UK tour. Tour of Great Britain Miner's light bulbs and uniform defeat

On August 9, 1942, a football match took place in occupied Kyiv, which went down in history as the “death match.” The German Luftwaffe team and Dynamo Kyiv players, who for one reason or another remained in the city, met there. According to the established version (once again varnished in the recently released film “Match”, where Sergei Bezrukov played the main role), the Soviet football players were “ordered to lose,” but they ignored the demands of the fascists and won. After the fight, all the winners were shot... The only thing true in this story is that on August 9, 1942 in Kyiv, the local team played football with the Germans and won. Everything else, to put it mildly, is a propaganda fairy tale.

In the spring of 1942, the Nazis, despite a number of defeats at the fronts, were still convinced of their final victory and began to establish “normal peaceful life” in the occupied territories. In particular, in Kyiv, where the events of interest to us took place, cinemas, the opera, the botanical garden, baths resumed their work... Football matches were also allowed to take place.

It didn’t come to the point of organizing a single tournament (for example, a city championship), but quite a few separate meetings took place—several dozen. Many of these fights had an international format, that is, they met on the one hand - Kyiv teams (three of them were created), and on the other - occupation teams (German and Hungarian).

Most of these matches ended in victories for the Ukrainian teams, which in general is not surprising: after all, ordinary soldiers played for the uninvited guests, and professional football players played for the inhospitable hosts, most of whom had experience playing in the major league of the USSR championship.

The match, which took place on August 9, 1942, was one of a series of its own and did not have any special implications (neither sporting nor ideological). German and Soviet men simply played football.

Not Luftwaffe, not Dynamo...

According to the most common version, the people of Kiev that day were opposed by the team of the fascist Air Force - the Luftwaffe. In fact, it was a team of air defense units stationed in the vicinity of Kyiv. It was called “Flakelf”, that is, “Team of Anti-Aircraft Guns”. Or, if you want it more beautifully, “11 anti-aircraft guns” (“Elf” in German is both the noun “team” and the numeral “11”).

“Dynamo” was also not quite “Dynamo”. Or even not Dynamo at all. Firstly, the team was called “Start” (and the Germans generally called it “Bread Factory” - “Brot Fabrik”, since that’s where most of its players worked). Secondly (and most importantly), there were only 5 “acting” Dynamo players (that is, those who were part of the best Ukrainian team at the start of the war) - this is about a third of “Start”. The rest of the “bread factory” players played for other Kyiv clubs in the 1941 season.

Not heroes...

The fact that the football players were shot for the victory over the German team (we agree - for now! - with the official version) does not in itself make them heroes. This makes them martyrs. And martyrs become heroes when they know about the possible consequences, but still do what they consider necessary.

The Kyiv football players, as we were always assured, were warned: either before or during the break of the match, a German colonel allegedly entered their locker room and harshly demanded, under the threat of execution, that they lose.

In fact, this story does not stand up to the basic test of logic and facts. If the Germans were truly afraid of defeat, they would not have played at all. Or they could bring a really strong team to Kyiv.

Makar Goncharenko, one of the main heroes of the match of “death”, who scored two goals against Flakelf, in 1992 (that is, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and it became possible to speak without censorship) in a conversation with Kyiv journalist Georgy Kuzmin expressed very specifically: “No one from the official administration forced us to play giveaway before the match.”

That is, there was no threat not only of execution, but in general of any kind of reprisals from the Nazis before the match. And, therefore, there was no heroism either.

Not martyrs...

Contrary to legend, none of the Start players were arrested immediately after the match with Flakelf. Makar Goncharenko, in the already mentioned interview with Georgy Kuzmin, said directly: “We calmly left the stadium.”

The son of “starter” Mikhail Putistin, Vladlen, told the Kyiv newspaper Boulevard the same thing in August 2002 (he stood behind the goal of Kyiv goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, serving the balls): “After the game, our players celebrated the victory: they drank in a snack bar and had a snack. One of the fans brought moonshine... We sat and talked for a long time...”

The arrests began only on August 18, that is, 9 days after the match. One can, of course, assume that the nerdy Germans simply took a long time to figure out what to do with such an outrage against their theory of racial superiority. But personally, another version seems more realistic to me.

On August 16, “Start” played with another Kyiv team - “Rukh” - and beat it to pieces - 8:0. After the game, someone (most often the captain of Rukh, Georgy Shvetsov, is suspected) reported to the police that Dynamo was a structure of the NKVD, and the players were left in the city on a special assignment - for underground work. The Germans checked from pre-war posters who played for Dynamo, and everyone found to have connections with this team was sent to the Syretsky camp.

This version is also confirmed by the fact that among those arrested there were only Dynamo players. The Nazis did not imprison the Lokomotiv Kyiv players Vladimir Balakin, Vasily Sukharev and Mikhail Melnik who played for Start.

Not everyone, not then, not for that...

Of the 14 people who played in the death match, the Nazis destroyed four. Moreover, deliberately - only one: Nikolai Korotkikh was a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and an officer of the NKVD, and therefore automatically fell into the category of fierce enemies of the Reich (the football player, by the way, was betrayed by his own sister, who was afraid that the Germans would find out everything themselves and then arrest her too - for misreporting).

