SIHR Blog Stalinist Purge and Canadian Hockey: The Life and Times of Arkadi Ivanovich Chernyshov

[sr edler]

If Chernyshov had a bit of a milder coaching style than Tarasov, what style would you say prevailed for coming generations? Or could you find a bit of both, regarding stick and carrot? I'm thinking mostly in the 70s with Bobrov and Boris Kulagin, since I'm a bit more familiar with Tikhonov.

 

[Theokritos]

If Chernyshov had a bit of a milder coaching style than Tarasov, what style would you say prevailed for coming generations? Or could you find a bit of both, regarding stick and carrot? I'm thinking mostly in the 70s with Bobrov and Boris Kulagin, since I'm a bit more familiar with Tikhonov.

Tikhonov was even more strict than Tarasov, or just as strict as Tarasov but without having his personal appeal. So obviously, the stricter style prevailed in the USSR over the long run. A little ironic when you consider that Tikhonov started as Chernyshov's assistant. They were two very different characters.

Bobrov was softer than Tarasov. The two of them famously had their big differences and arguments. Chernyshov, on the other hand, was appreciated greatly by Bobrov, both on a personal and a professional level. He once said about him: "Like no-one else he knows how to convince people, lead them, rally the team. Chernyshov is a real teacher, an example for all of us." When Bobrov published a book in late 1971, he sent Chernyshov a copy with a handwritten inscription addressing him as his "friend".

When Bobrov became head coach of Spartak Moscow in 1964 and first gathered the team on the ice, he recognized that one player had been drinking alcohol pior to the gathering and addressed it. The player replied: Well, they say you weren't a saint either in your playing days. (Which was true.) Bobrov answered: Perhaps, but I didn't let it affect my performance! There's no way that player wouldn't have been in real trouble if Tarasov was the coach. Bobrov just said: Okay, here's the deal. Everyone has ten shootout attempts and whoever scores four goals can do whatever he wants and I will close my eyes to it. Starshinov was the only player who scored four times, everyone else scored less. Then Bobrov, 39 years old and five years into his retirement, took his turn and scored seven goals on ten attempts. Then he turned back to the team: So, have you seen everything? I think it's clear now who on our team can allow himself a drink if he wants to and who doesn't.

I don't know enough about Kulagin, but I will have to look into him anyway for another research project.

 

[Sentinel]

Thank you, great read.

 

[kaiser matias]

@Theokritos , do you know of any decent books on Soviet sports? I've read Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR and Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State by Robert Edelman (and a lot of his academic journal articles; he's easily the most prominent scholar in North America on the topic), but are you aware of anything else, either in English or Russian? I know the field is limited, especially as it comes to hockey, but even more general works are something I'm interested in (it's been a long-term goal of mine to write something myself, as well; just need to get back to Moscow for research).

 

[Theokritos]

@Theokritos , do you know of any decent books on Soviet sports? I've read Serious Fun: A History of Spectator Sports in the USSR and Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State by Robert Edelman (and a lot of his academic journal articles; he's easily the most prominent scholar in North America on the topic), but are you aware of anything else, either in English or Russian? I know the field is limited, especially as it comes to hockey, but even more general works are something I'm interested in (it's been a long-term goal of mine to write something myself, as well; just need to get back to Moscow for research).

Not much that I'm aware of outside of Edelman. I haven't read James Riordan (Sport in Soviet Society), but that would perhaps be the best bet.

 

[Theokritos]

A story I couldn't fit in the article because the latter is already a little long as it is: Not only did Chernyshov make Lev Yashin choose soccer over hockey – but he also made Alexander Maltsev choose hockey over soccer.

Maltsev was a natural-born athlete. He stood out in soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, handball, table tennis and basically everything he ever tried. In 1968, the Dinamo hockey team played a soccer game against the reserve squad of the Dinamo Moscow soccer team. The hockey guys held up well and the game ended 1-1. Maltsev was the best player on the pitch. Tirelessly running around as an offensive midfielder, he gave one perfectly accurate and well-timed 30-40 meter pass after the other. Dinamo soccer coach Konstantin Beskov was stunned. After the match he offered Maltsev to join the soccer team on their upcoming tour to South America for a tryout. When Chernyshov was told about it by Maltsev, his jaw dropped and for once he lost his composure. He snapped: "What? Get lost!" But after he had regained his cool, he told Maltsev about his own soccer days and ended up saying: "Football is a very interesting thing and you can become a good football player. But you also have the makings of a hockey player. So choose." Maltsev chose hockey. He stated that he felt he couldn't betray Chernyshov who had already become his mentor.

How good a soccer player could Alexander Maltsev have been? Maltsev biographer Maxim Makarychev reports that Konstantin Beskov said: "Such a football player I have never seen." Beskov was born in 1920, so he had seen all of Vsevolod Bobrov, Eduard Streltsov, Igor Netto, Valentin Ivanov etc play (not to mention Lev Yashin, but let's just assume Beskov was only referring to field players, even though we can't be sure). As coach of the Soviet national team in 1963-64, Beskov had also seen international stars like Sandro Mazzola, Gianni Rivera, Cesare Maldini, Kurt Hamrin and Luis Suárez (Spain). I'm not aware of all the international encounters on the club level, so the list might actually be longer.

 

[Batis]

A story I couldn't fit in the article because the latter is already a little long as it is: Not only did Chernyshov make Lev Yashin choose soccer over hockey – but he also made Alexander Maltsev choose hockey over soccer.

