Books, films, numerous publications in the press are devoted to this event, which took place in Kyiv on August 9, 1942. Earlier, in the days of the USSR, everything was clear and understandable: on that day, Soviet football players met with a team of German invaders and won. Only life was the price of that victory ...
Today, what happened then in the capital of Ukraine no longer looks so unambiguous. Let's try to figure out what really happened.
Summer 1942. The Germans have dominated Kyiv for almost a year now. They are sure that this is forever. Moreover, the events at the front are conducive to optimism - the German troops, as in the forty-first, are advancing. Hitler and his entourage are in clouds of unbridled euphoria: the Bolshevik stronghold is about to collapse.
The occupying authorities decide that it is time to establish a peaceful life. They open an opera house, cinemas in Kyiv, arrange concerts. It came to football, fortunately, at the bakery No. 1 they work - some as loaders, some as laborers - famous Russian and Ukrainian football players who in the fall of 1941 could not get out of the besieged city.
They were given uniforms and allowed to train. Soon the idea of matches between Soviet and German football players arose. This was facilitated by the Moravian Czech Jozsef Kordik, who lived in Kyiv. He was classified as a Volksdeutsche, that is, among ethnic Germans, and was appointed director of a bakery. Kordik, by the way, arranged several football players for his enterprise. They began to receive wages and food rations.
Kievans played in red t-shirts and white shorts - the colors of the USSR national team. In the old days, this fact was considered symbolic - they say, the players showed patriotism. However, the reasons were quite prosaic - the occupying city government allocated such a form to the people of Kiev, it seems, without any ulterior motive ...
The most famous team in Kyiv was Dynamo, which participated in the championships of the Soviet Union, including the championship in 1941, interrupted by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
In his novel Babi Yar, Anatoly Kuznetsov claimed that it was the Dynamo team that formed the basis of the bakery team. However, later it turned out that this was not the case - in addition to Dynamo, there were players from other teams.
In addition to Dynamo players Nikolai Trusevich, Alexei Klimenko, Ivan Kuzmenko and Pavel Komarov, former Lokomotiv Kyiv players Lev Gundarev, Vladimir Balakin, Mikhail Melnik and representatives of other clubs played against the Germans. For example, ex-Dynamo player Makar Goncharenko played for Spartak Odessa before the war.
The story "Alarming Clouds", published in 1957, was also dedicated by the writer Alexander Borshchagovsky to the event in Kyiv. Five years later, according to the script of the writer, the film "The Third Half" was released. Both the book and the tape were very popular in the Soviet Union.
Borschagovsky, like Kuznetsov, believed that Dynamo were the backbone of the team. But he, unlike Kuznetsov (who wrote about a series of matches), built his plot at one meeting - Dynamo with the Germans from the fictional Condor Legion team. It was her Borschagovsky called the "death match". However, according to other sources, this "term" belongs to another writer - Lev Kassil. He used it in an essay published in Izvestia shortly after the liberation of Kyiv from the Germans.
The names of the main characters have been changed in Borschagovsky's story. The writer motivated this by the fact that "we do not know many of the important, essential details, without which it is impossible to create a strictly documentary thing."
But even if such documents were at the writer's hand, the plot could break through, lose its "correctness". It might not have had a clear division into “us” and “them”, as required by the ideology of that time. Residents of occupied Kyiv were forced to submit to harsh circumstances, the cruel dictates of the conquerors. They had to not only accept a power alien to them, but also work for the Germans, so as not to starve to death, to provide - at least crumbs - their loved ones.
In short, Borshchagovsky needed characters without shades - "his own" and "strangers". So he had to introduce fictional, smoothed out types into the plot, to make up reality. This is not the fault of the writer - such was the time, such were his laws.
After the war, many of those who found themselves "under the Germans" were accused of aiding the enemy. It can be recalled that before the collapse of the USSR, people applying for a job filled out a questionnaire, where there was such a question: “Were you or your relatives in the temporarily occupied territory?” If yes, then there are questions ...
By the way, the players were also in the occupied territory and played in matches organized by the Nazis. They, too, could be credited with "aiding" ...