Three other participants in the death match - Nikolai Trusevich, Ivan Kuzmenko and Alexey Klimenko - died, in general, by accident. On February 24, 1943, while working either to clear the basements of the former NKVD or to dig trenches (witness accounts differ), a Gestapo officer began to beat one of the prisoners for not complying with his demands, and several other prisoners stood up for their comrade. When help arrived to the Gestapo man, the “rebel” and intercessors were killed on the spot, and the remaining prisoners were taken to a camp, where they were lined up and announced: for resisting a German officer and attempting to kill him, every third prisoner would be shot. Fate, among others, chose Trusevich, Kuzmenko and Klimenko. She spared another “starter”, Fyodor Tyutchev, who was standing in the ranks. Due to the fact that Start won against Flakelf, no one was injured.

Ordinary collaborationism

So what do we have left? Several Soviet football players various reasons- objective and not very objective - remained in occupied Kyiv. All of them were legalized, received documents, and began to work. IN free time played football with German soldiers, that is, with enemies. We posed with them in front of the cameras, almost in an embrace... How to evaluate all this?

For a long time they tried to convince us that the match with the fascists was an act of resistance, even a feat. In the Soviet version of what happened (when the “prize” for victory was death) - of course, yes. But in reality, as we see, there was no resistance - there was only concern for personal... not even survival, but well-being. Playing against the fascists, the Start players received what ordinary Kiev residents were deprived of: protection from being hijacked to Germany, guaranteed (and increased!) rations, and the opportunity to maintain physical shape.

Victories over the Germans did not pose any threat to the football players, since they were beneficial to the fascist authorities in their own way: they allowed the population to let off steam and demonstrate the peculiar nobility of the German spirit... And most importantly, they created the very illusion of a normal peaceful life, for the sake of which football was allowed in occupied Kyiv.

All this, by the way, was well understood by the relevant Soviet authorities during and immediately after the war. It is no coincidence that in the late 40s - early

In the 50s, the story of the “death” match, having flashed a couple of publications in Kyiv newspapers, did not receive any further promotion. Moreover, the football players had to explain for a long time why they, being liable for military service, did not leave Kyiv along with the Red Army units. And why, having remained in the city, they began (let’s call a spade a spade!) to collaborate with the occupiers, that is, they turned into collaborators.

Later, after Stalin’s death, the authorities seemed to come to terms with the myth that had broken free: they allowed the publication of jingoistic stories about the “death” match (“Alarming Clouds,” “The Last Duel”) and even a film (“The Third Half”). But at the same time, the magazine “Yunost” was allowed to publish Anatoly Kuznetsov’s documentary novel “Babi Yar”, in one of the chapters of which the author literally crushed the football legend into powder...

Among the people (especially among front-line soldiers), not everyone was enthusiastic about the Kyiv football players. The decathlete Pyotr Denisenko, well-known in the USSR in the post-war years, in a conversation with the already mentioned Georgy Kuzmin, expressed his opinion on this matter: “While I and thousands of my comrades, hungry and cold, were wet in dirty trenches under fascist bullets, somewhere deep in Hitler’s To the rear, my compatriots, young and healthy guys, were kicking a ball with those who seized our land, are trying to destroy me and against whom I am fighting in inhumane conditions. Excuse me, how should I feel about this? In any case, don’t applaud!” In general, there is nothing to object to these words.

Control shot

And in conclusion, two interesting facts about “athletes who fought fascism on the football field.” Two Start players who participated in the death match, Georgy Timofeev and Lev Gundarev, worked as... policemen in their free time from playing football. For which, after the war, they received substantial prison sentences - 10 and 5 years, respectively.

And another participant in the legendary match - Dynamo Kyiv super forward Pavel Komarov (35 goals in 92 USSR championship meetings) - left with the Germans and, being a good engineer, worked at the Messerschmitt Design Bureau. After the war, he settled first in Paris and then went to Canada. Such a patriot, damn it...

Death match: sports component

It is probably impossible to establish the exact course of the meeting now. The Germans scored the first goal - everyone seems to agree with this, but how did events develop further? Wikipedia, citing a number of sources, indicates that Start won the first half 3:1, and the second ended in a draw - 2:2. And defender Mikhail Sviridovsky, a participant in that match, claimed that by the break the Germans were winning - 2:1. But the final score is the same - 5:3 in favor of the Kievites.

Many publications claim that Flakelf, with the connivance of the German referee, played extremely rudely. This, however, does not fit with the recollections of eyewitnesses. Moreover: Mikhail Sviridovsky, mentioned in the paragraph above, admitted that it was “Start” who resorted to petty dirty tricks for the sake of victory: “We (when we began to lose - “og”) decided to knock several of their players out of the game. One’s knee was broken, he left the field... The general (German, who came to the match - “OG”) shouted that these were bandits, they were playing rudely, uncivilized...”

Reverse of 1 ruble 1997 “100th anniversary of Russian football”

On November 13, 1945, the first of four matches took place between the Soviet champion and the professional teams of England, Wales and Scotland. To the surprise of the local public, they received a well-trained team whose players were no worse than the British stars.

Fourteen demands

The English side proposed holding a series of matches in the fall of 1945 through the Soviet embassy in London. The national champion was invited. It is interesting that the USSR championship in 1945 started four days after the surrender of Germany. On May 13, Dynamo Moscow tied with Spartak, but then winning streak. We lost only at the finish line of CDKA, when the match no longer decided anything.

Before departure we trained in Mytishchi. It was already winter in the Moscow region, so every day our players first cleared the field of snow. Dynamo, weakened by injuries to its leading players, decided to strengthen it with players from other clubs. CDKA loaned to fellow countrymen Vsevolod Bobrov, and Leningrad teammates – Evgeniy Arkhangelsky and Boris Oreshkin.