Maltsev was a natural-born athlete. He stood out in soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, handball, table tennis and basically everything he ever tried. In 1968, the Dinamo hockey team played a soccer game against the reserve squad of the Dinamo Moscow soccer team. The hockey guys held up well and the game ended 1-1. Maltsev was the best player on the pitch. Tirelessly running around as an offensive midfielder, he gave one perfectly accurate and well-timed 30-40 meter pass after the other. Dinamo soccer coach Konstantin Beskov was stunned. After the match he offered Maltsev to join the soccer team on their upcoming tour to South America for a tryout. When Chernyshov was told about it by Maltsev, his jaw dropped and for once he lost his composure. He snapped: "What? Get lost!" But after he had regained his cool, he told Maltsev about his own soccer days and ended up saying: "Football is a very interesting thing and you can become a good football player. But you also have the makings of a hockey player. So choose." Maltsev chose hockey. He stated that he felt he couldn't betray Chernyshov who had already become his mentor.

How good a soccer player could Alexander Maltsev have been? Maltsev biographer Maxim Makarychev reports that Konstantin Beskov said: "Such a football player I have never seen." Beskov was born in 1920, so he had seen all of Vsevolod Bobrov, Eduard Streltsov, Igor Netto, Valentin Ivanov etc play (not to mention Lev Yashin, but let's just assume Beskov was only referring to field players, even though we can't be sure). As coach of the Soviet national team in 1963-64, Beskov had also seen international stars like Sandro Mazzola, Gianni Rivera, Cesare Maldini, Kurt Hamrin and Luis Suárez (Spain). I'm not aware of all the international encounters on the club level, so the list might actually be longer.

Very interesting. Thank you so much for this information. Reading this really makes me wish that the multisport athletes era would have continued for abit longer to be able to see what Maltsev could have achieved in football without him having to give up his hockey career. Considering that the Soviet national team in football (outside of the European Championships silver medal in 1972) had some struggles in the 70s despite having some top end talent like for example the 1975 Ballon d'Or winner Oleg Blokhin they could definitely have used some reinforcement. And if Beskov´s impression of him was accurate it certainly seems like Maltsev could have been a clear reinforcement had he chosen to go down that path. Especially the idea of Maltsev being able to give those "perfectly accurate and well-timed 30-40 meter passes" to someone like Blokhin (who already at age 16 could run 100 meters in 11.0 seconds) seems like it could have been a recipe for success.

Another thing that this post made me think about is how incredibly impressive it is that the Soviet hockey system managed to develop so quickly and so much (from the first hockey season in 46/47 to the Summit Series in 1972) despite having to compete with both football and bandy when it comes to attracting talent. Yes guys like Maltsev and Kharlamov ended up choosing hockey over football but considering that football based on my understanding was the most popular sport in the Soviet Union during that time period it seems pretty clear that the popularity of football also must have prevented its fair share of talent from entering or choosing hockey as their main sport (even outside of the most obvious examples like Lev Yashin) compared to how it would have been if hockey was the clearcut number one sport in the country. And considering that like you pointed out earlier the production of bandy sticks still outnumbered the production of hockey sticks in 1957 one would have to assume that at least some talent was lost to bandy throughout that time frame as well even if it for the most part seems to have been hockey that "stole" top talent from bandy rather than the other way around. If I remember correctly Firsov´s bandy coach was for example trying to prevent him from making the move to hockey during his teenage years and if Firsov would not have insisted that could possibly have become one very high profiled example of a top talent that bandy prevented hockey from having.

Edit: I just found where I had read that part about Firsov´s move from bandy to hockey and not surprisingly it was from your excellent bio on him.

Anatoly Firsov grew up under economic hardship in the USSR of the 1940s-50s. His father died early while fighting in WW2 and his mother had to support the three children on her own. During winters he played "hockey with the ball" (bandy). A frail but talented youngster, Firsov spent a lot of time playing against boys who were several years older than him. In 1955 he joined the youth team of Spartak Moscow under Aleksandr Igumnov. Over time he developed an interest in "hockey with the puck", but a move was initially blocked by Vladimir Stepanov, senior coach of the Spartak bandy division.

Anatoly Firsov (1973):
"Our head coach Stepanov was discouraging me: 'Where will a guy go who is as small as you? Over there on the tight rink you will be pushed around and get nowhere. But here you've got the space of an entire soccer field. No, forget about hockey with puck. I won't let you go anywhere!' And he didn't let me go. The next season I started with my old [bandy] team again. But I wanted to switch to puck hockey so much! And finally I played hockey with the puck for the second youth team of Spartak."​

 

[Theokritos]

By coincidence I just came across an article that underlines the following part:

In hockey you had players like Boris Mayorov and young Valeri Kharlamov still playing competitive soccer in the early 1960s. But that's when it came to an end, I think. Unlike Bobrov & Co, Kharlamov already faced the question which game to choose and which one to quit.

In an 1963 article, a Russian sports journalist remarks that soccer and hockey used to be like parallels in geography: they never met. The hockey season began when the soccer season was over, and vice versa. By 1963 it was not like that anymore: by then both sports were pursued at the same time. The journalist jokes that it gets so warm at packed hockey games that some fans would be happy to step outside and watch a soccer game instead, and at the same time it gets so cool at some soccer games that some fans would be happy to switch to hockey in oder to warm themselves. The article is accompanied by the following caricature: