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As head coach of the Soviet national team, Arkadi Chernyshov won no fewer than 12 World Championship and Olympic gold medals. But as Anatoli Tarasov wrote:
In 1934 Joseph Stalin, leader of Soviet Union and its Communist Party, alleged that there was a far-reaching conspiracy to undermine the USSR. A hunt for the alleged traitors started. Accusations led to arrest and torture, which in turn led to false confessions, more accusations and more suspects. Among the hundreds of thousands who found themselves targeted over the years were officials of the Communist Party, generals of the Soviet Army and – sport functionaries. One of them was Pyotr Chernyshov, Decan of the Pedagogical Faculty at the Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow. Accused of being involved with alleged terrorist attempts, he spent eleven months under arrest and – as journalist Stanislav Gridasov has found in the archive of the Federal Security Service [2] – withstood three "interrogations" (torture sessions) without giving a forced confession or a forced testimony. It didn't save him: in September 1938, he faced the firing squad. His closest relatives were expelled from the Communist Party of the USSR. Among them was his younger brother Arkadi Chernyshov.
Joseph Stalin
Years later, Arkadi Chernyshov was about to be named head coach of the Soviet hockey team. But then Nikolai Romanov, head of the Soviet Sport Committee, discovered that his candidate wasn't a member of the Communist Party – which was not what was expected of a Soviet national coach. Romanov asked Chernyshov to turn to the Central Committee of the Party. Arkadi Chernyshov refused:
Arkadi Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet national team without being a member of the Communist Party.
In 1956, three years after the death of Stalin, his successor Nikita Khrushchov renounced the Stalinist Purge and the Supreme Court of the USSR retroactively declared many of the convicts innocent – including Pyotr Chernyshov.
Boris Arkadyev
Born on March 16, 1914, Arkadi Chernyshov grew up under the influence of his sister Raisa (who studied fencing and later trained several World champions), her husband Vitali Arkadyev (a fencing teacher and soccer player) and his twin brother Boris Arkadyev (a soccer player and future coaching great). Having turned 14, Arkadi Chernyshov had to graduate from school because his father Ivan had died and his mother Alexandra needed financial support. He found employment at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), a center for aviation research. Working under engineer Andrei Tupolev (one of the leading aircraft designers in the USSR) and mathematician Mstislav Keldysh (later a crucial figure in the Soviet space program), Arkadi Chernyshov advanced to the position of a senior technician. In his spare time he played soccer, bandy and basketball.
Wind channel test at TsAGI (1940)
In 1936, Chernyshov was drafted into service with the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (NKVD, later renamed KGB). It wasn't by chance he didn't end up in the Soviet Army: the Ministry of Internal Affairs ran one of the leading sports clubs in the country, Dinamo Moscow, and Chernyshov had attracted the attention of their soccer coach. After some basic training with the troops, he became a professional athlete who spent the next years playing soccer and bandy. It was the beginning of a long-term affiliation with Dinamo Moscow. Two years later, Chernyshov married Velta Mitsis who played bandy for the women's team. Velta was a good athlete, but more prominent was her sister Ella who won national championships in track and field, volleyball and basketball. Ella's husband Stepan Spandaryan, too, became an acquaintance of Arkadi Chernyshov. He played basketball for Dinamo Moscow and would later coach the Soviet national team.
Chernyshov in action with the Dinamo bandy team (1945)
With Dinamo Moscow, Arkadi Cherynshov won soccer championships and bandy tournaments. Like other promising sports minds of his generation, he was sent to the School of Coaches at the Institute of Physical Culture, from where he graduated in 1940. His biggest hour as an athlete came when his old mentor Boris Arkadyev was coach of the Dinamo soccer team (1940-1944). The "tall and tactically literate" [4] Chernyshov played the part of the central defender behind the high-scoring offense:
During the war years, Chernyshov served as a physical instructor training civilian workers for military defence while he simultaneously kept playing soccer and bandy for Dinamo. In 1945 he was among those who attended Sergei Savin's conference on Canadian hockey. [6] He pursued the new game enthusiastically, having already developed an interest in it when Dinamo Moscow tried it out under coach Mikhail Tovarovsky (1938/1939) and when he had seen footage from the 1936 Olympics at the Institute of Physical Culture. [7]
Chernyshov (fourth from left) as player-coach of the Dinamo hockey team (January 1947)
In December 1946, Dinamo Moscow entered a team in the first Soviet championship in Canadian hockey. Arkadi Chernyshov served as player-coach. He scored the first recorded goal in Soviet hockey history and guided his club to the title. In December 1948 he retired from playing, but remained head coach of the team, a position in which he served for no fewer than 28 years. Among the assistant coaches who worked under him and learned from him were Viktor Tikhonov and Vladimir Yurzinov.
