Theokritos
Global Moderator
- Apr 6, 2010
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I've been able to locate Soviet "top-34 players" data (sort of like a very loose all-star team) going back to the 1963-64 season. (...)
- are the players listed by position in order of merit??? It certainly looks that way.
It's been a while since this question was brought up, but it's only now that I can give a positive answer and confirm what you had already suspected: the players were indeed listed in order of merit, but only from 1964 to 1969. 1971 looks like a proper ranking too, but 1970 is more than a little dubious: you're not going to convince me Valentin Gureyev and Aleksandr Syrtsov were ranked over Kharlamov and Firsov on LW. In fact the entire 1970 list is ordered alphabetically (following, of course, the Russian alphabet) with one little exception: on LW, Yakushev's appearance in between Gureyev & Syrtsov on the one hand and Kharlamov & Firsov on the other hand strikes a blow to the alphabetic principle. There has to be some mix-up on that 1970 list as it is available to us.
Prior to 1964, there was no positional breakdown beyond G / D / F and the players in each category were just listed in alphabetical order without any ranking.
Evidence (mostly from the Спортивные игры / "Sporting Games" magazine) that shows the 1964-1969 lists are proper rankings on merit: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969. The players are always explicitly ranked, except in 1968, but even then it's pretty obvious from the names and their order that these are rankings too as in the other seasons.
For illustration, this is what 1966 looks like:
The 1964-1969 rankings in detail:
1963-1964
G: 1. Viktor Konovalenko, 2. Boris Zaytsev, 3. Viktor Tolmachov
D: 1. Eduard Ivanov, 2. Aleksandr Ragulin, 3. Viktor Kuzkin, 4. Vitaly Davydov, 5. Oleg Zaytsev, 6. Vyacheslav Zhidkov, 7. Vladimir Brezhnev, 8. Vladimir Ispolnov, 9. Aleksey Makarov, 10. Boris Spirkin
LW: 1. Anatoly Firsov, 2. Veniamin Aleksandrov, 3. Boris Mayorov, 4. Yury Volkov, 5. Viktor Yaroslavtsev, 6. Viktor Tsyplakov, 7. Vladimir Kiselyov
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Viktor Yakushev, 3. Vladimir Yurzinov, 4. Aleksandr Almetov, 5. Yury Paramoshkin, 6. Vitaly Stain, 7. Anatoly Drozdov
RW: 1. Konstantin Loktev, 2. Leonid Volkov, 3. Yevgeny Mayorov, 4. Stanislav Petukhov, 5. Valentin Kozin, 6. Aleksandr Striganov, 7. Igor Dmitriev
1964-1965
G: 1 Viktor Konovalenko, 2 Viktor Zinger, 3 Valery Zubarev, 4 Stanislav Litovko
D: 1. Viktor Kuzkin, 2. Eduard Ivanov, 3. Aleksandr Ragulin, 4. Vitaly Davydov, 5. Vladimir Brezhnev, 6. Oleg Zaytsev, 7. Vyacheslav Zhidkov, 8. Igor Romishevsky, 9. Valery Nikitin, 10. Aleksey Makarov, 11. Stanislav Petukhov, 12. Vladimir Ispolnov
LW: 1. Boris Mayorov, 2. Veniamin Aleksandrov, 3. Anatoly Firsov, 4. Yury Moiseyev, 5. Yury Volkov, 6. Viktor Tsyplakov
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Aleksandr Almetov, 3. Viktor Yakushev, 4. Yevgeny Mishakov, 5. Aleksandr Yakushev, 6. Vitaly Stain