We traveled to England on two Douglas planes. Local newspapers claimed that one should not expect much from the Soviet champion. They say that the Dynamo players are not going to win, but to train in order to better prepare for the match between the USSR and England national teams, which was supposed to take place next year. But you can't fool an English fan. Four matches involving Dynamo Moscow were attended by 295 thousand spectators, that is, an average of more than 73 thousand people per match. In Glasgow, 90 thousand spectators watched the confrontation between Rangers and Dynamo, and one hundred thousand came to the very first game with the participation of Chelsea.

Dynamo Moscow football players in London

Our football players were not used to the attention of journalists; they were frankly embarrassed when they were surrounded by a swarm of photojournalists. The next day, Dynamo were called in the press silent men in blue coats.

What was a little unusual was that the leaders of the Soviet delegation put forward a number of demands to the receiving party. There were 14 of them in total. One of them sounded like this: “Football players and members of the football delegation will eat only at the USSR Embassy.” They also demanded the opportunity to watch the upcoming opponent in the English Championship match. And Dynamo definitely wanted to see Arsenal as one of their rival teams.

Everyday problems and a wonderful game

Since the arrival of Dynamo Moscow was constantly postponed, the hotel where our players were expected was canceled. The players were offered to spend the night in military barracks, but, looking at the huge room with beds without mattresses, our delegation refused such a “cordial welcome”. As a result, the players were placed in different hotels, and the next day everyone moved to the Imperial.

We must pay tribute to the English press, which, having learned about what had happened, smeared the local bureaucracy over the wall. They wrote that sports officials did a good job of creating a negative image of England. The Soviet embassy received hundreds of calls from the British, offering to accommodate Dynamo players in their homes.

The crush before the game was extraordinary, several people were seriously injured, and five fans suffered fractures. Before the start of the match with Chelsea, which took place on November 13, 1945, Dynamo presented their opponents with bouquets of flowers. And then they began to surprise us on the field. The game ended with the score 3:3, the delighted fans carried away the Soviet players who had not managed to hide in the tribune room in their arms.

Alexey Khomich. Photo by Mstislav Botashev. 1950

English newspapers wrote with admiration about the performance of Soviet football players. You had to see what Khomich was doing at the goal! (There are video footage - watch it, you won’t regret it.) The British nicknamed him the tiger for his tall and unusual jumps.

Miner's light bulbs and uniform defeat

Cardiff City players presented Dynamo miners' lamps before the match. To be fair, let's say that Cardiff City at that time played in the third English league, so the forces were initially unequal. But Dynamo's victory with a score of 10:1 still impressed the British. The newspapers wrote that not a single top English club could score ten goals against Cardiff.

On the day of the match with London Arsenal, fog fell on the capital of England. The British have several definitions of its strength. On that day on the scale local residents there was “pea soup”. During the break, the English side even suggested that Dynamo not continue the match. But by that time ours were losing 2:3 and were eager to win back. In the second half, the Soviet football players scored two goals and snatched victory, however, the British blame the chief referee Nikolai Latyshev for the defeat (this was the only match with our refereeing), who did not count Arsenal’s clean goal.

Curiosities arose due to the fog. For example, the removed Arsenal player returned to the field after some time, and Latyshev did not notice this.

Dynamo played their last match in Scotland with Glasgow Rangers on November 28. The Scots were on edge. Our delegation refused to allow the host team to allow the young talented player James Caskey, whose transfer from Everton had almost already taken place, to take part in the game. Soviet functionaries objected because several “foreign” players were seen on the London Arsenal roster.

There was a real war going on on the field. The Scots immediately turned on the pressure, but Dynamo easily dealt with it, scored two goals and continued to have the advantage. The fate of the match was decided by the actions of the referee, who awarded two penalties against us. Khomich coped with one of them, but not the second. The game ended in a 2:2 draw. The mayor of Glasgow said tens of thousands of Scots had fallen in love with the Soviet players' game. Experts noted excellent combination play and tactical training.

At home, Dynamo players were greeted as national heroes. After all, our football players rubbished the noses of not just anyone, but the founders of football.

From a message from the London Sports Agency. 1945: “Dynamo football players, despite the draw, surprised everyone with their art. It must be admitted that they are players of the highest international class. From what we have seen this season, the Russians would have beaten players from all four parts of the UK - England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales."

Stanley Rose, general secretary of the British Football Association, invited Soviet diplomats to a meeting on October 13, 1945. Soccer game between the Chelsea and West Ham United teams, during which he asked the cultural adviser of the USSR Embassy Boris Karavaev: “When, in your opinion, would English and Soviet football players be able to meet?” As a matter of fact, from this question the spiral of events began to rapidly unwind, thanks to which exactly a month later - day to day! - On November 13, 1945, the first Dynamo match took place at the London Stamford Bridge stadium, which opened the tour.

Dynamo, who won the championship that year and were preparing for the Cup final, were already making plans for their vacation when the news of the invitation reached them. It must be said that the Dynamo players were incredibly happy at the opportunity to compete with the flagship of world football. At the same time, only two people had experience in international meetings - coach Yakushin and team captain Semichastny.

The team trained at Dynamo sports base in Mytishchi, near Moscow. Before this, there had just been an early snowfall, so the football players independently cleared the snow from the football field before training. Dynamo, on the eve of an important trip, were reinforced with players from other clubs.

