About
What this site covers
Six seasons of top-flight football in a republic of under a million people, the ground it was played on, and the place around it.
Spartak Nalchik played in the Russian Premier League from 2006 to 2012 and finished sixth in 2010. Those years are the spine of the site. Around them sit the pieces that explain the conditions: a stadium inherited from Soviet municipal football, a winter break that runs longer at the foot of the Caucasus than it does in Moscow, and the regional fixtures against Vladikavkaz, Makhachkala and Grozny that were read locally rather than as league games.
The rest is the republic itself — Elbrus and the Baksan valley, the Chegem gorge, and the peoples whose histories the football was played in front of. Writing is in English throughout. Photographs are credited where a credit exists.