Early on Chernyshov also worked as a soccer coach with the Dinamo youth team. In 1949, he discovered a young goalkeeper named Lev Yashin who initially didn't have many admirers. Chernyshov recalled the discovery with the humility characteristic for him:
Lev Yashin would go on to revolutionize soccer goalkeeping and to be widely regarded as the greatest goalkeeper in soccer history.
Chernyshov served as head coach of the Soviet national team 1954-1957 and 1961-1972
In the early 1950s, Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet hockey team. The chronology is not entirely clear, but Tarasov reports that Chernyshov preceeded him until 1952 [9]. It's not known why he was then replaced by Tarasov, but perhaps his lack of party membership did raise objections after all. However, Tarasov's first term didn't last long: by November 1953, the national team was so demoralized by his training program that the Soviet hockey federation decided to put Chernyshov back in charge. It was he who guided the USSR to the first World Championship title (1954) and the first Olympic gold medal (1956). But in 1957, failure to win another gold medal in the World Championship on home soil cost him his job and provided Tarasov with a second chance. Tarasov's three-year reign didn't produce any gold medals though. In 1961, Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet team once more and this time he would remain in this position for eleven years – with Tarasov as assistant coach (since 1962).
Chernyshov and Tarasov with the Soviet national team
Plenty has been written about the unlike personalities of Chernyshov and Tarasov. Sport journalist Alexander Soskin described Chernyshov as follows:
Tarasov himself claimed Chernyshov was at times too soft with the players, but he appreciated his analytic capability and praised his character: he said that he "is never late for anything and always keeps his word" and that "in relation with people, there is only one thing that guides Chernyshov: a sense of justice, and no emotions can affect his conversations with this or that person". [11]
The players celebrate Chernyshov after winning the 1972 Olympics
Chernyshov's reluctance to express himself in public means that we don't know much about his life outside of sports. Tarasov described him as a family man. He enjoyed solving technical problems at home and with his car and he loved fishing. When on tour abroad with the Soviet team, he kept his eyes open for fishing equipment.
Having retired from coaching in December 1974, Chernyshov became head of the Dinamo Moscow youth academy and kept serving the Soviet hockey federation in various capacities – until April 1983. At the 60th anniversary of the sports society Dinamo, many coaching and playing greats were honoured with awards – but not Arkadi Cherynshov, the coach who had won 12 gold medals. Shocked about the public insult, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on the left side. He never recovered and spent the rest of his life at home where veteran players paid visits to their old mentor. On October 22, 1992, Arkadi Chernyshov (79) passed away in Moscow. He was survived by his wife Velta (1919-2002) and his sons Boris (*1947) and Alexander (1951-1999).
[1] Anatoli Tarasov, Put k sebe (1974)
[2] Stanislav Gridasov, Ubit Stalina – zadacha fizkulturnikov na 1937 god (2020): Убить Сталина – задача физкультурников на 1937 год. Министр спорта сознался на допросе – и его расстреляли
[3] Quoted after his son Boris Chernyshov, in: Leonid Reizer, Arkadi Chernyshov (2020)
[4] Igor Dobronravov: Аркадьев Борис Андреевич тренер от 1940 - до 1944 май
[5] Alexander Soskin, Futbolnyy chelovek iz khokkeynoy legendy, in: Futbol 9, 2001
[6] Marcel Lang, The Birth of Soviet Hockey (2021): The Birth of Soviet Hockey
[7] Reizer, Arkadi Chernyshov
[8] Alexander Soskin, Lev Yashin: Legendarny vratar (2014)
[9] Tarasov, Put k sebe
[10] Soskin, Lev Yashin: Legendarny vratar
[11] Tarasov, Put k sebe
Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)
Do not imagine Chernyshov as some kind of poster boy for good fortune who is always lucky and whose fate is bright and without clouds. Chernyshov has had a hard lot, he had to experience the deepest disappointments and endure grievances, but he has never become untrue to himself in anything. [1]
In 1934 Joseph Stalin, leader of Soviet Union and its Communist Party, alleged that there was a far-reaching conspiracy to undermine the USSR. A hunt for the alleged traitors started. Accusations led to arrest and torture, which in turn led to false confessions, more accusations and more suspects. Among the hundreds of thousands who found themselves targeted over the years were officials of the Communist Party, generals of the Soviet Army and – sport functionaries. One of them was Pyotr Chernyshov, Decan of the Pedagogical Faculty at the Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow. Accused of being involved with alleged terrorist attempts, he spent eleven months under arrest and – as journalist Stanislav Gridasov has found in the archive of the Federal Security Service [2] – withstood three "interrogations" (torture sessions) without giving a forced confession or a forced testimony. It didn't save him: in September 1938, he faced the firing squad. His closest relatives were expelled from the Communist Party of the USSR. Among them was his younger brother Arkadi Chernyshov.