Vsevolod Bobrov took to the field in T-shirts with the letter “D” (CDKA; the press wrote about him: “One of the youngest talented masters of Soviet football. In one season in 1945, he gained enormous popularity. He has a lightning-fast burst, “sees the field” exceptionally well, that is, he quickly assesses the position and is always at the ball at the right moment. He is famous for his varied and irresistible strike, which is combined with an elegant playing technique."), as well as Evgeniy Arkhangelsky (nicknamed “Panther” for his jumping ability and flexibility) and Boris Oreshkin (both - “Dynamo” Leningrad). Their appearance was largely due to the fact that not all of the team’s players were ready for the matches. Due to an injury, Vasily Trofimov was included in the squad only once; Aleksandr Malyavkin fell ill with hepatitis in London, and Oreshkin was replaced. in the match with Arsenal, the injured Leonid Solovyov. The real strengthening of the team was the participation in the matches of Vsevolod Bobrov, who was in amazing sports shape that year of his debut.

On the eve of the departure, Dynamo was received in the Kremlin and given a warm farewell on behalf of the government by the legendary Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. The expected “pumping” did not happen; the meeting took place in a fairly friendly atmosphere.

London received Dynamo rather coldly. They didn’t even think of hanging the Soviet flag. But at the airport the team was met by a multitude of photo and film cameramen, reporters with notebooks at the ready. Among them were women, which shocked Dynamo, who could not even imagine that a woman could be a football reporter.

"Dynamo" sample of the British tour (from left to right): Yakushin, Semichastny, Khomich, L. Soloviev, Arkhangelsky, Radikorsky, Bobrov, Stankevich, Blinkov, S. Solovyov, Beskov, Kartsev

In England at that time, the rationing system for food distribution continued to operate, and therefore the Soviet football players decided to take a small supply of food with them. But when the Dynamo canteen employees delivered it to the airfield, it turned out that the food was packed in several boxes made of rough, uncouth boards, and this gave the cargo a very unattractive appearance. Therefore, already on the plane, the athletes asked the translator who was flying with them to line the boxes with some kind of material. Alas, I accidentally only had a piece of black satin on hand. As a result, the Dynamo unloading at Crowdon airfield near London was a very curious sight: about two dozen people in felt hats and identical long-brimmed dark blue drape coats were intently removing mysterious black boxes from the planes.

British newspapers, naturally, were overwhelmed by a wave of speculation and conjecture about the contents of these boxes. One of the correspondents even stunned his readers with the message that the Russians had brought with them... an atomic bomb. However, in those days it was difficult to blame the English press for a lack of imagination and reporting prowess when it came to information about Soviet football players. For example, some magazine published a cartoon depicting Dynamo players in fur coats, with thick beards sitting around a Tula samovar. And the well-known newspaper “Daily Mail” showed amazing awareness of athletes from red Russia. She wrote: “Today the Soviet Dynamo players have a break for vodka and caviar. Silent Soviet football players will sing to the wild, annoying sounds of the balalaika and shout “hurray” or other words, expressing delight.”

On the day of arrival there was a slight misunderstanding. Dynamo was taken to the Royal Guard barracks. This was by no means a sign of unfriendliness or stinginess, but simply reflected a kind of carelessness of the tour organizers, who considered that matches with English professionals were such a great honor for Soviet amateur footballers that they were ready to put up with any inconvenience for the sake of it.

While the caretaker of the barracks was running somewhere for a bunch of keys to the sleeping quarters, which apparently seemed luxurious to the royal guards of the feudal era, the vigilant Micah (as Yakushin was called behind his back) saw through the keyhole in what conditions, inappropriate for the mid-twentieth century, they wanted to place him pets, and therefore categorically protested. And despite the hotel crisis, the British Football Association quickly managed to rent comfortable rooms in London hotels for the Dynamo players. True, when the incident with the failed overnight stay in the barracks of the Royal Guard hit the press, hundreds of phone calls were heard at the Soviet embassy: indignant Londoners considered the behavior of British football figures disrespectful and cordially offered their apartments to Soviet athletes.

On the second day of their stay in the English capital, all Dynamo players finally ended up in one six-story hotel near Piccadilly, and their coach Mikhail Iosifovich Yakushin was completely satisfied.

From that moment on, the players constantly felt the attention of the organizers and the warmth of the feelings of ordinary Englishmen.

After arrival, members of the Soviet delegation, responsible for the organizational part of the stay of Soviet football players in Foggy Albion, presented the English Football Association with a list of 14 points, which detailed the conditions under which Dynamo football players would play matches in the UK.

The receiving party took this document almost as an ultimatum, and after long discussions accepted 12 points out of 14. Particular controversy was caused by the points on replacing players during the match, refereeing by the Soviet referee, holding matches on Saturdays and the related point on holding one match per week.

As a result of the discussion, the British resolutely refused to play with Dynamo on Saturdays. On this day, matches of the domestic calendar were held in England, and the hosts did not want to break more than half a century of tradition. Also, when agreeing on the schedule of games, by mutual agreement we moved away from the planned limit of a match per week. The British agreed with the arguments of the Soviet side about the need for substitutions and refereeing in one of the matches of Nikolai Latyshev.

The clause on financial conditions was the only clause adopted without discussion. In accordance with it, the total proceeds from ticket sales minus rent and taxes were divided equally between the participants. The USSR's share was transferred to the English Football Association. She withdrew expenses associated with the tour from this amount, the remainder went to a charity fund for the restoration of Stalingrad. The British also transferred money there.

