18 April 1922 - This...Is...Spartak!

On 18 April 1922, Moscow Sport Circle expanded into football. Now known as Spartak Moscow, it is Russia's most successful club, with twelve Soviet championships and a record nine Russian Premier League titles.

Moscow Sport Circle was founded in 1921 by Ivan Artemyev and Nikolai Starostin, who quickly turned the new club's attention to football. They changed their name to Spartak Moscow in 1934 and won their first league title two years later, led by manager Mikhail Koslov and top scorer Georgy Glazkov.

They won two more titles in 1938 and 1939, then took six more in the 1950s and '60s. By the time the Soviet Union disbanded, they had a total of twelve, second only to Dynamo Kyiv's thirteen. They then dominated the new Russian league in the 1990s, winning seven titles between 1992 and 1999 (the only one they missed was 1995). They also have six titles as champions of the interim Commonwealth of Independent States.

Along the way, their rosters included players like Nikita Simonyan, their all-time top scorer, with 133 goals between 1949 and 1959.

They won their last league title in 2001, but remain constant challengers.

11 November 2007 - Zenit Live Up To Their Name

On 11 November 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg won their first Russian Premier League title with a win over Saturn Moscow Oblast on the last matchday of the season.

Founded in 1925, Zenit had won only one other league title in their history--the 1984 Soviet Top League. After the advent of the Russian Premier League in 1992, they were relegated after that first season, then returned to the top flight in 1996. A handful of top-10 finishes followed, as well as one season in which they finished third (2001) and one in second (2003).

The 2007 season was their first full one under new manager Dick Advocaat, who had taken over in July 2006. Despite losing both of their league meetings against Spartak Moscow, Zenit entered the last matchday two points clear of their rivals from the capital, knowing that a win would secure the title. But to get it, they needed an away victory over Saturn, with whom they had drawn 1-1 at home in the first week of the season.

Playing before a crowd of 16,500, Zenit looked to rely on their top goalscorers, forwards Andrei Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak, with respective league totals that season of 10 and 11 goals, respectively. But they received a spark from a less likely source, as a 14th-minute shot from Zenit midfielder Radek Šírl deflected past Saturn goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky. It was the only goal of the match.

The win made Zenit the first team outside of Moscow to win the title since 1995. It also launched them into European competition that ended with them lifting both the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 2008.

10 December 1997 - But I'm Sure They Were Happy Just To Be There

On 10 December 1997, MFK Košice lost 0-1 to Feyenoord, thus becoming the first-ever team to bow out of the Champions League with zero points.

Reigning champions of Slovakia's top flight, Košice reached the group stage by beating Icelandic club ÍA 4-0 on aggregate in the first qualifying round, then defeating Spartak Moscow 2-1 on aggregate in the second qualifying round. In doing so, they were the first Slovakian club to make it to the group stage.

But their good fortune ended there. They failed to even score in the first legs opening the tournament with a 3-goal loss to Manchester United, followed by a 2-0 loss to Feyenoord, then a 1-goal loss to eventual finalists Juventus. They improved in the rematch with Juve, but still fell, 3-2, then lost again to man United, 3-0. They were already guaranteed to finish at the bottom of the group regardless of the results in their last match against Feyenoord, who were also mathematically eliminated from the competition.

Played at the Všešportový areál in Košice, the hosts kept it close for most of the match and nearly walked away with a point, but succumbed to an 81st-minute strike from Giovanni van Bronckhorst to end the tournament's worst campaign in history with 6 losses in 6 matches.

20 October 1982 - The Luzhniki Stadium Disaster

On 20 October 1982, Russia suffered its worst sporting disaster when at least 66 people died as a result of a stampede at Spartak Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. Some reports place the number of casualties as high as 340.

A crowd of approximately 10,000 was there that day to watch Spartak Moscow challenge HFC Haarlem in the second round of the UEFA Cup. The low number of spectators, caused in part by extraordinarily cold weather that day, prompted stadium officials to open only the East Stand, with only one exit.

Spartak took a 1-0 lead into injury time and several supporters made their way out of the stadium. But a late goal from Spartak defender Sergei Shvetsov drew several of them back toward the stands to join in the celebration. The two streams of people met at the exit, where dozens of people were trampled and crushed. The official death toll is 66, but eyewitnesses claim to have seen hundred of bodies.

Russian authorities initially covered up the incident, with newspapers reporting only that there had been an accident at the stadium that had injured some supporters. Russian newspaper Sovetsky Sport finally broke the full story in 1989--seven years later. Three years after that, a memorial was placed outside the stadium.