u/National_prikolist — reddlx

How did you start supporting your football club?

I’m curious to hear how everyone here found their favorite team. For me, it goes back to March 2010 when I was just 5. My family lived in Horlivka, Ukraine, but since we are a mixed family, we took a trip to Russia to visit my dad’s brother, who had moved to the Moscow region for work a couple of years prior. That trip is one of my very first vivid childhood memories.

While there, my dad and uncle were glued to the TV watching CSKA Moscow beat Sevilla to reach the Champions League quarter-finals. Where we lived, pretty much everyone supported Shakhtar Donetsk, but that night changed everything.

At that age, I didn't really understand what was what. For the first couple of years, I just genuinely rejoiced whenever I saw on TV that CSKA won. But childhood emotions are the brightest and most intense, so that connection stuck forever. I fell in love with football, played it all through my youth, and became a lifelong CSKA fan. Even when my family permanently relocated to Rostov when I was 9 and despite Rostov having their own strong club in the top flight, my loyalty never wavered.

What’s your story?

u/National_prikolist — 3 days ago

▲ 26 r/AskEasternEurope

AMA. In 2014, the war in Donbas forced my family out of Gorlovka. I’ve been living in Rostov, Russia for 12 years.

Today, I am 21 and live in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. But in 2014, when I was 9, I was living in Gorlovka—a city in the Donbas region.

Back then, as the political crisis escalated, people in my city expected a peaceful political transition to Russia, similar to the Crimean scenario. Instead, a full-scale war broke out by the summer. Due to heavy shelling, my family had to leave everything behind and relocate to Russia, where I’ve spent the last 12 years.

u/National_prikolist — 4 days ago

▲ 3 r/confessions

What political event from your childhood did you not take seriously then, but it eventually completely changed your life?

I was 9 years old, April 2014, I lived in Gorlovka. I remember very well the day when the storming of our city police department was shown on TV. The adults were looking at the screen then, and I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. My father then confidently said, "Well, now our people will be put in order, we will repeat what we did with Crimea, and we will live normally." Looking at their positivity, I wasn't worried at all and enjoyed the holidays: because of the kneading in the center, the schools were closed, and I could play football all day in the yard on the furnace.

And already in July, this "football" ended. I remember once when the lights and communications were turned off, and the glass in the lobby rattled so much that my mother and I ran into the basement in our clothes under the first serious shelling of the city. A week later, we hurriedly boarded a bus to Rostov-on-Don, which became my home for the next 12 years.

reddit.com

u/National_prikolist — 6 days ago