Full list requirements looked like this:

Dynamo players should only meet with clubs, but not with the national team.
Games should be held no more than once a week.
Matches must be played on Saturdays.
One of Dynamo's rivals should be Arsenal.
Dynamo players will perform, as is customary in the USSR, without numbers on their jerseys.
One of the matches should be judged by Soviet referee Nikolai Latyshev.
Allow substitutions during the match.
Opponents must announce the list of their players a few days before the game.
The Soviet delegation agrees with the financial terms proposed by the English Football Association.
Provide the football players with the field where the game is to take place for training.
Before meeting with your next opponent, watch his game in a calendar match of the national championship.
Football players and members of the football delegation will eat only at the USSR Embassy.
Allocate 600 tickets for Soviet citizens living in London.
Do not distract the team with activities not related to football.

It should be noted that the British were outraged not so much by the content as by the very fact that pre-prepared conditions were presented to them in a tone that did not tolerate objections, which was like an ultimatum. But on the other hand, Soviet football players played a series of matches in a country that, just 4 years ago, was one of the main ideological opponents of the USSR in the international arena, and therefore, from their point of view, caution and vigilance were not superfluous...

However, the British, judging by the statements of their press, did not expect much from our football players. For example, in the article “Look at how the Russians play,” the Daily Mail stated: “Dynamo Moscow is the champion of its country, but in our country any team in the first league can easily beat it. The Russians cultivate backward football, which we in England have long forgotten.”

The famous English writer James Aldridge later noted: “Almost all of our so-called experts told us that Dynamo were a “group of third-rate amateurs” who hardly deserved an invitation to the homeland of football.” But sports history once again proved that underestimating an opponent and being in a sarcastic mood can lead to the deepest disappointments. The English press unanimously wrote that the first meeting with Soviet football players would certainly end brilliant victory home team.

In Zurich, at the Swiss residence of FIFA at Bahnhofstrasse 77, again, as in the good pre-war times, under the leadership of Jules Rimet, the “fathers” of world football gathered for a two-day meeting. This meeting opened on November 10, 1945.

Naturally, it was attended by Stanley Rose, from whom the FIFA President, five vice-presidents, the general secretary of this organization dr. J. Schricker and six temporary members of the executive committee learned with great interest about the upcoming international match in London with the participation of the Moscow Dynamo team. Although none of those sitting in Zurich doubted the outcome of this match, it was this game between the teams representing the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, according to the “fathers” of football, that foreshadowed the rapid flowering of the post-war “first world sport”.

In the autumn of 1945, Dynamo Moscow held a series of friendly matches with the British professional football players. Two games ended in a draw and the Soviet football players won two (3:2 and 10:1).

In the autumn of 1945, the English Football League, through the diplomatic department, proposed holding a series of friendly games between the Soviet champion of the football championship and the professional teams of England, Wales and Scotland.

In 1945, Dynamo Moscow became the champion of the Soviet football championship. The team has been strengthened for the trip to England the best football players CDKA and Dynamo (Leningrad). We traveled to England on two Douglas planes.

Four matches involving Dynamo Moscow were attended by 295 thousand spectators, that is, an average of more than 73 thousand people per match. In Glasgow, 90 thousand spectators watched the confrontation between Rangers and Dynamo, and one hundred thousand came to the very first game with the participation of Chelsea.

The leaders of the Soviet delegation put forward a number of demands to the receiving party. There were 14 of them in total. One of them sounded like this: “Football players and members of the football delegation will eat only at the USSR Embassy.” They also demanded the opportunity to watch the upcoming opponent in the English Championship match. And Dynamo definitely wanted to see Arsenal as one of their rival teams.

Five fans suffered fractures due to the crush in front of the stadium. Before the start of the match with Chelsea, which took place on November 13, 1945, Dynamo presented their opponents with bouquets of flowers. The game ended with the score 3:3. British fans ran onto the field and carried the Soviet football players in their arms.

Cardiff City players presented Dynamo miners' lamps before the match. The team played in the English third division football league and lost to Dynamo with a score of 10:1.

During the match with Arsenal in London there was thick fog in London - the field was only partially visible. For example, an Arsenal player who was sent off returned to the field after some time, but the referee did not immediately notice this.

During the break, due to fog, the organizers decided to stop the match. At this point, Dynamo were losing 2:3, so they wanted to win back. In the second half, our team scored two goals and snatched the victory. True, the British accused the match referee Nikolai Latyshev of counting a clear goal scored by the Arsenal players.

Dynamo played their last match in Scotland with Glasgow Rangers on November 28. Before the match, Soviet functionaries forced the removal of one of the team leaders, player James Caskey, from the team, whose transfer from Everton had almost already taken place. They also indicated that players from other teams played for Arsenal.

It was a tough game on the field. Dynamo beat their opponents with a score of 2:1, but the referee awarded two penalties against the Soviet team, one of which was converted. The game ended in a 2:2 draw.

In Moscow, Dynamo players were greeted as national heroes.

The composition of the Moscow Dynamo on the 1945 tour: Alexey Khomich, Vsevolod Radikorsky, Mikhail Semichastny, Ivan Stankevich, Vsevolod Blinkov, Leonid Solovyov, Boris Oreshkin Arkhangelsky (Dynamo-Leningrad), Evgeny Arkhangelsky (Dynamo-Leningrad), Vasily Trofimov, Vasily Kartsev, Nikolay Dementyev, Konstantin Beskov, Vsevolod Bobrov (CDKA), Sergey Solovyov. Head coach team Mikhail Iosifovich Yakushin.

19 to 9. Anniversary of the legendary Dynamo tour of the UK

70 years ago, Dynamo Moscow played the opening match of the legendary tour of Great Britain. Their rivals were Chelsea players.

On the gray London morning of November 13, 1945, residents of the British capital flocked to its western part - to the Stamford Bridge stadium located in the Fulham district. Many of them left their homes ahead of time - in complete darkness. They were afraid of being late for the first post-war show - an international football match between the local Chelsea and the Dynamo team from the distant Land of the Soviets. An English fan was in a hurry to go on a date with “silent men in blue coats,” as the British tabloid press dubbed the Dynamo football players.

Tickets for the Chelsea - Dynamo (Moscow) match, despite the fact that it was Tuesday, sold out in the blink of an eye. The game was scheduled for half past three days, but those who did not get the coveted tickets cherished the hope of breaking into the stadium. Anticipating such a turn of events and fearing a crush, the London authorities opened the gates of Stamford Bridge at nine in the morning. But the police could not resist the pressure of the human mass. A few minutes before the referee's starting whistle George Clarke the public swept away the cordons and broke through to football field. True, the fans behaved quite peacefully - according to official reports, only 14 people were taken to the hospital that day from the vicinity of Stamford Bridge. The rest filled the free space at the very edge and, as far as possible, tried not to disturb the players and other fans located in the stands. The Stamford Bridge bowl alone accommodated an incredible 85,000 people. And how many more of them were sitting on the roofs of nearby buildings!

A minor incident arose only in the first minutes of the match, when some tipsy Englishman, noticing the Russian goalkeeper lying in the goal Alexey Khomich bottle with a clear liquid, I decided to taste its contents. He convinced his neighbors that the Dynamo goalkeeper was drowning his fear of the stars of English football with strong alcoholic drink. With the words “Oh! Russian whiskey!” the drunken Englishman reached for the treasured vessel and took a couple of sips. After which, with a sigh of disappointment, he returned the bottle to its owner: the expectations were not met - it was ordinary water.

Dynamo greatly surprised the English public by running onto the field in friendly formation a quarter of an hour before the game. “The Russians’ watches are broken!” - they laughed in the stands at Stamford Bridge. And the wards Mikhail Iosifovich Yakushin, not at all embarrassed, and most likely not understanding why they were pointing fingers at them, they began their usual pre-game warm-up. And this caused a “culture shock” among the spectators, since local football players were warming up in the locker rooms - that was their custom.

The British public was also amazed by the fact that the guests did not come to the match empty-handed. According to the unwritten Soviet tradition, each Dynamo player had a lush bouquet of flowers with him, which he handed to the opposing player. The British, who had not prepared return gifts, were embarrassed, but did not refuse flowers. And the spectators whistled in displeasure - they still could not forgive the tour organizers for the delay in accommodating the visiting team. In order to save money, they decided to settle the Dynamo players in the royal guard barracks. Our players were asked to sleep in a poorly heated room on ordinary bunk beds with skinny mattresses and shapeless pillows. When they reasonably refused, and information about this was leaked to the press, many London residents, who were very friendly towards the envoys from Russia, vied with each other to invite them to their home.

Everyday issues were eventually resolved, and now it was Dynamo’s turn to be surprised: they were sure that they were preparing for the match on a normal basis. football stadium. But it turns out that their enterprising owners sent them to a cheaper arena, intended for greyhound racing. A football goal was hastily dug in and the appropriate markings were applied. However, the quality of the lawn turned out to be so high that the replacement was not immediately noticed...

Put up for the game against Chelsea optimal composition Dynamo, reinforced by those who played for other clubs Vsevolod Bobrov(CDKA), Boris Oreshkin And Evgeny Arkhangelsky(both from Dynamo Leningrad), failed. Already in London, the midfielder fell ill with jaundice Alexander Malyavkin- spent the entire tour in a hospital bed, suffered a knee injury Vasily Trofimov. And the situation itself was a wonder. At our stadiums the fields were framed Treadmills, and in England the audience literally breathed in their faces. Not to mention the fact that our fan in those days behaved much more restrained. And then it seemed that in just a second, the English, sedate in everyday life and incredibly emotional in football, would rush to help their team.

However, the guests spent a few minutes adapting, and now Chelsea keeper Woodley was forced to enter the game three times in a row. When he too was powerless, the hosts were frankly lucky - after Arkhangelsky’s shot, the ball hit the net with outside, and Beskov and Bobrov made the London team groan at the crossbar and goal post.

“Who should I keep?” - one of the Chelsea defenders reacted angrily to the coach’s remark. The players of the London club could not keep up with the fast Soviet forwards, who were constantly changing places. This was not accepted in English football: here they played strictly along the groove and kicked the ball only forward. And the “organized disorder” of the Russians sometimes made the British dizzy.

At the most tense moment, cries of “Fotin fauzend!” were heard from the crowd. Fotin fauzend! This is what Chelsea fans, upset by the passivity of their idols, reminded the central striker to Tommy Lawton that he is the most dear player in the history of world football. Shortly before this, Chelsea bought him from Everton for an astronomical sum for 1945 of 14 thousand pounds sterling!

Chelsea (London) – Dynamo (Moscow) - 3:3 (2:0)
Goals: Gulden, 23 - 1:0, Williams, 30 - 2:0, Kartsev, 65 - 2:1, Arkhangelsky, 71 - 2:2, Lawton, 77 - 3:2, Bobrov, 83 - 3:3.
Missed penalty: L. Solovyov, 37 (bar).
"Dynamo":
Judge: J. Clark (England).
November 13, 1945. London. Stamford Bridge Stadium. +10 degrees, clear. 85,000 spectators.

“Cardiff City” (Cardiff) – “Dynamo” (Moscow) - 1:10 (0:3)
Goals: Bobrov, 6 - 0:1, Beskov, 10 - 0:2, Arkhangelsky, 25 - 0:3, Bobrov, 49 - 0:4, Beskov, 54 - 0:5, Bobrov, 61 - 0:6, Arkhangelsky, 62 - 0:7, Beskov, 65 - 0:8, Moore, 70 - 1:8, Beskov, 85 - 1:9, Arkhangelsky, 90 - 1:10.
Missed penalty: Clark, 73 (goalkeeper).
"Dynamo": Khomich, Radikorsky, Semichastny (k), Stankevich, Blinkov, L. Solovyov, Arkhangelsky, Kartsev, Beskov, Bobrov, S. Solovyov.
Judge: A. Davies (Wales).
November 17, 1945. Cardiff. Ninian Park Stadium. +6 degrees, clear. 45,000 spectators.

The classic British ram Lawton, brilliantly operating on the “second floor,” would have been happy to do something, but he was actively prevented by the Muscovites’ defender Mikhail Semichastny, who chose his position well. The Dynamo player accurately calculated the trajectory of the ball and successfully played ahead.

In one of the episodes, Lawton knocked the ball out of the hands of Khomich, who had taken possession of it. Foul? No! Before the match, the opponents agreed to play according to English rules, according to which the attacker has the right to knock the ball out of the goalkeeper's hands. There was a pass to Gulden, and the score was opened – 1:0 in favor of the hosts.

Dynamo responded by going one-on-one with Bobrov, but the CDKA striker, who easily understands such situations with goalkeepers, lost his composure - trying to shoot over the keeper who rushed at his feet, he sent the ball over the crossbar. The payoff came instantly - Williams got ahead of Khomich and Semichastny, who did not share the ball. 2:0 in favor of Chelsea!

But Dynamo did not give up. Bobrov was taken to the ground in the Chelsea penalty area. Penalty! The blow was executed Leonid Solovyov, but hit the post. And soon the whistle sounded for a break. Maybe Leonid Solovyov shouldn’t have taken on such serious responsibility? After all, exactly a month before the match at Stamford Bridge, the Dynamo forward, taking a penalty in the Cup final Soviet Union, hit the CDKA goal post in exactly the same way. And Dynamo lost – 1:2. However, what was lost cannot be returned...

In the middle of the second half, Dynamo still managed to open the Chelsea goal - a long-range shot reached the goal Vasily Kartsev. And six minutes later, Kartsev successfully acted as an assistant: he feinted free from the slow captain of the London team, Harris, entered the penalty area from the right, waited for another defender to “pull out” at him, and passed the ball to Arkhangelsky. Another home team player rushed across the line, but the ball hit his leg and fluttered in the net. 2:2!

In a double-edged game, Chelsea mobilized and took the lead again. Having heard enough criticism, Laughton headed the ball into Khomich’s goal. However, Dynamo had the last word: one of the Muscovites literally put the ball in Bobrov’s foot: a cannon shot, a slight rebound - and a goal! 3:3.

Seven minutes later, referee Clarke blew the final whistle, and the London fans, excited by the performance they had seen, ran onto the field. The public carried Kartsev, Khomich, Semichastny and Bobrov into the locker room in their arms before they left. So exactly 70 years ago, on November 13, 1945, Dynamo Moscow’s legendary tour of Great Britain began...

And what happened then? From London, Dynamo went to the Welsh city of miners - Cardiff. Where four days later we played with the local club Cardiff City, which played in the English third division. Only in the first minutes did the hosts' left winger Clark make the Soviet team nervous. When did the blue and white right back take charge of him properly? Vsevolod Radikorsky, nicknamed the Barin for his sedateness, Dynamo's advantage became overwhelming.

For wards Mikhail Yakushin it was that very day when literally everything works out. Good weather after the greyness of London, an excellent field, the friendliness of the public, and the orchestra, which performed the Russian song “Polyushko-Pole” before the match, created an excellent emotional background for our players. Well, the opposing team, as recommended, turned out to be very fast, but young and less skilled. Having conceded three goals by the 25th minute, the Welsh wilted, but our players, on the contrary, kept getting better and better. It’s no wonder that the score turned out to be devastating – 10:1 in favor of Dynamo! Distinguished himself among the winners four times Konstantin Beskov, scored three goals each Vsevolod Bobrov And Evgeny Arkhangelsky. Moreover, the last, 10th, ball flew into the Cardiff City goal net a few seconds before the final whistle. And with the score 8:1, Khomich parried the penalty. By the way, Soviet radio organized a live report from Cardiff, which was conducted by Vadim Sinyavsky.

The result of this match was a good additional incentive to attract spectators to the third game of the tour - against London Arsenal, which then, as now, was one of the flagships of British football. "Not one English team couldn’t beat Cardiff City 10-1!” - this is how the London press fueled the interest of the public and set the Gunners up for revenge.

Pressure from the newspapers worked: fearing for their prestige, Arsenal representatives said that with the current squad they were unlikely to be able to defeat Dynamo, and invited reinforcements in the form of five players, among whom the famous right winger stood out Stanley Matthews from Stoke City, who nine years later would become the first Ballon d'Or winner, and a powerful centre-forward Stanley Mortensen from Blackpool. Then this was the order of the day - English clubs often invited footballers from other teams, called guests, to friendly matches. And in relation to Dynamo, this did not look like a “setup”, since the guests also played for the blue and white - “army man” Bobrov and Leningrad Dynamo players Arkhangelsky and Oreshkin.