Joseph Stalin
Years later, Arkadi Chernyshov was about to be named head coach of the Soviet hockey team. But then Nikolai Romanov, head of the Soviet Sport Committee, discovered that his candidate wasn't a member of the Communist Party – which was not what was expected of a Soviet national coach. Romanov asked Chernyshov to turn to the Central Committee of the Party. Arkadi Chernyshov refused:
I was unjustly expelled: for a brother who was shot for nothing. And if I apply for membership again, then it implies that I admit my brother was guilty. If the Central Committee believes that I was falsely expelled, then let them reinstate my membership, but I will not write an application for a second time. [3]
Arkadi Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet national team without being a member of the Communist Party.
In 1956, three years after the death of Stalin, his successor Nikita Khrushchov renounced the Stalinist Purge and the Supreme Court of the USSR retroactively declared many of the convicts innocent – including Pyotr Chernyshov.
Boris Arkadyev
Born on March 16, 1914, Arkadi Chernyshov grew up under the influence of his sister Raisa (who studied fencing and later trained several World champions), her husband Vitali Arkadyev (a fencing teacher and soccer player) and his twin brother Boris Arkadyev (a soccer player and future coaching great). Having turned 14, Arkadi Chernyshov had to graduate from school because his father Ivan had died and his mother Alexandra needed financial support. He found employment at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), a center for aviation research. Working under engineer Andrei Tupolev (one of the leading aircraft designers in the USSR) and mathematician Mstislav Keldysh (later a crucial figure in the Soviet space program), Arkadi Chernyshov advanced to the position of a senior technician. In his spare time he played soccer, bandy and basketball.
Wind channel test at TsAGI (1940)
In 1936, Chernyshov was drafted into service with the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (NKVD, later renamed KGB). It wasn't by chance he didn't end up in the Soviet Army: the Ministry of Internal Affairs ran one of the leading sports clubs in the country, Dinamo Moscow, and Chernyshov had attracted the attention of their soccer coach. After some basic training with the troops, he became a professional athlete who spent the next years playing soccer and bandy. It was the beginning of a long-term affiliation with Dinamo Moscow. Two years later, Chernyshov married Velta Mitsis who played bandy for the women's team. Velta was a good athlete, but more prominent was her sister Ella who won national championships in track and field, volleyball and basketball. Ella's husband Stepan Spandaryan, too, became an acquaintance of Arkadi Chernyshov. He played basketball for Dinamo Moscow and would later coach the Soviet national team.
Chernyshov in action with the Dinamo bandy team (1945)
With Dinamo Moscow, Arkadi Cherynshov won soccer championships and bandy tournaments. Like other promising sports minds of his generation, he was sent to the School of Coaches at the Institute of Physical Culture, from where he graduated in 1940. His biggest hour as an athlete came when his old mentor Boris Arkadyev was coach of the Dinamo soccer team (1940-1944). The "tall and tactically literate" [4] Chernyshov played the part of the central defender behind the high-scoring offense:
Arkadyev made full use of Chernyshov's flair for accurate passing and his capability for work, which allowed him to return to his position immediately after his forward raids. Chernyshov became the initiator of many Dinamo attacks, although he hardly ever crossed the middle of the field, unlike defenders today. [5]
During the war years, Chernyshov served as a physical instructor training civilian workers for military defence while he simultaneously kept playing soccer and bandy for Dinamo. In 1945 he was among those who attended Sergei Savin's conference on Canadian hockey. [6] He pursued the new game enthusiastically, having already developed an interest in it when Dinamo Moscow tried it out under coach Mikhail Tovarovsky (1938/1939) and when he had seen footage from the 1936 Olympics at the Institute of Physical Culture. [7]
Chernyshov (fourth from left) as player-coach of the Dinamo hockey team (January 1947)
In December 1946, Dinamo Moscow entered a team in the first Soviet championship in Canadian hockey. Arkadi Chernyshov served as player-coach. He scored the first recorded goal in Soviet hockey history and guided his club to the title. In December 1948 he retired from playing, but remained head coach of the team, a position in which he served for no fewer than 28 years. Among the assistant coaches who worked under him and learned from him were Viktor Tikhonov and Vladimir Yurzinov.