Another book was devoted to the match in occupied Kyiv - "The Last Duel", written by Peter Severov and Naum Khalemsky. And this work was not a documentary - the names of the characters were changed in the story. Probably for the same reason as Borshchagovsky's...
The people of Kiev held ten matches with the invaders - German and Hungarian teams. According to other sources, there were fewer of them: eight. And they all came out victorious!
Part of the games were held at the Zenit stadium. In all meetings confidently, and often with a huge margin, to the great joy of numerous spectators, the bakery team won.
However, it was called that only during the debut game on June 7, 1942 with Rukh (2:0) - its players represented the Ukrainian sports society, created with the assistance of the invaders. Then the "USSR team" performed under the name "Start".
Kuznetsov in his novel mentions the match on July 12, held in the arena, built just before the war, which was named after Nikita Khrushchev, who at that time was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of the Ukrainian SSR. During the occupation, the stadium was renamed Ukrainian. On that day, the Germans organized a sports festival there with the participation of gymnasts, boxers, and athletes. Football was the highlight of the program: "Start" met with a team of German military railway workers. The Kievans won an impressive victory with a score of 6:0.
It was already the fifth game of the bakery team and, accordingly, the fifth victory. Kuznetsov wrote that "the Germans did not like it, but no excesses happened."
A week later, on July 19, "Start" held another meeting - with the Hungarian team "Wal" and won again without difficulty - 5:1. After that, the people of Kiev won two more matches.
The Start players had no problems with their opponents, as they were clearly stronger. But they did not know how the invaders would react to the defeats, especially since they were coming in succession. However, for the time being, for the time being, the Germans were more or less calm, which was largely facilitated by favorable military reports. Wehrmacht troops reached the Volga and began an assault on the city named after Stalin.
It's time for the next match - July 9, 1942, in which Start met with the Flakelf team, representing anti-aircraft units. In that game, the people of Kiev won again, although in a bitter struggle with a score of 5:3.
Before the match, they were hinted that the Germans were already showing dissatisfaction and it was better to lose to them in order to avoid big troubles. But the Start players showed themselves as real athletes.
In addition, they knew what tremendous moral strength gives the inhabitants of the city each of their victory. On Podol, Khreshchatyk, Kurenevka and in other parts of Kyiv, they only talked about how “ours are lathering the neck of the Fritz”.
It is the meeting between "Start" and "Flakelf" that is called the "death match". But, contrary to the legend, the opponents did not play very correctly, but did not cripple each other. A German judge named Erwin was objective and did not goad his compatriots. And one more thing - no one in Kiev forced them to lose, as in Borshchagovsky's story. And there was no episode, as in Kuznetsov's novel: “The referee crumpled up time, blew the final whistle; the gendarmes, without waiting for the players to go to the locker room, grabbed the Dynamo players right there on the field, put them in a closed car and took them to Babi Yar…”.
The Start players calmly went home, having previously taken pictures with their rivals. The picture has survived to this day, and is striking in its appearance: both the people of Kiev and the Germans are smiling into the lens.
On that day, the townspeople, as usual, ardently supported their team. Emboldened, they even allowed themselves insulting cries against the Germans. They looked angrily at the people of Kiev, ordered them to be silent, but did not take any action.
On August 16, "Start" played one more, the last meeting in its short history - with "Rukh" and won again - 8:0. But this time the Germans did not touch the players.
And only on August 18 - nine days after the “death match” they arrested Trusevich, Klimenko, Komarov, Goncharenko, Kuzmenko, Mikhail Sviridovsky, Mikhail Putistin, Vladimir Balakin, Fyodor Tyutchev and threw them into the Syrets camp, located next to the infamous Babi Yar .
In early September, they seized another football player - Nikolai Korotkikh.
They were imprisoned for almost six months. During this time, the situation at the front changed dramatically - the Wehrmacht troops suffered heavy losses, landed in a huge "cauldron" near Stalingrad. The occupiers no longer smiled, they committed atrocities. The Germans were not famous for their mercy before, but now blood was flowing like a river: one mass execution was replaced by another.
On February 24, 1943, three Start players were shot - Trusevich, Klimenko, Kuzmenko. For what? Maybe they were reminded of football? Or were they suspected of something - of stealing, of trying to escape? There are no answers to these questions.
Another footballer, Short, was killed by the invaders later. They learned that he once worked in the NKVD ...
The fate of the rest of the Start players was different. But they all survived. Some of them shared their memories. True, in the days of the USSR they said one thing, after the collapse of the Union - another. For example, Goncharenko claimed that the Germans behaved ugly, having arranged a real hunt for the goalkeeper Trusevich, once they kicked him in the face. A few years later, the veteran "recovered": the Germans were not rude. And no one attacked the goalkeeper.
In 1971, a monument was erected at the Kiev Dynamo stadium, where several matches of the USSR national team with the Germans took place - a granite rock with high reliefs of four players. At that time, the feat of the players was officially approved.
Two decades later, everything has changed. In Ukraine and Russia, publications began to appear in which matches with the Nazis were already presented in a different light. There were also those who doubted at all: were there such meetings?
Of course, those games took place. After all, posters of matches are kept in Ukrainian museums, there are eyewitness accounts. Perhaps some of them are alive.
And it was a feat!
The players were eager to beat the Germans for many reasons. Firstly, they, the athletes, were charged to fight, they wanted to prove their superiority. Secondly, they had an unusual opponent in front of them - arrogant and arrogant, who felt like a master in their land. This added courage to the people of Kiev, gave additional strength. And they tore and threw on the field! They didn’t just win against the invaders - they smashed them!
Reading 2 min. Published on 02.09.2017
Questions to the first pair of players
Dmitry Shepelev and Sabina Pantus (400,000 - 0 rubles)
1. What does a catfish have?
2. What is another name for a zipper?
3. Who is Kuzya from Tatyana Alexandrova's fairy tale?
4. Which actress in 2003 unexpectedly gave a name to a musical group?
5. What repairs does the old house require?
6. What is the name of the cut piece of clothing?
7. In which country was the escudo currency used before adopting the euro?
8. Which beetle was sacred to the ancient Egyptians?
9. What is the name of the central square of Amsterdam, where the Royal Palace is located?
10. What color is missing from a classic dart board?
11. How did the creators of Pobeda initially want to name the car?
12. What poet did the hero of the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" call "a very promising guy"?
Questions to the second pair of players
Evelina Bledans and Ekaterina Gordon (400,000 - 0 rubles)
1. What do drivers call a car's parking brake?
2. Who in Chukovsky's fairy tale "Cockroach" rode a broomstick?
3. What is not included in the package of personal emergency rescue equipment for an air passenger?
4. What question is usually not expected to be answered?
5. What is the purpose of the bombonniere?
6. How did the “Manuals on Shooting” order to store rifles in the guardroom?
7. Who did not help the girl in the fairy tale "Geese-Swans" by Alexei Tolstoy?
8. Which building is not located on the Palace Square in St. Petersburg?
9. What shoes have surfers brought into fashion?
10. What was planted in large numbers in 1942 on the football field of the Moscow Dynamo stadium?
Answers to the questions of the first pair of players
- snake
- brownie
- Uma Thurman
- capital
- yoke
- Portugal
- dung beetle
- blue
- "Motherland"
- Evgenia Evtushenko
Answers to the questions of the second pair of players
- handbrake
- parachute
- to rhetorical
- for sweets
- in the pyramid
- Swan geese
- Tauride Palace
Traditionally, on Saturdays, we publish answers to the quiz for you in the Q&A format. Our questions range from simple to complex. The quiz is very interesting and quite popular, but we just help you test your knowledge and make sure that you have chosen the correct answer out of the four proposed. And we have another question in the quiz - What was planted in large numbers in 1942 on the football field of the Moscow Dynamo stadium?
- tulips
- Potato
- Corn
The correct answer is C. POTATOES
The technique of the blockade game was also special: the players did not run around the field, but played a pass, with short passes, in order to save strength and hold out until the end of the game, since there were no substitutions.
Another feature was that the Dynamo stadium, like any free piece of land in the city that spring, was used for vegetable gardens, and in May the first potato sprouts already appeared. To save them, the players agreed not to knock the ball out of the field.
The match was not hindered even by the shelling that happened that day, during which 228 shells were fired at the city. At the signal of the alarm, the participants of the match and the fans - soldiers from the nearest hospital - went into hiding, but as soon as the shelling ended, the athletes again took to the field. After the game ended with the victory of Dynamo 7:3, the players left the field in an embrace.
On June 22, 1941, a big sports festival "Masters of Sports for Children!" was held at the Central Dynamo Stadium in Moscow. In the midst of the competition, terrible news broke into the stadium - war! ..On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began - the bloodiest war in history, which lasted 1418 days and nights.
We, Dynamo Moscow, are proud that representatives of the Dynamo Society, together with athletes from other societies, contributed to the victory over Nazi Germany. They fought on the fronts and behind enemy lines, worked in the factories and factories of our Motherland in the name of the Great Victory, were engaged in the preparation of reserves for the Red Army, became the initiators of the “thousanders” movement, pledging to train a thousand soldiers for the needs of the front.
The country's main sports arena, the Dynamo stadium, has turned into a training center for young fighters, into a military training camp. Already on June 27, detachments of the OMSBON (Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade for Special Purpose) began to form there, from among the volunteer athletes of the Central State Institute of Physical Culture and the Dynamo Society, who were then sent behind enemy lines.
The Dynamo stadium itself was camouflaged from enemy air raids and carefully guarded. In the winter of 1942, young fir trees were planted on the football field for the purpose of camouflage, which clearly demonstrated the state's concern for preserving the main sports attraction of the capital.
During the battle for Moscow, OMSBON, as part of the 2nd motorized rifle division of the NKVD special forces, was used on the front line, but even at that time, battle groups were formed in it, intended to be thrown into the enemy rear. In the winter of 1941/1942, the OMSBON mobile detachments carried out many successful raids and raids behind German lines.
OMSBON terrified the Nazi invaders, conducting daring and decisive operations behind enemy lines. The functions of the OMSBON included: conducting intelligence operations, organizing a partisan war, creating an agent network in the territories under German occupation, directing special radio games with German intelligence in order to misinform the enemy.
The war brought grief to every family, to every home, disrupted the peaceful life of millions of people. The people defended their homeland at the cost of huge losses. Our courageous soldiers defended their native land, turned back the fascist hordes and defeated them.
Over the years, the greatness of the feat of our soldiers and officers, home front workers, women, children - all those who brought Victory Day closer does not fade. We are proud of the heroism, resilience and dedication of our compatriots. These days will never be forgotten. That is why the decree of June 8, 1996 established June 22 in Russia - the Day of Memory and Sorrow. In all cities of our country and many countries of the near abroad, mourning events are held on this day, we remember all those who died a heroic death on the battlefields, who died of wounds in hospitals, were martyred in concentration camps. Eternal memory and glory to them!
- In 2011, the project "Veterans of the Moscow Dynamo" was launched in the Moscow city organization of the VFSO "Dynamo". It is symbolic that the first of this series was an audio diary dedicated to Dynamo - veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Many of the interviews recorded then became, to our great chagrin, the last...
Photo: RIA Novosti, oldmos.ru, pastvu.com
Afternoon of August 19, port of Dieppe. German infantryman inspects the results of his work.
« Second front", how much in this sound, for the heart of the Boltsevsischen merged ... or about one " special operation» August 19, 1942.
It's worth talking about Second front”in World War II, as any Soviet will tell you, it was opened too late, in the 44th year, when the fate of the Reich was already unambiguously decided. But didn't Sralin or other Soviet leaders try to force " allies»to open the Second Front a little earlier, when the fate of the war had not yet been decided? They tried, and in the 42nd year. What did they do? allies" in response to Sralin's rightly panicked demand to immediately open " Second front”and somehow weaken the monstrous pressure of the Reich in the East?
Arranged a landing at Dieppe, August 19, 1942.
English military equipment destroyed by the Germans during the landing.
Only 6,000 people landed, they were opposed by only 1,500 Germans. The task of the Anglo-Canadians was to probe the soil, land an assault, destroy everything in the coastal strip, and then leave before the arrival of the main parts of the German army, demonstrating that a large-scale landing operation is possible. It goes without saying that " allies"did everything to screw up the landing - no one smiled at landing in Europe in 1942, meeting the best parts of the Wehrmacht.
Therefore, the first thing the British did was leak the landing date to the Germans. The date is a day later - the landing was originally planned for August 18, the Germans were informed about August 19. Then an invisible force in the British General Staff did everything in its power to drag out the preparations so that the landing began precisely on the 19th. Then the British made up the main part of the landing force - 5,000 people - from inexperienced Canadian conscripts (I don't feel sorry for the Canadians!), who had no combat experience, especially for such complex operations. It is characteristic that the 1000 English commandos accompanying the Canadians also failed to fulfill their combat missions, while the poor colonial infantry was shot down like chickens. But that's not all! If the British undertook to fail some business, then one cannot do without branded English humor. On August 17, the notorious newspaper The Daily Telegraph released a crossword puzzle in which " french port, five letters". Answer? Of course, Dieppe!
German soldiers and commanders are happy to pose on British tanks.
Finally, on the day of the landing, the English squadron accidentally (accidentally?) ran into a German convoy, a skirmish began, and all miserable fragments of surprise were lost. When the British landing craft reached the beaches, all the Germans were at their combat posts, dressed, clean-shaven, having a hearty breakfast and singing "... And now we will fight, fight for 7 days in a row. But we don't fight one by one, only all together».
The Germans simply demolished the first wave of those who landed with machine-gun and mortar fire. Few survivors claimed to have seen the training marks on which the Germans, shortly before landing, learned how to make mortar fire. The second wave was also taken down. Only 6 tanks were able to overcome the beaches, which, entangled without infantry on the streets of Dieppe, were abandoned by their crews. Of the 5,000 Canadians who landed, 68% were killed, wounded or captured. The units that landed simply ceased to exist. Could not fulfill their combat missions and 1000 burnt " commandos". And that day they lost more than 200 people, speaking in fact as cannon fodder. On top of that, the RAF had lost the air battle to the Luftwaffe, and the pitiful remnants of the landing force were tearing the German planes to shreds. 4 hours after the landing began, the BBC officially announced it in its French broadcast, advising the French to evacuate. " We are here a little bit landing at your side. P.S. Don't tell the Germans»!
Then, however, the BBC fell silent - and even the English press had to draw primary information about the losses from German reports. Turning the landing of the Anglo-Saxons into something unimaginable. All this was broadcast on the Eastern Front and undoubtedly reached Sralin, as if hinting that he should hold the Wehrmacht alone.
Of the 5,000 Canadians, 3,367 were killed, wounded or captured. Out of 1000 English commandos - 247 people. 1 English destroyer and 33 landing craft were destroyed, the fleet lost 550 killed and wounded. Plus, 108 aircraft were lost (with the Luftwaffe losing 18 aircraft). The Germans, fighting off this parody of the attack, lost only 591 people, everywhere (even in the work sector " commandos”) while maintaining the coastal line of defense under its control. Worse, the silence of the British media turned the already monstrous landing into an absolute PR disaster. Goebbels spent another month enthusiastically sucking on the events at Dieppe. Hitler for what he showed during the reflection of the landing " calmness and patience"donated 10 million francs to the city of Dieppe and sent home 1,500 French prisoners of war. Moreover, they said so to the freaking French, and they did not laugh: “ Werden Sie zum Hitler hören, - Sie essen Süßigkeiten"! Translated into Russian, these words will sound something like this: If you listen to Hitler, you will eat sweets»!
question about opening« Second Front» was successfully closed for another 2 years.
And today " French port of five letters' is no longer customary to remember.