RW: 1. Konstantin Loktev, 2. Anatoly Ionov, 3. Leonid Volkov, 4. Aleksandr Striganov, 5. Yevgeny Mayorov, 6. Yury Morozov
1965-1966
G: 1. Viktor Konovalenko, 2. Viktor Zinger, 3. Valery Zubarev, 4. Aleksandr Pashkov
D: 1. Aleksandr Ragulin, 2. Viktor Kuzkin, 3. Eduard Ivanov, 4. Vitaly Davydov, 5. Vladimir Brezhnev, 6. Oleg Zaytsev, 7. Igor Romishevsky, 8. Vyacheslav Zhidkov, 9. Aleksey Makarov, 10. Viktor Blinov
LW: 1. Anatoly Firsov, 2. Veniamin Aleksandrov, 3. Boris Mayorov, 4. Yury Moiseyev, 5. Viktor Tsyplakov, 6. Yury Paramoshkin, 7. Viktor Yaroslavtsev
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Aleksandr Almetov, 3. Viktor Yakushev, 4. Viktor Polupanov, 5. Anatoly Ionov, 6. Anatoly Motovilov
RW: 1. Konstantin Loktev, 2. Vladimir Vikulov, 3. Yevgeny Zimin, 4. Yevgeny Mishakov, 5. Valery Nikitin, 6. Aleksandr Striganov, 7. Valentin Kozin
1966-1967
G: 1. Viktor Konovalenko, 2. Viktor Zinger, 3. Viktor Tolmachov, 4. Aleksandr Pashkov
D: 1. Vitaly Davydov, 2. Aleksandr Ragulin 3. Viktor Kuzkin, 4. Oleg Zaytsev, 5. Eduard Ivanov, 6. Valery Nikitin, 7. Aleksey Makarov, 8. Viktor Blinov, 9. Vladimir Merinov, 10. Valentin Markov
LW: 1. Anatoly Firsov, 2. Veniamin Aleksandrov, 3. Boris Mayorov, 4. Aleksandr Yakushev, 5. Igor Grigoryev, 6. Viktor Tsyplakov
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Viktor Polupanov, 3. Aleksandr Almetov, 4. Viktor Yakushev, 5. Anatoly Motovilov, 6. Vladimir Petrov, 7. Vladimir Shadrin, 8. Vladimir Yurzinov
RW: 1. Vladimir Vikulov, 2. Viktor Yaroslavtsev, 3. Yevgeny Zimin, 4. Aleksandr Striganov, 5. Boris Mikhaylov, 6. Dmitry Kopchenov
1967-1968
G: 1. Viktor Konovalenko, 2. Viktor Zinger, 3. Boris Zaytsev, 4. Viktor Tolmachov
D: 1. Aleksandr Ragulin, 2. Vitaly Davydov, 3. Viktor Kuzkin, 4. Oleg Zaytsev, 5. Igor Romishevsky, 6. Viktor Blinov, 7. Vladimir Brezhnev, 8. Aleksey Makarov, 9. Vladimir Lutchenko, 10. Valery Vasilyev
LW: 1. Anatoly Firsov, 2. Boris Mayorov, 3. Veniamin Aleksandrov, 4. Aleksandr Yakushev, 5. Igor Grigoryev, 6. Yury Moiseyev, 7. Viktor Tsyplakov
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Viktor Polupanov, 3. Anatoly Ionov, 4. Vladimir Yurzinov, 5. Viktor Yakushev, 6. Anatoly Motovilov
RW: 1. Vladimir Vikulov, 2. Yevgeny Zimin, 3. Yevgeny Mishakov, 4. Boris Mikhaylov, 5. Viktor Yaroslavtsev, 6. Valery Nikitin, 7. Aleksandr Striganov
1968-1969
G: 1. Viktor Zinger, 2. Viktor Puchkov, 3. Nikolay Tolstikov
LD: 1. Vitaly Davydov, 2. Igor Romishevsky, 3. Yevgeny Paladyev, 4. Vladimir Lutchenko, 5. Valery Kuzmin, 5. Vladimir Brezhnev
RD: 1. Aleksandr Ragulin, 2. Viktor Kuzkin, 3. Aleksandr Sapelkin, 4. Aleksey Makarov, 5. Vladimir Migunko, 6. Valery Vasilyev
LW: 1. Anatoly Firsov, 2. Valery Kharlamov, 3. Boris Mayorov, 4. Juris Reps, 5. Aleksandr Martynyuk, 6. Igor Grigoryev
C: 1. Vyacheslav Starshinov, 2. Vladimir Petrov, 3. Aleksandr Maltsev, 4. Vladimir Shadrin, 5. Yevgeny Mishakov, 6. Vladimir Yurzinov
RW: 1. Boris Mikhaylov, 2. Vladimir Vikulov, 3. Yevgeny Zimin, 4. Aleksandr Yakushev, 5. Igor Samochornov, 6. Aleksandr Sakeyev, 7. Yury Moiseyev
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