Early on Chernyshov also worked as a soccer coach with the Dinamo youth team. In 1949, he discovered a young goalkeeper named Lev Yashin who initially didn't have many admirers. Chernyshov recalled the discovery with the humility characteristic for him:
Who knows, maybe I was able to see the unusualness of Yashin's techniques and tricks hidden behind the ridiculous mistakes that at first only made people laugh? [8]
Lev Yashin would go on to revolutionize soccer goalkeeping and to be widely regarded as the greatest goalkeeper in soccer history.
Chernyshov served as head coach of the Soviet national team 1954-1957 and 1961-1972
In the early 1950s, Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet hockey team. The chronology is not entirely clear, but Tarasov reports that Chernyshov preceeded him until 1952 [9]. It's not known why he was then replaced by Tarasov, but perhaps his lack of party membership did raise objections after all. However, Tarasov's first term didn't last long: by November 1953, the national team was so demoralized by his training program that the Soviet hockey federation decided to put Chernyshov back in charge. It was he who guided the USSR to the first World Championship title (1954) and the first Olympic gold medal (1956). But in 1957, failure to win another gold medal in the World Championship on home soil cost him his job and provided Tarasov with a second chance. Tarasov's three-year reign didn't produce any gold medals though. In 1961, Chernyshov became head coach of the Soviet team once more and this time he would remain in this position for eleven years – with Tarasov as assistant coach (since 1962).
Chernyshov and Tarasov with the Soviet national team
Plenty has been written about the unlike personalities of Chernyshov and Tarasov. Sport journalist Alexander Soskin described Chernyshov as follows:
He won me over with his attentiveness and interest in his interlocutor, regardless of age and position – I was still a newbie journalist and did an interview for the modest newspaper 'Moscow Sports Week'. When I made an appointment with him by phone, he asked where and when it was conventient for me to meet him. Unlike Tarasov, who once told me to come to his home … at six in the morning, and who did not particularly listen to questions but preferred to talk only about what was interesting to him. [10]
Tarasov himself claimed Chernyshov was at times too soft with the players, but he appreciated his analytic capability and praised his character: he said that he "is never late for anything and always keeps his word" and that "in relation with people, there is only one thing that guides Chernyshov: a sense of justice, and no emotions can affect his conversations with this or that person". [11]
The players celebrate Chernyshov after winning the 1972 Olympics
Chernyshov's reluctance to express himself in public means that we don't know much about his life outside of sports. Tarasov described him as a family man. He enjoyed solving technical problems at home and with his car and he loved fishing. When on tour abroad with the Soviet team, he kept his eyes open for fishing equipment.
Having retired from coaching in December 1974, Chernyshov became head of the Dinamo Moscow youth academy and kept serving the Soviet hockey federation in various capacities – until April 1983. At the 60th anniversary of the sports society Dinamo, many coaching and playing greats were honoured with awards – but not Arkadi Cherynshov, the coach who had won 12 gold medals. Shocked about the public insult, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on the left side. He never recovered and spent the rest of his life at home where veteran players paid visits to their old mentor. On October 22, 1992, Arkadi Chernyshov (79) passed away in Moscow. He was survived by his wife Velta (1919-2002) and his sons Boris (*1947) and Alexander (1951-1999).
[1] Anatoli Tarasov, Put k sebe (1974)
[2] Stanislav Gridasov, Ubit Stalina – zadacha fizkulturnikov na 1937 god (2020): Убить Сталина – задача физкультурников на 1937 год. Министр спорта сознался на допросе – и его расстреляли
[3] Quoted after his son Boris Chernyshov, in: Leonid Reizer, Arkadi Chernyshov (2020)
[4] Igor Dobronravov: Аркадьев Борис Андреевич тренер от 1940 - до 1944 май
[5] Alexander Soskin, Futbolnyy chelovek iz khokkeynoy legendy, in: Futbol 9, 2001
[6] Marcel Lang, The Birth of Soviet Hockey (2021): The Birth of Soviet Hockey
[7] Reizer, Arkadi Chernyshov
[8] Alexander Soskin, Lev Yashin: Legendarny vratar (2014)
[9] Tarasov, Put k sebe
[10] Soskin, Lev Yashin: Legendarny vratar
[11] Tarasov, Put k sebe
Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)
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