Due to the fact that the Highbury arena, which belongs to Arsenal, had not yet been restored after the German bombing, the match was held at the stadium of the Gunners' principal rival, Tottenham. Unfortunately, we were again unlucky with the weather: despite the fact that the match started at 14:15 local time, there was thick classic British fog over the field. Yes, such that, being at one goal, it was impossible to see what was happening on the other half of the field. It got ridiculous: the players of both teams, who played in blue and red T-shirts, received the judge several times Nikolay Latyshev(by agreement, the Soviet, English, Welsh and Scottish referees worked at the tour matches in turns) for their own and gave him the ball. During the break, Nikolai Gavrilovich even decided to change the traditional black referee uniform to white, having previously rejected the proposal of Arsenal representatives to stop the match.

Arsenal (London) – Dynamo (Moscow) - 3:4 (3:2)
Goals: Bobrov, 1 - 0:1, Mortensen, 12 - 1:1, Mortensen, 35 - 2:1, Ruk, 38 - 3:1, Beskov, 41 - 3:2, S. Solovyov, 48 - 3:3, Bobrov, 63 - 3:4.
"Dynamo": Khomich, Radikorsky, Semichastny (k), Stankevich, Blinkov, L. Solovyov (Oreshkin, 39), Trofimov (Arkhangelsky, 65), Kartsev, Beskov, Bobrov, S. Solovyov.
Judge: N. Latyshev (USSR).
November 21, 1945. London. White Hart Lane Stadium. +4 degrees, cloudy, thickening fog during the game. 55,000 spectators.

“Glasgow Rangers” (Glasgow) – “Dynamo” (Moscow) - 2:2 (1:2)
Goals: Kartsev, 3 - 0:1, Kartsev, 24 - 0:2, Smith, 40 - 1:2, Young, 75 - from the penalty spot - 2:2.
Missed penalty: Waddell, 7 (goalkeeper).
"Dynamo": Khomich, Radikorsky, Semichastny (k), Stankevich, Blinkov, Oreshkin, Arkhangelsky, Kartsev, Beskov, Bobrov (N. Dementyev, 60), S. Solovyov.
Judge: T. Thompson (Scotland).
November 28, 1945. Glasgow. Ibrox Stadium. +10 degrees, clear. 90,000 spectators.

The coaches, who were then located behind the gates of their teams, also found themselves in a difficult situation, and therefore the Dynamo coach Mikhail Yakushin goal scored in the first minute by Bobrov from a pass Sergei Solovyov, didn’t see it - this happy news for him was passed along the chain by the football players. Further more. The game did not reach the goal where Yakushin was located, and on the opposite side in the fog, from where the roar of the public was constantly heard, blitzes of photojournalists broke out every now and then. But as soon as our coach went along the edge to the opponent’s penalty area to see what was going on there, the game moved towards the Dynamo goal, and Mortensen equalized the score. Mikhail Iosifovich did not see this goal either. And shortly before the break, two consecutive Arsenal flank attacks ended in goals from Mortensen and Harry Rook.

Fortunately, Beskov evened out one goal almost immediately, and as soon as the second half began, Sergey Solovyov regained balance. Another quarter of an hour later, Bobrov finally brought Dynamo ahead - 4:3. “It was an excellent match, which, due to the vile weather, no one saw except us, the players,” the Arsenal captain summed up the results. Bernard Joy. A Mikhail Yakushin later wrote in his book: “Of the five goals in the first half, I saw only one. This is a unique case in my coaching practice!”

The next day, London newspapers were outraged by Latyshev’s actions: in their opinion, taking advantage of the fog, he counted the third and fourth goals of the blue and whites, scored from offside, and canceled another goal scored by Ruka long-range strike. Before processing the pass, the Englishman hit our defender in the face with his elbow Mikhail Semichastny, who waged a tough power struggle with him.

Articles from the English tabloids did their job: before the final match of the tour in Glasgow against Rangers, tension reached its climax. Our team really wanted to remain undefeated, while the Scots simply wanted to beat the Soviet team also in order to prove their superiority over their bitter rivals the British. They say that you couldn’t cope with the Russians, but we can cope, which means we are stronger.

Mindful of Mortensen’s double, the Soviet delegation categorically objected to participation in the game on the hosts’ side, which had not yet been formally declared for them James Caskey from Everton. Like, our “jokers” Bobrov, Arkhangelsky and Oreshkin were known before arriving in Foggy Albion, but we didn’t agree with you that way. The owners had to retreat.

As a result, according to various sources, from 90 to 120 thousand spectators gathered in the Ibrox stands - noticeably more than in London and Cardiff. He opened the scoring in the third minute with a free kick Vasily Kartsev, then Khomich parried the penalty, and Kartsev brought the result to 2:0 in favor of Dynamo. However, before the break, the goalkeeper and defender of the Soviet team fought for the ball with the hosts’ striker Bill Smith, ricocheted off the Scottish forward's chest and into the goal.

And in the 75th minute a controversial episode occurred. After a collision between Dynamo defender Radikorsky and the hosts’ striker in the Dynamo penalty area, the referee awarded a free kick in favor of the guests, but the assistant referee intervened and the referee pointed to the spot. Khomich failed to parry the second 11-meter shot. Draw - 2:2.

Thus, Dynamo won two matches, drew two, scored 19 goals, and missed 9. This tour played a huge role for the further development of football in the USSR. Realizing that our teams were quite competitive on the international stage, the following year Soviet sports officials agreed to the USSR Football Section joining FIFA. In our championship, they began to put numbers on the players' T-shirts, full match reports appeared, in which team compositions, substitutions, deletions were entered, and the authors were recorded goals scored. International friendly matches at club level were regularly held later, but none of them had such internal and external resonance as the legendary Dynamo tour to Great Britain in the autumn of 1945.