., 2011.
5. Longman, Jere. 'Russia and Qatar Win World Cup Bids'. New York Times. December 2, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/sports/soccer/03worldcup.html?_r=2&hp&; Retrieved October 15, 2012.
